Pat Brown

I’m pretty sure most of the rules are broken most of the time by fish except this one! Let the fish tell you. We want rules and short cuts and hacks for this and that and all the knowledge in the world is just a framework for guessing and the more days you fish the more you realize your guess is wrong and you have success doing something completely off the wall. I have caught fish on slick calm hot days burning loud crankbaits in clear water. I have caught fish on windy days in dirty water with tiny plastics. I have caught fish in inches of water that’s near 90 degrees with no current anywhere at all. I have caught fish in raging current that’s sweeping my bait faster than I can reel slack. Point I’m trying to make is - just get out there and learn to efficiently eliminate unproductive patterns and spend your days asking the fish where they are and what they want with your imagination and your intellect. Pay attention when you get bit. The fish are telling you that you are at the right depth and speed and size and area and you need to try to replicate whatever it is that made them interested. To some degree, no matter how good you get at fishing, this is the essence of what good anglers have to do every time they fish. Let the fish tell you.

Got pics of the bass? I love X Zone. The swammer on a swim jig has a body roll to it that no other bait quite does. They get chomped.

Over it.

@scaleface - amazing fish - can we get a fishing story on how you got that one!?!?

For panfish I like a Bobby garland minnow on a 1/16 oz jig head or a drop shot with a 1/16 oz split shot, a tiny hook and some nightcrawlers from the garden. Just put a tiny piece on the tip of the hook. I’ve filled two 5 gallon buckets at a friends pond in 6 hours with that worm piece drop shot deal.

I like big plastics and big jigs in muddy water and sometimes you just gotta go low and slow near that heavy shallow cover! Another great muddy water target bait is the old popper. Just cast it near the laydown or grass line or brush pile and let it sit til ripples are dead and then bloop it good and let it sit and then bloop it again etc. Sometimes in muddy water fish will not chase regardless of how flashy or thumpy it is. You sometimes gotta stay in the strike zone for the whole “retrieve” to get bit.

Caught piles of fish on destroyed plastics that I continue to cobble back onto the hook and toss back into the cover. It’s a game every time I rig a new plastic that I enjoy playing: “how many bass will this worm catch and will it get the biggest fish when it’s full sized or when it’s a nub of worm on my hook?”

The thread title is a good one because it allows for folks who don’t own it but follow fishing closely to weigh in - no pun intended. I have been watching channels that demonstrate techniques and teach FFS for years without ever owning it - thinking maybe I can learn some of things that folks who use it have learned and benefit from. Well - I can certainly say forward facing sonar has changed how I fish a lot at lakes. I fish much more slowly and much more quickly. I’m much more mindful of water column and trying to keep my bait above fish. I’m always on the lookout for isolated cover with my bait or eyes or 2D. I now know that bass swim out in the abyss and chase bait all the time and it’s good to be on the lookout for that kind of thing even on 2D. I’ve learned that “cat and mouse” works much better than dead sticking most of the time with bass that aren’t locked on a bed. I’ve learned that fish spawn all year and spawn deep and people have been capitalizing on this for years knowingly/unknowingly and FFS essentially lets people site fish deep beds and such. Much like smallmouth guides in 50 ft of clarity but with electronics users with largemouth in murky water down south etc. I’ve learned that fish adapt to literally everything we do and learn from their fellow fish to not bite things without biting themselves. I’ve had to master the art of bait modification and imparting nuance to my presentation because I can see how important it is for FFS masters. Basically being a little different is often better than being great at fishing a popular bait. They learn profiles and shapes and actions fast. One way it’s changed fishing is it has made fish incredibly difficult to catch compared to 5 years ago on our local lakes. You can not have any errors in your approach or presentation anymore these days. Probably forgetting stuff but this is a good start on “what FFS has taught me” about fishing as a casual observer and student of the tech purely through videos and podcasts.

I would use a big blade spinner bait, buzz bait or a whopper plopper or a bladed jig or a square bill with a knocker in it or a rattle trap or something that gets their attention and is fairly easy for them to track. Target, shallow areas and heavy cover and try to get your bait to make contact with whatever cover is available.

1.5 feet of clarity is a lot more than you’d think. I’d just stick to natural colors. Probably something similar to what they eat. I’d worry less about a bunch of different brands or types of crankbaits and pick one you like and get a bunch of different sizes and diving depths and if the brand allows for it - some silent and some noisy variations. An excellent line of crankbaits that gets bit and features silent and clicking variations and lots of sizes is the Berkeley Frittside line. They work great. Similar price point and perks - the Rapala DT line is awesome. For less money the Bandit 100/200/300 stuff is awesome and Bomber also makes some really good crankbaits for not much money. Can’t go wrong with Cordell Big O variations for 4-6 foot and they have lots of sizes. For me - in general - crankbaits are more about how active the fish are. Unless I'm burning squarebills through wood and then you can do that anytime - that’s just a reaction bite and anything will work. It’s awesome when the bluegill are spawning and you can just burn something over their beds and get smoked! Crankbaits are awesome when the bass are active around those areas.

Power Finesse is 90% of what I’m doing in NC these days. It’s extremely rare that I’m throwing something big and noisy and mechanical. Examples of ways I make finesse a priority with traditional power presentations: Lighter weights, lower casts where I thumb the spool and try to dampen the splash, using smaller variations of baits I know work well like small poppers, spooks, worms, jigs and crankbaits, I modify crankbaits to be silent and often to suspend, I take markers and make baits look more natural all the time, lighter line, lighter hooks, I try to fish my baits more methodically when I’m in finesse mode and really take my time with retrieves. To me finesse is just applying nuance to your techniques and not chucking and winding but over time it’s evolved into branding for small lures and I think that’s part of it but it’s more an approach than a size of lure.

Almost exactly like a big blade spinnerbait or heavy swimming jig. Pretty cool - thanks for the tip!

I never thought I’d be quitting but honestly - at least in my case - it’s nicer than having it which is rare when it comes to vices. 😂 Sometimes we just get so locked in to a ritual we don’t stop to ask is it really helping us and that turned out to be coffee for me this year. I may not quit forever but I ain’t doing the daily IV lifestyle anymore.

Now that looks like fun. 🙂

I agree with this big time. I also think over time I’ve sort of learned to accept that every day is a kind of puzzle to be solved and my preconceived notions of what bass should or shouldn’t be doing are often informed by promotional material for tackle and that fish aren’t aware or concerned with any such things and simply do as they please!

I just quit drinking coffee after 20 years of daily bean juicing - I was a fan of Mr coffee and then later on I got a pour over deal that I really liked. Ultimately my heart and my energy levels end up doing better without it. Who knew!? Bean on friends!

Every year it seems like I catch big fish when I think I should stay home and do badly on a day I think they’re going to jump in the boat - sometimes 2 or 3 times in one summer! I have simply come to expect this sort of thing - I believe it walks hand in hand with there being gobs of food everywhere for them to eat with very little competition or confusion. I feel like those days where the wind doesn’t blow and it’s miserable hot and I’m convinced the bass won’t bite - they actually are having a harder time finding an easy meal and fall for a lure more often.

I really like the bass pro shops swerve! It’s cheap as chips.

Yes. With spike it markers you also really don’t need many colors of soft plastics! They work awesome for making things look more natural like little chartreuse tips on jig trailers or a bit of orange on the throat of a little swimbait and I’ve even used black to make a weird color frog belly a black belly. Then I got a bright color I could see on top and a black belly which always works for a frog. I also add a “back” to things with blue and or black to give it the laminate/two tone look which definitely makes bass think something is real in studies. A darker back and lighter belly hue can make for more bites.

I forgot to mention the frogs that kinda got me confident in a frog - I don’t throw them as much these days but they work really well and look just like a fish - Strike King Pad Perch/Popping Padperch and the Jr/Pipsqueak models also - all deadly. I trim the tail way up to the body and bend the hooks out a bit and that sideways fish graphic on the belly definitely gets some giant bites.

Topwater of any kind!

If you are finding yourself having luck with smaller frogs - some smaller profiles I’ve had really wild success with - Scum Frog Bass Rat, Spro Pop 40/50/60, Copper Red Baits Ripple (you really gotta try this one), Scum Frog Popping Trophy. All of these have really unique and easy to swallow profiles and seem to attract smart older fish as well as numbers of bites from smaller ones for me. I definitely learned the hard way that smaller frogs work much better in general for getting bites and even with bigger ones I almost always trim my legs way back not because it gives it unique action but purely for the smaller profile.

Nice work Joe! Bending those hooks out and smaller frogs both are a big deal!

Mike makes the best jigs I’ve ever thrown. Caught some giant bass on them. My favorite jigs he makes are the grass jig - one of the best heavy cover casting jigs ever made and it comes in 3/4, 1 and 1.5 oz 🙂. Those weights are very very important to me but it also comes in 3/8 and 1/2 oz and I use those for my swim jig duties most of the time and also for shallower stuff in dirtier water. His G2 football jig is an even better “stand up” jig option and navigates rip rap and gravel and walks from side to side along the bottom and is well worth a try. The sniper finesse jig is another extremely powerful tool when water clears up, pressure is high or they are just eating smaller sunfish and wanting a smaller package. I love the 7/16 oz size and often fish it with a small paddle tail swimbait like a finesse heavy swimming jig to great success. For skipping - hard to beat the dock rocker - a great all around option for multiple cover options. Don’t sleep on the “mata” option. The hybrid rubber and silicone skirts have accounted for some huge bags for me!

Gotta figure if you start setting the hook the instant the fish bites you’re already too slow 99% of the time where speed matters at all so I say make sure they got it good. Been working better for me this year and I have also had years where I couldn’t swing too fast - jack em the instant they bite and the frog is already mid digestion when I land the fish like @Lottabass . So I say let the fish tell you as flaky and imprecise as that tends to be. I like to swing up and over my shoulder when overhanging trees and company in the boat allow for it. That seems to hook them the best.