Pat Brown

Sounds like hookset mechanics need work or maybe a rod power thing. I'm guessing you're not penetrating the fishes mouth past the hook barb because your rod is too slow action for big single hook baits and/or your hookset needs a little more oomph. Maybe you noticed when you upsized your bait and it forced you to use a bigger hook - which would require more force to set the hook on. Also also - bass fish enough - you'll have days like this regardless of what gear or mechanics you implore. Bass are weird!

Also make my own short arms with regular spinnerbaits I'm not not super crazy about the skirt color or something and I'll tie my own new skirt on too. Seems like frogs and spinnerbaits and buzzbaits always end up tweaked these days!

Winter - lipless Spring - lipless/frog Summer - frog Fall - buzzbait/jerkbait

This is important in LIFE not just fishing - and yet still, it is SO SO good to internalize this wisdom for bass fishing.

You can certainly crimp a split shot to a hook methinks 😎🎣 I read about this trick here and I'm about to fish a few different plastics including flukes on this style of weighted hook today. I'll let ya know how it goes! Might not need to buy keel weighted hooks anymore if this is a deal!

Wind and clouds and dirty shallow water with hard bottom are what I love for a lipless. Rain works too. Try downsizing to a 1/4 oz model. I'd use the rattling ones - they seem to catch the most and the biggest for me under ideal conditions for a lipless crankbait.

If I ever saw @Catt and @A-Jay on my home lakes I'd probably have my head exploding to contend with and then after picking my brain and skull up and re assembling them - I'd have to probably go try another lake for the day. No stone would be left unturned between the two of them! 😂

That Gator picked the wrong frog 😂

That's an interesting theory for sure. I fish a pond on a college campus that's next to a whole bunch of apartments. @FishTax fishes it also. When the kids come back after summer break, you'll see 1-10 people fishing it almost every day rain or shine til next summer break. It becomes much much more difficult to catch fish at this pond during the school year and I really like to fish this particular pond during the winter time because there are less kids from the school fishing it while it is cold. When the kids go home at the end of the summer, if you wait about 3 weeks, maybe 4 weeks and then show up really early in the morning you can have a pretty gangbusters time. Of course, if you go once a week during the Summer and fish the same bait every time you go they figure out what's going on. It seems like a few weeks of rest if it's real rest and the fish are really seeing nobody else while they're resting can make a huge difference. I think you're right that fish become desensitized to people fishing and doing stuff but that doesn't mean that they become stupid and bite lures when they've been pressured heavily. There's also a marked difference between how quickly you're going to spook or alert a big old fish versus a young and aggressive fish. And every year there's new young and aggressive fish.

I like having numbers ponds and I like having Trophy ponds where it's all about the hunt and the sport. There's a time and a place for both in my life, but I completely appreciate people who value one over the other exclusively. I definitely think that there is value in fishing places where it's easy to catch fish when you're trying to gain confidence and learn new techniques, and I've definitely taken advantage of that in my own fishing. And there's even more value in places like this when you're trying to get somebody new into fishing!

I think fishing pressure makes fisheries better for the fish - worse for the angler who likes catching bass easily. The more pressure the bigger and fatter and lazier the females are around here. Seems like spots that never get fished are loaded with feisty stupid very skinny 12" bass. I personally LOVE the challenge of catching giant bass on pressured fisheries - it's the pinnacle of the sport in my humble opinion - when you can get an incredibly smart giant fish to buy an artificial lure presentation in next to no gin clear water on a 5 acre pond that gets hammered from dawn til dusk.....but that ain't where it's at for everyone. I also HAVE absolutely seen cautious individual fish who observe less cautious fish being stupid and then immediately lose all interest in said presentation when less cautious fish is stuck in the face. Tournament anglers with FFS who fish pounded reservoirs like Sam Rayburn and Toledo Bend report the same sorts of things beneath the surface - claiming that you basically catch a fish and then the rest of the fish vacate and shut down on community holes until it's completely settled down etc. This is why so many resort to targeting individual fish swimming around in open water relating to nothing. They are less alert. Or doing milk runs of 'spots' trying to pick off a fish here or there through out a day rather than sitting on a spot hoping to catch many fish out of a school - completely unrealistic expectation on most incredibly pressured small reservoirs most days. The fish that relate to pressured community hole type structure are very aware of lure and boat presence. Yes - adapting to pressure is fun and challenging and I enjoy having success when others struggle but I will say without a doubt that fishing pressure makes *catching* bass *easily* much much harder very quickly. And sometimes I'm reluctant to accept the pressure I put on schools I like to fish and when I FINALLY change my presentation reluctantly to something I know that they'll bite but I don't necessarily feel like fishing with - I catch a fish. 😂 I think it's a boogie man for SURE on some lakes and reservoirs but I think fishing pressure is everything on others (specifically small bodies of water that remain open 365 days a year) and it's important to be aware of at least what everyone is always doing and try to be different and to keep moving and casting at new stuff for the most part.

I have seen some really interesting things in my short but expansive time bass fishing. My brother works at a sturgeon farm near the coast of North Carolina and they have a bunch of retention ponds where they stocked bluegill bass and carp to keep the ponds active and the fish have never been fished for in their entire existence. I got to cast lures at them for their first time ever one afternoon with my wife and son while visiting this past summer. We caught a bass on every cast for the first 30 minutes or so. The next 30 minutes it was when we cast to very obvious good areas only. Then after about an hour and a half, not a single fish would bite any lure we threw. It doesn't take long for fish to figure out that we are bad news. There are public ponds that I fish and if I see X number of people there fishing when I arrive I usually just leave. I know the fish will not resume feeding activity or biting things until the pond shows no signs of human activity again when it's like that. There are sections of lakes that are pretty small and public that I fish a lot and I have noticed that I have to kind of rotate the lures I fish in those areas on and off from year to year to give them a rest so that I can catch them again on that lure and sometimes that doesn't even work because other people are fishing that lure. Pressure is very real and Large mouth bass specifically learn quickly and there are actually a lot of scientific studies to back this up in addition to my anecdotal evidence. In my humble opinion, the antidote to fishing pressure is reaction baits and junk fishing. Keep moving. Try to get reaction bites. Don't make casts to the same area over and over again because if you didn't get bit the first time you're definitely not going to bit the second and third time at a pressured body of water. Just keep moving and keep casting your bait at new junk that looks good as you go - and eventually you'll get that reaction strike a few times throughout the day.

I too am guided by voices - many of them, people here. Could you all please QUIET DOWN - I need to get some work done and all you guys keep saying is 'paaaaaaat go fiiiiiiiish' 😭😭😭😭🤪🤪🤪🤪

Doctor has assured me it's normal - no need for shock therapy....yet. 😂😂😂🎣🎣🎣

I definitely use them because I don't have any and I always put some in my bag at tackle warehouse. They work really well pretty darn near 12 months a year down here and there's a curly/ribbon work for most situations. In January when we fish - I may toss the Zoom Z2 or the regular size speed worm. Both get bit in colder water and sometimes they don't want the jig 😎 My favorites overall are the Berkley Power Worm and the Zoom Mag UV Speed Worm at the moment but I have used and like them all. Don't tell - you can dropshot a big ribbon tail worm and it's like....pretty deadly.

I like fishing mid day in the fall transition. Evenings and mornings they definitely feed too and it can be gangbusters in the fall but it seems like mid day is when I run into a few at a time. Big fan of about 11 am til about 3-4 pm right now. The early morning - seems like mainly big ones or nothing right now and they're not in their full fledged fall pattern here yet so it's very hit or miss and dependent on day to day conditions. The evenings seems like the fish are sorta worn out by after work cast and reelers and they wait til things settle down after sunset. Stable conditions for 2-3 days - especially wind direction - can make or break a fishing day this time of year.

Yeah I have been catching a lot on rat l traps and frogs and buzzbaits the last week and I had a great morning with a jerkbait also and some great days with jigs recently. Seems like fall is definitely underway and the doldrum days are mostly behind us but I still find it's on and off in NC until the fall conditions stabilize - here's to the fall conditions stabilizing hopefully! Love when the water really settles into the 70s and even more fun when it gets into the 60s and 50s. Lake was still 80 on Sunday and dudes with fancy electronics told us they were suspending 8 feet down over 15 FOW on ledges and not touching anything. I caught a few on a rat l trap and a buzzbait up shallow so I know different groups of fish are doing different things but day to day weather and conditions still tend to affect the bite more than the seasonal shifts in the moment. Stable conditions seem to help the bite tremendously regardless of season around here with our mostly Florida strain LMB. I have had some wild days in August and early Sept that tell me fall is happening though.

I remind myself to stop throwing fun baits a lot too this time of year. I catch a lot of fish on weightless trick worms and flukes before fall really sets in. Buzzing a small plastic can break up the monotony and get some bites when spooks and frogs and buzzers aren't working well again yet. Strolling little minnows on ned heads is a fun way to cover water and fish structure. But for me - weightless fluke or worm is going to be doing a lot of heavy lifting till the fish really decide winter is on the way. I will say, if you have any sort of skill whatsoever throwing a suspending Jerkbait, get a very small one and work it very very fast and erratic. That seems to be the one 'power technique' that is slaying right now. Lipless crankbaits BURNED super shallow are also triggering at least some follows etc. I can't get them to eat anything off the bottom right now at all.

I think how spooky the bass are depends on the lake and the bass and the structure and how good the food is around there AND if they' happen to be guarding beds underwater - they aren't going nowhere. I spook fish a lot. Comes with the territory of bank fishing the same hammered ultra clear shallow public ponds every day. AND I'm really good at being sneaky. I think what @Catt is trying to say and I agree with somewhat - when it's 'Time' for them to be caught - they'll be caught and you just gotta slow down and *fish* an area you know they're in sometimes. WAY WAY slower than most people fish. Yeah sometimes we spook fish but in a matter of moments - if we aren't repeatedly bombarding them with casts or being obnoxiously loud, or moving around all over the place visibly, they'll resume whatever it is they're doing and we might catch one or two if we just hang around and slow down and do less with our bait. I even sometimes arrive at my spot. Spook the fish without casting at all and then I just find a good hiding spot in my spot and then I chill there for 10 minutes doing nothing. Another way is to arrive - anchor or hide or whatever - make that first cast that's gonna spook a few probably. Then let that bait sit. 10-15 minutes. Let them forget you made a cast and forget that you're there. THEN begin your retrieve. Amazing how well this can work. A lot of times they'll plum eat it while you're waiting for the spot to calm down a bit. Usually I wait til I can see them doing their thing like I'm not there again and then I make my first cast. This is all strategies for targeting incredibly finicky fish that can literally see and be seen 100% of the time. All applies to boat positioning and stealth on lakes and fish that are deeper but aware of your presence.

I think presentation is a big deal. I think that there's a lot of people in the right place at the right time with the right bait and she's there and she's ready to eat but casting mechanics and subtle things about how we work our baits or don't 😎 are more often what trigger the smartest and largest females to bite our baits. Knowing why you might go big or small or fast or slow or high or low or vertical vs horizontal - all take many hours practicing and diving deep into lure categories that many just consider something to have around for if they're around wood or something. Being meticulous about mastering a few techniques can hugely benefit the big bass hunter. Think about playing an instrument or a sport. You're only as good as how hard you practice and how much time you devote to improving your mechanics and technique. You can be a creative genius who understands all the theory in the world but that rarely seems to yield a relatable or impactful musician. Sitting there with your instrument and living through it for days and weeks and months and years and physically becoming one with it is how you become maybe even marginally recognizable as 'good' in the world of music. Why would a wise old bass settle for anything less in the realm of presentation? It's a great idea to pick a small assortment of things you seem to get a lot of bites and bigger fish with historically and then learn them backwards and forwards and inside and out and just stretch everything you can think of doing to its limit with them and test everything you can think of during every condition or season you can and you might start to develop the edge necessary within a bait category to have a fighting chance at appealing to a Sizable Bass.

In my experience - when a bass has my jig in it's mouth - they get hooked pretty well usually. Chances are pretty good they're spitting it out or they didn't have it yet to begin with. I agree with other who say hastily reel out the slack and quickly and firmly sweep the rod and load it up with vigor. The biggest mechanical issues I see a most people have with their hookset is that they do not continue to reel throughout the whole hookset And instead of firmly setting the hook, they snap their rod and that usually just blows a fish's mouth out with a jig.

I agree that intentional time on the water will increase your odds tremendously. First thing I like to do is find spots I'm confident hold big bass. A firm grasp of bass and their forage and how they relate to seasonal changes and day to day weather and structure on your body of water will serve you better than any piece of Electronics or tackle.

Get the lunker lure 1/8 Oz and take skirt off and just put a rage menace on there horizontally of the same white color and I guarantee you're going to gain confidence in the buzz bait in a hurry! Casts like a bullet and bass can't stand that thing.

In jest I was going to say something along the lines of "when they're busting bait everywhere on the surface I usually stay home!" But clearly I'm not wrong! 😂😂😂💀💀💀

Pretty envious of Kurita's 22 lb 5 ounce bass - would have to be considered the new legitimate world record if the universe was fair and the record organization was sane. It WAS bigger than Perry's alleged record and verified every way imaginable and it wasn't snagged on a bed. Hard to beat a legit world record! As for fish I enjoyed being there for: Jake and Meagan both got PBs while I steered the trolling motor and that's hard to beat 🙂🙂🙂