My #1 suggestion is to fish new gear when the bite is on. There are so many variables

in fishing that the specific bait or color may have nothing to do with performance on a

given day. For example, if you are on a good bite with your favorite lipless crank, that's

when you change to another brand with a comparable color. If your favorite "purple worm'

is killin' 'em, try some other colors.

Thanks for the tip! Whenever I get good bites my first instinct is to keep doing what I'm doing, but who knows? Maybe I'll find something that catches them better.

Thanks for the tip! Whenever I get good bites my first instinct is to keep doing what I'm doing, but who knows? Maybe I'll find something that catches them better.

It is easy to go back to what you were doing to catch fish but I am with RW, one thing we all need to catch fish is confidence in our lures and the way you get confidence is by catching fish with them. Try a new lure when the bite is tough and you may not get bit and chances are you'll be less likely to use that bait or color again but trying new things when the fish are hitting is a good way to gain confidence and a good way to learn the bait and technique. I actually discovered a few different "big fish" baits doing this, I was on a good jerkbait bite and decided I wanted to try a new one I had, well I can tell you I didn't get as many hits but all the fish were big so it was a great experience as that big fish bait helped me win a few small tournaments as it provided me some nice fish to add to the livewell.

Ive done this the past three days and it has payed off the first day was a buzzbait, I have never caught anything on a buzzbait until Thursday now I am hooked and the past couple days I have been trying super flukes which I have never had much luck on and I killed them the past couple days.

I´ve got literally thousands of baits, 99% of them have never touched the water, very few "new" baits enter the 1% , 80% of that 1 % of baits I fish regularily are ........... the same baits I´ve been fishing ( and catching with them ) for the past 3 + decades.

Now, if I could only convince the BaitMonkey of that ........

Great advice. If for any reason, experience the different bites and what they feel like with different lures if the bass are chowing. That will increase your confidence.

My #1 suggestion is to fish new gear when the bite is on. There are so many variables

in fishing that the specific bait or color may have nothing to do with performance on a

given day. For example, if you are on a good bite with your favorite lipless crank, that's

when you change to another brand with a comparable color. If your favorite "purple worm'

is killin' 'em, try some other colors.

Precisely!

If you're not in a tournament, then "today" is the best opportunity

for improving all the "tomorrows". The next time you find yourself

in a torrid bite, instead of counting boated fish, seize the opportunity

to experiment. Change the lure, change the color, change the depth.

At the end of the day, the number of fish will soon be forgotten,

but you'll come away a more knowledgeable angler.

Deliberately, I try not to use the same lure that my wife is using.

On this day however, it was clearly a crankbait bite on a clean shellbed ridge.

My wife was using a calibra lipless crank, so I choose a strike king DT instead.

While Lois had to count-down to fish depth, I had to crank-down to fish depth.

At the end of the day we each boated 8 bass. So what did I learn?

Well, since Lois is a much better angler than me, the strike king dive-to

was the better tool for that job.

Roger

Great advice!

Now, if I only had a bite hot enough to follow that advice.... In my little lakes, I get about a fish an hour from the bank. In the boat, I might get a fish every 30 minutes or so. In the few occasions where I've got into a school of fish, and am catching every few casts, it only lasts for 5 or 6 fish and then you're done...not enough time to experiment.

Someday.....

That's actually a good idea RW. I might have to try some other brands when I know a certain bait is killing them.

I´ve got literally thousands of baits, 99% of them have never touched the water, very few "new" baits enter the 1% , 80% of that 1 % of baits I fish regularily are ........... the same baits I´ve been fishing ( and catching with them ) for the past 3 + decades.

Now, if I could only convince the BaitMonkey of that ........

@Raul If you want I can help you get those other 99% of baits wet. I can break them in for you if you want.

I did this a couple years ago on Lake Erie. It was one of those days to where I was getting bit on everything I threw. So my father-in-law and I just started throwing random baits and trying new stategys. Anyway I started Yo yoing a white spinnerbait and I killed them. Now it is one of my favorite ways to fish for smallies up there.

This is great advice anytime you are on the water. When someone tells me that something like "Gulp!" is the only thing that works, getting on a hot bite can change their mind in a hurry. Especially with drop shotting. When I'm "hitting 'em" good, I'll switch off to different plastics and show my partner that anything can/will work at one time or another. You just have to be flexible enough to try something new.