What is the biggest secret or tip you have learned while fishing? For me I would have to say, working baits slowly. When I discovered that slowing way down can get you bites the light bulbs lit up in my head. Before that I was very impatient and would catch fish but would miss a lot of fish too. Once I discovered that, I applied it to everything from crankbaits, to jigs, to spinners and so on..... It was almost therapeutic, as I would almost go into a trance while working my baits slow and would think how my bait looked underwater. I would even imagine fish surrounding my bait and thinking about eating it.  It works just try it next time you go out. 

 

 

 

What tips or secrets have to experienced? Is there a certain cadence you follow? Secret rig to tip in rigging certain baits? How about a routine you follow when going out?

 

 

 

Jay-

What is the biggest secret or tip you have learned while fishing? For me I would have to say, working baits slowly. When I discovered that slowing way down can get you bites the light bulbs lit up in my head. Before that I was very impatient and would catch fish but would miss a lot of fish too. Once I discovered that I applied to everything from crankbaits, to jigs, to spinners and so on..... It was almost therapeutic as I would almost go into a trance while working my baits slow and would think how my bait looked underwater. I would even imagine fish surrounding my bait thinking about eating it.  It works just try it next time you go out. 

 

 

 

What tips or secrets have to experienced? Is there a certain cadence you follow? Secret rig to tip in rigging certain baits? How about a routine you follow when going out?

 

 

 

Jay-

x2. First thing I thought of was fishing slow.

 

Another thing that I've learned is that junk fishing doesn't usually catch good fish  I usually do better sticking to a handful of presentations and changing color if need be.

Same here again slow fishing is the biggest thing I learned. Actually what both you guys have said is what made the most difference to me personally.

Patience Patience Patience

Points

 

Points are my biggest secret to success, not just above the water line but below.  

What is the biggest secret or tip you have learned while fishing? For me I would have to say, working baits slowly. When I discovered that slowing way down can get you bites the light bulbs lit up in my head. Before that I was very impatient and would catch fish but would miss a lot of fish too. Once I discovered that I applied to everything from crankbaits, to jigs, to spinners and so on..... It was almost therapeutic as I would almost go into a trance while working my baits slow and would think how my bait looked underwater. I would even imagine fish surrounding my bait thinking about eating it.  It works just try it next time you go out. 

 

 

 

What tips or secrets have to experienced? Is there a certain cadence you follow? Secret rig to tip in rigging certain baits? How about a routine you follow when going out?

 

 

 

Jay-

This. I tend to work my baits way too fast, and when I make an concerted effort to slow down...bam I get a hook up. Another thing I learned, and have been putting to good use, is color selection for the water clarity or cloud cover. It's like putting a puzzle together every day out on the water, and it feels great when the pieces start to fit. I credit this to all I've learned on this site, and it's members.

Fish structure first, and cover second.

DOWNSIZING! Learning that I can catch huge bass on 6lb flouro w/a 3"-4" worm or shad dropshotting or shaky heading

Its saved me plenty of times and finesse fishing has become a go to technique.

 

Forcing myself to leave my comfort zone and learning to use lures & techniques I don't normally use.  

 

Learning that the cover/structure I can't see is just as important as the cover/structure I can.

dont be afraid to try something new.

 

and just because a certain lure or technique failed you in the past doesnt mean it will always fail you in the future.

 

catching fish consistently can take time and effort, its not always as simple as chunking and winding.

I just picked this up last week although I knew about it for quite a while. Believe it or not while frog fishing I was not to concerned if I could walk the frog or not. I still caught plenty of nice bass. Last week, I wanted to see what the big deal was on walking a frog. I made some adjustments, and remembered what Glenn said. He said to walk a bait, do it to a beat of an imaginary drum. So that is exactly what I did. In my mind I played a drum, boom...boom....boom and as I looked at the frog it walked with each beat. Icing on the cake was that the bass were destroying the frog. Biggest that day went for 4lbs. Since then all I do is play the drum when I use the frog.

Thought of another. It's never a waste of time to re-tie if you see a nick in your line, or just have an inkling that something is wrong there. Finding out there was a weak spot hurts really badly when there's a good fish on the other end. 

 

Also, tungsten weights and line conditioner are worth the money.

Jay. I totally agree with you. Slow way down and get more bites.

Yup slow down.. I was at my local lake today I was using 3/8 black blue burning in along the shore and pop in off the bottom off the mouth of the cove no bites.. switched to a 1 oz black blue jig.. threw it out off the point on main lake side it 10 seconds after it loaned on bottom.. caughy 6 bass after that in 30 mins.. I uses to starting poping b4 it landed in deep water 15-25... just one of hundreds of things I've learned on here

You must fish for big bass to consistently catch big bass.

Never use a dull hook or weak knot.

Learn about seasonal periods and bass behavior.

Know all you can about bass prey in the waterways you fish.

LMB/SMB are not true bass, they are sunfish.

Tom

You must fish for big bass to consistently catch big bass.

Never use a dull hook or weak knot.

Learn about seasonal periods and bass behavior.

Know all you can about bass prey in the waterways you fish.

LMB/SMB are not true bass, they are sunfish.

Tom

Hot sun, wild fires, avocado salads and large clear reservoirs with rainbow trout  fattened bass make folks type obvious stuff... 

slow down here too..although when im bass fishing i cant seem to take it slow anymore i get impatient but! when im snook fishing i can reel in so slow that it takes 20 minutes to reel in one cast lol go figure

If you're beating the bank and not catching - turn around, the fish are behind you.

 

A-Jay

If you're beating the bank and not catching - turn around, the fish are behind you.

 

A-Jay

 

That's funny and has happen to me. Last spring my partner from Florence and I were killin' 'em 

in 5'-8' of water with jerkbaits, square bills and Red Eye Shad. A few weeks later we could not buy

a bite one morning. We saw some friensds just whacking 'em and motored over.

 

What are we doing wrong? You're casting the wrong way, turn around and cast out to the 2nd channel.

 

The fish had moved out and the bite had changed. 10" purple worms were the ticket, specifically

the Rage Tail Thumper in Blue Fleck, T-rigged and unpegged. That's all it took to start "Thumpin/ 'em!"

As always, the key is finding the fish.

 

 

 

 

Hot sun, wild fires, avocado salads and large clear reservoirs with rainbow trout  fattened bass make folks type obvious stuff...

You forgot the wine and cheese....

Re-tie your knots!, Slow down, Patience, Stay focused, Have fun, Enjoy where you are at, even if your getting skunked,(most important 1 to me!)

I'll go with routine.

 

When my fishing buddy and I arrive at the lake we immediately start looking for deep water 4'-6', close to the shore. The first things that we cast are 1/2 oz spinnerbaits, chatterbaits and wacky-wigged Zoom Trick Worms, in Watermelon Candy. We troll along the shoreline slowly, casting, keeping it in the strike zone, then immediately recasting.

 

If we aren't getting hit, then we start focusing on points (and marinas, if applicable). We will saturate those areas with many casts, even casting from different angles. This is also when we will start tying on crankbaits of varying depths, and other lures. 

 

If points/marinas aren't doing it, we start looking for cover (like a brush pile) and scanning for anything that might hold bass.

 

Finally, if after all that, we aren't getting bites, we will try finding deep water and working that, possibly with 1 oz jigs, and other large, heavy lures.

Keep an open mind. Bass won't ALWAYS do what they "should" do. Sometimes they hit the strangest lures because they are big time opportunistic feeders.

Keep my bait in the water.

Just one more tip! Always always always, wear polarized glass when fishing. I can not began to tell you how many times I noticed some cover or a tailing fish with them on. I find lay downs missed by others not wearing them. They don't have to be expensive, I have the ole wal-mart 5 dollar Berkley's.

Jay

The biggest thing for me is of course patience!! That sort of goes hand in hand with working baits slowly, I had the same issue where I would work it too fast and try "too hard" for a long time. Slowing down helped me loads. Sometimes, the fish do like it fast though! Generally when I am fishing unfamiliar waters I will work faster moving baits as a search tool until I get that first bite. Other than that, slow is the way to go.