3 hours ago, Catt said:

Crank Baits!

i don't know why I just don't throw em!

They aren't much fun to me. I know their purpose and I've caught a good many on them, but chunking and winding is getting old to me.

To quote Matthew Quigley: Said I didn't have much use for one, didn't say I didn't know how to use one!

Two areas I'm planning on trying to improve this year. The first is to gain confidence in a jig, and also my deep water game which is somewhat weak at the moment. With so many lakes up here having an abundance of pads and grass it's been tough for me to escape that as much as I should.

21 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

I've spent days and days trying, have a rod and reel just for DS, fish some lakes that have good DS bites (Table Rock, Beaver, Bull), just can't make it work regularly. 

I have had some success with it at Table Rock, though I would say it isn't as consistent as I would like.  In the warmer months between the spawn and fall, Table Rock fish seem to suspend a lot, and dropping a spoon down on them has been a much more consistent option for me. 

Mine would be to be more open minded about everything, stop thinking that because it works for others that it will work for me as well, explore more, get deeper into why the fish are doing what they are doing and fish accordingly.  

As for improvements, I can always be better at everything I do - even the small number of things I am good at. Perfection is an impossibility.  Fishing is so much fun because we always see a challenge in the road ahead.    

There are a few items that I was going to spend some time on this year:  Ned rigs, blade baits, drop shot . . . . . and I just added A-Jay's suggestion of using a craw on a drop shot.  

19 minutes ago, senile1 said:

As for improvements, I can always be better at everything I do - even the small number of things I am good at. Perfection is an impossibility.  Fishing is so much fun because we always see a challenge in the road ahead.    

There are a few items that I was going to spend some time on this year:  Ned rigs, blade baits, drop shot . . . . . and I just added A-Jay's suggestion of using a craw on a drop shot.  

X2 ~   There's little doubt in my mind that you'll be glad you did.  If you're around them, it's a done deal.   

Nose hook for fishing around little to no cover & Tex-pose with a 2/0 - 3/0 ewg for when it's not.

"Get the net".

A-Jay

2 minutes ago, A-Jay said:

X2 ~   There's little doubt in my mind that you'll be glad you did.  If you're around them, it's a done deal.   

Nose hook for fishing around little to no cover & Tex-pose with a 2/0 - 3/0 ewg for when it's not.

"Get the net".

A-Jay

It is these little "outside-the-box" ideas that sometimes can make a lot of difference.  I can't believe I didn't think to try this.  

Patience is a big one for me.. I know ware the fish are and will cast a few times and not "work" the fish enough and move on.

Everything... but I need to get better at covering more water. And power fishing. Hitting high percentage areas and moving on. 

 

dual post

 

I need to learn how to read the water and the conditions around me a lot better. I've become a boat fisherman this last year and am finally getting an eye for the right spots somewhat, but really need to master how to eliminate the unproductive waters before fishing them. I can catch fish, now I need to learn how to find them on a more consistent basis.

1 - Carolina rig.  Can't catch jack on the C-rig for whatever reason - I catch them like crazy on other finesse presentations - jigs, T-rigs and shakey heads, but not Carolinas...

2 - Deep crankbaits; catch huge numbers on square bills / shallow divers, spinnerbaits, jerkbaits, etc., but no love on the 10' + deep runners; I feel like this is probably more of a fish locating issue than a technique issue.  Fishing out of a kayak or a canoe 95% of the time I am generally not in very deep water, so I need to create more opportunities to throw them...in the right places. 

3 - Rat-L-Traps - Again, I have considerable success with similar lures - rattling square bills and shallow divers, but I just don't get the bites others seem to get with lipless crankbaits; slow, medium, ripping retrieves, dead stick, yo-yo, whatever, I have very, very little luck with them.  It isn't landing them, it's that I just don't get bit.

EGS

Wish I could do it all flawlessly. Could use improvement all around. Have to improve my spinner bait and deep crank bait 12+ foot fishing.

I hate drop shotting and I mildly dislike cranking so I avoid both if at all possible. Am I the only one that doesn't care if I ever DS again in my life? I'd rather paint my mother-in-laws toenails while we binge watch some Lifetime show.

What do I want to improve? Understanding my surroundings. Someone once said it's more important to throw the wrong thing in the right place than throwing the right thing in the wrong place so I'll focus on finding the right area and then throw what I like to throw. 

Just to clarify....drop shotting is evil.....but it works.....but I don't care.....I hate it.

2 hours ago, E. Guido Soda said:

1 - Carolina rig.  Can't catch jack on the C-rig for whatever reason - I catch them like crazy on other finesse presentations - jigs, T-rigs and shakey heads, but not Carolinas...

2 - Deep crankbaits; catch huge numbers on square bills / shallow divers, spinnerbaits, jerkbaits, etc., but no love on the 10' + deep runners; I feel like this is probably more of a fish locating issue than a technique issue.  Fishing out of a kayak or a canoe 95% of the time I am generally not in very deep water, so I need to create more opportunities to throw them...in the right places. 

3 - Rat-L-Traps - Again, I have considerable success with similar lures - rattling square bills and shallow divers, but I just don't get the bites others seem to get with lipless crankbaits; slow, medium, ripping retrieves, dead stick, yo-yo, whatever, I have very, very little luck with them.  It isn't landing them, it's that I just don't get bit.

EGS

A tip for #3: When your Square Bill bite dies, tie on a lipless bait, and then fish it in the same places, bumping it against the same cover as you were with the Square Bill, and see if you can't pick up a few extra bites. Seems to work pretty good from me.

As for what I need to improve on, I would like to learn how to read a sonar. I have always fished from the bank and have never needed one, but I am hopefully going to get into a kayak,canoe, or small aluminum water going vessel very soon, and I would think it would be useful to spend some time learning how to use electronics effectively. I also will be looking to work on my 10'+ fishing skills. Fishing from the bank, I don't have much experience fishing water over 10'.

I need to improve on every thing. It seems like instead of getting better I'm getting worse. I have an old Hummingbird 200DX. It shows fish but I have never been able to catch any fish I see on it. When I can find them I can catch them. Finding them is the hard part for me. T-Rig worms or creature baits , Jigs w/t , square bills and spinner baits are my favorites. then Flukes ,Senko's and wacky rig. I try other things too but those are what I have the most luck with. This past year has been my worst ever. This year I'm going to give it hell trying !!!!!

22 hours ago, FrogFreak said:

I hate drop shotting and I mildly dislike cranking so I avoid both if at all possible. Am I the only one that doesn't care if I ever DS again in my life? I'd rather paint my mother-in-laws toenails while we binge watch some Lifetime show.

What do I want to improve? Understanding my surroundings. Someone once said it's more important to throw the wrong thing in the right place than throwing the right thing in the wrong place so I'll focus on finding the right area and then throw what I like to throw. 

Just to clarify....drop shotting is evil.....but it works.....but I don't care.....I hate it.

agreed i am not the type of angler who can fish that slow a jerkbait is about a slow as it gets for me

Boat control.  One of my fishing buddies must think I've lost my mind.  One time (on a trolling motor only lake) I spent a good 5 minutes "repositioning" the boat (and anchoring) on a spot we wanted to fish more thoroughly and from different angles-only to have the boat wind up in almost the same identical place.  I think he hurt himself trying not to laugh.

I'm surprised at all the dropshot responses, it's the one technique where I'm almost 100% confident I'll catch a fish if the fish are biting that day.  Guys could be reeling in bass with crankbaits to my left and right, and I'll still just stick with the dropshot and catch some.

I'm the worst at detecting bites off the bottom - jigs, t-rig.  I'm horrible at watching my line because I always like to look around at what's going on around me either in or out of the water, and I don't have a comfortable hand position to keep a finger on the line.

finesse fishing for sure.

 

On ‎1‎/‎20‎/‎2016 at 5:11 PM, FrogFreak said:

I hate drop shotting and I mildly dislike cranking so I avoid both if at all possible. Am I the only one that doesn't care if I ever DS again in my life? I'd rather paint my mother-in-laws toenails while we binge watch some Lifetime show.

What do I want to improve? Understanding my surroundings. Someone once said it's more important to throw the wrong thing in the right place than throwing the right thing in the wrong place so I'll focus on finding the right area and then throw what I like to throw. 

Just to clarify....drop shotting is evil.....but it works.....but I don't care.....I hate it.

Hate, hate the drop shot.  But between fishing a DS and painting my mother-in-law's toenails, I'll take the DS.  <shudder>

To me you always have room to improve no matter what it is the more you do it the better you get, know a man that is 73 years old and fishes all the time told me that he still to this days learns different things and gets better.. To me i think i need to improve my jig fishing.

If I had my way, I'd have a never ending list of areas to improve. But for times sake....here are 3.

1) I want to learn and get a basic skills level with dropshotting. I know all about how good it is and can be, and I'm a huge smallmouth fan. So it makes sense.

2) jig fishing. It seems like a common goal, from what I've seen in others posts. I use spinning tackle and a canoe which may have scared me away from flipping but I'd like to do it in sparse cover this year. 

3) in regards to the time I spend fishing, I want the quality and quantity to be the same. I don't wanna just go half a** it for the sake of it. I need to commit to taking the canoe each time and exploring. I have amazing option for rivers and lakes here and need to take advantage. 

I need to try other methods more.I've always done well with t-rigging soft plastics and I'm too content with that.That and a live bait method I find very effective.I probably won't get into anything that runs deep or has multiple hooks because I almost exclusively fish shallow,weedy lakes.I try top water occasionally but just don't seem to catch much with repalas ,devils horses etc.In the summer I do well fishing senkos by reeling them along the surface.Overall,I just need more versatility.Kind of got an interest in trying spinnerbaits again although I've never caught much with them.