Last couple seasons have been pretty good on my home water rivers. Past season was my worst top water effort or lack of effort ever. It started out poor when I should have gotten fish on productive lures. I would of settled for all dinks or runts. They were few and far between. They were there. Fished other baits in the area and had hook up. Caught myself throwing them knowing with the attitude they were not going to work. Just didn't believe. I hope to turn this around. I was told to give them a different top water look. Almost endless choices. That was what I should have done. Should of fished a few new topwater lure to death. This is something I have to work on this season and get my mind right at topwater time.

I'll admit I can be a creature of habit. Pretty hard to convince me there is anything better than a Rapala or Bandit hard baits. Gonna fish a few new Strike Kings this season. During winter boredom bought some great patterns of them. Fished a few new Bakers last year . Still out to lunch on them. They were fish catchers but as water cleared Channel cats and Carp were taking them. Good...bad, probably better than worse. I'm going to throw a few old school baits this season also. You all most forget how productive they once were. 

I'll post a review    

Old Habits are hard to break.Good luck this year

You want to get better, have a better year? Fish some new stretches of your rivers with some other good fishermen. Falling back on old habits sometimes works, sometimes it doesn't. A new fishing partner will give you some new ways to look at your approach. Having more options available to you will up your odds when things get tough. 

I need to learn how to slow down.

I've always fished aggressively regardless of the baits I've used and while it works at times i think that I'd be better served by slowing things down some such as when I use a walking bait or a popper.

I'm going to be practicing on pike soon with jerk baits and a slower cadence which I hope will point me in the right direction for the bass season.

One of my biggest "mental blocks" is thinking a bait is too big to catch smallmouth.  For example I would be more confident fishing a 3" or 3.5" paddletail than a 4" or bigger.  Or more confident with a 4" Senko-style bait than a 5" bait.  Or a Baby Rage Craw more than a Rage Craw.  Even though I've fished with guys who consistently catch fish with bigger baits than I like to use.  I need to work on that!

Yes that is a hang up on size also for me. Somewhere in another guys post I have that throwing a 6" worm is occasional for me. He's trying to throw 9" at smallies. Do hope it works for him.

When I'm out, I fish crankbaits, spinnerbaits and plastics. But I catch myself to slow down many many a times with those plastics.   

My biggest mental block, if that's what it can be called, would be habit. I need to fight my habits and not just fall back to my same fishing spots and techniques. If a spot is hot, no problem, but I tend to keep going even if the bite has moved elsewhere (smallmouth seasonal patterns). I need to keep an open mind and get on the canoe a lot more and stop fishing for ghosts.

That they actually exist in a river that I've caught plenty of them for and is renowned for it's small mouth population. This year has been killing me so far.

On ‎3‎/‎6‎/‎2016 at 11:36 AM, Spankey said:

Last couple seasons have been pretty good on my home water rivers. Past season was my worst top water effort or lack of effort ever. It started out poor when I should have gotten fish on productive lures. I would of settled for all dinks or runts. They were few and far between. They were there. Fished other baits in the area and had hook up. Caught myself throwing them knowing with the attitude they were not going to work. Just didn't believe. I hope to turn this around. I was told to give them a different top water look. Almost endless choices. That was what I should have done. Should of fished a few new topwater lure to death. This is something I have to work on this season and get my mind right at topwater time.

I'll admit I can be a creature of habit. Pretty hard to convince me there is anything better than a Rapala or Bandit hard baits. Gonna fish a few new Strike Kings this season. During winter boredom bought some great patterns of them. Fished a few new Bakers last year . Still out to lunch on them. They were fish catchers but as water cleared Channel cats and Carp were taking them. Good...bad, probably better than worse. I'm going to throw a few old school baits this season also. You all most forget how productive they once were. 

I'll post a review    

Ill be honest. I fish a lot of topwater lures. I am sponsored by IMA Lures, and their topwater baits are awesome.... But, when the going gets tough I really like to downsize my topwater and focus on the Rapala Skitter Walk. I've caught big Smallmouth but I've also caught big Largemouth. 

My major block is that this is the first year I will almost be exclusively fishing a river.  I find myself over thinking a lot. 

I use a slower speed Pop 'R a lot, and some faster walk the dog lures... But sometime neither works.  There is something about going back to where it all started for me on topwater - a Jitterbug or Crazy Crawler.  Something about the speed of these two - you have a hard time fishing it too fast or too slow.  Sometimes that medium speed with a medium sized topwater lure that drives the smallies crazy.  Makes me think I should use those two most of the time...but I fall victim to the marketing of new lures every year. 

My mental block is thinking I know what the fish want. That's really what I want to throw. I need to step out of my comfort zone and throw a greater variety of lures in my tackle box. 

I usually throw spinnerbaits, jerkbaits, and crankbaits to get my smallmouth... Just last year I tried the ned rig and absolutely loved it... This year I want to throw 5 inch grubs at them.. Don't know why I waited this long to use that...