For the shore fishermen, I fish the same three to five smaller ponds, bodies of water constantly. What’s your hottest bait this year for fooling them might not be the hottest bait next year. We find ourselves far between  the action. It’s slow? It’s not you but it’s the same bait your throwing. Example I use a mepps #3 Anglia inline spinner silver blade with a brown dressed treble. I switch to a strike king #3 inline spinner silver blade with a black dressed treble. My point is change colors and styles of our baits. I do not accept being skunked. Expand your knowledge and skills. One more problem we all have is we fish too fast. Slow the speed down. I move the blade baits just fast enough to make the blades spin. Even slow the crankbaits down. If you slow down a floating crankbait it becomes a wakebait. Our skill catches fish. Luck has nothing to do with it.

I live in a pretty good size metro area, and fish a lot of pressured waters, and some days it’s just hard to get a bite. 

Ive thrown all sorts of stuff, but they have seen it all. My go to us usually a jig/bladed jig because that’s what I’m   Comfortable with, but as I look back at my summer I’ve had substantially more success on my light setup throwing plastics. Ned rig, drop shot, T rig just produce more for me on these pressured ponds. 

 

That bing said, I just got a kayak so hopefully my tune will change. 

I fish the same two neighborhood ponds once a week. Never really noticed them getting used to baits. More of a chase or won’t chase thing with them, in my experience. I’ll throw a moving bait first then switch to weightless plastics if they’re not chasing. Still get skunked some days. Just the name of the game. Nothing wrong with changing things up though. Makes you a more well rounded angler in the long run.  

Good advice bigbill. I agree. If you fish the same small waters a lot like I do you will eventually find that the fish get used to seeing the same baits  ( and being caught by them ). For example, on my home lake about 10 years ago my main bait was zoom flukes. I fished them heavily for 5 years or so ,then the catch rate began dropping. Then I started on senko type baits and wore them out until last year. Same thing happened, catch rate dropped. So now Ive switched primarily to small plastic worms and the bass are lovin em. But this year I tried some totally different baits than normal for me as well and did fairly well. So I have some new tools in the box. Its becoming more fun to me to see if I can catch bass on diverse baits. 

I still use all the baits mentioned above but mix it up more than I used to. But right now the fish seem to be locked in on the small worms.

I am in the same boat (no boat) and fish from the bank in an area that doesn't have a lot of places to fish, so pressured.  I can catch them on your common baits: senkos, spinnerbaits, crankbaits, etc.  I also find I do really well with some more oddball stuff: inline spinners over grass beds, c-rigs in shallow water, etc. I think there is a lot said for offering up what they don't see every day, but you also need to keep in mind matching what their prey is.

 

With soft plastics, I find it amazing how often changing shape, over color, works.  I've had days where you can't get a bite on a senko, but a curled tail, or small lizard will work.  It's a fun game figuring out what to fish, and where to fish it, and how to fish it.

 

I also agree about going S-L-O-W.  Can't say how many times slowing down is the way to go.

I bank fish a lot two neighborhood ponds, they hold big fish (4-5lb - yes big is a relative term:)) but very pressured.  It is very hit or miss but I fish for less than two hours so not huge surprise.

 

month or two ago I started using paddletail swimbaits which I never did before and have had a lot of success. I think this is because senko's and other popular baits are thrown by everyone, so the paddletail gives different look. In one end of pond I never caught a fish in, I dragged a paddletail slow on spinner and caught a 2.55lb'r.