So yesterday I finally caught my first bass of the season. It wasn’t anything huge but it was nice to finally feel a pull on the line that wasn’t a snag or a giant clump of grass. I’ll slam a picture in here too just because i can. But I guess what I’m curious about is why I couldn’t catch more than one. I was only there for about 2 and a half hours and within the first hour I was seeing tones of tiny blue gill near the algae (or grass?? I don’t know) that line the shallows of the pond. This was the first sign of life I’d seen in any of the local ponds so I figured where there were blue gill there must be bass. I threw a lipless crank for a short while before getting fed up with having to take the goop off my hooks after every cast. By that time I’d been there about an hour now so I decided to switch to a top water because I had been seeing fish break the surface all day. And miraculously on my first cast with a whopper Plopper I had one hooked! It was awesome to pull it up and finally say I caught one after like 12 unsuccessful fishing trips. So I snapped a quick pick and released it back and went straight back into casting out my top water. But other than one more half assed attempt at taking my lure, no bass seemed interested. And I can say that none seemed interested because I could literally see them sitting in the shallows and ignoring my lure. So I guess I got caught up after all the excitement of finally catching one that it took me way too long to give up on my top water and start using something else. What I want to ask you guys is, what is your go to lure when the bass are (seemingly) actively feeding in the shallows? A buddy of mine came in a few hours later than me and said he caught 6 in the short time he was there, but he’s notorious for not letting anyone know his tips or tricks so that he can keep catching them. Any tactics you guys recommend that I should try on my next outing?? 

 

Its been said countless times on the forum that if you can see them they can see you, they might have been wary enough not to bite just by your presence.

As for catching them, if you can sneak up on them, a weightless fluke or senko usually can get a bite or two

A wacky rigged senko is one of my best baits for getting those fish that I can see to bite. Better yet to make long cast and try to get them to bite before you see each other though.