Location is not the most important thing, knowing how to present your lure is. There are places I fish that most people would overlook since the fishing is difficult and most think it only has small bass yet I have caught lunkers in those waters. One of the biggest mistakes I see bass fishermen do is that they fish the same lures with the same techniques everyone else does in the area. It might work good for regular bass but it is not the best way to catch a 8 pound or better bass in a highly pressured body of water, especially from land.

   Today I went fishing with a friend. We fished side-by-side, targeting the same sand bar in the river. He used a white twister-tail on a 1/8 oz. jig, and I used a 1/2 oz. chartreuse floater/diver. We had equal success.

   Why? Location and timing. Presentations were different, bait types were different, and colors were somewhat different. But location and timing were spot-on.       jj

Location: Can't catch them if they aren't there.

Bait presentation / Bait type:   I don't think these can really be separated.

Timing (not seasonality): I'm not sure this can be separated from location, unless I'm misunderstanding what you mean.

Bait color:  Frankly I think color is far more important to fishermen than it is to fish.

 

6 hours ago, throttleplate said:

buy chest waders and you will open up a whole new world of fishing. Ido it and its unbelievable the amount of water i cover.

 

I would, but the alligators treat those like bubble gum with me as the juicy filling.

On 11/12/2020 at 12:08 PM, Johnpenguin said:

Paul! I didn’t know you were on br!

Been here a long time now. Came here years ago. Stayed on in part bc of the excellent interface, and moderators.The site just plain works, and continues to get better. Not to mention the many fine folks on here over the years.

#1 will always be location, you have to be where they are.

 

#2 is timing, you can be on them and catch a few, but if your timing is right, a few turns a bunch

 

#3 is presentation, if you got the location down, and the timing right, if you get them dialed in on how they want it, a bunch turns into a lot.

 

#87 is color. If your on biting fish, and presenting your offerings in a manner they are wiling to bite, they will bite with little thought to color. Color matters to me more than the fish. I use what I have confidence in, and because I have confidence in it I get bit on it.

 

 

Location

Timing

Presentation

Color

Type

Location.  Period.  Mic drop.   If you can solve location on a consistent basis.  You will be able to figure out the rest on your own.  Find the fish and then you can see what they like best.   I've heard of guys saying they never catch a fish on a certain lure, same guys aren't on the fish, and they ones they do catch are isolated loners.  

I'm going to say location , bait type, timing, presentation and then color

12 hours ago, billmac said:

Timing (not seasonality): I'm not sure this can be separated from location, unless I'm misunderstanding what you mean.

 

At first I thought he meant time of day too which would be as important as location, but then I thought about it and I think he means timing on hooksets.

10 hours ago, ww2farmer said:

#1 will always be location, you have to be where they are.

 

#2 is timing, you can be on them and catch a few, but if your timing is right, a few turns a bunch

 

#3 is presentation, if you got the location down, and the timing right, if you get them dialed in on how they want it, a bunch turns into a lot.

 

#87 is color. If your on biting fish, and presenting your offerings in a manner they are wiling to bite, they will bite with little thought to color. Color matters to me more than the fish. I use what I have confidence in, and because I have confidence in it I get bit on it.

 

 

This

1 hour ago, Boomstick said:

I'm going to say location , bait type, timing, presentation and then color

 

At first I thought he meant time of day too which would be as important as location, but then I thought about it and I think he means timing on hooksets.

 

What I mean is the timing of the feeding cycle of bass. For example, you might find the bass with your electronics but they are not actively feeding at that time and all you get is the occasional reaction strike (which ties into presentation, bait type, etc).

 

For us bank guys, we may very well be casting in the right location that holds a number of bass but they aren't biting and we'll never know they were there. That's why I'll stick around in one area, vary the presentation of the bait I selected, then do the same thing with one or two more baits before moving to the next location.

 

And BTW, I roll speed as well as technique into the topic of presentation.

I would rank them:

 

Location

Timing

Type/Presentation

Color

 

I would consider type and presentation to go hand in hand. My definition of presentation is how you put the type of bait in the water and how you work it. You can only put certain types of baits in the water certain ways. i.e. You can't - or have no reason to - skip a deep diving crankbait or throw that same crankbait in pads. Doesn't make sense. Certain types of baits can only be presented certain ways.

5 minutes ago, joshuaray83 said:

Certain types of baits can only be presented certain ways.

 

I'm going to disagree. Between cadence, twitching, pumping, lifting, dropping, depth and more I can fish any bait a number of ways. Some topwaters have more limitations, but you can still be creative in your presentations with them.

14 hours ago, soflabasser said:

Location is not the most important thing, knowing how to present your lure is. There are places I fish that most people would overlook since the fishing is difficult and most think it only has small bass yet I have caught lunkers in those waters. One of the biggest mistakes I see bass fishermen do is that they fish the same lures with the same techniques everyone else does in the area. It might work good for regular bass but it is not the best way to catch a 8 pound or better bass in a highly pressured body of water, especially from land.

Agreed, there are some basics to presentation -shared by all presentations- that trigger bites. So, yeah, I can see your tack. There's a lot to be said in terms of being able to present, and being versatile in presentation. I too have places that few fish bc it just doesn't look "bassy", or lend itself to the presentations most anglers know. That's where the need for versatility rears its head. I find that such places are still a "location" though, that ask for certain presentation approaches. Location (and position), and C&C, determine my presentations. I may be really good at fishing a swim-jig (or other), but getting bites in certain locations can be like pulling teeth. My latest 2 fishing reports here, and video fishing journals, show a comparison of water body layouts, and the ease at which bites could be triggered. One water it was easy! The next, required something different. 

30 minutes ago, Koz said:

 

...I can fish any bait a number of ways...

No, it can only be fished MY way!

 

22 hours ago, soflabasser said:

The way you present your lure is the most important thing in bass fishing followed by where you are fishing. Everything else is third at best.

If you present a bait in the most perfect manner and the fish are not there you cannot get bit.

Often times being in the area where the fish are located you can catch them with multiple presentations, using different baits of different sizes and colors

This is what leads me to believe that location is more important than presentation or the other variables

 

The right timing has to occur at the right location

(if you know every fish in the lake would bite at noon, you better get to the best location at noon)

 

So for me, I try to find the area that is holding the fish

then what depth are the fish at

Once these two are established then I can start sorting out the rest of the variables

I generally start out with a moving bait to see if the fish are aggressive and will slow down and go smaller during my search

Location and timing, you can pooch nearly everything else and still have a fairly good chance of getting bit if your where the fish are when they are hunting...after those, probably presentation, and at least to my thinking this goes hand in hand with bait type (fish the part of the water column they are, with an acceptable action), and color is way, way down the list for me.

Location is the deal..of course timing and presentation are also important. Bait type and color are somewhat important but much less so in my opinion. Location is paramount in my mind...I don't care what,when and how your throwing the best looking bait of all time...if you aren't throwing them WHERE they are you ain't catching em.

3 hours ago, Koz said:

 

What I mean is the timing of the feeding cycle of bass. For example, you might find the bass with your electronics but they are not actively feeding at that time and all you get is the occasional reaction strike (which ties into presentation, bait type, etc).

 

For us bank guys, we may very well be casting in the right location that holds a number of bass but they aren't biting and we'll never know they were there. That's why I'll stick around in one area, vary the presentation of the bait I selected, then do the same thing with one or two more baits before moving to the next location.

 

And BTW, I roll speed as well as technique into the topic of presentation.

 

Oh, so my first thought was correct then, so I will move timing to second place - although that's still a tough one to place when they aren't biting, but considering when they chase everything and you're in the right location, you're going to have a very good day.

The reason I list presentation second is because I use to fish like this and I witness it most every trip . The angler makes an overhand lob cast at the bank at a 90 degree angle . It often lands on top of the fish and stays in the strike zone for a short percentage of the retrieve . Their  success rate would sky rocket by getting the bait in the best position , quietly  and at angles that keep the lure in the strike zone longer using low trajectory casting .

18 hours ago, soflabasser said:

Location is not the most important thing, knowing how to present your lure is. There are places I fish that most people would overlook since the fishing is difficult and most think it only has small bass yet I have caught lunkers in those waters. One of the biggest mistakes I see bass fishermen do is that they fish the same lures with the same techniques everyone else does in the area. It might work good for regular bass but it is not the best way to catch a 8 pound or better bass in a highly pressured body of water, especially from land.

See this is where I should have read the whole thread before responding.

Your example is one that differs from my experience because I did not consider smaller bodies of water

Which is another of the endless variables that may or may not come into play at any given moment

 

Not sure if there can be any other answer than location and timing. The rest is just details. 

@Paul Roberts and @BassNJake I have caught lunkers in ponds less than 1 acre to Lake Okeechobee which is one of the biggest freshwater bodies of water in the USA. I thrive in places people overlook and the reason I thrive is I do my best to figure out what the bass want in the places I fish. For example I caught a double digit bass from land in a highly pressured park that almost everyone thinks is a bad place to fish. I have observed those that complain about this park and noticed that they all fish very similar to each other. It is no surprise they all have similar results. I do not care much what some sponsored fisherman tells me is the best technique, I follow my own path and it has worked very well for me to the point I have no need to hire a guide for bass fishing. With that said bass fishing is a hobby you learn for a lifetime and I do my best to learn from others and from my fishing trips.

If you are new and can afford to hire a professional guide, pay attention and 

you might learn more in one day fishing with him than fishing a year or more

on your own.

 

I fished ToHo with ghoti last January. Gary started out with a 9 lb bass. A little

later I caught my Personal Best (January 5, 2020). We were fishing an area we

would have never considered ourselves...NEVER!  

 

 

On 11/12/2020 at 11:09 AM, Koz said:

Just assume it's an average fishing day sometime after the spawn and rank the importance.

 

 

I think most have already summed it up nicely. You can't catch what isn't there, so Location is the most important, followed by Timing, although I admittedly don't pay enough attention to Timing and just go fishing whenever I can . 

 

They will usually determine was Bait Type you use and that will give you your Presentation options for that bait and the fish will tell you which one they prefer. If you are in the right location at the right time presenting the right bait, a hungry fish isn't going to care too much about color.

 

I bank fished yesterday here in cold Ohio for less than an hour at a medium size pond that has a bunch of big broken concrete slabs along two sections of the bank that extend almost 10 feet out in the water. We had about 5 days in the mid 70's last week before it got cold again, so I knew the fish would be around those rocks because they retain heat longer. So that limited my options to flipping style baits that I could bounce around and in the crevasses of the rocks. Sure enough I was able to catch 4 bass in less than an hour, including a decent 17".

 

The Weather determined my Location.

The Location determined my Bait.

The Bait and Location determined my Presentation.

I use the same 3 colors I always use, Junebug, Green Pumpkin, & Black.