6 minutes ago, Pumpkinseed Lizard said:

 

Why? When I got back into it this year I tried it and hated it. No fun to cast and less fun to rig. Even less than a Carolina rig.

Can't argue with that.  I'm fishing 4 bodies of water 95% of the time the last 5-10 years and I've found many other baits to be better producers of quality fish and I've learned enough of these lakes where I'm comfortable taking the rare skunk to avoid messing with a technique that I don't enjoy or have any meaningful outsized success with for all the trouble.  

 

scott

I get on "kicks".  I'll have good luck using a certain type of lure and it'll inevitably be the  first lure I tie on until I have good results using something else.  However, I have those lures that will always be my faves...spinnerbaits, suspending jerkbaits, shallow water crankbaits.  Fly fishing...hair's ear or pheasant tail nymph.

The way my fall's been ... I guess I've moved away from catching bass.

Topwater and finesse. Topwater I find is rarely the optimal choice even when I see them busting on top. Finesse because I’m not a tournament guy and don’t care about catching limits of keepers. 

@Fried Lemons very true for me as well and forgot to include it.  This summer the blow ups in open water almost never really connected on topwater.  Instead I found success with spoons, finesse scroungers, spybaits, and the rocket shad.  I also tried to understand the br fish and didn't really get it until this fall.  When the surface action slowed down, I'd also find success shaking a minnow in the areas that produced earlier in the day.  My electronic game is an old school flasher, and I'm not great at interpreting yet, but I find subsurface is a much better approach in these circumstances.  It seems that my fish are sitting 15-25' down and chase shad that are 5-10' above them and that's where my bait needs to be.  Profile size, speed, and erraticism is also something that needs to be played with as it seems to change everyday and even throughout the day.  Not giving up on topwater just yet, but if this year is my new normal, it's certainly shrinking in importance.

 

scott

I rarely throw a Carolina rig anymore. At one time I used it to cover deep water quickly by using a 3/4 oz weight.  I worked my way around big flats and points searching for strikes. I have all but abandoned that style.

The wacky worm is the bait I rarely fished this year.  It used to be my number one bait.  I especially used it for fishing around and under docks.  I have since learned to skip a jig under docks and  that has become my preferred bait.  I do fish a fat ika a fair amount which to me is a similar bait to the wacky worm.

On 11/16/2024 at 4:42 PM, rboat said:

Is there any technique you have kind of moved away from for one reason or another?

This year - just about everything except Ned/finesse, crank baits, and jigs…and jerkbaits. Those 4 categories accounted for 95% of all the bass I caught this year. Hardly threw anything else.

4 hours ago, scaleface said:

I rarely throw a Carolina rig anymore. At one time I used it to cover deep water quickly by using a 3/4 oz weight.  I worked my way around big flats and points searching for strikes. I have all but abandoned that style.

Why?

5 minutes ago, F14A-B said:

Why?

Its consuming, fishing a lot of unproductive water. 

C-Rigs

It was my go to presentation for decades. Great for covering structure quickly and finding potential hot spots along the way. With the addition of a quality depthfinder on the bow, and the good success I've had with football jigs, I only used it a few times in the early spring and never tied on on the rest of the season. Kind of like deep cranking for me, I found an alternative presentation that accomplishes the same thing with less work.  I'll likely use it in the future on a new lake, or again in early spring, but other than that, it'll sit in the box at home, not in the boat.

17 hours ago, scaleface said:

I rarely throw a Carolina rig anymore. At one time I used it to cover deep water quickly by using a 3/4 oz weight.  I worked my way around big flats and points searching for strikes. I have all but abandoned that style.

How about Texas Rig? I'm old fashioned I reckon. I still work plastic worms in the weeds and sometimes deeper water in winter. Pegged sometimes,  sometimes not.

4 hours ago, MichaelN said:

How about Texas Rig? I'm old fashioned I reckon. I still work plastic worms in the weeds and sometimes deeper water in winter. Pegged sometimes,  sometimes not.

I use texas rigs extensively.

On 11/21/2024 at 11:23 AM, softwateronly said:

@Fried Lemons very true for me as well and forgot to include it.  This summer the blow ups in open water almost never really connected on topwater.  Instead I found success with spoons, finesse scroungers, spybaits, and the rocket shad.  I also tried to understand the br fish and didn't really get it until this fall.  When the surface action slowed down, I'd also find success shaking a minnow in the areas that produced earlier in the day.  My electronic game is an old school flasher, and I'm not great at interpreting yet, but I find subsurface is a much better approach in these circumstances.  It seems that my fish are sitting 15-25' down and chase shad that are 5-10' above them and that's where my bait needs to be.  Profile size, speed, and erraticism is also something that needs to be played with as it seems to change everyday and even throughout the day.  Not giving up on topwater just yet, but if this year is my new normal, it's certainly shrinking in importance.

 

scott

 

 

I don't throw topwater at stuff like that.  I throw topwater the same place people think 'that sure looks like a nice place to skip a senko!' etc

 

Sometimes in spots like THAT - you skip 19 senkos and jigs and get zilch - skip a frog under there one single time and give it one helpless twitch and.....BOOM!

 

😉😉😉 

 

Topwater success with buzzbaits and frogs for me has been 90% casting accuracy and 10% right time right place so I just try to throw that thing as many questionable places as I can in a day.  You'd be amazed how many of these 'questionable' places I've cast to have produced frog or buzzbait fish this year where they'd bite nothing else.

 

Heck - even this week right as temps dropped 20 degrees with hard freezing winds.

 

 

This time of year think 'a worm or jig or shaking a minnow on the surface' and you'll do better than 'a weedless spook' in terms of presentation when it's super cold.

II honestly don't remember the last time I threw a lipless crankbait,  yet 10 years ago one was one my deck seemingly year round. I also don't remember when the last time I deep cranked....also a staple 10 years ago. 

9 minutes ago, ww2farmer said:

II honestly don't remember the last time I threw a lipless crankbait, 

Yeah, I've never used lipless cranks much. That may change tomorrow...  I do use deep-divers.

When I compile this list, most of it is due to changing from being a weedy lake largemouth fisherman to a Great Lakes smallmouth guy over the last 10 years or so.  

 

Wacky Senkos (I have started throwing a heavy Neko a lot though)

Swim jigs 

Pitching plastic (Used to be my most preferred fishing style but I fish for smallies so much that I have gotten away from it.)

Topwater (Topwater for Great Lakes smallies just isn't much of a thing.  Used to be a main part of my fishing, especially buzzbaits, when I primarily fished for largemouth.)

Shakey head (End up throwing a Ned, Neko, or dropshot instead)

Tubes (10-12 years ago all my big smallies came on tubes.  Not anymore.  Still throw a Stupid Tube in the weeds for largemouth)

 

@Junk Fisherman's post reminds me of how I switched from brown bass to green bass and how I stopped throwing F13 Rapalas on six-pound test. That was my main lure for 30 years and I still have scores of them, but never throw them now, even though I caught thousands of brownies on them. I should try them again. They might work on green bass and our brown bass too.