I have to think I am not normal. Maybe you can convince me otherwise?

 

Yesterday I was fishing the Delaware River with a couple of friends trying a pricey JDM bladed jig with several different trailers I’m convinced will catch a fish……one day.  All the while, my friends are catching on spinners.  Ironically, I personally hand make those spinners.  Why would I dare change to that to catch fish?

 

I don’t though, I continue to try other baits.  When one proves to work consistently, I switch to the next one.  I do this almost every time I am out. I rarely stay with a bait I know works. It seems I don’t care what catches them, I seem to be more interested in finding out what doesn’t catch them.

 

Half of me thinks I am just compiling an arsenal of baits and techniques that could be important one day?  The other half of me thinks I am just crazy! lol

 

Do you have days where you do what I do because you just have to know?

It sounds like the market is copying the pro's.

 

They gotta sell stuff. So if one thing works they can't stick with it. They gotta sell all that other stuff too! So coming directly from the pro's is this mental programming to keep switching things up.

 

Its bait monkey mental madness!

 

Its in all the fishing shows. Have you ever noticed a pro bass fisherman never shuts up on camera? Its always sell, sell, sell and pretend its top secret fishing information.

 

Do what I do sometime... take just 1 lure with you fishing. Or just one type of lure. Make yourself de-program from it!

 

I want to see all new fishing shows where we can sit out here and just watch others fish without all the words! Just fish!

 

I'd also like to see some fishing shows where our favorite pro's can use whatever they want to use rather than what they have to use because of contracts. Be cool to see fishing without it looking like Las Vegas at night.

I find myself in the same trap often. Wondering if the next bait might catch em a little better or trigger bigger fish. More often than not, I waste valuable time in that bite window and regret it. I find I do the same thing with spots and patterns. I'll find a good one, but instead of running it til it dries up, I'll check to see if something else is working. Prime example; I was fishing a tournament last weekend. I had 4 good fish on a frog in the first 30 minutes of the tournament. All on main lake stuff I could've replicated all over the lake. Instead of running that pattern until it died, I convinced myself I had to check in a creek nearby to make sure they weren't doing the same thing in there. They weren't and I burnt up most of my time with cloud cover ruling it out. Wound up going the rest of the derby without a bite. Had I committed to what I found for another hour, I'm sure I would've caught a 5th fish and been in the money. 

I did it to myself Sunday. My friend was complementing my blue bladed jigs. He’d tried one for the first time the weekend before when everything else failed. He said he remembered me telling him when the water is hot and green, that’s when it shines and it did that day. We were just launching our yaks while he was telling me. I said “Yep, those are perfect conditions when the water looks almost exactly like it does here”. I didn’t have one tied on, he did. At the end of the day, he texted me 4 or 5 pictures of nice fish he’d caught on it. I was struggling all day to get a bite. Why didn’t I listen to myself? I guess because I’d caught them on the baits I was using there before and was completely convinced I could make them eat that stuff if I tried hard enough.

Lots of the time bass fishing is an experiment for me. You never know when something could be working better than what you’re using now and vice versa. I can think of multiple examples off the top of my head when switching what was working paid off, and I can think of many more of when it didn’t. But that’s the fun of it for me, the constant steps of putting a puzzle together by trying anything and everything. Atlest that’s how I justify my craziness. 

I rotate baits, depths and locations until I get bit, then I fish around that depth, similar locations and similar baits until I don't get bit.

 

Then I go back to the start.

Thank you all for the sanity check. I guess I don’t need a straight jacket yet.

this is the exact reason why I try to fish with other people and/or on other lakes.  I have my stable of baits that have worked for me.  But sometimes I get it in my head that I just want to catch them on a thing to prove it works.  It's a stupid logic.  Fishing with someone else on my own waters will open my eyes to other ways of doing things that work rather than trying to prove that a thing works myself.  

2 hours ago, Craig P said:

I don’t though, I continue to try other baits.  When one proves to work consistently, I switch to the next one.

 

Sounds normal to me...   I often do the same, including buying baits 'just to see if they work'.

 

Consider it trial and error.  If your memory is good, or if you keep a detailed log, switching baits builds your this-works-when database.

3 hours ago, Craig P said:

When one proves to work consistently, I switch to the next one.  

 

 

I do the same.

 

The other day I caught two with a crankbait and then for some reason thought something else would be BETTER.

 

Several casts later I asked myself why did I put down a rod that was catching fish and pick up something else.

 

I can't explain why I do what I do.

 

Doctors can't either...

My first thought is it might reduce the number of fish you catch but it's not crazy if you enjoy it.  Now if you're doing it while competing the Bassmaster classic,  that's crazy.  

 

Personally, I enjoy trying to figure them out and sometimes that means experimenting.

I have been guilty of a version of this ~ 

And still do it sometimes but it's far more of a conscious decision now than it used to be. 

"I want to catch big bass the way I want to catch big bass" which sounds pretty weak when I type it.

And even weaker when the bass have different Ideas.

Which is the vast majority of the time.

This is routinely driven by where I 'believe the bass are".

So if I think they are there, I should be able to get at least one

on this Worden's Lures Spin-N-Glo !

I entered the 12 step program and am currently working on step 3.

Which is the "don't be stupid" step.

It's not really working very well.

A-Jay

 

 

You're just curious, Craig. In the long run, your curiosity might make you a better angler. I often catch a bass on one lure and immediately switch to see what else will work.

5 minutes ago, A-Jay said:

 

This is routinely driven by where I 'believe the bass are".

So if I think they are there, I should be able to get at least one

 

A-Jay

 

 

 

This is one of the things I have learned by fishing with others.  Fishing my way, on my own lakes I 'know' where the bass are.  There are definitely a couple here or there.  There's definitely NOT any in this stretch.  Until the person I'm with goes down that bank catching a couple.  Can be a real eye opener.  My learning and mantra now is 'just put your head down and fish'.  Cover the water that is in front of you and you'll be rewarded.  Or not.  But fish it anyway because you never quite know.

3 hours ago, FloridaFishinFool said:

Have you ever noticed a pro bass fisherman never shuts up on camera? Its always sell, sell, sell and pretend its top secret fishing information.

 

Yeah, I've noticed.

 

3 hours ago, FloridaFishinFool said:

 

I want to see all new fishing shows where we can sit out here and just watch others fish without all the words! Just fish!

 

Wouldn't it be nice.

 

11 minutes ago, casts_by_fly said:

But fish it anyway because you never quite know.

 

Good tactic.

4 hours ago, FloridaFishinFool said:

I want to see all new fishing shows where we can sit out here and just watch others fish without all the words! Just fish!

Tactical Bassin has some “uncut” fishing videos. It’s literally just several hours of them fishing on the boat, for the most part pretending the cameras aren’t there. 

A lot of it comes down to how they're biting. I start with a search bait and dial it in from there.  If they're knocking slack in my line and thumping it hard, I'm sticking with that until it stops working. If they're swiping at it or barely getting hooked, or very intermittent bites, maybe I switch colors, add a trailer, change bait size, to dial it in more. If I'm just flat out not getting ANY bites I switch tactics completely. Maybe go for more of a reaction bite or slow down and really fish areas I have confidence in or see other promising signs. 

 

My best days I usually end up with 2-3 rods/baits on the deck at the end of the day. My worst days are when the entire arsenal had to come out. 

4 hours ago, Craig P said:

I seem to be more interested in finding out what doesn’t catch them.

Don't discount this idea. I preach this to friends who struggle often. Finding out what doesn't work under specific conditions is as important as finding out what does. File it away and you'll be more efficient in the future.

 

Personally, I'm more than pleased with the amount of big fish I've bagged in the past, so I'm apt to experiment if I'm in the mood. I'm not fiending to catch numbers or too bummed out when I skunk. There's more to fishing than just catching to me at this point and figuring out how to properly present a particular bait is the entire ball game.

12 minutes ago, PhishLI said:

 Finding out what doesn't work under specific conditions is as important as finding out what does.

Pretty sure I'm a 'natural' when it comes to this deal.

Unfortunately, it doesn't make for very good video.

🤓

A-Jay

1 hour ago, PhishLI said:

Don't discount this idea. I preach this to friends who struggle often. Finding out what doesn't work under specific conditions is as important as finding out what does. File it away and you'll be more efficient in the future.

 

Personally, I'm more than pleased with the amount of big fish I've bagged in the past, so I'm apt to experiment if I'm in the mood. I'm not fiending to catch numbers or too bummed out when I skunk. There's more to fishing than just catching to me at this point and figuring out how to properly present a particular bait is the entire ball game.

 

Phish! BUDDY!!! So good to see you post!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I do the same thing and not only with fishing.  I used to duck and goose hunt with a friend, that always mentioned the fact he didn't think we needed to put out every decoy I owned.  He was sure we could shoot just as many birds, with far less work deploying and retrieving more and more decoys every year.  My answer to him was always the same.  I play with all of my toys, or I don't play at all.

 

I'm going to try all the lures in my box even if a friend is crushing them on one lure.  I'm going to find another lure that works as well or better, or go home and buy more.  If I only fished to catch fish, I would not be so stubborn, but I fish to have fun, and if having fun means I am never satisfied with what I am throwing, than that is the way I'm going to fish.  

 

While guiding I have to resist the urge to try something just for the sake of trying it. but for my personal fishing, I never regret experimenting.

Not me. I dont get to fish as much as I like, so if I'm on'em , I'm not changing.

I like to catch big bass and start my day off using my hair jigs regardless of the conditions knowing well my odds are very low. Force feeding bass our favorite lure rarely works out and waiting too long to adapt to what is obvious you may miss a good bite window. I can be slow to change hoping for that 1 bite. Hate the skunk so going to finesse to catch a few keepers saves the day.

Why I didn’t do that hours earlier? It’s hard to put away a trusted friend and waiting for that 1 good bite.

Tom

I never sabotage my fishing by switching from a bait that’s catching bass. Never. Instead, I sabotage myself by relentlessly fishing baits I know catch bass, but maybe not that day.  Because I’LL BE DAMNED if I’m giving up on this bait! I know it’s good. I KNOW IT!!!! 
 

Im likely a creature of habit. Sometimes bad habits. 

I usually try other baits when they are biting, to see if they want something else. For example, if they are hitting a particular crankbait, I'll switch to another type (round bill vs squarebill), brand, or color, or I might try another bait type entirely, such as a spinnerbait.

 

Now, I say this because, I most often have success fishing at a private pond that has little pressure. So for me it's an experiment. If I am fishing at a local lake with heavy pressure, then I generally don't switch it up much.