Had many bass follow and short strike me today with the jighead minnow, neko rig, jig, and drop-shot.. I downsized, upsized, changed colors.. worked it faster, then slower.. I caught about 7 in 7 hrs my biggest being 2.75 but it had probably 5 more grab it but not take it.. how do you guys get these chasers to bite? 

Speed up!  (Not necessarily working the bait faster)

 

you might need some moving bait style presentations and you might need to go REALLY fast.

 

jerkbait, lipless crankbait, 1 oz skirted jig + boot tail trailer, super heavy spinnerbait with small blades etc

 

OR

 

slow way down - floating worm, neko rig, frog, Carolina rig etc. dead stick, barely move etc

 

A-Jay

Usually when I’m getting a lot of followers, I start throwing a suspending lipless crank. The first couple twitches will usually irritate them into some solid strikes. When that doesn’t work, it becomes time to bust out the Westy Worm. 

10 hours ago, RHuff said:

I caught about 7 in 7 hrs my biggest being 2.75 but it had probably 5 more grab it but not take it.

 

That sounds like a normal day. I frequently feel a thump and retrieve a paddletail that's paddletailless. About half a century ago, I was retrieving a lure parallel to the shoreline in gin clear water. A bass darted from cover, inhaled it, and spat it out quicker than I could react, plus I felt nothing in the rod. I think we all get a lot of hits from bass that aren't willing to commit. You have some great suggestions above.

I’ve had more success with a faster more erratic presentation on subsequent casts. 
You obviously have her attention for whatever reason. 
Now you’re trying to get her to react. 
 

The ones you caught were either the more aggressive or hungrier.
The others you’re gonna have to work for. 
 

 

 

 

Mike

I will let you know, after I manage to get a bass to chase.  One step at a time for me.

Listened to a Trey McKinney interview recently, which hits this pretty well. He was discussing the win on St Clair and how he was getting fish to bite. Essentially he had 5 baits he rotated through for each fish he saw. He'd try each bait once (sometimes giving a break in between and sometime not) to see which they had the most significant reaction to. Then it was a matter of rotating retrieves until he got bit. If he still couldn't get it to bite, he'd start changing casting angles.

 

Essentially, figure out which bait they're having the most significant reaction too and then experiment with every retrieve you can think of. 

 

I have noticed the last couple months that color and even brand of worm on my dropshot has been making a huge difference, and had others mention seeing the same thing. 

I remember a time where bass were just slashing at crankbaits, I changed several cranks but could not find one they wanted, hooking several in the face. Finally I tied  a Rapala X-Rap jerk bait and that worked.

5 minutes ago, scaleface said:

I remember a time where bass were just slashing at crankbaits, I changed several cranks but could not find one they wanted, hooking several in the face. Finally I tied  a Rapala X-Rap jerk bait and that worked.

You not only changed bait, you changed technique.

A little spike it on the end 

how fast are you guys reeling your minnows while shaking it? If a chaser follows and turns away is that a sign you need to move it horizontally quicker? 

20 minutes ago, RHuff said:

how fast are you guys reeling your minnows while shaking it? If a chaser follows and turns away is that a sign you need to move it horizontally quicker? 

In the fall sometimes as fast as I can reel!

My buddy that is a pathological minnow shaker swears that a sharp jerk of the rod tip makes the followers bite. I’ve never gotten into the minnow thing, so I can’t verify.

I scream “bite it you idiot” and when they don’t, I call them a stupid fish. 
Really,  I speed up a little to mimic the bait trying to escape. Might give a little tip jerk too.

most of the time when a bass if following it and I speed it up a little they either speed up behind it but still follow it or slowly turn away and swim back down towards the bottom...   If I could learn how to trigger the minnow followers and the ones that follows the neko rig to the bottom and holds on the worm but doesn't eat it I'd be deadly.... 

I always say that this is the time of the year when bass get stupid. 1-2 feet of water clarity, heavy boat traffic, and high water temps makes it difficult to land fish sometimes. 

 

If you get a lot of chasers, I'd switch to a jerkbait or crankbait.  I tend to go slow, give the bait a quick pop, pause it and that's when they will stop chasing and commit. The problem is they are still acting stupid. I don't know how many fish I foul hook this time of year but its a lot. 

 

This same idea works for poppers and topwater walking baits.

A sudden change in direction, not just veering off, helps me. For example, I’ll get it nearly all the way to my kayak, and then jerk the rod tip to the left and make it turn 90 degrees…often times this works. Last follower I had made it all the way to my kayak. She was still looking at my lure at the end of my retrieve, so I just thumbed the bar to drop my lure, and she attacked it…

Today they chased shaky and Ned.  I threw a jig and they bit.

One follower, I don't concern myself with. More than one on the same lure, I know I'm doing something right. First thing I change is my retrieve and often times stopping and letting the lure sink will do the trick. The next thing I change is the shape of the lure. By that I mean, I'll go to a flat sided crank, or change the trailer on a swim jig to something different.  I'm not a big believer in color making a big difference, but in this situation, it sometimes makes the difference.

Ripping it up a few feet then dropping it has helped me this summer when just speeding a presentation up wouldn't do much.  But I probably had the wrong presentation in the first place. 

Sometimes if they are biting but not fully committing I will downsize my bait. Clearly since they are following there is some sort of interest there so making small adjustments is usually the ticket to getting the fish to react properly.

Try twitching it at random time intervals.

While I posted a tube of Megastrike above as my solution to 'followers.'

That was made mostly in jest—mostly.

A not-in-jest answer and a solid solution, in my experience,

is when fishing in large, open water scenarios, especially with horizontal moving baits,

the best approach is to move further away from that spot and make longer casts.

I believe fish routinely follow/track moving baits before they hit them.

Can be for some distance too.

A shorter cast doesn't offer the fish time to 'follow' the bait

before it sees me and my rig so it turns away.

A longer cast give the bass the chance to scratch that tracking itch

and strike the bait well before it gets anywhere near me.

It is possible that all of this may be total bunk.

But I've caught far more big fish since adopting this long-cast philosophy. 

than I ever did with shorter presentations.

YMMV

A-Jay