I live in Iowa and with a busy job/hard water season I don’t get to fish as much as I’d like, but I love it and always try to stay on top of my game. My question is this: once you’ve figured out what works for you, how often do you try and add in new techniques or baits?

 

and if you don’t what do you do during your fishing downtime? Do you just put it on the back burner until next season, do you stay involved in other ways like studying maps or organizing tackle?

@GoneFishingLTN, I'm just west over here in Nebraska...same with job and hard water season. 

 

It seems like I'm always trying new lures/techniques/baits. Always looking to crack the code, and catch fish a new way. 

 

This spring I tied on one of my tried and true lures from way back in the day...a blue-fleck 7" power worm, 3/16 oz. pegged weight, and 3/0 EWG hook. This set up was a staple back in the 1990's. 

 

I've been fishing that set up really hard this year, and it's been producing! I've also gone back to the green-pumpkin Senko, texas rigged, weight less. Landed some really nice LMB's on that set up. 

 

I need to dig out the NED and toss that again...it's been a good producer for me through the years. 

 

 

We don’t really have an off season here. If weather, in-laws or some other disaster keep me at the house, I’ve got several methods of keeping myself ready for the water.

 

After rod/reel maintenance, there’s tackle organization (and getting oddball stuff that I’ll never use out of the lockers/plastics bags), and changing sketchy treble hooks. 
 

I’ve started custom painting baits, which has turned into a relatively cheap way to occupy time and is a lot of fun. I also like to look through old books and see if I can’t find some forgotten tricks to try out. 

The Bait Monkey lives at my house all the time.

Every year i set a goal to try 1-3 new to me things (or things I’ve put down for a while).  And then usually one of those things sees significant action the following year and makes the regular rotation.  A couple years ago I did the ‘all plastics’ outing because I wasn’t really fishing plastics that much and certainly not good with them.  The next year a Texas rigged beaver was my #1 producer.  I did similar exercises with ned/finesse setups, bigger swim baits, and this year a Neko rig.  I’ll usually do it on a lake that I know pretty well so that I’m not finding fish as much as fishing the new lure in a way it was meant to be fished and seeing if it works for me (both my mentality on the water and the fish).  Somethings stick.  Some don’t.  I tried to incorporate jerkbaits into my routine but I think I’ve caught 1 fish on them in the past 3 years.  They will make a revival next year probably when I’ll put some real effort into fishing them.  Lipless are another that I haven’t fished as much as I should.  I might do a jigs only day at some point to refresh my fishing of them.  

No down time here in Michigan, but I’m always…always playing with my fishing stuff. Nearly every day. I’ve had rods rigged for a trip a couple days in advance only to change them twice before settling on something before I actually go haha!

no down time here.  I go-go-go 12 months straight.  

 

I've kicked the monkey in the nuts once, hard and it just bothers me a few times now.  I have feverishly streamlined my gear.   colors, hooks, weights, and baits.  I have my usual suspects and rarely venture from my game plan.  

 

I will go to Mexico again soon, and that trip, I try stuff that I never try..so much fun.  

I organize tackle, maintain my kayak or equipment if necessary, build spinnerbaits, and keep up to date with the weather, dam release, and water level. On occasion, I watch a Bassmaster Elite tournament for educational purposes. I don’t watch a lot of bass fishing YouTube anymore. 

Hard water season for me is always too long; however, somehow I manage to make the most of it.

Tackle organization, bait & terminal tackle replenishment, and rod & reel maintenance

takes up a good bit of my time. 

I am certainly not alone in this regard.

Additionally, and far more important to me, is using those 4 or 5 months of non-fishing time,

to take care of me. 

My version of this includes balanced nutrition and battling gravity every other day. 

 

If I put on just 2 or 3 pounds every winter, in just 10 years I'll be 20 or 30 lbs overweight.

It adds up fast and takes twice as long to lose as it did to gain it.

As we age, changing our long-standing poor habits can be quite challenging.

So I say, develop good ones instead.

Good health is the gift that keeps on giving.

I can't fish, if I can't fish.

A-Jay

 

 

 

5 hours ago, GoneFishingLTN said:

once you’ve figured out what works for you, how often do you try and add in new techniques or baits?

When something comes along that interests me. That's not often anymore when it comes to bass. After 4+ decades of fishing for them, I mostly just roll with a handful of proven and prefered techniques. 

 One of the things I'm really enjoying most since getting into muskie fishing is the learning aspect. What's old has become new again.

I mostly take a break from fishing. I do like to support the southern Bass Resourcers who keep fishing and I sure enjoy seeing their fish. If the basement weren't so cold, I might reorganize my gear, but I stay upstairs and enjoy the warmth...and my friends...and reading.

I focus on tackle making and reel maintenance in the winter. Here in NH we get a lot of ice, so I do ice fish too-and snowmobile, sometimes both...

Between work and family I may be able to get out on the water once or maybe twice a week, if I'm lucky.  Most of the time I stick to what works, but occasionally I will try out something new.  This year it has been the free rig, and wacky rigging a fluke.

When it's too cold to fish, I'll work on cleaning reels, and organizing tackle. Depending on ice, I may take a drive to the lake to see what it looks like.

Trying new lures is best during a good bite in lieu of during a poor bite doesn’t workout well.

With all the information available today it’s easy to get overloaded and confused with too much inappropriate techniques for your region.

Tuning up your tackle and organizing is good during hard water time.

Tom

3 hours ago, Swamp Girl said:

I mostly take a break from fishing.

 

Same.  Ice fishing is out of the question.  I re-spool my reels and send them out for routine maintenance every few years.

 

I like to hunt too.  The window of opportunity to do that is pretty short.

 

That being said, with the changes coming to MN next season, it's possible I could be fishing earlier than usual, depending on the weather.

Live in the deep south so summer is my down time. Spend it going through tackle and taking stock of anything that I might need which is nothing, doing maintenance on reels and boat. After Labor Day it will be time to hit the water again and fish through May.

I’m in kind of a tricky spot. I want to keep improving as much as possible because when I fish tournaments, I take them seriously. Honestly, I feel like I’ve got my system dialed in, but my thought was to maybe start experimenting with different styles to build on what I already do.

 

The other option is to just stick with my system and focus on fine-tuning the small details within it.

 

What do you guys think?

What kind of results are you getting in tournament fishing @GoneFishingLTN?
 

I’d say your decisions should be based on your level of success. If you are consistently competitive, then if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.

 

If not, it’s time to retool.

During the hard water season, I am almost constantly buried with work in my day job and mostly wouldn't have time to fish even if I could. 

 

When do I have some spare time, and feel like devoting it to fishing-related concerns, I do some gear maintenance and organization, inventory my tackle, some lure modifications.... and I make a detailed plan of my upcoming soft-water season-- a schedule of where I want to go, and when. I review my fishing log from the previous year, and think about what I did well, and what I didn't do well.  I decide on any new places I might want to check out, and research potential access points, look up any available maps and surveys.  And I always do some reading -- I've collected a modest library of books on bass fishing, and haven't come close to reading them all. And of those I have read, several are worth revisiting periodically.  

I do the same thing every off season, nutt’n!

Get up early, do nutt’n

have lunch

finish what I didn’t get done in the morning

eat dinner, do nutt’n 

go to bed early cause I’m exhausted from doing nutt’n

Right now is probably as close to down time as I get down here. Still not completely downtime but the bite usually seems to die off significantly after 10am so just try to get out a little earlier and do what I can when they are biting. Aside from that I just like to update my spreadsheet or look into new lures or tackle or rods or watch videos or read articles and see if there's anything new out there that I might want to try at some point.

This will be my first year with a hard water season. I’m in Iowa also. Moved from Florida. I plan to just organize and clean stuff up. Make some jigs. That kinda stuff. I started a new job and it’s kinda busy.  So I’m ready for the down time. 

We rarely have hard water here, and at most it'll be only a few weeks. In the past I've gotten skunked during winter. I've never caught a bass when it's been real cold. I don't know why, I just can't seem to get it together. This winter is going to be a buckle down and learn winter.

 

For this winter, I'm working on some new plans. Jigs, flukes, jerkbaits.

 

I've been fishing when it was 15 degrees with ice forming on the line and guides. I don't do that much.

Like others, I do reel & tackle maintenance. Along with that, one winter I practiced tying various knots every night to develop muscle memory. If a warm day presents itself during the winter I might be able to do some trailer or kayak maintenance. 

@Crow Horse that’s what I do. I practiced tying snelled hooks for offshore use. After some practice it’s easy to tie up 20 or 30 and it’s way better than buying them. I get to decide the line & the hook. Plus you’ve got them ready to go when it counts..