3 hours ago, 12poundbass said:

The only thing I know, the fish are in the water. Many of the good anglers on here say 90% of the bass are in 10% of the water. I’ve come to the conclusion that as I check off the empty water the bass just follow the back of my boat around the lake. 

Troll😎

1 hour ago, Nitro 882 said:

I call B.S. on these stories of catching 100 bass in a day.

  I've had a few days where I caught a bass on almost every cast. 

20 hours ago, Susky River Rat said:

@HawkeyeSmallie at least you have the praying down!

 

Can't say I've ever prayed to CATCH a fish.

 

But I'll give out the "Please Lord stay on" a bunch.  LOL

 

The other day I went out and the first hour was going extremely bad.

 

Snag after snag after snag.

 

I'd get the snag out, "Thank you Lord". I swear I said "Thank you Lord" 10 times in that hour.

 

I then proceeded to have the greatest day of fishing in my life.   

I think a lot of us like to think we know, buy all the "right" lures, watch the weather, log our trips...go out with a plan, and then get slapped in the face. It happens. Rarely do I go out and crush it in the way I had planned. 

1 hour ago, WRB-2.0 said:

Troll😎

At first I thought you were calling me a troll, then I realized you were recommending I troll. It’s funny how words have different meanings these days.

 

Funny you mention trolling. Last year my son and I were out and were blanking so we decided to move. I just put the trolling motor on high and trolled deep water with deep diving crankbaits. We could a nice pike on the first pass and made a couple more passes since I could see fish on my 2D and we caught a couple more doing that. I never really gave it much thought to actually troll in hopes of catching bass. We were just doing it screwing around and buying time from one spot to another.

On 11/3/2025 at 9:21 AM, Swamp Girl said:

I've read many posts where a Bass Resourcer declared with surety that bass do this or bass do that at this or that time of the year. I've caught bass for more than 50 years, but I have never got a good bead on them. When I launch, I don't know where they'll be, even though I now focus on two ponds and know them better than anyone. For me, bass fishing isn't going to where bass are and catching them because I don't know where they'll be. Bass fishing for me is looking for bass and hopefully finding them.

 

Is this just me or are there are other Bass Resourcers who also don't know where bass will be?

 

FWIW, I don't mind not knowing where bass will be. I've always loved a good game of hide and seek. 

You aren't alone. What I've come to terms about locating the bass is this. There are some bass behavior basics for a given set of conditions that I'll use as a "flexible template". Then  I'll call upon my experiences and references to integrate them into the equation. Then there are the intangibles that are added in; the colors, the tastes, smells, shapes, emotionals, energetics. Each variable carries equal weight. 

 

I fish the same small pond for the past ten years and I've gotten to know her intimately.  She is fickle many times and she has a very distinct personality. Coupled with her personality is "change". Change is constant and always in motion. Everything changes, sometimes quickly and other times painfully slow, but it's always in motion. This is best expressed with the quantum interpretation of "the moment". The "moment" (the right here, right now) is the sum total of time approaching zero and time approaching zero plus time approaching the infinite and change approaching the infinite.  Simply put time and change never stop and time and change never reach the end. Both are always in motion. They move through a sea of infinite possibilities. Change just one of the variables and the whole outcome changes. 

 

 Take all of the above, shake vigorously, bake thoroughly in thought to suit taste and cast away.

 

Then when you think you have the correct answer, listen to the wind and listen to your inner voice. It has been my experience that they are never wrong.

 

 

 

 

22 minutes ago, 12poundbass said:

I never really gave it much thought to actually troll in hopes of catching bass.

 

I catch hundreds every year by trolling. Because I don't know where bass will be, I move, move, and move. When I'm traveling from one prospective spot to another, I troll. I sometimes hook two at once. It's rare, but it happens every year. 

3 hours ago, 12poundbass said:

At first I thought you were calling me a troll, then I realized you were recommending I troll. It’s funny how words have different meanings these days.

Gosh, I thought the same thing 😅. I’m thinking to myself how rude that was. Now I understand 😂 

 

Sorry @WRB-2.0

3 hours ago, Swamp Girl said:

When I'm traveling from one prospective spot to another, I troll.

Same here. It might not be the best presentation but it's hooks in the water. 

What prompted the quip was the OP stated the bass were following his boat!

Buck Perry would have something to add about trolling lures. Trolling is so ineffective it’s not allowed bass tournaments. 
Tom

On 11/3/2025 at 9:31 AM, Susky River Rat said:

I cast and pray. 

Amen!

Ya never know but it is sweet when we find em 

lol I can’t find them sometimes on my small ponds. I honestly just try to fish spots that look productive and fishy. Fish the spots I’ve caught them in before. But there is no money on the line. And the fish are gonna do what they want. I’m just happy to catch fish and be out there

8 minutes ago, Joedodge said:

I’m just happy to catch fish and be out there

 

And I'm happy too when you're out there catching bass!

4 minutes ago, Swamp Girl said:

 

And I'm happy too when you're out there catching bass!

Same to you! 

It’s most frustrating when it’s your home waters. Fishing a new body of water, I can understand, just haven’t found we’re they are hiding. 
When it’s my home waters, I mean I’ve fished a certain cove countless times and always caught’em.

Then nothing, dont know why or where they go.

I try not to dwell on it too much, I mean catching fish is my primary objective. Doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy the perks that come with it. The sun, the water, wild life and scenery. 

On 11/3/2025 at 9:21 AM, Swamp Girl said:

 For me, bass fishing isn't going to where bass are and catching them because I don't know where they'll be. Bass fishing for me is looking for bass and hopefully finding them.

 

Is this just me or are there are other Bass Resourcers who also don't know where bass will be?

 

FWIW, I don't mind not knowing where bass will be. I've always loved a good game of hide and seek. 

 

I think that is the real deal case. It is a case of us not knowing and having to go find them because I am not so sure that the bass I am after are staying in one place or staying in place. A few of the big ones down deep may find one spot they like to hang out at, but for smaller bass I tend to think they move around a lot more than we may think they do.

 

If you watch this old Glen Lau underwater film, he shows most bass are indeed moving around while some do find places to hang out like under docks. But even those will have to move out of there to go find food sources. So I tend to think all bass roam a lot of the time, and only hang out some of the time.

 

The bass in following video are roaming back and forth in an area, and it seems like they are looking for food sources as they roam. The bass seen here seem to be in a competition for food mode which is evident from how they go for the lure as one tries to get to it first to prevent any others from getting it before they do. This is feeding competition, and the roaming is behind this behavior.

 

 

 

I no longer use any fish finding electronics. No sonar. I just wing it now every time and honestly I enjoy it more this way. If I catch, then fine. If not, that is also fine. I don't have to catch every time.

 

I think the mystery of the bass fishing journey is the hunt for them and then trying to catch them.

 

I am always keeping an eye out for bass feeding activity and then make adjustments for them and cast to actively feeding fish when I see it.

 

So Swamp Girl, you are not alone. I'd bet most of us don't really know where they are ahead of time, and we spend some of our time getting onto the water looking for them whether we have all the electronics or not.

 

Lately I have been traveling to new waters, lakes I've never been on before and so it is even more of a challenge in learning new lakes and which areas of these new lakes are most productive. One lake I was on recently we did not find the best spot on the lake until right at sundown and then we had to leave. We may go back to that same lake today and this time we may start on that area we finished up on last time just trying to kind of reverse fish it hoping the fish will cooperate with us. We shall see.

 

I plan on doing a little online research ahead of time and see if it can help us figure them out, and put a few more fish in the boat.

 

I think one of the issues we may face today are two different fishermen wanting to try different techniques which pull us in different directions. For example, I tend to want to work heavy cover near shore, and my co-angler has been on this "fall" kick for using a 4 or 5 inch golden shiner colored jerkbait needing clear water to cast in. He has done well with it on specific days like one day he caught 8 on same jerkbait, but on other days he does not get a bite on it.

 

I think we here in Florida are now experiencing bass lockjaw when a cold front moves through. Its a repeating cycle for us in Florida. I can never get my timing right for the feeding frenzy just ahead of the cold fronts, and then when they shut down I sure get that right. But we are on a warming trend now and they should be biting again- I hope.

 

So point is, today I am right there with ya. All new water. Cold front passed by 2 days ago. So just gonna go wing it and hope the fish cooperate some. No idea where they will be, but will try and just pay attention to what I see and try and react to it is about the best we can do sometimes.

 

For the guys with electronics, I'd bet they would be leaning heavily on it to help them find the fish. I'm gonna do it the old fashioned way. Hide and seek. Its the journey. Not the destination. Catching is just icing on the cake.

1 hour ago, FloridaFishinFool said:

 

I think that is the real deal case. It is a case of us not knowing and having to go find them because I am not so sure that the bass I am after are staying in one place or staying in place. A few of the big ones down deep may find one spot they like to hang out at, but for smaller bass I tend to think they move around a lot more than we may think they do.

 

If you watch this old Glen Lau underwater film, he shows most bass are indeed moving around while some do find places to hang out like under docks. But even those will have to move out of there to go find food sources. So I tend to think all bass roam a lot of the time, and only hang out some of the time.

 

The bass in following video are roaming back and forth in an area, and it seems like they are looking for food sources as they roam. The bass seen here seem to be in a competition for food mode which is evident from how they go for the lure as one tries to get to it first to prevent any others from getting it before they do. This is feeding competition, and the roaming is behind this behavior.

 

 

 

I no longer use any fish finding electronics. No sonar. I just wing it now every time and honestly I enjoy it more this way. If I catch, then fine. If not, that is also fine. I don't have to catch every time.

 

I think the mystery of the bass fishing journey is the hunt for them and then trying to catch them.

 

I am always keeping an eye out for bass feeding activity and then make adjustments for them and cast to actively feeding fish when I see it.

 

So Swamp Girl, you are not alone. I'd bet most of us don't really know where they are ahead of time, and we spend some of our time getting onto the water looking for them whether we have all the electronics or not.

 

Lately I have been traveling to new waters, lakes I've never been on before and so it is even more of a challenge in learning new lakes and which areas of these new lakes are most productive. One lake I was on recently we did not find the best spot on the lake until right at sundown and then we had to leave. We may go back to that same lake today and this time we may start on that area we finished up on last time just trying to kind of reverse fish it hoping the fish will cooperate with us. We shall see.

 

I plan on doing a little online research ahead of time and see if it can help us figure them out, and put a few more fish in the boat.

 

I think one of the issues we may face today are two different fishermen wanting to try different techniques which pull us in different directions. For example, I tend to want to work heavy cover near shore, and my co-angler has been on this "fall" kick for using a 4 or 5 inch golden shiner colored jerkbait needing clear water to cast in. He has done well with it on specific days like one day he caught 8 on same jerkbait, but on other days he does not get a bite on it.

 

I think we here in Florida are now experiencing bass lockjaw when a cold front moves through. Its a repeating cycle for us in Florida. I can never get my timing right for the feeding frenzy just ahead of the cold fronts, and then when they shut down I sure get that right. But we are on a warming trend now and they should be biting again- I hope.

 

So point is, today I am right there with ya. All new water. Cold front passed by 2 days ago. So just gonna go wing it and hope the fish cooperate some. No idea where they will be, but will try and just pay attention to what I see and try and react to it is about the best we can do sometimes.

 

For the guys with electronics, I'd bet they would be leaning heavily on it to help them find the fish. I'm gonna do it the old fashioned way. Hide and seek. Its the journey. Not the destination. Catching is just icing on the cake.

Wow! This.  This is amazing. As usual great post to add to @Swamp Girl topic. More people should fish this way. 

I'm an outlier at BR because I hardly ever fish for bass anymore. I caught a bad case of muskie fever, and there ain't no cure.

@Swamp Girl I must say this with tongue planted firmly in cheek. Anyone, ANYONE, who has almost 1,500 bass in their season’s ledger has to have some idea where the bass are. You may not know exactly where they are, but you have a darned good idea where they likely are. More than most! 

1 hour ago, GRiver said:

When it’s my home waters, I mean I’ve fished a certain cove countless times and always caught’em.

Then nothing, dont know why or where they go.

 

Yeah, they're mysterious.

 

1 hour ago, FloridaFishinFool said:

I'm gonna do it the old fashioned way. Hide and seek. Its the journey. Not the destination.

 

So true. I enjoyed Easter Egg hunts as a kid. I enjoy bass hunting still.

 

1 hour ago, FloridaFishinFool said:

This is feeding competition, and the roaming is behind this behavior.

 

I have long emphasized that I'm a paddler and an angler and that paddling is the foundation of my fishing success, for I move, move, move quietly. As the bass roam, I roam too. I know that there are successful anglers like Glenn who will work a laydown for half an hour from various angles. That's not me, unless I'm catching half a dozen bass from a laydown, which I sometimes do. Otherwise, it's two to four casts and I keep roaming. 

 

1 hour ago, FloridaFishinFool said:

I am always keeping an eye out for bass feeding activity and then make adjustments for them and cast to actively feeding fish when I see it.

 

Me too. We fish alike. I hate when I'm fishing on the edge of wetlands and I hear a big GALOOMP of a big, feeding bass, but can't see the ripples and have no idea where it is. However, it does tell me that I need to fish deeper into the wetlands, if not for the bass that I just heard, then for others who are also feeding back there.

 

3 minutes ago, T-Billy said:

I'm an outlier at BR because I hardly ever fish for bass anymore. I caught a bad case of muskie fever, and there ain't no cure.

 

Oh, I know the fever, Tim. I quit bass fishing for a few years and only fished for muskies. I might still be hot for them if I hadn't grown too old to cast musky lures and portage to wilderness musky lakes. They're magnificent. 

 

2 minutes ago, BrianMDTX said:

I must say this with tongue planted firmly in cheek. Anyone, ANYONE, who has almost 1,500 bass in their season’s ledger has to have some idea where the bass are. You may not know exactly where they are, but you have a darned good idea where they likely are. More than most! 

 

Well, I know many places where they like to hang. And I don't get hung up on fishing one place that held them yesterday if I'm not catching them there today. Remember the story of my sister's visit, when I took her for a paddle on my pond? She's not an angler, so I didn't want our trip to be a fishing trip, but I did take one rod, hoping to show her a bass or two. Well, I cast five times at four different places and caught four bass and she has since told the story of how I'm the world's greatest angler, but, of course, I cast at four really likely places, and I told her that my success rate was at least as much luck as knowledge because bass move and I don't know when or why. They just happened to be at home that day.

3 minutes ago, Swamp Girl said:

 

I have long emphasized that I'm a paddler and an angler and that paddling is the foundation of my fishing success, for I move, move, move quietly. As the bass roam, I roam too. I know that there are successful anglers like Glenn who will work a laydown for half an hour from various angles. That's not me, unless I'm catching half a dozen bass from a laydown, which I sometimes do. Otherwise, it's two to four casts and I keep roaming. 

 

 

I just spit out my coffee and had to wipe the laptop screen upon reading that one! 😁

 

What you just said can become conflict in a boat over this one issue!

 

Like you, I like to move. I am a new water guy. I got this one buddy I shouldn't name him- Zach! Who likes to do the same as Glenn. I swear when Zach pulls up to a spot he never wants to move even if he is not catching anything or even getting any bites. He will stay there forever!

 

Meanwhile I have casted all around and also getting nothing so I am thinking can we move now?

 

Meanwhile the lake is freezing over. Ice is forming and the boat is locked into place FOREVER in one spot. It can drive ya nuts!

 

I'm getting impatient because the boat is NOT moving, and Zach is getting impatient because the boat IS moving too much for him! So maybe we should put the one spot guys into one boat, and the new water roamers in another boat!

 

It is so true and really kind of funny when we encounter this situation from time to time.

 

Oh, and then Zach comes up with my boat control must be behind why he is not getting bit because I am not positioning the boat so he can cast to good new water! So I must be using the boat to block his casting! And would you know, I never even think like that? I don't try and block my co-angler from catching fish even IF we have bets on fishing. But I get accused of bad boat control in favor of me winning the bet! I may have to own the accusation one day! Ha!

 

I can't control the wind and how it blows the boat around... I think Zach secretly WANTS new water while still trying to squeeze that one fish out of his one spot all day long. It drives me nuts to stay in one spot especially when we are not catching anything.

 

Zach and Glenn would be perfect together in the same boat! They can both work that one lay down all day long! See ya!

 

Zach and his black and blue jig works well on docks. I'll give him that. Sometimes staying in place pays off and sometimes it doesn't. And for those of us waiting around for that one spot guy to please hurry up and get done with that one spot cannot come fast enough!

 

I think there is an argument to made for both choices. Just depends on if the fish are cooperating or not.

 

I slowly passed a dock one day with Zach in back of the boat. I cast under the dock and got a bite, but did not get a hookset. So I knew Zach loves docks so I moved on past it and left it for him and his black and blue jig. Darned if he did not pull 3 of them out of there back to back.

 

He catches the fish, but he can also lose plenty of those jigs on those same docks and I've been fishing with him when I have seen $30 lost in an hour.

 

It goes both ways. But my patience only goes one way! New water or bust! I have no patience for sitting on one spot for very long. Unless the fish are jumping in the boat would make me forget all about it.

11 minutes ago, FloridaFishinFool said:

Who likes to do the same as Glenn. 

 

Glenn has shared that he will park on a laydown, but he's also taught me to skitter-fish in the fall, so Glenn doesn't just fish one way. He's fished with the best anglers too, so he knows all the approaches. 

 

F3, you and I, I suspect, are fidgety folk and so moving to find bass suits us. I bet the very best bass anglers really range in fishing styles, from parking on a spot to running and gunning. 

While I've been known at times to thoroughly work a spot, I can also kick the trolling motor on 50 and burn the banks when the situation warrants.  Limiting yourself to one style is just that: limiting.

 

Sometimes in an inflatable the wind is your most vile enemy. Sometimes it’s your best friend. A slight breeze that moves the boat slower than any trolling motor setting. And if it’s just so, parallel to the bank, it can work wonders. You get multiple casts at the same spots and then it’s just off and at another spot, and so on. Sometimes I’ve left a Zoom Trick out and the slow movement on the bottom works better than my manipulation of the bait.