I went fishing with a buddy yesterday on a local lake. It was 80 outside with 10mph winds. One of the first perfect days here in Okla to go fishing. Water temps were right at 50. We started off hitting an area my buddy said always produces at least one decent keeper. After about two hours we hadn't even had a bite. While we were leaving that area I noticed at least 3 large schools of shad with fish underneath them at about 30-40ft of water. When I suggested giving drop shotting a shot he said he didn't want to waste such a perfect day fishing deepwater. As we pull up to the next bankline in search of fish I see more shad and fish in the same depth of water and suggest it again to no avail. We beat that bank for two hours without any success either. We fish some docks for another 2hrs and still not even a bite. The only thing we caught was a sunburn all day. Its just extremely frustrating that he is so closed minded to new (to us) techniques even when we can see there are fish there. I also don't understand why he would buy a $1000 fishfinder and not utilize it when there are clearly fish there.  I understand that there is a time and place for beating the banks but this was not that time since the fish were still suspending so deep. Ok rant over feel free to comment.

Okie,

He is not educated on bass behavior nor the techniques to attract them to your bait.

Give him time and he may become more educated.

Then again........ ;D

Sounds to me like you need a new partner...Unless, of course your always fishing out of his rig. Get him a video or a book explaining the techniques.

I just can't wait until I can afford my own boat. I have 3 friends who's idea of prefishing is going to the lake and fishing for a day. No map study, no utilizing electronics to locate structure, no checking water levels, no matching the hatch, no real solid research of any kind. The guy I went fishing with was supposed to be my partner for the Skeeter tour here in Okla. I canceled on him so I could pay off my debt and improve my credit situation to afford my own boat next year. Its looking like I made the right choice in that matter. They always bust on me for researching online and reading articles and such. Guess I'm just gonna keep quite and show them how it pays off when I have my own boat and can fish tourneys the informed and educated way.

You may tell him drop shotting is nothing new, been around well 50 years.  Was very popular when drift fishing and we used live minnows or nightcrawlers(before plastics) the technique was called chicken rigging.  I think some man in Georgia popularized it.  Many people still chicken rig off piers and over reefs while drifting.  A trolley rig is a variable of it.

You always have to experiment.  For a change of pace today I took out an ul spinning outfit and put on a fly and casting bubble on.  Had success.

You are definitely wasting your time with these guys unless they are your bosom buddies and if they were , they would take you more seriously.

Some dogs won't learn new tricks, especially while on the water. My guess is his experience, and therefore confidence, is all centered on the shallows. You had an uphill battle. It'll be much harder to fight on the water. Better to get him psyched and prepped, off the water. Get a good vid on deep water techniques, or just DS, and have a few beers. I'll bet he'll be more apt to try it.

It can be very frustrating when someone totally ignores you like that. He sounds like the "older brother" or "only child" type. Of course there's no absolute guarantee they would've bit anyway, but regardless, I think he should've shared some decision making with you-particulary if/when they aren't biting his way. You might mention it to him before you go out again. It sounds like something's eventually gotta give.

You know what I would have done...push him off the boat and go where you want to go!