A buddy of mine has a large pond FULL of largemouth and smallmouth bass. I have been there for 20 hours on a boat and have yet to receive a bit. The 3rd time going, I bring my little brother and he gets 3 nice sized bass in a few hours. This is his first time fishing. I have been fishing for years~ mainly ocean. I taught him what to do and he was successful. I have gone 3 whole days and not a single bite. My buddies catch tons of fish. I just don't get it.

All the technique and everything about tackle and bait was all taught by me, yet the student catches and the teacher is a failure.

I never had bad luck in fishing. Is it possible that my luck is changing? Maybe I need to be taught. I am very very very very  > right now.

Has anyone gone through anything this bad before? IF so, tell me what Im doing wrong. I am DESPERATE.

Welcome aboard!

Take a tour of the BassResource Library. You will find articles on every type of fishing, lures and techniques. If the bass are there, you can catch them, promise.

what baits are u using? im not a big live bait fan for bass, but have u tried nightcrawlers?

you name it i got it. plastics, crank, spinners, spoons, tubes.... and not the economical ones either. im using top of the line, such as berkley gulp plastics

I didn't want to really get into lures, technique, presentation and your location (cover and structure) are far more important. However, here are four lures that will always catch bass:

Low light (early & late): Zara Puppy, silver & black.

Water less than 12' deep:

5" Senko (weightless)

Fat Ika (weightless)

Deeper water:

Gitzit, T-rigged, 1/16 weight with a bead, unpegged.

thanks for the tips, but we all used the same lures and technique. Im just really worried as to what the chances could be of getting complete miss days 3 days in a row, as some call fishing a hit and miss sport.  :'(

Guys that call it hit and miss are those that miss...I catch fish all the time, actually too many. I fish for big fish only and it's not hit and miss, it's conistantly hit...The key factor, as I have already stated, is fishing cover and structure...You have to fish in places where fish live or at least visit. It's really all about location and presentation, NOT THE BAIT.

Luck? Well, if you generally catch 5-6lb bass and you snag an 8, maybe that's a lucky day. But really, luck has very little to do with catching bass. Bass are easy to catch, it's finding them that's the challenge. Focus on the most likely places that bass might like to be and you will catch a few, promise.

you must be one with the bass, daniel son.  

the key, as RW has stated, is to fish cover, bass like cover cause their food likes cover.

Alfred

You may be using the same baits in the same boat, but something to pay attention to is retrieval speeds and techniques. For example, your little brother may have let the lure fall down to the ground before retrieving. Watch what he is doing when he gets hit, you can visualize this to his lure presentation and work from there.

Yesterday was a perfect example of this for me. My buddy and I were fishing a 13' ledge and we were both using the same exact Rat'L trap. I pulled in a 4 fish 22# bag in about three hours. He caught nothing. I was retrieving a tad slower after letting it fall to ground, I knew the fish were hanging tight to the ledge and he was just pulling his right overhead unnoticed. (my avatar is of the 7.5# pulled yesterday from that hole on the Rat'L trap).

Just have fun and the fish will come.  Remember: Slackers catch fish