I'm never sure what to do when the bite isn't on. I never know if I should change colors, change to a different type of the same lure (brush hog vs senko or popper vs jitterbug for example) or chage lure completely (soft plastic to jig, or jig to spinner/crank etc).  I also never know how long to fish that bait before changing.  So what do y'all do and after how long of trying?

Also, does anyone know of an article or post explaining when to use what colors? I feel like I've heard lots of conflicting things on bright days vs cloudy, day vs evening/daybreak vs night, muddy and stained vs clear

Thanks everyone

My first question isn't what...its where. This is the main question in bass fishing.  Most of the time, if the fish isn't biting its because you aren't on them. I used to think that fish just didn't bite either but since my friend and I started fishing tournaments I realized that even when we aren't catching them somebody else is. Bass are both apex predators and opportunistic eaters. They won't pass up an easy meal.

Given my location...Kentucky...I can only tell you what I expect bass to be doing right now. If I am on the water Saturday and the sky is bright and the water is clear (which is usually the case in summer) I have already made several assumptions. I figure they are going to be deeper (12-18 feet seems to be a good estimate based on other information and experience from previous summers). I will also assume that since there is little to no cloud cover, the bass will be holding tight to cover. That automatically eliminates a whole lot of water in the lake that I fish.

There are a few hollers and coves that provide standing timber at this depth. My friend and I will hit this when we are in the mood to flip all day. We also like to target points. There are several on my lake and they almost always seem to hold bass. There are also a few spots we are just finding where a channel meets a large flat. Along the edge of the channel are several stumps. This is the area that is currently producing for us now. If we start here and don't catch anything on our usual baits which consists of jigs and large soft plastics, we scale down our offerings. My buddy is really getting into shakey head fishing and he has put several decent fish in the boat quite fast with this technique. This usually does the trick.

If we go out and there is good cloud cover, we first focus our attention to the same areas as above. Usually the clouds will make them more active as they become harder for baitfish to see. They don't have to rely so much on ambushing their prey. That might mean that they are not as concentrated but they should still be in the same general vicinity.

I think you may be placing too much emphasis on colors as well.

My soft plastic and jig boxes are made up of a whole bunch of differing shades of brown and green. I also have a black jigs that I throw when the water is muddy or when I am tired at looking at the other colors. That is it. I know that isn't the case with everyone but that is what I have found to work best for me.

What I do is use those natural brown and green colors whenever the water is clear or slightly stained. When the water is dirty or muddy you can really load the boat using black or even some brighter colors such as bubblegum or chartreuse. That is also not a solid rule and I have seen days when the bass don't pay attention to color at all.

If you are fishing in the right places, the fish will let you know what they want.

I will admit that I am not much of a crankbait fisherman so hopefully someone will fill you in on what they do with these types of baits.

I didn't mean to type so much. I wish I could tell you a lot more but I am just learning the ropes myself. I hope I at least haven't confused you more.

Good luck.

I didn't mean to type so much. I wish I could tell you a lot more but I am just learning the ropes myself. I hope I at least haven't confused you more.

Good luck.

Thanks a ton man that was helpful I appreciate the time you put into it

Location & Timing 

don't overthink your color selections.  Keep it simple. I look at it like this, if visibility is low, I  chooose a color thats gonna stand out and if visibilty is high go with natural colors like green or pumpkin on soft plastics and natural baitfish patterns for other lures. 

My first question isn't what...its where. .

x 1,000, 000 !

I agree with what has been said. Good stuff. 8-)

I used to spend way too much time looking for the magic bait and color. I've finally learned (mostly :) that it does not make a bit a difference what you throw if the fish are not there. :-?That seems like a simple rule, but it is not so easy to practice. Learning seasonal patterns, how to adapt to changing conditions, and then applying that to the lakes you fish takes time and effort. It is an imperfect science that most of us never quite figure out. That is part of what makes fishing interesting IMHO.

Figuring out what fits your style and personality is another big part of the puzzle. Like Big Tom, I do not like throwing crankbaits very much. A crankbait fisherman will catch fish in all seasons, in all kinds of conditions. I will throw jigs or plastics in those same conditions, and probably catch fish as well. Confidence is another of those things that takes time to develop and makes a huge difference. Good luck.

Thanks everyone, but what if you KNOW there are fish there? I understand what you're all saying but what if you're bait isn't producing but you know there are fish there? What then? Different lure, color, type?

Thanks everyone, but what if you KNOW there are fish there? I understand what you're all saying but what if you're bait isn't producing but you know there are fish there? What then? Different lure, color, type?

Shakey head!

Thanks everyone, but what if you KNOW there are fish there? I understand what you're all saying but what if you're bait isn't producing but you know there are fish there? What then? Different lure, color, type?

Ok, let 's suppose that you are where the fish are and we are back to square one with you asking again different lure, color, type, why you focus so much on that ? why don 't you focus on the presentation ?

Let 's say you have lipless crank, we all know that lipless cranks catch fish by the truckloads and have been around for decades so they must do something right or they wouldn 't be with us anymore, so the problem here is not the bait, color or type but how you work them ( how deep, how fast and the retrieval techique: yo, yo, steady, stop and go ), that 's where I would put more emphasis than on trying to brak my head trying to figure out which color out of the maybe 100 different color and pattern lipless cranks I have in my T-box.

Let 's put you more in tune with a real life event, a couple of months ago I was at this small pay to fish lake near my hometown, for months I 've been catching fish in the same locations with pretty much the same baits, this ocassion in particular they were "not biting" , it 's safe for me to say that I 'm in the right location and I 'm fishing with the same baits I 've been fishing for months so for the sake of the argument, I 'm at the right place with the right baits, why the are "not biting" ?, well I 've been fishing the baits pretty much the same way I 've been fishing for months, so I have the right location, the right baits ( size, type, color ) but ......... am I fishing with the right presentation ? uhhhhh .......... no I don 't think that after a while of going fishless I 'm fishing with the right presentation so .... I have nothing to loose if I change the presentation, am I right ?

Ok, so let 's change the presentation, on previous months I 've been fishing with weightless rigged 3 inch Dingers in thee colors: watermelon, watermelon red flake, green pumpkin purple flake, green pumpkin chart tail, watermelon pearl laminate, smoke pearl laminate, and actually all of them caught fish, it was more about me changing the bait color out of pure boredom than about the actual catch ratio of the different colors, How I worked the bait ? cast let it sink, rod tip up at the 10 o 'clock position and twitch, let it sink, reel in the slack, and so on on, that presentation was producing fish, but this time it didn 't, so before I decide to change baits I change the presentation, instead of raising my rod tip I lower it, instead of twitching the bait I snap the rod with the wrist a couple of times, actually I 'm fishing and reeling in faster and the bait moves in a different way, previoulsy the bait got off the bottom and sank gliding, now it darts rapidly not lifting much from the bottom, same bait, same colors, same size ---> completely different presentation and that 's what they wanted now, from going fishless now I 'm catching fish ata a rate of a fish per every two or three casts.

Focus on the location and on the presentation first.

Presentation is SUPER important.  Back during the spring my wife and I were fishing.  She was fishing a soft plastic blk/blu frog and I was fishing a grn pmpkin worm, both on c-rig.  She was catching 5 fish to my 1 and hers were all nice keepers, while mine were short fish.  I immediately switched to the same frog and color as her. There was no change in the catch ratio.  Getting frustrated I sat and watched to see what she was doing different.  My first thought was line size difference. No good.  The difference was she was fishing the bait on a long fast pull of the rod. I was fishing more of a slow drag across the bottom.  She would cast and retrieve 2 1/2 times to my 1.  I started to fish my bait faster and I immediately started to get bit.  Then I switched back to my grn pmpkin worm and fished it fast and I kept catching fish.  Presentation is the Real Deal!

Awesome posts everyone, thanks for the help

Thanks, Burce.  Good thread you've started.

I'm no expert by any means but I use a process that helps me. Like Big Tom says, WHERE is everything. Generally, where should the fish be based on the seasonal pattern of pre-spawn, spawn and post spawn ? Where have the fish moved to, based on depth options? Deep, shallow, other ? Where is the cover the fish might relate to ? Where are the fish in relation to that cover or structure, the bottom, suspended, upper surface area, inside or outside ? I try to use a lure as a tool to refine what I think might be going on using horizontal and then verticle, i'e', spinnerbait then jig ? Then I try to establish a presentation the fish want or will accept. Is it fast, slow, hop it, drag it, stop and go, lot's of vibration or noise or little to none ? The colors I choose are based on weather, water conditions, forage and past experience. This process values that first bite in hopes that fish can tell me something to put at least one piece of the puzzle in place. That's kind of a progression I guess. If nothing works and I have applied everything I can think of to answer those questions, I have one last thing I can do, trailer the boat and go get some pizza.

When you're just hitting the water, how often do you vary your presentation between a passive and an aggressive presentation? Every few casts, very few minutes?

How often do you switch rods when your best spots aren't producing?

Unless I have a strong bite on something from a day or two prior, I usually start out looking for shallow fish with fast lures like buzzbaits, 1/4 oz spinnerbaits, frogs and skipping soft plastics, and move progressively deeper and use slower search lures like heavy spinnerbaits, swimjigs, and lipless cranks, before finally settling on slower, bottom contact lures to try to salvage a slow outing. I spend about 1/3 of the trip in each phase until I find a bite.

How do you guys go about finding a bite when the fishing isn't terrible, but isn't very good, either?

I am still learning myself but to throw my lot in, what I have come across on my lake.

1. Location - you cannot catch them if they are not there. You need to find good location, and there are so many variables (depth, structure, temp, light, etc) it takes a while. A chance in any of those variables with the seasons changes the game drastically and of course they change with time of day.

2. Bait type and presentation - I am a big time plastics man, so many types, so many presentations, so many different types of actions, just very versatile but I have days when only shallow running shad crankbaits (very common in fall) will get any serious level of action.

3. Color - Color is for me anyway, like the fine tuning. Yesterday, perfect example. I was out with a bud. Both throwing u-tail worms. Mine was light brown his was dark red. he got a few hits, I got more. he switched colors and started getting more hits.

Like I said, I am by no means an expert, but I spent 10 months on my lake catching next to no bass until I learned these rules and now rarely get skunked no matter what season. My weakness is still deep water.

Presentation is everything especially on waters you know. Here you know where the fish are located, it's just a matter of finding out what they want.

If you fish plastics like me for instance you can target the entire water column with the same bait. Ok so I have been on a trick worm kick recently. During the spring I fished weightless T-Rigs with a fast erratic motion before doing anything else. This works say 1/3 times and is great for locating fish.

When this doesn't work I change nothing on the terminal tackle just the retrieve. I will cast twitch, twitch and let sink. This would work the other 1/3 of the time. Finally the last presentation I would use would take the exact same trick worm and hook it through the egg sac (Wacky Rigged). Cast out let sink and wait a few seconds, lift tip and take three cranks...repeat. This would catch me fish the other 1/3 of the time.

When things get tight go through your repetoire. Try something strange when things are tight see what happens. That's how I found the real fast twitch method that KILLS pre-spawn fish on cloudy days or before a storm.

Come summer I add a 1/8 ounce bullet weight to my tackle for a true T-Rig. This allows you to hop baits and get deeper where you can lure lurker transitional fish to the shallows.

Find your style whether it be jigs, plastics, cranks, etc. Perfect everything that lure can do. You will catch fish with one of the presentations that these versatile lures offer. Once you've mastered one technique move on to the next.

In waters you know pull out the spinnerbait and test the water column and all possible hiding places. Follow the clues when you catch these fish. Then hone in on the type of cover or structure throughout the lake with your honed repetoire.