No fish!

[jooleyen]

How come everyone else here catches fish, and I barely ever catch any?!

Is it because of the lakes I fish at?
How I'm fishing?
I usually go bank fishing?

I try so many things and I barely ever catch nice fish!

My lake is also very weedy.

[Rebbasser]

J, everybody gets skunked from time to time. Keep on following the advvice you get here and you WILL get bit. Just ask Cranky.

Weedy lake? Weightless soft plastics. They are relatively weedless and catch a lot of bass in the grass.

[jooleyen]

YEah! I forgot to ask about the weedless wacky rig. How exactly do you fish that?

How do most people fish medium diving cranks?


When people do a texas rig, how come they peg their sinker instead of just tying it on with the hook or threading it onto the line before tying the hook?

I'm used to doing the presentations and setting the hook with my right arm and now I have to do it with my left. Will it get more comfortable in time?

sorry about all of the questions, but I try to get them asked RIGHT when they pop up into my head.


Julien

[ironman]

I feel your pain I go everyday and catch like one every ten day's.

[Rebbasser]

Lets see

-wackys aren't really weedless, but you can fish them around weeds. You can get hooks with a wire weedguard that help-both Eagle Claw and Gamakatsu make them. I cast them out and just let them sink, and work them with slow, gentle twitches of the rod tip. Most of the time fish hit it while it is slowly sinking.

-medium diving cranks run about 5-8 feet, so try to fish them in that depth. Ideally they are digging into the bottom or ticking the tops of weeds. I just chunk and wind but vary the speed but you want them to hit something so there is an erratic movement.

-You do thread the sinker on the line before tying on the hook Pegging is so the bait and sinker stay together. Say you are fishing a flooded tree. What you don't want to happen is the bait to fall on one side of a branch and the sinker on the other side. Pegging the sinker eliminates this.

-Set the hook however it is comfortable to you-I use both arms. I either do a vertical hookset-straight up over my head-or a side sweep-sweeping the rod to the side.

[ToPwAt'R GuY]

The more experience you get the better you will get at catching them.

[texasbasser]

just keep tryin, and youll start catching them

[Rebbasser]

Exactly, TWG!

I fish a lot with Flyrod. He will catch one or two on a particular bait, and then change baits to try something new even though they were hitting the bait he was using. Sounds crazy, doesn't it? However, there is a method to his madness: By changing baits he finds out if something else will work, and helps him gain confidence in a particular bait or technique.

I had never caught a fish on a drop shot. Flyrod catches about 5, so I rig one up and lo and behold I caught a fish and more importantly I gained confidence in a new technique.

Confidence is the name of the game. You hear people say fishing is a mental game-it is. I can't explain why, but if you have confidence a particular bait will catch a fish more often than not you will.

So keep chunking-you WILL eventually get bit!

[ironman]

Yea, I am trying to work up some confindence on a carolina-rig.

[texasbasser]

me, on slow fishing worms.... i hate it.

[thebus71h]

I just really started fishing this summer, and haven't really caught much this year until recently. Basically, the only advice I can give (which isn't much) is be persistent, but most importantly, have fun, and don't burn yourself out on this stuff. I come from a racing background, and while coming home from the lake the other day, me and my fiance's dad were talking about fishing and everything else and he says ever since he turned pro fishing rather than racing, he's had much more fun, and a hell of a lot less stress. Same here, I haven't given up on racing, or quit racing, but it's fun to think I've maybe got 500 dollars in all my fishing stuff, rather than 15,000 in racing stuff, and get the same result. Personal enjoyment. Have fun with it, and just experiment with things.

My sobb story is Berkley Gulp. That stuff had me rattled for well over a month, in a few different colors, and a few different varities, but around here, it just flat out sucks. But, then I throw a trusty root beer crankbait on, and gain all my confidence back.

[jooleyen]

Thank you so much.
It helps to hear that.
Julien

[keithdog]

Just be persistant. Now that fall is here, the bass will be spending more time in the shallows making them more accessable to shore fisherman. You should start having better luck soon because of that. I love a white tandem spinner bait in the fall fished around weedbeds and brush. On calm days, especially in the mornings, a floating minnow bait like a Rapalla, or my favorite, the Smithwick Rattlin Rouge in a 5 inch size just twitched and jerked along the surface can be killer!!! Thats how I caught the nice bass in my photo posted here. Another method that works well for me from late morning to early afternoon, especially if it is a sunny day, using a deep diving crankbait around submerged weedbeds. You'll need access to a boat for that most likely though. I'm usually fishing 8 - 12 foot depths at that time. Good luck buddy.

[crankybait]

[quote=Rebbasser]J, everybody gets skunked from time to time. Keep on following the advvice you get here and you WILL get bit. Just ask Cranky.
quote]
Definetely! Jeez i was fishing the same pond for so freakin long, till one day i threw out my first cast and got hit. That was a fantastic day, i ended up with 5 or 6 bass! Just try sticking to a softplastic and eventually youll get bit. remember how you did it and try again

[Vabass22]

Its all about confidence. I threw a spinnerbait, for about 3 months now, and never caught a fish on it. Today, I went out, and was very confident, and used a spinnerbait. I caught two nice fish, fioshing it the same way I have for the past while.

[bassthumb32]

learn seasonal patterns 80% of the fish are in 10% of the lake.