Has this happened to you?

[OrygunBasser]

OK, here is the senario:

You pull up to a spot, cast out a certain bait a couple times and wham, you catch a fish, you think that you must have them dialed in so you keep using the same bait for a hundred yards down the bank. You catch nothing more on that bait so you pick up another rod with something else entirely different and make a couple casts and sure enough, wham, you catch another fish only to go on down the bank another hundred or so yards with not another taker. This happens throughtout the day for the rest of the day and you can't put together any pattern.

Now, we are not on a pond where the fish may spook because of the fight of the first fish nor get tired of seeing that same bait. We are on a big lake with 100 or more yards between changing lures.

Why would this happen? I have had it happen more often than I want to admit to.

[pacmanrocks]

been there done that

[aikenyounggun]

yeah i have been there a lot..... Clarks Hill is known for junk fishin (that is what it is called, catchin fish on different stuff)

all i know is it happens.... i think its because fish are there but they are insane, no i really have no idea

[Bassboss]

I know what you mean! The only reason I can think of is that the bottom structure changes, depth, and current. We shore huggers can not find out for sure because we don't have radar to make sure, the only way I can ever find the roughly what's on the bottom is by dragging a crank bait on the bottom to find brush, and using a heavyish tungsten weight and dragging it along the bottom to find if their is a soft, rocky, or whatever bottom.

[bamabassman]

not to make ya mad or be scarcastic pal. that is what is called fishing. it happens, not to me cuz i can't seem to catch more than one or two no matter what, but it does happen. it could be the time of year ya know? like spawning and almost spawing and post spawning. bass are a finiky creature tha twill eat anyting on a given day. our job as fishermen/women is to find out what they want, when they want it. it changes constantly. as you have witnessed my friend.

[CCbass]

Some times this might be due to confidence, you catch fish right away you expect more. Suddenly a few casts with nothing you might change the presentation slightly, you then get a new idea, refocus on how to fish it and bam fish. I've done this along 100's of yard stretches before with the same lure with in fact the same result, bam.bam.bam, nothing,nothing, nothing, bam ,bam,bam, ect. The fish you cuaght on the new lure might of hit the first lure if you fished it long enough, as said on here bottom structure, current, wind, ect. can effect a long stetch of shore. The reality is if something works it will work, the spaces in between the catches might of in fact had no fish, test this by going back through the water with the first lure only. If you catch fish again in the first spot and nothing the whole rest of the way including places you caught fish on the other lures, then I am stumpt.

[Bubba_Bruiser]

Happened a time or 2. I just go with it though and change colors or lures regularly and make a loop through them. Back and forth, back and forth.

[rangerryan]

i think bassboss has the idea. some times patterns can be very subtle and the bait in particular may not matter but there is usually somthing common between the spots. also sometimes fish arent as concentrated in a certain area. if youre fishing soft plastics you have a million choices and colors some time the fish will eat anything and other times they want somthing specific. what i am saying is that colors and shapes are variables but patterns hold constant. make yourself a better fisherman by studying patterns. patterns can be as simple as a fish sitting by a lone stump or as complex as a fish sitting by a lone stump in 8' of water on a sunny bank in an area where the water temp is 48 degrees and is constantly fed by a creek or river channel. i know that it has made me a better fisherman i have actually become obsessed with finding patterns and sometimes it can be down right aggrevating. and hey.... sometimes its impossible.

[Rebbasser]

Many times. As stated already, that's fishing. I have several rods on the deck all the time rigged with different baits for just such a reason.

[Fishnngolfn]

Too me it wouldn't be as much fun or rewarding if I caught a bass everytime I made a cast. Those days where I get blanked make those days where I catch several that much more enjoyable.

[WTL]

Happened to me 3 different times yesterday and I was hitting cow ponds. Would catch 1 fish within the first 10 casts, then make another 500 and nothing. Move on to another pond, rinse, repeat the same scenario.

Thing is, I was retrieving it, as far as I could tell, exactly like I had been when I got bit. So it must have been animal spirits guiding the bite.

[keithdog]

I would have to guess that with your sanario, there was probably something about the water/structure conditions that was different from where fish and fish 2 were caught. Lures are nothing more than tools made to perform a certain job. The lure that caught a fish at spot 2 may have been better suited for that particular spot than the lure used at spot 1. But if your not catching fish regulary along the banks, why not move offshore. Perhaps the bass this early in the year are nearby where you caught the other two, but staging offshore in deeper water in larger numbers. You may have simply caught a few that were just starting to venture into shallower spawning areas. The trick is to be able to know when to change tactics. How well you know the lake will greatly determine how you will be able to determine the next step in locating a pattern. Like Bama mentioned above, depending on where your fishing this time of year, bass can be harder to pin down because of seasonal changes and relating movements of bass. But if you have spent a couple hours pounding the shoreline with little success, look deeper. Change lure speed, retrieves, ect untill you hit on something possitive. And of course, as others already mentioned, your just going to have days where they don't want to seem to lock up on any pattern, but rather just hit and miss. Post spawn can be the same way. But hey, it's a heck of a lot less aggravating than golf any day!!!!

[Lancer6]

Originally Posted by CCbass

Some times this might be due to confidence, you catch fish right away you expect more. Suddenly a few casts with nothing you might change the presentation slightly, you then get a new idea, refocus on how to fish it and bam fish.

Right on! This is one of the most overlooked factors.
While there are times when bass (or any other species,) may attack a lure virtually without regard to presentation subtle deviations in presentation can cause one to go biteless from that first success on.
One should try one's best to "record and duplicate" the EXACT presentation that resulted in a bite. That's not always easy since sometimes a bite comes when one is clearing an early-AM-not-awake-yet backlash (YOU get those...I get Professional Overruns) and the lure was "Somehere out there".
The more subtle the bite, as when a Senko-type is casually picked off as it falls, the more difficult it is to accurately determine the exact what/where/how of the bite. Add to that the fact that no bass is honor-bound to smash a bait OR tighten the line upon pick-up and the proverbial water becomes even more muddied.
Just gotta keep trying.

L6

[CCbass]

A fun point in case, I got second in a tournament high speed crankin smallies. For me the morning bite was slow in areas others caught fish early sight fishing or fishing plastic techniques. By mid afternoon the water was wave ridden and dark in color, perfect for my technique. I caught larger fish in the same areas others caught smaller fish, waiting for the oppertunity to be right for the larger fish to feed. I actually watched competetors catch fish off my spots early on.

[Joel]

Your scenario is really the same as a fish here, and a fish there. Just a tough slow bite for where and how you were fishing. The question that comes to mind would be if you continued to fish the 1st plastic lure, would that 2nd bass have taken it as well? As others have said. I would have also been trying different presentations, not just working one that wasn't producing.

If I was struggling shallow and I was satisfied that I worked enough presentations throughout the water column, then I would hopefully realize that I need to change where I was fishing. If I was concentrating on the inside weed line to the shore, then I would move to the outside weedline, or to the 1st drop.

[tnfisherman]

done that to day

[bassnman30]

I was wondering were the fish still there.