My Lack of Depth

[javlin2]

As Nitro stated, I have no fishing depth. I've never caught a fish on a Crankbait, Spinnerbait, or Buzzbait. It's not that I haven't tried them extensively, I have, and I still do. I just have no luck with them.

I went fishing the other day and I just slayed the bass on a Zara Spook. I decided since the bass were hitting the Spook, why not a buzzbait. I tied on my Booyah Buzzbait and... nothing. An hour was spent on the buzzbait with no luck. I switched back to the Spook and picked up where I left off.

I started the day with a spinnerbait on. No luck. I'll try it again the next time I visit the lake, but I've never had any luck with that lure.

As far as Crankbaits go, I have no boat. I have no truck. I have no house. I rent an appartment and I drive a K car. Dodge Aries Stationwagon to be exact. As I have that limitation (the no-bass boat one), I fish ponds and small lakes exclusively. What I've found when fishing these with a crankbait is this. There's alot of hydrofoilage in ponds and small lakes. Hydrofoilage and muck.

Now, I have had luck with hard plastic jerkbaits, like the Rapala Suspended Minnow and such. I know I will have success with crankbaits, it's just the conditions haven't been right for me to throw one every trip out. My renewed love for fishing has got me in touch with some distant family members who are retired, do own bass boats, and DO go fishing alot, not to mention always on the look for someone to go fishing with. I'm sure this will lead to more success with crankbaits as I fish different areas.

Until then, does anyone have any suggestions for fishing spinnerbaits and buzzbaits? I've tried the stuff at Bass Resource as well as some of the stuff I've read over on these boards (fish as closed to cover as possable. Try to bump the lure against rocks/tree stumps if possible. etc.), to no avail. Anything new I should try?

[jglassguy]

I am thinking that the spinnerbait and buzzbait aren't what they want right now because of the dry summer and super clear water, as soon as we get this rain thats comming, it will stain the water again and you'll get more bites 0n those baits.
As far as throwing the buzzbait, I'd keep it in the shallows for best results, always try to fish it through weeds, trees, any point that is a good ambush area, ya have to remember many ponds have points, they are usually make of some type of vegetation...verses a big lake where people tend to view points as where the land sticks out in the water or slopes down.
Ya aways need to keep attention to secondary points ,
they could be lots of dif scenerios, land, reeds , really anything that is dif and enables the bass to set up for baitfish to swim by, as well as being a avenue to
go up and down according to weather conditions/
many times you can get them near the bank on a point, a front moves in, ya have to back off and work the drops of the point, which may be 20 ft deep and 100 yards off the shoreline, its a matter of using the graph
and being able to see the bottom, and its best when
you find a point that curves around near a creek channel...remember that channel may only be couple feet deeper than the bottom , but it serves the purpose
like the way we go on a road to a certain location... 8)

[okefenokee010]

I didn't mean to imply that you had no depth. I made the assumption (my fault, not yours) that you were one of the kids in the group who had not tried to catch fish on the other baits. I took my experience of not liking plastics to fishing them almost exclusively and reversed it for you. Again, my fault, not yours.

Now, as far as the Spook vs. buzzbait goes...a spook can sit forever if need be. A buzzbait needs to be moving. That could have been part of the difference.

As a sidenote, K cars are bulletproof. That was one hell of a design, mechanically if not cosmetically.

[Rich]

You are on the right track. Just keep changing baits and trying different things. You WILL eventually get bit. I threw a jig-n-pig for probably 20 years and never caught a thing. I kept chunking one because I knew they caught fish, and then about 3 years ago I threw one up on a brushpile, pulled it off into the water and felt a thump. Set the hook and reeled in a 5 pounder. Since then I have caught a bunch on a jig-n-pig. Why? One word: Confidence. I have no clue as to why, but when you have confidence in a bait you catch more fish on it. Once you catch that first fish on a certain bait you will catch more. Getting over that first fish hump is the hard part. Keep on chunking-you will get bit.

[okefenokee010]

I still hate jigs