ON the verge of giving up

[wallywallace]

tell me, please tell me, that the fish just aint there, i have caught 2 out of my home lake, this whole season. pond dinks, no problem.. i am so frustrated, today i got my iobee stuck, i was so pissed, so i go and acutally swim to the brush to get it, ( no waid, actually swim) muskrats and all. then go to fix the small lash, when i pulle about 5 feet line and then a knot in the line.. i have no prolbem pond fishing, but lately i just dont feel it. This is just one story of the last 5 times. the other stores are just to long.. Could it be the fish just aint there. i am beating them with everything, lots of changes in retrieves. i just dont know anymore guys

[Top Tiger]

It's not just you. This has been, so far anyway, the slowest I've seen it in years. Don't suppose we caught 'em all, do you?

[DaveW731]

Time to find a new home lake.

[wallywallace]

Originally Posted by Top Tiger

It's not just you. This has been, so far anyway, the slowest I've seen it in years. Don't suppose we caught 'em all, do you?

well it least your feeling it in NC to, i am from Conover, 45 min fro Charolote

[wallywallace]

i beleive it is not me, i am confindant enough to know i fish pretty damn descent

[bassboogieman]

I think your fish have pooled their resources and had ADT install a security system that alerts them to your prescense. Look for the sign posted somewhere on the bank.

[WTL]

My advice is to try and go fish elsewhere if you've fished this place so hard and had nothing to show. Personally, I get bored fishing the same places time and again if I'm not slaying them. Part of the fun can be in the search for new locations.

[joedog]

Well....don't quit.
The weather is something natures bounty, fish or game have not seen or are accustomed too.
Some areas worse than others. The farther north, the bigger the change.
South is used to heat.

But this is just said as a friend....early as I watched you accumulate a Great fishing arsenal I thought to myself, that young man is going to get over whelmed with so many new techniques and lures and 'others' ideas of what is best without the time to really give a technique or lure it's proper concentration and time to master or at least understand it.
From personal experience trust me, this fishing game can get real confusing.
When you accumulate most of your new found knowledge from a great forum like this sometimes we forget that what works for me may or may not work for you, even though we are both shorefishing.
Last year at the end of the year I semi-learned dropshotting. Had great success rate....after I spent two trips fishing with one pole and just stuff with me to dropshot with. I could change colors, wieghts and hooks for dropshotting, no choices to switch and try anything else, and no confusion. After each trip I'd come back here and ask questions about anything that I found confusing or unsuccessfull. I had a feel and could really better understand the advice that was given to me.
I had no choices. Master what I had or go home. (my addiction wouldn't let me go home)
Sometimes 'I' get way to involved with so many choices and the ease to just switch lures. Sometimes we switch to early.
Now understand that I almost always carry 3 sometimes 4 rigs when I fish and another four in car rigged. I don't carry rods for show but all are rigged with something different and multiple powers, actions. lines lures ect. Plus one pole with me will be hitched up with a speed clip for the quick change. Last night I chose the drop shot as one of the setups, along with 3 other setups. No takers on the dropshot so I quickly switched to a different technique.Got home and calculated that I really only thru the dropshot about 40 casts. (sounds like alot maybe but thats maybe 15-20 minutes at best). This morning I went with ONE setup, the dropshot. Rest stayed in car. Caught two 15 inchers. No where near the success I had last year...but it was a pond I usually don't fish from shore on. And...I did catch fish. Tonight I'll start with the dropshot no matter what, at my favorite spot and we'll see what happens.
Sometimes 'I' just have to go back to the 'K.I.S.S.' stratagie.
I also have convinced myself that fish not biting actually gives me more time to work on my presentation.
Another example. One of the teachers that fish one of the ponds throws nothing but wacky rigged stickbaits, all time every time he fishes. I've caught more fish but he has caught two monsters this year, me, no monsters. He throws 6in worms, I 5in. He can't fish texas weightless with success, I struggle with wacky and can catch weightless texas style with the confidence that I'll always catch something.
I really can't tell you the fish aren't there because if they were there last year....my hunch is they are still there today. Maybe a temperary change or sometimes it truely is the weather that causes the lull. The bite will return so be ready!
Pick a presentation and concentrate on becoming the best at that. You maybe surprised how many bites you get when all your thinking about is one technique and how it feels and works and making suttle changes trying to be the best at it.
Then switch to a different one with the same conviction.
Next year when the bite slows you'll have at least 3 techniques that you have confidence in and the ability to sense when to tweak it or sometimes when to untweak it.

Sorry about the rattling on but I really wanted to be sure that you understand what I'm saying. If I could've afforded your arsenal when I was new...... I'd be so confused I probably now would be posting in a golfing forum.
I'm telling you the truth....If I were you I'd make a deal with the 'Monkey' and set and obtainable goal that you MUST meet before you so much as buy another hook.
Remember I in noway am criticing you or the monkey, I just think you will be much happier if you try this idea.
There probably isn't a day that goes by that some fishing site is offering me a deal on something....and I want it. I then go to my TWO rooms of fish supplies and realize how much I have already that I'm not using to it's true potential.
Good luck and remember why we all do this bassin thing....TO HAVE FUN!

[wallywallace]

Thanks JD, needed that, at moment i carry 4 rods, period, sometimes more but mostly 4.. right now i am keeping spinning with my T-rigged. I got frogging down pat so i take that aswell. i do take cranks and pitchin, to learn with. I got the actually tech of pitchin and flippin but i am always setting hooks in branches. even getting to the water by 6 this morning, with a mile walk with 4 rods, it get hot and frustrating. I wont stop, but this morning after getting back to the shore with my gill colored iobee, only to see a family a muskrats staring at me from the trunk of tha fallin tree. I screamed, a good healthy one, then realize i just swam in my laydown i wanted to fish, ohwelll

[wallywallace]

Originally Posted by WTL

My advice is to try and go fish elsewhere if you've fished this place so hard and had nothing to show. Personally, I get bored fishing the same places time and again if I'm not slaying them. Part of the fun can be in the search for new locations.

its everywhere in my lake, i have 4 spots, been on a forum exclusivly for my state and they say the lake is doing allright, been seeing a few 7-9 lbers pulled out, heck i didnt even know they got that big in my lake

but i try to fish 4 times a week, hitting all the spots once a week, other good lake or 40 mins away, i dont really want to travel that far to walk the shore, not even sure if there a place to fish, i checked the NC boat lanch website, got few, but still weary

[WTL]

Originally Posted by wallywallace

Thanks JD, needed that, at moment i carry 4 rods, period, sometimes more but mostly 4.. right now i am keeping spinning with my T-rigged. I got frogging down pat so i take that aswell. i do take cranks and pitchin, to learn with. I got the actually tech of pitchin and flippin but i am always setting hooks in branches. even getting to the water by 6 this morning, with a mile walk with 4 rods, it get hot and frustrating. I wont stop, but this morning after getting back to the shore with my gill colored iobee, only to see a family a muskrats staring at me from the trunk of tha fallin tree. I screamed, a good healthy one, then realize i just swam in my laydown i wanted to fish, ohwelll

Walking the bank makes it tough to do too much pitchin, and maybe even the frogin. I would maybe switch the t-rig to a small weightless senko, and fish it slow, with slow twitches. You are stuck on the bank so you have to cover what water you have. Also maybe try a pink floating worm early and late, or even a beetlespin, just to get a little action going.

[justbassin4fun]

Have you tried it at night? In the heat bass get hot too. They usually head to deep water or just settle in a shady spot to cool off. If you can't get to there AC spot, Just wait until evening. They have to eat and thats usually when they come out of hiding for some crub.

[wallywallace]

i've been doing the evening when permited, my summer classes are at nigh, idk i just like frogggin.. but probably go back to the T-rigging and some weightless trick or wacky.. i just wanted to expand my skill, well i guess i can learn to do it, without getting hooked. though dicks had a descent sell today so i got some black back chartrouse, people on the NC forum said that if they are cranking they are using that and the gill colors.. just need a good outing to re amp myself..

[bamabassman]

t-rig, carloina rig....heck sling out a fat ol worm with NO WEIGHT at all. and inch it back. teadious i know. but sutle movements can produce. try soemthing oyu have NEVER tried before. never know......

[wallywallace]

Was thinking a slow pain staking 10 in worm c rigged. Back to the basics. Also gold ole spinnerbait/ swim jig

[bamabassman]

thar ya go my man!!!

[carolina-rig-01]

Wally, slumps are something that we all go through as anglers. I had a dandy slump for a few months a couple of years back. I could catch fish like crazy while pre-fishing for a tournament but on tournament day I was always waiting for the fishing Gods to find a way to keep me from having a good tournament. I was putting too much effort in looking for the bad luck to creep in that I would make bad decisions and in the end I was preventing myself from having any success. We can certainly be our own worste enemies while things aren't going well on the water. We make rash decisions to do things that we would never do if things were going our way and we were in a better state of mind. My advice is to go back to the basics. What I did was just go fishing with a 7" black Powerworm. It's a bait that will catch a ton of fish under most conditions. I didn't catch a lot of big fish but I fished did start catching enough fish that I started to relax. Eventually things just started coming back to me and soon enough I was putting together some tournaments that I was really proud of and in all of them I was making decisions that I felt very good about at the end of the day. For you since you don't have tournament rules to follow, I would think about using live bait. Minnows or even nightcrawlers are good ways to get a lot of bites. I know that it's not the same as catching them on artificial lures but it might do you good to just catch a few fish.

Like Joe said, I would pin most of this on the weather than your ability to catch fish. It's summer and fishing is tough, that's really all there is to it. Maybe taking a little break and waiting for the weather to cool down a little will help you out too. Either way good luck and don't sweat it too much because we all go through it at times.

[lilmule]

Nah was in same place 5 years ago there is a solution-MOVE

[islandbass]

You ain't suffering nothing yet. But if it helps to make it easier for you as misery loves company, I haven't even caught a largemouth bass yet and it's July!

Yeah, I've been too busy to fish but I had a 3-day period I focused on bass and I worked it hard and methodically. I finally had one on a couple days ago on a 4" senko and I'll be darned, I froze like a deer in the headlights. The message from my brain never made it to my hands, lol.

Hope you feel better, now, now that you know I'm worse off than you. Try going 1.5 seasons without catching a bass before you give up. My brother did and I am proud of him for not quitting.

It's all relative, but I feel your pain and I'm feeling it too. Just think of it as putting in your dues. If you're in a slump, I'm in a SLUMP!

[bassinbob]

I think the bass are becoming to educated. Try to find a new spot or new water to fish. After many years of learning and applying all your knowledge it will be no problem to catch them. There are no magic baits or methods. Just figure where they are and use the correct method to catch them. I know it's easier said then done but look to the pros for inspiration. There is always a winner for every tourny. Look everywhere for ideas. This forum and others. Books and magazines. Heck I always see what baits were used to catch the big bass in the lunker club and the time, location and weather and depth.
I just got back from vacation yesterday. I was up at my cabin and was fishing the pads. Some of the pads had a lot of bass but others did not give up a single strike. They wouldn't touch a buzz bait or a hollow frog but crushed a horny toad. Caught a few on cranks along the outer pads to. Now why did some pads produce and another group of pads didn't? I'm still trying to figure it out. Was the sun out or cloud covered? Was there deeper water close to the pads that produced? I can't answer the second because my fish finder wasn't working. The sun had to be out for them to hit. So when it was cloud covered i used a crank and had a few hit then. They stopped biting when the wind picked up. They didn't hit any thing I flipped. Wouldn't touch a spinnerbait either. Had a few hits on worms and a Skinny Dipper. After about 3 hours of this I just gave up and fished for fun. I did catch a walleye on a sexy shad though.
We all go through slumps. I can't catch a darn thing out of the lake I fish that gives up some big bass. I know there are some 10's in it and I am hoping to catch one for the big bass contest. Like the Indian in The Outlaw Josey Wales said "Learn to persevere"

[keithdog]

Wally, I don't know where you live, but over 60% of this country in suffering a drought situation. That along with the above normal temps have played havoc with the fishing. I know it's had an impact in my parts which as of yesterday was classified as being in a severe drought. Water levels are way down and the DNR is starting to report fish kills throughout the state. Normally I would be doing very well this time of year on the lakes I fish, but it's been very tough lately. I only caught 3 bass today in 7 hours of fishing, and 2 of those bass came in the first 15 minutes. Just hang in there buddy. Fall fishing is just around the corner and you could very well see a change by then.