Water Everywhere, But Not a Drop to Drink...

We've all heard that saying, right? Well, here's a new one for you: Fish everywhere, but not one that will bite. That's the way it was for Rob and me in this last Saturday's tourney, and given the number of other participants who didn't weigh any fish, it might be true of some of them, too. Here's the way the day unfolded for Rob and me.

We started in West Neck, where we didn't see or feel a fish. Then we ran to Albright's, which was teeming with baitfish and bass that were chasing them. Everywhere we looked, there were huge pods of baitfish shifting hither and yon, with bass in hot pursuit. We began working a typically productive stretch of shoreline, each pausing intermittently, however, to toss a lure where baitfish just had blown up. There were no takers, though.

From there, we ran to a point where we nearly always catch two or three fish. Again, the water was alive with baitfish and bass activity, but they weren't interested in letting us join in their games. As the day wore on, we finally managed to put one keeper bass and three dinks in the boat, which was really frustrating, given all the activity we witnessed throughout the day. There were times our boat was surrounded completely by baitfish pods, with fish busting them, yet they wouldn't even bump our variety of offerings.

Knowing others had to have experienced similar days on the water, I decided to do a little digging on the Internet and find out if there were any ideas for resolving the problem. One of the first suggestions I found was to try a buzzbait. The theory here is that bass hit this bait out of anger, not because they think it's food.

Another suggestion I found was to go weightless if you see bass busting baitfish in shallow water. "Try a little 4-inch soft jerkbait and just let it sink weightless, then start twitching it back to the boat," said one person. "If that doesn't work, try a Senko or large flipping tube."

Someone else suggested a Hula Popper--a small 2- or 3-inch model, with a white belly, yellow skirt, and green on top with black spots. "Just drag it across the surface where those fish are busting... bass can't seem to resist it," said this writer. "Let it sit for a while when you first get it out there. Then try a couple of different retrieves. Vary the speed, alternate directions, and keep a low profile."

Yet another person suggested split-shotting. "Tie on a straight-shank 1/0 hook, attach a split shot about 24 inches up the line, then rig a 4-inch finesse worm on the hook," he recommended. "Fish it at various speeds until you find what the fish want--usually very slow. Use a light, sensitive but fast-action graphite spinning rod."

If you can accept the conditions, stay confident, and fish with patience, you're going to catch fish, insist the pros. Veteran pro Denny Brauer adds, "The secret to being a good angler isn't knowing how to catch fish when they're biting, it's being able to catch them when they're not." I reckon we can all agree with those statements.