For six hours, the bass teased me by grabbing only the tail of my Senkos. I finally, however, found one fish willing to give me a fighting chance and preserved what, thus far, has been a skunkless season.
It should come as no surprise that I've spent the last couple of days scrounging around the Internet to see how other anglers have dealt with those days when the fish were...let's say...a bit finicky. Following are some of those anglers' suggestions, in their own words:
* Try an attractant like Megastrike. Might be just enough to get them to commit fully.
* When I get short strikes, I think short lures. If I'm fishing a 5-inch Senko, for example, I'll go to a 4-inch version and maybe even rig it wacky style. Scale down the size of both plastics and hard baits.
* Short strikes to me indicate color change. Try some chartreuse on the head and/or another color worm.
* Fish slower if the fish aren't feeding aggressively. You may have to aggravate them into biting.
* Go with a spinning rig to "finesse" more. Try the drop shot and shaky head applications.
* Throw the bait at the same target from different angles...at least 10 times from each angle.
* Add a touch of chartreuse or lime to the tails of your plastics.
* Dead stick. This means you throw out your plastic and just let it sit there for at least 60 seconds. While this primarily is a cold-water tactic, it can work in other conditions, too.
* If downsizing your baits doesn't work, try upsizing them.
* Throw Senkos and Yum Dingers rigged backwards.
* Throw a pink worm.
* Throw a Spook or a Cavitron topwater, followed by your choice of poppers.
Sometimes, it appears the problem is just a matter of timing. For instance, I read about a fella who went to his favorite lake late one afternoon, with plans to do some night fishing. On this occasion, though, the fish were having nothing to do with anything he threw. "Once 8 o'clock hit," he said, "it was like someone flipped a switch. Their behavior changed instantly. They were inhaling plastic as soon as it hit the water."
I also read about a tournament angler who said he and his partner always start a tournament with the lure they had caught fish on in practice. If that lure fails to produce, or the fish are short-striking, "we don't resort to radical changes," he said. "Instead, we make only a slight adjustment, such as changing the size and/or color, or adding a rattle to the lure."
Can't say I'll be trying all these options the next time I have a repeat of this past Thursday, but there are several I can and certainly will try.
No comments:
Post a Comment