Bait discussion

Morning everyone,

I am wondering what your opinion is on deciding to change color vs. changing the bait type entirely when the bite isn’t happening. I fished all weekend and did pretty well, mostly fished docks, points and some shallow stumps using good old fashioned curly tails. My opinion is to stick with the bait you have confidence fishing and move to different colors if the the bite isn’t great. What do you guys think?

Lots of variables to consider with color(sun/cloudy, murky/clear,etc) but I’ve seen the bite change with the color of flakes I have within the base color.

GR

It does matter, somewhat. I truly think it’s the action and presentation more than color.

....and let’s shoot the first person that says, “I let the fish tell me what they want!” Lol. Cop out comments.


#FOLLOWINGINTENSELY.

Was fishing a Dallas area local pond this weekend and it was the fish that told me what they wanted. Small worm,1/8th oz weight worked slow, no bites and the gorilla snot bottom kept fowling my rig. Cast it out and felt it get balled up in crud so I jerked it out and reeled it fast enough to keep it up off the bottom. Sure enough a little scrapper hit it on the faster retrieve. Began repeating that process and began having success. Eventually changed to an unweighted worm and open hook arrangement and could basically call my shot at a fish. Now I will grant that these bass were from 4 inches to maybe 9 inches in length but the constant action was fun. Others on the pond were getting skunked. In this case the presentation was everything.

Haha, thanks for calling out the folks who will use cop out comments in the beginning! I’ve never had any fish talk to me, that would be weird.

I suppose the question is then would you move from say a senko to a rattle trap or would you stick to a senko and maybe fish it a little faster? Just an example as to what you mean.

Haha that was an interesting read to say the least, thanks for your input. I have no further questions...

well I switched from shad to another color last Thursday and it made all the difference. Actually that same color square bill really killed them in the spring too!
Color does count. And it was the fish telling me I was right after the 18 1/8" bass I caught on the first cast.

Two guys can be working side by side with the exact same bait; one will be catching and the other will not. Many times it is the ever so slight detail and the slight difference in the technique that makes this difference in success. An example is with painted and unpainted weights in Mexico. Bass like shinny down there and just the weight will produce 2 to 1 with both guys using the Brush Hog.

In small bodies of water, I usually have success on the Beetle Spin with a Sassy Shad type swimmer attached. One morning they will want the flash of that small blade and the next time they will only take the jig head with the Shad swimmer. Color is also a huge indicator in catching. One morning it will be a white bait and next time it will be the darker Bluegill patterns or plane old Watermelon.

Fish to your strength and confidence first; then come back through the area with a color in the same bait of the opposite spectrum. Fishing is all about being where the fish are and developing some kind of pattern as quickly as possible. I enjoy fishing with a partner that loves wearing out his tackle box. Let him do all of the work, while you stick with your confidence rig and colors. If he gets on to something; I am not hard headed; as the change will be made quickly to get on that pattern.

There are indeed many factors to consider when fishing! I guess my question gets too specific as there are so many different angles that could make or break a trip while out fishing. I suppose I am asking what you do in the moment. As a pretty detailed oriented guy, I always think through all of the questions but you have to start somewhere when going though the list of considerations while out on the water. If the fish just aren’t really biting what you’re throwing where do you start your trouble shooting? If I’ve had a few bumps or just caught a couple over an hour or so, I’ll change out colors and continue for a little while. Where do you guys start with the madness?

The only madness I start is moving to find feeding fish. They are only going to get the few baits that I have thrown for many years. I know they catch fish when feeding.

I also think time of day is a huge overlooked factor. Several times I've just put one bag of plastics in my back pocket. I'd fish for hours with no bite, and then all of a sudden the bite comes to life. No change in presentation, and no change in color.

Keep it simple. Work all three water columns... top, mid, bottom with floating, suspending, and sinking baits in brown, green, or white at varying speeds until you figure out which combination works. Also fish tight to cover vs open water and try vertical vs horizontal presentations as well meaning see if they want it while it's falling. If none of that works throw hot pink baits. Lol

This is true, I think it goes back to Donald Harper’s point about fishing what you’re confident with.



I think time of day is important too. I always seem to catch more in the first cpl or last cpl of hours of the day. I have a buddy that will fish a watermelon red senko allllllll day whether it’s catching or not. There are times where it turns on suddenly.

Lol, sounds about right. “Here is the book of fishing, there are 433490252734 variables. Remember to try everything in it during your 3-5 hr fishing trip. And if not, throw hot pink!” Lol

action, speed, color, placement all come into play. bass are opportunistic predators and only feed during very small windows throughout the day. find a hungry bass and you can catch them on anything pretty much. the number one key to catching is getting them to react. (why a jig is one of the best presentations ever known) this is where placement comes into play and target fishing is so productive. there was an old study where they put some bass in a solid white tub and they just were spread out randomly. then they painted a black vertical stripe on the side of the tank and every bass positioned themselves with their nose up against it. bass on cover are usually lazy just hanging out but if something comes in front of them with the right speed, action, color etc they will react to hit and strike. you can literally drop a rock in front of a bass and they will strike it if it is falling at the right speed in the right spot. they move and chase when feeding but think about how often during a 24 hour day you are actually hungry or eating, not often. their brain is the size of a pea so don't over think it. all they know is food, shelter and reproduction. finding them is the hard part, 90% of the bass are in 10% of the lake. if you are only targeting feeding fish, your gonna have some long days.

I think this right here has been the best advice ever given on this forum! Nothing has made more sense to me, being new to bass fishing.

Thanks!

You know, I tried to come up with some good answer but I have no reason for why I change. I just go with whatever I think will catch them where I'm fishing. I guess depth is what I consider first because I want the bait in the zone I think the fish are in. Then action, you put a bait in front of a bass and move it right, they will eat it. I dont get to worried about color. I just kind of go with what matches the water color or forage I want to match. I used to over think it until I watched all those elite events won on crankbaits that were basic colors, regular color worms, just the same ole stuff we can buy. The thing was those guys found fish. That's the hardest part. So instead of worrying so much about my baits, I just want to know I'm around fish. When I know I'm around fish I know I can catch them

From my log Circa 1998 Cedar Bluff Res Ks.
April 14
Air temp 47
Water temp 52 4-6 ft
Overcast 50%
Wind N/NW 10 mph
Water clarity 2'

Fished: 4" GP/black flake tube, single glass rattle, 1/4" dipped in chart dye, 1/4 oz bullet shallow rocks after sun up for 1 hour caught 3, moved out to standing wood 12-18' caught 3 more rotated to the shade side after noon caught 3 more.
1:00 T-rigged GP Power Craw dipped claws 1/2 oz. pitched on the hard wood lay downs 4-6' couple of bites and misses.
3-5:00 Fished a Mojo Rapala jerkbait combo on road bed caught 3 around 3 lbs ea.
My logs & topo maps are my valued treasures of experiences... what's old becomes new over time. Last weekend the same tube caught fish at Falcon same scenarios rocks and trees.

There has been some really good advice and engagement here! I’m glad to see it, keep it coming! Shall we transition into opinions on soft baits vs. hard baits as your go to? I can tell you that until recently, I was always a rattletrap(or something in that realm) to start and now, as I think I mentioned earlier, I am donking around with Texas rigged curly tails lol.

I think, as your confidence level begins to increase, most will start with a soft plastic fished next to cover. It is a more predictable way to catch fish, and very effective. It’s when the lipless and billed cranks come out that the mind starts to drift from confidence to “maybe they need a reaction bite”. It’s after the “reaction bite” fails to produce that I get lost. I start “graphing” and staring at a screen with a drop shot trying to convince myself that the fish “just don’t wanna eat”.

Truth is, I likely should have just kept working the soft plastic around cover. Haha

[/quote]
I think, as your confidence level begins to increase, most will start with a soft plastic fished next to cover. It is a more predictable way to catch fish, and very effective. It’s when the lipless and billed cranks come out that the mind starts to drift from confidence to “maybe they need a reaction bite”. It’s after the “reaction bite” fails to produce that I get lost. I start “graphing” and staring at a screen with a drop shot trying to convince myself that the fish “just don’t wanna eat”.

Truth is, I likely should have just kept working the soft plastic around cover. Haha[/quote]

I’ve been through this same scenario many times also...

I'm opposite, I'm starting with reaction baits and then will go to plastics. I will spend half a day trying to force feed them some moving bait before I slow down.

The biggest questions/factors to me are always in this order:

1) Am I in an area that is holding fish (with new equipment now many times I can see them)
2) Are the fish feeding actively in that area (that one usually gets answered pretty quickly)
3) Right bait? (If they're choking a bait, I'm pretty confident I've got all the factors (bait, color, and speed correct. Especially if I'm catching good numbers.)
4) Right speed? The first time I ever caught a bass swimming a jig was an accident. Fishing from the back of my buddy's boat and he's got trolling motor on high to get to the next dock on Cedar Creek. I just let my jig/pig trail along the edge of the dock we were leaving and caught a 4 pounder. Hmmm. Maybe speed has something to do with it.
5) Right color? Same friend fishing a hump on Fork. We were Carolina rigging Zoom french fries in water melon green when that color first came out. He was catching 3 to 1. When he pulled in a fish I noticed a little "red" sparkle on his bait. WTH??? First time I ever saw watermelon red.

The biggest problem for me is ALWAYS deciding which factor am I missing on the equation if I'm not getting bit. Move or change one of 3,4, or 5.