Can Old Holes Run Dry?
It seems that lately, the only way I can get bit is by going to new water I’ve never fished before. I’ve had a really tough summer and the few local ponds have been beat up with tons of new YouTube fishermen or they are half cooked in the 90 degree plus water temps. Whatever the reason, I can’t catch Jack or his brother Schitt at places I go to regularly. For this reason, I’ve been in a fishing funk. On top of it all, brilliant me decided to enter another month-long TourneyX tournament.
I’m not a quitter and I’m eventually going to figure it out. Over the past week, I decided to try to wash the fishing funk or curse away. At least I’m going to learn something or improve my skills in some way while trying.
The first thing I did was to go back to the basics. I paid attention to my knots, lure selection, and especially my casts. I tried to envision what my bait looked like in the water as I was retrieving it. This helped me focus more on each second of every cast and wouldn’t let my mind have time to spin out.
Another thing I’ve been doing is fishing new places. This one is interesting for me because I have actually been catching fish at the new places, minus one, and getting skunked at the regular holes. I think this might be because I’m mentally starting fresh with no expectations at the new places versus the memories that taunt me at the old ones. It could also be that the places I’m used to fishing are burned out and just aren’t very good anymore. At least, for now, they aren’t.
Even when I’m not catching fish I try to learn something new. I’m not very experienced with a soft jerk bait or Fluke style bait, so I have been working on it. I’ll have it tied on or with me every trip so I can at least practice with it. Yesterday, I caught my first few bass with it fishing it two different ways. The first was throwing it into schooling fish popping on baitfish. This was pretty simple. All I had to do was throw it where the bait was popping and I almost instantly hooked up. The second way was to let it fall really slow near cover and twitch it one big time so it could fall down slowly again. I would usually get hit when it was on the slow fall.
The last thing I’ve been doing to clear the fog in my mind when fishing is to clean out my tackle bag. I took so many random baits and soft plastics out of my bag the other day that I haven’t used since the Springtime. I went through everything and simplified my choices to just 3 colors of a few different soft plastics, a few jigs, some crankbaits, and a couple of topwater lures. This seems to be helping a little bit not only with keeping everything organized but also helps me keep it simple and focus on the moment and conditions a little better. I have fewer factors to consider or care about if I only have a few baits to choose from in a couple of colors. If it sunny and the water is clear, I’m probably going to throw a weightless wacky-rigged Senko, bullet weight with a Texas-rigged trick worm, or maybe even a brush hog in watermelon or green pumpkin. If It is overcast or windy, I’ll probably break out a topwater or a spinnerbait. I’ve usually always got a jig tied on, but I’ve downsized my jigs a little to see if that helps with getting more bites. It doesn’t seem to have made any difference yet, but I’m still giving it a try.
You’ve heard, read rather, my thoughts about my regular old fishing holes versus new ones. What do you think is going on with my predicament? Is it just the funk of Summer not letting go down here in Florida? Do you think the places I go regularly have just gotten beat up so much they’ve turned bad? Or do you think there is something about the fresh start at new places that bring me luck? Let me know in a comment. Thanks for reading.
Published
Originally published at http://l2-fish.com on October 12, 2020.
