Find The Bass First!

It’s no secret that I find and share a lot about fishing that I find on various social media outlets. One of my favorite sources of bass fishing content is Fish the Moment on YouTube. In one of his recent videos, he said something that turned a lightbulb on in my head. He was talking about how to be a better angler and catch more fish this upcoming year. What gave me the “oh, now I get it” moment was when he said that he’s seen so many anglers, new and experienced, that focus too much on the lure or bait needed to catch the fish rather than focusing on actually finding the fish. He said that we as anglers waste too much time trying out different lures and techniques instead of working to find the fish.

This reminded me of something my brother always tells me. “If you get the bait in front of the fish’s face enough times, he’s probably going to bite it.”

Jonny Schultz, the man behind Fish the Moment , says a better approach would be to get confident and efficient enough with two or three different types of lures so that you are able to find fish under any condition and any time of the year. Jonny prefers using a Jig and a crank-bait. He sometimes mixes in a swimbait. He does use a variety of other lures and techniques, but when he is in search mode trying to find the fish, he focuses his time and energy with those three mentioned above.

This was such an eye-opener for me because I constantly switch up lures or try lots of different techniques if I’m not getting bites after about 15–30 minutes. I’m probably around fish a lot of the time, but just when they aren’t feeding. I think I also may not be making enough casts in an areas when I know for sure that fish are there. Sometimes it helps to make repeat cast to a target and at multiple angles because it will eventually annoy the fish enough into biting.

This is something I’m going to work on for myself this year and track with my catch log to see what the difference is from previous years. Most of the time I like throwing a jig, Texas-rigs, crankbaits, frogs, top-water ploppers, and wacky rigs. I know I usually carry way too much tackle with me when I’m fishing and now I see how it can cause more problems than it is worth, especially when you are limited with time or access (bank fishing). Carrying more than a couple of rods or 30lbs of tackle gets heavy and frustrating after a while. It is hard to carry, you have to keep picking it up, putting it down over and over again. It can be a plus to have extra options, but a lot of times it just creates more opportunities to “spin-out”. In the military, we like to use the acronym K.I.S.S. which to me means, “Keep It Stupid Simple!”. For hard-headed people we say “Keep It Simple, Stupid!”.

That being said, I need to simplify my lure selection to what I’m best at and have the most confidence in. Where I’m currently living, Florida, there is a lot of grass, so diving treble hooked baits can be really annoying to fish. I could rip or burn a lipless crankbait but still stand a good chance of losing a lot of them, especially since I don’t have a kayak or boat right now. I like using square bills so that shouldn’t be too difficult to manage from the bank. There are a ton of different kinds of jigs, so I could fish every part of the water column with a few different types and different styles of trailers. For Texas-rigs, I usually throw everything from a trick worm, speed worm, beaver style bait , or creature bait. Top water baits are pretty easy. I fish frogs in heavy cover and ploppers in more open areas on points or parallel to the bank. If I need a more weed-less presentation for plopper style baits, I can use a buzz bait.

By paying attention to the seasonal patterns and weather, I can narrow down my starting lure, technique, and fishing area selections even more. Hopefully, once I find them, I’ll be able to catch a few extra by switching up baits or colors if the bite starts to taper off with my primary ones. It will be interesting to see if there will be any significant differences in my fish catches this next year. I hope so, and for the better. See you next post!

Published

Originally published at http://l2-fish.com on January 17, 2021.