New Fishing Strategy

[gwurzel]

For giggles, I'm going to be following what bassmaster magazine say to throw in the "Throw This, Dont Throw That" part of the magazine. Nothing could possibly go wrong, right?

Wife even agreed with it, didnt like to point out there was no mention of where, and what to add to it on anything.

So, this month, it'll be A rig, Deep diving cranks, football jigs and the drop shot

Wurz

[Perris_holic]

I had thought about doing that before, but then I figured that those tactics probably weren't based on California lake patterns in my opinion.

[parkermann2]

I have always thought that part was dumb because fishing is different in every region at any given time. There are times when I disagree with them and catch a ton of fish on what they said not to throw

[Skinny]

Was out there with my kids this morning. Struck out on the a rig with keitechs, kids drop shotted for nada. Didn't throw the jig or crank. Caught five on a chatterbait rigged with a super fluke. All my fish came out of grass in 10-16 feet of water. Busted off a toad around a tire as I was trying to get my four old a fish on a senko. Thing came about a foot outa water on six# and surged for a cluster of tires where it broke off. Musta been 6 or so. Happy hunting fellas.

[DarkShadow]

I had thought about doing that before, but then I figured that those tactics probably weren't based on California lake patterns in my opinion.

I think the biggest mistake I ever made starting out with bass fishing is thinking tactics that work in Florida and Texas, where 'deep' is considered 12 feet, would work in Southern California.

That's when I stopped paying attention to Bass Magazines and started to look at what the successful anglers in my area were doing to get fish to go.

[gwurzel]

You guys are right, as I said at the start, was mostly for giggles - that said, a swift report for the day (as I've just got back). A - Rig - bugger all, nowt, not a sniff - was throwing it at the dam, counting it down to 25 - 30 then slow rolling it back.
Deep diving crank - 1 small fish (.5 of a pound if lucky) after I managed to deflect it off a rock (dam again).
Football jig - 2, both small, 1 around a pound, one just under. Was pitching this at the taller grass to the left of the tyres - use the smallest I had, with a small creature bait (craw) again in blue (sorry, ditched the packaging, no idea what type or what the official color is)
Drop shot - started with this at the tyres, sitting in 9 feet or so of water, throwing it out deeper or level with the boat, so approx the same depth. Used a roboworm pumpkin with red flake. Made the drop shot longer than I usually would, so it would sit on top of the bottom grass (vis was around 6ft or so). First fish, small, .5 of a pound or so, 2nd fish was a 2 pounder, the other 4 were all below that weight.

Overall, very fun day, even with the wife bringing her friend along (hard to concentrate when all you can hear is "oh he didnt, did he, how did she do that etc"

Wurz

[DEVOREFLYER]

I was taught a long time ago to start with what your most comfortable with (your confidence bait). If that's not working try something different. I would have to say that 90% of the time I only use setup/bait and when it isn't working in the beginning it usually puts me on fish sometime later in the day or in a different area.

[gwurzel]

Agree Devo - biggest problem so far is I dont have a "fully" confidence bait - drop shotting getting better, and now remembering I can change the angle from where I cast, and how I retrieve etc. This was always going to take time, I can beach cast pretty well (surf fishing here in the US), I can fish a waggler/stick float pretty good etc etc, but this bass fishing thing is still "relatively" new to me - 1 year in so far. I've made progress, but still a ways to go. Having fun learning tho, each trip I find something else out (fish location, something how to etc) so its all good.

Biggest change for me so far - mental attitude - before I was impatient, now, not so much.

Wurz

[twin22s]

I have always thought that part was dumb because fishing is different in every region at any given time. There are times when I disagree with them and catch a ton of fish on what they said not to throw

I'm a professional "junk" fishermen. No lure is off limits in my mind. most of what I use is based on the body of water, clarity, type of cover I'm fishing, and yes the time of year, but parkermann2 is right, you can fish 3 lakes in 3 days in SoCal and all 3 can be in completely different stages, and require very different techniques.

Confidence is very important, my go to stuff is T-rig robo worms, spinnerbaits, and small swimbaits. If you are looking for your go to bait(s) i suppose it doesn't matter where you start but you must always keep an open mind and open tackle box while on the water.

[DarkShadow]

It's good that you're starting from scratch because that's where everyone started from.

The eye opener is that you're willing to tackle local parks, and I can safely say that if you can learn to catch fish from Legg, Lincoln, Echo, etc, once you graduate to the bigger lakes, those same techniques will work and success will come a lot quicker.

As I said before, looking at what other successful anglers use to get fish to go is probably your best bet. But i will still bet that once you learn how to fish a pressured body of water and you venture out to larger lakes, then it becomes a lot easier.

Once you learn the dropshot and the basic T-rig, then you'll be able to cover 95% of the situations that you may encounter in our bodies of water. And once that happens, then you can start exploring other methods of getting fish to go.

[gwurzel]

Agreed DS and Twin - makes real sense. My regular fishing partner is an ex tournament angler - so I learn a lot when fishing with him. Thanks to everyone who has given me tips and tricks, either on the boards on via PM, it truly is very much appreciated.

[Pete Marino]

go back and try again... this time stay off the dam...Fish deep grass in 7-14 ft with the arig and thank me later..

Pete

[gwurzel]

I'll be there tomorrow, thanks Pete, appreciate it.

[BluezNBass52]

the drop will be your best bet!