Constant Change is Part of Fishing

Constant Change is part of Fishing

Today’s fishermen have to adapt to the ever-changing pressure on today’s lakes. The change has come over time but the days of finding aggressive bass are depleted and if you’re going to be successful you must change with it. Adapting is key, mind games you must overcome, and success is just different than it used to be.

The reason is simple, the enormous pressure on today’s lakes, especially the top-rated ones, is extremely obvious to anyone that fishes them. My inner thoughts some days when I pull up to a spot on a Monday and it’s covered up with fisherman is what happen to the good old days.  Well the answer of course is its just different but as the population of our country grows and as more folks have disposable income the numbers of folks fishing just keeps growing. The change however has severely taken out the lonely days on the lake with you a select few, they just don’t exist anymore.

The key is understanding that your technique must change with the times, that aggressive bite in most cases is just not there and adapting your style is most important to getting a bite. Subtle in most cases is the new aggressive bite; you must be patient and feel the subtle bite and fish techniques that employ it. One of the things I continually find is that regardless of bait letting that bait lay dead still for some reasonable period, maybe as much as 15 to 20 seconds is the only way to fish many of these high-pressured lakes.

Many times, I just let a jig lay motionless along a river ledge or in a flipping hole in the grass to allow for the subtle bite to occur. Motionless fishing for periods of many seconds at a time is our new aggressive power fishing technique; how many times have you noticed that you pause your bait to talk to your partner and all sudden there is a fish on your line. Remember don’t limit this to bottom baits as many top water baits like walking baits or popping baits will accomplish the same thing. Motionless fishing and “dead sticking” are taking over!