Not Biting, Keys

Not Biting, Keys

It’s unfortunately part of fishing as we all find days when the fish just won’t cooperate; there are many reasons as it happens to us all. The reasons are many, the solutions are few and sometimes there is just not a good solution, but you just have to be persistent! The biggest thing I find is your mental state, you have to believe and have confidence you will succeed because as soon as you mentally give in you miss a fish.

Keeping the right mental state is the start the next things I do starts with confidence baits we all have a technique that we believe in, so the first thing I do is turn to my confidence bait, for me it’s a swim bait; sure, it changes over time, but the last few years is all about swim bait technique and persistence. The next thing for me is down-sizing when you downsize and start matching the hatch with your bait size, it gives you a chance. It puts your bait in close resemblance of the natural food source and doesn’t totally rely on reaction baits. Size matters when the fish are slow and making an easy food source by downsizing makes it easy for them to feed. Along with size I must slow down, it’s part of the process of giving them an easy food source. If you put it in front of the fish and let it slowly entice them many times they will feed out of lack of patience. Bass are not blessed with a lot of patience so dangling bait in front of them for an extended period many times results in catching fish.

I am a big believer in my Lowrance Electronics, I constantly look for fish on Active Target and look for bottom structure that should hold fish, like drops, trees, contours changes and more. All this along with patience can lead to your next bite; ignoring it is just not an option for me as I constantly keep my eye on how the bottom is changing. Each season of the year changes what you look for and as you use your electronics and find fish you will adapt to the changes needed to be successful and learn from it.