Originally Posted by
Bonefish
Last week I stopped by the Cedar Creek Bass Pro Shop and pick up a new rod. Took it over to the lake, and my partner and I started out graphing fish patterns for the day. Most of the graphed fish were on the trees. We found some bass holding off one of the points in 10 to 15 ft of water near a grass bed. When you see such bass holding near weedbeds, they are usually there to feed. I put my baitcaster on the new rod and set up a C-rig with a 3"shad fluke. After approximately 6 to 8 cast, a fish hit the fluke so hard it almost took my rod out of hand. I held the fish for a minute or so before it came unbuttoned. This was a really good fish. I never did get the fish under control. It was one of those fish you would at least like to have seen. After another cast or two I hung into another good fish which also came off. This was frustrating to say the least but that is the way it is sometimes. After you loose a good fish, you always question what you did wrong. Maybe I could set the hook harder, but I did set the hook hard. Did I have the right size hook for the fluke size? Was the hook sharp? My rig was setup right and should have worked in my mind. The fact is I just did not get a good hook-set on these two fish. I think when you put the hook point back into the plastic sometimes it doen't rip out fast enough to allow the hook point to penetrate.
Afterwards, we continued to fish that area without another hit so we decided to move to other spots. To make a long story short, we did not hook up with another good fish the rest of the day. So what happen? We did not change our mind set with changing conditions. It started to rain and storm after I hung those two fish. We should have altered our game plan because when it storms bass move deeper and relate to structure, and you may have to put the lure right in front of them for them to take the lure. I am just trying to make a point that we must be able to change our tactics when conditions change. On hot sunny days, fish are usually going to be in the shade. If it is thundering fish go deep and hold tight to structure. If it is just cloudy and raining, sometimes bass with come to shore and hit on top water baits.
We hear alot about big baits for big bass, but that is not the case all of the time. During times when you have to drop the bait in front of a bass, you may want to downsize and use finesse techniques. That means using the lightest line, hooks, snap and even split rings. Something that is rarely written about these days is casting accuracy. When times are tough, you must be able to cast into the strike zone. The strike zone can be very small on certain days so practice is needed just like any other sport.
I can't emphasize enough on tough days to downsize and slow down your presentation. Also, most importantly maintain your confidence in your abilities to adjust to the changing condition for that day. Your best tool for doing this may just be a Texas Rigged worm to force yourself to slow down so you can think and evaluate what the fish are doing. I have to say I didn't follow my suggestions as well as I should have last week. When I told Elwood about loosing the two fish, he just looked at me out of the corner of his left-squinted eye and gave me a one-sided grin out right side and said..."it was one of those big channel cats."
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