hey guys, whats up? went out today and had 2 massive bass swimming around some beds. tried throwing everything we could think of at them and they would not touch it. at points they would quickly dart away. what do you do when that happens? they were easily 7+ pounds each
If they wander off too far from the bed then they definitely aren’t locked on to it. Especially if they just dart away from it… Makes fishing real tough. I’d much rather try and catch a fish locked on or a fish nowhere near a bed.
It’s definitely possible. I’d go about this two ways and they’re basically the exact opposite approach. I’d try to frustrate the hell out of it and get a reaction bite. I like doing this with either a meaty plastic or a violent chatterbait. Might be hard to execute if they’re skiddish. Or I’d forget about them for a while, then cast with a very subtle approach. Stay far and quiet. Keep it off the bed and if the fish wants it, it will go for it. Go with a plastic that moves a lot ot water.
I misread your post. I took it as bedding bass, my bad. Lol.
When that happens to me I downsize and slow down. If I’m in the plastic mode, ill rig it weightless and go for a slow fall. Baby brush hog is my go to in that situation. I like to take the top arms and cut them where they connect to the top of the body. Gives them more movement and a better profile.
yeah, they werent right on the bed, they would swim off 20-30 yards then swim back. I tried different worms, redshade lizards, pitbosses, fat ikas flukes. guess i should have tried something smaller.
Lol at BBK. I just started a thread saying how happy I am with Berkley havocs bottom hopper juniors. That’s a really nice downsized bait.
Don’t hesitate to cut your plastics and try something out of the norm. I can’t count how many times I walked out to a pond and just cut my worm or brush hog in half and that’s what triggered bites.
yeah, they werent right on the bed, they would swim off 20-30 yards then swim back. I tried different worms, redshade lizards, pitbosses, fat ikas flukes. guess i should have tried something smaller.
Had this happen last week. You could see them but they wouldn’t have none of it. There’s really nothing to do except try to find some that are farther along in the spawn or locked on the bed.
personally i would just leave them alone and find other bass. you don’t want to inadvertently mess up those huge females spawn, you want to keep the gene pool loaded with their offspring.
Have they spawned up there yet Andy? They were done here almost a month ago.
i believe so. we caught one the other day thats tail was all chewed up but was out in deeper water not in shallow. I just dont know why the wouldnt bite. gonna go back later this week and see what happens.
Probably played the game before. If you can see them, so can everyone else that fishes there.
I still say go with a live nightcrawler if you want to catch them.
I caught a nice 3lber or so a week ago that would not touch anything I offered. He would always just turn and swim away when he saw a lure, or would go up to it slowly then back off and swim away. Couldnt resist a live nightcrawler though, grabbed right on as soon as he saw it.
Its not for everyone, that’s for sure! I’m sure a lot of people are reading this and thinking the live worm trick isn’t ethical for bass fishing. And I guess in a way I can see how guys think like that, if you were brought up to fish artificial then you wouldn’t think too highly of tricking that bass with live bait. Myself, I don’t care if people use live bait and I use live bait when they wont hit plastics. Yeah, it is a lot easier than using lures but I only use the worm trick for big ones that I let go anyways.
Trust me, 8lb mono or fluoro with a #4 aberdeen hook and a whole live nightcrawler will catch those bass. Just throw it close to them and let the worm do his thing. NO WEIGHT! But make sure he has it down before you set the hook, sometimes they will only grab the tail of the worm and swim with it, you have to make sure she has taken the whole thing before you nail her.
i don’t have any problems with using live bait if that is what you want to do. i fished live bait exclusively 3 years ago. once i made a commitment to catching bass as the pros do, i don’t even think about using live bait anymore. it’s more fun to me to get the bass to hit an artificial lure. something i didn’t ever think i would be able to do and still learning and getting better.
