What bait or technique are you going to work on perfecting next year? Why?
I'm going to master fishing the "Trap" next year. I need to improve my fish finding skills. I found myself spending to much time fishing unproductive water last year.
I'm going to try and build up a swimbait arsenal this winter, and my new years resolution is to catch bigger fish. What better way than with a swimbait.
Good question NYTEX.....
I have already bought a set-up just for jigs, and different jigs in different colors, weights, rattles etc. I never throw them because they require patience...I don't have alot of that. But maybe if I work on my Jiggin'...I'll get more patient...Hmmmm????
bassnajr
Finesse Jigs.
I seem to target the bigger fish.So i'm going to do a little swimbaiting.
Also going to put my falcon cara rod to good use doing topwater and cranks.Looking to get another rod for this as well.
I'm shore bound,but this year i'd like to at least get into a boat somehow.
If i start having a lousy year i'll break the jig out.It's my favorite. 8-) Just wish my bass fishing season was longer. :-/
Finesse jigs and traps. I found myself relying on a dropshot rig way too much over the last year.
I'm going to work on my jig fishing and probably using a carolina rig more.
I will be giving C-rig a good run this spring.
jigs
Swimbaits and deep water cranking. I feel very comfortable cranking in depths from 1-10' but after than not so good. The other issue we really dont have the water for deeper cranking in RI so.
ive tried so hard in 07 to pull up a fish on a jig and still couldnt do it. in 08 i WILL be a profiecient jig fisherman
I need to get my accuracy up with flipping, pitching, and casting baitcasters. Focus on jigging and cranking. Better understand the bass biology and routines. Focus more on food source such as crayfish movement/habitat, and shad movement/habitat.
FISH AT LEAST 20 TOURNAMENTS WITH A NEW CLUB!!!! :-/
I would like to expand my swimbait abilities.
I feel like I have a set number of tactics that I can do well, but I think that I need to really focus on some other tactics to target the truly giant fish.
Everyone out here is throwing big baits but they are not doing the things that get you consistent bites from the top end fish. Some of these things require absolute confidence and dedication, and its tough to do it.
But I did get a GIANT bite doing one of them a week and a half ago, and that has rekindled the drive.
The pain of missing a 12+ fish hits pretty hard, pretty hard indeed >
But the approach worked, and that will keep me going for awhile
Baitcasting and Jigs
Drop shotting
Fly fishing with top water flys/poppers and swimbaits/crankbaits with my new gear after I retire
QuoteI would like to expand my swimbait abilities.
Huh?
Like so many guys have mentioned, I'm going to spend some time fishing swimbaits.
Falcon
Just got back into bass fishing this past year.
Have always been a good plastics fisherman as a teenager and still now. Didn't do ANY cranking this year. Never really had any luck as a kid on billed crankbaits but I use to have a TON of success on traps when I was 13.
So......
1) Get back to traps and spinnerbaits more. (love my plastics but I rely on them too much. Would like to get back to being an allaround fisherman like I was as a kid.)
2) Give lipped crankbaits a good shake this year and catch some quality fish on them.
Changed out the hooks on my old Rattle Traps from when I was young. Put some Owner Stinger 36 trebles in red on them. 8-)
Hopefully that will give me some added confidence. Not to mention the great hookups I have had with Owner hooks on my plastics this year. Love em!!!
honestly, everything! i'm a noob to this sport, and probally will be for at least another decade. i'm also shorebound so mostly soft plastics and such for me
Jigs both finesse and standard w/trailers. Ive relied way too much on the Senko for a couple years. Hard jerkbaits too.
Hey Fourbizz I am impressed with your dedication and tenacity, FISH CHRIS is gonna be looking over his shoulders soon!
As for me I found out this year that I can catch on Jigs. I also discovered that I like the older way of a few undressed jgs( Sans Weed Guards and Skirts) with a few plastics on them, This year will be spent getting more proficient with them
I want to gain a lot of confidence with Rattletraps. I know they're producers, but I haven't really used them a lot so I just need to nab a few fatties.
Well I learned how to flip/pitch smaller size jigs (3/15-3/16 ounce, if you call that finesse) So I plan to give the larger size jigs a try this year, such as 1/4-3/8. I also plan to learn the Tube, the Spider Jig (Gycb Hula Grub on a Jighead), and I also am going to try a whole bunch of different creature baits to see which one I like best for flipping (tryed the Gycb Kreature, Sweet beaver, and Zoom Baby Brush Hog so far). Every year we get better, so either way its always a gain .
my main goal is Deep divers, just because a bunch of tournaments I fish in are won on deep divers.
deep water cranking and deep water jigging
There is so much for me to learn I don't even know where to start. I am starting to get flipping jigs. It is really about where you put the jig. I fish spinnerbaits good. I fish tubes decent and I have got drop shotting down. Shallow cranking no problem. I have room to improve on all of these but I have caught fish on all of them.
My problem..... deep cranking, rattletraps, and c-rigging. I have no idea if i am on fish or if I am even near fish. Are the fish running for their lives when I throw a deep diver? I have no idea.
In '08 I want to work on learning deep cranking, football jigs, and of course the swimbait. Also since we don't have an abundance of grass lakes here in NC, I would like to learn as much as I can about that (I am heading to Guntersville in March - Figured that would be a good place to learn a thing or two about grass fisheries ;D ) I would also like to get a better understanding about what I have found in practice so when the conditions change I can make the appropriate adjustments.
D. All of the above
JIG and PIG.
Don 't need to hone skills or techniques, they are already honed. What I need is to go fishing more oftenly, so far this year I 've only been out once about every month. For one reason or another I just can 't seem to be able to do more than that .
Quoteso far this year I 've only been out once about every month. For one reason or another I just can 't seem to be able to do more than that .
Once a month? Dios mio!
I think you need to hone your skill of slipping past the wife and out of the house ;D
I'm going out for a loaf of bread, rod what rod
Yup, once a month only. Between the wife n 'kids and the business I 'm screwed good :-[
Want to go to Zimapán, Calderón, La Pólvora or El Saltito ? have to plan 2 months before I can even wish to go and then the week before pray for nothing to come up.
Was ready to go the past weekend to La Pólvora, then on Friday a dog that needed hospitalization arrived early in the morning so that pretty much killed my trip and then ...... the danged dog died on Sunday ! >, if it was going to die why didn 't it die on Friday he arrived ? ah no, it had to ruin my trip.
Murphy 's Law. :
im going to try swimbaiting next year. im starting to look at some 6" swimbaits i might get, probably some Castaic ones, Mattlures, and maybe a couple other types to see if i like it. and hopefully get that 5 pounder that eluded me last year by 2 ounces >.
aaron
deep water structure fishing with cranks, jigs ect. in ohio there is not a lot of deep water.
I'm going to continue to improve my jig fishing and improve my suspending jerkbait fishing.
Do more jig fishing.