2013 Improvements 2024

BassinB reply :

Before every season while I'm restocking my tackle collection, I set some goals for myself. One being the techniques I am going to improve on this season. Last year I really focused on pitching jigs and punching heavy cover, as well as shakey heads. This year I am focusing on crankbaits and drop shotting. Anybody else take this approach to their fishing?

TrapperJ reply :

Yup!

Drop shotting is on my list!

Also I hate to admit it and call myself a bass fisherman... But...the the other thing on my list is learn to fish a spinnerbait more, and better. I hardly ever use one

So those are on my list this year.

roadwarrior reply :

Spinnerbaits are my focus this year.

Bassguytom reply :

I'm going to try to flip and pitch a jig in pads more. I really need to learn how to do that. I really just started fishing a jig last year and it's a blast feeling them suck it in and setting the hook.

Nitrofreak reply :

I am so rusty from not being able to fish I think the whole spectrum is something I need to focus on this year, I am not looking forward to all of the work but at the same time I am excited to get back after it again.

I hope whatever any one needs to work on brings great success to all of you and that this season is your best season ever !!

Good luck and be safe !!!

Jigfishn10 reply :

On 1/29/2013 at 10:00 PM, roadwarrior said:
Spinnerbaits are my focus this year.

I can just so happen to reccomend one for ya...would you like me to share?...LOL

Mike L reply :

On 1/29/2013 at 10:22 PM, Bassguytom said:
I'm going to try to flip and pitch a jig in pads more. I really need to learn how to do that. I really just started fishing a jig last year and it's a blast feeling them suck it in and setting the hook.

Yep, Me too

Mike

Topwaterspook reply :

Catching bass on jigs and building confidence in that tactic.

Darren. reply :

Not really. There are things I'd LIKE to become proficient at (cranks, spinnerbaits, etc.) but because i want to maximize my time on the water by catching, not just fishing, I tend to stick with my standards. Soft plastics.

If I were fishing tourneys, I'd definitely spend more time on becoming more "rounded" in techniques.

flyfisher reply :

I try and pick a technique each year to be better at too. This year i am focusing on jigs, deep water structure & crankbaits

On 1/29/2013 at 10:38 PM, Nitrofreak said:
I am so rusty from not being able to fish I think the whole spectrum is something I need to focus on this year, I am not looking forward to all of the work but at the same time I am excited to get back after it again.

I hope whatever any one needs to work on brings great success to all of you and that this season is your best season ever !!

Good luck and be safe !!!

Nitro-

I have to say you are the most positive person i have ever seen on any of the boards i frequent. Always something positive to say and encouraging. Part of the reason i am glad i found this site.

bkohlman reply :

Ned rig/Senkos/Chatterbaits will be my focus for the year.

Nitrofreak reply :

On 1/30/2013 at 12:12 AM, flyfisher said:
I try and pick a technique each year to be better at too. This year i am focusing on jigs, deep water structure & crankbaits
Nitro-

I have to say you are the most positive person i have ever seen on any of the boards i frequent. Always something positive to say and encouraging. Part of the reason i am glad i found this site.

Thanx, that means a lot !!!

I hope we get the chance to meet someday !!

Sundance reply :

this year im going to fish more soft plastics and try to build convidence with them and spinnerbaits.

Christian M reply :

Nitrofreak- thanks for the encouragement!

This is the first winter that I've actually taken time to practice flipping/pitching in my backyard.

Jigfishn10 reply :

This is the year I reaquaint myself to jerkbaits. I really haven't used them in a long time and I remember doing well with them in the past. I just don't know why I abandoned them.

Nitrofreak reply :

On 1/30/2013 at 2:05 AM, Christian M said:
Nitrofreak- thanks for the encouragement!

Get out there and go get em !!

Come back here and show them off when you do, I can't wait to see what you all can do this season !!

Clash City Rocker reply :

Another for spinnerbaits this year! I've just never been patient with them for some reason. I'll have to leave my cranks, jigs and plastics at home!

BlackMagic82 reply :

I've thrown a jig all fall and winter, almost exclusively (I'd say 85% of my casts) and it has done wonders for my ability to fish with one. I'm not really going to focus on one rig or another during spring and summer, instead I'm going to try and hone in on my ability to fish the conditions that I am presented with better.

Shane J reply :

For me, it's gonna be learning the new electronics. Lot's to learn on a pair of HDS 10's.

Felix77 reply :

#1 on the list is the drop shot.

#2 is jigs (flipping & football)

Rangerphil reply :

I am no pro by any means but one tip I can give about using spinnerbaits is to work them! What I mean by that is don't get into the habit of just throwing them out and reeling them back in. Try to incorporate some pauses,jerks,twitches and such. Work them through cover not just around. Get into a habit of killing it at the boat before you lift it in, it is alot more work doing all of this but I promise it pays off with fish you may have never caught otherwise. Also, don't forget a trailer hook! Hope this helps!

Jell0b0y reply :

I am going to work on spinnerbaits and jerk baits this spring. The summer will bring ledge fishing with deep diving crank baits. I have never had the patients and always went back to beating the banks but this year I am really going to push myself to stay out there. I may leave all my cranks at the house except for the deep divers to keep me from doing that.

Nitrofreak reply :

On 1/30/2013 at 5:55 AM, Rangerphil said:
I am no pro by any means but one tip I can give about using spinnerbaits is to work them! What I mean by that is don't get into the habit of just throwing them out and reeling them back in. Try to incorporate some pauses,jerks,twitches and such. Work them through cover not just around. Get into a habit of killing it at the boat before you lift it in, it is alot more work doing all of this but I promise it pays off with fish you may have never caught otherwise. Also, don't forget a trailer hook! Hope this helps!

I am no pro either but may I add to your post?

Rangerphil reply :

Please do!

JigMe reply :

I am putting down my stick baits this year, and fish more crankbaits & swim jigs.

Nitrofreak reply :

On 1/30/2013 at 5:55 AM, Rangerphil said:
I am no pro by any means but one tip I can give about using spinnerbaits is to work them! What I mean by that is don't get into the habit of just throwing them out and reeling them back in. Try to incorporate some pauses,jerks,twitches and such. Work them through cover not just around. Get into a habit of killing it at the boat before you lift it in, it is alot more work doing all of this but I promise it pays off with fish you may have never caught otherwise. Also, don't forget a trailer hook! Hope this helps!

I love what he is saying here as to working them, Thanks for letting me add my 2 cents, keep in mind a spinner is nothing more than a fancy jig, when you are "working" a spinner bait and the same goes for crank baits, make sure you are in contact with what ever you are fishing, cover or structure, you have to make these things change direction to be more successful with them, bump them then pause, then run it into something else, yes you will get hung up from time to time, fish them like you intend to do just that, yes you will lose one or two, but if your not working them as Ranger said your not going to be as effective as you would just cranking them back to you in a straight line, you will get bit doing that but not nearly as much as if you work the bait.

Hope that helps as well and thanks again Ranger !!!

Rangerphil reply :

^^^^ exactly!! Thanks nitrofreak!

RODNEY reply :

How to use my electronics to better effect.

Rodney

tugsandpulls reply :

x2 on jerkbaits thats my goal this year

Ratherbfishing reply :

It's a somewhat silly goal but I want to catch at least one bass with every lure (or lure type) in my arsenal. Some lures have been "freeloaders" for years and I want to make them earn their keep.

mnbassman23 reply :

Drop shot and shaky head. Drives me nuts to finesse fish.. Give me a jig and I can fish slow all day long and be happy, turn it into a finesse lure and I feel like i'm watching paint dry.

Silas reply :

Trying to learn to Pitch! Tried several combos and just today found one that seems to work pretty well. Daiwa Sol on a Diesel rod with 1/4oz tungsten and Pit Boss. While "practicing" I caught several bass. Nice to be rewarded for my efforts.

I just need to get much better at it! There is SO much hard wood cover here that it would be foolish NOT to do it.

I think I have the equipment: now I just need to learn "technique."

Southfork reply :

Based on the success I had topwater last year, I'm going to expand my tackle beyond buzzbaits, jitterbugs, and torpedos.

The walking and twitch baits have gotten my attention lately, need to get a few of those to try.

Until it's weather for those, I'll probably be throwing jigs, flukes, and jerkbaits just like I always have.

TheKingFisher reply :

Good topic...

I'll be working on top water a bit, plus I'm broadening my horizons a bit and recently acquired a couple of baitcasters so I'll be busy learning to cast and work those.

Of course I also have a terrible time fishing slow, so I'll be trying to slow things down a bit this year.

SudburyBasser reply :

On 1/30/2013 at 12:00 AM, DarrenM said:
Not really. There are things I'd LIKE to become proficient at (cranks, spinnerbaits, etc.) but because i want to maximize my time on the water by catching, not just fishing, I tend to stick with my standards. Soft plastics. If I were fishing tourneys, I'd definitely spend more time on becoming more "rounded" in techniques.

Exactly my thoughts. If you had asked me only a few weeks ago I would have said I wanted to get comfortable with drop shotting. Or Carolina rigs. Or split shots. Or. Or.

I catch a lot of fish on crank baits and plastics. Yeah, it would be nice to learn all the other techniques but my time fishing is unfortunately limited because of a short season up here in northern Canada and my brother-in-law's availability (his is the boat) so experimenting/learning heavily just takes time from actual catching. Any learning I do this year will be with the new and first baitcaster I bought.

At some point when I get my own boat and decide when I'm fishing perhaps I'll pick up some new techniques.

loodkop reply :

Map study and electronics. At this moment I have a very expensive speedometer (HB 898 SI) on a not that fast boat.

Jaiden reply :

Putting together a pattern on new lakes and spinnerbaits.

slowpoke274 reply :

On 1/30/2013 at 8:13 AM, mnbassman23 said:
Drop shot and shaky head. Drives me nuts to finesse fish.. Give me a jig and I can fish slow all day long and be happy, turn it into a finesse lure and I feel like i'm watching paint dry.

me as well ive yet to catch a fish on either technique so finesse will get alot of attention this year im just gonna have to leave all the other baits at home and really focus on the post frontal days

jbone177 reply :

My goal this year is to catch fish! LOL Last year was the first time had gone fishing since I was a little kid and now Im hooked! Didnt have much success but my confidence has grown a lot thanks to this site and Gene's videos. I have to really try a few new techniques figure out which one(s) I like and focus on those. My overall goal for this year is to out fish all my friends and Im confident I will be able to. Just ordered my first baitcasting rod and will soon get a reel as well. Hopefully I'll have a good amount of practice under my belt by the time early spring comes around.

iceman11 reply :

Every day I go fishing I try and work on a new technique. Even though I usually go back to what I know works rather than trying to make a new technique work.

MarkH024 reply :

On 1/30/2013 at 8:13 AM, mnbassman23 said:
Drop shot and shaky head. Drives me nuts to finesse fish.. Give me a jig and I can fish slow all day long and be happy, turn it into a finesse lure and I feel like i'm watching paint dry.

I'm the same way. We should fish together. lol. I have a hard time fishing slowwwwwwww. I like to cover a lot of water. Drop Shotting is my primary focus this season.

Jigfishn10 reply :

Quote
Rangerphil, on 29 Jan 2013 - 16:55, said:
I am no pro by any means but one tip I can give about using spinnerbaits is to work them! What I mean by that is don't get into the habit of just throwing them out and reeling them back in. Try to incorporate some pauses,jerks,twitches and such. Work them through cover not just around. Get into a habit of killing it at the boat before you lift it in, it is alot more work doing all of this but I promise it pays off with fish you may have never caught otherwise. Also, don't forget a trailer hook! Hope this helps!

NitroFreak

Hope that helps as well and thanks again Ranger !!!

Nitrofreak reply :

Every year it seems we have a thread like this, I love seeing that all of us want to get better at something, either a technique or a study of some sort, like a map.

We have all of the information here at our fingertips to make us all better anglers, all we need to do is get out there and practice, practice, practice, it sounds so easy.

What is it that holds us back from being better anglers and accomplishing the goals we set for ourselves?

It's much like a new year resolution isn't it, my goal is to loose 25lbs, how many of us start off great and end up dumping the program because it is simply not working out?

Same here, whats the main reason it does not work out? the reason is different for each and every one of us, oh that plan stank, or I am just too lazy, my dog ate my...., Think about it, all they are, are excuses.

My point is if you want to be better at doing something or have a goal, then one thing that we all know is that it takes commitment, commitment to doing something over and over and over again until we get it right is, lets face it, boring as he## !!

Make things easy on yourselves, if you want the drop shot to work for you, or you want the crank or spinner baits to work, you have to find the fish first, stop throwing those baits in hopes a bass will bite, don't just look at a spot and think, man there just has to be a bass in there somewhere, stop thinking in single digits, think big !!

Make yourself do something different, make your baits do something different, make it all work for you by knowing when the right time is the right time to use the baits you want to get better at, take the time to read and understand what you are attempting to do with the baits so that it works out for the best for you and your new technique, without finding the fish first, the technique is going to be useless to you and you will just toss it aside like that failed weight loss plan, get off the couch and get off the banks and allow yourself the opportunity to achive the goals we set for ourselves and become the successful and skinny anglers we want to be.

Good luck and be safe !!!

Nitrofreak reply :

On 2/1/2013 at 11:05 PM, Jigfishn10 said:
Would you mind if I add to this?

Who are you asking ?

If your asking me then have at it !!!

Jigfishn10 reply :

On 2/1/2013 at 11:32 PM, Nitrofreak said:
Who are you asking ?

If your asking me then have at it !!!

You asked for permission, I was just following your lead...which is dangerous...LOL

The only thing I can add to what Nitro and Ranger posted about spinnerbaits or any horizontal presented lure for that matter, would be to keep depth and speed in mind along with the techniques already mentioned. Case in point was my trip to Disney last week. I brought down some MegaStrike StrikeBack spinnerbaits to try out. We launched at 7:00 am and the lake was pea soup fog. I was using the spinnerbait and my guilde was using a worm. I started off working it shallow, meaning a foot or so in the water column, with a slow retrieve speed, trying to locate fish. No luck. I fished a little deeper (about 5 fow) and again, slow and finally located them on the edge of thick grass. I kept this "pattern" up until the sun came up and then the "pattern" changed. After an hour or so, I decided to fish the same depth, but sped up the retrieve. Bam, I'm back on the "pattern". The sun evidently activated/changed the fish's behavior as the bite was more agressive, so I had to change to what was presented to me.

So again, keep depth and speed in mind as well as retrieve techniques.

Nitrofreak reply :

On 2/1/2013 at 11:52 PM, Jigfishn10 said:
You asked for permission, I was just following your lead...which is dangerous...LOL

The only thing I can add to what Nitro and Ranger posted about spinnerbaits or any horizontal presented lure for that matter, would be to keep depth and speed in mind along with the techniques already mentioned. Case in point was my trip to Disney last week. I brought down some MegaStrike StrikeBack spinnerbaits to try out. We launched at 7:00 am and the lake was pea soup fog. I was using the spinnerbait and my guilde was using a worm. I started off working it shallow, meaning a foot or so in the water column, with a slow retrieve speed, trying to locate fish. No luck. I fished a little deeper (about 5 fow) and again, slow and finally located them on the edge of thick grass. I kept this "pattern" up until the sun came up and then the "pattern" changed. After an hour or so, I decided to fish the same depth, but sped up the retrieve. Bam, I'm back on the "pattern". The sun evidently activated/changed the fish's behavior as the bite was more agressive, so I had to change to what was presented to me.

So again, keep depth and speed in mind as well as retrieve techniques.

Nice, really good job !!!

If you can't fish these after all that then.........use dynamite, it never fails LOL !!!

skeetercraig reply :

On 1/30/2013 at 6:27 PM, loodkop said:
Map study and electronics. At this moment I have a very expensive speedometer (HB 898 SI) on a not that fast boat.

you arent the only one , this is where im focusing some time into also

Big Bassman reply :

Learn new sonar unit which will be an all year thing! Drop shot and fish more plastics. When I think back on all the years I have bass fished I realize I have concentrated on one or two lures & techniques each season. In other words, one season more spinnerbaits, another maybe more jig&pig or plastic worm. I have always either had more success with a particular type of bait or just fished that bait more regularly in a specific season or year. Last year it was spinnerbaits, killed fish all year! Not sure why, but whatever bait I'm tossin at the time if I start nailin fish I generally stick with it until it becomes less productive and then I try something else.

Bass Junkie reply :

I always set goals to learn a specific technique and then end up learning new techniques throughout the season, but rarely are they the ones I originally intended to learn...

Jigfishn10 reply :

On 2/4/2013 at 5:26 AM, Bass Junkie said:
I always set goals to learn a specific technique and then end up learning new techniques throughout the season, but rarely are they the ones I originally intended to learn...

I can't tell you how many times that happened to me as well Bass Junkie...Not all bad...In my case, I suffer from A.D.D....well not really, just a mind of a 5 y/o...LOL

BassinB reply :

Along with my original goals i just pulled the trigger on the new Lowrance elite 7hdi, so im gonna focus a lot on using it to its full potential this year as well.

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