Which techniques are most important? 2024

INbassMAN reply :

This has GOT to be the longest, coldest winter ever. I couldn't fish even if i wanted to take on the below freezing temps because all of the lakes/ponds are frozen.

To help out with my cabin fever I have been doing ALOT of reading. This is a good thing since I still have alot to learn. All of this reading about different baits, techniques, and styles of fishing has left me with a delima. When the big thaw comes and I start hitting the lakes hard, what should I work on first. The person I have been fishing with and learning from is big on soft plastics, so I feel most confident with those. (although i still have alot to learn). Before it got cold I started experimenting on spinnerbaits and topwater.

For a guy who is still learning and trying to come up with my own style of fishing, what do you think is the most imortant techniques to work on first and why? Should I work on I thing at a time or should I try to mix in a little of everything each time out?

Your input is greatly appreciated.

Catt reply :

Learning what structure is, how to truly identify it, interpret it, and then fish it effectively, is the quickest, surest means of consistently putting fish in the boat.

K_Mac reply :

I would concentrate on seasonal techniques. What I mean is as winter ends and the lakes thaw you will have the opportunity to try some of the techniques you've been reading about. Plastics, jigs, and suspending jerkbaits can kill in colder water. As the fish begin to move up in preparation for the spawn, rattletraps and shallow/med cranks, top water, spinnerbaits, Senkos, etc. begin to produce. As the water warms and fish begin to establish summer patterns deeper water techniques come into play...

Since you are comfortable with soft plastics don't be afraid to throw them. Shallow to deep they can and do catch fish year round. Jigs are the same. Learn to fish them.

Just some of my thoughts FWIW. Good luck.

Paul Roberts reply :

Man! Big question. I guess I'd fish the water you have, not the articles or catalogs you own. They can get you all excited (esp cooped up in a cabin lol), but spread you WAY thin too. The bait monkey will be all over you in the winter.

Problem is, and this is rampant in fishing literature, the focus is on lures and techniques that a certain lure supposedly excels at. This sells a lot of lures, but spreads new, and old, anglers way too thin. Focus on your waters and let them, and the conditions you are confronted with, develop your arsenal. You will not "find your style" in a catalog. That style is dictated by your waters and the varying conditions that will present themselves.

Basically, very diverse water types (structure, cover, clarity) offer the most options -but DON"T choose them all. Pick some basics first (and thinking about YOUR waters). Some waters will be much more limiting. Things will change through the season. No worries, the bait monkey will catch up with you, but you'll have him by the throat as you walk into BPS lol.

Basics: an appropriate jig or two (skirted, and worm or grub), an appropriate worm rig (T-rig, C-rig), a topwater or three (spook, popper, buzzbait, frog, say), a SB or two (tandem and single), a suspending jerkbait for spring and winter. Read up on these, and don't over-buy. Buy for your water, then take 'em out and see what they do and what problems/challenges come up. You will most likely need to run back to the store or catalog, with your mission better understood.

Let me leave you with this: IMO, jigs will teach you more about fishing, in more waters, than any other lure.

BassmanDan reply :

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Let me leave you with this: IMO, jigs will teach you more about fishing, in more waters, than any other lure.

true dat!

roadwarrior reply :

Well, until you feel like you have mastered soft

plastics, I would recommend nothing else! Jigs

may catch bigger fish on average, but soft plastics

probably account for more bass than all other lure

classes combined.

My top four suggestions are: (1) 5" Senko,

(2) Fat Ika, (3) Mizmo tube and (4) Gene

Larew 7 1/2" Salty Ring Worm.

8-)

Bass_Akwards reply :

There's no 'right or wrong" on how a person learns. Your personality is what will make you decied whether to try one thing at a time, or mix it up each time out.

Everyone trains differently in every sport. For example, some mixed martial artists learn one move or dicipline at a time until they get it down perfectly, then they move or onto the next move or dicipline. Others learn a bunch of moves and diciplines at once and practice them all day, all week and all month until they get them down. Do what's right and what's comfortable for you.

You mentioned, you were "still learning and trying to come up with my own style of fishing."

I say don't try to "come up" with a style. try not to be concerned with what style you're going to eventually have. Don't force a style on yourself. Let it come naturally after fishing a lot and practicing all the different techniques.

The list of "most important techniques to work on" is so vast and complex, that it would be impossible to list them all here BUT...

By "techniques" I figure you mean what baits to throw and how to throw them. (sorry if I'm wrong)

If that's what you mean, then it seems to me that TONS of tournaments over the years have been won by tossing soft plastics and Jigs. The Jig is a timeless classic that bass LOVE and is also a great lure for big bass.

Throwing soft plastics is a long proven method in almost any weather or lake condition, so I say if you're going to start somewhere, those are the two techniques I'd learn first. Things like pitching and flipping are a good thing to practice.

Also, learn to fish topwater baits like buzzbaits early in your carreer. They will addict you to bass fishing if you catch some fish on 'em. They have to be my favorite bait to throw because watching the explosions are just as fun as it gets. (use a trailor hook)

After topwater, Jigs, and plastics, move on to spinner and crank, jerk and swim baits, etc. etc.

Just an opinion here as many others might say "learn the spinner bait first." or some other technique.

Lastly, the most important ting about catching fish, is actually being ON fish. You can learn every technique in the fishing universe and never catch a thing if youre not ON fish.

Point being, learn structure, and cover as well as bass behavior and bait fish behavior. You mix that knowlege, with what techniques you practice over the years, and THAT'S what's going to make you a great angler.

Good Luck Bro and fish hard

A-Jay reply :

Catt wrote ~ "Learning what structure is, how to truly identify it, interpret it, and then fish it effectively"

K_Mac wrote ~ "I would concentrate on seasonal techniques."

Paul Roberts wrote ~ "fish the water you have, not the articles or catalogs you own."

And that's what make this site so valuable and unlike any other. Many years of on the water experience pasted on willingly as time tested advice.

A-Jay

bobbyc reply :

Artificial, hard or soft, live, no matter the bait, presentation is the key for me.

Raul reply :

Learn to know your baits, learn to know your prey.

Paul Roberts reply :

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Learn to know your baits, learn to know your prey.

Ditto. Knowing your baits doesn't necessarily mean having tons of them to play with, it means get to know each one you do have: How deep will it run? What speeds does it perform well at? Will it come through cover? Does it need tuning?

bobbyc wrote:

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Artificial, hard or soft, live, no matter the bait, presentation is the key for me.

Most of the magic in a given lure resides in where you put it and when, and then your deliberate manipulations of it. Don't get lulled into thinking the lure is doing the lion's share of the work. If you find yourself asking/begging the fish to come to your lure, you are not presenting precisely enough. Go to the fish, don't ask them to come to you.

Raul reply :

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Don't get lulled into thinking the lure is doing the lion's share of the work.

The "wrong" lure in the right hands is a thousand times more effective than the "right" lure in the wrong hands.

The art of catching fish and more importantly, catching fish consistently, is not in the lure itself but where it always has been, in the person behind it, there 's where the pus is.

zero limit reply :

Been waiting to hear "it's the Indian not the arrow"

Fishes in trees reply :

There are lots of ways to approach this question - and they are all right. For me, I think competence starts once you've achieved a certain level of mastery with your basic tools. By this, I mean get good with your rod and reel. Spinning or baitcasting, it don't matter. Get to the point to where your bait goes where you want it to go. Get beyond just throwing a bait in a general direction and get to where you can hit spots.

It took me several years to gain any sort of competence with a bait caster. Just keep at it.

FishnBen reply :

In the famous words of Rick Clunn, "Catching fish is easy.....it's finding them that's the tough part."

I couldn't agree more with this. Learn seasonal patterns, how to read lake contour maps, where cover meets structure in your lakes, and then finally how to position your boat so you can fish these areas, and you WILL catch fish. Learn to do those things and the price of your rod and reels or the number of lures you own won't matter.

INbassMAN reply :

Quote
Catt wrote ~ "Learning what structure is, how to truly identify it, interpret it, and then fish it effectively"
K_Mac wrote ~ "I would concentrate on seasonal techniques."

Paul Roberts wrote ~ "fish the water you have, not the articles or catalogs you own."

And that's what make this site so valuable and unlike any other. Many years of on the water experience pasted on willingly as time tested advice.

A-Jay

I was thinking the same thing when I was reading through all of the responses. This is a great site. I think about all of my favorites have responded to this, thanks to all.

I've learned rather early on from reading on this website how important it is to learn the seasonal patterns of bass and therefore being able to locate them. My goal is to try to take in as much of that information as I can when I'm not on the water so that I can consentrate more on actually fishing when I'm on the water.

I've also learned how big Catt is on learning to identify structure. (BTW, I loved the thread you started about that. it was very informative) There is a certain amount of reading that one could do to help, hopefully, to speed up the learning curve on being able to do that. That may prove to be one of the bigger challenges I have in front of me.

When I finally get out on the water, and think I have found a good spot to fish, what am I going to use. Again, reading articles on this site and other messages will, hopefully help speed up the learning curve.

So far from what you guys have said, I think I will work more with soft plastics and try some jigs. I never really thought of jigs as being more important to learn than a spinnerbait. However, since the water will still be cold and considering the seasonal patterns, maybe that would be a good strategie.

As far as reading the water and letting the fish tell me what they want, that seems a little more advanced. Maybe that will be a tougher task than being able to identify structure. I just need to keep an open mind when I'm on the water.

Thanks again everyone, I would love to read more opinions.

bassresource ROCKS!

Siebert Outdoors reply :

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Learn to know your baits, learn to know your prey.

Very well said. Answers it all.

Paul Roberts reply :

Quote

Quote
Catt wrote ~ "Learning what structure is, how to truly identify it, interpret it, and then fish it effectively"
K_Mac wrote ~ "I would concentrate on seasonal techniques."

Paul Roberts wrote ~ "fish the water you have, not the articles or catalogs you own."

And that's what make this site so valuable and unlike any other. Many years of on the water experience pasted on willingly as time tested advice.

A-Jay

I was thinking the same thing when I was reading through all of the responses. This is a great site. I think about all of my favorites have responded to this, thanks to all.

I've learned rather early on from reading on this website how important it is to learn the seasonal patterns of bass and therefore being able to locate them. My goal is to try to take in as much of that information as I can when I'm not on the water so that I can consentrate more on actually fishing when I'm on the water.

I've also learned how big Catt is on learning to identify structure. (BTW, I loved the thread you started about that. it was very informative) There is a certain amount of reading that one could do to help, hopefully, to speed up the learning curve on being able to do that. That may prove to be one of the bigger challenges I have in front of me.

When I finally get out on the water, and think I have found a good spot to fish, what am I going to use. Again, reading articles on this site and other messages will, hopefully help speed up the learning curve.

So far from what you guys have said, I think I will work more with soft plastics and try some jigs. I never really thought of jigs as being more important to learn than a spinnerbait. However, since the water will still be cold and considering the seasonal patterns, maybe that would be a good strategie.

As far as reading the water and letting the fish tell me what they want, that seems a little more advanced. Maybe that will be a tougher task than being able to identify structure. I just need to keep an open mind when I'm on the water.

Thanks again everyone, I would love to read more opinions.

bassresource ROCKS!

I would strongly suggest adding some faster lures too: jerk, SB, buzzbait, lipless crank; something to find active aggressive fish. If you can catch 'em fast do it. These lures (not always fished FAST, but often erratically) can help you find active fish quicker. Then you can finish em off with plastics and/or jigs. (BTW: a jig isn't always slow -I swim a jig a lot and can cover water with it.) I often start fishing with rods rigged with a "fast"/horizontal lure, and a slower/more vertical lure. One or the other will do the trick. But first you gotta find them. The horizontal lures will often do this quicker.

This stuff isn't all cookbook. Finding good structure doesn't mean the fish are there, or willing. Often I make my day in spurts. I first find them on any given day (location and/or position), make educated guesses on presentation, then fine tune. It's great when I can go out and be on willing fish right away. But often there's some real fishing involved. If you are new to a water, move a lot. Get to see a lot of it. Don't find a piece of "structure" and camp out for hours. You hear of anglers doing this, but this is bc they already know what to expect. They are already connected.

So your first job is to make contact with fish. To do this, you gotta do the work. And some faster lures can help you do this.

Start this spring: Get a couple suspending jerks (X-Rap say) and read up on em. I'm betting they'll find and catch you fish this spring.

Catt reply :

90% of the bass are found in 10% of the water...find that 10% & you have greatly narrowed down lure selection.

Red reply :

I was just like you ony a few years ago, just getting started. I started fishing t-rigged power worms and senkos, and pretty much stuck to them until I got the hang of it. The next year jigs were the big winner for me. Last year it was mostly spinnerbaits and a little cranking. I think it is better to stick to one thing until you get some confidence in it, that is what seems to work for me. Also last year I spent alot of time just "looking" because I had a new boat and depth finder, so it was a bit more involved that fishing from the shore.

Good Luck!!

Cliff

A-Rob reply :

1 thing I would add to your soft plastic fishing, is balancing that slower presentation with a fast moving bait like a crank or spinnerbait (which you said you were into a bit). If the bite is on, you can catch more fish faster, cover more water with this option.

But soft plastics are great, super versatile, ie snapping a tube to dead sticking a senko

Paul Roberts reply :

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90% of the bass are found in 10% of the water...find that 10% & you have greatly narrowed down lure selection.

Wow. Leave it to Tommy to get pithy on us. That's pretty much it in a nutshell.

Catt fishes big water a lot, so his percentages might actually be 95%/5%. I fish small waters and have some ponds where the ratio could be more like 70/30 -during summer! Still, within these top areas there are specific spots that either hold most of those fish, or where they are most vulnerable to a lure, at a given time.

The problem I suppose for the newb is knowing what's appropriate bass habitat, and when. The first is knowing structure and cover, the physical layout of the bottom of your water, second is the prey, third is timing -season, sub-season, weather pattern, daily and hourly conditions, all the way down to the moment you receive your strikes. This is the elusive "timing" everyone talks about, that's so important but we have little control over. So we plan, and react.

What Catt is suggesting is, know where the bass are, or are likely to be if you don't know the water body well, and let those locations dictate what to use.

He used a lot fewer words as usual, but I wanted to spell it out more, bc there's a lot in there.

Catt reply :

While reading articles on techniques (lure presentation) is valuable it is some what limited by the fact you are not on the water to actually see and feel what is taking place.

The biggest difficulty for most anglers is taking a one dimensional view of a topographical map or depth finder screen and converting it to a three dimensional view in their head. Once the angler learns how to give those topographical contour lines height and depth does he better understand where the bass will be in relation to the structure.

All of this can be learned in the comfort of you home

While looking for visual aids I stumbled across this interesting site, give it a look paying attention to the Ocean & Gulf floor in satellite mode. Click on the little rectangle "Close this welcome screen and start using interactive map"

http://www.shaded-relief.com/

Paul Roberts reply :

Another way to do it, real time, is to look at areas not flooded. We do it all the time, but I imagine them flooded, with 5, 12, 18, 30, ... fow over them. You can do it while you're driving. When you start to see the bass you should pull over and let your wife drive! ;D

I also know creek beds really well bc I've stream fished all my life. Flooded ones retain the features, but fill with silt over time.

Now to keep more specifically on topic, imagine what technique would best get to those bass. Thinking also of individual bass' strike windows (which could be anywhere from 1 to 6ft depending on clarity and fish aggressiveness), I run imaginary lures, CBs say, at topography, imagining the angles needed to get to there. Shows you right away why hitting topography from diff angles can matter so much, or pull more fish from a given spot.

bigfruits reply :

use a 1/4oz jig with a 3" craw trailer. natural color.

let it sink to the bottom on a semi-slack line. wait a few secs. drag it slowly. shake it in place. hop it. swim it a few feet. do combos of all those. some days they like a slow crawl and other days they like a faster presentation.

learn to feel the bottom with that jig and you can now fish t-rigs, tubes, grubs.

wackyworm66 reply :

Keep working on mastering the soft plastics. Soft plastics will cover ALL gammets of fishing. You can fish them shallow, deep, or anything in between. You can fish them extremely slow, very fast or anything in between. If you can master soft plastics, you will catch fish anywhere. Once you are comfortable with soft plastics; then move on to the things that use soft plastics in their makeup; such as jigs, spinnerbaits, etc. Good luck, and Great fishin.

FFF-150 reply :

Which technique is most important? Depends on your water clarity, type of structure, type of cover, time of year and type of fish. For example, most of my water is stained, pretty much reservoirs with not much structure (other than points), with laydowns, stick ups, cattails and some grass beds and I'm fishing for largemouth in the Spring, Summer and Fall.

For what I've just described, I'd say flipping and pitching is the most important technique. The most important technique would be different in say, clear lakes with lots of bottom structure in the Winter fishing for Spots or Smallmouth.

I think you need to be more specific about what you'll be doing.

BigEbass reply :

I am a pharmacist geek by profession and I started bass fising about 1.5 years ago - and spent much time reading readin reading...I still read books for fun and information when I travel - take what you read with a grain of salt I would say cause most of it is quite anectdotal and frankly stuff can blatently contradict - but it seems to me that many things can work on the opportunistic feeder that is the bass! But certaintly, you cannot go wrong with soft plastics, spinnerbaits, topwater (pop-r and weightless trick worm are my favs). Jigs are something I am myself starting to learn just now, but I know of tons of people that swear by the jig-n-pig!!

The Capn reply :

It looks like several responses ahead of me have covered this, but it can't be emphasized enough. Learning a specific lure or technique is fairly low priority compared to understanding bass behavior, seasonal patterns, and the ever-changing environmental influences. It's easy to see how finding the perfect lure is the first thing that most people (myself included) focus on when they start bass fishing. But if all it took to consistently catch fish was knowing which lure to buy, then it really wouldn't be much of a sport. Don't get me wrong, I love to buy lures, and I have my own personal strengths and fishing style, but you can save yourself a lot of time, money and frustration by studying and understanding bass first. Personally, I have found no greater resource than the book, Knowing Bass by Keith A Jones, Ph.D. While it's true that Dr. Jones did most of his research for this book while employed by Pure Fishing, I have no doubt that he provides accurate, scientific, non-biased information. This book opened my eyes to how much misinformation is floating around out there, and improved my bass fishing success ratio forever. I have no affiliation to this book or Pure Fishing, but I would strongly recommend that you check it out. I know it's available at Amazon.com. I know this kind of plan is way less exciting than having me tell you that a green-pumpkin senko always works, but I promise you that you'll catch more fish, more consistently, by focusing on the fish.

K_Mac reply :

Nice post Capn. Welcome aboard. I haven't read the book, but will do so. Thanks.

RoLo reply :

The most deadly technique is the technique that YOU devised.

Quote
The "wrong" lure in the right hands is a thousand times more effective than the "right" lure in the wrong hands

It goes without saying, every angler has his own favorite lures.

but the savvy angler stays aloof of lure worship.

Our angling efforts are best concentrated on technique, versatility

and experimentation, but not the slippery slope provided by pet lures.

Roger

INbassMAN reply :

Thanks again for everyones input. I will check check out the book Knowing Bass. Is there any other book that anyone recommends. I already have Bass Strategies by KVD.

Paul Roberts reply :

This is a really good thread. Great stuff from everyone. Most recently, Capn, RoLo -very wise.

RoLo wrote:

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The most deadly technique is the technique that YOU devised.

When you know what you need, this is what follows.

Raul reply :

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Thanks again for everyones input. I will check check out the book Knowing Bass. Is there any other book that anyone recommends. I already have Bass Strategies by KVD.

There are 2 videos that will teach you more than any book about bass behavior and biology: BigMouth and BigMouth Forever. Yup, they are old but the basics are the same 30 years ago than they are now.

Catt reply : http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=4923872

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