# What to do in this situation?



## Greenhead_Slayer (Oct 16, 2007)

This past Saturday a friend and I went chasing bass on a body of water we are pretty familiar with. 95% of the time a baby bass green senko will catch 2-3 pounders all day, with an occasional bigger. We fished the entire shoreline of the east bank and didn't have a touch. We changed to wacky rig, changed hook color, changed senko size, didn't have anything. We could see the bluegills up shallow so we tried dropshotting and flipping tubes in bluegill and perch colors with no success. 

The only 5 fish of the day came from 5 casts in a row with a lipless crankbait over water we'd already fished. Their wasn't anything special about this little pocket, no real cover, had a solid rock bottom like the rest of the shoreline, no shadows, no real dead giveaways for why those fish were. We didn't have another touch the rest of the day. 

What is your go to technique in a situation like that? I've never caught them burning crankbaits without being able to figure them out with finesse techniques.


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## LostLouisianian (Oct 11, 2010)

Greenhead_Slayer said:


> This past Saturday a friend and I went chasing bass on a body of water we are pretty familiar with. 95% of the time a baby bass green senko will catch 2-3 pounders all day, with an occasional bigger. We fished the entire shoreline of the east bank and didn't have a touch. We changed to wacky rig, changed hook color, changed senko size, didn't have anything. We could see the bluegills up shallow so we tried dropshotting and flipping tubes in bluegill and perch colors with no success.
> 
> The only 5 fish of the day came from 5 casts in a row with a lipless crankbait over water we'd already fished. Their wasn't anything special about this little pocket, no real cover, had a solid rock bottom like the rest of the shoreline, no shadows, no real dead giveaways for why those fish were. We didn't have another touch the rest of the day.
> 
> What is your go to technique in a situation like that? I've never caught them burning crankbaits without being able to figure them out with finesse techniques.


Sounds like they might be spawning. I know I'm dating myself but I have a bunch of "Balsa B" crank baits that run up to about 8' deep that are just tore up with marks and scratches from catching bass on them. Sounds almost like they were thinking your bait was shad or some other smallish baitfish.


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## dmoody (Jul 26, 2013)

I think in most lakes in northern Utah the bass are prespawn with the water temps still in the high 40's to low 50's. Once the temps get up into the high 50's to low 60's they should start moving up into shallower water to prepare to spawn. One of the best ways to catch them when the water is still cold is with a lipless or a deep diving crankbait trying to get a reaction strike, from my experience anyway.


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## fishnate (Sep 11, 2007)

Sounds like you want these fish to do what you want them to do. They were somewhere and biting on something -- just have to figure it out.

I'd start by looking at recent history - what has the weather trend been over the past few days been. Is the water warming, cooling or is it stable? Is water level rising, falling or stable? What's the water color? These issues will help you figure out the activity level and possible position of the bass.

Spring time is great for wacky worming and jerkbait (plastic & hard), crankbait, lipless cranks, minnow cranks, spinnerbait, jigs, dropshotting and shakey head worms. I try all those in varying depths and speeds in colors that show up well in the water I'm fishing until the fish tell me what they want. Some days you just have to realize you don't have or didn't do what the fish wanted.

I took a new angler out the other day and gave him a lure I thought would catch fish. I explained how to work it and where to throw it. He only got one bite in 30 minutes of trying. I took his rod cast it to a likely spot and had two bass landed in less than 2 minutes. He was stunned. I used the exact same lure but fished it a little different and caught fish where he didn't. My son was fishing the same lure but in a different color and never got a bump on it either.

Pretty hard to say what you should do for sure without knowing the exact conditions you had, but that's part of the excitement of fishing, figuring it out. Sounds like you figured out they would chase a lipless crank, a fairly fast, hard vibrating lure. From there I would try other sizes or colors, then try regular crankbaits like a shadrap, then try a spinnerbait.


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## brfisherman17 (Jan 21, 2011)

I almost always start with a spinnerbait. I've had great success finding fish this way. The reaction strike gets them biting even when they're spawning.


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## Longgun (Sep 7, 2007)

an erratically retrieved rattle bait is difficult to beat ESP if there is stained water present. You'll get ferocious reaction strikes sometimes and it helps to "wake up" the water a little bit too. Ive had good luck with bright colors in the stained water, the more natural the better in clear.

Do you have decent electronics?


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## Greenhead_Slayer (Oct 16, 2007)

Longgun said:


> an erratically retrieved rattle bait is difficult to beat ESP if there is stained water present. You'll get ferocious reaction strikes sometimes and it helps to "wake up" the water a little bit too. Ive had good luck with bright colors in the stained water, the more natural the better in clear.
> 
> Do you have decent electronics?


I wish! I just was fishing from the shore. I've fished it enough from a boat though to have a pretty good general idea of points, structure change, bottom changes, current breaks, etc. In hind sight I am wondering if they were just sitting on this flat in pre-spawn waiting to move up to the shallows. Maybe they were there simply because it kind of was the only area with no features that stick out? They weren't where they usually hold with all the structure and current breaks are, they were like 200 yards down bank from it. Who knows, that's my guess.


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## Longgun (Sep 7, 2007)

Thats fine (no electronics). learn to take inventory of the lakes bottom topography when low water years present them... make mental notes, or video, or take pictures for reference later. Adding small rockpiles to likely locations while the lake is iced over can be GREAT also. Fish tend to gravitate to _new_ structure at times. Not always but...

Agreed, the timing/weather/temps were a little early for bedding IMO. Maybe they were there just soaking up some rays... You likely were bumping the males at the time. Go back rigged with two rod's, one a rattlebait, the other a slow-go type (Natural colored 3" tube texas rigged, 1/4 oz) Throw that rattlebait until you find active fish, then pick em apart with the tube. You'll often get short strikes BUT when you do, get that tube right in the water ASAP and go slow, but experiment with the retrieve. Its extreemly important to get something in-their-face after a missed strike. When working the tube/slowbait, quick twitch of the rod tip after a slow bouncing type retrieve can be deadly. Another slow-type go-to bait for us is the wacky rigged Senko... white/lighter for stained water, more natural colors for clear. A slow-rolled spinnerbait will get you a middle of the road approach to this also.

With a day like today shaping up, i might have to suddenly get a case of -something- cantseemyselfstayingatworkittus and go fishing. ;-)8)


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

A nightcrawler and a bobber is effective.


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## Greenhead_Slayer (Oct 16, 2007)

Stop making it too dang simple Goob!


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