Are My Expectations Just Off? What Is "good" Fishing?

[Quillback]

I can understand the reluctance to waste gas. I don't know those areas you speak of - do they get a lot of pressure? You may be fishing for "educated" bass, finding unpressured fish makes things a lot easier.

Don't think of it as hitting the road to get skunked, look at it as a scouting trip.

[Greasy B]

Ok last ditch resort pull out the NED if you cant catch a fish with it you need to take up Golf.

Oh noooooo, not golf.

[ozark trout fisher]

As much tactical advice as there can be, I have to come back to this:

In order to be in the right mindset to catch fish, you just have to stop worrying so much about catching fish. Feelings of desperation, frustration, etc, get in the way of being able to concentrate on the task at hand. Just think of it this way: you're standing in a river, while untold millions of poor schmucks are sitting at home watching TV. In the most important sense, you've already won.

So just relax and enjoy yourself. If you keep doing it long enough the fish catching will come. It's possible to have fun in the interim, and not feel like it's been a wasted trip if you get skunked.

[BATCAB27]

I might have to try this NED lure, it looks easy to rig. So how do you retrieve it? Just let it sink and then hop it along the bottom?

you don't have to retrieve the NED at all. Just throw it out and let it sit, and 18" smallies jump out of the water and land at your feet.

[Haris122]

You try enough things, something is bound to work. Where there's a will, there's a way.

[jimithyashford]

I caught a fish! I was out for 4 hours and I only caught one fish, but it was a good fish. A big smallmouth. Well I dunno if it was atually "big" or not, but it seemed like a monster to me.

I was wade fishing down near river cut golf course.

Now here's the thing. I saw the reference to the Ned rig, so I fished the Ned rig the whole time. I only got the one bite, and that bite landed me the nice big fish. But it was only 1 bite in about 3-3.5 hours. I was pretty much casting it out at all of the likely spot, letting it sit for a few seconds, reeling it in with a few little hops, letting it sit, repeat. That wasn't getting anything.

In fact, the fish I finally caught took the bite when I was just fast-reeling to get the lure back in cause I thought my cast was bad.

Now it was late in the day, and since the sun was low and hitting he water at an angle, I could see the water was absolutely full of fish, and there were several nice fat bass swimming around. So I continued to fish that hole for another 30 minutes or so, putting that jig right in front of their noses, and nobody else was biting.

So at least I now know a hole with fish, but I dunno why I couldn't get them to bite.

And ozark trout fisher, I appreciate the advice and the positive attitude, but I am way past fisherman zen on this. If I wanted to go enjoy playing in the river and not catching fish, then I would just go play in the river. And I think if I usually caught fish and only occasionally got skunked I could be happy with an afternoon outside and call it good, but I am a long way from that kinda equilibrium.

But hey! After about 20 trips over the course of 2 months... I finally caught a respectable fish!

[ozark trout fisher]

I'm glad you finally caught a good one! That will keep you going for awhile.

Trust me, I know what you're saying. What you describe is what I experienced when I started fly fishing.Getting skunked trip after trip, until I was at the end of my wits. It's hard to stay positive at times but anyway it sounds like you're making progress so that's good.

[Flysmallie]

You know the same thing happened to me on the Gasconade. Reeling in fast and boom. Wasn't getting many bites on the bottom but they would crush a crank bait or spinnerbait. Next time that happens try throwing something like that. Or a buzzbait especially early or late. Those smallmouth love a buzzbait. Those dollar ones at Walmart work pretty good but a Lunker Lure works the best for me.

[BATCAB27]

sweet action! there are some fish down there at rivercut. flysmallie gives some good advice on the reaction bait. spinnerbait/buzzbait

[moguy1973]

A bad day fishing is better than a good day at work any day...Sure catching fish is fun, but just being out there is relaxing to me.