Skunked

[fishinwrench]

15 hours ago, Phil Lilley said:

I didn't follow them... one right decision at least.

I have a lot to learn!

You and me both 👍 

One of the real eye-openers that I've learned about FFS fishing, is something I've learned from my more successful customers, and I'll share it right here...... If the fish you're targeting aren't willingly biting after 1/2dozen casts don't keep throwing baits at them, because by doing that you're just EDUCATING THEM.   In other words:.... If a hotdog has been circling your head all day and pestering you.....when lunchtime rolls around, the last thing you're likely to eat is a friggin HOTDOG!

Give them 45 minutes, or an hour, and then briefly try them again.   Once you hit them during the right TIME PERIOD it honestly doesn't matter what kinda bait you're throwing..... you're probably gonna load the boat in a really short period of time.   But continuing to hammer away at a group of fish that aren't "in the mood" yet will screw the pooch.  The old long held belief that bass follow shad schools all day long is a myth.  They only follow them when they are actively looking to eat them, and the rest of the time they actually prefer to not be in their company at all.  Just like birds at a bird feeder, you'll look out and every bird in the neighborhood is at the feeder.....but an hour later, not a bird in sight.  If all that birds had to worry about was where their next meal was coming from.....then why don't they just stay right there in your yard?

That's a really important lesson even for guys that don't use FFS.  Bass & Crappie fishing, it turns out, is more about timing than I ever really expected.  Especially with white bass.   And the truly mind blowing thing is that simply rounding a bend, barely out of sight from one spot, can change the "hot-time" by 2 hours or more.    So the whole "Should I stay, or should I go" thing is always gonna be a head scratcher unless you're a guy that can be on the water every single day, practically all month long.   

I've never been one of those Run & Gun type guys........but that certainly explains all of the times that I've had my butt kicked by guys that are.

It's less about WHAT you're throwing, and MORE about WHEN you're throwing it, & where.

[Dewayne French]

14 hours ago, fishinwrench said:

You and me both 👍 

One of the real eye-openers that I've learned about FFS fishing, is something I've learned from my more successful customers, and I'll share it right here...... If the fish you're targeting aren't willingly biting after 1/2dozen casts don't keep throwing baits at them, because by doing that you're just EDUCATING THEM.   In other words:.... If a hotdog has been circling your head all day and pestering you.....when lunchtime rolls around, the last thing you're likely to eat is a friggin HOTDOG!

Give them 45 minutes, or an hour, and then briefly try them again.   Once you hit them during the right TIME PERIOD it honestly doesn't matter what kinda bait you're throwing..... you're probably gonna load the boat in a really short period of time.   But continuing to hammer away at a group of fish that aren't "in the mood" yet will screw the pooch.  The old long held belief that bass follow shad schools all day long is a myth.  They only follow them when they are actively looking to eat them, and the rest of the time they actually prefer to not be in their company at all.  Just like birds at a bird feeder, you'll look out and every bird in the neighborhood is at the feeder.....but an hour later, not a bird in sight.  If all that birds had to worry about was where their next meal was coming from.....then why don't they just stay right there in your yard?

That's a really important lesson even for guys that don't use FFS.  Bass & Crappie fishing, it turns out, is more about timing than I ever really expected.  Especially with white bass.   And the truly mind blowing thing is that simply rounding a bend, barely out of sight from one spot, can change the "hot-time" by 2 hours or more.    So the whole "Should I stay, or should I go" thing is always gonna be a head scratcher unless you're a guy that can be on the water every single day, practically all month long.   

I've never been one of those Run & Gun type guys........but that certainly explains all of the times that I've had my butt kicked by guys that are.

It's less about WHAT you're throwing, and MORE about WHEN you're throwing it, & where.

A truck load of information in those words especially that last sentence NAIL ON THE HEAD 

[Phil Lilley]

How many times have I heard about a great fishing report at the end of a day, then head to the lake and do the same thing that caught fish the day before and got skunked - a bunch!

Yep- lots of wisdom in that post.

[Bill Babler]

On 1/11/2023 at 10:43 PM, fshndoug said:

Crappie usually stay in one place when they are in deep water.

That May usually be the case but this year they are moving thru open water like the Daytona 500. 

By the way, that is a wonderful screen shot. Those could be either gizzard Shad or crappie. Could also be blue gills. 

I don’t think they are yellow perch as that school has to many numbers.  Really don’t think they are crappie due to the movement and configuration of the image. 

One of the best Live Scope guys on the Rock however told me that the crappie schools are looking like gizzards. 

Please correct me here but usually the crappie are not in a total round swarming configuration.  If they are in open water they seem to have a leader. They’re not schooling for protection like the totally round graph photo with the swirling movement inside the school.  

I’m betting those were gizzards. 




 

[fshndoug]

We live scoped a bunch of crappie the other day and you could almost count the number of fish they were so spread out. Caught some nice ones out of the school ' They were swimming all over the place ' They were in 15 feet of water.