Fishing tip of the week: – 12/16/20

Fishing Tip of the Week

Friday, 11 December 2020 10:55

Are good times over?
by Mike Gerry

As we have all seen the days of fishing our high-pressured lakes has changed drastically over the past few years; going to a top-rated reservoir has frustrated many of the best of fisherman. Change has come over time but the days of finding aggressive bass are depleting and if you are going to be successful you must change with it or the frustration of bass fishing will define you.

The reason is simple, the enormous pressure on today’s lakes, especially the top-rated ones, is extremely obvious to anyone that fishes them. My inner thoughts, some days, when I pull up to a spot on a Monday, and it is covered up with fisherman, is where do all these fishermen come from? Well, the answer, of course, is they are just plain folks there fishing. But, as the population of our country grows and as more folks have disposable income the numbers of folks fishing just keeps growing. The change, however, has taken out the aggressive bite from most lakes.

The key is understanding that your technique must change with the times. That aggressive bite we once enjoyed, in most cases, is just not there and adapting your style is most important to getting a bite.

Subtle, in most cases, is the new aggressive bite; you must be patient and feel the subtle bite and fish techniques that employ it. One of the things I continually find is that regardless of the bait you’re using, letting that bait lay dead still for some reasonable period of time, maybe as much as 15 to 20 seconds, is the only way to fish many of these high-pressured lakes. This technique is not just limited to the many dead stick presentations like Sinko’s we are all used to using.

I like a jig this time of year and a dead stick jig is very effective. Motionless fishing for periods of many seconds at a time is our new aggressive power fishing technique. How many times have you noticed that if you pause your bait to talk to your partner for a moment, all of sudden there is a fish on your line! Don’t limit this to just bottom baits as many top water baits like walking baits will accomplish the same thing.

The golden days might be gone, but motionless fishing is taking over!
Captain Mike