Are the golden days of bass fishing gone
by Mike Gerry
As we have all seen the days of fishing our high-pressure lakes has changed drastically over the past few years.
Going to a top-rated reservoir has frustrated many of the best fisherman. The change has come overtime but the days of finding really aggressive bass are depleting. If you’re going to be successful you must change with it.
The reason is simple, the enormous pressure on today’s lakes, especially the top-rated ones, is extremely obvious to anyone that fishes. My inner thoughts when I pull up to a spot on a Monday and it’s covered up with fisherman includes “ Doesn’t anyone work anymore? “
Well, the answer of course is they do. As the population of our country grows and more people have a disposable income the numbers of people fishing just keeps growing. The change, however, has severely taken out the aggressive bite from most lakes. Those days of getting smacked so hard that your line jumps out of your hand are few for sure.
The key is understanding that your technique must change with the times. That aggressive bite in most cases is just not there. 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. Fish techniques that employ it.
One of the things I continually find is regardless of the type of bait, 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-pressure lakes.
Many times, I just let a jig lay motionless, along a river ledge or in a flipping hole in the grass, to allow for the subtle bite to occur. Motionless fishing for periods of many seconds at a time is our new aggressive power fishing technique. How many times have you noticed that you pause your bait to talk to your partner and all of sudden there is a fish on your line.
Remember don’t limit this to bottom baits as many top water baits like walking baits or popping baits will accomplish the same thing. The golden days might be gone, but motionless fishing is taking over!
Captain Mike
