# Learned this lesson the hard way.....



## Mr. A (Apr 23, 2012)

I've had zero luck my past 3 or 4 times out. It was getting to me badly. I fished a big pond today, and learned a very valuable lesson.

Water was 51 deg., clarity was to the bottom or about the 8 or 9' mark. The pond is 5 acres, fished a few times a year; excellent place to kill a skunk.

I got to the water and took off an inline spinner left over from last trip. The beavers in here have fell enough trees that treble hooks by shore are always a bad idea. I cut the line, put the spinner away and just stood there looking at my tackle. I wanted to catch fish, anything to kill the skunk, but I just couldn't make a decision?

After taking out bait I mentally talked myself out of it and put it away. This went on for several minutes. Then I remembered an article in a magazine talking about how amature fisherman will throw a good bait a few feet into the "crap, slop, veggies; etc," but a pro will launch it much further without hesitation; and that's why they catch more and bigger fish a lot of the time.

All I could think off was all the trees on the bottom of this pond. I de used to go seedless and cast as far into the nastiness as I could get! Rigged up a weedless 10" worm, nothing. Changed to a weedless grub, nothing. Tied. "Dinky Rig" for the first time this year and got hung up losing my rig after a couple casts. Ok, I've had it at this point. Now I'm determined to neat this skunk, and am gambling my ego and senility on 1 fish. (In hindsight, this was really stupid)

What to do. Checked my surroundings. What would I throw ogf they're were no snags to worry about. Spinnerbait, with gold blades, in a shad color!

Found one in my box and said a little prayer while tying it on, half resigning that this bait is gone, half last rights to a good bait. Honestly, I planned to lose it.

No fear, right? Cast at 3 o'clock, let it flutter down a little bring it back in. Next cast at 2, half way back it feels like I went through some moss, I can see the blades turning, I sped the retrieve up planning on getting the weeds off and to my surprise there was a pickle hanging on for dear life. As I went to set the bok (little late on this one boys) the bass stopped, turned, and left.

I de used to try and lose that spinner, like a golfer throwing bis putter in the drink.

I walked the bank and found a group of several trees in the water. Cast ito them, let it flutter, retrieve. Hitting every branck I could I brought it back. Casted again, same spot half way back it got smoked hard. 

Then it was a game, how many could I catch before I snagged up and lost the lure. I fished about another hour and caught a grand total of 8 bass. Nothing real big but all about the .5 to under 1# range.

Yes, I lost that bait and another one similar to it but I learned a good lesson. If you want to catch fish, beat the skunk, get your swagger back, whatever the case may be; sometimes you just gotta go hard into the crap and drag the son of a B*#ch(s) out kicking and screaming. 


Mr. A


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## buckzye11 (Jul 16, 2009)

Way to go in after them Mr. A! I've got a place i fish where it's just nasty timber like that and also open water... if i fish the open water i'm just casting, when i get into the crap... then i'm fishin. A spinnerbait is always a good choice knockin on wood. Another bait you might want to try without the fear of hanging up is a swimbait with a belly weighted hook, you can work a little slower in those trees too. Thanks for the write up... good read.


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## nyall86 (Jul 31, 2013)

Nice work in this cold weather!


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## Mr. A (Apr 23, 2012)

Broke the skunks back just in time considering there is a 20deg difference in temp and 1" of snow on the ground 18hrs later!

I was thinking it over last night. I usually like to buy 1 bait of whatever I buy, not including plastics). Pretty normal I suppose. I think over the winter I will set my tackle out on the table and choose the top few cranks, spinnerbaits, frogs , inline spinners, etc.; and go buy some extras. This way I lose the fear and thinking "I love this DT4 Bluegill, I can't lose it in that mess." If I have an extra or two. I can leave one at home, keep an extra in the bag, and throw one straight up the devil's tailpipe if I think there's a bass to be had, but still have a back up for when I'm wrong!

Seems as though my lesson yesterday has become a second lesson for myself today!

Mr. A

PS- (For those that remember) I'm going to get that frog back one way or another. Of I can't get it I'm bringing in bassbeme or another heavy hitter that lives close to help me out!


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## brettsky225 (Aug 10, 2012)

Good job mr a!!!! I've never had luck with regular spinner baits idk why just never have 


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## briney dave (Aug 28, 2013)

For the longest time I could not afford to loose crank baits etc so I too avoided the heavy stuff completely

I am a little better off now and do have a few duplicates and seem to be doing more of that sort of buying. 

there certainly are days that you have to go in after them to get good bites. I fish a couple of vaction lakes in Indiana that the noise drives them back into the heavy stuff on certain weekends.


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## Talonman (Sep 12, 2013)

Way to hang in there to beat the skunk, and good advice on the throwing into the Devils Tailpipe! 

It was a good read, thanks for the post!


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## Rasper (Sep 6, 2012)

Love a good success story! Great job Mr. A. And I saw someone mention not throwing cranks in some messy water. I honestly just bought different lures no matter how negative or positive the reviews were and once I found one that I could feel or basically understand what it was doing by feel. I would run it off everything till I found the lure that fit my style of fishing. Sink rate, float rate how it suspended. And you can eventually just use it on damn near everything. Like for instance I only use 1/2 oz terminators I just change skirt size or blade size cause I like the feeling of of it when it runs into stuff and I don't really snag. Same with cranks. Same thing.

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## Alexculley (Sep 18, 2013)

So I read this posting yesterday. I went to beaver lake this morning and really took you story to heart. I castes in to the nasty and lost two Joshy's and a $7 crank. I was so upset and frustrated. I lost the joshy's on first cast each. So upset. I tied on a spinner and hit one bass about a foot out from the structure. Still a good learning experience.


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## Bassbme (Mar 11, 2012)

Mr. A said:


> PS- (For those that remember) I'm going to get that frog back one way or another. Of I can't get it I'm bringing in bassbeme or another heavy hitter that lives close to help me out!



LOL I just saw this thread. I sure wouldn't call myself a heavy hitter Mr A. but thanks for the compliment. And yep..... most of the times you have to get in the junk to consistently catch bass. Especially when you have the water clarity that you were talking about. When you're picking out spinner baits to buy this off season, you'll want to take the type of cover you're going to be fishing with them into consideration. For fishing wood, a spinner bait with a more bulbous head and with the wire exiting closer to the top of the head works better than a bait with a head that is more tapered, and with the wire coming out of the nose of the head.

I took a picture of a couple of spinner baits I've made that illustrate the point. You can see the difference in where the wire exits the head. The bait at the top of the picture comes through weeds really well because the wire exits in line with the nose of the bait, and the head is thin and tapered.

The bait at the bottom of the picture doesn't come through weeds as well because the wire exits the head at an angle and the head is wider and more rounded, but it comes through wood extremely well. 

One key that I've found to fishing wood cover with a spinner bait is to keep the bait moving when it comes in contact with the cover. If you slow down or pause your retrieve you're giving the bait a chance to roll on its side, and that's when it gets hung up. There are definitely times when letting a spinner bait flutter down is the key to getting bit, but you need to let the thickness of the cover determine how far you let the bait flutter. 

The suggestion that Buckzye gave of using a swimbait rigged weedless is an excellent one. Like he said, you can crawl the bait through some pretty thick stuff without worrying about getting hung up as much. Another suggestion that Rasper touched on is throwing a shallow running crank bait into trees. It may seem like a stupid thing to do, but it works. And sometimes it works better than a spinner bait if the lake you're fishing gets a lot of spinner bait pressure. If you choose the right bait and outfit it with the right kind of hooks, you'd surprised at what kind of cover you can walk a crank bait through. It just takes some practice and patience. 

Anyhow........ good job at catching those fish.


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## Rasper (Sep 6, 2012)

Spinner baits that are sides are more for Colorado blades. And the more streamline it is is for willow blades. If the clarity is horrible and you are fishing gunk. Use the Colorado blade and just run it over the gunk. If that isn't work go with the willow right in it. And work it like a trap and yo yo it in and out while letting it flutter a bit. It works for me e
Almost everytime

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## mo65 (Aug 5, 2011)

Bassbme said:


> Another suggestion that Rasper touched on is throwing a shallow running crank bait into trees.


Absolutely! Squarebilled cranks can be pulled through the wood very successfully...but it is a learned skill. One that I suggest leaving the Lucky Crafts and Jackalls in the tackle box for now. Get some cheapies at Wally's, Bombers work very good. Once you get the "feel" for it...you can confidently bounce those cranks right off the wood. You'll always loose one now and then...but you'll loose golf balls too...and 22 shells only go bang once!


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## Marshall (Apr 11, 2004)

I would toss a jig or texas rigged tube into that wood and work it through the branches. You will be surprised how well it goes through. I guarantee you will get bit doing this. Its a lot easier from a boat but i did not always have a boat and still fished plenty of stuff like u mentioned.


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## lordofthepunks (Feb 24, 2009)

so much i want to say.... but ill just look like a prick in doing so....


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## DL07 (Jul 21, 2011)

Lotp Don't hold back I for 1 tend to agree with most all I've seen you post here. And I'm always hoping to learn something new.


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## lordofthepunks (Feb 24, 2009)

DL07 said:


> Lotp Don't hold back I for 1 tend to agree with most all I've seen you post here. And I'm always hoping to learn something new.


It's nothing special... Moral of the story... Bass are in cover... Happy for the OP that he figured out that bass like cover... And it didn't take 3 pages of arguments to prove it


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## Mr. A (Apr 23, 2012)

lordofthepunks said:


> It's nothing special... Moral of the story... Bass are in cover... Happy for the OP that he figured out that bass like cover... And it didn't take 3 pages of arguments to prove it


To be fair I knew bass like cover, I was talking about throwing "farther" into the cover than I was previously comfortable with when not using something weedless. Just saying.... 

Mr. A


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