I think it has to be pressure too, some days it feels like you can get bit like every cast throwing it along brush lines but some days I think I have the perfect looking swimjig and nothing
I have been pondering this question for a while now. I fish a smaller lake that has been highly pressured since covid but it does have good spawns. Several baits I used to smash em on are hard to even get a bite on now, even by smaller fish. I have came to the conclusion that to a fish we are predators, and all animals evolve to avoid predetation. So i believe it becomes a part of their DNA to avoid certain baits. Except, like you mentioned, when the conditions are perfect.
Im 52 and bew baits come around and are hot for a year. Heres some i remember. Ratltrap banjo minnow mocassin snake worms flukes beaver tail worms square bills Roland's blue fox spinnerbaits and more. They all come and go and still catch fish we just stopped using them drag out your oldest baits and go give em a shot. Youll be surprised
Maybe when it was so easy to catch them with a specific bait we ignored the microecosystem and its conditions b/c it was so automatic; throw it and catch them. Then as conditions changed in that microecosystem(s) and it became harder to get a bite we then would finally pay more attention to & notice those specific conditions, therefore forever pigeonholing that lure for just those conditions going forward. Hence, we don't throw it as much, then our newly released, favorite lure finds it way on the deck more often and displaces the older lure. Maybe you should do an old-school lure v. new school lure challenge
Fishing pressure is a huge issue, it not just seeing the same baits day in day out, you have to take in consideration all the boats pulling up fishing and then next on and the next one, all the sonar noise. But I think the biggest issue is confidence, have a few bad days and there you go. I can’t hardly get a bite on a spinner bait anymore, have friends that still catch a ton of fish on them. Fishing is a big mental chess game. 😎
My only theory on that is that fish learn from each other. If they are schooled up and the bigger older ones show no interest in something that caught them, the other ones take note and don't think of the bait as "food" either. They do the same thing in reverse where one fish bites and the others then want to eat the bait, assuming it must be desirable food. Only way to test that is if you waited long enough to try a bait they got used to so no fish would have seen another fish not eat it, but that'd take like 10 years or so of nobody throwing something, then try again.
Thought about the same thing for years. I've pulled baits out that worked amazing 10 years ago and never catch a fish, when I know I'm fishing for fish that are only 5 years old. Unsolved mystery to me as well. The spinner bait being one of those baits. At one time in East Texas you could catch fish year round at almost any depth by changing the size or blade combination, but now as you said the conditions dictate the spinner bait bite.
Todd, I know you promised us a in depth “Structure jig” video. But Im interested to know how much you swim it. Do you throw a dedicated swim jig most of the time or do you rig a structure jig with your swim jig trailer and swim it? That seems like a great idea because you can always just swap your presentation with the structure jig if the situation calls for it and work it like a regular jig. Curious minds wanna know.😊
I have racked my brain over this very subject,all I know is when fish move to an ambush position they are easier fool than when they are set up in open water. I make a lot of baits that I think I will be showing them something new but they still only work in the conditions that other lures do. Great talk man.
The way animals learn to survive is by adapting to their environment. The earlier phase they are exposed and more frequently, the less reactive they will be to that thing.. or alternatively be suspicious. I would theorize that fish being disinterested in baits has less to do with having been caught by one than general exposure
Every time I watch one of your videos that you shoot in your house, I hear your aquarium and end up pausing it looking around my house thinking I have a leak. Gets me every time. Great video though!
One thing that has changed from 40 years ago was that we fished baits slower. Now gear ratios are 8 to 1 vs 3 to 1. Try fishing baits slower like spinnerbaits, crankbaits, even worms. And with glass rods that were softer. Plus we have too much electronic pinging now, where in past not as many electronics bombarding fish.
Bingo ! thats my 1 thought too. I believe tournament guys in a hurry. in fact since i started using bait casters i can hardly have patients for drop shotting anymore. now i have 33 baitcasters.....started putting my 7.1 on shelf fishing only 5's and 6's and smashing them.
I used to fish DD22s back in the 90s and caught numerous 8 and 9 pounders at fork , I wish the XD were around then as they are superior, but every now and then a wave of nostalgia hits me and I tie one and hardly ever catch one on it. I have caught on all of the lakes around here back then , now not so much. I think part of the reason is way more pressure on offshore fish otherwise I don't know. Great video.
Another way to look at it is farm pond fish. Say there’s 50 in a pond. Say you catch all 50 on a worm, or a frog, or whatever. In a month you can’t tell me you won’t catch any of them on the same bait again. And not even that, in a pond you can almost all of them again On the same bait.
35 years ago. White quarter ounce spinner bait with Colorado blade. Always caught fish everywhere all conditions. Now for me conditionally it seems it’s got to be discolored water less than 55° and going to be a half to three-quarter ounce with tandem willow leaf blades.
I think about it like cats chasing a laser, 90% of the cats will pounce on that laser and try to attack it but there will be that 10% that won't pay it the time of day. I truly believe not every fish reacts to baits equally but I'm no scientist lol.
I sometimes wonder if a fish gets spooked by a bait, any others that are with it get turned off as well. Wouldnt ever have known if I didnt see it happen on livescope. 🤷♂️
M thinking is typically to keep it simple, and I don't think the new or young fish learned somehow not to bite on certain baits.The bait industry would like us to think that, but I don't give them that much credit. I think it has more to do with the forage, and cover, and the changes that constantly go on with both of those ....it might be narrowed down to more about the cover and the changes in type and depth, which in turn, affects where the forage is and the fish are.. Knowing you ...I'm sure that you give it, it's due diligence, as far as spending an ample amount trying, but seems like lots of anglers, are to quick to quit, and to buy into the latest trends without thinking much about it. Me ? ....I would have no problem with just throwing a tennesee shad pattern on Rayburn, and forgetting the red!
I dig the topic. You’ve hit on some great logic, talking about the conditions…., and the angler talk. Yes, the spinner bait works well when it’s windy and gnarly out there….and most anglers chose to stay home and fish only on fair weather days….and then complain that the spinner bait just ain’t what it used to be. You are spot on!! Regarding the part you can’t answer….the hard one to figure out….why some young buck bass doesn’t just go stupid over any bait swimming across his face…..I’ve come to the conclusion the fish talk to each other. They’ve been told to avoid swim jigs! 😂 I loved the video man…keep em comin! Good luck at Table Rock comin up!
The reason that small ones can't attack the swim jig bait is the angle of attack. They haven't learned yet how to. There are essentially three ways that fish approach and consume your bait. The just follow (that is all that those small fish out deeper know how to do is follow things that move). Hence why things such as football jigs work. In saltwater fish who are of juvenille size they are forced to 'work the splash' (literally where the sea hits off the land). And in so doing, the juvenille fish has access to a variety of forage, but also becomes a target for larger fish themselves. Juvenille fish have to spend so much time watching their six when they do move into the splash-y-er parts of the water, that few actually have time now to really chase forage. They don't become confident eaters. In moving water with current it's about hierarchy. Where juvenille fish are reduced to those parts of the water that don't have enough current (the conveyor belt which brings dinners to them). Those fish are reduced to chasing after things that move too. Which isn't a lot of things. It's why lures like bullet spinners work. The small fish hit that ordinary bullet spinner after chasing from behind.
The other ways that fish approach the lure and actually wound it, or consume it. Is from the side, or from underneath. Lots of juvenille fish who tend to live shallow as juvenilles. They are constantly feeding upwards. Looking for terrestrials (land-based instead of aquatic insect live to come along). That's the situation that John Cox exploited once on Tennessee River. Where he found a tree full of May Flies. With bass underneath it. How the confident fish (fish who are able to defend premium locations in the river current, where the current brings the food to them). You put the same bullet spinner across their line of sight and from the correct casting angle. And you'll see what a real hunter does then to a simple bullet spinner lure. They'll savage the thing square on, from the side. They will line up with that lure and hit it dead level at the same heigh in the water column and square from the side. None of these approaching the lure after a chase. Those actual hunters. They know how to do the calculations which tell them where they need to aim for (in some fish brain equivalent of 'the future tense'), where the Mepps bullet spinner lure will be. And you'll know by the take, as the rod gets pulled out of your hands.
Lures can be designed with those three angles of attack in mind. The follower take from the rear of the bait. The underneath take from below, which is usually a visual type of thing. And the square-on, from the side. What trout anglers call the T-bone (as in, when one vehicle hits another one square on, from the side). Some will argue there is a forth type also. Where the larger fish consumes a bait 'head first' (all sorts of predators including birds do it, where you only see the paddle tail of the bait fish hanging out of the predator's mouth). And the predator fish or bird may even swim or fly a distance. Holding the captive bait in their mouth. Before swallowing it at their own time, leisure and discretion. In the way that cats of prey will drag something away with them too. Whether that bait item wants to be taken away or not. The kind of fish that does that, is likely to hit a larger swimbait or glidebait. Not from the side. Not from below or behind. From the front. It's a different type of mathematics they are using. Where they learn to synchronize with the wave-type swim pathway of the glide bait (kind of like the way an aligator would approach it's prey). And lazily just come along and consume what it has some preference for. That's different to the T-bone smash. Which is the stock-in-trade of a seasoned hunter, underwater (the swim bait's role it plays is to use the weight of the swim jig to hold the lure steady, so that the hunter can 'lock in' that calculation to make the interseption with the swim bait). And then T-bone this defense-less bait square-on, and from the side. The short, stubby hooks of the swimbait lures is part of that.
Chatterbaits, bladed jigs, football jigs are all for those followers. Those fish who have spent a lot of their lives out deep (the reason bass or lake rainbow trout do this, is because of birds of prey which can dive deep for them, and snap them out of relatively deeper water). Depth is that fish's only ally. Looking at the rocky shorelines of countries such as Ireland. The rocks there are prime real estate for all kinds of species of bird. Who are like those diving attack aircraft that you see in films about Midway Island and the Second World War. There are juvenille fish who chasing stuff that hop along the bottom and around weeds in tidal areas. Hoping not to get caught by birds of prey. There are juvenille fish who live under trees full of May Flies, and then they feed up like a Pickwick lake. There are fish who grow up in tiny streams (those streams produce the hunters, because the constrained nature of the environment means those fish become hunters). They learn to T-bone prey from the sides. Again, John Cox is one angler who goes into 'thin' shallow water, looking precisely for that kind of quality bass there. Who is using the small-ness of a creek in order to gain a hunter's advantage. Bullet spinners or small chatterbaits can be used a different way there, to attract trophy sized bass.
Then the swim jig type of fish, is probably a fish that grew up around current. Why? Because they learned about speed. Everything in current moves fast, and knows how to maneuver. Stuff that lives around tall underwater vegetation in non-moving water is probably the same. As creatures and forage that live in that environment understand how to evade predaators real well. That is probably what Greg Hackney talks about in terms of fishing jigs. Where he's looking for that one gap in the vegetation in miles. Where the big ones live. And no where else. It's a T-bone attach too, but it's faster than others. It can come slightly from underneath and slightly from behind. The glide bait fish I think must be unusual. In that that fish when mature has grown up in some way attacking larger shoals of bait. You see it in saltwater too some times. Where predators just follow shoals of bait around, constantly feeding off of it. Which would account for why, a glide bait combined with technology to find those shoals. Also ends up finding fish who know how to take glide baits. Which I think is that take that hits the bait fish square-on from the front. As opposed to from the side. That is, where the tail of the bait fish is all that is left hanging out. And all of these are different fish. They're not the same fish. What can happen on a lake over time. Is that certain tribes come to dominate the lake at one time. And a different tribe comes to feature the most at others (sometimes the juvenilles that lived shallow win out, and survive). Sometimes fish that stayed in creeks, or lived out deep. Sometimes it's the fish that used the faster river flowing into the lake as the nursery to keep them safe. They come to rule the roost. And that's all random, but it accounts for why baits and lures. Come and go.
The Hover Stroller lure, is very much a lure designed for those fish takes where the fish comes at the bait from it's head first (the crucial thing that Hover strolling style of lures do, like 'the swim jig', is to hold part of the lure steady, so that a predator can 'lock on' to it). And that is what weight in that hover stroller does. That is what the Keitech ball head swim jigs accomplished in their time too. They set up the bait to succeed where a front-side approach (a shoal hunter fish), was concerned.
Could it be that the smaller fish are taking cues from the larger fish that are in the same area? I don’t fish clean water enough to see this often but I’ve seen it on live scope a few times. often times the first fish that becomes interested in a bait is not the one that ends up hitting it. If a larger fish never shows interest in something, perhaps it turns off the little ones.
It’s the same as rattlesnakes not rattling to warn of their danger like they used to where these guys do rattlesnake roundups in the same areas every year. The guys who catch them agitate them down in burrows to get a rattle response. They hear a rattle they flush them out and eat them. The ones that don’t rattle get bypassed because the guys think no one’s home. Those snakes survive and pass those traits onto their offspring.
Science has proved that fish are smarter than we give them credit for. I am also an older fisherman so if they don't bite this one i throw another confidence bait.
Breaking down the thought process are we assuming a fish needs to be caught to have a negative effect against that lure? Can a school of new fish learn from a single bass mistake? Or is bass mortality higher and we are breeding out the aggressive gene? Few combinations perhaps? Ned rig 10 years ago was a killer now it seems it performs in certain conditions.
Its how fish have learned to survive... slowly filtering out the fakes and passing it along to the next generations DNA. Bucks didn't used to look up at tree stands the way they do now, a learned behavior possibly. Great vid !!!
Todd is a bass philosopher! Never accepts anything as fact, he’s seen enough to know better and he’s stubborn enough to keep testing it. I hate when people regurgitate old info and always skeptical when someone says they know it all. It’s gotta be mostly 2 yr and under fish in most lakes.
If a lake fluctuates it gets better, right? Well what about lakes on river systems like Tennessee or Coosa? The drop the lakes in the winter. Those lakes have always been good and are very consistent
I’m not stating this to be the answer just what I thought as you were talking but as simple as the baits the always produce are the ones that produce under those “ conditions” or the conditions that you see most when your out fishing. Had a similar conversation about a 6” swimbait in the late prespawn and how good it was for 4-5 years and it just hasn’t the last few. We came to the conclusion of it was just those perfect conditions for it lined up those few years and haven’t lately. It has been a lot like you described we mauled them those first few years and still catch some the last few but this past sping it was worse but we had dirtier water than most years not by much but it was dirtier. Anyway just a thought
Damn it man it's almost crazy that I never thought about why the younger fish won't bite certain techniques that they've probably never saw unless the conditions are perfect even though when those techniques come about you could catch all the fish young or old almost at will... Great video as always keepem coming brother!!!
Do you think it could be genetics? In the duck hunting world how does a duck born in Canada know to fly south for the winter. We also talk about ancestory holes. Just wonder if it’s some how passed down whether it’s vibration frequency or a certain speed. Good point Todd you’ve got me questioning that now.
I believe that it's not a single answer but a set of variables. Maybe the population is down. Supposedly there was the study found 40% of bass are uncatchable. Meaning they don't bite lures. And they do pass on these traits. In my experience with walleye not bass. Once mapping started every had all the spots. Within a couple years all these spots were fished out because nobody lets walleye go hardly. So people stopped fishing there. Now more than ten years later they came back. Also my friend claims that fish would not eat crankbaits for a few years. Only live bait. That I don't believe. I don't get to fish like that much these days because of parental responsibility. But I still fish
I swear I‘ve seen a group of fish get conditioned to BITE. I knew they were there, seemed to never be able to get them to bite anything and in my head I had to throw something to hit bottom in this little valley off a rock pile. Lost a $100 or so worth of cranks and finally got bit. Caught fish on that parrot color 5XD for 2 years it seemed until a hurricane wiped out our fish population. In reality, it was probably learning boat positioning, limiting boat slap and all kinds of other factors but it sure felt like I was dumb enough to make them think that every now and then a school of parrot colored shad would roll up
What are your thoughts on the new lake bois d arc opening? Are you going to try it? Will it have the potential to be a trophy factory with all the sharelunker fry and juvenile fish being stocked in it?
funny people say bass educated lol like they went to GA TECH NO NO NO bass do 4 things that's it 1. breath 2. eat 3..breed 4. die that's it so 3 reason bass not eating your bait 1. not hungry 2. not their 3. not throwing what they want that's it
It’s. Learned. Behavior. I’ve. Waterfowl hunted. Mallards geese everyday nearly 40 years. Waterfowl learn things because of human influences. That you can see and learn. But !!! (( unless you scuba dive and watch them )). You can’t see how adaptable to human behaviors. They learn. Believe it or not.
You didn't say anything that I can disagree with. And actually a light came on which makes since about baits I wasn't sure about during different conditions.
I think it's usually more about us than it is about them. If you went out to make a new one rod video with a swim jig, I think you'd smash them. I think we get quick to switch gears and try to catch them another way because time is so limited, but that doesn't mean we couldn't have caught them doing what we started out with.
I have to disagree about the chatterbait hurts the spinnerbait, I've always fished one and over the last 4 years in Alabama it's gotten better., except at night
Do you think changing your trailer to give the swim jig a different vibration would change how well they bite it? Or for some reason are they just used to it's profile? Not being able to ask a fish the answer just leaves us wondering why they don't bite a particular bait under certain conditions. You would have to figure pressure fits in there somewhere
Some food for thought : Confidence in a bait - leads to a certain cadence of the bait - leads to fish catching. Kinda how your Buddy on the boat inst catching, so he switches over to same bait as you....but doesn't catch 🤔 I don't mind working a stretch of water behind another competitor, because I have Confidence in a bait...and there's no way he's working it the same way as me..!!! Awesome vids as always 👍👍👍
Baits don’t stop working. Spinnerbaits work just fine to this day. Everything else changes though. Hello!!!! Drought. Low water. Water temp. Fish constantly moving around for survival. Conditions constantly changing. So much fishing pressure. The inability of fishermen to fish way, way offshore. Fishermen relying on past bites. Big no no!!!! Stop being fooled everyone. The bass fishing industry is hell bent on making you think their bait is magic. Sorry. Not!!!! It’s more about fishermen just figuring out what the fish have done this time to survive constantly changing conditions. Like I said, spinnerbait works just fine.
Some people dont give fish enough credit. Most species we dont understand dont get enough credit. Maybe not genetics but maybe they have communication. Seems like every species communicates im some way or another. We will never know though because they cant cross communicate.
Hi Todd, i'm 72 and back in the day to learn i took a texas rig only and fished it all day / a jig. I did the same for cranks and spinner baits. I'm asking, (bottom fishing) for texas rig / jig what is the 'best depth level' to stay in to maximize worm and jig fishing factoring in thermocline and so on. Thanks Mike
A large part of a bait "not biting it like they used to" is the simple fact we stop using it. New shiny toys come along and just like the 33's we gotta have it. Forget the 1000 fish we done caught on the 33 it gonna be better with the new toy. So we create our own belief that it ain't working as good as before. I never stopped throwing a slugo and still catch lots of fish with them. I still throw a spinnerbait and all other types of baits when the right conditions exist. New baits seem to catch more fish cause that's what we dummies has got tied on and throwing. I use the exact same baits as I used in the early 80s when I started tournament fishing in the St John's River. Guess what they 100% still catch fish. The difference is somewhere along the way I figured out that any fool can catch em its the yahoo who can find em that's cashing checks. Bass ain't sophisticated and will bite the same stuff forever if you can consistently find them. Black bluetail or junebug. Trap. Bomber 6a fire tiger. I ain't wrong...
As you know, every fish has a different personality, just like pets. Some are lethargic all the time, some are hyper and aggressive and others simply will never like humans enough to truly be a "pet". I believe fish carry these same mannerisms and relates over to them biting "lures" or may never bite a lure in their lifetime. Someone above also mentioned "learned traits" which I firmly agree with. Fish that never bite artificial lures will have a higher survival rate (or maybe just never had negative responses to lures since they won't touch them) which leads to a bigger population of fish with those traits that carry over from generation to generation.
Thanks Todd, I keep trying old baits sometimes they work most times not. The old crank baits work, but a crank bait is a crank bait
I think it has to be pressure too, some days it feels like you can get bit like every cast throwing it along brush lines but some days I think I have the perfect looking swimjig and nothing
A jig has caught them as long as any lure also! And still going strong.
I 2nd this comment!
I have been pondering this question for a while now. I fish a smaller lake that has been highly pressured since covid but it does have good spawns. Several baits I used to smash em on are hard to even get a bite on now, even by smaller fish. I have came to the conclusion that to a fish we are predators, and all animals evolve to avoid predetation. So i believe it becomes a part of their DNA to avoid certain baits. Except, like you mentioned, when the conditions are perfect.
Im 52 and bew baits come around and are hot for a year. Heres some i remember. Ratltrap banjo minnow mocassin snake worms flukes beaver tail worms square bills Roland's blue fox spinnerbaits and more. They all come and go and still catch fish we just stopped using them drag out your oldest baits and go give em a shot. Youll be surprised
Maybe when it was so easy to catch them with a specific bait we ignored the microecosystem and its conditions b/c it was so automatic; throw it and catch them. Then as conditions changed in that microecosystem(s) and it became harder to get a bite we then would finally pay more attention to & notice those specific conditions, therefore forever pigeonholing that lure for just those conditions going forward. Hence, we don't throw it as much, then our newly released, favorite lure finds it way on the deck more often and displaces the older lure. Maybe you should do an old-school lure v. new school lure challenge
Fishing pressure is a huge issue, it not just seeing the same baits day in day out, you have to take in consideration all the boats pulling up fishing and then next on and the next one, all the sonar noise.
But I think the biggest issue is confidence, have a few bad days and there you go. I can’t hardly get a bite on a spinner bait anymore, have friends that still catch a ton of fish on them.
Fishing is a big mental chess game.
😎
My only theory on that is that fish learn from each other. If they are schooled up and the bigger older ones show no interest in something that caught them, the other ones take note and don't think of the bait as "food" either. They do the same thing in reverse where one fish bites and the others then want to eat the bait, assuming it must be desirable food. Only way to test that is if you waited long enough to try a bait they got used to so no fish would have seen another fish not eat it, but that'd take like 10 years or so of nobody throwing something, then try again.
Thought about the same thing for years. I've pulled baits out that worked amazing 10 years ago and never catch a fish, when I know I'm fishing for fish that are only 5 years old. Unsolved mystery to me as well. The spinner bait being one of those baits. At one time in East Texas you could catch fish year round at almost any depth by changing the size or blade combination, but now as you said the conditions dictate the spinner bait bite.
What a great video Todd. Thanks for sharing your honest input on topics we've all thought about a million times.
Todd, I know you promised us a in depth “Structure jig” video. But Im interested to know how much you swim it. Do you throw a dedicated swim jig most of the time or do you rig a structure jig with your swim jig trailer and swim it? That seems like a great idea because you can always just swap your presentation with the structure jig if the situation calls for it and work it like a regular jig. Curious minds wanna know.😊
Thanks for your thoughts about my question.
I also don't have an answer for that.
I have racked my brain over this very subject,all I know is when fish move to an ambush position they are easier fool than when they are set up in open water. I make a lot of baits that I think I will be showing them something new but they still only work in the conditions that other lures do. Great talk man.
The way animals learn to survive is by adapting to their environment. The earlier phase they are exposed and more frequently, the less reactive they will be to that thing.. or alternatively be suspicious.
I would theorize that fish being disinterested in baits has less to do with having been caught by one than general exposure
It. Is!!! Genetic engineering.
Every time I watch one of your videos that you shoot in your house, I hear your aquarium and end up pausing it looking around my house thinking I have a leak. Gets me every time. Great video though!
One thing that has changed from 40 years ago was that we fished baits slower. Now gear ratios are 8 to 1 vs 3 to 1. Try fishing baits slower like spinnerbaits, crankbaits, even worms. And with glass rods that were softer. Plus we have too much electronic pinging now, where in past not as many electronics bombarding fish.
Sorry, but 5/1 was available in the '70's
Bingo ! thats my 1 thought too. I believe tournament guys in a hurry. in fact since i started using bait casters i can hardly have patients for drop shotting anymore. now i have 33 baitcasters.....started putting my 7.1 on shelf fishing only 5's and 6's and smashing them.
I used to fish DD22s back in the 90s and caught numerous 8 and 9 pounders at fork , I wish the XD were around then as they are superior, but every now and then a wave of nostalgia hits me and I tie one and hardly ever catch one on it. I have caught on all of the lakes around here back then , now not so much. I think part of the reason is way more pressure on offshore fish otherwise I don't know. Great video.
Isn't because are way less fish are in the lakes vs the past? I think it's a pressure plus bass population declined big time.
Another way to look at it is farm pond fish. Say there’s 50 in a pond. Say you catch all 50 on a worm, or a frog, or whatever. In a month you can’t tell me you won’t catch any of them on the same bait again. And not even that, in a pond you can almost all of them again On the same bait.
But how do you know that you are not catching half the fish or ten fish over and over unless you tag them with numbered tags?
35 years ago. White quarter ounce spinner bait with Colorado blade. Always caught fish everywhere all conditions.
Now for me conditionally it seems it’s got to be discolored water less than 55° and going to be a half to three-quarter ounce with tandem willow leaf blades.
I think about it like cats chasing a laser, 90% of the cats will pounce on that laser and try to attack it but there will be that 10% that won't pay it the time of day. I truly believe not every fish reacts to baits equally but I'm no scientist lol.
This was super helpful! Thanks
Great Conversation!
I sometimes wonder if a fish gets spooked by a bait, any others that are with it get turned off as well. Wouldnt ever have known if I didnt see it happen on livescope. 🤷♂️
The reason the new fish bite, in my opinion…is they’re evolving just like we are. 👍🏼
Great video day in and day out I am sticking with my swim jig
Like you, I have no answer. Enjoyed the video.
Swim jig is one of my favorite baits in any depth
M thinking is typically to keep it simple, and I don't think the new or young fish learned somehow not to bite on certain baits.The bait industry would like us to think that, but I don't give them that much credit. I think it has more to do with the forage, and cover, and the changes that constantly go on with both of those ....it might be narrowed down to more about the cover and the changes in type and depth, which in turn, affects where the forage is and the fish are.. Knowing you ...I'm sure that you give it, it's due diligence, as far as spending an ample amount trying, but seems like lots of anglers, are to quick to quit, and to buy into the latest trends without thinking much about it. Me ? ....I would have no problem with just throwing a tennesee shad pattern on Rayburn, and forgetting the red!
I dig the topic. You’ve hit on some great logic, talking about the conditions…., and the angler talk. Yes, the spinner bait works well when it’s windy and gnarly out there….and most anglers chose to stay home and fish only on fair weather days….and then complain that the spinner bait just ain’t what it used to be. You are spot on!!
Regarding the part you can’t answer….the hard one to figure out….why some young buck bass doesn’t just go stupid over any bait swimming across his face…..I’ve come to the conclusion the fish talk to each other. They’ve been told to avoid swim jigs! 😂
I loved the video man…keep em comin! Good luck at Table Rock comin up!
When one fish in the school is scared of a lure the 'herd' follows suit. I believe this.
The reason that small ones can't attack the swim jig bait is the angle of attack. They haven't learned yet how to. There are essentially three ways that fish approach and consume your bait. The just follow (that is all that those small fish out deeper know how to do is follow things that move). Hence why things such as football jigs work. In saltwater fish who are of juvenille size they are forced to 'work the splash' (literally where the sea hits off the land). And in so doing, the juvenille fish has access to a variety of forage, but also becomes a target for larger fish themselves. Juvenille fish have to spend so much time watching their six when they do move into the splash-y-er parts of the water, that few actually have time now to really chase forage. They don't become confident eaters. In moving water with current it's about hierarchy. Where juvenille fish are reduced to those parts of the water that don't have enough current (the conveyor belt which brings dinners to them). Those fish are reduced to chasing after things that move too. Which isn't a lot of things. It's why lures like bullet spinners work. The small fish hit that ordinary bullet spinner after chasing from behind.
The other ways that fish approach the lure and actually wound it, or consume it. Is from the side, or from underneath. Lots of juvenille fish who tend to live shallow as juvenilles. They are constantly feeding upwards. Looking for terrestrials (land-based instead of aquatic insect live to come along). That's the situation that John Cox exploited once on Tennessee River. Where he found a tree full of May Flies. With bass underneath it. How the confident fish (fish who are able to defend premium locations in the river current, where the current brings the food to them). You put the same bullet spinner across their line of sight and from the correct casting angle. And you'll see what a real hunter does then to a simple bullet spinner lure. They'll savage the thing square on, from the side. They will line up with that lure and hit it dead level at the same heigh in the water column and square from the side. None of these approaching the lure after a chase. Those actual hunters. They know how to do the calculations which tell them where they need to aim for (in some fish brain equivalent of 'the future tense'), where the Mepps bullet spinner lure will be. And you'll know by the take, as the rod gets pulled out of your hands.
Lures can be designed with those three angles of attack in mind. The follower take from the rear of the bait. The underneath take from below, which is usually a visual type of thing. And the square-on, from the side. What trout anglers call the T-bone (as in, when one vehicle hits another one square on, from the side). Some will argue there is a forth type also. Where the larger fish consumes a bait 'head first' (all sorts of predators including birds do it, where you only see the paddle tail of the bait fish hanging out of the predator's mouth). And the predator fish or bird may even swim or fly a distance. Holding the captive bait in their mouth. Before swallowing it at their own time, leisure and discretion. In the way that cats of prey will drag something away with them too. Whether that bait item wants to be taken away or not. The kind of fish that does that, is likely to hit a larger swimbait or glidebait. Not from the side. Not from below or behind. From the front. It's a different type of mathematics they are using. Where they learn to synchronize with the wave-type swim pathway of the glide bait (kind of like the way an aligator would approach it's prey). And lazily just come along and consume what it has some preference for. That's different to the T-bone smash. Which is the stock-in-trade of a seasoned hunter, underwater (the swim bait's role it plays is to use the weight of the swim jig to hold the lure steady, so that the hunter can 'lock in' that calculation to make the interseption with the swim bait). And then T-bone this defense-less bait square-on, and from the side. The short, stubby hooks of the swimbait lures is part of that.
Chatterbaits, bladed jigs, football jigs are all for those followers. Those fish who have spent a lot of their lives out deep (the reason bass or lake rainbow trout do this, is because of birds of prey which can dive deep for them, and snap them out of relatively deeper water). Depth is that fish's only ally. Looking at the rocky shorelines of countries such as Ireland. The rocks there are prime real estate for all kinds of species of bird. Who are like those diving attack aircraft that you see in films about Midway Island and the Second World War. There are juvenille fish who chasing stuff that hop along the bottom and around weeds in tidal areas. Hoping not to get caught by birds of prey. There are juvenille fish who live under trees full of May Flies, and then they feed up like a Pickwick lake. There are fish who grow up in tiny streams (those streams produce the hunters, because the constrained nature of the environment means those fish become hunters). They learn to T-bone prey from the sides. Again, John Cox is one angler who goes into 'thin' shallow water, looking precisely for that kind of quality bass there. Who is using the small-ness of a creek in order to gain a hunter's advantage. Bullet spinners or small chatterbaits can be used a different way there, to attract trophy sized bass.
Then the swim jig type of fish, is probably a fish that grew up around current. Why? Because they learned about speed. Everything in current moves fast, and knows how to maneuver. Stuff that lives around tall underwater vegetation in non-moving water is probably the same. As creatures and forage that live in that environment understand how to evade predaators real well. That is probably what Greg Hackney talks about in terms of fishing jigs. Where he's looking for that one gap in the vegetation in miles. Where the big ones live. And no where else. It's a T-bone attach too, but it's faster than others. It can come slightly from underneath and slightly from behind. The glide bait fish I think must be unusual. In that that fish when mature has grown up in some way attacking larger shoals of bait. You see it in saltwater too some times. Where predators just follow shoals of bait around, constantly feeding off of it. Which would account for why, a glide bait combined with technology to find those shoals. Also ends up finding fish who know how to take glide baits. Which I think is that take that hits the bait fish square-on from the front. As opposed to from the side. That is, where the tail of the bait fish is all that is left hanging out. And all of these are different fish. They're not the same fish. What can happen on a lake over time. Is that certain tribes come to dominate the lake at one time. And a different tribe comes to feature the most at others (sometimes the juvenilles that lived shallow win out, and survive). Sometimes fish that stayed in creeks, or lived out deep. Sometimes it's the fish that used the faster river flowing into the lake as the nursery to keep them safe. They come to rule the roost. And that's all random, but it accounts for why baits and lures. Come and go.
The Hover Stroller lure, is very much a lure designed for those fish takes where the fish comes at the bait from it's head first (the crucial thing that Hover strolling style of lures do, like 'the swim jig', is to hold part of the lure steady, so that a predator can 'lock on' to it). And that is what weight in that hover stroller does. That is what the Keitech ball head swim jigs accomplished in their time too. They set up the bait to succeed where a front-side approach (a shoal hunter fish), was concerned.
Thanks for cleaning it up
- for me it was major info
About 40-50 years ago, no one used a green worm. I don't even think you could get one. It was all grape, plum, black mainly.
You could get green, blue, purple w or wo firetail and twister tails as well, even the original creme worm was available w firetail and even dots.
Could it be that the smaller fish are taking cues from the larger fish that are in the same area?
I don’t fish clean water enough to see this often but I’ve seen it on live scope a few times. often times the first fish that becomes interested in a bait is not the one that ends up hitting it.
If a larger fish never shows interest in something, perhaps it turns off the little ones.
You think Fork is considered a new lake now?
I'm really hooked on the hybrid hunter crankbait😮
It’s the same as rattlesnakes not rattling to warn of their danger like they used to where these guys do rattlesnake roundups in the same areas every year. The guys who catch them agitate them down in burrows to get a rattle response. They hear a rattle they flush them out and eat them. The ones that don’t rattle get bypassed because the guys think no one’s home. Those snakes survive and pass those traits onto their offspring.
They killed all the grass in all my local lakes and they have not been the same since.
Grass disappeared around here a couple of years ago and it's definitely hurt
Science has proved that fish are smarter than we give them credit for. I am also an older fisherman so if they don't bite this one i throw another confidence bait.
They can get wise to a bait pretty quick
Breaking down the thought process are we assuming a fish needs to be caught to have a negative effect against that lure? Can a school of new fish learn from a single bass mistake? Or is bass mortality higher and we are breeding out the aggressive gene? Few combinations perhaps? Ned rig 10 years ago was a killer now it seems it performs in certain conditions.
Amen about the small fish not biting. My same question!! I don’t get it either. Good video.
Its how fish have learned to survive... slowly filtering out the fakes and passing it along to the next generations DNA. Bucks didn't used to look up at tree stands the way they do now, a learned behavior possibly. Great vid !!!
I may not want to know why a spinnerbait works. All I know is a spinnerbait works!
Todd is a bass philosopher! Never accepts anything as fact, he’s seen enough to know better and he’s stubborn enough to keep testing it. I hate when people regurgitate old info and always skeptical when someone says they know it all. It’s gotta be mostly 2 yr and under fish in most lakes.
I dont lnow any lakes that get better besides at least these ten lol by me
If a lake fluctuates it gets better, right? Well what about lakes on river systems like Tennessee or Coosa? The drop the lakes in the winter. Those lakes have always been good and are very consistent
I’m not stating this to be the answer just what I thought as you were talking but as simple as the baits the always produce are the ones that produce under those “ conditions” or the conditions that you see most when your out fishing. Had a similar conversation about a 6” swimbait in the late prespawn and how good it was for 4-5 years and it just hasn’t the last few. We came to the conclusion of it was just those perfect conditions for it lined up those few years and haven’t lately. It has been a lot like you described we mauled them those first few years and still catch some the last few but this past sping it was worse but we had dirtier water than most years not by much but it was dirtier. Anyway just a thought
Why have I caught limits on top water at certain lakes over the years ! The last 2-3 Years zero
Not sure on that one, topwater is still my go to, but I will say it sort of has dropped off
Great video Todd. I always have a swim jig, popping perch, sexy dog and the hybrid hunter on my deck. I just always seem to catch fish with them.
Damn it man it's almost crazy that I never thought about why the younger fish won't bite certain techniques that they've probably never saw unless the conditions are perfect even though when those techniques come about you could catch all the fish young or old almost at will... Great video as always keepem coming brother!!!
1 thing to remember is for a 100acre lake there are probably 1mil bass in there of various sizes, imo 75% have never seen a bait.
Let me know where that 10,000 bass per acre lake is located! Lol
you must messed up a zero or two...otherwise were all bad snaggers
Do you think it could be genetics? In the duck hunting world how does a duck born in Canada know to fly south for the winter. We also talk about ancestory holes. Just wonder if it’s some how passed down whether it’s vibration frequency or a certain speed. Good point Todd you’ve got me questioning that now.
I believe that it's not a single answer but a set of variables. Maybe the population is down. Supposedly there was the study found 40% of bass are uncatchable. Meaning they don't bite lures. And they do pass on these traits. In my experience with walleye not bass. Once mapping started every had all the spots. Within a couple years all these spots were fished out because nobody lets walleye go hardly. So people stopped fishing there. Now more than ten years later they came back. Also my friend claims that fish would not eat crankbaits for a few years. Only live bait. That I don't believe. I don't get to fish like that much these days because of parental responsibility. But I still fish
Could water condition change .... such as ph, acidic, hardness etc.. could that effect the way they want to pursue bait..
I swear I‘ve seen a group of fish get conditioned to BITE. I knew they were there, seemed to never be able to get them to bite anything and in my head I had to throw something to hit bottom in this little valley off a rock pile. Lost a $100 or so worth of cranks and finally got bit. Caught fish on that parrot color 5XD for 2 years it seemed until a hurricane wiped out our fish population. In reality, it was probably learning boat positioning, limiting boat slap and all kinds of other factors but it sure felt like I was dumb enough to make them think that every now and then a school of parrot colored shad would roll up
Cherokee lakes and Douglas lake in tn comes up and down constantly through out the year and fishing sucks on them
Idk the answer all I can catch them on is a crank or small to medium size paddle tail swim bait
Great video
What are your thoughts on the new lake bois d arc opening? Are you going to try it? Will it have the potential to be a trophy factory with all the sharelunker fry and juvenile fish being stocked in it?
Todd
If you believed in Aliens you could get your number one question answered. The Aliens are telling the bass all about your baits! True Story
funny
people say bass educated lol like they went to GA TECH
NO NO NO
bass do 4 things that's it
1. breath
2. eat
3..breed
4. die
that's it
so 3 reason bass not eating your bait
1. not hungry
2. not their
3. not throwing what they want
that's it
Its like a buzz bait, cant really explain why its worked for years but it does.
It’s. Learned. Behavior. I’ve. Waterfowl hunted. Mallards geese everyday nearly 40 years. Waterfowl learn things because of human influences. That you can see and learn. But !!! (( unless you scuba dive and watch them )). You can’t see how adaptable to human behaviors. They learn. Believe it or not.
I'm still not sure what the question is....??
Seriously
Well, my question was about fishing...
Gotta put a jig in there.
You didn't say anything that I can disagree with. And actually a light came on which makes since about baits I wasn't sure about during different conditions.
I think it's usually more about us than it is about them. If you went out to make a new one rod video with a swim jig, I think you'd smash them. I think we get quick to switch gears and try to catch them another way because time is so limited, but that doesn't mean we couldn't have caught them doing what we started out with.
I have to disagree about the chatterbait hurts the spinnerbait, I've always fished one and over the last 4 years in Alabama it's gotten better., except at night
Do you think changing your trailer to give the swim jig a different vibration would change how well they bite it? Or for some reason are they just used to it's profile? Not being able to ask a fish the answer just leaves us wondering why they don't bite a particular bait under certain conditions. You would have to figure pressure fits in there somewhere
It's because when they are little and out deep they are in a... school 😂 Don't block me.
Some food for thought : Confidence in a bait - leads to a certain cadence of the bait - leads to fish catching.
Kinda how your Buddy on the boat inst catching, so he switches over to same bait as you....but doesn't catch 🤔
I don't mind working a stretch of water behind another competitor, because I have Confidence in a bait...and there's no way he's working it the same way as me..!!!
Awesome vids as always 👍👍👍
Baits don’t stop working. Spinnerbaits work just fine to this day. Everything else changes though. Hello!!!! Drought. Low water. Water temp. Fish constantly moving around for survival. Conditions constantly changing. So much fishing pressure. The inability of fishermen to fish way, way offshore. Fishermen relying on past bites. Big no no!!!! Stop being fooled everyone. The bass fishing industry is hell bent on making you think their bait is magic. Sorry. Not!!!! It’s more about fishermen just figuring out what the fish have done this time to survive constantly changing conditions. Like I said, spinnerbait works just fine.
Some people dont give fish enough credit. Most species we dont understand dont get enough credit. Maybe not genetics but maybe they have communication. Seems like every species communicates im some way or another. We will never know though because they cant cross communicate.
Hi Todd, i'm 72 and back in the day to learn i took a texas rig only and fished it all day / a jig. I did the same for cranks and spinner baits. I'm asking, (bottom fishing) for texas rig / jig what is the 'best depth level' to stay in to maximize worm and jig fishing factoring in thermocline and so on. Thanks Mike
To bad fish can’t talk
A large part of a bait "not biting it like they used to" is the simple fact we stop using it. New shiny toys come along and just like the 33's we gotta have it. Forget the 1000 fish we done caught on the 33 it gonna be better with the new toy. So we create our own belief that it ain't working as good as before. I never stopped throwing a slugo and still catch lots of fish with them. I still throw a spinnerbait and all other types of baits when the right conditions exist. New baits seem to catch more fish cause that's what we dummies has got tied on and throwing. I use the exact same baits as I used in the early 80s when I started tournament fishing in the St John's River. Guess what they 100% still catch fish. The difference is somewhere along the way I figured out that any fool can catch em its the yahoo who can find em that's cashing checks. Bass ain't sophisticated and will bite the same stuff forever if you can consistently find them. Black bluetail or junebug. Trap. Bomber 6a fire tiger. I ain't wrong...
As you know, every fish has a different personality, just like pets. Some are lethargic all the time, some are hyper and aggressive and others simply will never like humans enough to truly be a "pet". I believe fish carry these same mannerisms and relates over to them biting "lures" or may never bite a lure in their lifetime. Someone above also mentioned "learned traits" which I firmly agree with. Fish that never bite artificial lures will have a higher survival rate (or maybe just never had negative responses to lures since they won't touch them) which leads to a bigger population of fish with those traits that carry over from generation to generation.