Some days you can't but help catch fish

[SenkoSam]

The day before a front moved it (BTW the best time to catch fish), it was windy and chilly. Based on a previous pattern I found days before with my partner, I knew most fish would be caught away from any bank. Water temperature was 57 degrees.

LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION NUMBER 1:
This lake is unique in that every spring dense weeds grow from the bottom everywhere to within 3'-4' of the surface and you can see them looking down. In May they start dying off all the way to the bottom but until they do, you must fish the gap from weed tops to the surface where prespawn and active fish swim. It's like fishing in shallow water so you use lures such as these:

1. lures you chose must stay above the weed
2. medium to slow rate of retrieve necessary
3. lures used are on the small side with subtle actions
4. long distance casts using braid helped cover water to find small schools and general fish locations after which I moved the boat closer       in that direction.
5. on good days many lure designs work though not all
6. hours to catch fish extend from morning to late afternoon (around 4:30pm one fish after another!)

As many of you who have read my posts know, lure design innovation is half of why I fish. Variety is the spice of fish and in my book guaranteed every time I go out regardless the water fished.
Lure designs that caught fish:

I wondered whether fatter grubs might entice strikes so I double dipped a grub body into hot plastic to fatten it up. this was the result and man did it catch fish - all sizes 


The above was a Chubby Grub with a straight thin tail; the one below I added a thin curl tail and did as well

The Kut Tail worm (Kinami) has always been one of my favorite mid-depth worms when used on a light jig:

Crappies from 10.5"-12" slammed it with the twitch & pause of the rod tip along with small bass
That rod tip action caused the worm to slither and dart mid-depth - JUST WHAT THE FISH ORDERED -especially this foot-long crappie!

Another innovation was THE CLAW: I had bags of these craw baits sitting around for years never catching a fish on any of them. So one day I figured, why not use parts to make a new Claw design?

In the last two days of fishing, my partner and I caught over 30 fish of all species with the Claw and my partner out-fished me 10:1 the hour before we left (I was too lazy to change lures). On another lake we fished, we caught over 120 fish combined and the Claw and other designs caught fish - sometimes 6 fish on 6 consecutive casts! There were more lure designs that caught fish but I don't want to bore you. In any case an incredible day - 76 fish by myself and 115 fish the day after with a partner! Can't get any better than that!!!!

[wiperhunter2]

Those fish were very active for water temps that cool. Looks like you are on to something there with those thickers tails. Do you ever tip your plastics with any bait?

[SenkoSam]

Those fish were very active for water temps that cool. Looks like you are on to something there with those thickers tails. Do you ever tip your plastics with any bait?

 I used to think the same thing, colder water / less active. But then I remember my partner and I caught over 50 crappie ice fishing one area of the lake in early March one year. I was using a tube lure and he something else, but man was the bite hard!

The tails are very thin but wide ( I think that's what you meant). They flutter with no rod tip action added on the retrieve except pauses and reel hand stop & go. The Claw had pointed tips that also quiver up and down IMO accounting for strikes.

There is no point in using any bait or scent on lures that demonstrate good action by design. Many times the lures shown were hit three or four times on the same retrieve and caught on the last strike. Granted, there can be a big difference in lure activity/ aggression from day to day, but generally speaking, once I find a design or more than one design that catch fish, I stay with it.

For example, the GY white stick got clobbered the day before, but less so the following day where smaller worked better.

[Capt_Alan]

Nice post and interesting topic. I do believe that no mater what the conditions and weather temps, you can still catch fish. I have been fishing for many years and some horrible weather days have produced the best catches. Most of the time I would rather take my changes on a great weather day because the odds are they will eat.

Capt. Alan
https://galveston-fishing.com