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New fisherman saw bass, couldn't get them to bite.

Heyo, I'm _very_ new to bass fishing (fishing in general, as well), but I've been going out about every other week with my father-in-law for about a month.

Just yesterday morning we were in his canoe on Dorena Resevoir (Western Oregon) in a few shallow channels where the water is coming over the grassy flats (1-4 feet of water), we were there from 5:30 to 9 but couldn't get any bass to bite. I know they were there because we kept spooking them! We'd come into one of the little channels rather slowly, and inch our way into the shallow end casting as we went, and as we continued we'd see the Vs (and sometimes the fish themselves) as we moved over the spots we were casting to earlier. He was using a popper lure for a while (which caught the only fish of the day, one pound), and then moved to a crawdad-like surface lure. I started with a crankbait, quickly gave up because of the grass, and then tried a black spinnerbait followed by a black plastic "grub" rigged weedless.

Anyone know what we're doing wrong? My father-in-law thinks that it's too cold; we've had a really late spring here, we got a half inch of snow a week ago...

public
Apr 27
This is why it is called "fishing" instead of "catching".

Your experience could be any number of factors - wrong bait, water temp, they saw you and were truly "spooked", saw your line, bad lure presentation etc etc, all the way down the liist to - they just weren't hungry. If a flow of water is dumping into a standing body of water where temps vary widely (5 or more degrees) there is the chance that the fish may have been in "thermal shock", which can cause them to become lethargic for a while

-- Calling an Illegal Alien an "Undocumented Worker" is like calling a Crack Dealer an "Unlicensed Pharmacist"

not
Apr 27
Heyo, I'm _very_ new to bass fishing (fishing in general, as well), but I've been going out about every other week with my father-in-law for about a month. Just yesterday morning we were in his canoe on Dorena Resevoir (Western Oregon) in a few shallow channels where the water is coming over the grassy flats (1-4 feet of water), we were there from 5:30 to 9 but couldn't get any bass to bite. I know they were there because we kept spooking them! We'd come into one of the little channels rather slowly, and inch our way into the shallow end casting as we went, and as we continued we'd see the Vs (and sometimes the fish themselves) as we moved over the spots we were casting to earlier. He was using a popper lure for a while (which caught the only fish of the day, one pound), and then moved to a crawdad-like surface lure. I started with a crankbait, quickly gave up because of the grass, and then tried a black spinnerbait followed by a black plastic "grub" rigged weedless. Anyone know what we're doing wrong? My father-in-law thinks that it's too cold; we've had a really late spring here, we got a half inch of snow a week ago...

=

I don't think I would look for what you were doing wrong, rather more what the bass were doing. My guess, is that you might have been seeing the start of the spawn there. Spawning bass spook easily, and usually will not bite your bait unless you provoke them into it.

I have also seen bass congregate in the shallows, and you can not get them to eat anything you throw at them, I'm not sure why they are there, maybe to just take a break. :).

As for being too cold, as your father-in-law suggested...he is right, in that bass are not nearly as active in cold weather. But they still feed....try fishing smaller baits, slower.

Having said all that, I am definitely not an expert in the field of bass fishing...especially not Oregon bass fishing. I lived in Oregon for a while, and I never did get em figured out! I finally switched to gold panning! :)

John B

jbkbub
Apr 28
Dear pub,

If you're anything like me, you might be interested in reading up on fishing for bass in your off-the-river-time. I really like Clouser's new book: "FLY FISHING FOR SMALLMOUTH: IN RIVERS AND STREAMS." He is really insightful, and has been fishing FOREVER!!!

http://www.theanglingbookstore.com/flyfishingforsmallmouthinriversandstreamshardcover.aspx

You might also think about carrying around this handy little helper..."POCKET GUIDE FLY FISHING FOR LARGEMOUTH BASS." It's extremely popular with the fly fishermen in your neck of the woods.

http://www.theanglingbookstore.com/pocketguideflyfishingforlargemouthbassspiral-plasticcards.aspx"

Best of luck to you...tight lines.

www.theanglingbookstore.com

Brooke
Apr 30
I doubt the water was "too cold." After all you were finding fish up shallow in clear water. I think its a matter of finding the right presentation. I usually have to fish blind and trust that there are fish there to catch them in clear shallow water. Its also possible you were seeing another kind of fish.

My number 1/2/3/4 presentations for this are usually.

Topwater during low light. Long casts and long pause on initial cast, then rapid sharp short spitting pops.

Senko as a follow up (3" or 4") on light flourocarbon line and make long casts. Totally dead stick til it hits bottom then maybe one or two twitches before retrieve. Usually if it will produce it will ber on the initial fall.

1/16 oz t-rig in a clear color like watermelon seed. Long cast and swim, bounce, shake, jig along the bottom.

Drop shot in an even smaller bait and clear color. Sometimes I'll switch to a bright color like pink though. I don't have a clue why, but sometimes a bright color will really turn them on.

Some secondaries if there is any brush around would be a tiny buzzbait or a frog bait during low light hours. The frog may actually continue to produce all day long.

Definitely, good quality polarized sunglasses.

Bob La Londe www.YumaBassMan.com

Bob
May 1
   

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