Best question I ever got and why till this day I still can’t answer this question fully. Listen the the whole video and I promise no one has an answer for it.
Baits:
Swimjig: https://omnia.direct/El01L8
Rage Swimmer: https://omnia.direct/XmOel8
Spinnerbait: https://omnia.direct/roN5E6
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
You think Fork is considered a new lake now?
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 👍👍👍
I'm really hooked on the hybrid hunter crankbait😮
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 !!!
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?
Amen about the small fish not biting. My same question!! I don’t get it either. Good video.
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.
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
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!!!
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
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.
Like you, I have no answer. Enjoyed the video.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Its like a buzz bait, cant really explain why its worked for years but it does.
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
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
To bad fish can’t talk
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
Great video day in and day out I am sticking with my swim jig
When one fish in the school is scared of a lure the 'herd' follows suit. I believe this.
Thanks for cleaning it up
– for me it was major info
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.
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
Cherokee lakes and Douglas lake in tn comes up and down constantly through out the year and fishing sucks on them
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.
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.
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.
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…
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.
Great Conversation!
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.
Gotta put a jig in there.