Here's exactly how to know when to change lures, how long to fish lures, or when to give up on a lure, while bass fishing. Expert advice to help you with the best decisions!
Transcript:
Glenn: Hey, folks, Glenn May here at BassResource.com, but I'm here with Hank Parker with another weekly tip from Hank Parker. Where he answers your questions, and this week's question comes from Bob, from, uh...what is that city?
Hank: Mahanoy City, Pennsylvania is what I get.
Glenn: Mahanoy City?
Hank: Mahanoy City.
Glenn: I hope we got that right, Bob, I really do. The question here is, would like to know that, "During a tournament, when do you know you should give up fishing a pattern or a lure, and try something else? And what are the factors that you consider when you make that change?"
Hank: That's a great question, and I like that, and it varies. You know, I fished tournaments on the St. Lawrence Seaway in New York where you're gonna catch a hundred bass a day most likely, not always, but you have a really good chance at doing that. And then I've fished tournaments on Cherokee, Tennessee where, if you get five bites, you've had a great day. So, obviously, it's a complete different mindset on St. Lawrence Seaway versus Cherokee Lake in Tennessee, so it depends on what body of water you're on.
You know, most of the time you can look at the history when you've been to a lake or you've looked at a lake, and you've been there in the past, and there's a history on how many pounds it took to win a tournament, and how many guys had limits in that tournament. I try to research and find out as much as I can about a lake. And when you're fishing in that tournament, it all depends on what body of water you're on, what kind of bites you're having, how many pounds is it gonna take to win to make that adjustment.
Again, Cherokee, Tennessee, hey, if you get five bites in a day's time, you've had a great day. So you wanna really concentrate on staying with your game plan and not deviatin'. You know, you put it together in practice, and stay with it. On the other hand, St. Lawrence Seaway, man, there's a ton of smallmouth in that place, and a lot of great large mouth, and if you don't have any fish going by 10:00, throw that pattern away and go to a go-to pattern that you know produces fish on those tidal rivers, and just make small adjustments after you get your plan together and go for it.
I'm not saying...I did say it but let me back up and retract that. I never liked throwing my game plan away, but if I ain't got a fish and I'm on the St. Lawrence Seaway, something's definitely wrong because I should've already caught 20 by now. So I'm gonna make some pretty big changes there. Whereas, if I were in Tennessee, I would make little bitty changes perhaps, but I wouldn't get too radical because five bites is good. I'm looking for 100 bites on the St. Lawrence Seaway, so I'm gonna make some more, bigger adjustments in New York than I would in Tennessee. That's my whole point.
So whatever has worked for you in practice, modify that. Make little changes. For example, if you were catching a fish on the shoreline, on a big, rocky shoreline and there was big boulders there, and you were catching on a spinnerbait, and today you just can't buy a bite, man. You haven't had a follow-up, you hadn't caught a fish, go to a crankbait. Go to something to get on the bottom. They're not coming up after that bait. If that doesn't work, go to something you can fish low, like a jig or a sinking worm or a tube. But don't just abandon that area. If those fish were there, they hadn't gone far, and if you can't catch 'em in there the on the inside, then move out and find the point. Find an area where there's a break line, and then fish that break line. Those types of adjustments are the adjustments that have paid off for me, rather than abandon the whole game plan that you've put together in practice.
Glenn: That's fantastic advice, Hank. Bob, I hope that answers your question. For more tips and tricks like this, you need to visit hankparker.com where there's tons of tips and tricks and articles on there. You can just immerse yourself in there, lots of great information on there. And if you wanna be notified the next tips and tricks that we post, subscribe to our channel. Until then, have a great day.
