r a t e
by tamI curtIs
o f fall
Pay close attention to the rate of fall in the wintertime.
F
ishing in the winter can be tough! More
often than not it seems the fish are less
active than the other seasons, and on top of
that, battling the cold weather while fishing can be a bother! The rate at which your bait falls can
be an important factor anytime, but in cold weather
when the fish slow down, i find that more often than
not it is a critical component to successful fishing.
typically the bass tend to slow down a bit in the
winter, go deeper and can be found on the main lake
pointsanddeeperoff-shorestructure. that’swhyilike
to focus on finesse fishing techniques and slow down the
retrieve. atypicalwinterfishingdaystartsoutriggingup
my daiwa rods with a small finesse worm on a drop shot,
a nail rigged Senko, a jig, and a shakey head.
it is not uncommon to hear of two anglers fishing
the same technique (using the same worm) and one
angler is consistently catching bigger fish. Why is
that? Well it could be a number of reasons such as
coincidence, or a cast to a specific hot spot, or even a
slight variance in worm color.
Throughouttheday imightnoticethatthefishseem
to be aggressivelybiting my jigbut notquite taking it.
Sometimesi’lltrychangingthe size ofbait. ifthefish are
still teasingthejigbut not taking it, theni might switch
itup toalighteroreven a heavier jighead. These are
subtlechangesthat can make all the difference!
Many of you know that i love fishing a drop shot in
tournaments. When i start to pre fish a lake, it is not
uncommon for me to have two to three daiwa rods
rigged up with a drop shot. Here’s why: let’s say the
fish are also aggressively biting my 5” worm, but not
quite taking it in. There are fish teeth marks on the
worm all around the hook, but for some reason the fish
don’t seem to be getting hooked well. Generally i will go
down a sinker size first and see if that works. if that still
does not work, i might try a different scent. if i am using
a shad scent, i will try crawdad or garlic scent. if that doesn’t work, i will slow down the cadence, sometimes they like no movement at all (dead sticking it). if that still doesn’t work and a slightly different variation in color doesn’t help either, then i might change to a different manufacturer in the same size worm. Just by switching manufacturers can affect the rate of fall, not only because of size difference of the bait but because the buoyancy can be completely different also. For example a slim Senko vs. a Zoom trick worm, a robo worm, or a Maverick worm. They are all different and as you know sometimes the fish get finicky.
When fishing a drop shot, another thing to consider is the rate of fall after the weight has reached the bottom. We have spent many hours analyzing how the rigs react once they touch water, the rate of fall, their action as they fall, and their movements sitting still and with current. We also observe their action as we create certain motion with our rods and sometimes with only our reels. it has been very eye-opening watching the baits and how they react. When you experiment with the rate of fall keep in mind theactionofalure. Sometimesafasterfallwillgivea better action, but sometimes with certain lures a fast fall with kill the action. there are times, when nothing else works, and when you can use a heavy weight or a heavy jig and have a very fast decent and you will get a reaction bite. inadditiontotheaction,thelinesizecanplayapart intherateoffall. ajigtiedto15lbfluorocarbonlinewillsink slower than the same jig tied to 8 lb test fluorocarbon.
takeinto accountwinterfishing patterns,fishyour strengths,slow downyourretrieve,andexperimentwith thefactorsthataffecttherate offall. Manytimeswe maynotnoticeasubtledifferentwiththehumaneye, butthesesubtledifference’scanmakeabigdifference tothebass. ifyoupaycloseattentionto thedetailsthat affecttherateoffall,youwillbecomeabetterangler.
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