Fishing with Kenny: Why Will They Hit This, but They Won’t Hit That?

article by Kenny Covington

It has happened to all of us at one time or another. You are fishing with your buddy, and they are catching fish right and left, and you can’t get a bite. Fishing frustration at its finest. Often times anglers consider such experiences their “bad luck” or the other angler simply had the hot hand that day. In reality that probably isn’t the case.

In this month’s BayouLife, we are going to look at a few scenarios and lure comparisons that might just shed some new light on this common occurrence. Are fish really smart enough to determine angles, colors, shapes and sizes, enough to distinguish a reason to bite one lure when they won’t bite another? At times, yes, they are.

We have more fishing pressure than ever before, and the fishermen are more knowledgeable. Our fish today are more educated, making them more difficult to catch. Like any other creature, bass rely on their survival instinct in order to outlive their contemporaries. Big bass, much like big deer, don’t get big by being dumb. They know when something is up.

Once while talking to fishing legend Larry Nixon, he told me, “A subtle change is all that is needed when you are trying to outsmart a bass, especially a pressured one.” When I pressed him to explain, he continued with, “If you are catching fish on an 8 inch black/blue tail worm and they quit biting it, switch to a six inch version. If you are using a buzzbait and they stop hitting it, try a spinnerbait. Subtle changes, while simple, are usually what do the most good.”

That conversation, while taking place over 20 years ago, helped me to understand why bass will strike certain lures when they stop biting others. Or why they will bite one thing in place of another similar lure. The key is to think outside of the box and give them something just a little bit different. Let’s look at some popular examples.

Chatterbait vs. Spinnerbait
While both lures are similar in appearance, used in the same fashion and both are effective fish catchers, it is rare to find a time when bass will strike both lures. In short, fish biting a spinnerbait usually won’t strike a chatterbait.
Spinnerbaits are usually more effective in stable, warm waters, and chatterbaits are effective in colder water temps. Spinnerbait colors are usually seasonal depending on time of the year and the choice of forage, be it shad or bream. When using a chatterbait, I choose either black/blue or green pumpkin just to keep it simple.

When fishing spinnerbaits, it is all about blades, the flash and retrieve speed, with a chatterbait one blade fits all and you use just a basic slow roll retrieve regardless of when you are throwing it. Two lures that very much alike but in reality are totally different.

Noise vs. Silent
Crankbaits have long been a favorite choice for anglers everywhere, but bass can grow leery of repeated presentations of the same noisy lure. While most anglers prefer crankbaits with rattles, the events I have done well in over the years when using a crankbait, both shallow and deep divers, have been mostly on the silent models.

Just as a deer can become conditioned to hearing four-wheelers during hunting season, a bass can become conditioned to unnatural noises under water. That is why some lure manufacturers will incorporate different sounds into the same bait even after producing a silent one. A one knocker Rat L Trap will sound different than a Trap loaded with BB shot, just as small bearings will sound different than a lure loaded with BB’s.

In clearer water applications, smaller silent lures without rattles tend to work better, because clear water fish tend to feed more by sight. Fish that live in dirtier water scenarios tend to feed less by sight but use their lateral lines making larger, noisier baits more effective.

Fish become products of their environments and anything they consider to be unnatural will be quickly ignored. On heavily pressured bodies of water the importance of color choice, lure presentations and lure size cannot be underestimated. While your fire tiger crankbait may not have the same rattle as the one your buddy is throwing, if he is catching bass and you aren’t, don’t be afraid to ask if he has a spare.

Drop shot vs. Carolina rig
The Carolina rig was once the king of deep water presentations. Then almost overnight people stopped catching fish on it. The drop shot took over and now gets most of the work. Have you taken a moment to look closely at both set ups? There really isn’t that much of a difference between the two.

The Carolina rig has a sinker placed in front of a soft plastic lure that follows a few feet behind it during the retrieve. The Drop Shot has a sinker that is placed below a soft plastic that moves a foot or so above the sinker when being dragged back to the boat. Amazing how switching a lure less than a couple of feet just by using a similar, although different, technique can make that much difference to a fish. But it does!

In closing, it really just comes down to this; give the fish what they want, not what you want to give them. Many times anglers get so hung up on what they want to catch fish on, they overlook one important element; what if the fish doesn’t bite that lure or technique on a particular day? There are no easy answers, and it takes a lot of experimentation from the angler’s side of the water to figure it out.

It looks like we have run out of space for another month. Please be careful out in Mother Nature’s world, and if you are on the water, catch one for me! See you next month!