Downsizing lures, going slowly helps in heat
Have you had one of those days when you could see fish feeding but couldn’t get them to bite anything? If you answered “No,” please call me to go fishing; I want to know what you’re using. For the rest of us, I’m going to offer a few ideas that have worked in the past.
Many fishermen are hung up on color; if fish aren’t biting, they switch colors. Others switch shapes of baits and may even go from soft plastics to hard lures or vice-versa. The bottom line is, when one thing isn’t working, we try something else.
While slow days occasionally happen in the spring or fall, I remember more of them being during the summer or the winter, primarily the summer. In very hot or very cold water, many fish become lethargic or complacent and don’t respond to lures. Sometimes, they won’t even respond to live baits.
My suggestion is to pay more attention to the size of your bait and your retrieve or trolling speed. I have found that making one or both of these changes can help the bite. Most of the time, lethargic fish respond better to smaller baits. I won’t say larger never gets their attention, but smaller does the trick most of the time. Similarly, most of the time, lethargic fish respond better to baits moving more slowly.
Working with these two changes will save the day enough that it can’t be a coincidence. Besides, as Special Agent Jethro Gibbs says on NCIS, there’s no such thing as a coincidence.
Let’s start with changing the size of the bait. I don’t know what it is about smaller baits, but downsizing the lure works an amazing percentage of the time. The location doesn’t matter, either, as this works from the smallest mountain streams to weed lines in the Gulf Stream.
Most coastal fishermen are familiar with Spanish mackerel and they are an excellent example of how downsizing lures can turn the fishing from very slow to good almost like flipping a switch. We’ve all had those summer days when we could see Spanish jumping and cutting through schools of bait, but not biting. If you got a good look at the bait or caught a Spanish and it threw up on you deck, you saw just how small the baitfish were.
When this happens, I downsize my lures and begin paying close attention to my speed; adjusting it until the strikes are coming regularly. The standard for Spanish mackerel fishing off North Carolina is Nos. 00 and 0 Clark Spoons. Sometimes in the fall, Spanish will bite pretty well on No. 1 Clark Spoons, but most of the time, the smaller spoons draw more strikes than the larger ones. So what do you do when the Spanish are feeding on minnows half the size of a No. 00 Clark Spoon?
The first thing is to switch to smaller lures. Clark Spoons range from 2 inches for a No. 00 to 4 1/2 inches for a No. 4. When baitfish Spanish are eating even smaller, you have to look elsewhere. Nungesser makes spoons down to No. 000 and 0000 sizes, which are an inch long. L.B. Huntington Company makes Drone spoons to No. 000 size at 1 1/4 inches, and Luhr Jensen makes Pet Spoons in No. 12, 1 3/8 inches long.
Sometimes, small spoons are difficult to find, and you have to resort to other lures to match baitfish size. Bucktails are one of my favorite ways to do this. Sea Striker and Betts make small bucktails. Sea Striker’s small bucktails are made from natural hair in 1/8-ounce size for their tandem bucktail rigs. They are a little more than an inch long and can be trimmed if needed. Betts makes synthetic hair bucktails in 1/16-, 1/8- and 1/4-ounce sizes for their speck rigs, which can be cast or trolled as a staggered tandem rig.
Speed kills, but sometimes not. Many fishermen troll or retrieve their lures too slowly for Spanish. Faster speeds often produce more strikes. Two tips for setting trolling or retrieve speed is that if you are catching bluefish and want Spanish, you should speed up. The other tip is for trolling and judging speed by fish caught while turning. Lures on the inside and outside of the boat move at different speeds. If you catch Spanish on the outside line while turning, speed up, and if the bites come on the inside line while turning, slow down.
This also is relevant while fishing inside waters for specks and puppy drum. Sometimes when the water is hot or cold, fish get lethargic and look for crippled or smaller baits that are easier to catch. It also often helps to fish slower to keep the lure in front of the fish for a longer time.
Many companies make a variety of size lures. In soft baits, few fishermen haven’t heard of Gulp baits, which contain scent. Many guides use Gulp shrimp and prefer the 3-inch ones over the 2- or 4-inch models in most situations. However, several guides said they sometimes switch to the 2-inch shrimp when they aren’t getting bites and are sure there are fish around. Many times, it saves the day. This goes with hard baits, too. C. A. Richardson of Flats Class TV told me several years ago that downsizing to the smallest MirrOdine, the No. 14 MR MirrOdine Mini, when the water was at its warmest in late summer produced strikes when fish ignored bigger sizes.
Fishing slowly and less aggressively often helps get fish to bite. I am a believer that if you keep a bait in front of a fish for a longer period of time, the fish is more likely to bite it. I don’t know exactly how this works, but it does, and it works even better when the bait has scent.
Think of yourself at a dinner party or reception; you refuse an appetizer several times, but if it is offered often enough, you finally try it. This happens even sooner if it smells good. Scent works better when fishing slowly, as it gives the scent more time to spread in the water.
I often cast weedless spoons for puppy drum and catch a surprising number of flounder in the process. My favorite spoons are the Flats Intruder and Cajun Sleigh from Cajun Thunder. The Flats Intruder comes in 1/8-, 1/4- and 1/2-ounce sizes, and the Cajun Sleigh comes in 1/8- and 1/2-ounce sizes. The difference is the Cajun Sleighs have in-line spinners and brass beads in front of the spoon. The spinner creates action, and the sleigh can be fished slowly and jigged occasionally to click and help draw attention when the fish are lethargic.
Larger spoons and Sleighs are good when the fish are active, as they can be cast farther and worked through the water longer on each cast. However, in warm or cold water, fish are often less active, aren’t feeding aggressively, or otherwise prefer the 1/8-ounce size.
Part of becoming a better fisherman is understanding you’ll generally catch more fish casting lures in sizes similar to the baitfish fish are feeding on at that time. It’s also important to match their moods and speed up or slow down your trolling or retrieve speed accordingly. Hopefully these tips will help draw more strikes.
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