A few bass but a lot more short strikes

[basskicker]

Had a Dr's appointment midday so decided to sandwich it with some fishing. Decided I would kill a few hours and try new water so ventured to Potash Lake. Looked promising until I got on the water and realized I should have charged the battery for my depth finder so I was fishing blind. Tried the some isolated pads but fish seemed to be active a little further offshore. Tried to move out deeper but only got some short strikes on a chatterbait. Got the morning skunk!

Headed to the Dr's and hit the dirty river for 3hrs. The fish seemed to be non committal here as well. I was throwing some topwater, some jerkbaits and a slew of different worms at em. White whacky worms were getting a good reaction but the fish weren't taking the whole bait, just holding on to it for a nice run and letting it go. I finally hooked into one around 3pm on a tiny torpedo and it was foul hooked. Got up to a bridge and hooked into a healthy 15" fish that did not want to be hooked and had 3 fierce jumps and I was surprised to see it stay on until I got her close, another foul hooked fish. Caught a few cookie cutter finally the right way, on the worm before calling it a day.

What would y'all do differently to get these fish to commit. I stayed with the white because it was getting a reaction, should I have gone to a smaller presentation, a grub or tube in white? Would you change up the color? Any thoughts would be appreciated, always trying to learn.

tight lines

[thmyorke1]

That's a great smallie.

You mentioned the worm was getting hits but no hook sets? Any chance smaller fish like sunnies were tugging it around or are you certain it were good sized fish that could have ate it? Smallies that arent big enough take a moment to eat it up too. I'd be careful with "waiting" for them to eat it however, that's how I gut hooked some fish, havent done it since ive been just reeling slowly as soon as I feel something then setting the hook when pressure is on.

I would downsize the lure if the latter, like pinch off some of the plastic that is too far from the hook. Downsizing the hook too is a good idea

[NJSquatch]

i would slow down and downsize the presentation

try a ned rig next time it will get you bites....

[Riz]

its always a tough one . depends on the situation. if im understanding it your missing fish on a chatterbait? if so thenn a trailer hook would be an option. got three the other night all on the trailer hook. its typical for short strike in summer more often than not.

now , heres were "it depends" comes into play- if ya see the fish following it sometimes ya may need to speed it up or sometimes slow it down. ya gotta read his body language. again if ya can see it. im not sure if your seeing these fish or not.

the guy above makes a good point, they may be smaller fish. if its a bunch of taps in a row could be sunnies. play it safe , throw on some mega strike, hog tonic or other scent. cant hurt. if there river smallies or something maybe downsize. this time of year there is more smaller bait in the water too

its a lot of situational circumstances that come into play. hope this helps and I hope im understanding it right.

[basskicker]

Thanks for all the advice about downsizing and the ned rig (I remember reading about that in Bassmaster). Will try it if I find myself having issues like this again.

The fish were grabbing onto the worm and running with it. They were small 9-11" smallies. When I felt them tap it, I would set the hook and the fish would hold onto the worm. I felt the weight and the fight of the fish and when I got it to the yack and went to pull it out of the water, the smallie would come off. The first time, I just assumed it spit the hook, however this happened 3 times where the fish came undone when I was taking it out of the water (which has never happened to me). There were a few instances where the fish fought for a while and came off before I got eyes on it.

I use small size 1/0 circle hooks to avoid gut hooking the fish. I haven't had any issues with hooksets in the river before. I assume they weren't committing due to the change in the weather, even both fish that went after the torpedo were foul hooked. A strange day on the water for me.

[23cardinal]

+100 slow presentation
Rivers are pretty dark lately and I noticed I haven't been getting big bites with all this weather last two weeks(tonight excluded) fish it slow, maybe let them double clutch. Smaller doesn't hurt. Still beats the skunk

Potash is tough sometimes, conditions change very quickly.

What's the dirty river? Guessing it's close by?