Slowing Down that Retreive

[sweendog67]

Hey all, Billy Sweeney here.   I know it is a good idea to slow down your retrieve, especially in these hot summer months. I have always had a problem doing this and after getting a tip from Mike I decided to do anything I could to accomplish doing this. I did it and the results were great to say the leaset. In about 90 min I caught 5 fish, all big and one whopper 6-7lbs. This may not be typical but I fish a large reservoir with no boats, no swimming and very few fishermen. I am only one of two that fish this lake from a belly boat. Anyway slow was good. Before that I was fishing a bleeding tube skirt in 15-20 feet of water and I was not too concerned about speed or lack of it. I jerked that baby for a few hours. The smallmouths went crazy. So it seemes (warmer shallow water slower)-(deeper cooler water, not so slow) So what do you think guys and girls?

[wareagle71]

I agree.  I was wading a good smallmouth creek the other evening.  I started tossing a small buzzbait into all the nooks I could find.  I had a couple small blow ups, no hook ups.  I thought maybe I was retrieving it too fast, and started to bring it across just barely making a wake in the water.  It was like I turned a switch.  I started catching fish almost every cast.  I also had about a 2lb. smallie nail my buzzbait about 2 feet from me.  I was standing in the middle of the creek about waist deep, I started to lift my lure from the water and wham.  I got bit big time.  It scared the  out of me.  But when I got it in, Alan and I laughed our heads off.

All from the speed of retrieve. 


WAR

[silversalmon]

I know that this is for bass, but that is the only way to catch them salmon too. SLOW IT DOWN. Goin to fast will get you nowhere with the samon. They are mainly scent feeders and if the water on the tide gets a little coudy with even a medium retrivial, nothing will come your way. I cannot stress enough the importance of a good slow retirival, know the grounds where you are fishin. Is there a log under there that I can bump against to get there attention? How is the weed cover under water? Accurate casting too is a must with the slow retrival, to able to place it just on the other side of that fallen tree in the water will help ennormously

[Mike Cork]

Lots of great info here, and Silver your thoughts on the salmon work with the bass too

sweendog67, there is some truth to your theory. Definitely slow it down in the warm months for shallow fish, the only exception is you might get a quick bite now and then early and late in the day. But for deeper fish, sometimes slowing down is the key there as well, them big old bruisers will sit out in that deeper water an suspend and you really have to tease one into biting. BUT... also associated with deeper water is schooling fish, and they will be in a very active feeding mood and a quicker more erratic retrieve (like a bait fish running for it's live) is the way to go. Now school fish don't necessarily come to the top to bust the bait, some times they never surface. It's really tough to find them without electronics. Basically it boils down to what are they feeding on.

[bassketcher]

I know that this is for bass, but that is the only way to catch  bluebacks at any time of the year or day. 1/2 mile an hour is the best  if your lure and lake troller will work at this speed .