Fine-tuning Speed.

[Capt. BassinLou]

Sometimes the missing ingredient between having a fun outing versus experiencing a poor outing, can be as simple has fine-tuning your speed.

I will use myself in this example. Although I am improving in this area, I normally fish at two speeds. Fast or very fast!    Both speeds have worked for me over the years, but that's only if the bite has been congruent with my 2 speeds. If the bite was not congruent with my 2 speeds, it made for a very long and frustrating outing.

Teaching myself to slow down has been an arduous process to say the least.    But I have been fortunate to have fished with several great anglers recently, and their ability to fish very slowly, has been an eye opening experience to me.

Here's a recent example. I'm fishing with a good friend of mine, and we have identified that the top water bite is productive. We both tie on the same lure, and proceed to fish. I fish the lure at my typical speeds, and my friend with his varying speeds.

In very short order my friend begins to put on a bass fishing clinic. Me? Crickets!! What did I do. I fished the bait harder, and faster. Yielding the same results. Nothing!!     

At one point during the outing, my friend took a brief break, and asked me to man the trolling motor. I obliged, and continued fishing. As I was working my lure, I hear my friend who was sitting behind me, say "SLOW DOWN!!" You are working the lure way too fast!!

I proceed to work the lure, to what I think is a slow speed, and I hear, SLOWER!! I answer back SLOWER than THIS?? And all I heard back was. "YES!"

My head was spinning!! I have never worked that particular lure that slow ever!! On my next cast, as I worked the lure more slowly than the previous cast, a beautiful bass came up and crushed my lure.

Let's just say the message was received loud and clear after that.     

The moral of this story, check your speeds before switching over to another technique. You may surprise yourself on what can happen if you just SLOW down. I know I did.

Thanks for reading! 

[Smallie_Stalker]

Excellent post Lou! 

After correct depth I believe retrieve speed is the next most important aspect of any fishing presentation. Unfortunately,  I don't always practice what I preach here. 

This is a great reminder to slow down and then slow down some more.

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[Donald Garner]

Lou, tks for sharing the post with us.  I've been told that numerous times also when I was a co-angler.
When I fished I consider myself a power fisherman one speed >> fast     It is very hard to slow down and make that adjustment on some days. 

On the flip side of this if it was a blue bird day I would spend the entire day flipping and pitching soft plastics. I would just set my mind to it that's how I was going to be fishing that way on that trip.  Flipping and pitching can be a slow process sometimes depending on the cover.

The rewards can be great if you find the right structure and cover and SLOW DOWN     

[D.W. Verts]

I find myself of late fishing way too slow. There's a happy medium any given day (or hour). All part of the puzzle.

Dale

[Smallie_Stalker]

I find myself of late fishing way too slow. There's a happy medium any given day (or hour). All part of the puzzle.

Dale

X2 on the happy medium part.

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[big g]

I agree with Dale, I too find myself often fishing too slow.  Once the initial presentation is complete I will speed up to get it in and reposition the bait.  When a strike occurs on faster part of the retrieve it finally wakes me up to what they really want.  I'm a sucker for slow plastics!!!!!!!

[D.W. Verts]

I also meant that I fish way too slow in my covering of water. Way too thorough when it's not needed or doesn't work. This is from my big bass pursuits where I've proven that slow is best. I try to hard to beat them out. I don't cover enough water. A lot of this is a lack of confidence in what/how I'm doing. It's just been to long.

It's a process. I understand it still, but for whatever reason I'm having a tough time following through. The perfect scenario is to fish fairly quickly until you get something established, then do whatever the bass tell you after that. It's complicatingly (that's my word) simple. And so hard to do right every time, especially on larger reservoirs and rivers. I used to be very good at this. I was NEVER confused and it made me tough. Now I cry myself to sleep at night. Sigh.

Just my thoughts.

Dale

[Oldfart9999]

Speed control can be the hardest thing to work with, at least for me. It takes discipline  and a bit experimenting. It can change daily and hourly within a day. It is one of the things you can control.
Rodney

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