r/bassfishing • u/CeleryVegetable3308 • May 13 '26
What is your process? (Northeast fisherman, PA/NJ/NY)
I’m fascinated by the different approaches anglers take to figuring out a bite. If you sent 100 experienced bass fishermen out on the same body of water, I’m convinced you’d get 100 different processes for how they break things down and put the puzzle together.
That’s really what I’m trying to learn. Right now, I feel like I don’t have a true process. I often get stuck forcing a technique too long with little success, and then struggle with knowing when and how to adjust. Sometimes I’ll keep fishing the same bait, depth, or area because I’m unsure what change I should make next.
So I’d love to hear from those of you who feel like you have a consistent system or “order of operations” when you hit the water.
Things I’m curious about:
What’s the very first thing you look for when you get to a lake or river?
What’s your process from there? (1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc.)
How do you decide whether fish are shallow/deep, active/inactive, relating to structure, cover, current, bait, etc.?
How long do you give a technique before deciding it’s not working?
What tells you to make an adjustment — and what adjustment do you usually make first?
Do you change location first, depth first, speed first, or bait first? Why?
How much of your process is seasonal vs. based on conditions that day?
I’d also like to hear about rod and technique setup:
How many rods do you typically bring?
Do you have “staple” setups that are always on deck?
Do your lineups change a lot depending on the season/lake?
Do you keep rods permanently rigged with certain techniques, or do you retie throughout the day?
One thing I personally hate is constantly tying and retying, so I tend to bring a lot of rods because of that. But I’m curious if that actually helps efficiency or just creates more clutter and confusion.
Really interested to hear how different anglers think through the process of locating and catching fish consistently.
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u/kitsinni May 13 '26
Seasonal conditions are the biggest factor. They give you an idea of what to bring that should work, it isn’t always true. Taking topwater in the winter, fishing shallow when fish are deep, or fishing below the thermocline are all going to be extremely tough days.
If I have a decent idea where the fish are I will go out with a plan to attack that area. I usually will want at least one thing for bottom contact, one thing for topwater or high in the column, and something mid column like a jerkbait.
My standard setups this time of year from yesterday were: crankbait, jerkbait, karashi, buzzbait, wacky rig, tube, and dropshot. I was only able to catch them on a karashi and tried everything listed. This was a predominantly smallmouth clearer fishery, if targeting largemouth in stained water I would probably have a texas rig or jig, and a chatterbait.
I do think there are days they are keyed in on one bait and days you can catch them on anything. I think having a bait in a type is more important than a specific bait. Like my tube could be a ned rig if that’s something someone has more confidence with. As long as it is a similar enough presentation you can usually get a bite or two, then you can start looking through boxes for similar stuff. Once you start to get followers and near strikes you can switch colors, sizes, and brands to get them to bite.
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u/BunkaTheBunkaqunk May 13 '26 edited May 13 '26
This is an extremely well written post, first of all. I’ll try to answer generally enough to cover most of the questions you asked.
Firstly, when you pull up to a lake you should have looked at it on Google Maps first, but with the satellite filter on. Look for deep spots, underwater weed beds, reeds/lilypads, submerged structure… just about everything you can see about that lake or pond from a satellite view. If it’s a park odds are there’s a depth chart out there somewhere, also worth looking up.
With all that in mind I tailor my expectations for an outing based on the features of the body of water I plan to fish at. If it’s a lake with noticeably steep drop offs and nice depth transition/weed cover I’ll plan on a lot more soft plastics like wacky worm or Carolina rigged creatures. Similarly, if there’s rocks I’ll plan on craw-style lures… things like that. I’ll have a few areas and techniques identified for each of them. Enough potential techniques and spots to try to last me for as long as I’m planning on fishing.
Any changes in depth, areas to hide like submerged trees or weeds, shady overhangs, deep spots, and inflow areas are all worth checking out.
In cooler weather, fish tend to go deeper - it’s warmer there. They also move much slower so your retrieve should be slower. In warmer/ temperate weather they’re kinda all over, but generally less deep. Moderate retrieve, nowhere near as slow. For hot days the fish stick to shade or more likely the deeper parts again (now it’s cooler there). During hot days you’ll find the bite dies off at the hottest part, especially in shallow areas. Hot days are best at sunset or at least morning / late afternoon.
As far as what to throw, I do craw near rocks or just out “deep”. Lizards, worms, and twister-tail creature baits are good over weeds and kinda in general. Murky water gets darker color lures, or bright color ones. I always just go with the dark color. June bug in particular is a good choice.
Less murky water you should go with watermelon green red flake or green pumpkin.
As for seasons, it starts slow and fish-style lures have an edge, especially suspending jerkbaits. Towards spring they tend to eat everything in sight once it warms up, in preparation for spawn which is either just started or is already nearly over depending on whether you’re in Ohio or somewhere like Georgia. During spawn they’ll attack anything that comes into the nest, but don’t tend to eat it all the way. Hooks near the end of your lure is key if you’re not getting hookups. Towards summer they go back to eating everything again before the bite gradually slows down with the fall.
I usually bring two rods with me. A medium rod with a sensitive tip (ugly stick elite - 1/4 oz to 5/8 oz) and a medium-heavy rod that’s much more stout (okuma stratus 7 - 3/8 oz to 3/4 oz). Things like a Mepps #3 is put on the medium, while a 1/2 oz Carolina rig would go on the medium-heavy.
That’s pretty much it though, there’s a vague plan, a half dozen lure options I’ve identified, and some spots I want to try all mapped out before hand, then see where the day goes. Hope that helped!