We’ve all had those sorts of days! The reasons for ‘short
takes’ as they tend to be called in game fishing, are quite varied, so there’s
no one thing that you can do that can cure the problem. I’ll try to answer this very methodically.
First off, those days when you get a lot of follows but the
fish just never seem to build up enough aggression to hit the lure or even take
a swirl and miss: In my experience this happens mostly on very bright, calm days
with very clear water. Put these three factors together and it strongly suggests
that the fish can very easily see the lure for exactly what it is – a fake. So
why do they follow it ?
Well, fish, bass in particular, seem to have an inbuilt
curiosity, and when you add that to the very lifelike actions of lures nowadays
they can’t really help themselves, they have to come and have a look at it.
These are tough days to catch fish on, but a couple of
things have worked for me. One is to reduce the size of the lure, going for
very small patterns, and also avoid really lairy colours. Transparent or semi-transparent lures can sometimes win takes. The other option is to switch
to fly tactics, which can also get some takes.
When fish seem to be nipping at the tail of lures, which can
happen with soft lures, it sometimes happens because the lure is just a bit too
big. Dropping down a size can make a big difference.
If tail nipping keeps happening, try halting the retrieve to
mimic a fish being injured by a nip to the tail as this can draw a take.
Speeding up the retrieve to make it look like a desperate escape can work too,
as can giving the lure a quick, decisive twitch with the rod tip – just try
something different.
Predators actually work on quite small margins of success.
They don’t get dinner every time they attack, so being persistent and giving
them plenty of opportunities to make that fatal error can win in the end.
0 comments:
Post a Comment