I went on a guided fishing trip for Stripers this past summer and it was amazing to see how when our guide put us on fish and had we had caught a few stripers, how quickly things became crowded with other boats! It was almost as if these other boats had a scout watching to see who was catching fish.
The interesting thing was that these fish were easy to identify on sonar and we kept finding more when we moved away from the crowd.
Finding smallies: Get your own spot!
The same thing often happens in tournaments and on weekends or holidays in many popular smallmouth bass fishing locations.
So why do so many guys flock to the #BentRodPattern? The “Bent Rod Pattern” is a joke that some anglers refer to when fishing open water; When a fish is caught and a handful of boats move towards you. My personal opinion on this; give a little room and find your own fish! There are thousands out there to be caught, so why crowd an angler who’s catching and try and hook his fish? Recently, we hit the water for a couple days of fishing and both days, the bent rod pattern was in FULL effect.
Knowing these fish had been pressured, my partner and I moved about 50 – 75 yards away from the crowd to a ledge and hooked up on a couple good sized smallmouth. I bet you can’t imagine what happened next…Yep, the “Bent Rod Pattern” was in full effect.
After covering water for about an hour more, we decided to move well away from the crowd and hit a different area with almost no boats. This area had some great bottom structure and we were marking a ton of bait balls suspended in the water column. Dragging a 1/2oz Football jig and a 3.5” swimbait and my partner rigged up with drop shot, we started to nail 4 and 4 ½ lb smallies.
What concerns me most is that there seems to be more and more anglers in boats who just wait for others to catch and trolling motor over to where the action is. If you look at some of the most successful anglers such as; KVD, Jacob Wheeler, Paul Elias, to name a few, these guys find their own fish and mark their own spots and that’s why they are successful. You hear everyone talking about isolated cover or structure? Well these guys find those areas that no one else knows about and hammer the fish. Why? The main reason, they aren’t pressured and are in ambush mode. When you target these fish, your bait drifts by and they don’t recognize that tube, drop shot or jig, you will have a higher percentage of hooking up. Read the full article here: Source
If you are hitting the water and its crowded, follow the road less traveled and get away from the crowds to find your own spot. Finding your own bass is much more rewarding that just following the crowd.
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