long pause?

[Hairstacker]

I think after you've fished for bass for a while, you start to develop your own instincts and preference for what a long pause is or should be.

When I was a kid, I regularly fished a certain ranch lake in Texas that had crystal clear water filled with bass that weren't angler-shy. I often saw schools of 6 - 8 bass suspended in about 4-5 feet of water in the shallows just off the bank. I remember casting my weightless plastic worm to them and watching their reactions as the worm sank to their level. Sometimes, one of them would hit it rapidly as it sank to their level. Other times, they would remain perfectly motionless as it sank to the bottom but they were clearly aware of its presence. After so many seconds, sometimes one of them would hit it very suddenly and assertively.

My 20 second or so pause when I fish the "long pause" approach partly derives from those experiences, as well as my experiences on the Delta. It is the time within which I feel a bass is most likely to hit, balanced against the need to cover water (In fact, I never cast to the same spot twice unless I missed a fish on the first cast and hope to pick him up with another cast.)

Other times, I will shorten the pauses to force the bass to make a more hasty decision. Or go for strictly a reaction bite by retrieving like gangbusters. Or mix it up, as others have noted, as the bug departs and approaches cover, for example, as the case may be. Sometimes these things work and sometimes not, and obviously, oftentimes, the circumstances of the specific spot you've cast to will dictate the options available.

In either case, I think presenting to as many fish as possible by continually moving your casts is a top-ten key strategy in bass fishing. I also firmly subscribe to the thinking that if a bass doesn't hit the bug within so many feet of where the bug landed, then he is very unlikely to hit it at all no matter what I make the bug do. Thus, I rarely "work" a bug more than 6 - 10 feet of where it initially landed. Also, if I cast to a very specific spot and the bass hasn’t hit after the 3rd pop, I’m done – I don’t expect a hit on the 4th or 5th or 10th pop. It is entirely possible, of course, but I think the percentages are vastly outweighed by the need to present to more bass.

By the way, I didn't pick “20 seconds” per se. In order to respond to this thread, I noted the time on my watch and then actually threw something across the desk and imagined waiting until I wanted to impart action. I then glanced back at the watch and noticed about 20 seconds had transpired. I think it is about developing your own sense of feel for how long to wait under varying circumstances and thus from that standpoint, I agree, it isn't about picking arbitrary times, although sometimes it does seem that way. 'Course, there's nothing wrong with being arbitrary either, as long as you remember what you were doing when the fish hit, so you know what to do with the next cast. Sometimes, I daydream and forget.

[Darian]

The reaso for the "long pause" may not be immediately evident.... During attendance at a seminar on Bass fishin' given by Jim Victoriene (hope I spelled that correctly ), it was explained that Bass in slower water are frequently looking up.

When the lure splashes down on the surface, they take off in all directions to avoid being eaten by whatever the predator was that just landed.... After a pause, with no danger involved, a bass returns to inspect/eat the bug/lure.... (after the ripples have gone...)

Sounded fairly accurate to me.

[bkobrin]

One could then deduce that the calmer the water, the longer the pause? I like it!

[Hairstacker]

Darian, I suppose that could be true in some cases? I've had bass hit at all manner of pauses and, indeed, have had many instances where the bass hit the fly as soon as it touched down, even when the bug landed with a fair splat. In fact, a few have hit it so quick they HAD to have tracked it through the air before it landed. And those bass I cast to in Texas didn't show evidence of being startled by casts at all -- they just seemed to have to make up their minds, at times, whether they wanted to try tasting the darn thing.

In the Delta, my impression is when I've actually noticed I've startled/spooked a bass, that fish was gone for good. Or at least longer than the longest pause I would entertain letting a bug sit for it to come back. I don't know. . . .