Bassin' USA - Bass Fishing Forum Archives

when i fish for schooling fish i usaly use a lipless crankbait or a medium running crankbait or a spoon,but some times ive seen lots of schooling fish and i throw my lure in their hundreds of times and cant get one to hit it what would u say to use to get them to eat my lure when they wount take it?

Tyler,
Are you talking about visually seeing schooling surface fish or seeing schools of fish deep under shad? Let us know and we'll discuss the options. Johnnie

seeing fish on top of the water

Tyler,
When I see fish surfacing on shad, I only use one topwater-Zara Spook. If that fails I use a spinnerbait buzzed across the surface or a crankbait that runs about three feet deep. Sometimes the shad school is so massive and so thick, the bass can't find the lure. I like to swim a crankbait under the shad school so its the first thing the bass see as they come up. I also don't try to imitate a shad in size or color. Why add one more to a million? Go to a different size and color bait than the shad. I've also had good luck swimming a jig and pig right into the middle of the swarm and then dropping it. I often pick up some larger fish which tend to stay below the shad and wait for cripples. Big bass are lazy. Good luck -keep on postin' Johnnie

ok thanks

Tyler,

One other thing to try... I have also experienced the same frustration and I have had a lot of success throwing a 4" grub (White, pearl or any bait fish color) on a 1/16 or 1/8 ounce mushroom head right into the school. Not only will this produce strikes, but sometimes the bigger fish in a school or pod will hang below the smaller more aggressive bass waiting for the fall out. Let it just free-fall for as long as you can stand it. I have caught some real slobs with this tactic. One other thing to keep in mind is that you can also try swimming the grub back through the school. If you are fishing smallmouth in the summer and the 1/16 or 1/8 doesn't work, go to the extreme opposite... 1oz!!! Smallies will sometimes crush a really fast falling grub moving through bait fish.

Good Fishing,
Brendan

Man these guys are good. They took all my answers..I will throw one more at ya if all else fails. The Little George. That bait has probably caught more schooling fish of all kinds than any other bait I know of. Not only will it catch the ones on top but you can let it sink down and rip it down deeper to catch some big fish. Like Jonnie and Brendan said the bigger fish hang deeper waiting for the fish on top to crippled shad to float down to them and clean up the scraps..They are like an ole dog waiting sitting beside you at the table they know sooner or later you gonna drop something on the floor.. then its theirs

Yea, that Little George is serious stuff. I'll almost bet most of our younger members don't even know what a Little George, or its brother, Big George are?? Too bad too these are great lures at times.

yes a little george is a great lure but a rat l trap is great one to.

If you can visually see the fish chasing shad try flipping a buzzbait out in front of the school as well , some of my biggest spots have come from doing this just be prepared to hold on .