I've been to Barrett a few times since this season opened, but haven't posted any reports frankly because I haven't been doing that well compared to late last season and I'm having a bit of a fishing identity crisis. So this is more of a plea for guidance...
For context: I've only been bass fishing for a year. My fishing experience is fly fishing in the Pacific Northwest and some ocean fishing, but became a largemouth convert only after 'discovering' Barrett in July last year. Me and my two boys became addicted and went every single chance we could get--each visit logging 14 hour days chasing boilers and top water until the season ended. Post-season, we tried to keep bass fishing alive but struggled to hook up anywhere. We had been literally counting the days to this season's Barrett opener, but in the last few weeks, we discovered that Barrett seems to be a whole new ball game compared with late last season and that we really don't know what we're doing, even after all the research on this forum and elsewhere on how to fish for bass.
Our latest trip, Sunday June 2: we lucked out and scored a last minute boat ticket re-sale. Me and my 8 year old were on the water by 5am and our plan was to get to the back of Hauser and see if we could get some TW action going. The main lake was really windy and rough on our way out, but seemed to mellow once we got back there. I had a couple blow ups on my Hula Popper and frog, but they seemed like maybe they were small fish. No takers on swimbaits or crank baits. After not landing anything by 9am and starting to feel desperate, I switched to a drop shot Roboworm (which used to almost feel like cheating). I had a large fish on that shook free at the boat, which also seems to be happening to me more frequently and not sure why.
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So... I'm feeling like I don't actually know how to fish for bass and all our success last season was because it was easy with the boilers and the fish were more aggressive. Now that things are different, I'm realizing there is so much I don't know which is causing a mild identity crisis because this is something I absolutely love to do and I want to do better.
I've considered a couple of things that I might be doing wrong and I'd love anyone's opinion:
- I've been using swivels so I can quickly change out lures. I know this is lazy and something I'd never do fly fishing, but I didn't think it mattered to bass. Could this a factor in our sub-par results?
- Our gear is admittedly standard -- I have a nice BFS combo, but all my other rod/reel combinations are maybe $50 to $100. How critical is hardware to success?
- What am I missing about reading the lake and knowing what tactics to employ? I realize that might be too general of a question
- Are there any books or sources that you can recommend that will help me become a better bass fisherman?