Fished the Wood today and must have had fifty followers on my 7 inch Osperey and only twon commited bites, one of which i missed. All the bass in the entire lake seemed interested, but not committed. What do you guys do when you get a follower? Speed up? Slow down? Dead stick? Any tips? Thanks.

Jake

Three things have worked for me. First, I would try different baits around the followers to see if they react any differently. Also spray some scent on your bait that can make a difference. Thirdly, I try deadsticking as a last resort. Sometimes they just won't commit to a moving bait and they want something that is super slow or dead still. Good luck.

Grit your teeth and pull your hair! :+

I do all the things already mentioned. First I try and speed it up, like it's trying to escape. If that doesn't work then I deadstick. Sometimes I'll just throw to an area where there were followers and leave it there. Sometimes for 1 minute. Then give it a jerk or two.

When that fails, I switch baits. Sometimes they will only follow a swimbait and never commit. Throw a 7" Senko in there and see what happens.

Good time to try your favorite fish attracted scent of choice.
Try tossing in behind the fish with a weight-less wacky rig senko or trick worm.
Shake pause, shake pause, watch your line for any movement.

If your not in a tournament, try offering live bait to your followers ~
This works so well it should be illegal }(

Hey guys thanks for the advice. I tried throwing Senkos to them but the fish would only really react to that slow moving large profile bait. I tried nightcrawlers, got a couple of lookers, no takers. Then I tried a Zoom jerkbait in the closest color to trout I had, just to see if a little bit different profile would make a difference. They would come up, nose it juist a little bit, and back off. It got frustrating after a while. What scents do you guys use on your swimbaits? I remember hearing something abou a a scent that was mad to smell like trout, but is it any good? Thanks for helping a newbie out.

Jake

The one that smells like trout is probably by pro-cure. It's the trout bait butter. This stuff actually 'stinks' like trout. Not like dead fish! I really like it and it stays on ALL-DAY but it's a pain in the bass to get off of your bait at the end of the day. They are building a new site, but here's a #1-800-PRO-CURE. Lately I've been using Mega-Strike. I like it a lot. Easy to put on and it lasts quite awhile.

Megastrike for me too. One tube will last a long time. It too stay's on for a long time especially on hard baits. I can't get it off my fingers without some soap so it stay's on until I get home.

Dan

In my opinion I think that the followers are just curious.u need to find the fish that are the hungry ones. I have found that late morning or early afternoon works best for those bis dawgs that are hungry. Silverwood is a place where the fish really school up.I recently caught an 8 and a 9 about two minutes apart. If you see a school they are the best ones to target. I found this out about a year ago when I hooked but lost a 15 plus there. Hope this helps,lots of luck.