giggyfish Posted June 19, 2018 Report Share Posted June 19, 2018 1 hour ago, GooganFish said: I've seen this a lot. Stripers are lazy, prissy fish. I was fishing the other day and they refused to even eat live mackerel. 20lb fluorocarbon with a small hook. They would come over and look at it, then leave. Kept doing that for 45 minutes. Then I starting chumming up dead ones and they started eating all the chum. Eventually they took a chunk on a hook but still wouldn't eat the live bait. When they are acting like that it's because they can either see something, the water temp is off, or they are eating something else. When bass are keyed in on something, sometimes that's all they want. They will either ignore your offering or may even be spooked by it. Another variable is when you hook one, the others will sense fear and leave. So you may have just had 50 fish around your boat but now they are gone because you hooked a small one. I would argue that when fish are hooked it excites others into feeding as it brings on a feed response. That’s one reason you always see followers next to your hooked fish. I’m sure at times though you could be right as there certainly no absolutes in fishing. Sometimes it’s frustrating and other times it almost too easy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FishRatz Posted June 19, 2018 Report Share Posted June 19, 2018 Ever been to a great pizza party, enjoying your slices, you have a few, and then someone serves up a round of cheese burgers? You love both..right? ..maybe pass on the burger...have another slice... I heard this analogy from an experienced fisherman...made sense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GooganFish Posted June 19, 2018 Report Share Posted June 19, 2018 Just now, giggyfish said: I would argue that when fish are hooked it excites others into feeding as it brings on a feed response. That’s one reason you always see followers next to your hooked fish. I’m sure at times though you could be right as there certainly no absolutes in fishing. Sometimes it’s frustrating and other times it almost too easy Last comment and then I'm out. Doing a charter tomorrow at 5. How many times have you had the follow up fish trigger the other fish to bust in an all out blitz.... I've never seen that. I've had a million follow up fish. Typically it's bass that are bigger than the one you are hooked up on..... Perhaps the animistic nature of fish conditions them to exploit the vulnerable. I think fish are just attracted to fish that are in distress. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
captahab416 Posted June 19, 2018 Report Share Posted June 19, 2018 eels then if that doesn't work I'd probably try eels Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buz23 Posted June 19, 2018 Report Share Posted June 19, 2018 I've had similar situations on MV although they weren't large fish. There were so many fish lazing around that they would spook when the lure hit the water. The secret was to come back to the spot when the water was moving, particularly at night or at first light. Then it turned into multiple hits each cast. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shark lobster Posted June 19, 2018 Report Share Posted June 19, 2018 Is it possible before you came up on these fish thet they just came off a hugh feed ,they might have been into a school of bait for who knows how long ! Feeding for some time before you arrived Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
codfish Posted June 19, 2018 Report Share Posted June 19, 2018 CCB has lots of short fin squid which can be the only thing on the menu Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
codfish Posted June 19, 2018 Report Share Posted June 19, 2018 11 hours ago, GooganFish said: I've seen this a lot. Stripers are lazy, prissy fish. I was fishing the other day and they refused to even eat live mackerel. 20lb fluorocarbon with a small hook. They would come over and look at it, then leave. Kept doing that for 45 minutes. Then I starting chumming up dead ones and they started eating all the chum. Eventually they took a chunk on a hook but still wouldn't eat the live bait. When they are acting like that it's because they can either see something, the water temp is off, or they are eating something else. When bass are keyed in on something, sometimes that's all they want. They will either ignore your offering or may even be spooked by it. Another variable is when you hook one, the others will sense fear and leave. So you may have just had 50 fish around your boat but now they are gone because you hooked a small one. "I've seen this a lot. Stripers are lazy, prissy fish. I was fishing the other day and they refused to even eat live mackerel. 20lb fluorocarbon with a small hook" my favorite time to fish love the challenge Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PatchyFog Posted June 19, 2018 Report Share Posted June 19, 2018 (edited) 14 hours ago, bonefishdick said: The last time I saw this was many years ago when on the Vineyard with lots of big bass on the surface and they just seemed to be milling around and sunning themselves. I was told that when they are like that they are usually feeding on Krill. Don't know if that was true or not but it made sense since we could not realy see anything in the water. It was a frustrating day to say the least. I've seen that a few times in CCB, boat fishing. Every one of such trips went like this...out early in the morning, out of Sesuit or Barnstable, fishing shallow water. Catching schoolies on sand eel imitations. Then the fishing dies down, and start seeing small bass just dimpling the surface, like smutting trout. First time I saw it, I'm looking in the water and wondering what the heck they're eating. And finally I see that little amphipods/krill. Went down to the smallest flies I had, unsuccessfully. Edited June 19, 2018 by patchyfog Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PatchyFog Posted June 19, 2018 Report Share Posted June 19, 2018 (edited) 11 hours ago, FishRatz said: Ever been to a great pizza party, enjoying your slices, you have a few, and then someone serves up a round of cheese burgers? You love both..right? ..maybe pass on the burger...have another slice... I heard this analogy from an experienced fisherman...made sense. I buy that. It really does seem to me that they sometimes decide screw it, I'm sick of those, I'm trying something different now. Edited June 19, 2018 by patchyfog Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DZ Posted June 19, 2018 Report Share Posted June 19, 2018 If they ate all the time there wouldn't be any left. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Twisted Posted June 19, 2018 Report Share Posted June 19, 2018 This happened to me 2 weeks ago. They had no interest in live macks ( I could see them swimming after them but no strikes). As soon as I started chunking them it was game on! Lazy... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ditch Jigger Posted June 19, 2018 Report Share Posted June 19, 2018 They often behave like that when they're feeding just hatched worm larvae--what they call a cinder worm hatch on Long Island. Only thing they'll hit is a cinder worm fly. Looks like a glowing small ember from a wood fire. "…if catching fish is your only objective, you are either new to the game or too narrowly focused on measurable results.” - D. Stuver Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bumknee Posted June 19, 2018 Report Share Posted June 19, 2018 About 10-12 years ago, I was trowing eels off the Scussett Jetty, when the guy about 50 yards down from me started yelling and pointing out a group of about 4 or 5 stripers swimming up right next to the jetty. The water was clear/early morning, I saw them coming, and dropped an eel dancing right in front of them, and they just swam past it and kept going. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reed422 Posted June 19, 2018 Report Share Posted June 19, 2018 I was fishing off the rocks and had stripers lazily following my lures and then making a half assed attempt at eating them over the weekend. It happens and is frustrating. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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