Getting as many bites as possible, this is the main goal every time we hit the water for Lake Texoma striper fishing. More bites equals more fish, so in order to be more efficient as anglers we have come up with the optimal way to get the catch. Appeal to all five senses to maximize the number of bites you get each day.
Sight
Since bass are primarily sight feeders, we want to appeal to their since of sight. We know how the bass sees the bait is most often the key in getting them to strike. Fish usually will not eat something they have not seen before, something that looks familiar. You would eat an apple before you eat a prickly pear because you have been more familiarized with apples in your lifetime. When choosing the color of the bait, keep in mind that bass can see very well in low light conditions, and they can see colors. The studies I have seen indicate that bass can detect light about five times better than humans, and they can see the yellow, green and orange spectrums the best. Choose a familiar type and use yellow, green, or orange colored lures.
Hearing and Feeling
Hearing and Feeling senses act similarly when detected under water. Both senses are transmitted through pressure waves rolling through the water. The sound aspect here is any noise that your bait will make, and feeling refers to the water pressure waves transmitted as the bait moves. Sound traves much faster in water than through air, in fact about five times faster, so it does not take long for the noise your bait moves to travel to the fish. Both of these senses become more important as the bass’ ability to see decreases, like in dirty water or heavy cover. Just as we have had in Lake Texoma since the blue-green alge, that has made the water visibilty to fish decrease.
Smell and Taste
These senses are mainly close range to hit the bass and are mainly used to compliment feeding behavior. Both of these senses become much more important as the bass’ ability to see decreases.
How to Appeal to the 5 Senses:
To being, you will want to initally look around and analyze what your conditions are. What is the visibility? What is the water clarity? What type of cover are you fishing? What are the conditions? You can go on and on from there, but try to establish what you are going to need out of your bait to make the bass bite it.
1. Pick a color for the conditions. A rule of thumb to follow is for clear water pick natural looking colors, in dirty water go with bright colors like chartreuse. In clear water you want your bait to look as much like the real thing as possible, while in dirtier water it is more important for your bait to stick out so the bass can find it under conditions of reduced visibility.
2. What sound and feel do you need? If you are fishing under conditions where a bass’ vision is impaired in some way, whether it is dirty water, heavy cover, or even night fishing, these two senses become more important to the bass. Under such conditions the bass will use these two senses to help them locate their prey. Choose baits that are noisier and that displace more water by making the bait bigger, or give it exaggerated motion (i.e. wider wobble).
3. Add quality scent to whatever baits you are throwing. No matter what the conditions, this is something I feel will never hurt your chances of getting a fish to bite. There are plenty of times where a bass may have followed a bait to the boat, and chances are if the bait had been covered with scent that fish may have come up behind it and smelled it. That smell may have enticed him into striking the bait. It will also make the bass hold onto the bait longer, giving you more of a chance to set the hook.
Cover all the Senses to get a catch. If you are interesting in fishing Lake Texoma, let us take you out on the best striper fishing guided trip available. Guarantee you a catch!
Fishing Lake Texoma | Striper Guide Mark Banister Jr. | Adventure Texoma
