Missing a lot of bites

[Hanr3]

I for one do not believe you can't catch small fish. I catch small fish all the time. For a long time they were my avatar.

Example A: Blue gill about the size of my finger with a small Mini-Mite sticking out of its mouth.

[crappie wrangler]

I reckon I don't really know what I'm doing after all. With my obvious lack of ability I have no business offering advise. It won't happen again. Just saying.

[FIN]

Yesterday I was missing a lot. I stayed after one till I caught it. Smallest I've ever caught, 1.5". I left it on as bait.

[try'n hard]

Yeah - I don't think it's little crappie. Bluegills maybe. Little crappie are super aggressive and I've caught my share

[crappie wrangler]

I don't know why I have allowed a comment to bother me but I have so a short defense is in order. I typically vertical jig in 30' to 60' fow. typically I catch in the 135 fish a day range and of that number I usually keep 20 to 30 fish that range from 14" to 17" in length. Depth changes drastically during the spawn but I get pretty much the same numbers. 30 to 50% of strikes do not equal cast. Many times I get several strikes on the same cast and very often two fish in the same cast. If I went with the lowest average being 30% and translated that to catching every fish that would be 405 fish per day. My arm would fall off. Any one can say whatever they want but I will continue being happy with the 100+ fish a day that I catch. Because so many fisherman exaggerate I have taken pictures over the years and have thousands of pics to back my claims. You wouldn't have to look farther than this website to verify.

[NightShift]

I must say your "skills" look pretty impressive to me! I appreciate you replying to my post and trying to provide some useful information.

[Smoltz]

I think allot of missed bite is due to mainly two things.

Too slow n soft of a rod tip action.

A mono line that has too much stretch.

The alternative is too light a jig and you don't have good feel/contact with the lure at all times.
Or the lure is just a bit off.. as in color, size, or shape making the fish not fully committed

[try'n hard]

I reckon I don't really know what I'm doing after all. With my obvious lack of ability I have no business offering advise. It won't happen again. Just saying.

Haha. Ok - I went back and saw your issue. I think it was more of a joke than a proper assessment of your skills but yeah I get it now.

[CrappiePappy]

I for one do not believe you can't catch small fish. I catch small fish all the time. For a long time they were my avatar.

Example A: Blue gill about the size of my finger with a small Mini-Mite sticking out of its mouth.

Hanr3 ... it might be splitting hairs, but what you have there is a Green Sunfish. We catch them all the time when beating the banks with jigs, cranks, or Roadrunners ... especially if our baits land very close to a rocky shoreline. Between them & Warmouth, I've had them attack baits as big or bigger than the fish, itself. Their oversized mouths allow then to take in baits a lot easier than a Bluegill or other Sunfish with smaller mouths.

But, I do take your point ... as I have also caught many small fish (like Bluegills), some of which were not even "hooked", but refused to let go of the tail of my plastics ... which was all they could get into their mouths.

[crappie wrangler]

There is a definite remote chance I may have overacted.