True Bass Fishing Confession

I don't think I have ever fished bass in such a way where I have intentionally attempted to duplicate a specific pattern to the exclusion of missing all other fishing opportunities. I think it is true that every time you go fishing whatever you are doing equates to trying one kind of pattern or another. It is pretty much impossible at all times to not be fishing some sort of pattern, but zeroing in on one thing and then attempting to replicate that one specific thing in different areas of a lake over and over again while doing pretty much nothing else is not something I have really never done. This could be a function of fishing mostly relatively small natural lakes in boats with relatively low horsepower. The closest I have come to the type of pattern fishing I am alluding to is rock pile hoping on Mille Lacs lake for smallmouth bass. But the rock pile hoping is more like a random act than it is a deliberate attempt to duplicate something specific. Maybe if I was more intentional about getting intimate with the features of all the various rockpiles it could evolve into a narrowing down to something specific, but I see little point in doing that level of due diligence.

It seems to me that the features of the natural lakes that I fish just don't lend themselves very much to the duplicating a pattern approach to fishing. I suppose the main exceptions to that theory would most likely be bed fishing, docks, inside weedlines, outside weedlines, flats, weed type and slop; These would be the most common features that one could replicate.

If I were to just go out and target bedded bass that would be hitting on a single specific thing, but I can't say I've ever done this or really plan to take this approach. If I come across a bed I will fish it, but to just go bed hunting isn't something I see myself doing.

Fishing every dock you come across isn't really replicating anything beyond the basic fact that you are hitting dock after dock. That approach is just as random as it is deliberate. When fishing docks I don't think it wise to fish only docks with boat lifts or only the docks with this or that. I just hit the docks as they come.

Inside and outside weedlines, and flats combined with a certain weed type or types probably present some of the best opportunities in natural lakes to replicate something specific. Maybe this year I should try it and see if it works out.