How do you turn sniffers into biters??????????

[Christopher Quast]

What is your little trick you have found to turn them into active fish or biters, I am seeing them come up to the hook constantly just wont go, any ideas you would like to share?

[aanderud]

Raise it slowly. Barely twitch it as you raise it. Watch the reaction on your vexilar. If you get one of them chasing, that's good. If you get two or more, raise it a bit more and hang on! When you stop, they'll hit it.

I've had days when I could not get a fish to bite unless I got him to commit to moving 4 to 6 feet up in the water column.

[Christopher Quast]

I have had luck with that in the past, but not much this year so far.

[nater]

Use a camera, its helps a lot to see what they prefer! I love mine.

[Fredd]

The key for me is to keep them moving up in the column. Tonight I was on what I was sure were crappies, but could not get them to commit. I had two or three staring at my bait at times. Switched colors, switched bait but could only get about one in six - ten to bite. 4:45 rolled around and they went crazy for a half an hour. I always start to question if I have the right species down there when they want to just look. This is where a camera would be very helpful.

[blackdog1101]

Downsizing helps when they're finicky. I've been going as small as size 16 jigs. Smaller baits = smaller movements.

[Borch]

If going smaller and slower doesn't work, go bigger and more agressive. Also try different jigging sequences, lure profiles and colors.

Something will usualy work.

[Christopher Quast]

Thanks guys for your imput I know a couple of years ago I was fishing over weeds and I upsized to a forage minnow and tipped a;; 3 hooks with waxies and this really helped me catch some big sunnies, but the fish arent as aggresive right now yet so I was kinda thinking big might be bad? ANY THOUGHTS

[Borch]

All I can say is, If what your using/doing isn't work try something different. Hard to sar whether it'll be size, color or jigging motion that'll make the difference.

[123fish]

What I have been doing on the gills is get their attention with a size 8 Genz worm and waxie and if they don't hit that (which a lot don't) I reel in as fast as possible and have another rod ready with size 12 shrimpo and a maggot. This drifts down a lot slower and when it's just above the fish I stop it and twitch it a little. This has made a lot of sniffers into biters for me.

[Bigslugger]

I found that that downsizing to a small jig with lots of twitches worked for me yesterday

Its was a size 10 gold jig with a red and yellow larva. Don't ask me why red and yellow. Its the only thing they would take.

Like aanderud said make em' chase it. They become a lot more aggressive

[nater]

The biggest thing I have noticed is very very small twitches almost a quiver since bigger jumps will spook them. Also moving up in the water column has worked well. The gulp nuggies have worked better at times for me then larvae.

Nate

[blackdog1101]

What I have been doing on the gills is get their attention with a size 8 Genz worm and waxie and if they don't hit that (which a lot don't) I reel in as fast as possible and have another rod ready with size 12 shrimpo and a maggot. This drifts down a lot slower and when it's just above the fish I stop it and twitch it a little. This has made a lot of sniffers into biters for me.

I was doing something similar the other day, but used a Swedish Pimple with a waxie. I'd jig it a bit more aggressively, and if there were no takers I'd reel it in quick and drop a small jig with a chartreuse nuggie down the hole. That often got their attention.

[Coach1310]

Switch baits... like Borch mentioned don't be afraid to upsize. If they aren't biting what you are offering, you might as well throw the box at em!!

One thing that has worked for me is a dropper rig. Take the hook off of a jigging spoon, tie a small length of line to it and add a small jig/hook or even a fly to it. Not sure why it works, but it has.

Sometimes switching from live bait to plastics has worked too!

[Christopher Quast]

Brought the cam along today and started catching those little pricks right away and then I put on a 1" forage minnow with treble on it and loaded it with waxies and watche dthe little guys swim up to it and that was it.

Then I moved up a foot in the water column and just started jigging super aggresively and out of nowhere comes this huge perch and just slams the thing and put it back down and here comes a big bull and he came in fast too, paused and I slowly raised it up and he got into stealth mode and in a flash inhaled the whole thing. I caught fewer fish but when I got ones attention it was worth the wait.

Another cool thing happened today too....... All of a sudden the sunnies and perch split and I knew something big was around and just a few secs later a roughly 10 pound musky came cruising through and then they came back for about 10 minutes and then were all gone again and all of a sudden here comes this 20lb plus ski and it bumps it's nose against my jig, it was so awesome to see that happen!!!!!!!!!

[BuckKiller]

Chris- when were you out there... didn't see you.

Going tomorrow?