# How do you finesse fish?



## dyeguy1212 (Apr 21, 2009)

I'm pretty new to bass fishing. I fish small to medium inland lakes in MI, and I love using frogs, but catch most of my fish on lipless crank baits and spinner baits.

I'm looking to diversify, and learn techniques to allow me to catch a few when they arent biting anything else. I've always heard of finesse style, but I'm unsure of what that actually means. How is it done? with what bait? where should it be used? 

Sorry for the newb question, but I'm looking to learn all I can from the more experienced fisherman here!

Thanks


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## Bubba (Apr 21, 2009)

I look at finesse fishing as fishing texas rigs and light jigs. Basically fishing anything slow, when there aren't really in the mood to chase a bait.

What type of bait is merely preference, any type of worm is typical for a texas rig, but you can use alot of different baits as a texas rigs. Such as craw imitators, stick baits, and random creature baits. 

Where it should be used can depend on the body of water you are fishing. Any type of brush, laydowns, and rocks is what I typically fish. Basically anywhere you would typically fish with anything else.


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## BassAddict (Apr 21, 2009)

Here is a great article on finesse fishing

https://www.bassresource.com/fishing/finesse_bass_fishing.html


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## redbug (Apr 21, 2009)

Finesse fishing tends to be smaller baits, lighter weights, and line It can be a great technique on highly pressured bass
when I am finesse fishing I tend to use a 1/32oz bullet weight and a 1/0 or 2/0 light wire hook and a 4" finesse worm 
Throw the bait the same place you would throw any Texas rigged baits and just fish it real slow..

good luck Wayne


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## Mac (Apr 22, 2009)

These two presentations given here were jointly developed by my fishing buddy, Joe, my wife, Connie and myself. Each has gone through variations with time and each can be very effective under a goodly number of conditions.

Zoomies. A Zoomie is a Zoom Speedworm in watermelon/red with its tail cut off. It's texposed weightless on a 2/0 worm hook and when properly rigged, must hang straight on the hook. Again, it's fished weightless in the following manner......

Casting....the most productive cast is a sidearm skipping cast. Simply cast to likely cover and let the zoomie sink to the bottom, watching line at all times. The skipping alerts the bass that there is something feeding up on top. The slow weightless fall lets the bass see there is someting coming and the slow fall lets the bass study the prey on the way down. If the zoomie does actually hit bottom, allow it to rest motionless for 30 seconds......if nothing picks it up in that time....lift the bait s l o w l y until the rod tip has lifted it two feet. Now, at the top of the s l o w lift, tremor the bait once and then let re-fall.

Tremoring.....tremoring the bait occurs just when you grip the rod handle suddenly harder. It's not a jerk, just a sudden gripping. When done correctly, a tremor will hardly move the rod tip......down in the water, when the tremor occurs, the bait ideally will awaken with a start and will shoot off at an unexpected angle, but not go far, just a quick darting.

Re-falling......after tremoring, let the bait again fall to bottom and this time rest on bottom 15 seconds....after the 15 second pause, lift s l o w l y once again, and if nothing on this time, reel in at a moderate speed and cast to another likely spot.

Each cast done with this presentation, should take one minute. When bass are active, hookups will occur on the first drop.

Connie's contribution.... the second presentation. She uses a regular cast to likely cover/structure and allows the zoomie to fall to bottom, but instead of waiting 30 seconds, only waits 15. She then reels in a half turn slowly and waits another 15 seconds....then after the pause, reels in a half turn s l o w l y and waits another 15 seconds. She does this retrieve until the bait has probably traveled 8 to 10 feet across bottom and then reels in at a moderate pace and casts to another likely spot.

About the long pauses in both presentations....the actual time you need to pause with each presentation will vary with conditions....in other words, a 10 second pause may work better on some days and a longer pause will work better on other days. The slowness overall of the bait presents easy prey to the fish and bothers the territorial fish as presenting itself as an intruder, but the pause times can be varied.

Joe's contribution.....Bump and Fall... While fishing heavy weeds in Canada fishing for large and smallmouth bass...Joe developed the following presentation which brought in many nice bass. He'd cast to an open pocket in the weeds and allow slack line to let the bait fall until it would come to rest on a weed, then when the bait had stopped, he'd lift the rod tip slowly until he could just see the line beginning to move then drop the rod tip quickly to give the bait slack, just a little slack. The zoomie would come off the weed and start drifting downward eventually hanging on another weed.....then he'd patiently lift again an let it fall more. By the time the lure got near the bottom, the bass below had plenty of chances to see the bait and often took it. We caught some really nice fish doing this presentaiton..... When you think about it, it's a vertical version of Connie's presentation which of course is horazontal.

General Notes...

The zoomie will probably surprise you concerning its castability. It just flies on a normal cast. It's ability to skip well adds to its versatility....under log, dock and rock. Not being weighted with internal salt, it doesn't tear up as easily as a senko type bait and has a very enticing slow fall. Another good feature, when one end finally wears out, rig it in the other....when that end wears, you can use it for wacky rigging. 

Now, if the regular paddle tail speedworm isn't available and you can only find the Ultra Vibe Speedworm by zoom, you make the following adaptation. Instead of clipping off the tail at the thin spot on the regular speedworm, you cut off the hooktail on the Ultra Vibe Speedworm a half inch up from the flat hooktail, that is to say a half inch up on the body of the worm. 

The above presentations can be used with other soft plastics as well. Worms can be rigged so they fall horazontally by placing the hook a little farther back behind the head end.....just have to experiment with the hook placement to get the perfect slow falling balance point so they don''t nose down and plummet down.


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## Loggerhead Mike (Apr 22, 2009)

great post =D>


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## slim357 (Apr 22, 2009)

To me finesse means down sizing everything. A few things that i like to do (not mentioned above) are fishing weightless plastics (mainly 3 and 4 inch sticks), and drop shotting (still new to me but im learning). When I fish weightless plastics I often add a glass worm rattle, and shake my bait on a slack line, then let it sit for about a minute and repeat. For the drop shotting I do basically the same thing shake it on a slack line, but while trying to keep the weight on the bottom in the same place.


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## russ010 (Apr 22, 2009)

right now one of the most deadly techniques for me is split shotting a lizard.... 

tie on a hook (I still use 3/0 and 4/0 EWGs) and about 6-12" in front put on a regular ol' split shot weight. Just throw it out and let it sink to the bottom, twitch it a little then shake it and let it go again. Watch your line - sometimes you won't even know a fish is on until you give it that 3rd or 4th shake.

Not too many people have the patience to split shot - but man does it work


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## ilinimud (Apr 22, 2009)

I HATE finesse fishing.....


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## Jim (Apr 22, 2009)

ilinimud said:


> I HATE finesse fishing.....



Same here...Go big or go home! 8)


Even though it outproduces big fish techniques more often.


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## BLK fisher (Apr 22, 2009)

I like to use shaky heads and stanley finesse jigs. I have alot of biger jigs but I keep finding myself go back to the finesse jig, even in a nonfinesse situation. And they catch big fish also. Other than that is a spot remover shaky head with a non screw-up flat sided head.


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## ACarbone624 (Apr 22, 2009)

Jim said:


> ilinimud said:
> 
> 
> > I HATE finesse fishing.....
> ...



That's my motto! Bigger is better! :mrgreen:


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## jkbirocz (Apr 22, 2009)

When I think finesse fishing, I do not always thing smaller baits, I generally think a more subtle, natural approach. The size of my bait is typically decided by the time of year and what the fish are keying on. Of course my selection may or may not be correct. In the summer I would still consider using a 6" senko deadsticked on the bottom a finesse bait. Anything fished slow, and is not considered a reaction bait, is considered finesse by me.


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