Ten Things To Do When The Fish Are Not Biting

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Some days, no matter what you do, the fish just don’t want to bite. I seem to have had a fair bit of experience with this phenomenon of late and have come with ten things you can do when the fish give you the big ‘Pffftt’.

1. If you have a smartphone and decent reception, spend some time catching up with Facebook and Twitter friends. You can admit that you’re not catching anything, or you can take a picture of your current view and post it for your land-locked friends to view.
2. Take pictures. Of anything and everything. There’s nothing like looking through your pictures after the trip and wondering ‘why did I take that picture?” My favorite thing to do is pester my fishing partner by taking lots of pictures of him.
3. Eat. If you’re like me, you really don’t need an excuse to eat. But when the fish aren’t biting it can help to pass the time. I find it’s almost like a nervous reaction – I haven’t had a bite in over an hour, guess I should bite! My favorite snacks in the boat are chips and cashews; fishing from shore it’s granola bars.
4. Take the opportunity to play with every lure in the box. What’s the worst that can happen? Maybe you’ll come across the one lure the fish actually want to see that day. Those slow days on the water are the perfect chance to clean off the lures you don’t often use. I feel better about the amount of money I spend on lures when I at least get them wet!
5. Go back to school and study. One of my favorite things about fishing is that an angler is always learning. When the fish are biting, it can be hard to focus on studying the fish and their environment, so take advantage of fussy fish days and pay even closer attention to what is happening in their habitat. When the cold weather turned off the crappie bite last weekend, Darrell and I took advantage of the bare shoreline and moved in close looking for structure and planning what areas to fish when the weather warmed up. It allowed us to study some fish that were in shallow and not biting.  We spotted redds and were able to focus on studying things that will improve our fishing.
6. Have a nap. Really. Most people do not get enough sleep and if the fishing is slow, why not catch up on such an important function? There is nowhere I get a better sleep than on the front seat of my little tinny. Of course, make sure your fishing buddy is going to stay awake if you’re out in a boat.
7. Build-up your arm muscles by swatting flies. There seem to be very few times when I can fish and not face swarms of flies. This past weekend there was a massive hatch on Lake Ontario and I spent much of the afternoon waving my arm back and forth, trying to keep the flies out of my hair and off my face. My orange floater suit looked almost black by the time I walked to the truck.
8. Brush up on your boat-driving skills. When I’m catching fish, the last thing on my mind is driving the boat. Darrell’s usually the driver and I happily ignore the driving as the fish keep biting. But when the fish decide to ignore me, it’s a great time to switch seats and get to know the motor.
9. Pretend you are your favorite fishing personality and try casting and talking like them. Okay, so this one takes you back to childhood. Still, it’s fun to try imitating another angler. I don’t often do this, and never in front of anyone else – the time or two I’ve done it resulted in something I was glad no one else witnessed.
10. Pray to the fishing gods for the action to pick up. Almost every angler I know will agree that just being on the water is better than anything else. Yet, as much as we really enjoy the experience, most of us want to catch something, anything, and avoid that skunk. When the fishing gods fail to answer me, I take matters into my own hands and head in search of creek chub. Those little guys have saved the day for me time and again.

Next time you have a slow day on the water, remember a few of these ideas and keep yourself entertained between the action. I hope you don’t experience too many slow days, because the best thing to do on any fishing trip is toyell ‘Fish On!”.

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argosgirl

Sporadic blogger and sometimes podcaster who loves fishing, the outdoors, hanging with her animals, gardening, and reading manga.

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