Quote Originally Posted by Happyfisherman View Post
I've been reading about retrieval speed when casting, and though a slow presentation may often be the ticket, that might not always be the case

“The problem for most people is when the fish follows the jig but never commits, they don’t know how to adjust. When this happens to me, I always increase the speed of my retrieve drastically. In my opinion, it makes the fish think the bait is getting away, and their God-given survival instincts kick in, and they will accelerate to smash it. Most people won’t use this technique because they are afraid they will take the bait away from the fish but don’t realize just how fast a fish can swim.

“Most of my clients that struggle with their LS are amazed that this one technique increases their catches drastically.”
And a lot of people say a Crappie won't chase a bait very far, but on more than one occasion I've had Crappie come racing towards a Road Runner that I was burning back to get in another cast before having to deal with boat position. These instances were around boat docks & marina boat slips ... out in front of them, not under or inside of them. (which is one reason I cast out in front of and around the sides of a boat dock several times before getting in close enough to shoot the dock)

And on your comment on how fast a Crappie can swim ... one only needs to remember that Crappie chase down and hit jigs at 1mph and faster, and crankbaits at 1.8mph to 2+mph. And while it is probable that many of them sense the bait coming and intercept it, that's not to say that they couldn't also track it down and catch it, if they wanted it bad enough.