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So you want to be a Bass Fishermen
So you want to be a
bass fishermen/women? The first thing I would recommend is give
up the old zebco – we all love them but they just don’t have the gears
in them that you need to get down on top of the biggins. I
recommend no less then a 5 to 1 gear ratio with a medium to medium
heavy rod. My choice in line is Stren in 10 to 12 pound
test. The other very important thing to get is a good pair of
polarized sunglasses. I like the brown tint ones myself and also
like the wrap around ones that cover the sides of your eyes as well.
Ok, you got that old zebco strung up with some new ten pound
line. (We know your not just going to drop everything and go out
and buy a new rod and reel for a few bass.) Now choice of bait is
a very important topic and every fishermen has their go to bait.
Later on I will get into my go to baits.
Now you get to the water and it doesn’t look any different to you then
when you were bluegill fishing last week with a worm and a
bobber. It may not look different but you have to look at it
differently. You see those edges of the moss out there about 10
feet from the bank? Sure you do, you created half the cover you
are going to be fishing last week trying to pull those gills up through
the moss. Straight line thinking is out the door. Now you
are looking for every little difference in that moss line.
Circles, half moons, holes, cut in v’s and all the rest. Each one
of those differences can hold bass. My favorite to fish out of
the ones above would be holes. Out past the moss on top of the
water you can see a small channel with a submerged weed line running
out about 6 feet from the edge of the moss. Now your getting it,
that is a ambush zone for bass to sit in or under the cover and wait
for the smaller fish to swim by in the channel and ambush them.
Any small channel cut in the moss or submerged weeds needs to be
explored. Also don’t forget the obvious of lay down trees and
submerged stumps and things like that. Ok now we are thinking
like a bass fishermen.
Now let’s say it’s early in the day in Mid April to Early May.
The first thing I am going to tie on would be a number 2 worm hook
(Gamakatsu, Musted, Eagle or what ever is available).
My knot of choice is
the old stand by clinch knot. Insert knot picture here It
is a knot my grandfather taught me years ago and I can count the number
of times it has failed me on one hand.
Trim the excess
string nice and close. Now we are going to rig the plastic worm
Texas style – minus the weight.
Oh I know there are
more then just a few bass types that will swear by using a bullet head
weight. They make too much noise hitting the water and take the
worm out of the fishes target area too fast. Now that is just my
opinion and I would recommend doing what works best for you. They
do help out when it comes to casting a soft plastic in the wind and do
add to the presentation of the worm.
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Now remember it’s
early in the year and everything is just starting to
wake up from its winter sleep. The fish are still sluggish and
slow
for the most part (depending on where you from). Pick out a spot
that
doesn’t look the same as all the rest of the shoreline, weed line or
moss line. I find it is better to go past your target 3 to 6 feet
and
let the worm sit. Good rule is count to ten each time before you
start
reeling in. Once are sure you have the worm close to the bottom
start
your retrieve. Nice and slow with a twitch here and there in the
middle. A twitch early in the year is just a quick jerk of the
rod to
move it an inch or two at most. I know you are very excited but
you
have to slow down to about half as fast as you are going now. You
should be close to that target we were aiming at. You might even
stop
for a second then twitch a few times just to see if anything is willing
to bite. You have to watch your line for the slightest movement
to
either side and any pressure at all you feel is more then likely a
fish. Now is where you wish you would have gotten that spinning
combo. Crank down as fast as you can to get the slack out of the
line
and move your rod tip down as you are cranking. As soon as you
have
the slack out of the line raise up like you never have before and set
the hook. I have had people tell me it looked like I was trying
to
jerk the lips right off the fish. Well those people had never
hooked
into a 8 pound plus bass so they had no clue just how hard you had to
set the hook.
Ok so you have the hook set and have a dance partner. Early
season
bass sometimes don’t put up much of a fight but most will try and stay
down near the bottom. Good thing it’s early and we don’t have
moss
line running around the pond right? Well we do have one so we
need to
deal with the fish in short order. A lot of people will call it
horsing a fish in. You have 10 to 12 pound line so you shouldn’t
have
any problems getting that fish up to the top of the water and its head
up to bring it in over the moss. Again you will be wishing you
had a
good medium heavy rod and spinning reel to accomplish this task.
Oh
yeah we all dream about it happening like that and once in a while it
does happen like that. Well the fish is now buried in that moss
line
so what are we going to do. Best thing is to keep steady pressure
on
the fish and crank slowly down with the rod tip and pull up with just
an enough pressure to keep the moss moving. You’ll get him in if
you
take your time.
Now that you have caught your first good bass of the year you are ready
to go get that monster you know is in the pond. Early in the year
the
deeper areas of the lake and or pond where they come into shallows are
my first targets. They always say the north side of the lake or
pond
is the best early but I have not found this to be true all the
time. I
will start on the north side of a body of water if it is available or
close. If not I will work with the water I have.
Early Season Go To Baits
7-inch plastic worm in pumpkin seed to green watermelon
10-inch plastic worms are also a good backup and easier to cast in the
wind.
Shallow running crank bait 1 to 4 foot (perch and blue silver are my
favorite colors)
White or Yellow willow blade spinner bait. (There are always a
few aggressive fish)
Now those are just my go to baits in the spring. As the season
continues and the water gets more weed lines and structure I will go to
more top water baits and shallow running crank baits. Hiddeon
torpedos
have produced more 20 inch fish in the past 10 years then any other
bait I have used. Chug bugs, Pop-r’s, zara spooks and skitter
pops are
also good to have available. When the moss is really bad it’s
time to
go the moss boss type lures that will run over the moss beds without
getting snagged up. Go back to those bass eyes and look for the
small
variations in the moss to target and you can always drop a plastic worm
(rigged weightless) in those holes and on the edges.
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