Bass Fishing part 3 - More Bass Patterns!

Bass have three basic moods you will find them in, positive, negative, and neutral. When bass are in the positive mood, they are up in the water column actively foraging, roaming and chasing baitfish and chasing down lures and hitting them with gusto. This is what we would consider a great day on the water. You just can't go wrong, no matter how you decide to fish, you will
probably catch fish.

These are the days we dream of and the ones that fill our fondest memories, but they are few and far between for most of us. They just don't happen that often in today's world of crowded lakes and standing in line at the lake to fish one of the premium spots. Even when you can fish a lake far away from crowds, and high fishing pressure, most of the bass will be in a neutral mood most of the time.

Why is this? Are you hungry all the time? After you have eaten dinner do you immediately start looking for your next meal? Neither does a bass, once he has eaten, he slips into his favorite cover spot and rests until his meal is digested. He may take a small morsel or slow moving lure but he will not spend a lot of energy chasing it down, it has to hit him right on the nose. This is why pinpoint accuracy is so important, most of the time bass will not move far from cover to hit or chase down a fast moving lure.

When you go to the back of a cove and fish your way out, and catch several bass in a short time, you can deduct the fish are in a positive feeding mood, now is the time to make hay! Its time for the run n gun approach. When we find the fish in a positive mood, we fish fast, hitting the high probability targets only, we only fish spots that experience has shown hold fish more often than not. We don't fish the whole bank, we only fish the major cover spots, the largest bush on the bank, the brush on the outer edge of cover, the one big bush on the end of a point before it drops off, we fish the point not the cove. Now as for lure choice, here we want a fast moving search
lure, crank bait, spinner bait, lipless crank baits.

I always have four or five rods rigged and ready. One always has a spinner bait on it, usually a 1/4 to 3/8 oz. twin spin in green and white, ( or a 1/2 to 3/4 oz. when the wind is strong ) it
is a conventional reel filled with 15 to 20 pound test line and a medium action rod. The second rod will have a crankbait, usually a Bagley DB3 in chartreuse and white, also a conventional reel loaded with 12 to 20 pound test, depending on how much cover there is and how deep I need the crank to run. The lighter the line, the deeper the crank will run, BUT, you are more likely to break it off if you get it stuck on some deep brush and you may not be able to control a large bass in deep cover on the light line, and now not only do you lose the lure, but probably the bass you have been searching for all year, I have caught so many large bass on the DB3 I rarely fish it on less than 15 lb. test, and unless I am fishing in clear snag free water, I go for the twenty lb. test.

It is best fished in and around cover, and the line gets frayed quickly and needs to be cut and retied often. About every 10 minutes, I feel the last two feet of line in between my thumb and forefinger, and if it feels rough, I will cut off two feet and retie. Good insurance against loosing the biggest bass of your life! They only hit when your line is at its weakest, so check the line
often and retie often if necessary.