Bass Fishing - Catching bass all year (1/2)

Now that we have a general idea of where bass are at different times of the year, lets go catch some. We will start out in the early spring period, when bass start coming out of deep water to feed heavily before the rigors of the spawning season. This is the time of the year for big female bass to really feed as much as possible, and they are at their most catchable stage of the year.

Early in the year the big females use steep structures, as that gets them from deep to shallow the quickest. Now is the time for large deep diving crank baits, my personal favorite is the Bagley DB3. This crank has a great action, dives deep enough to tempt the big girls out of their hiding places, and is quite weedless if the downward facing hook is clipped off the front treble hook, it usually bounces right over most snags. Some times it hangs up, but it is mostly stuck behind a branch or the like, just give it slack and most of the time it will back out and float up and away from the snag.

Be prepared, when it floats up the bass of your lifetime may just grab it, if your line gives a quick twitch, set the hook quick and hard. Some anglers fish these lures on light line because it gives them more depth on the retrieve, but I always use twenty pound test or twenty five if the water has lots of snags, the lure goes deep enough to interest fish in the ten to fifteen foot range. I want to be able to have a good chance of landing a real big fish hooked in places with lots of brush, light line will not allow this, stick to the heavy line when fishing these large crank baits! In places with light cover and clear water, light line can be used effectively.

When I use light line, ( ten to fifteen pound test ) I mostly use a seven and a half foot spinning rod, with a medium size saltwater spinning reel. This allows you to cast a very long way, get the lure down deep, and it does away with backlashes common with casting reels, light line, and casting into the wind. Loaded with eight pound test you can cast a Rapala floating minnow a country mile with this outfit. This allows you to put the lure over fish before they know you are near in clear water lakes. I also keep an extra spool loaded with Spectra, a braided line with an extra small diameter, twenty pound test is the same size of eight pound monofiliment line. It
casts a spinner bait twice as far as casting gear, and the long rod and non-stretch line allow me to catch bass at long distances when conditions are right for reaction baits. This rig is for clear water with very few snags, if you are fishing water with lots of snags, stick to the conventional casting outfits and make short precise casts trying to always leave a path through the jungle to reel your fish through.

Train yourself to make the first casts in an area to the outside of cover, this way when you hook one, you can pull the fish away from the cover without disturbing the rest of the fish in the area. Next make casts into alleys in the cover, making short casts first, and saving the longest cast for last. Catch the close easy fish first and you will catch more fish in the long run. Make a long cast far back into a fishy looking spot and you could spook the whole school of bass by one fish mucking about in the cover. You only caught the one fish when a careful approach could have put many fish in the boat!