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Written by James Kirk Sparks
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 Thank goodness the spawn has finally for the most part come to an end. Bass patterns in the southeast are simpler to predict, and putting a limit in the live well is pretty much a given. For the most part you still have to work for them, and with food sources being abundant this time of the year, you may have to fish several different lures and techniques to produce numbers of fish.
I found that this time of the year (May through mid to late June) a jig with a craw trailer is going to produce fish. It doesn’t matter what lake, from Clark’s Hill to Grandpa’s farm pond; bass forage the edges and flats for crawfish. Color doesn’t seem to matter, though sometimes one will produce more than others. I normally fish with browns, blues, reds, and greens. I always start by pitching the bank. I will position my boat no more than forty feet from the bank and cover almost every square inch of a given area.
If the sun is out bright I’m not going to waste my time in water that doesn’t have cover or structure that can shield the fish. There may be some bass that don’t mind the sun, but most will be tucked in behind timber, in the grass, or under pads. Bass tend to roam more when the sun is hidden, if there is cloud cover you can fish the flats that have sparse cover with confidence. I personally keep my jig fishing to about seven feet of water or less. Keep in mind that a jig should most likely represent a crawfish, and I don’t think they move very fast under water. I try not to hop my jig no more than three or four inches at a time. Really subtle movements tend to produce more strikes.
Crankbaits! I personally don’t remember a time when you could look in my boat and there not be at least one rod with a crankbait tied onto it. Right now my primary crank bait is a Rapala DT6. I probably won’t throw it unless I see reason to, but when there is reason to it normally gets hit. The reason being something is running for its life. Any time I see any pond animal fleeing, whether it is shad, minnow, or frog, I throw that DT6 toward the commotion. I start by just slow cranking it three or four times and then I will stop and give it a sharp jerk. After the jerk I will let it sit and slowly float back up. A lot of times it doesn’t float all the way up before the line tightens and the rod bows. There are a lot of other techniques that can be used when throwing crank baits, but there literally could be a book written on nothing but cranking. Just remember that the fish don’t have to be biting to bite a crankbait when fished properly. When it comes to crankbaits bass are kind of like little babies; they can’t help themselves, they just have to put it in their mouths.
What would a tackle box be without at least six or seven or fifteen spinnerbaits in it? I personally don’t have many, but I have seen some tackle boxes at tournaments dedicated to spinnerbaits, and the more I use them the more I understand why every serious angler has at least a car payment worth of them. I am still learning about spinnerbaits. I am kind of new to the spinner bait game myself. I can only tell you what I know works from experience. I have been throwing a ½ ounce white skirt with double willow blades in pads with kind of a medium retrieve letting it bump the stems and it has produced several decent fish. With this same bait in eight foot of water over a thick stump bed I have been throwing it as far as I can and slow rolling it through the stumps letting it bump bottom structure and bounce off the stumps while occasionally pumping the rod tip just a few inches. What would you know? Spinner baits aren’t a waist of money after all.
I can tell that fishing a spinnerbait is an art of its own. I’m sure that there are hundreds of other ways to fish and situations in which to fish spinnerbaits. This is one tool that I should have had in my toolbox a long time ago. These two techniques alone have increased my numbers, and I know they will yours too.
Take the time to discover all that fishing has to offer. There is a lifetime of discoveries. Make sure you are on the water at, or just before twilight, because I think that God actually stops time at that moment. This moment is a gift to us fishermen. Those of you that have experienced it know what I am talking about, and those of you that don’t know, will soon know, if you spend enough time on the water. |
