Lake Weiss again proved a good fisherman can catch fish under terrible conditions for others. In the Potato Creek Bassmsters August tournament at Lake Weiss, 16 members fished for 16 hours to land 45 keepers weighing about 81 pounds. There were two five-bass limits and six fishermen zeroed for both days.
Raymond English had a great catch Saturday, bringing in a limit weighing 13.68 pounds and big fish of 4.52 pounds. He added four more at 6.26 pounds for first place of 9 bass weighing 19.94 pounds and the 4.52 pounder was big fish.
Sam Smith had a limit on Sunday and weighed in 8 bass weighing 16.24 pounds for second place. He had a 4.49 pounder to anchor his stringer. Third was Kwong Yu with five keepers weighing 11.87 pounds and Lee Hancock came in fourth with six bass weighing 10.84 pounds. Niles Murray came on strong on Sunday and had five weighing 9.50 pounds for fifth.
I left for Lake Weiss last Tuesday with such anticipation.
Five fishing days and two keeper bass later, I am disappointed, to say the least. I tried everything I could think of for three days of practice. Fished up above causeway Wednesday looking for anything shallow – docks, grass, rocks, not a bite. Rode ledges and found all kinds of cover and fish but could not get them to hit.
Thursday went down below the causeway and did the same thing. Schools of fish in brush on ledges but nothing would hit crankbaits, worms or drop shot.
I went back up Thursday and got a three-pound spot on a buzzbait at 10:00 AM on a shady bank, so I decide to gamble on that pattern and run shady banks in that area all day in the tournament.
Saturday I caught nine short fish, lost two keepers at the boat and landed a 3.10 spot. It hit a whacky rig on a seawall at about 11:00 AM when I got tired of watching the buzzbait not get hit.
Sunday I missed one on a buzz bait early then got one 11 inch spot on a whacky rig. Never hooked a keeper in seven hours of casting!
The one spot got me 9th out of 16 people so it was tough for a lot of us.
Weiss is a beautiful lake with miles of shoreline grassbeds, seawalls and docks to fish. The Coosa River channel winds through flats and is joined by numerous creeks to form ledges that drop from shallow to deep. I found dozens with five to ten feet of water on top dropping to 25 to 30 feet deep in the channel.
Many of those drops had brush on them, both natural stuff that washed down the river and hung up or brush piles put out by fishermen. Time after time I watched fish follow my bait around those brush piles but not hit it.
Weiss is known as “The Crappie Capitol of the World” and is full of big ones. They have to be 10 inches long to keep, so that insures a good population of quality fish. I am sure many of those fish I saw were crappie and you could catch a lot of good eating fish on live minnows fishing them.
As water temperatures in lakes throughout Arkansas and the rest of the South finally start to dip into the 50s, many anglers will hang up their rods and reels after a prolonged warm season that offered many extra days of comfortable fishing. However, for those willing to bundle up and brave a few chilly hours, fishing can still offer some great action if you change your mindset and tactics.
Fish are cold-blooded creatures, meaning they have metabolisms that rise and fall with the temperature of their surroundings. During spring and summer, warm water means higher metabolic rates and more of a need to feed. As the water temperature cools, so does the activity level of bass, crappie and other sport fish, but that doesn’t mean they can go without food entirely. This is the time of year when quality is much more important to fish than quantity. In terms of food, that means getting the most energy for the least amount of energy spent chasing down prey.
Be Patient With Jerks
Cold fronts not only slow the metabolism of larger fish, they outright stun some of the smaller baitfish species, such as threadfin shad and gizzard shad. While some shad will die immediately, most will struggle for a few days before finally succumbing to the temperature if they can’t find some thermal refuge. This means there will be plenty of free and easy food for predator fish to take advantage of just before winter sets in for good. Largemouth bass, spotted bass and smallmouth bass all are gluttons for this shad buffet, but it presents a problem for anglers who try to “match the hatch” so to speak. The day of the cold front, getting a fish to fall for your lure over the real thing can be difficult, but after a day or so a suspending jerkbait can be the ticket. Cast the lure out, crank it down a few turns of the reel handle, then let it pause. Give it a few seconds at rest, then crank a few more reel turns before you pause again. Some people prefer to snap or sweep the rod tip to move the lure and reel up the slack to ensure they give the lure time to rest, while others prefer to crank the handle quickly, saving the wear and tear on their wrists. Either approach can work, but the time you pause can be the key to getting more strikes. Some days, a quick jerk-jerk-pause cadence will elicit a strike, while other days may require a long pause of up to 10 seconds or more to get the fish to finally react.
Lovin’ Spoonful
Another great presentation that fools fish into believing it’s a stunned shad is the jigging spoon, also called a slab spoon. This unassuming chunk of lead with a treble hook tied to the end doesn’t look like much, but when worked properly across the bottom its fluttering fall can offer just the right amount of flash and vibration to trigger a strike from a lethargic bass sitting with its belly on the bottom. Just look for areas without a lot of jagged rocks or woody cover as the open hook of a spoon can lodge into these surfaces and cause more frustration than fun. Cast the lure, let it fall to the bottom, then pop it up with a quick snap of the rod tip. Reel up the slack and stay in touch with the lure as it flutters back to the bottom. The technique looks like a shad that is dying and struggling to get away from predators. Even lethargic fish will find it hard to pass on the easy meal and the sudden snap of the fleeing fish will trigger their predatory instinct to react. Usually the hit will come as the lure is dropping, so keep an eye on your line for it to jump or stop instead of continuing its descent. Don’t be surprised if you catch fish other than bass with this technique, either. Walleye, catfish and even large crappie will take advantage of the easy meal imitated by this lure.
Alabama Bound
Big rewards is what the Alabama rig is all about, both for the fish and the angler. Constructed of wire and jigheads with small swimbaits attached, Alabama rigs mimic a small school of baitfish swimming along over likely cover. In winter, this offers bass a chance at grabbing a few small fish in one swipe. While smaller fish do hit the Alabama rig, it’s known for producing big fish who are looking for a big mouthful. Just be ready for a workout, as casting and retrieving an Alabama rig all day can definitely wear on the shoulders. Use a heavy action rod and lob the lure more than trying to whip it back and cast long distances. Braided line that’s around 80-pound-test breaking strength also can help avoid some tears if your Alabama rig snags up on unseen cover. A slow hard pull can often straighten the hook on the swimbait that’s snagged, allowing you to retrieve the rest of the rig and save a few dollars. Just be sure to loosen the drag on your reel enough to allow a fish to get a good bite on the lure instead of yanking it away when setting the hook. Fish often will set the hook on themselves as this is one of the few winter presentations that will elicit a bone-jarring strike.
Deadly Ned-ly
For decades, many bass anglers believed soft plastics were no good once the water temperature dipped below 60 degrees. Jigs tipped with pork chunks were the only smart option for a slow, bottom-crawling bait. But times and tactics have done a complete turnaround since those days. Small, straight worms like the Zoom finesse worm, Gary Yammamoto’s Senko or the ZMan TRD have proven that it doesn’t take a lot of wavy tentacles to catch a bass’s attention. Sometimes the best action is hardly any action at all. During winter one of the best finesse presentations is the simple Ned rig. Sliding a 2- to 3-inch morsel of a soft-plastic stick bait slowly over the bottom can entice a bite when reaction strikes from the above-mentioned tricks fail to produce. The key to fishing the Ned rig is the size of the jighead. Go as light as possible, and use spinning equipment to keep things small. You don’t want the jighead to crawl around on the bottom but to glide slowly just over it. A 1/16-oz. head with a no. 2 or no. 4 hook is a great option to start learning the technique, and the use of Zman’s special Ned rig soft-plastics will help float the bait. Often you won’t feel a hit, so it’s important to keep a sharp eye on your line for any twitch or odd reaction.
Be sure to check out the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission’s Weekly Fishing Report for up-to-date information on the hot bite across Arkansas. Guides, bait shops and anglers around The Natural State pitch in to make the report as helpful as possible for anglers looking to learn more about fishing year round.
Top Tips For Maximizing The Chilly Weather Bass Bite
Bassmaster Pro Ott DeFoe Shares His Autumn Insights
By David A. Brown
from The Fishing Wire
Fall is transition time for largemouth bass; it’s a time when the fish have fully departed their warm season haunts, but they’re not quite ready to drop into their winter retreats. No, the calendar’s tail end is all about stuffing bellies and packing on the weight that’ll sustain the fish through winter’s leanness.
The bass are on the move and it can definitely be a here-today-gone-tomorrow deal; but the bass’ seasonal instincts also heighten the likelihood of banner days. Few times of the year will see gatherings like the fall gorge fest and savvy anglers can enjoy the kind of action that’ll have you pining for your next outing.
“Once you get to November and beyond, the later fall period brings the opportunity of finding big schools of fish,” said Bassmaster Elite Series pro Ott DeFoe. “They’re starting to get grouped up into their wintering places, but they’re still feeding pretty good. You have the potential to catch a lot of fish when you find the right deal.
“The good thing about fall is that the bite could be in really shallow water or it could be in deep water. It’s not like summer where you only find big groups of fish deep; they can be grouped up shallow too.
So, how does the accomplished angler from Knoxville, Tennessee make the most of this opportunity? Truth be told, the exact game plan varies day to day; nevertheless, DeFoe suggests following these four guidelines for maximum seasonal success. Baitfish are generally migrating to the backs of creek and coves, but the schools are constantly moving. Covering water is the key, but DeFoe has a couple of strategies for narrowing the search.
Fish the windy side of the lake, as the wind pushes baitfish into predictable areas.
Watch for wading birds grouping on the bank, or hovering and diving over open water. Both point to baitfish concentrations.
KNOW THE NEIGHBORHOOD. A big part of the hunt for fall bass and the bait schools they follow comes down to recognizing the productive areas. Bluff walls that typically occur on the deeper side of a creek can be one of the most consistent fall producers, as the vertical structure provides a holding spot where bass can quickly adjust their depth to find the right water temperature by ascending or descending in the water column.
This is the sure bet; the place that typically produces some level of activity throughout the day. DeFoe values the bluffs, but he points out another consideration with day-making potential.
“In a creek arm with a steep side and a flat side, I look at both as having their own set of options,” he said. “The bluff is the safeguard. In the fall, I can go to a bluff and catch some fish and I may find a group of them. I can throw a shallow to medium diving crankbait or a jig and run across places throughout the day and put together a decent (5-fish) limit.
“On the other hand, I may fish flats half the day without catching a fish; but once I find them, I’m liable to catch 15 pounds in 15 minutes. So, it’s a matter of which do you want to focus on: Do you want to focus on the bluffs where you can pick up a fish here and there, or do you want to focus on the big groups of fish that have the bait pushed up there on the flats and are actively feeding?”
WATCH THE WEATHER. Speaking of weather, DeFoe knows that cold fronts bring major impacts that demand consideration. Before and during the front’s passage, fishing can be off the charts, as falling barometric pressure, cloudy skies and blustery winds can whip up one ferocious feeding frenzy. On the flip side, post-frontal conditions can be a real head-scratcher.
Here, the high pressure, cloudless skies, intense sunlight and lack of wind create an eerily still scenario in which bass tuck tight to shady cover and hunker down until conditions stabilize. This is generally considered “lock jaw” time, but bass still have to eat — they simply adjust their methods.
STAY CAST-READY. In closing, DeFoe points out that fall weather can take its toll on an angler’s performance. Certainly, chilly temperatures will tap away at one’s endurance, while the bright sun of post-frontal conditions unleashes solar harshness on one’s skin.
To keep himself in good physical and mental form, DeFoe won’t launch without his BUFF Multifunctional Headwear — possibly a Merino Wool or Polar model, as conditions dictate — and an appropriate pair of BUFF gloves.
“I like not only the sun protection and wind protection I get, but also the warmth around my neck,” DeFoe said. “Also, BUFF’s Merino Wool hats and the different models of gloves complement the Multifunctional Headwear. Having items that make you more comfortable on the water will relate to more casts per day and more fish in the boat.”
On a Sunday in November 12 members and guests fished our November tournament at Lanier. After eight hours of casting, we weighed in 31 keeper bass longer than the 14-inch size limit there. There were two five fish limits and one zero. There was only one largemouth, all the rest were spots.
I won with five weighing 12.65 and had a 4.01-pound spot for big fish. Zane Fleck had five at 10.26 pounds for second, third was Billy Roberts with four fish weighing 7.65 pounds and Kwong Yu placed fourth with three at 7.15 pounds.
I guessed right. While we were getting boats ready that morning I talked with fellow club member Russell Prevatt. He had been out with Lanier guide Jimbo that week and they had caught some good fish in 40 feet of water jigging spoons. Other guides on Lanier had been posting pictures of all the three and four-pound spots they were catching from 35 to 50 feet deep on spoons.
From all that I knew most of the big fish were deep. But I told Russell I was going to stick with what I feel most comfortable doing. If I got a limit, which I felt was very unlikely, I would try to catch fish deep. I planned to start with a spinnerbait then a jig and pig on rocky points, the way I won the Flint River tournament two weeks ago there.
We took off at 7:00 and I ran out of the creek. As I went by the point I started on in the Flint River tournament I considered stopping there. I have caught a lot of spots there up to four pounds. But I had a feeling I should run to another point to start, mostly because I knew the wind would be blowing right on it.
After making the short run I picked up a spinnerbait and started casting, quickly hooking a good spot. After putting it in my livewell I looked at my watch, it was 7:05! I put my second keeper in the livewell at 7:10 and my third one that I estimated weighed about 3.5 pounds in it at 7:25.
I felt pretty good about my catch. By now the sun was bright so I went back around the point to the shady side and fished it with spinnerbait and crankbait without a bite. Back on the sunny side I picked up a swim bait and caught my fourth keeper at 8:00.
I started to go look for deeper fish to try to fill my limit but decided to fish around the point more slowly with a jig and pig. With the brighter light I could see rocks under the water. At 9:00 I cast my jig and pig to the same boulder where I had caught the 3.81-pound spot that was big fish in the Flint River tournament, got a bite on the same jig and pig as I caught it on, and landed the 4.01 pound spot.
I had six hours left so I started looking for deeper fish, playing with my electronics, fine tuning them and looking for baitfish and bass in 40 to 50 feet of water. I fished several places that looked good but had no bites.
With one hour left to fish I ran around to the point I almost started on and quickly caught a keeper on the jig and pig, but it was not big enough to cull anything in the live well. That was it, I got no more bites before having to go in for weigh-in.
I had a feeling that morning about what to do. I get that rarely, but I think really good fishermen get it often. I call it a sixth sense for fishing and I think pros and other really good fishermen have it often. That is what makes them so good. I wish I had it more often!
Early Scouting Prepares Bass Anglers For Cold Front Fallout
By David A. Brown
from The Fishing wire
“You gotta have a dream, if you don’t have a dream, how you gonna have a dream come true?”
That memorable tune from South Pacific finds Tonkinese mother Bloody Mary counseling Lieutenant Joe Cable on the pursuit of true happiness with her daughter Liat. But you have to wonder how the lyrics might’ve varied had the scene taken place around some western hemisphere bass factory like Lake Ouachita, Guntersville or Toledo Bend, instead of overlooking Bali Ha’i.
Maybe something like:
“You gotta have a stump, if you don’t have a stump, how you gonna catch a bass post-front?”
Broadway aside, there’s undeniable logic in knowing the likely spots where bass will seek refuge in the harsh conditions on the backside of a cold front. Raymarine pro Stephen Browning knows well this game and, in his estimation, fishing after a cold front is generally the toughest scenario a bass angler will face.
Browning confronts this daunting scenario with a well-conceived game plan based on forethought and strategy. But first, let’s look at how the scene unfolds.
As a weather system approaches the area, winds increase, skies turn cloudy, rain becomes more likely and the falling barometer spurs intense feeding. As the front moves through, the action continues and fish act like they want to eat the motor off the transom.
Then the front passes and things get weird. Wind goes flat, temperature drops, high pressure pushes every streak of cloud from the sky and the dreaded “bluebird” conditions can have you wondering if someone stole all the fish overnight.
Actually, the fish didn’t go anywhere; they’ve just tucked in close to the nearest cover. Remember, the only way bass can shield their eyes from intense post-front sunlight is to utilize shadows. Similarly, the solid cover they seek radiates absorbed heat — a biggie for shivering fish.
(For clarity, some bass winter on deep offshore spots, but, as Browning notes, a good number remain in mid-depth ranges and even push surprisingly shallow to feed.)
KNOW WHERE TO GO
Browning’s adept at locating bass when starting from scratch, but he also knows that bites can be hard to coax in post-frontal conditions, so less time looking means more time earning those bites. Therefore, he likes to attack these tough times with a hit list.
“What really helps me more than anything for post-front fishing is relying on my Raymarine DownVision, SideVision and RealVision 3D sonar to identifying isolated pieces of cover,” Browning said. “That may be a stump, the tip of a laydown, a small brush pile, different size rock and subsurface transition areas. All those things are where I start looking to target where those fish should move to.
“The cold front is going to put those fish directly onto those targets. I think that is the key — identifying the target and making presentations to that specific target. If you have stable weather, you can catch them in a lot of different places this time of year, but once that cold front hits, I think there going to jump in there beside that stump; they’re going hang out in that little cluster of rocks; they’re going to bury up in that tree top. That’s where your electronics can really save the day.”
WHAT TO THROW
When the front is approaching or passing, Browning gets much of his work done with Live Target mid-range crankbaits, or the Golden Shiner lipless crankbait. Remember, this is the period when bass have the feed bag on, so covering water with reaction baits is the way to go. Spinnerbaits and Z-Man ChatterBaits also fit this plan.
Now, when the front passes and the fish put on their pouty face, Browning says it’s time to slow down, refer to the waypoints he’s marked on his Raymarine Axiom and turn to the targeted presentation plan.
“On these days, I’m throwing two different baits: I’m throwing a 1/2- to 3/4-ounce Jewel football jig and I’m throwing a ball head shaky head jig with a 4- to 7-inch finesse worm,” Browning said. “I would rather catch a fish on a football jig because I feel that fish is going to be a little better quality.
“But if I really think I’m around fish, but they’re not taking the (larger) jig, that’s when I fall back on the shaky head. It doesn’t put out a lot of vibration; it is a super finesse style of fishing, even during the winter time.”
As for football jig trailer selection, Browning offers this advice: “I use a Z-Man Turbo CrawZ during times when I think the fish are feeding actively. When the front comes through and the fish are less active, I’ll use the more subtle Z-Man Bat WingZ, which is the standard split tail trailer. I’ll trim my jig skirt up really tight and try to make it a really compact profile.”
Emergent stumps are easy to spot, but Stephen Browning relies on his Raymarine unit to show him the deeper structures that will harbor post-frontal bass.
MIND THE DETAILS
Yeah, we have a general outline of what to expect on every page of the calendar, but nature bristles with variables; many of which can determine how greatly a weather system impacts a bass fishery. Among them:
Seasonal Severity: Simple math. If you have a full bag of M&Ms and I take a quarter of them, you still have plenty. But if your candy bag is only half full and I take 25 percent, you’re not going to be happy with me.
Apply this to a cold front and it’s easy to see that a mild fall/winter can absorb event a stout cold front if air and water temperatures have remained moderate. It’s those years when fall sees early and significant temperature declines that see subsequent cold fronts seriously denting the bass fishing scene.
Frontal Intensity: Expounding on the previous thought, a front’s impact is largely measured by how much the temperature drops. There’s no one-size-fits-all cold front formula. Some are mere irritations, others straight-up game changers. Also, the amount of rain a front brings can become a temporary factor, as runoff will stain the areas with concentrated inflows.
After Hours: Daytime temperatures certainly matter, but overnight lows can be the real bite killers. Consider that the pace at which a morning’s action unfolds directly correlates to the temperature deficit the sun must overcome. Other words, if the pre-front water was, say, 55 degrees and it dropped to 50 between sundown and sunup; it wouldn’t take too long for the the next day to reach a temperature at which the fish might cooperate. However, when the night of a cold front’s passage delivers a double-digit decline, you can take your time at the launch ramp — it’s gonna be a slow start.
Ultimately, each year and each cold front shapes up a little differently. There’s only so much predictability you can count on; and often, you simply have to hit the water and make a firsthand evaluation.
Of course that’s always easier when you have a place to start — and maybe find your dream come true.
Camping in November is an iffy proposition, as last week proved to me. I went to Don Carter State Park on Lake Lanier last Wednesday and came home Monday after fishing the Flint River Bass Club tournament on Sunday.
Wednesday afternoon was nice enough driving to the north end of the lake and setting up my slide in pickup camper. I went back into town to meet a friend that lives on the lake, get some information from him, and eat some delicious fried scallops at the Atlanta Street Seafood Market.
On the way back to the camper it started sprinkling rain a little. By the time I showered it was getting cold and the rain was steady but light. It lasted all night and all morning Thursday and I just could not make myself launch my boat and go fishing in the cold mess.
When the rain stopped around 1:00 and my weather radar app showed no more heading toward me, I put in at the state park ramp and fished around that area way up the river. I never got my boat up on plane, just fished around the ramp since it was cold and windy.
The water had a stain to it and was a surprising 54 degrees, but the fish bit pretty good. In just under three hours I landed six largemouth and one spot and lost two more. All hit a crawfish colored Rapala DT6 on steep rocky banks back in small creeks. Two of the largemouth were about three pounds each.
It got colder Thursday night and I slept in Friday morning, getting to the ramp in Balus Creek about 30 minutes from the park around 11:00. The water was clear and 64 degrees, but warmer water did not help. By 4:00 I was disgusted, I had tried everything I could think to do and had hooked one small spotted bass on the crankbait. That was the only bite I got.
Saturday morning was similar and I started fishing down around Balus Creek just before noon. When I quit at 4:00 I had not hooked a fish. I spent a lot of time riding and trying to fish baitfish and bass deep, but everything that looked good did not work.
Saturday night got cold. My camper has an electric rooftop heater but it is either wide open or off, there is no thermostat. Even though it was 37 degrees I had to turn it off, it was stifling hot after 15 minutes. The small electric heater I carry kept the camper tolerable but not comfortable.
When I got up at the new too-early time to be at the ramp at 6:30 AM there was frost on my windshield. My truck thermometer read 32 at one point driving to the ramp in the dark.
I ran to my favorite point when we took off at 7:00 AM but never got a bite. After fishing a couple more places I seriously considered making the 15-mile run back up the lake where I had caught the largemouth, but the cold made me want to stay where I was.
At 8:30 going to a deep point to try I noticed two big pine trees had fallen into the water down the bank from it. I thought the water was too shallow but decided to fish them anyway. My first cast with a shaky head worm produced a 15-inch keeper spot and I put I point the live well. I would not zero!
My very next cast to the same tree produced another keeper spot. As I put it in the livewell I got in too big a hurry to make another cast, stumbled and stepped on my net handle, breaking it. Just my luck, if I hooked a big fish I would be in trouble.
By the time I got back up front my boat had blown into the tree, messing it up. But I went to the next tree and on my second cast to it I caught another keeper! Three on four cast – my day was looking up.
As I eased around the deep point, trying to remember more trees nearby to fish, I saw four or five fish suspended 15 feet down over 45 feet of water on my Garmin Panoptix. When I cast my shaky head to them I watched them go to it as it sank. When they started swimming off was disappointed until I realized I couldn’t see my bait falling any more, set the hook and landed a 15-inch spot.
A few minutes later on the same point there were three fish cruising about five feet off bottom 25 feet deep. When I cast to them they went to my bait and followed it down. When it hit bottom I felt a tiny little tap and set the hook on another 15 inch spot. I had a surprising limit at 9:00!
When I went to another bank with some blow down trees with a little wind on them, I caught my sixth keeper, then hooked a big fish. I thought it was a catfish but when I got it close to the boat I saw it was a big spot. Then I remembered my broke net!
It was a comedy for the next few minutes but somehow I landed the 4.07 pound spot. Fishing that pattern the rest of the day produced only two more fish but I was thrilled with nine keeper spots.
At weigh-in my five weighed 11.88 pounds but got beat by Don Gober’s five at 11.96 pounds. Chuck Croft had two at 7.75 pounds for third and his 4.11 pound largemouth beat my 4.07 pound spot for big fish. Alex Gober had two weighing 3.35 pounds for fourth.
It hurt to be so close but I am thrilled to have what I had after my poor luck Friday and Saturday, and glad I did not make a long cold run.
Saturday, November 13, 19 members of the Potato Creek Bassmaster’s fished our November tournament at Lake Oconee. After casting from 7:00 AM to 3:30 PM, we brought in 32 14-inch keeper largemouth weighing about 53 pounds. There were two limits and 8 members did not catch a fish.
Sam Smith won with five weighing 9.25 pounds and my five weighing 8.46 pounds placed second. Donnie Willis had three weighing 5.84 pounds for third, fourth went to Tom Tanner with three weighing 5.81 pounds and Mitchell Cardell had big fish with a 3.55 pounder.
The cold front that came through Friday made the fish hard to find and catch. I went over Wednesday and camped at Lawrence Shoals, a Georgia Power facility that has camping, picnicking, hiking trails and a boat ramp. All Georgia Power facilities are neat and clean and great places to use.
I went out Thursday to look around and check out some different places. After about three hours I had caught one on a DT 6 crankbait about five feet deep, another on a spinnerbait about foot deep and a third one 29 feet deep on a rockpile I spotted on my Garmin Panopitx. I marked it on my GPS to fish during the tournament. Deep fish often stay in one place for days where shallow fish move constantly.
That was no pattern so Friday I spent a lot of time casting a weightless Trick worm to grass and docks and caught three keepers, so I felt like I had a way to catch some fish in the tournament.
I also rode around a lot looking at my electronics, marking rock piles in deep water. Oconee has many huge boulders on the lower lake, many you can see up on the bank but even more underwater. I found several places that had fish on them but all I caught was a big crappie that hit a spoon.
Buddy Laster came over to fish with me and we ran to the dam in the cold air where I wanted to fish. I quickly caught a good keeper on a spinnerbait off some grass, but two hours later all we had caught were some short bass and one pickerel.
At 9:00 I cast a weightless Trick worm by a dock but my line went over the corner of it. When I felt a tap I set the hook and a keeper came flying over the dock but I managed to land it.
For the next five hours we tried a lot of things but had only throwbacks to show for our efforts. At about 2:00 I saw some fish around a boulder I had marked in 27 feet of water, dropped my spoon down and caught a three-pound flathead catfish. My next drop produced anther tap and I landed a keeper largemouth. Then the third drop produced a seven-pound flat head.
No more fish hit there so I went to a shallow grassbed and a good keeper hit my Trick worm. That gave me four with 45 minutes left to fish. At 3:00 I went out to the rocks where I had caught a keeper Thursday and filled my limit with a keeper that hit a shaky head worm 29 feet deep.
The legendary Ned Kehde isn’t likely to utter the phrase that’s made him famous; the term for the rig that’s forever transformed the bass fishing landscape. Actually, the chances of Kehde going third-person like some Prima donna wide receiver are roughly the same as his odds of playing in the NFL. That’s just Ned being Ned: the fact the humble Hall of Fame angler would rather credit those other fathers of finesse—Chuck Woods, Guido Hibdon, Harold Ensley, etc.—than acknowledge his own momentous role in bass fishing’s backstory.
Such modesty can be misinterpreted, but in Kehde’s case simply underscores the exceptional skill with which he practices the method known more broadly as ‘Midwest Finesse.’ Friend and former NASCAR driver Terry Bevins says, “Ned’s one of the best finesse anglers in the country. Put him in the back of the boat with one of his finesse jigs, and he’s likely to whoop your butt.”
To hear Kehde tell it, the bass-catching power of his “little jig” is so great there’s simply no reason to change it. “In years past, we’ve experimented with just about every new rigging refinement you can think of.” notes Kehde. “In the shallow impoundments we fish, none have been so fruitful as an exposed-hook, mushroom-style jig dressed with half a ZinkerZ or other finesse worm. Day after day, season after season, it inveigles dozens and dozens and dozens of bass.”
The Ned-Miki
The ‘Ned-Miki Rig’ has scored big bags of largemouth, spotted and striped bass for pro angler and guide, Joey Nania
Interestingly, the same simple motivation to catch more bass has inspired anglers across America to create unique and individualized versions of the Ned Rig framework—both in retrieve and the way they fasten a finesse bait to a hook.Longtime Ned Rig fan Joey Nania, professional angler and Alabama based fishing guide, has devised a couple key mods to the presentation. Recently, he’s guided clients to loads of spotted, largemouth and striped bass, wielding a concoction he calls the Ned-Miki Rig.
“As bass fans know, the Damiki Rig has been a money presentation for enticing shad-focused bass suspended in 15 to 30 feet,” says Nania. “But you need a really well-balanced, 90-degree jighead and a compact shad-shaped bait to pull it off. Having fished the Z-Man NedlockZ HD jighead for a lot of my regular Ned Rig fishing, I realized this head would really shine for ‘video-game’ fishing—working individual bass on sonar, vertically, playing cat-and-mouse. It’s versatile enough that you can cast the bait to suspended fish, too, just letting it glide and pendulum as you work it back to the boat.
“The Ned-Miki Rig: NedlockZ HD jighead and StreakZ 3.75A 1/10- or 1/6-ounce NedlockZ HD, says Nania, melds perfectly with a Z-Man StreakZ 3.75, a bait he calls “one of the best small shad imitations ever. And because it’s made from ElaZtech, the bait’s super buoyant. When you pause and let the Ned-Miki soak, the bait maintains a natural horizontal posture. Similar fluke-style baits aren’t buoyant, making them ride tail-down, rather than hovering horizontal like a live shad.
“Northern anglers fish a similar method, keying on suspended or rock-hugging smallmouth bass. The Ned-Miki has even evolved into a superlative substitute for a dropshot rig, which isn’t quite so precise for big sluggish smallmouths hunkered down between boulders.”Watch the bait drop on the sonar screen until it’s about 1 foot above the fish’s head,” Nania explains. “Hold the bait still. When a bass begins to rise and chase, lift the bait to take it away. Sometimes, a bass will chase the Ned-Miki up 15 or 20 feet, absolutely crushing it on an intercept course. Other times, you have to entice them a little, using the bait’s super-soft, high-action tail to close the deal. Almost like a dropshot, but even more dead-on.
“All-Terrain NedGoing where no Ned Rig has gone before, Nania is ecstatic when he mentions another new finesse device. “What can I say about the Finesse BulletZ, man? This jighead is off-the-charts cool. Rig one with a Finesse TRD, MinnowZ or TRD CrawZ and fish simply can’t tear it off. I’ve had the same bait on the same jighead for the past week, and dozens of bass later, it’s still going strong.
“Made to snake Ned Rig style ElaZtech baits through the thickest cover, the Finesse BulletZ sports a subtle bullet-shaped head and a slender keel weight molded precisely onto a custom, heavy-duty size 1 VMC EWG hook. “People look at this jig and wonder how the heck you rig a bait without tearing it. It’s funny because it’s actually a non-issue with ElaZtech, which is pretty much tear-proof. And once the bait’s in place, it’s there until you take it off.
“Goes without saying that the bait’s weedless,” says Nania. “But I’m also just discovering how well the little jig skips under docks,” he adds. “Regardless of the cover— rocks, brush, grass, manmade structures, etc.—this is one incredible jig-bait combo for finessing big bass in places you couldn’t previously throw a Ned Rig.”I like to rig a 1/10-ouncer with a TRD MinnowZ—Smelt and Hot Snakes are two of my favorite patterns—and skip it under docks. Rigging the same bait on a 1/6-ounce Finesse BulletZjig also shines for casting into deeper schools of bass.
“Nania notes how the jig’s keel weight makes the bait glide and slide horizontally, rather than nose-down. “It’s like some radical, improved version of the slider head, except this jig perfectly matches 2- to 4-inch finesse-style baits. And you can pull it right through the thickest brush piles with no problem at all.”From southern impoundments to northern lakes and rivers, the Finesse BulletZ jig may be at its best when rigged with Z-Man’s authentic mini-crayfish bait, the 2.5-inch TRD CrawZ.
“The TRD CrawZ is a subtle, unassuming little critter,” says professional angler Luke Clausen. “But rigged with the Finesse BulletZ jig, the bait rides in this freakishly lifelike, claws-up posture. Put it in the water and its buoyant little claws flap and wave, virtually taunting bass to bite—and they do,” Clausen laughs.
Ned-Neko Rig
Blurring boundaries between Ned-style and other finesse presentations, creative anglers have concocted what we’ll call the Ned-Neko Rig.
Coupling a Finesse TRD, Hula StickZ or other buoyant finesse bait with a Neko hook and Neko weight yields astonishing action, and an intriguing underwater posture.Hooking configurations depend on cover and bass activity level. The simplest is to Texas-rig your chosen finesse bait onto a #1 to 2/0 Neko style hook. Finish the Neko-Ned Rig by inserting a 1/32- to 1/8-ounce Neko weight into the bait’s tail-end, resulting in a compelling pogo-stick-action along bottom.
Also effective is a drag-and-deadstick retrieve, particularly in small, high-percentage zones.Or, you can get extra wacky (pun intended), and hook the worm right through the middle, leaving the Neko weight in the tail. The toughness of ElaZtech even eliminates the need for an O-ring; just a 1/0 Gamakatsu Finesse Wide Gap hook, your favorite TRD and another alluring look bass can’t say no to. Ned inspired. Ned approved.
I love my job! The past week – in October 2017 – gave me a chance to fish Weiss Lake, the Mobile Delta and Lake Allatoona. Its tough work, but I’m glad I get to do it.
Last Friday I drove up to Weiss and met Cal Culpepper and his dad Saturday morning to get information for a Map of the Month article that will be in the November of both Georgia and Alabama Outdoor News. Cal is a high school senior and on the Harris County High School fishing team, and a very good fisherman. Weiss is on the state’s borders and if popular with bass fishermen in both states.
note – Cal has gone far since this trip!
We had a good day, catching largemouth and spotted bass. The best five we landed weighed about 13 pounds. All were in shallow water around grass, docks and wood cover and hit chatterbaits, topwater and shaky head worms.
On Sunday I drove to Mobile to meet Captain Dan Kolenich, a guide there on the bay, to get information for a saltwater fishing article. I don’t fish saltwater much so I was looking forward to the trip, hoping to catch my first redfish. I knew I would eat some great seafood and I definitely accomplished that goal.
Unfortunately, Monday morning the wind was strong and it was raining. I talked with Captain Dan and we decided to try to go out Tuesday morning when the weather guessers said conditions would be better.
Since I had the rest of the day with nothing to do I went to Battleship Park. This military park has a variety of exhibits, including aircraft, a World War 2 submarine you can tour, and the battleship Alabama docked so you can tour it, too. I spent almost six hours there.
Walking through the submarine I could not imagine being on a crew. The tiny, cramped work and eating areas were bad enough but the racks, or bunks, hung along the walls one over the other, would never have allowed me to get a good night’s sleep. And I could just imagine the smell during missions.
The aircraft fascinated me since I always wanted to fly a fighter for the Air Force. One especially interesting display showed one of the fighters the “Tuskeegee Airmen” flew in World War 2 and a video had very good special effects. It took me several minutes to realize I was not watching actual videos of the dog fights.
Tuesday morning was clear but still very windy. We tried to fish but the wind made it very difficult so I did not catch a redfish. Maybe next time.
On Thursday Wyatt Robinson and his dad met me at my house and we drove through the horrible traffic to Lake Allatoona so I could show them what little I know about that lake. Wyatt is A senior at CrossPointe Christian Academy and on the fishing team. He is a very good young fisherman.
I had a lot of fun and we caught several keeper bass and even more short ones under the 12-inch limit, on topwater plugs and shaky head worms. But the catch of the day was a four-pound channel cat that thought my jig head worm was lunch. Turned out he became dinner. Although that trip was not really part of my job it was fun, except for the traffic going and coming back, and I was impressed, as I often am, with a young fisherman’s ability and knowledge. It is kinda scary that high school fishermen often know more than I do about bass fishing.
I continue to be amazed at what my Garmin Panoptix shows while I am fishing. The Panoptix Livescope has a transducer that sends out sonar pulses and receives them back from three different angles at the same time. It then combines and interprets the resulting “pings” from objects the pulse hits as lights on a screen.
You can watch dots of lights indicating fish move on your screen. It shows how far from the boat they are, the angle they are at and how deep they are. Any stationary object shows as a solid light image that resembles the object. For example looking under a dock you can see the post, cross bars and any brush or fish under them.
The size and shape of the image give you a good idea of the size and shape of the fish out there. There is no doubt what a long, thin gar is when it is in the beam. Crappie, bluegill, bass and hybrids show similar images, but their position relative to the bottom, way they move and how they are positioned to each other give you a good idea what they are.
From what I have observed, a school of baitfish looks just like it does from above when near the surface. The small dots move and flash in sync with each other, and move around a lot without going anywhere.
Crappie usually hang in groups over or near cover like brush or pilings. You can see the individual fish as they slowly move within the school.
Hybrids stay up from the bottom, move around a lot and move fast. There are often a dozen or more fish in the school, and they are generally bigger than the crappie.
I target bass, and they can show up as different things. Often a single bright spot at the top of a brush pile or against a post under a dock is a bass. Sometimes a small school, six or so fish, move in unison, going up and down as they look for food.
We always thought bass moved in tight to cover when the water is muddy and are out from cover a little in clear water. I saw this proven the first couple of months I had my unit.
The first time I used it at Jackson, the water was clear and I saw what I was sure were bass suspended just over some brush I often fish. Another place with big rocks I could see the fish holding just above them and saw several stumps with fish on top of them, too.
A couple of weeks later a heavy rain had muddied the water. The same brush pile with fish just over it now had bright dots down in the brush. I know they were bass because I caught two by repeatedly casting a worm to the brush and slowly working it through the limbs.
The rock pile now showed bright dots right at the bottom tight to the rocks. Stumps showed the fish tight against them near the bottom.
The most worrisome thing was the fact I could see fish near the cover in clear water but they were slowly moving around like they were looking for something to eat. But when my boat got within about 30 feet of them, they sank down into the cover and became inactive. I just knew the fish knew I was there and would not hit. Maybe they picked up sounds from my boat, a shadow from it or some other reason that spooked them.
At Martin last week I was fishing a point and saw five or six dots slowly moving just off the bottom. They would swim up a couple of feet then go back down as a group, like they were searching for food.
When I casts a shaky head worm to them, knowing the angle and how far to cast from the picture, I watched my bait start to sink toward them. As has happened dozens of times, one came up to meet my bait.
Time after time I have seen a fish do this, follow the bait to the bottom and never hit it. Usually the bait separates from the fish and the fish follows it down.
But this time was different. The bait did not continue to sink, the fish dot and bait dot stayed together. I realized the fish had hit it and tightened up my line and set the hook, landing a 13-inch keeper spot.
I like watching my crankbait run through the water. The unit lets me know exactly how deep it is running. And I can see fish follow it, but so far have not seen one eat it.
Topwater baits skim across the top of the screen. I can watch a Zara Spook twitch back and forth and see the wake produced by a Whopper Flopper. And watch fish come up to them.
All this is very exciting but also very frustrating. I never realized how many fish are out there, they are everywhere. But getting them to hit is another story. Knowing a fish is sitting by a stump or in a brush pile will make me keep casting to it, sometimes wasting way too much time trying to make a fish eat that just will not.
But at times changing the size or color of a bait will make the fish hit. So at times it makes the difference between catching a fish and just blind casting.
Expensive electronics are not for everyone, and they definitely have good and bad points. But technology continues to improve, even if you don’t want to take advantage of it.
Camping in November is an iffy proposition, as last week proved to me. I went to Don Carter State Park on Lake Lanier last Wednesday and came home Monday after fishing the Flint River Bass Club tournament on Sunday.