Category Archives: Bass Fishing

Bass Fishing Information

Tough June Tournament At West Point Lake

At West Point on Sunday 16 members of the Sportsman Club fished our June tournament from 6:00 AM until 2:00 PM. We landed 29 keeper bass weighing about 47 pounds. There was only one five-fish limit and three fishermen didn’t catch a keeper.

Kwong Yu won with three largemouth weighing 7.80 pounds. My four bass weighing 7.56 pounds was second, third was Raymond English with five at 6.83 pounds, Javin English was fourth with four at 5.89 pounds and Chris Davies won big fish with a 3.93 pound largemouth.

I was surprised at the number of largemouth weighed in. West Point is full of spotted bass and they are usually fairly easy to catch, but not Sunday! There were 12 largemouth brought in and four of them weighed over three pounds each.

Jordan McDonald fished with me and I had a very frustrating start. Nothing hit any of our baits at daylight the first place we stopped, a hump where I can usually catch a lot of spots as it gets light. The second place we tried Jordan got a nice largemouth but that was the only fish we caught on that rocky bank and point, another place where we usually catch a bunch of spots.

At 9:00 we were headed to the fifth place we wanted to fish when I noticed current moving at the bridge we went under. Current usually makes the fish bite, like it did at Bartletts Ferry last month, so I pulled in to a nearby point. Although we could see a big school of baitfish with bigger fish under them down 16 to 18 feet deep on the point they would not hit anything we tried.

After 30 minutes of trying to make them hit crankbaits, worms and topwater I got out my dropshot rig. That rig is a four inch worm on a small hook about 12 inches above a one-eighth ounce sinker tied on eight pound test line. You drop the rig to the bottom straight under the boat, keep the lead on the bottom, raise your rod tip to make the worm suspend and jiggle it slightly. Bass will often hit it when they won’t hit anything else.

I felt a slight weight as I jiggled the worm and set the hook, and yelled for the net. I could tell it was a good fish. I usually catch smaller fish on that rig but this turned out to be a 3.56 pound largemouth. We stayed there and thirty minutes later I got another hit and landed a two pound largemouth.

After another hour on that point without any more bites we tried another point. I missed a bite on a jig head worm then caught a keeper spot. Some fish were hitting on top out over deep water and I thought they were hybrids, but Jordan cast a jerk bait to one of them and landed a keeper spot.

After fishing that place and getting no more keepers we went to another point. As we fished it I saw more baitfish with fish under them, again down about 15 feet, and let my dropshot worm down to them and caught my fourth keeper, another largemouth.

That was it for the day. We tried several more places, including going back to the place I caught the first two, and the fish were still there but still would not hit.

Fishing can be tough right now and it is hot, but I would rather be fishing than anything else I could do!

How Can I Catch Five Pound Bass at Lake Seminole?

Laura Ann Foshee with Two Five Pound Lake Seminole Bass

How early are you willing to get up in the morning to do something you love and how far are you willing to drive to do it? Sometimes I think nothing is better than the “job” of fishing and writing about it, but sometimes it wears me out.

Sunday I got up at 3:00 AM for the Spalding County Sportsman Club tournament at West Point and drove the 65 miles to the lake. After fishing eight hours, I got home at 4:00 PM, ate dinner, took a shower and was asleep by 6:00 PM since I had to get up at 1:00 AM Monday for a Georgia Outdoor News article at Lake Seminole.

After a four hour, 210 mile drive I got to Wingates Lunker Lodge and met Laura Ann Foshee, the young fishermen highlighted in the article. We fished until 2:00 PM then I drove the four hours home. I was worn out after those two trips!

Both trips were fun though. Laura Ann lives near Birmingham, Alabama and fishes for her high school bass team. She is one of only 12 high school anglers nationwide to be named to the Bass Anglers Sportsman Society 2015 High School All American Team. And she is the only female angler on it.

Laura Ann gets her love of fishing from her uncle, Scott Montgomery, owner of Big Bite Bait Company in Georgetown, Georgia. Big Bite is one of the biggest plastic bait companies in the US. So she has a lot of contacts with good fishermen, especially members of the Big Bite Pro Staff.

One of those Pro Staff Members took us out for the day on Seminole. Matt Baty lives in Bainbridge and fishes Seminole a lot, and does well in tournaments. We had a good day, landing two bass over five pounds each and several more keepers. And they hit in shallow grass beds. Laura Ann caught one of the five pounders on a topwater popping frog and that was very exciting! The other one hit a paddle tail worm swam over another grass bed. Both hit not far from Wingates in the Flint River and will be marked in the article.

She marked ten of her favorite spots to catch August bass on Seminole and explained how to fish them. That information will be in a Map of the Month article that will run in the August issue of both Georgia and Alabama Outdoor News magazines.

Are Big Baits Better for Big Bass?

Lunker Baits for Lunker Bass

By Frank Sargeant
from The Fishing Wire

There’s something that just doesn’t compute for me when it comes to tying a $50 bill on the end of my line and throwing it out there for the Fates to intervene.

But for a growing number of bass anglers, the opportunity of hooking a lunker largemouth is worth the risk: lures that cost $50 and even more are now available, and a fair number of anglers are catching fish on them.

Bucca Bull Shad Bait

One of the best is the big “Bull Shad”, a hand-carved lure produced by one Mike Bucca in his garage in North Georgia. The lure is pretty much a spitting image of a sizeable gizzard shad, and they do catch really big fish for anglers with the patience to throw them long and hard–they’re a favorite in the hard-fished clear water lakes of California, for example, where giant Florida-strain largemouths of 12 pounds and more are common.

At least one local guide has also discovered the magic of the Bull Shad. Captain Mike Carter, who fishes mostly from Goose Pond area up-river at Guntersville, has been putting some very large summertime bass in the boat in the last week on this lure.

Carter says his success on fish to 8 pounds has been primarily on grass edges and flats, not over the main channel where most bass anglers spend most of their time in the heat of summer. He says the first hour of daylight and the last after sundown are prime times, and even at that it takes lots of casting to find a bass big enough to eat the jumbo lure, but production has been impressive considering how difficult it usually is to catch big bass at this time of year. (You can learn more from Carter by visiting www.anglingadventures.info.)

The basic Bull Shad is a 5-incher that sells for $49.95 at Tackle Warehouse and other retailers. It’s available in a floater, a slow sinker or a deep diver. Bucca also makes larger–including much larger–models, up to 9 inches long. The big one weighs 5.5 ounces, about as much as a hand-sized bluegill, and it takes a man to throw it more than a few times–to say nothing of some man-sized tackle. The lure has a man-sized price, too, at $89.95!

The lures have four wobbling segments and a swimmer tail, and are so nicely carved that they look like someone has cut a live shad into four pieces and then stitched them back together. Bucca says the appearance, along with the action, does the job on big fish, which are very hard to fool on baits that are less lifelike because they’ve probably been caught many times over their life span.

Be that as it may, the idea of risking a lure that’s going to take a full day’s labor at minimum wage to purchase will give many anglers pause. Braided line testing 80 or 100 pounds should give some assurance, but when you hook up with a really big fish, anything can happen–failed knots or a knick in the line might bring on disaster.

The Bull Shad is not the only high-dollar lure on the market these days–many imported from Japan are in this price range, and like Bucca’s lure, they offer incredible realism and action, but at a price that will limit purchase only to the most avid anglers.

Some older anglers may remember a few decades back when the first fat lipped crankbait, the “Big O” came out and proved itself incredibly successful–the few who owned these lures sometimes rented them out for a day of tournament fishing. That may be no bad way to go when it comes to the new breed of high-dollar lures, for those unwilling to take the risk of amortizing a $50 lure.

Fishing Is Good At High Falls Lake

If you like to fish you are missing out on a great place to go if you don’t try High Falls. The 660 acre lake is only a few miles from Griffin, Georgia boats are limited to 10 horsepower motors so you don’t have to worry about skidoos and skiers and the lake has great populations of bass, crappie, bream and catfish.

Peyton James knows how good it is and fishes it often. The last Friday in June he and his dad fished in the afternoon for bass and had an excellent catch, including one six pounder and several more big bass. Even better, Payton and his father caught them on topwater baits, the most exciting way to catch bass.

The fish hit near docks and blowdowns, making it even more exciting. On most big lakes this time of year you need to drag plastic baits in deeper water to get bit. Casting to visible targets, especially with topwater baits, is much more exciting!

You can catch all the bream you want fishing around shoreline cover with crickets or a flyrod and popping bug. Crappie will hit minnows or jigs trolled or fished around deeper wood cover. Catfish are a little tougher since they bite better at night and boat fishermen have to be off the lake by sundown. You can catch them from the bank if you have a place to fish after dark.

Nice High Falls Bass

Try High Falls for some exciting fishing right now.

Finessing Georgia Bass

So far this year fishing has been pretty good. The unsettled spring weather kept bass in the pre-spawn feeding spree and then you could catch bedding bass longer than usual. Post spawn bass bit good for several weeks. But now fishing can be tough.

The water is getting clearer as it gets hotter on most lakes and that usually means fewer bites. Bass are deeper and in tighter schools. Running the banks won’t produce bass like it did during the spring. When fishing gets tough you can probe the depths or you can go to lighter tackle and baits and still catch shallow bass.

Light line is often the key to getting bites from finicky shallow water bass. I like six and eight-pound fluorocarbon line and it works well with the smaller baits that will get a bass’s attention. Line lighter than six-pound test makes it very hard to land a bass since they like to head to cover when hooked, but four-pound test line would probably produce even more strikes.

A six foot light action spinning rod teamed with a quality reel with a good drag system works well for finesse fishing. I always turn off the anti-reverse on reels so I can back reel when fighting a strong bass. It takes some practice to get used to fishing with a reel that will turn backwards but it is a big help when you need it. A good drag is essential so you don’t break your light line on the hook set.

A fisherman once explained the importance of smaller baits this way. After a big meal when sitting watching TV and rubbing your stuffed belly you probably won’t grab a full size candy bar. But it is hard to pass up nibbling on a few chocolate-covered peanuts on the table in front of you.

Present a four inch worm or small spinner in front of a bass and it will hit it, even if the fish is not in a feeding mood. Tiny crankbaits also work well this time of year. Try a Texas rigged four inch curly tail worm on a 1/16 ounce sinker or put it on a slider type jig head the same weight. Tie on a small in-line spinner or tiny 1/16 ounce spinnerbait to get a bite. Crankbaits 1/8 to 1/16 ounce will also work.

Two things attract shallow water bass this time of year. Current and shade will both make the bass feed and if you can find a combination of the two your odds go way up. Bridges, docks and overhanging brush provide shade while normal current upstream or generated current on the lake give you the conditions to catch shallow bass.

Throw your small Texas rigged worm under shoreline brush even if the water is only a couple of feet deep. If there is some current moving under the bushes bass will hold there and feed better. Run up the river feeding the lake to find more overhanging cover that has current on weekends since power is usually not generated as much.

Bridges offer the best of both worlds. The bridge and pilings offer cover and shade and, since they are on the narrowest place on the lake, they concentrate current. Work a slider worm, small crankbait or spinner along the rocks in the shade or by the pilings. Try to cast up-stream and fish with the current since that is the way the bass will be facing.

The shade under docks holds bass and they are even better if there is some brush around them. Current moving under them helps, too. Cast a Texas rigged worm under them or swim a crankbait or small spinner along post and under floating docks. All will draw bites.

Go light this time of year for more action. You will get more bites and the fight will be better on the light tackle.

Why Join A Bass Club?

I never met a fish I didn’t want to catch, but bass hold a special place in my heart. I vividly remember the day over 50 years ago when I caught my first one. Dad dropped grandmother and me off at the creek running out of Usury’s pond in McDuffie County. We walked up to the pool of water below the dam and started fishing.

We had caught several small bream on our cane poles when my cork disappeared. I raised the pole but the fish didn’t dig down and make tight little circles like a bream, it jumped! That little 11-inch bass came out of the water three times and was the most exciting fish I had ever caught. My fate was sealed. Catching bass would become a life-long passion.

Bass club fishing is a lot of fun. I have been in the Spalding County Sportsman club since 1974 and the Flint River Bass Club since 1978. Club fishermen compete at a little more relaxed level than in the money tournaments. The goal of each club fisherman in Georgia is to make the Top Six tournament each year.

Georgia clubs have the option of affiliating with either The Bass Chapter Federation, an FLW organization, or the Bass Federation Nation, a BASS organization. Each group has a Top Six tournament each year where the clubs send a six man team to fish against other clubs for a little money, bragging rights and a chance to go on to the next level.

For Federation Nation anglers the ultimate goal is to fish the Bassmasters Classic. Five federation anglers make it each year, one from each area of the country. At the Georgia Federation Nation Top Six at Seminole in early February the top 12 fishermen earned the right to go on to the Southern Regional at Santee Cooper, competing against 12 man teams from six other southern states.

At the Regional the top man on each state team then advances to the Federation Nationals. There, the top man on each regional team will get a chance to fish the Bassmasters Classic.

The FLW Bass Chapter Federation has a similar structure, with the top 12 from the state tournament advancing to a regional tournament. At the regional tournament the top angler from each state will get to fish the Walmart BFL All-American as a boater and the second place angler will get to fish as a non-boater.

The top angler from each state will also advance to the FLW National Championship. The top two anglers there will get an entry into the Forrest Wood Cup as a boater and no boater. The winner at the national championship will also get a “Living the Dream” package including paid entry to FLW Tour for a year and a wrapped boat and truck to use during the tournament season.

Georgia bass fishermen have amazing possibilities if they like tournament fishing. Consider joining a local club and start on your road to fame and success if you want to try tournament fishing.

What Is A Florida Strain Largemouth Bass?

Florida WRI Biologists Work to Preserve Genetic Purity of Florida’s Premier Freshwater Sport Fish
from The Fishing Wire

Range of the Florida Strain Largemouth

Map of Florida showing the prohibition line for northern largemouth bass and their hybrids.

Florida bass, Micropterus floridanus, have a small natural range; they are only native to peninsular Florida. This species grows larger than any other black bass, which is a big part of the reason they are the premier freshwater sport fish in Florida. Recognizing the ecological and economic value of genetically-pure Florida bass, FWRI biologists conduct research to help prevent these bass from mating and producing hybrid offspring with non-native northern largemouth bass,M. salmoides.

The taxonomy of these two bass sparked a debate amongst scientists for more than a decade. The Florida bass and the northern largemouth bass look very similar, but do they represent different species or subspecies? They were originally described as subspecies of largemouth bass in 1949 and the American Fisheries Society (AFS) has continued to use this terminology – until recently. Many scientists have become convinced that the Florida bass is a distinct species based on genetic, behavioral, and environmental preference/tolerance differences.

During a statewide genetics study, scientists analyzed bass collected from 48 lakes and rivers throughout Florida. The sampled water bodies included populations of pure Florida bass and intergrade (or crossbred) populations where Florida and northern largemouth bass mixed or hybridized. Populations of pure Florida bass were found south of the Suwannee River, while intergrade populations were located in northern and western parts of the state. This led the FWC to amend a rule to designate pure northern largemouth bass as a conditional species (dangerous to native ecosystems) south and east of the Suwannee River. This was intended to prevent this non-native species from being moved into the range of pure Florida bass in peninsular Florida by anglers, private pond owners, or fish dealers.

The FWC is dedicated to preserving the long-term well-being of fish and wildlife resources. To that end, the agency designated four geographic regions of the state as Florida bassGenetic Management Unitsafter research indicated that bass in each area had unique genetic compositions. When FWC is stocking hatchery bass or relocating wild-caught bass, fisheries managers avoid transporting bass betweenGenetic Management Unitsto avoid mixing gene pools. FWC takes this precautionary approach when moving bass because research has shown that fish have adaptations that help them survive and reproduce in the environments in which they naturally occur.

Biologists collect tissue samples from fish in the wild and at the hatchery and send them to the FWRI fisheries genetics laboratory for analysis. Geneticists at FWRI developed a set of molecular markers that are able to effectively identify each species of black bass and detect individuals that have hybrid ancestries. The geneticists work with the Richloam Fish Hatchery staff at the Florida Bass Conservation Center to conduct genetic testing that makes sure that only pure Florida bass are allowed to spawn at the hatchery. This ensures that only pure Florida bass are released into water bodies during stockings. Geneticists are also able to determine whether a bass collected by a biologist in the wild was produced at the hatchery. Resource managers can use this information to determine the survival rate and contribution of hatchery fish after stocking.

Since its creation, the bass genetics project has expanded to include research on all the black bass species that are native to Florida, including Suwannee bass, shoal bass, and the newly classified Choctaw bass. These studies will provide resource managers with information they can use to protect the genetic integrity of native species by preventing or minimizing the chance of hybridization with invasive species.

This program was designated as a high priority by fishery managers in FWC’s Florida Black Bass Management Plan. Fisheries agencies in other states also promote black bass conservation, but FWC’s Florida Bass Conservation Program is by far the most comprehensive genetic conservation and management program for black bass in the country.

Fishing A Club Tournament At Lake Guntersville

Say “Lake Guntersvile” to any bass fisherman and they instantly think of catching lots of big bass. Guntersville is one of the best, if not the very best, bass lake in the US. Big tournaments there produce big catches. Five fish limits weighing over 25 pounds are common.

But there is another side to Guntersville. The minimum size limit on largemouth and smallmouth bass is 15 inches, a size not common in our club tournaments. So that makes it harder to catch a keeper. And the lake is very crowded. It is not unusual to find six to ten boats within casting distance of each other on a ledge when a school of bass is located. And if you happen to catch a fish while alone in a spot you won’t be alone long!

Fishermen hear about the great catches but they seldom hear about what the average club fisherman does. In the club creel census reports for Guntersville, it is the hardest lake in Alabama to catch a keeper in a club tournament and the lake with the fewest keepers per hour of fishing in the whole state.

But there is a chance of catching a personal record stringer there. That is why it is so crowded, and why the Flint River Bass Club set our June tournament there. Like other tournaments, we had a few good catches and some not so good ones.

Guntersville is about four hours from Griffin and we had only seven club members make the trip for our two day tournament last weekend. After fishing ten hours on Saturday and eight more on Sunday, we brought in 42 keepers weighing about 93 pounds. There were six five-fish limits and no zeros. We did have six spotted bass brought to the scales and they only have to be 12 inches long.

I managed to win with eight keepers weighing 23.13 pounds, Gary Hattaway had ten weighing 21.14 for second and big fish with a 5.12 pound largemouth, my partner Jordan McDonald had ten weighing 20.71 for third and Niles Murray had eight at 19.46 for fourth.

Before going to a lake I don’t know I often get information from fishermen I have done articles with. I was excited when Brad Vice, a college fisherman that I had worked with in February on Guntersville, told me had had weighed in five bass weighing 28 pounds in a tournament the week before. And he sent me two GPS coordinates for the places he caught them.

Jordan and I went over Wednesday afternoon, set up camp then got up early Thursday and Friday to practice. On one of the places Brad sent me I caught a four pounder and my depthfinder showed many more fish in the area.

Fortunately, Jordan had gotten some information too. We went to some of his places those two days and caught some fish on them, and on some other places we found on our own.

Saturday morning we went to a big grass bed Jordan had been told about, and in the first two hours of fishing he caught five keepers and I got two. For some reason I kept missing fish. Then, about 10:00, we went to some docks he had been told about and where I had caught three keepers off the first five docks the day before.

In the next two hours I caught five fish off those docks, including three off one of them. Those five dock fish weighed 17.05 pounds and gave me the lead and big fish of 4.55 for the first day, one of my best catches ever. On Sunday we went back to the grass and Jordan got four to my one. We then fished docks and I got two more and so did Jordan.

Although we fished hard we could not catch any more fish, and the spot Brad sent me we never got a fish. There were at least five boats fishing it every time we tried it during the tournament.

Niles had the same kind of luck I had. His limit on Saturday weighed 13.45 pounds for second place but he caught only three the second day. Gary had limits both days to come from behind for second place.

Guntersville is a beautiful lake and it does have good fish in it. If you work at it you can catch some nice stringers. But in our tournament, two of the fishermen weighed in only three keepers in two days between them.

When Should I Use Big Baits for Bass?

When Big Baits Are Best for Bass

How up-sizing can work magic on heavily-pressured waters, especially during “heat fronts”

By Steve Pennaz
from The Fishing Wire

Steve Pennaz with bass

Pennaz has found that soft plastic lizards are a great bait to fish during both cold and heat fronts. “The beauty of the lizard is it resembles salamanders, which pack a big caloric punch, motivating bass to eat during negative to neutral bites. Also, not a lot of anglers throw them anymore, so fish are less conditioned on pressured waters,” says Pennaz.

Fish studies confirm that bass can become conditioned through continual exposure to baits. Especially on heavily-pressured waters, bass do learn to avoid baits. Berkley’s Dr. Keith Jones covers the subject in his book Knowing Bass: The Scientific Approach for Catching More Fish. In it, Jones discusses research evidence that suggests bass remember lures for a long time – “for at least up to three months and perhaps much, much longer.”

The challenge for the angler is staying ahead of the curve. One of the best ways is to fish outside of the box, choosing baits the fish have probably never seen before. Or fishing baits that have fallen out-of-favor for newer, trendier baits.

Or simply up-sizing the same baits we already know are effective.

I remember fishing a river system one spring day. We had started early to avoid the crowds, then battled skyrocketing temps throughout the day. I know a lot of anglers like to be on the water during those warm spring days, but I prefer more stable conditions.

Fishing was predictably slow under the changing conditions so I slowed down like you do during a cold front and went to smaller baits while casting to timber and current seams along the bank. We landed four bass running between 1.5 and 2 pounds.

There was another boat working the same bank behind us…with a lone angler in the bow. I saw him hook up a couple times, but didn’t think much of it at the time.

Later, back at the launch, I asked the other angler how he had done. He said he caught five fish, including a 3-pounder and two 4-pound fish flippin’ the same river timber I had fished ahead of him.

I asked him, “What bait where you flippin’?”

His plaintive response: “Power Lizards.”

I hadn’t thought to go larger with my presentation and so this information was striking. But the more I thought about it, the logic behind it was too strong to ignore…how many other anglers would go in this direction during difficult situations like cold fronts or what I call “heat fronts”?

When you get a week of average temps and all of a sudden the temperature sky-rockets into the 80 or 90s (or higher), water temps change drastically. It’s like what happens during a cold front, but in reverse. And the effects on bass and other fish are the same; their movements slow. If you monitor the water temps on your electronics, there are situations where increases can be as much as 8, 10 or even more degrees in a day. Where I live, going from 40-degree overnight air temps to 80 degrees by late afternoon is not uncommon!

When faced with drastic temperature increases, I often hold off fishing my best spots until late in the day when temperatures stabilize somewhat. By this time, the biggest fish with the most mass will have had time to acclimate to the change and will be more active. The bass that do feed during these dramatic shifts in water temperature often look for the biggest meal with the least amount of metabolic effort. Like any host of large amphibians, salamanders and the like.

Still, a lot of anglers are hesitant to fish lizards, thinking they’re only big-fish baits. In reality, a lizard doesn’t appear too large to bass, which typically track prey from behind. The visual cue is only part of the equation. What can really stimulate their feeding or attack response has to do with how they feel that bait. With its many appendages, a lizard displaces more water and produces more vibrations, which the bass picks up via its lateral line.

An angler needs to ask a few questions:

How big of a bait can I get away with on a given body of water? And secondly, what will be most appealing to the biggest fish in a school?

At times it makes sense to start smaller, but there are times when going large is the right move.

If the waters have big fish and lots of pressure, I may start bigger because I can. And for the past couple of years, I’ve been fishing lizards … a lot.

Why more anglers aren’t fishing lizards is a real head-scratcher. But I can relate. The past decade we’ve seen so many new and effective creature-style baits and worm designs hit tackle shelves that it was easy to forget the proven performer.

Big mistake. Lizards worked then — and still do.

Lizard Rigging Tips

When rigging lizards, hooks can make or break your day. I learned long ago that while great for compact, creature baits, EWG-style hooks are not the best choice for Texas-rigging lizards or big worms.

Instead, I use a 5/0 or 6/0 offset worm hook that provides great hook-up ratios and allows the baits to move fluidly, as designed.

Historically, my favorite lizard is the 6-inch PowerBait Power Lizard, although I’m starting to catch a lot of bass on the Gary Klein-designed Havoc Boss Dog, too. But given that bass will often grab lizards and big worms in the middle – rather than inhaling the entire bait – the PowerBait formula really puts the odds in your favor. They simply hold on to the bait longer, giving you more time for a solid hookset.

In terms of color, my favorite is pumpkin with a chartreuse tail, which is based purely on nostalgia; it produced my first giant bass years ago and still works great today. But I also carry black/blue, black, green pumpkin and watermelon.

In terms of line…I fish 10- to 15-lb. Berkley Trilene 100% Fluorocarbon in clear waters; 15- to 17- lb. for stained conditions. And in waters with double-digit bass, I’ll go even heavier. I like the sensitivity you get with fluoro, the fact it sinks, and the near invisibility factor.

Another cool thing about fishing heavy fluoro with lizards or big worms is it decreases the amount of tungsten or lead weight you need to use. You get some sinking factor with the line itself. That means I’ll often fish lizards or big worms weightless in shallow-water (1.5- to 2 feet) situations. Plus, the Berkley PowerBait Power Lizard is pretty bulky in the body. All this adds up to long casts and easy fishability.

Rod & Reel Setup

One of my secrets to fishing lizards is upping the speed. Rather than the typical “lift-drag” Texas rig retrieve, I’ll use a twitch-twitch-reel-reel-shake and repeat. This gets the appendages really pushing water. To those ends, I like a higher-geared baitcaster like the 7.0:1 Abu Garcia Revo MGX.

Big hooks for big baits

Pennaz prefers a 5/0 or 6/0 offset worm hook over an EWG for Texas-rigging lizards or big worms. “You’ll get greater hook-up ratios and a more natural bait action,” says Pennaz.
Speaking to that reel, it weighs around 5 ounces, which means when combined with a feathery 7’6″ fast action, medium-heavy power Abu Garcia Veracity, you can easily fish these big baits all day without fatigue. Plus, fishing lighter rods and reels gives you better sensitivity…important for detecting bites on the drop.

Parting Words

This season pay attention to drastic temperature swings and fish them like cold fronts in reverse. Size up and try lizards for more and bigger bass, even during difficult situations on pressured waters.

About Steve Pennaz

Steve is one of the most trusted voices in fishing. From 1988 until 2012, he served as Executive Director for the North American Fishing Club, including North American Fisherman magazine, fishingclub.com and the club’s daily enewsletter “Fishin’ Informer.” He’s also hosted several television series, including “North American Outdoors,” “North American Fisherman,” and “Fishing Club Journal.” Pennaz launched Knot Wars, now a successful app on iPhone and Droid. He excels at finding and catching fish on new waters, a skill that now drives “Lake Commandos.”

Lots of Spots At A Kids and A Club Tournament At Bartletts Ferry In May

Last Saturday we had only three boats participating in the Spalding County Sportsman Club/Flint River Bass Club youth tournament at Bartletts Ferry. Even though the numbers were low and the fishing was tough we had fun.

On the youth side Alex Watkins fishing with Sam Smith won the older age group with four bass weighing 2.89 pounds. My partner Hunter Jenkins came in second with two at 2.55 pounds and his 1.29 pound largemouth was big fish. Blaze Brooks, fishing with Zane Fleck, won the younger division with two bass weighing 1.18 pounds.

In the buddy tournament Sam and Alex had five fish weighing 5.82 pounds for first and a 1.45 pound largemouth for big fish, Hunter and I had five at 5.07 for second and Zane’s team had two at 2.28 pounds for third.

Youth could weigh in any legal fish, so they could bring in spotted bass less than 12 inches long. On the buddy side all fish had to be 12 inches long. Bartletts Ferry is full of little spotted bass and we all caught a bunch of them. There were only three largemouth brought to the scales.

Hunter and I started fishing a point with topwater, crankbaits and worms. He had two bites on worms but when he set the hook he brought in a half worm. I missed two on topwater and I think they were all little spotted bass, too small to get the hook.

As the sun got higher we went out on a point and I could see fish on it on my depthfinder, and I caught two small keeper spots and several too short to keep on jig head worms and drop shot. Then we fished several more places without catching anything.

At about 11:00 we started fishing docks and Hunter got two keeper largemouth and I got a keeper spot. We both caught some throwbacks, too. That was it for us. It was a very frustrating day, made even more so at the ramp when we watched a pot tournament weigh-in and it took five weighing 14.5 pounds to win and 14 pounds to get a check!

The next day in the Spalding County Sportsman Club May tournament at Bartletts Ferry 16 members and guests fished from 6:00 AM till 2:30 PM to land 55 keepers weighing about 64 pounds. There were only 11 largemouth, all the rest were small spotted bass. Six of us had five-fish limits and only one fisherman didn’t have a keeper.

Billy Roberts won it all with five weighing 8.02 pounds and had a 3.72 pound largemouth for big fish. My five at 6.18 pounds was second, Niles Murray had five at 6.14 pounds for third and Sam Smith’s five at 6.05 pounds was fourth.

After seeing the tournament with the good catches weighed in Saturday I thought all night, trying to figure out what they could have done. Often you can go up the river and catch largemouth, but the water looked muddy at the ramp so we had all fished clear water on the main lake Saturday. I told my partner Jordan McDonald we were going for broke, running up the river to try to catch some bigger fish even if it was muddy.

The first place we stopped I got a keeper spot on a spinnerbait, not what I was hoping for, and Jordan caught a short spot. We fished great looking cover for over four hours and all we caught were two more short spots and a short largemouth even though there was good current, usually a good sign, the water was what I consider a perfect color. I could see a spinnerbait down over a foot deep.

At 10:30 we decided we had better go to the clear water and try to catch a keeper spot. On the way down the river, near the mouth and still in very stained water, I remembered a good point and we stopped on it. Current was moving across it and it is often a very good place when the current is flowing.

We immediately started catching fish. It was strange. The boat was sitting in about 14 feet of water and we were casting up on the point, covering it from five feet deep out to 14 feet deep. In the next two hours I caught about 15 small keeper spots and several that were too small to keep. Although I gave Jordan one of the lizards I was using, and he rigged it Texas style just like mine, I caught all the keepers.

By 12:30 the fish quit biting and the boat traffic go so bad it was uncomfortable and dangerous to stay there, so we went to some other places. For some reason pleasure boaters like to break the law and ride close to fishermen, violating the 100 foot rule. Most of them seemed to slow down to make as big a wake as possible. I yelled at one guy when he almost ran over us and he yelled back we were in his way although there was a lot of open water all around us!

Jordan had a bad day. I got three more keepers fishing docks and points but he never got one. It is weird the way it goes some days and you just can not figure out why. I have had it happen to me many times. In fact, in a February tournament at Bartletts Ferry Jordan won with a limit weighing about 12 pounds and had big fish and I caught one keeper all day!

What goes around comes around, sometimes!

About Fishing

Welcome To About Fishing