Good bass fishermen can pattern bass. That means they can catch a few bass and figure out what the bass are doing at that time on a lake. They can then go catch other bass in similar places with similar baits. For example, if a good bass fisherman catches three bass off blowdown trees on three different points, he will start running from point to point casting only to blowdown trees, using the same bait the first three hit.

Several years ago Fritz, a friend from Des Moines, visited the last week of February for some fishing. We hit Sinclair twice, Jackson once and spent our last day on West Point. A pattern gradually emerged that worked on all four lakes and helped us put bass in the boat.

Fritz goes by the name “Learning To Fish At 40” on my internet site since he took up fishing when he turned 40. I call it his mid life crisis. He is very smart and has read a lot on fishing, and has taught me some things! He looks at fishing in a different way than I do, with a fresh perspective.

We started fishing “places” at Sinclair that February, places I remember catching bass at that time of year. We tried lots of places with a variety of baits including crankbaits, spinner baits, jig and pig and worms.

After about half the first day was gone Fritz said “Do you realize every bass we have caught hit a jig and pig on rocks near deep water. So we started concentrating on those types of places using a jig and pig and caught a good many bass the rest of that day and the next day on Sinclair. We tried some other stuff, like fishing into the coves behind the points, but the bass just were not there.

It had been unusually warm and by Monday it was almost like spring. We went to Jackson and started on the same pattern from the day before, and caught fish. Buy that afternoon we saw the water had warmed so we started fishing into the pockets behind the points, too, and catching a few bass off wood cover. That had not worked the day before or that morning.

We had a good day at Jackson and decided to go to West Point the next day. A hard cold front came through and temperatures were dropping fast. But the pattern held, and we hooked some nice bass on rocky points and the wood cover behind them. We ended the day with me catching a 7.5 pound largemouth on a jig and pig out of a blowdown and Fritz catching a four pound bass, his best to that point, out of another blowdown.

Last Saturday night at Jackson Niles Murray and I fished the Sportsman Club tournament. We started on my favorite point near the dam but all we got was a spot that was too short to keep. At about 6:45 we ran up to the mouth of Tussahaw Creek where Niles has caught some fish the weekend before and started working the area.

At 7:20 I landed a good two pound keeper spot on a main lake point with some rocks on it. It his a jig head worm. Niles caught a short bass and some bluegill on his crankbait. About an hour later we had worked up the bank to another point with some rocks on it and I got another keeper spot, then Niles got one on his crankbait.

It was almost dark so we kept fishing up the bank, fishing around the coves and working all the cover we came to. At about 9:10 we had worked out onto another main lake point with rocks and, guess what. I got another keeper spot! At that point we decided to concentrate on that pattern but did not catch any more fish.

I wish I had caught on to that pattern quicker. We wasted a lot of time fishing in coves and other places where there were no bass. If we had started jumping from point to point earlier I think we could have caught more fish. By full dark the fish had stopped hitting on points, it seems.

The bass may have started hitting on that pattern again later in the night but we stopped at 12:30 AM. I have seen this type pattern in the past, where bass hit pretty good from 6:00 PM until about 9:00 PM then a lull with no bites until after midnight. It seems to me the fish need to adjust to full dark before they start hitting again.

In the tournament 15 members and guests fished for seven hours to land 17 bass weighing about 24 pounds. It was a very tough night and no limits were caught. Six people did not have a keeper bass.

Tom Tanner won it all with two bass weighing 4.66 pounds and his 3.14 pound spot was big fish in the tournament. My three weighed 4.36 and gave me second place, third went to David Fryer with three keepers weighing 3.70 pounds and Brent Terry got one keeper weighing 2.64 pounds for fourth place.

A word or warning. If you go to Jackson late in the afternoon, use some good sense and stop skiing and tubing when the sun sets. And turn on your running lights. It is dangerous and illegal to be out there after sunset without your lights on. Last Saturday official sunset was at 8:14 PM and it gets earlier each day, and the game wardens know the exact minute each day. We saw several boats get tickets and they even warned us because we had covered the back running light with a cap to keep it from blinding us while fishing. You could still see it but it was not bright enough and the game wardens stopped and “talked” to us.

Follow the law or take a chance of getting a ticket.

The Finer Points of Punching Mats With Terry Scroggins and Jimmy Mason

By Steven Johnson
From The Fishing Wire

Alabama guide Jimmy Mason is an expert at punch-bait fishing on the vast grass mats of the TVA lakes.

Two bass fishing tactics are commonly used to pull big bass from massive grass mats: Throwing a hollow body frog for those fish willing to smash through the “roof,” and punching through the grass for those holding below. If bass aren’t hitting the top, the choice is already made. Put up your dukes and start punchin’.

Endless grass mats make it seem like B.A.S.S. Elite pro Terry Scroggins is searching for a needle in haystack. With each pitch, Scroggins’ big weight hits the dense mat, punches a hole and pulls his Big Show Craw down beneath the grass. He lifts the bait a time or two to see if anyone is home, pulls the bait back out of the same hole and then pitches to another spot. The approach appears random, but Scroggins is highly intentional about his lure choice, the spots where he flips it and each presentation.

A Florida-groomed pro with five B.A.S.S. wins and more than $1.5 million in career earnings, Terry “Big Show” Scroggins understands the idiosyncrasies of matted grass. He knows that bass live under those mats and that the best way to get them out often is to flip a heavily weighted bait so that it punches through the cover.

Tennessee River guide and Bassmaster pro Jimmy Mason also relies heavily on grass-punching strategies. Mason guides mostly on lakes Pickwick and Guntersville, both of which support extensive stands of matted vegetation.

Punching is a prime technique anywhere vegetation stays matted on top, and is normally most effective on sunny days when bass seek the shade of a roof overhead. During the cool season, Mason thinks punching first on post-front, bluebird-sky days because the sun heats the mat, and the water beneath the vegetation tends to be just a bit warmer.

Elite pro Terry Scroggins learned punchin’ in his home Florida waters but now uses it where ever he finds thick floating weeds.
Grass mats often are thick on top but more open under the roof, and that influences lure selection. For the easiest descent through the mats, lures should be slender without big appendages that can grab the grass and stop its descent.

Likely forage under a mat is a critical factor for Scoggins when he’s trying to decide which bait to punch. In Florida, crawfish abound beneath many mats, so his bait of choice often is his namesake Big Show Craw. Where bluegills are the main forage he’s more likely to use a YUM 2ube or Vibra King Tube. A compact creature-type soft plastic like the Wooly Bug is a blend of the two styles, and he often tries it first when he’s not certain of the preferred forage.

The size of the bass present also influences lure choice. When Mason is targeting heavyweight bass he prefers the Vibra King Tube.

“I don’t know exactly what it is about that Vibra King Tube,” he said, “but it attracts big fish.”

Both professional anglers select dark colors for punching. The grass roof cuts light penetration so bass can’t see baits well, and dark colored baits provide a better silhouette. His two go-to colors are green pumpkin and black-and-blue.

Other requirements for punching bass in the face include a heavy sinker (1 ½-ounce, often pegged), strong straight-shank or offset worm hooks, heavy action flippin’ rods and 60- to 80-pound braided line.

Finding bass in grass mats is a lot like locating them in other cover, look for something different.

The Big Show Craw, designed by Terry Scroggins, is one of the favorites for punch-bait fishing when heavily weighted.
“Look at the grass mat just like you’d look at a shoreline,” Scroggins said. “Look for the little points and pockets, greener spots, mixes of grass types and other cover poking through. Anything that’s different can hold fish.”

Not all distinctions are visible from above the surface, but topo maps or GPS mapping and graphs reveal bottom breaklines, ditches, points and other features that may hold fish. Mason typically approaches mats of grass methodically, beginning along outside edges and then moving to scattered mats and eventually into the thickest stuff. He watches and listens continually for movement beneath the mats that suggests feeding fish and pays careful attention to every detail every time a fish strikes.

Because mats commonly cover extensive areas, it’s critical to refine the pattern as a day progresses. Move quickly and make a lot of punches at a variety of locations until a fish hits, then slow down. Bass commonly congregate under mats, so an area that yields one bass often holds more. When one strikes, make your next pitch to that exact spot.

Mason says that a lot of his clients who are unfamiliar with punching mats miss fish all day long the first time. Detecting strikes can be tough.

“First, make sure your bait goes all the way through the mat,” he said. “When it does, let it fall to the bottom. Pay attention because aggressive fish might grab it before gets to the bottom.”

Once the bait finds bottom, both anglers advise experimenting to determine where the fish are holding in the water column. Mason hops the lure a time or two, then lifts it almost to the surface and smacks it against the top of the mat a few times before dropping it again.

“They might be on the bottom,” he said, “but they also might be barely under that mat. When that’s the case, smacking the mat with the bait triggers strikes.”

If you ask most bass fishermen how to catch suspended bass, don’t be surprised if the response is: “you can’t.” Suspended bass present fishermen with one of the most difficult problems to solve and many just give up and go look for easier fish to catch. But there are ways to get them to bite and tactics that will help you land fish that others give up on.

Bass suspend away from structure and cover for a variety of reasons. One of the most common is when lakes stratify, forming a thermocline between hot upper oxygenated layers of water and cooler, deeper layers with little oxygen. Bass can’t live in the cooler waters so they get as close to it as they can, suspending over deep water at the level where they can still find enough oxygen.

Suspended bass will often be found holding off points and humps at the most comfortable depth to them. They will be over a deeper channel but not far from the rise in the bottom where it meets the depth they are holding. That allows them to run in and feed, then move back out over deeper water.

Some lakes present a special situation where standing timber under the water rises many feet off the bottom. Bass will often use these trees as cover, relating to the trunks and limbs while holding well off the bottom of the lake.

The best way to find suspended bass where you fish is to ride the lake and watch a depth finder carefully. Follow channels and ditches while watching for fish holding between the bottom and the surface. Riding back and forth over a point or hump, not turning your boat until well past the drop of the bottom contour, will show you schools of bass suspended near them. And moving slowly over standing timber will reveal bass suspended in it if your depth finder is a good one.

Depth control of your bait is critical to catching suspended bass. They are holding at a set depth and will not move far up or down to take a bait. So finding the bass and knowing what level they are holding is just the first step. You must then find a way to put your bait at the level where they will see it.

A crankbait is a good way to catch suspended bass but you must make it work at the dept the bass are holding. There is an old tried and true method of doing this that has fallen out of favor. Trolling it a great way to get your crankbait down to a set depth and keep it there while covering a lot of water, but it is against the rules in bass tournaments so many bass fishermen have abandoned it, but it still works.

Most lure companies have designed a variety of crankbaits that run down to a set depth. For example, a Bandit Series 400 will run 12 to 16 feet deep and a Series 700 will run 14 to 18 feet deep. A Bomber Fat Free Shad will run 14 to 18 feet deep while a Fat Free Fingerling will run eight to 10 feet deep.

The depth varies depending on factors like trolling speed, line size and amount of line out, so you need to experiment to find out the exact combination to produce the exact depth you want. Mark a set depth on a point then troll over it varying line size, length of line out and trolling speed until your bait just ticks the bottom at the depth you want it to run, then troll through schools of bass at that depth.

You can do the same thing if you are limiting yourself to casting, but line size and the distance you cast are even more important. And boat position becomes critical. When you cast a crankbait like the Bomber or Bandit it will dive to its maximum depth as you start your retrieve then rise when it gets near the boat.

Since your crankbait will stay a the desired depth for only a short distance when casting, you must locate the schools of bass then position your boat near them so you can cast past them and work the bait back, keeping it at the critical depth as long a as possible.

Some newer baits on the market make casting and controlling your depth easier. Both the Swarming Hornet and the Fish Head Spin are lead-head baits with a small spinner under the head. When you attach a Roboworm E-Z Shad or other shad looking plastic bait, it imitates a baitfish.

Tie on one of these baits and vary the weight of the lure and the line size to match the conditions like wind, water clarity and depth you want to fish. Smaller diameter line helps keep the bait at the depth you want to fish and you can get by with lighter line since the bass are away from cover.

Position your boat near the school of suspended bass and make a long cast past it. Feed line to the bait as it falls so it drops straight down and count it down. Figure one second per foot of drop, but to be more exact cast to a known depth and count it down to make sure your are accurate.

When the Fish Head Spin or Swarming Hornet reaches the correct depth, slowly reel the lure along. A slow, steady retrieve keeps the spinner turning and keeps the bait at the optimum depth. You can cover much more water at the best depth with one of these lures than with a crankbait since the lure drops straight down to the correct depth then stays at that depth all the way back to the boat.

One of the easiest and most effective ways to control the exact depth you want to fish is by using a drop shot rig. A drop shot rig is one where the lead is tied to the very end of your line and a hook tied on up the line. Special hooks and sinkers are designed for drop shotting and make it a more efficient way to fish, but you can use any sinker and hook as long as the hook is very sharp.

Gamakatsu hooks are known to be super sharp and they make a Drop Shot/Split Shot hook that comes in a variety of sizes and you can choose red or black hooks. These hooks are relatively small and are perfect for nose hooking small plastic bait like a Slider Worm, Roboworm or Gulp Minnow Grub.

A soft, straight worm like the Slider or Roboworm is the usual choice for drop shotting, but experiment with other shapes of baits, too. Some days the bass might like a fat Gulp Grub with a quivering curly tail over a thin straight worm.

Choose one of the plastic baits that match the size of the baitfish the bass are eating, and use a color based on water color. Clear water is usually best for drop shotting so line choice is critical, too. Fluorocarbon line is the standard for drop shotting and Sunline is invisible in the water and holds up well. The lack of stretch of fluorocarbons like Sunline also help with hooking fish on light line.

You can drop shot at any depth you find the fish holding. If they are three feet off the bottom, tie your hook three feet up the line. If they are 15 feet off the bottom, tie your hook 15 feet up the line.

This may sound strange but, since the sinker is at the end of the line, when you hook a bass and reel it in, there is nothing to get in the way of landing it. You may have a lot of line trailing the bass but you can land the fish without reeling it all in.

Get your boat right on top of the school of bass and hold over them watching your depthfinder. Let the sinker on your drop shot rig hit the bottom and you know your bait will be at the exact depth you tied it above the sinker. Twitch your rod tip, making the worm or grub dance right in front of the bass’s mouth.

Drop shotting is the best way to catch bass suspended in timber, too. For these bass, tie a hook a few inches to a foot above a sinker and get right on top of the fish. A good depth finder will allow you to watch your bait as it falls and you can stop it right in front of the bass and shake it. You are usually targeting a single bass in timber rather than a school. A drop shot rig moves the sinker away from the bait while still giving ou exact depth control.

Don’t let suspended bass ruin your day. Try these techniques to land them when others are just shaking their heads.