Summer Swim Jigging for Shoal Bass

  Every summer I find myself in a period of fishing when the big bait, bite, is only on for a few hours during those dog days.  So when those big shoal bass hunker down under the shelves of rocks, I find myself going to one lure consistently.  The swim jig with a zoom speed craw on the back end to add bulk and action.  The water I fish is usually gin clear, so I go with more natural colors and the bream imitating colors tend to be my favorite ones.  A 3/8oz swim jig is the perfect size when the water is low and slow, and those big shoal bass are hunkered down.  This tactic will catch big fish, but it will also catch numbers of decent fish as well.  My jig of choice is a homemade swim jig made by my friend Michael Smith.  This little bass wasn't a monster but it chocked the homemade swim jig like it was eating it's last meal.

 

 

   I found the best presentation is the obvious one, the natural one.  To throw the jig upriver and work it back down the shoals or pools towards myself.  This allows for the jig to swim up and over the rocks like a bream or crayfish washing downriver towards the waiting fish's mouth, like any natural prey would.  Shoal bass stay fairly active throughout the summertime so you don't have to crawl the jig back, you can work it back fairly fast.  I don't burn it back like a spinner bait but I also don't crawl it like a normal jig or texas rig.  If you match the weight of the jig correctly with the speed of the current, then it will just glide it's way back to you.  I do let it fall into the cracks and crevices in the shoals, because that is where the big bass will be waiting for it's next meal, but I only let it hit the bottom for a few seconds, at most.  This is usually when the fish will take ahold of the jig, just as it begins to fall between rocks or as you go to lift it over that rock.  A lot of your bites will just feel mushy or all of the sudden get heavy.  This is because of the slack in your line while working a jig this way.

 

 

 

  You have to make sure to use the proper gear for this type of fishing.  You need a strong, abrasive resistant line, that also has low visibility since the summer river water is usually very clear.  So I go with 20lb P Line Flouroclear.  I like this because it's strong, sensitive and has very little stretch so hook sets are easier, especially since the lure is working downriver towards me and moving with the current.  A bass can grab it and take it right back under one of the rocks it was hiding under.  So you need something strong when you set the hook, to get the bass out from under the rocks and keep it from snapping the line on the sharp edges.  You will also need a stout rod, I use a Dobyns 766 Flip for this paired with a Shimano Curado.  This gives me plenty of backbone to slam the hook in a big bass' lip and the reel has the ability to throw the jig a long distance.  Distance is important since your working upriver, which means you'll be throwing your lure uphill.  The micro guides on this rod also help add extra distance on your casts.  Any extra distance is a good thing.  Give this technique a try next time you find yourself out fishing some moving water on the dog days of summer.  It can produce some excellent catches.

 

 



Dealing With Early Sprig Cold Fronts and Tough Fishing

  We all know that when the warm weather comes, the big female bass have been fattened, are full of eggs and ready to move up and drop their spawn at any steady sign of warm weather.  Of course if you have bass fished, you know inevitably that these ideal stretches of warm weather seem to break out for us early only to be squashed by several nights of weather in the 20's-30's.  So here are my thoughts on what happened and what to do when these early spring cold fronts move in on you and how to still make those big females bite. 

  Everyone who has bass fever has experienced this, or just about everyone.  You have a springtime bass trip planned for Lake Seminole in FL or Lake Guntersville in AL for the magic month in the spring when those giant females, swollen with eggs, are moving up behind the buck bass, staging on secondary points and drop offs, feeding up and getting ready for the spawn. Then you wake up the next morning to crisp, cold air temps in the 30's when it had stayed in the 50's and higher for the week or two before.  We all know what this means, as most fisherman would say, "These fish have lockjaw today."  Well those bass can be caught and until the water temperatures have time to adjust and cool off, you can catch them in those early spring patterns such as throwing crankbaits or lipless crankbaits in 8-12ft near spawning bays or working a crawfish pattern jigs around wood in those same depths near shallow spawning grounds.  But after that first day, when the barometric pressure rises, and the blue bird sky's show up.  That's when you have to work harder to put these fish in the boat. 

                              Early spring time lunker caught in a brush pile in 12Ft on a Senko

  Initially, after the cold front, the bass will be found in the backs of the creeks and bays near channel drops and wood piles where they can remain until the weather stabilizes.  You can catch those on the above mentioned crankbaits and jigs worked slowly through those brush piles and channel drops.  As the cold front hovers or moves over the bass can be found further towards the main lake and hunkering down tight to the wood or rock cover.  If you just take the time to use your sonar, find some places outside your favorite spawning areas, you can find those creek channels, bends and drop offs that will hold these big lunker females that break your heart on an early cold spring day. Catching these fish will be tougher than the ones gorging themselves right before they move up because they were in that stage and now have had to adjust to the cold.  They will bite but it usually takes some kind of reaction bite to make bass eat in this situation.  A crankbait is perfect for this because it can be worked over rock and through wood, banging into the limbs and cause those big females to react to it by getting mad and slapping the lure.  Sometimes it may take fifteen to twenty casts to the same brush pile to catch one, but often when one bites it can fire up the remaining school and make those fish eat also.  So be quick to get your lure in the water and mark your waypoint, if possible, when you catch a big bass. 

   It's tough, but we can all put some big bass in the kayak or boat if we just put a little time into researching what and where you will be fishing so these springtime cold fronts won't shut you down. This big early spring spot was caught on a suspending super rogue by Smithwick, inside a slow eddy where the cold weather had forced the bass out of it's usual warm water spot.  It is a testimony to what you can catch if you get out and still try when that cold weather rolls over you warm spring week.

 

  

Sally the Spotzilla, Caught Twice Two Years Apart

So two years ago, my wife, Rachael Stutts, was fortunate enough to hook and land her personal best spotted bass at the time that was extremely full of eggs and weighed in at four pounds three ounces.  The bass was a beast of a spotted bass and especially for the small river it was caught from.  Well it was caught in one of the pools formed in a shoal complex just before the river dumps into a lake.  She was throwing a rapala J11 on a 6ft spinning rod and a fairly small spinning reel.  Rachael played the big girl like a pro as she rolled and turned on the top of the water.  I finally was able to lip it and after pics and weight, she was released into the same pool she was caught from, an area about the size of an olympic swimming pool.

Well fast forward to this year and late April conditions, high muddy water with an approaching storm front.  I knew it would be a good day for fishing so I tied on my 5" slow sink Bull Shad and headed to the same river.  Which has given up a 4lb+ spotted bass last spring and two so far this spring.  This river is so small I hop rocks to get to the other side and you can cast across it in almost every spot on the shoal complex and river.  So I had caught a few decent bass on the bull shad as the skies darkened but nothing huge.  I then had one about 3-4lbs come up and just slap at my swim bait but didn't eat it.  That gave me the drive to fish this hole a little longer before moving on.  I crossed the rocks to get to the one area in this pool I hadn't cast to, and slung my bull shad next to a tree with fast current going by.  I let it sit for a second to sink, then gave my rod tip a good pop which turns the lure side to side like a spook but underwater, when WHAM, there she was again and hungry.  Sally the Spotzilla, as we now named her, began to run and pull then came to the surface and with her big old head I knew it was a good fish.  Had no clue it was Sally.  The fish was downriver from me, in heavy current, with shallow rocks between me and her.  The worst case scenario.  So I just leaned on her, and slowly pulled her over and around the rocks until I got her in an eddy below my feet.  The fish had the lure perfectly horizontal in her mouth, the tail off of one side and the head on the other, treble hooks all in her face.

 So I grabbed the bass behind the head and let out a victory yell.  The fish had spawned out already, or else she would have gone five pounds.  At the time the thought did cross my mind that it may be Rachael's fish I caught but wasn't sure and released her.  On a side note, I hooked her ten feet to the left of where Rachael caught her fish two years ago this spring.  In the pictures you can plainly see a black birth mark on the left side of her head on the gill plate.  The fish had some sort of infection where it lays it's eggs so hopefully it'll survive that so we can catch her again next year.  Catch and Release really works people!!