Monday, July 9, 2012

Rockin' Bass

A 21" 5.01lb bass off a deep rock pile in the Twin Cities metro area

Summer is here!  That means the deep bass are getting fired up right now.
There's nothing better than bombing a cast as far as you can up over a rocky hump and getting bit near the end of your cast.  Your rod loads up often from getting snagged in the rocky bottom.  Its often easy to mistake a bite for being snagged on the bottom, so you have to really focus on movements in the line and rodtip, keeping a sensitive feel for the 'bite'.  As I always say, hooksets are free, so even if I'm not 100% sure that the negative feedback in my rod is a rock or fish, I'll often give it a hookset for good measure.   Half the time its a rock.  The other half the time you think its a rock, but then the rock starts to move... and off in the distance you see a giant bass come to the surface to do backflip, only to head back to the depths to try and get away.  Fish on!!

Its a sight you have to see.  Or even better yet, experience for yourself.


Here's what I look for when targeting the monsters of the deep:


Rocks.

Yup, that's about it.  Find rocks on points, humps, saddles, weed edges, or even in the middle of nowhere.  To do this you need a good map and a good depth finder.  A GPS is a great tool to have as well.

Idle your boat over these spots slowly while watching your graph.  If rocks are there it's usually quite obvious.  The bottom of the lake will appear different than over a sandy or muddy area.  The bottom should appear jagged, with thick solid readings on the display and almost no weeds in sight.  If you have a GPS mark it!  If no GPS toss a marker bouee out over where you think the rocks are.  A good way to practice reading rocks on your depth finder is to go over an area you know for sure has rocks, and examine closely.

The best way to confirm what's down there quickly is a heavy football head jig or a heavy carolina rig (aka C-Rig).  I like to cast a 3/4oz weight on 12lb test fluorocarbon line and a 7'6" rod with good flex to work the bottom quickly and effectively.  Cast beyond where you think the rocks are and scoot your jig/rig across the bottom until you run into rocks or gravel.  Make sure you don't lose contact with the bottom!  The deeper it is the slower you have to go.  Once you feel the rocks or gravel slow down and work it very slowly.  Inch it along.  You can feel where the rocks are and the size of the rocks by noting the distance your rodtip travels between the start of the hesitation to the stop of the hesitation.  Gravel will feel much much different than 2' boulders (visualize your jig being dragged over these two objects).  Sand or mud will feel like dead, smooth weight.  As I'm sure most of us already know, weeds will feel mushy and become exponentially 'heavier'.

So give it a go next time you are out bass fishing!  Since these spots can be very small relative to the rest of the lake, always be courteous of others out on the water.  You don't want to be right on top of someone else.  Being at least about 1x casting distance away is the norm on most lakes (some lakes/rivers have a different norm).

Also keep in mind, not all spots that have rocks will be good.  In lakes with a bunch of rocky areas you may wind up checking all of them and finding fish in only 1 area.  The fish you do find will be worth it.

Have any other tips worth sharing?  Post below!