Once the water gets above 60 degrees, one particular lure should play a big role in your bass fishing lineup - a buzzbait! Buzzbaits are those wonderful lures that look like a spinnerbait with a prop type blade that chops up the surface and makes a ton of noise.
The spawning season is overlooked by most in casting this type of lure, and why, I do not know. When a bass is in guard mode or maybe tuning the world out with its focus on spawning, a buzzbait is that "alarm" clock that you just want to shut off. For us, we reach over and hit snooze, but for a bass, they smash the lure with their mouth trying to kill it.
I like black, white and chartreuse, and bluegill patterned skirt colors this time of year. Rough up the surfaces a bit where the blade rubs on the brad stopper so it will squeak a lot. I find a 1/2 oz bait is best leading up to the spawn and then a 1/4 oz bait comes into play once you get a lot of fry in the water. Fish it around spawning areas and get it close to cover. Make multiple presentations and hang on. If you want an adrenaline rush, this will give it to you!
Now go get your personal best-
Bassin' Dave
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Getting Jiggy With It
As we move into March and the bass begin to spawn, there is one presentation that I don't see a whole lot of bass fishermen taking advantage of and that is swimming a jig. This technique will work great all the way through the post-spawn period or until the bass leave the shallows and will pick back up in the fall when the bass begin to chase shad and feed heavily for winter.
You can swim a jig using any jig on the market, but I prefer the Santone Lures swim jig as it is designed for this purpose with the right head shape, hook size, and angle to the hook.
The technique is simple. Cast the bait out and begin reeling it back with your rod tip at a 10 o'clock position which will keep the jig high in the water column. You want it just under the surface. As you reel the bait, make short twitches with your rod tip upwards which will cause the jig to swim up and down giving it a great action. This rod position will also allow you to drop your rod tip when a bass bites and then set the hook.
Colors, I like any that resemble a bluegill this type of year so I am using a lot of pumpkin, green pumpkin, brown with some red, orange, blue, and chartreuse mixed in the strands. On heavily overcast days, I will pick up a black and blue swim jig as I feel it gives the best silhouette to the dark sky. For a trailer, I really like the Strike King Rage Craw in a complementary color to the jig.
Where to throw a swim jig is everywhere. They are very weedless so get it into and close to the cover where that bass is living. You can even use it like a standard pitching jig if you find the bass are tight and won't come off the cover to eat it swimming. Sometimes you may want to pause the bait and let it drop a few inches once you clear the cover, but get it moving again pretty quickly. This small pause can trigger strikes on many occasions. I do this a lot when coming across grass with the jig. As I get to a hole in the grass, I let the jig fall into the hole letting that bass get it without having to come up to the jig.
The point is that during and after the spawn, the bass are battling and feeding on bluegill all the time. In the fall it is shad. The swim jig is a great "mimic" to the bluegill and will elicit ferocious strikes from big bass. The lure is super versatile so you can change up how you are fishing it to match the mood of the bass. You can burn it, slowly swim it, drop it, hop it, and crawl it. It is awesome!
Give the swim jig a try and you will fall in love with the technique like I have.
You can swim a jig using any jig on the market, but I prefer the Santone Lures swim jig as it is designed for this purpose with the right head shape, hook size, and angle to the hook.
The technique is simple. Cast the bait out and begin reeling it back with your rod tip at a 10 o'clock position which will keep the jig high in the water column. You want it just under the surface. As you reel the bait, make short twitches with your rod tip upwards which will cause the jig to swim up and down giving it a great action. This rod position will also allow you to drop your rod tip when a bass bites and then set the hook.
Colors, I like any that resemble a bluegill this type of year so I am using a lot of pumpkin, green pumpkin, brown with some red, orange, blue, and chartreuse mixed in the strands. On heavily overcast days, I will pick up a black and blue swim jig as I feel it gives the best silhouette to the dark sky. For a trailer, I really like the Strike King Rage Craw in a complementary color to the jig.
Where to throw a swim jig is everywhere. They are very weedless so get it into and close to the cover where that bass is living. You can even use it like a standard pitching jig if you find the bass are tight and won't come off the cover to eat it swimming. Sometimes you may want to pause the bait and let it drop a few inches once you clear the cover, but get it moving again pretty quickly. This small pause can trigger strikes on many occasions. I do this a lot when coming across grass with the jig. As I get to a hole in the grass, I let the jig fall into the hole letting that bass get it without having to come up to the jig.
The point is that during and after the spawn, the bass are battling and feeding on bluegill all the time. In the fall it is shad. The swim jig is a great "mimic" to the bluegill and will elicit ferocious strikes from big bass. The lure is super versatile so you can change up how you are fishing it to match the mood of the bass. You can burn it, slowly swim it, drop it, hop it, and crawl it. It is awesome!
Give the swim jig a try and you will fall in love with the technique like I have.
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