swivel and one knot in the light line. Positioned below a 1/8- to 1/4-ounce tungsten bullet weight, the adjustable stopper slides along the line for instant leader adjustment. Milligan sets his leader at 1 ½- to 4-feet and omits the rattle beads to avoid spooking sluggish fish. to create the right presentation, Milligan uses a damiki air-Pocket worm on a light 1/0-2/0 roboworm rebarb hook. The combination of minimal hook weight and bait buoyancy allows the worm to float as high as his leader length. This enables Milligan to simulate the look of a dropshot bait, only with a more active appearance. “The way i set up (my rig) with a light wire hook, it allows the bait to float up off the bottom and target those fish that are in reach of where you’d normally catch them on a dropshot – even if they won’t react to a dropshot,” Milligan said.
STAND AND DELIVER
Jt Kenney, FlW touring pro from Fla. is no stranger to power fishing, but there are times when he comes across a nice piece of shoreline cover that needs a thorough picking. in such cases, he’ll drop his twin PowerPoles to grab the angle and distance he needs and then persistently works the spot – often with a variety of baits until he makes something happen. in water too deep to stake out, savvy anglers have learned to use the PowerPoles to reach across dock cables and overhanging limbs to hold their ground for slow fishing. at the other end of your line, you can effect a slow presentation by minimizing your bait’s forward progress and maximizing its face time in a particular area. Stroking a jig, vertically hopping a tube, suspending jerkbaits – all keep the potential meal in front of potential takers long enough for the fish to saunter over and bite. topwater frogs are another good example of this principle. More commonly worked with twitching, chugging or walking presentations, these baits can tempt some of the most exciting surface strikes imaginable. However, bass that don’t feel like chasing down an ambling amphibian may just let it go by. let that frog pause and kinda wiggle back and forth in an area the size of a dinner plate and you’ll often tempt something big into tip toeing upstairs to simply slurp down this easy target.
Issue 4
August 2012
Bassmaster elite pro and Calif. frog expert ish Monroe said the key to this deal is working the frog on a slack line, so it kind of walks in place. Working this slow, nearly stationary presentation along the edge of a grass line or next to a dock will often deliver the desired results. also, try this over one of those random “windows” in a weed mat or a lily pad field, as these natural access points are where a lethargic bass is more likely to gobble the amphibian imposter. Below the surface, letting that jig or texas-rigged bait soak a little longer than usual can often help you pick up another bite during a slow period. When flipping beavers or big worms or punching hefty baits, texas pro Stephen Johnston notes that persistent pestering affects bass very much like it affects humans. “if you’re sitting in your living room, watching tV and someone starts dropping French fries in front of your face, you might ignore them at first, but after a while you’re going to grab one of those French fries,” he said. “With bass, when they’re sitting there comfortably in their (fortress) beneath the vegetation and a bait drops in front of them and stays there, they won’t be able to resist it forever.”
PAUSE AND PULL
now, with all this talk of subtle presentations with baits that are mostly made for such things, let’s not overlook the fact that bass lures built for speed don’t necessarily have to move at a peppy pace all the time. in fact, pausing these fast movers can prove deadly on sluggish fish whose interest in feeding exceeds their desire to move. “When you wind a squarebill crankbait and you hit a tree, most times you just keep right on winding,”
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