R
amie Colson’s words ring true on many
levels, but in the context of which they
were said, even more so.
The setting was Lake Barkley a few years back. He and I were fishing a main-lake
flat when an oil slick of bait came cruising down
the lake. The surface of the water looked like it
was under aerial assault, with frothy explosions
of bass busting shad at the surface for hundreds
of yards. We cast everything we could think of -
spinnerbaits, topwaters, rattle baits, crankbaits.
Thirty minutes later, the school had continued
on down the ledge, the trail of surface eruptions
visible for another 15 minutes. We were left
with parting gifts of two bass and plenty of
disappointment.
That’s when Colson uttered his words of wisdom.
We’ve all been told that when you find the bait,
you’ll find the bass. However, if given the choice, a
bass is going to eat a live shad over a lure almost
every time, especially when the bass is surrounded
by millions of live shad.
So what do you do when there’s too much
steak in the water? It’s a question that vexes almost
every angler, both professional and amateur. It’s
also a question with no definitive answer. Nothing
is set in stone, but experimenting with the various
approaches they suggest might help you turn a bad
situation into some of the best fishing you’ve ever
experienced.
FIND THE RIGHT LURE
Making things more frustrating about the experience with Colson was only a couple weeks earlier, I’d experienced a completely opposite reaction from a similar situation.
A massive school of bait had crashed into a creek arm on Kentucky Lake, completely blacking out the electronics with shad and diagonal lines. We quickly dialed in that the bass would eat one particular crankbait we all happened to have, and for the next hour every cast produced a fish for all three of us, leaving us giggling and fighting over the pliers.
FALL 2016
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