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REACTION RULES
I am going to say, historically, during the fall, there has been a reaction bite on Mead. I am also going to say there is usually some type of reaction pattern that attributes to the win on Mead. And, as I say that, I am going to say last year (2016) this did not hold true. The fish just would NOT chase a reaction bait and I cannot tell you why.
For all the guys that live and die on reaction bites, (like myself), fishing was horrible. We got our heads kicked in. It was a very off year. It was one of the three times that I didn’t finish in the top-10, because it the reaction bite didn’t pan out.
I have to openly-admit that I have no clue what the fish were doing last year, other than sitting down in the grass, in the backs of pockets and not eating. It was very hard to get them to react. Johnny Johnson won throwing a dropshot.
There was no reason as to why this happened. The weather wasn’t
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different. The water level wasn’t different, the clarity wasn’t different. Nothing was different. I still haven’t figured anything out; but I know all the other years, it has been about reaction, so I am not going to shy away from it this year.
PRODUCTIVE TECHNIQUES
Like I said reaction baits have always been winners – whether it was topwater, rattle baits, spinnerbaits or simply fishing a jig really fast. I would’ve always predicted it is about anything you can chuck and wind.
Up to last year, you could always count on strong jig bite, a strong topwater bite, strong swimbait and spinnerbait bite.
When I use a jig for a reaction bite, it is because I fish it fast, throwing it out, hopping it back fast and
covering water.
The techniques that I listed
are ones that I like to throw;
but at Mead you can really
fish your own strength.
With the grass
in the lake, there are
places to fish anything
you want. If you want
to punch all day, you
can and you will never
run out of water.
If you want to
throw a darthead on
6-pound test, there are
places to do it.
It’s a great buzzbait
lake.
I’ve caught some
really good frog fish
there.
An umbrella rig is
okay; but I don’t throw
it, because I catch a lot
of stripers. I don’t really
Courtesy of Gary Dobyns
throw a lot of jerkbaits
there for the same
reason.
That’s what I love
about it. Anything a guy
wants to do, he can do.
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