Fall 2021
I
t sounds clownish and ridiculous, but I promise
you, it’s 100-percent legit.” When a professional
angler utters a statement like that, you perk up. After all, top anglers like the Bass Pro Tour’s Josh Bertrand
often are the ones who figure out those secret, oddball
patterns no one else does. And it’s rare they share them.
Then again, with how ridiculous this pattern is from
Bertrand, he might think you wouldn’t believe him enough
to try it.
So, what is this pattern? Targeting bass eating
dragonflies.
Yes, dragonflies; the skinny twigs with wings you’ve
seen countless times hovering above the surface and
never bothered to care about much. According to Bertrand
and other southwestern anglers, come fall, you’ll want to
take notice.
“Honestly, it’s one
of the most consistent
patterns to fill a limit for
me,” said Bertrand.
THE BUZZ
So how did Bertrand get keyed in on this pattern?
Simple. He watched it with his own eyes.
“I can’t tell you how many times I’ve watched a bass jump clear out of the water – 1- to 2-feet – to eat a dragonfly,” stated Bertrand.
That sounds a bit nuts, but there is context.
Come fall, the bass in the southwest push to the backs of creeks chasing shad just like most anywhere else in the country. However, according to Bertrand, the desert fisheries like Roosevelt, Mead, Pleasant and others, don’t see the consistency in shad populations like what is more common elsewhere.
“The bass here are a little more desperate for a meal,” he explained.
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