Westernbass Magazine - June 2012, Page 14

Westernbass Magazine - June 2012, Page 14

CraZY FIshINg

see, you can spoon in the trees with a treble hook and when you get hung up you just give it a few shakes and it comes loose unless you bury it on a hook set then it takes longer; but with a dropshot the weight is on the bottom and the hook does not shake loose, so a weed guard is the only way to go. Skip the weed guard in open water for those gentle bites. The next place i love to do the pendulum drop on the dropshot setup is vertical walls, whether it’s vertical walls like in the Squaw Creek arm on lake Shasta or the bridge piling at Shasta, oroville or lake Berryessa. it really works. Just adjust your weight accordingly to the depth you’re fishing and how aggressive the bass are. if i am fishing less than 20-feet. i like an 1/8-oz, but if i am in search of fish, i stick to 5/8-oz to cover a lot of water quick, then i will go lighter once i see where they are in depth. The way i do this is using the same setup, i just cast parallel to the walls and pitch the bait 40- ft or so as close to the wall as i can and tight line it down all the way to the boat. This way if i get hit right away i know to go lighter and give them more time to hit the bait. if i don’t get hit until it is below the boat then i know i have the right weight. Using this set up i can fish all day with one or two rods on the deck and catch a lot of fish including huge fish. This pattern has little to no traffic, because not many people fish off shore.

looks like a shad skirting through the springs. These bass and other fish hide in the springs like a tree and attack the shad as they swim through the spring. The point is though you can cover a lot of open water until you determine if the fish are there for you or not. once you determine the fish are there. Then double back and fish the biggest bubblers first. That is where your biggest bass seem to hang. Just like the biggest tree will usually hold the biggest bass. it’s a great pattern to run. it makes a huge lake much smaller and takes you out of the mix of 50 anglers that are all fishing points or pockets. The same technique can be used for fishing trees, bridge pilings or open water on the creek arms. i have even tried using much larger baits such as Berkley Hollow Belly Swimbaits in a 6-inch. They don’t seem to care if the tail is moving or not when dead sticking. They just get a run at it and crush it. it blows your mind how hard they hit it when it’s just sitting there. Be sure when in the trees that you use the weed guard or you will be cussing out your rig. You

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