OVERLOOKED TARGETS TIP
One of the best ways to locate structure such as docks, ladders and bathrooms is to use the Navionics WebApp or SonarCharts mapping software. All three anglers use the Navionics mapping software to locate potential targets that offer shade and overhead cover for bass. Targets such as marina docks are easily identifiable on the Navionics map charts. Navionics’ Freshest Data will assist an angler in their strategy to target bass in places that offer shade.
Like Lain, Diaz’s main go-to lure is a Yamamoto Senko. Diaz opts for a watermelon red Senko, because he believes that the color mimics bluegill and red-ear sunfish in the lake.
Diaz also likes to skip a Senko under the long dock that is located directly in front of the marina. The dock has small openings between the individual docks and when the timing is right, you can see countless large bass suspended in the shade. Many of the released bass from tournaments stage at the marina dock. “If the bass won’t hit a Senko, I will opt for a watermelon candy Zoom Finesse Worm with a nail weight,” Diaz said. “I like to insert the nail weight into the head of the bait.”
Diaz rigs his Senkos and the finesse worms with shrink tubing, which allows him to save more baits and prevent his 1/0 Gamakatsu hook from rotating back into the plastic when he gets a bite.
He fishes his Senko and finesse worm wacky style on 6-lb line, believing that the light line gets more bites from the heavily pressured bass. “Those bass in Diamond Valley are very smart and you have to trick them into biting,” Diaz said.
Anglers are cautioned to be aware that many docks and buoys are connected to metal cables. “You have to set up so that if you get a bite, the bass doesn’t run you into a cable and break your line,” Diaz
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said. “Those cables will break your line and those fish always know where the cables are.”
FLOATING
BATHROOMS
Nitro pro-staffer Todd Woods is
another angler who targets DVL bass
by fishing obvious overhead targets.
“I like to skip a Slim Senko under the
bathrooms,” Woods said. “I like to use a
shad pattern Yamamoto Slim Senko on 4
and 6 lb test on a Daiwa Zillion Drop Shot
rod with a Daiwa Ballistic spinning reel.”
Woods likes to keep his boat as far
away from the bathrooms as possible.
He stresses the importance of making
long casts. “Those big females really
like to stage under the bathrooms and almost nobody fishes them,” Woods said. “There are times when I just run around the lake fishing the ladders, buoys and bathrooms with a slim Senko or regular five inch Senko.”
Woods says that when the bite is going it can make for some amazing fish catches. “You have to watch your line as the bait sinks,” Woods says. “All of a sudden you see your line jump and you are hooked up.”
Woods and Lain both suggest that they have won several tournaments and caught 30 pound sacks by
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