Dissecting an Effective Shallow Water Tree Pattern by Dr Ricky Shabazz

water level considerations for summer bass in trees

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Summer 2020

page 20

time to catch bass out of trees and other submerged brush and also why a certain percentage of bass in any given lake live shallow year-round.

Bass use these areas as ambush zones to snag an easy meal. They will tend to be in shallower water for greater portions of their daily rituals because of all of the juvenile fish that are also in the shallows. The key ingredient is having cover where a bass feels comfortable about catching an unsuspecting meal.

MOVING BACK

Lowrance pro Rod Wynn likes to target trees in shallow water that are located in the backs of deeper cuts. He uses his electronics and Navionics mapping to follow contour lines and creek channels that lead to trees that have baitfish and other forage in the shallows.

“I like to cruise shallow water using my Lowrance HDS Live units to locate trees that are in super skinny water” says Rod. “I have two graphs up front in my Ranger that allow me to use StructureScan, side imaging, and my LiveSight transducer to scope out productive shallow water areas.”

DROUGHT AND RAINS

Many of our western lakes have risen due to above- average rains that we’ve received over the last two-three years. Years of drought conditions resulted in overgrowth of small trees and other brush. Combine these two situations and now, many of our local lakes have small trees, stumps, and other brush under the water.

According to Rod, these conditions have made it is possible to locate smaller trees and brush, even in lakes such as Castaic and Pyramid which are not known for having structure in the water.

“It’s amazing what you can see in the water now that our lakes have some water in them,” Rod said. “I learned my lesson at lakes such as El Capitan in San Diego, that too shallow is never shallow enough.”

ENTICING THE BITE

Rod believes that a lot of fish remain around shallow water trees after recovering from the spawn. Food sources, such as shad spawns or crawdad hatches keep these bass in, and around shallow trees and brush and the food source helps determine lure choice.

“I target shallow trees with lures such as Flukes and underspins,” Rod said.

Rod uses a fast and erratic action with a shad pattern Zoom Super Fluke to entice bass looking for an easy meal. He rigs the fluke Texas style via a 3/0 Gamakatsu Offset Round Bend Worm Hook. Rod makes repeated casts with a Fluke with the goal of hitting every angle, shade pocket or ambush point that could hold a bass.

He fishes the Fluke on a 7”X10 Phenix spinning rod paired with a Shimano 2500 reel. He spools up with 12-pound Sunline braid connected via a top shot that is connected to 10-pound Sunline fluorocarbon.

“Using a spinning rod allows me to make longer casts to spooky fish,” he said.

During the heat day, Rod changes to either a dropshot or underspin. His dropshot bait of choice is four-inch green pumpkin Z-Man Finesse Wormz. While his underspin of choice is a Blue Silver Coolbaits Lure Co. The Down Under in either 3/8 or 1/2-ounce.

He slow rolls the underspin with a 2.8 shad pattern Keitech swimbait in and out of the shallow water trees. He also employs a yo-yo action with the underspin in and out of key areas within the tree. It takes some degree of skill to fish an underspin around shallow water trees.

“Expect to lose a lot of baits,” he advised.