ledges, mats, mudlines, thermoclines, and even mid- column schools of prey all position bass and present opportunities for luck to those who are prepared to exploit those areas.
You wouldn’t golf with just a driver, and you wouldn’t build a house with just a hammer. Employing a suite of tools provides maximum results, and if you want to catch bass no matter what the conditions or location, you will have more luck by employing a suite of fishing rods.
I’m not suggesting you rig a rod with every technique you have learned. Even my 20 foot Ranger bass boat doesn’t have enough deck or rod locker space for every style Lamiglas fishing rod I use on a regular basis.
What I do believe will improve your luck is selecting a suite of rods that allow you to efficiently cover a variety of situations and locations within the water column.
First consider where bass may be located on any given day, and also consider what they may be eating. Are they looking down to the bottom rocks, to root out crawdads? Are the bass hiding on the bottom and looking up to see baitfish silhouetted against the glassy surface? Are they in wolf-packs at mid-depths following schools of shad, or hiding in the shadow of a dock waiting for unsuspecting bait to swim past? Are they under mats to eat shiners and bluegill feeding on insects and other aquatic life, or hiding in oxygen rich weed beds waiting to ambush prey?
Bass are predators, and as such are
WINTER 2016
opportunists. They will sometimes eat anything that acts like prey, and will fit in their mouth. This explains why you sometimes catch bass on lures that don’t resemble anything in nature. Maybe the lure moved like something it expected to eat, displaced water in the same way, or sounded like the right prey, or gave some other cue that attracted their attention.
Unless water or light conditions are poor, bass
have excellent eyesight, and the largest bass get
that way by verifying attraction cues with sight
confirmation.
If you spend any time fly fishing for native
trout
in a clear
stream, you
learn the value
of matching
the hatch.
You also pay
close attention
to details
like feeding
lanes, current
seams, line
drag, and
other cues
important in
presenting
your fake fly
in a way that
convinces
wary trout
that it looks
and acts
real.
While
bass are
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