Winter 2018
®
identify the bite by
LURE SELECTION
& visual cues
page
16
O
ne of the great things about fishing is
putting together the puzzle on a brand-new
body of water, because in the end when you put all those pieces together, you could have a
banner day.The reward of knowing that you figured
the bass out on that given day, on that given body of
water is something that you won’t forget for a long
time.
When I am faced with fishing a new body of water, whether that be for a tournament or a fun fishing trip to a lake that I’ve always wanted to wet a line in, there are a few things I’ll do to try and expedite the time it takes to put those puzzle pieces together.
Yes, research can be done ahead of time to figure things out and studying your electronics can aid in this, but I’m here to focus on identifying the visual cues we have available to us on the water and how lure selection can aid in collecting more of those puzzle pieces.
SELF-IMPOSED ROD LIMITS
When I pull into the boat ramp at a new body of water, the first thing I do is limit the number of
rods I pull out of my rod locker. The reason for this is, I don’t want to have any pre-conceived notions about what type of lures and presentation will work that day. I want to read the lake and let the current conditions and available fish holding cover appear to me, then at that time I can begin pulling out my arsenal of Witch Doctor Tackle Rods with Wright & McGill Reels out.
FIND FORAGE
Trying to determine what the main forage is for the bass in this body of water is my next step. I look up shallow to see if there are any panfish swimming around, or hear them popping underneath the vegetation. I will also turn over a few rocks at the boat landing to look for crawfish. If I do find some, I pay close attention to their color as each lake or river can be home to crawfish that vary in color and I want to mimic that color in my bait selection.
Also, as I’m idling out of the launch area, I look on the horizon (ahead of and behind) my boat to see if I’m spooking any bait fish.
By determining what the bass are eating in this new