Winter 2024
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bass, as this technique is deadly at targeting these fish that are nearly impossible to reach with other methods.
Fishing the mid-strolling technique is relatively simple, especially with the help of forward-facing sonar, which will show you where the fish are positioned in the
water column. While the
technology is
not required to catch fish with the technique, it dramatically helps eliminate water and ensures that your bait is around fish.
Cast the bait to where the fish are, let it fall to the correct depth and shake your rod while reeling to imitate a baitfish slowly swimming through the water column. It’s a straightforward technique and excels anytime you are around suspended bass. Keeping the bait above the bass is critical as they generally are feeding up to feed and are not often willing to chase something that falls below them.
MID-STROLLING GEAR FOR BASS
One of the nice things about this technique is that you likely already own everything you need to start. The gear used resembles what many would use for their drop-shot, Ned Rig, and other finesse techniques.
Because of the light nature of the baits and jigheads, spinning gear is preferred and a 7-foot medium or medium light reel is perfect, with many opting for the medium-light to get a better shaking action when fishing the bait. Choose your favorite spinning reel and a combination of lightweight braid and fluorocarbon, and you are ready to start mid- strolling.
The baits used for this technique vary, but all look similar
and perfectly imitate a small baitfish. The smallest size of
the original Zoom Super Fluke will work fine, but
some other options will do even better.
The Z-Man Scented Jerk ShadZ gives
the presentation a great look as the
buoyant ElaZtech helps to give
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