Bass Fishing Tips

Crankbait (hang-up)
Submitted By: Steven Felder - 12/05/2007
If you are fishing a shallow-mid range crankbait, and get hung-up. Run your net down your line, and get the hooks into your net. Pull up on the handle, to get your lure back. It is very possible to pull the cover up also!

Soft Plastic Fluke Tips!
Submitted By: Steven Felder - 12/05/2007
1) When the bass begin to school in the fall, a double fluke rig is a must. Alot of doubles is common. 2) When bass are short-striking the fluke, put a trebble hook on you fluke hook. Use a spinnerbait trailer hook stopper to keep the trebble hook in place!

Backlash Tip
Submitted By: Doug Cavin - 10/08/2007
Everyone who owns a bait caster will backlash at some time so here is a little tip to get back to fishing fast. If you go to any store that sells craft supplies they should sell crochet hooks. The best one I have found to work best is size B/1-2.25mm. It has a little hook on the end that you can pull the line out with. They even make a foam cover to put on it which will float if you drop it in the water. Doug

Topwaters
Submitted By: John Vogt - 10/08/2007
Topwater fishing is an excellant way to catch some lunker bass. However, there are times when the bass will blowup on a topwater plug but not eat it. A lot of times they are trying to kill the bait before they eat it. So when this happens try letting your bait sit still until the bass comes back for it\'s meal. You may have to let the topwater sit there for up to 30 seconds but it will pay off! (Reminder; don\'t do this if you have a weak heart!!)

Senko Type Worm Fishing
Take any size senko and Texas rig it but with NO WEIGHT....then, take a nail weigth and either slip it inside the tail of the bait or....enter on a side of the bait where the bottom bend of the hook is at and thread it in up to the head of the bait until there is no nail weight visual... How do you know......you know if its working/falling correct if the bait is falling horizontaly...if not tune it until it does...this is the only way besides weightless that i catch fish on a senko with

Cheap Bullet Weight Stoppers
When rigging any kind of soft plastic on a Texas rig, put a toothpick in the bottom of the bullet weight, slide in, and break off the pick. This is called "picking" and it stops your weight from sliding up your line. Good especially for flipping around cover.

Soft Bait Repairs
After you're done using plastic baits... take out a lighter/match or anything that gets hot and melt the nose, body or any place you put your hook so that it melts back into place and your bait will be almost as good as new!!

Bass Fishing at Night
If you can fish at night, use a black buzzbait or Jitterbug on top and work them as slow and steady as you can.

Tubes
when the bass are chasing the shad in the morning and you see the boils rig up a white tubes with a 1/4 ounce tube weight in it and cast past the boil and with your rod tip down rip through the bass and your almost gauranteed a bite

Summer Bass Fish
In the midst of summer the hotter it gets the deeper the fish will head from what ive learned over the years is that a drop shot rig with a walking worm about 25 feet down produces catches for me.

Hook Up
If you are having a hard time getting Mr. largemouth to stay on your crankbaits until you can get your hands on him. Change the rear hook to the next largest size premium hook like the counter rotating hooks. It will make them stay on the hook until you can shake hands with him and introduce yourself proper.

More Depth Please
If you have a favorite wooden crankbait but you wish it could run deeper then drill a 3/8 in deep hole with a 3/8 in bit just below the diving bill and in front of the front hook. Place oo buck shot or small lead spit shot in the hole and seal it up with epoxy. Now your crankbait will dive deeper and not loose any action because of it.

Cold Front
When a cold front comes through, Largemouth bass might not hit much. Try fishing for Smallmouth Bass in the rivers. The Smallies are more tolerant of weather changes.

The Finese Edge
Some times bass are lethargic due to a weather front or excessive fishing pressure. Take a Med. to Med Light action spinning rod. Spool it with A power Braid line. Then use a Uni to Uni knot to attach a 3 to 6 foot leader of flourocarbon line. slide on a light weight bullet sinkeranywhere from 1/8 to 1/32 oz.( I use 1/16 oz usually)Add your favorite soft plastic lure, be it a small tube or a 4 inch worm (sometimes curly tails sometime straight tailed) I've improved my catch ratio's about 200%. Yeah you'll catch little bass but don't think the big ones won't eat it up too. This combo gives you a finese presentation with flourocarbon line(practically invisible) , with a sensitve feel due to the braided line flouro combo, and a soft tip rod to absorb the shock of the battling bass.You'll be astounded by the increase of action you'll get from this combo.

Handle with Care!
When handling a large bass for photographing, be careful of its jaw. Don't hang the fish by its full weight and manuver it around while holding its jaw in your thumb and forefinger. Always try to keep one hand under the bass to support its weight. keep your hands wet, so as not to remove it's slime coat, creating a bacteria infection. sometimes it is better to hold the bass for a few minutes by itself in a well aereated livewell treated with chemicals to reduce the shock and help replace the slime coat, and reduce bacteria infections.

Spoon Fishing for Largemouth Bass
The spoon, A bass lure? You bet! These babys catch Largemouth when standard lure's don't.

Dowsizing For More Bass
When fishing gets tough, try downisizing. Using a smaller bait on smaller line can increase your ability to catch fish.

Carolina Rig
When fishing the carolina rig you will get a better hookset by making a sideways sweeping motion with the rod, rather than the typical upward hookset.

Swimming a Jig For Mid-Summer Action
Next time you pull out your favorite jig in summer try swimming it instead of working the bottom with it. You can achieve this by not letting it hit the bottom, and jig it a couple times. It doesnt matter what kind of tralor. When you get a hit try not to set the hook too anxiously. When you get a hit STOP every thing, LOWER the rod tip, then count 1,2,3 SET IT!

Feedin'n Frenzy Bass Action
Ever see those little shad or other baitfish jumpin around in one area? It's probably because there's a feeding frenzy occuring there. Take a 3/4-1/2 spinner and retrieve at a steady fast pace near th surface. When doin this you will see the spinner causing little ripples at the surface. This will immitate fleeing baitfish because when bait fish are threatened they swim close to the suface. Try to choose a color similar to the baitfish. I have had a lot of action with this method. Hope you will too. Don't forget fish long and hard.

Spinnerbait Trailer
Instead of using those split-tail trailers or grub trailers on spinnerbaits, try using a tube bait as a trailer on a spinnerbait. It makes it kind of look like there's just a longer portion of the skirt, and I actually seem to catch quite a few fish by using tube baits as trailers.

Floating Worms
Lately, a very productive lure for largemouth bass has been the floating worm. Try light, faded colors such as baby blue, white, and pink. These are usually very productive colors for floating worms. After casting, let the worm sit for about five seconds, and then jerk slightly. Continuously repeat this process.

Summer Bass
The best place to find summer bass is under boat docks. Use a plastic tube 4in 3/8 oz and let it drop under the dock, jig it up and down 5-10 times the start to reel in.

Drop-Shoting
When tying your dropshot, tie a loop on the end of tag end BELOW the weight. Slip loop over end of the rod handle when running across lake to prevent line from getting tangled up with other rods.

Finding Pre-Spawning Bass
In Spring and early Summer, look for Bass in "staging areas", or areas where they are likely to hold for a while before moving to their bedding locations. These "staging areas" are often secondary points in bays, creeks,or ditches and depressions on flats.

Fishing In Cover
In cover bass will position themselves on the back side of the current to ambush your bait/lure when it swims by. On sunny days always cast to the shady side of cover first, (rocks, stumps, bushes etc..). Bass will use the shade as cover/ambush because they don't have eye lids , they can't blink so they use the shade as protection.

Carolina Rigging Tip
Instead of using a toothpick as a stopper in a Carolina Rig, simply pinch on a tiny split shot and use it as a stopper. It's easier to move along your line, to adjust the length of your leader.