11-08-2009, 02:53 PM
For a long time I was afraid to cast close enough to stuff along banks to be effective. I only used crankbaits or even spinnerbaits in open water where whey wouldn't get snagged. Unfortunatelty, most of the year that's not where the fish are.
If I could do it over and cut to the chase, I'd aim right at the tree limbs and rocks and weeds with something I could afford to lose, like a bullet sinker and glass bead. Regardless of the time of year I catch most of my bass on a Texas-rig crawdad-like soft pastic lure. And being from Oklahoma, you know I'd praise "Texas" only if it's a very effective presentation. I prefer a double-tail hula grub (so ugly I can't see why a fish'd bite it, but they sure do). I toss the Texas-rig in shallow water near fallen timber or rocky shoreline or a bunch of weeds. The closer the better. If it makes a splash, I count down ten seconds before starting the retrieve. When I do cast right on target, it sometimes startles a fish, and he'll angrilly eat it immediately as a reflex, so you've got to be ready, yet patient.
With this bait, too, the slower the better. I fish from a tube and often I'll cast and then move a few feet to a new location, not reeling or doing anything with the retrieve and -- wham! You can cover a lot of area with casts in all directions. More importantly you can "see" what structure is on the bottom by feeling the jiggles on your line as you retrieve the lure through snags of some weeds, or thumps of timber, or bumps of pebbles and jolts of rocks. To me, fishing is constantly a learning experience.
The closer you get to structure, the more you'll get hung up. But you're not out much, so retie and keep casting.
[signature]
If I could do it over and cut to the chase, I'd aim right at the tree limbs and rocks and weeds with something I could afford to lose, like a bullet sinker and glass bead. Regardless of the time of year I catch most of my bass on a Texas-rig crawdad-like soft pastic lure. And being from Oklahoma, you know I'd praise "Texas" only if it's a very effective presentation. I prefer a double-tail hula grub (so ugly I can't see why a fish'd bite it, but they sure do). I toss the Texas-rig in shallow water near fallen timber or rocky shoreline or a bunch of weeds. The closer the better. If it makes a splash, I count down ten seconds before starting the retrieve. When I do cast right on target, it sometimes startles a fish, and he'll angrilly eat it immediately as a reflex, so you've got to be ready, yet patient.
With this bait, too, the slower the better. I fish from a tube and often I'll cast and then move a few feet to a new location, not reeling or doing anything with the retrieve and -- wham! You can cover a lot of area with casts in all directions. More importantly you can "see" what structure is on the bottom by feeling the jiggles on your line as you retrieve the lure through snags of some weeds, or thumps of timber, or bumps of pebbles and jolts of rocks. To me, fishing is constantly a learning experience.
The closer you get to structure, the more you'll get hung up. But you're not out much, so retie and keep casting.
[signature]