It’s all about the Little things

One of the things I recently learned in my last American bass anglers tournament May 6^th on the Potomac river is that little things can make a huge difference. Things like the knot you tie, the action of the rod you use, and even the size of the hook you use, all make a huge difference when it comes to hooking and Landing bass either in a tournament or as a recreational fisherman. In the tournament I switched from a chatterbait to a Junebug ultravibe speed worm by just slow rolling it over the submerged grass. I was originally using a 6’6 Denali Jadewood Finesse rod that was a medium action rod, but after jumping off a 3-4 pound fish and losing another one, my partner said switch rods, so I switched to a 7’ Medium action rod which helped me land more fish just because they were hooked more solidly than the bass that I was hooking with the 6’6 rod. The 7’ Foot rod gave me an advantage when the bass would hit either right at the side of the boat or 1-2 feet from it and would either hit the bait and run up the side of the boat and break my line, or just pull off when they got close because of the rod’s action.

Things like the speed that your lure also are crucial as I learned in that tournament, if I slow rolled the bait I would get more bites by far compared to if I speed up my retrieve, which in turn resulted in less bites. What was happening as far as I can tell was that with my 3/16 ounce Steel bullet weight was that It would cause the bait to fall into the grass below the surface in the 2-3 feet of water on the grass flat we were fishing; was that I was slow rolling the bait through that submerged coontail growing up off the bottom, which I could tell by the grass I was snagging with my bait and I was simply pulling these bass out of the grass below the boat, which is one of the reasons the fish were striking the bait right at the boat.

One of the other things I noticed when all this was going on was that my partner, who tried to start/find a similar pattern was that I was working my lure around the middle of the water column on the grass flat and that I was snagging and bringing my lure through the grass, while my partner was working a Texas rigged Berkley power worm down on the bottom even slower while working it through the grass on the bottom. Him doing this kind of let me know when we would enter a little pod of fish because when he would get bit on the bottom with his power worm, that would tell me that we would be entering a “pod of fish” on the flat and that I could pick off the rest of the bass in the pod with my ultra-vibe speed worm which would result in anywhere from 1-3 bites in each pod.

Furthermore, your hook set with the bait you are using and the amount of time you wait to set the hook is even more critical, especially with worm fishing. During the tournament the first fish I hooked into with the ultra-vibe speed worm I never even knew I had on because I just thought I had just run my lure into and snagged my lure into a large clump of grass and was pulling it along and never thought of setting the hook. It turned out that what I thought originally was grass was really a 3-4 pound bass that eventually tried jumping out of the water and then proceeded to move a little further along before pulling off. While all this was happening as my Denali Rod wad almost Doubling over my partner kept asking me if I had a fish at least twice before I actually saw I had a bass on. This just goes to show you and reinforces the saying “hook sets are free” and what you hear the pros say, which os. “Setting the hook on anything that feels good”

Meanwhile, In the tournament, especially the last few hours I found myself speeding up my retrieve after doing things such as getting a bite or losing a bass which made me stop and slow down again because I knew that the pods of bass we were targeting wanted a slower retrieve and would in return, ignore my speeded up retrieves, this goes to show you that you need to be aware of how you are retrieving your lure at all times, because it could be the difference in the number of bites you get in a day’s worth of fishing.

Also, and as a bass fisherman especially you always here it, retie often throughout the day. I told you earlier of the bass that I lost during the tournament right at the boat which resulted in what looked like the knot breaking as the fish started zig zaging along the side of the boat after eating the lure not but a few inches away from the boat. I’m pressed to believe that If I had retied my lure and retied the knot that I would have been able to control that fish long enough for my partner to grab the net and net the fish if it was not for the strength the fish put on the weekend knot right along the boat with my 10 pound test Trilene XL Line.

Also, I’m convinced that my 3/16^th ounce Steel sinker was critical for my lure’s success, especially because the first bite I got with the worm on my second cast with it I’m positive that the bass ate the worm as it was falling through the submerged grass.

Whoo thats a mouthful of a post.

nice job being in tune with nature and ur equipment. sounds like ur on ur way to the top. good luck