Just curious what you use when you see fish on beds. I know some don’t fish beds, but for those that do…what’s your go to technique?   

My Go To for bed fishing is 

I go the other way.

Not my style.

Not judging.

A-Jay

 

Speed craw 

Yamamoto craw

tube

White Senko with red hook can makes wonder. 

Ned rig, but I typically don't bed fish.

27 minutes ago, Bass_Fishing_Socal said:

White Senko with red hook can makes wonder. 

That’s cool…haven’t heard that one before 

Bed bass will strike a bright colored marble in their bed.

Whatever you choose it should have a single hook, no trebles hooks.

Anything smaller size lure pearl white that you can see easily and the bass strike works. Drop shot tubes, jigs, any soft plastic.

Outside the bed lizards and crawdads jig work good to draw strikes from the big females lurking away from the bed.

Tom

Notice the small white swimbait added to the front hook. It is the key to this bed fishing setup ?

 

5 minutes ago, Team9nine said:

Notice the small white swimbait added to the front hook. It is the key to this bed fishing setup ?

 

Is that the Mike Long rig? 

My go to the last few years has been a white rage bug. 
I’ve used other craw type plastics over the years with the only consistent thing being that it’s always predominantly white. 
 

Conventional thinking is that only a soft plastic with or without some type of moving appendage will elicit a strike, but that’s not always the case. 
 

Depending on where and how a bed is positioned a floating plug will call a male up quick.
Sometimes the bigger girls have to coaxed with a variety of angles, movements and target flips. 
 

Point is, targeting bedding bass isn’t always about size and shape. 
 

 

 

Mike

19 minutes ago, 12poundbass said:

Is that the Mike Long rig? 

No it’s the Dukie*  rig!

Tom

* named after Ken Duke

I used to carry some fisherman’s guilt and stopped targeting beds but one of my St Clair buddies made it clear that if you fish during the spawn at all, chances are you are bed fishing whether you know it or not.  It’s one thing to avoid throwing at bedding fish but just because you move deeper where you can’t see the bed, doesn’t mean you aren’t pulling them off the bed.  The window for prespawn is so small that in order to avoid bed fishing, you would have to stay off the water until mid summer to be relatively sure you are not pulling them off the beds.  I fully understand the aversion to plucking them off the beds, we plan our trip to St Clair for the prespawn window but if we find them on the beds we will fish them.  My favorite baits are as follows depending on water conditions and weather.

Ned Rig

Dropshot

DShad

Nose weighted Senko

Jerkbait

Flatsided crankbait

 

 

Like many others, I usually use a white Texas rigged Menace or Bug.  I don’t really care about brand as long as it’s white & fairly compact.  They are not striking out of hunger but protection/aggression, so color doesn’t typically matter.  However, they will often pick them up and move off the bed (especially the buck), so I don’t like a lot of appendages that they can grab.  There have been situations where I have sat on a bass for a long time but usually you can determine fairly quickly the likelihood of catching the fish.

7 hours ago, Team9nine said:

Notice the small white swimbait added to the front hook. It is the key to this bed fishing setup ?

 

Is that a genuine Mike Long Signature Series Snag-a-Thon 5000HD?

15 minutes ago, Big Hands said:

Is that a genuine Mike Long Signature Series Snag-a-Thon 5000HD?

Yep, in the rare ‘Silver Shiner’ color!

7 minutes ago, Team9nine said:

Yep, in the rare ‘Silver Shiner’ color!

Ooooh, I'm all giddy inside ?

I find it's more about the bass than the bait.

 

How she reacts to my presents tell me if she's worth my effort.

 

I like a Lizard in Watermelon Neon, 1/8-3/16 oz bullet weight. 

 

Baby Brush Hogs are good as are Rage Tail Craws, Lobsters, or Bugs.

3 hours ago, Catt said:

I find it's more about the bass than the bait.

 

 

That's probably the case in many instances. 

 

But there was a day last year where I was working on a bed fish, and she wasn't having any of the baits I was trying to tempt her with. She wouldn't even acknowledge them. I was gonna leave and come back later, when I noticed a little bluegill come near the bed and she instantly chased it off. So I tied on a Savage Gear Pulse Tail Bluegill. First pitch in there and she clobbered it. 

tube with jighead, I hear about lizard and bright color float worms. But never tried.

I can’t ever see the fish but dragging a worm in spring gets bit really well

18 hours ago, Team9nine said:

Notice the small white swimbait added to the front hook. It is the key to this bed fishing setup ?

 

Now I'm confused. @A-Jay told me it's critical to have a RED swimbait on the front hook.

42 minutes ago, T-Billy said:

Now I'm confused. @A-Jay told me it's critical to have a RED swimbait on the front hook.

Simple, actually. @A-Jay fishes for big smallmouth and I chase largemouth. Different color preference between the two. Mix that up on a fishery dominated by one species (e.g., white swimbait attractor on Lake Menderchuk or red swimbait attractor on Okeechobee, etc.) and you might not get any bites at all! If you’re unsure, use a pink swimbait attractor, a blend of both colors, which will attract either species.

42 minutes ago, Team9nine said:

Simple, actually. @A-Jay fishes for big smallmouth and I chase largemouth. Different color preference between the two. Mix that up on a fishery dominated by one species (e.g., white swimbait attractor on Lake Menderchuk or red swimbait attractor on Okeechobee, etc.) and you might not get any bites at all! If you’re unsure, use a pink swimbait attractor, a blend of both colors, which will attract either species.

Nailed It ~ 

A-Jay

I walked a pond yesterday that had beds all over it. Fish weren't on them, but there were a lot of bass cruising around them. I could tell some were big females. I started out with a T-rigged lizard that got ignored. I switched to a Trick Worm on a dropshot and caught one. I changed later to a 4" finesse worm and caught one more. Just a couple of 2 lb. males. A couple of times I saw a male chase a female away from the bait. That was it for 2 hours. But those were my first two dropshot bass ever.

1 hour ago, Team9nine said:

Simple, actually. @A-Jay fishes for big smallmouth and I chase largemouth. Different color preference between the two. Mix that up on a fishery dominated by one species (e.g., white swimbait attractor on Lake Menderchuk or red swimbait attractor on Okeechobee, etc.) and you might not get any bites at all! If you’re unsure, use a pink swimbait attractor, a blend of both colors, which will attract either species.

Ahhh..... Thank you for clarifying. I have sooo much to learn. ?

 

Now that I'm done derailing the OP's thread... I like a TRD Bug on 6# mono for beds in open water, and a T rigged UV Speed Craw, or 3.5 Beaver on 30# or 40# braid if the bed's in cover.