Good Tactics for Bad Spotted Bass
Catching Spotted Bass
Editor’s
Note: The spot likes clear water and deep, rocky structure.
He also loves to fight. He is delicious to eat but tough
to catch because he is the baddest bass in the bassing
business. Today we’ll learn what productive lures
to fish with to catch the spotted bass.
Dr.
John Ramsay, retired from the Alabama Cooperative Fish
and Wildlife Research Unit at Auburn University, says,
“Lure selection is somewhat personal. What I use
may not be what other anglers have utilized to catch
spots. However, I believe a lure with some flash on
it tends to catch more spotted bass than a lure without
flash. I like chrome-type baits with fish patterns on
them. If I am fishing crankbaits, I prefer a balsa bait
that can be cranked down, stopped and allowed to float
up. But my favorite lure to fish for spots is the spoon.
I usually retrieve the spoon rather than vertical jigging
it. I have had very little success in taking spotted
bass vertical jigging a spoon.”
Another
tactic that has worked on spotted bass during the cold
months of the year and the early spring is fishing small
plastic worms on ultralight tackle. Since spotted bass
like deep, clear lakes and prefer rocks to treetops,
lighter line and smaller baits can be fished in deeper
water to produce more spots and retrieved slowly and
steadily along the rocky bluffs. “During the cold
months when the fish are deep and the hot months when
the fish are holding around the thermocline, spots seem
to favor slower moving, smaller bait to the bigger baits,”
Charley Brewer, the inventor of the Slider worm, explained.
“By using light line and a little Slider worm,
you can feel the fish hit – even at 20-, 30-,
or 40-feet deep. When deep-water Slider fishing for
spots, I recommend using 4- to 6-pound test line. This
type of angling requires a different hook-setting technique
from what is usually used. Instead of hitting the fish
hard when it takes the bait, you generally will catch
more by trying to sweep the bait into the fish’s
mouth.”
An
effective technique for taking spots when they are bunched
on rocky points is the swimming method utilized by well-known
fisherman, Nolen Shivers of Birmingham, Alabama. “I
have found that the 3-inch, rubber-tailed, chartreuse
jig is deadly on spotted bass on rocky points,”
Shivers reports. “I’ve had more success
casting the jig out and using a steady retrieve rather
than a bottom-hopping retrieve. Oftentimes the spots
may be on the points, and you’ll have to find
at which depth they’re feeding. Sometimes I’ve
caught spots while swimming the jigs just off the bottom.
At other times, they may be as much as 5 feet off the
bottom. Whatever the magic depth is, that is where you’ll
catch the spotted bass. For instance, often when I’ve
located spots 5 feet off the bottom, cast to them, let
the bait fall to the bottom and then started a steady
retrieve, the spots have not hit. But when I cast to
them and start my retrieve 5 feet off the bottom, I
can take the spotted bass. I believe the 3-inch jig
is one of the most-deadly lures any time you find spots
on rocky points that you can use.”
Tomorrow: Taking Deep Spotted
Bass
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