SECRETS OF THE CLASSIC WINNERS: KEVIN VANDAM AND RICK CLUNN

Fish The Shadows, And Hide The Bed

Editor's Note: Rick Clunn, nationally-known angler from Ava, Missouri, has won the Bassmaster Classic four times and every major bass-fishing tournament and honor that the sport of bass fishing has to offer.

"One of the most-overlooked aspects of picking apart a tree to determine where the bass are holding is how to look for and understand the shadows that the tree casts. Most fishermen fish around the trunk and the limbs. They never consider that the shadow that the trunk and the limbs create are also cover where bass can hold. Most really good fishermen, will wait until later in the morning to begin to flip trees. Here's why. The shadows the limbs create are smaller between 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. than they are earlier and later in the day. The shadows concentrate the bass and cause them to be holding in fewer spots on the tree. Something else to remember is many times all a bass wants to hide is its eyes. That's why you may locate a two-inch shadow with a 5-pound bass in it. He feels hidden if his eyes are in that 2-inch shadow. So when you look at a tree, try to not only look at the limbs, but also at the shade the limbs create and fish the shadows as though they're cover."

Hide The Bed:

"During spawning season, you'll often find bass beds under small trees laying in the water," Clunn says. "I know some tournament fishermen who will pull up a small tree or a bush from the bank and put it over the fish's bed, if they find bass bedding in open water. The fish will still use that bed, but no other anglers can see the bed or spot the bass on that bed. Then during the tournament, the fisherman will pull the tree off the bass' bed and sight fish for those bass."

TOMORROW: HUNT THE HOLES, AND TAKE THE EASY BASS FIRST