Bass - Sunken treasure

By Gord Ellis

Summertime and the living is easy. Pesky personal watercraft are buzzing about, the cattails are high, and bass food and cover are everywhere. During this period, serious anglers spend at least part of the fishing day probing the shallows for aggressive bass. The best way to get them is to fish quickly and efficiently. The more water you cover, the higher your chance of connecting. Here are three basic shallow-water patterns you should have in your arsenal. For reasons of space and clarity, I'm going to focus on hardware and hard-bodied baits. Soft-plastics also have many uses in shallow water, but were covered in our June 2002 issue. Check them out too.

Top-water It's a rare bass that won't at least take a pop at something skittering across the surface. This is no secret, but many anglers have gotten away from using top-water lures, perhaps because it's not a "modern technique." There are, in fact, a few downsides to top-water fishing. You'll miss quite a few fish. Bass tend to "blow up" on the baits, sending them clear out of the water, without getting hooked. You'll land fewer fish, but experience way more thrills.

Top-water lures are numerous and there are a number of hybrids out there. For the most part, however, they fall into four categories: chuggers, gurglers, gliders, and propbaits.

In most conditions, I use a chugger with a concave mouth that throws a lot of water. The Rapala Skitter Pop, Rebel Pop-R, Storm Chug Bug, Luhr Jensen Bass Oreno, Hula Popper, and Berkley Frenzy fall into this category. The most common method of fishing a chugger is to pop it, so a spray of water shoots forward and there's a noticeable gurgle, then let it sit for a bit, reel up slack, and pop it again. Bass usually blast the bait while it's sitting, but expect a strike anytime. You can also use a steady, fast retrieve, or an erratic one. If there's a ripple on the water, or even a slight chop, chuggers work well.

I put legendary names like the Jitterbug and Crazy Crawler in the gurgler category. A steady, slow retrieve suits them. The Jitterbug is also good when fished with long pauses between short retrieves. Let it sit on the surface like a lazy frog. Then give it a little pop. This makes largemouth see double.

Gliders are typified by the Zara Spook. Cigar-shaped, with smooth, rounded or slightly pointed heads, they have little inherent action. You have to make them come alive. The traditional retrieve is called walking the dog. It causes the bait to roll from side to side. Pull the bait forward slowly, using your rod tip to create a lot of back and forth motion. Short downward rod strokes work better than long ones. Gliders work well in calm water and at first or last light. Adding a split ring to the eye of the bait makes walking the dog easier. Tying directly to a glider makes it run straight at you.

If you want to kick up a real fuss on the surface, nothing beats propbaits. Some classics include the Heddon Dying Flutter and Torpedo, Mann's Two-Fer, Cordell Crazy Shad, and Lucky Strike Wild Fin. Propbaits trigger aggressive bass and work well even when wind is a factor. Retrieve these baits steadily and let the blades churn the water. For less aggressive bass, pull the lure forward a foot and then let it pause for a few seconds.

There's no need to get fancy with top-water bait colours. For the most part, bass only see a silhouette of the lure overhead and little actual colour. However, where bass are feeding on frogs, it can't hurt to have a green or frog-pattern bait. Likewise, where bass are busting minnows, a natural, silver, or white lure is a wise choice. When fishing at night, black or dark purple is tough to beat. Put a strip of glow tape or paint on the back of the lure to make it easier to keep track of during the retrieve. Other popular top-water colours include red/white, glitter perch, and firetiger.

One frustrating aspect of top-water fishing is knowing when to strike. The natural reaction is to pull back right when the fish hits, but often this yanks the lure away from it. Don't set the hook until you feel weight on the end of the line. Sticky sharp points dramatically increase your hook ups. When fishing with top-water baits, learn to set the hook with a sidearm motion. This way, if you miss the bass, your bait hits the boat and not your forehead. By the way, if you miss a bass with any top-water lure, follow up with something subtle, like a grub or plastic worm. This one/two punch can be deadly.

Jerkbaits

In many ways, jerkbaits have revolutionized shallow-water bass fishing. They're just about the perfect lure there, as they provide the flash and speed of a spinnerbait with the profile of a traditional crankbait. There are dozens of types of jerkbaits, but most people will be familiar with the Smithwick Rattlin' Rogue or the Rapala Husky Jerk, as examples. Jerkbaits are neutrally buoyant -- they neither float nor sink -- and can be fished through the strike window of a bass for a long way. Jerkbaits work equally well on smallmouth suspended over humps and bucketmouths lurking in weeds. Most jerkbaits have a built-in rattle, making them a great presentation in dark water, weeds, and at night too.

You can fish a jerkbait with sharp, aggressive snaps or with slow strokes that make the lure hang in the water. I've had huge suspended smallmouth crank my jerkbait so hard that they nearly pulled the rod out of my hand. Few lures draw smallmouth off the top of a 20-foot hump, but jerkbaits do. In weeds, a snappy retrieve keeps most greenery off the hooks. In weeds, fishing a jerkbait too fast is better than too slow. I recommend at least 10- or 12-pound-test line and a medium-heavy 7-foot rod when stroking a jerkbait. Hit a bass on one fast and hard, as they tend to clamp down and then spit it out. Try to match the hatch. Use a jerkbait that's the basic size of the forage bass are eating. In clear water, natural finishes like silver, white or gold are best. In dark water or where crayfish are numerous, brown, firetiger, or chartreuse get the nod.

Spinnerbaits and buzzbaits

A spinnerbait has a traditional blade or blades that twirl on the retrieve, while a buzzbait generally has large rotating metal or plastic prop blades that create a commotion on the surface.

Spinnerbaits continue to be the dominant shallow-water presentation for most Ontario bass anglers. They're easy to fish, relatively cheap, work well in grass and weeds, and call bass from a long way, thanks to the flash and vibration of the blade. While spinnerbaits are primarily used for largemouth, many huge smallmouth are caught on them every summer too.

Not all spinnerbaits are created equal, however, and matching your lure to the conditions will improve your success. Fast retrieves often trigger big bass to strike a spinnerbait. A 3/4- to 1-ounce bait works well when you know you'll be churning water. Heavy spinnerbaits are also easier to cast. For slower retrieves and shallow water, a 1/4-ounce bait is useful. Overall, I've had good success using a 5/8-ounce spinnerbait for both smallmouth and largemouth. Let conditions dictate the best lure weight to use.

Although a steady spinnerbait retrieve is effective, experiment with speed and action. For example, letting the lure fall or "helicopter" in weed pockets can be deadly on largemouth.

Choosing the right blade makes a big difference in how well a spinnerbait catches fish. Where a slow retrieve is desired, a Colorado blade is the best choice. If you want to burn the lure through weeds or over shallow flats, go to a Willowleaf blade. Indiana blades are good choices in heavily fished areas and in slightly deeper water with less weed growth. In open water, a spinnerbait with two or three blades of similar size can approximate a small school of minnows and pull suspended bass up to the surface. However, in heavy cover or thick weeds, a single blade is easier to fish and will hang up less often.

Spinnerbait skirt colour is the easiest of the choices. White and chartreuse are the dynamic duo. White works especially well in clear water and chartreuse in dirty or algae-stained water. Where crayfish are a major part of the bass diet, I throw a spinnerbait with a brown and orange skirt. If you're fishing bass in open water, a silver or Mylar skirt is worth trying.

A buzzbait shines where bass have to be pulled out of shallow, thick cover. The lure's rotating overhead blades slice the surface and let bass know something is coming in a hurry above them. Retrieve quickly to keep the buzzbait moving right on the surface. Strikes will be explosive, so don't lose your cool. Keep spinnerbait and buzzbait hooks sharp, and add a single trailer hook, since bass often strike short on these lures.

Fishing in the shallows can provide some of the most explosive bass action of the season. Hopefully, a few of the tips relayed here will turn your dog days this summer into a real howl.