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Bass fishing takes one part patience, two parts Bass fishing takes one part patience, two parts hard work
By STEVE MERLO, Bakersfield Californian
February 06, 2003,
While any kind of fishing gets my blood pumping, it's the largemouth, smallmouth and spotted bass that attract most of my attention.
Oh, sure, I might take a day or two and go play with the stripers, catfish and crappie, but those efforts are more for escape and food than anything else. They are fun to catch and good to eat, but none of them inspire anglers the way the bass do.
Bass fishing is a sporting art directed at enticing the No. 1 sport fish in America to eat live or artificial bait. For an angler to catch them on a regular basis requires something more than most people are willing to give while fishing -- hard work.
Those who do pursue them successfully spend countless hours on the water, making thousands of casts in a single day, always seeking the proper key to unlock the fishes' ever-changing moods.
The better part of a day's bass fishing is normally a mental exercise in futility and frustration, given the number of casts made for the paltry number of strikes returned. But when all the clues, techniques and indications finally come together, and the bass hit the deck with unparalleled frequency, there is no better feeling of accomplishment in the world.
Here's a short list of things to do to put more bass in your boat:
1. Right now, with the beautiful skies and tepid afternoons in our area, the bass are making regular migrations from deep-water haunts toward the warming shallows in anticipation of the annual spawn. While the actual ritual is still several months away, the fish are invading flats and shorelines to feast on forage and fatten up.
2. Spawning time is tough on bass, given the tedious nature of the act, and building body fat reserves is foremost on their minds to carry them through the period. The months of February and March are the best times to catch a really big one, because they are hungry and lie in very shallow waters.
3. We live in an era of "freeway bass." Smart, caught-more-than-once, wary and people-sensitive, these fish can be tough to entice by conventional means. Light tackle and small baiting will trick many more fish into biting than the heavy stuff. Stick with 4- to 6-pound test lines for the most strikes.
4. Bass anglers need to approach each and every situation they face in a quiet and cautious stealth, lest they spook any fish encountered back into deep water.
5. While cranks, top-waters and other hard baits will produce occasional strikes, stick to small plastic worms and jigs. Each year in the United States, more than 90 percent of the bass caught succumb to those two lures. Save the hard baits for later in the year, when the fish are more active.
6. Smart anglers use their expensive electronics to figure out subtle environmental changes. By turning the unit on manual and turning the power up, fisherman can often see a dark line signifying the 'thermocline,' a stratification where water temperatures change 1/2-degree-per-foot. Find the 'thermocline,' and that's where most of the bass will be, guaranteed.
7. Whenever possible, always use the electronics to follow or find schools of bait, because bass will never venture too far from their primary source of food.
8. Watch for wildlife activity and other tip-offs such as diving gulls, grebes, herons or even ravens stalking the shoreline. Only rarely will a bass break water in pursuit of food this time of year, so keep your eyes open for other indications of their presence.
9. Even though bass are cold-blooded creatures and cannot tell if the water is warm or not, bass in the warmest parts of the lake will be the most active and therefore easier to catch. The northwest shorelines are the best protected and, therefore, the best producers early in the year.
10. Midmorning and the middle of the afternoons are usually best during this time of the year, because water temperatures will be higher during midday and fish will be more active. However, I've found that anytime the outside air temperature goes down while I'm on a lake in the afternoon, and water temps plummet, the fish generally shut off. I usually go home when that happens and come back another day.
11. Learn to dart-head, drop-shot or split-shot small, forage-imitating baits for the absolute maximum number of strikes on each trip. Some people think these two techniques only catch small fish, but I once caught 17 bass weighing more than 10 pounds apiece during a seven-week period while dart-heading a 3-inch worm on 4-pound test. Believe me, they work.
12. If you want a big fish, go to a lake or reservoir known for big-fish production. Right now, Casitas, Perris, Success, Kaweah and Clear lakes clearly show the most potential for producing a 'teen' fish, all recently having produced bass to more than 18 pounds each.
13. Learn to practice catch and release. A bass is far too valuable a resource to only be caught once.
--Columnist Steve Merlo can be reached via e-mail at merloworms@earthlink.net.
By STEVE MERLO, Bakersfield Californian
February 06, 2003,
While any kind of fishing gets my blood pumping, it's the largemouth, smallmouth and spotted bass that attract most of my attention.
Oh, sure, I might take a day or two and go play with the stripers, catfish and crappie, but those efforts are more for escape and food than anything else. They are fun to catch and good to eat, but none of them inspire anglers the way the bass do.
Bass fishing is a sporting art directed at enticing the No. 1 sport fish in America to eat live or artificial bait. For an angler to catch them on a regular basis requires something more than most people are willing to give while fishing -- hard work.
Those who do pursue them successfully spend countless hours on the water, making thousands of casts in a single day, always seeking the proper key to unlock the fishes' ever-changing moods.
The better part of a day's bass fishing is normally a mental exercise in futility and frustration, given the number of casts made for the paltry number of strikes returned. But when all the clues, techniques and indications finally come together, and the bass hit the deck with unparalleled frequency, there is no better feeling of accomplishment in the world.
Here's a short list of things to do to put more bass in your boat:
1. Right now, with the beautiful skies and tepid afternoons in our area, the bass are making regular migrations from deep-water haunts toward the warming shallows in anticipation of the annual spawn. While the actual ritual is still several months away, the fish are invading flats and shorelines to feast on forage and fatten up.
2. Spawning time is tough on bass, given the tedious nature of the act, and building body fat reserves is foremost on their minds to carry them through the period. The months of February and March are the best times to catch a really big one, because they are hungry and lie in very shallow waters.
3. We live in an era of "freeway bass." Smart, caught-more-than-once, wary and people-sensitive, these fish can be tough to entice by conventional means. Light tackle and small baiting will trick many more fish into biting than the heavy stuff. Stick with 4- to 6-pound test lines for the most strikes.
4. Bass anglers need to approach each and every situation they face in a quiet and cautious stealth, lest they spook any fish encountered back into deep water.
5. While cranks, top-waters and other hard baits will produce occasional strikes, stick to small plastic worms and jigs. Each year in the United States, more than 90 percent of the bass caught succumb to those two lures. Save the hard baits for later in the year, when the fish are more active.
6. Smart anglers use their expensive electronics to figure out subtle environmental changes. By turning the unit on manual and turning the power up, fisherman can often see a dark line signifying the 'thermocline,' a stratification where water temperatures change 1/2-degree-per-foot. Find the 'thermocline,' and that's where most of the bass will be, guaranteed.
7. Whenever possible, always use the electronics to follow or find schools of bait, because bass will never venture too far from their primary source of food.
8. Watch for wildlife activity and other tip-offs such as diving gulls, grebes, herons or even ravens stalking the shoreline. Only rarely will a bass break water in pursuit of food this time of year, so keep your eyes open for other indications of their presence.
9. Even though bass are cold-blooded creatures and cannot tell if the water is warm or not, bass in the warmest parts of the lake will be the most active and therefore easier to catch. The northwest shorelines are the best protected and, therefore, the best producers early in the year.
10. Midmorning and the middle of the afternoons are usually best during this time of the year, because water temperatures will be higher during midday and fish will be more active. However, I've found that anytime the outside air temperature goes down while I'm on a lake in the afternoon, and water temps plummet, the fish generally shut off. I usually go home when that happens and come back another day.
11. Learn to dart-head, drop-shot or split-shot small, forage-imitating baits for the absolute maximum number of strikes on each trip. Some people think these two techniques only catch small fish, but I once caught 17 bass weighing more than 10 pounds apiece during a seven-week period while dart-heading a 3-inch worm on 4-pound test. Believe me, they work.
12. If you want a big fish, go to a lake or reservoir known for big-fish production. Right now, Casitas, Perris, Success, Kaweah and Clear lakes clearly show the most potential for producing a 'teen' fish, all recently having produced bass to more than 18 pounds each.
13. Learn to practice catch and release. A bass is far too valuable a resource to only be caught once.
--Columnist Steve Merlo can be reached via e-mail at merloworms@earthlink.net.
