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Catching bass can be a knotty matter
Tom Stienstra, San Francisco Chronicle
February 2, 2003
One tiny change in a fishing knot and you might go from hooking zero bass in a day to 50. All with one simple lesson.
The best places to use this trick are at Lake Oroville, Lake Berryessa and Shasta Lake, where anglers have averaged 10 to 50 bass per trip, catch-and- release. That is even though the best fishing is ahead in March, April and May,
and prospects in winter are usually horrible.
"In the spring, two guys in a boat can catch 70 to 100 bass per day," bass pro Ron Cervenka said.
I sat down with bass pros Gary Dobyns, Kent Brown and Cervenka for several hours to exchange secrets. Turns out just one secret can create the biggest transformation, and this is it:
Learn how to drop-shot for bass, and when you do it, make sure you do one little thing (and we'll get to that).
Drop-shotting is a technique that has solved the dilemma of catching bass when they are suspended 1 to 5 feet off the bottom, in water 15 to 60 feet deep. This occurs in the cold-water months, when for years, bass would be so elusive that many anglers would just give up and stash their rods away for the winter.
No more. In a tournament in mid-January at Oroville, for instance, fishermen in 61 of 65 boats had limits, a level of success that was once unheard of in a cold-water month.
Drop-shotting is easy to learn, rig and perform. You start by tying a Palomar knot on a size No. 1 or No. 2 Gamakatsu Drop Shot hook, leaving several feet of excess line on the tag end (instead of clipping it off). You then simply hook a plastic worm through the nose with the hook. The best plastic worms for this are the Magic Worm, 3-inch Keeper leech worm, or 3- or 4-inch Senko.
From the excess line on the tag end of the knot at the hook, you attach a bell-shaped sinker, either 3/16-ounce or quarter-ounce. How much excess line? "Vary it from a foot to 6 feet," Brown said. Most prefer 12 to 18 inches. The length of excess line determines how high the worm will ride above the lake bottom.
Once on the water, you will cast out, then let the sinker sink slowly along the sloped reservoir bottom, 20 to 60 feet deep. In turn, the worm will float just above the bottom as it descends. All the strikes will come when the worm is sinking -- and none on the retrieve, as with so many bass baits.
But what's the one secret that can make or break your luck?
This: When you tie on the drop-shot hook, the tip of the hook must point up,
not down.
Cervenka tipped off how to fix this: "If the hook is pointing down when you finish tying the knot, run the tag end of the line right back through the eye of the hook again, and it will turn the hook point up."
There you have it. You can go from hell to heaven on a bass lake in one easy lesson.
Tom Stienstra, San Francisco Chronicle
February 2, 2003
One tiny change in a fishing knot and you might go from hooking zero bass in a day to 50. All with one simple lesson.
The best places to use this trick are at Lake Oroville, Lake Berryessa and Shasta Lake, where anglers have averaged 10 to 50 bass per trip, catch-and- release. That is even though the best fishing is ahead in March, April and May,
and prospects in winter are usually horrible.
"In the spring, two guys in a boat can catch 70 to 100 bass per day," bass pro Ron Cervenka said.
I sat down with bass pros Gary Dobyns, Kent Brown and Cervenka for several hours to exchange secrets. Turns out just one secret can create the biggest transformation, and this is it:
Learn how to drop-shot for bass, and when you do it, make sure you do one little thing (and we'll get to that).
Drop-shotting is a technique that has solved the dilemma of catching bass when they are suspended 1 to 5 feet off the bottom, in water 15 to 60 feet deep. This occurs in the cold-water months, when for years, bass would be so elusive that many anglers would just give up and stash their rods away for the winter.
No more. In a tournament in mid-January at Oroville, for instance, fishermen in 61 of 65 boats had limits, a level of success that was once unheard of in a cold-water month.
Drop-shotting is easy to learn, rig and perform. You start by tying a Palomar knot on a size No. 1 or No. 2 Gamakatsu Drop Shot hook, leaving several feet of excess line on the tag end (instead of clipping it off). You then simply hook a plastic worm through the nose with the hook. The best plastic worms for this are the Magic Worm, 3-inch Keeper leech worm, or 3- or 4-inch Senko.
From the excess line on the tag end of the knot at the hook, you attach a bell-shaped sinker, either 3/16-ounce or quarter-ounce. How much excess line? "Vary it from a foot to 6 feet," Brown said. Most prefer 12 to 18 inches. The length of excess line determines how high the worm will ride above the lake bottom.
Once on the water, you will cast out, then let the sinker sink slowly along the sloped reservoir bottom, 20 to 60 feet deep. In turn, the worm will float just above the bottom as it descends. All the strikes will come when the worm is sinking -- and none on the retrieve, as with so many bass baits.
But what's the one secret that can make or break your luck?
This: When you tie on the drop-shot hook, the tip of the hook must point up,
not down.
Cervenka tipped off how to fix this: "If the hook is pointing down when you finish tying the knot, run the tag end of the line right back through the eye of the hook again, and it will turn the hook point up."
There you have it. You can go from hell to heaven on a bass lake in one easy lesson.
