People always ask me if I still like to fish from the banks or shorelines since I have a boat and compete in tournaments. My answer is always YES. In fact, my favorite part of shoreline fishing is that you don't need a lot of time to go. Here's a nice bass I caught during a lunch break from work.
I've been bass fishing since I was a kid and fishing from the shoreline was my only option for quite some time. I will admit that having a boat has advantages, the ability to cover far more water in less time. But even as a boat owner, I haven't forgotten my roots.
You don't always need a boat to catch a big bass. As matter of fact, one of my personal bests to date was caught bank fishing. Never underestimate fishing from shorelines of a lake or pond. Every body of water has at least one dominant bass.
There are a few tips I follow that have helped me be more successful when fishing from the bank.
Fishing equipment or gear Less is more. Better to pack lite so you can move around more freely and cover more water. The more spots you hit the better chance you have landing a big bass.
How to approach the shoreline Bass spook easily, especially lunkers, so make sure that you are quiet when you approach the shoreline.
What to look for to find bass Big bass like heavy cover on the bank. When you think of cover think of weeds, branches in the water, shade, basically anything a bass can use to “cover” itself. Make sure you have polarized glasses, they really help to find underwater structure and cover.
Different Casting techniques Shoreline access is usually limited and surrounded by obstacles. Being proficient in as many casting techniques as possible, will increase your ability to place a lure into key areas.
Check out my article on bank fishing tips. There, I explain in more details how to apply each of these tactics and techniques.
Whether you have a boat or not, never underestimate fishing the banks of a lake or pond, they can produce some really nice bass.
A lot of myths are commonly associated with topwater fishing. We've all
heard that the technique is just something you do in early morning or
late afternoon hours. Or they only work in the spring or fall. Or that,
because of increasing fishing pressure, bass simply aren't fooled by
topwaters like they once were. Forget these myths.
A topwater can
pay off for you if you give it the chance and put the typical
misconceptions out of your mind. Topwater baits can be dynamite during
all hours of the day and are more versatile than most realize. I agree
that early, late, spring, and fall are the prime times for the surface
lure. But anglers who believe this is the only time are really limiting
their ability to catch bass.
Rivers are excellent for topwater
fishing because in this swift environment bass live in less than 5 feet
of water. When fishing current with a topwater plug there are a few
things to think about. The position of the fish and the angle in which
the current will move your bait. Always through 3 feet or farther past
your target, so you won't spook the fish, and move the bait with the
current as close to the target as possible. Lures of choice are the Zara
Spook Jr., Spitting Image, Cotton Cordell's Crazy Shad, and the Tiny
Torpedo.
So the next time you're on a river system and the bite is slow, tie on that old topwater plug. You'll be surprised.
Want to learn how to quickly pin point the most productive feeding zone while fishing for bass? If you can master this one tactic, you will consistently catch more bass.
One of the most important factors you can determine is if bass are looking for a “vertical” or “horizontal” presentation? When you can identify this one piece of the puzzle quickly, the rest will fall into place easier.
At the very least if you only get the “vertical/horizontal” preference determined, you’ll be 50% more productive while you are out fishing.
If you are in a boat with decent electronics and you know how to use them to determine what the predominant depth zone (top, middle, bottom) bass are using, you should find this fairly simple to do. If not, there’s a tip below that will help you.
For this technique I would recommend using a 6’ to 6’6” Medium Power Fast Action rod. I like fast action rods with single hook lures. I pair mine with a Daiwa Sol 2500 reel or a Shimano Stradic MGFA 2500. For line I recommend using a tuff 6 pound test line like Berkley Trilene XT. In really clear water I like to use fluorocarbon lines, but it’s not a must.
So here’s what you need to do. You'll need to start by using a 3” soft plastic grub rigged on a ¼ oz mushroom or ball head jig. Choose a color that you have confidence in. A color that you know produces on the body of water you are fishing.
Cast it out and start counting as soon as it hits the water surface (1 Mississippi, 2 Mississippi). Let it go all the way to the bottom then and let it sit for a few seconds (vertical presentation). If you get hit on the drop or after the lure is sitting on the bottom, they are most likely looking for a vertical presentation. Pay attention to on what count the strike occurred. If you did not get hit on the drop or after letting the grub sit for a few seconds, then begin to reel it in slow and steady (horizontal presentation). It is very important that you do not move or twitch your rod while reeling in. Just keep the grub coming along steadily. If you get a strike or notice a bass following the grub back to the boat/shore, they are most likely looking for horizontal moving lures.
If you are fishing deeper water, you might be wondering how are you going to be able to know where the bass hit in the water column? Here’s a little trick you can use. When you make a cast with the grub, start counting as soon as it hits the water surface (1 Mississippi, 2 Mississippi). See how long it takes for the grub to hit bottom. If it takes a "10 Mississippi count" to hit bottom, now you have a baseline to work from. Just break it into thirds and put the left over in the middle column. Meaning Top= 1,2,3 Middle=4,5,6,7 bottom=8,9,10
Now make a cast, give it a 3 count (top) and start reeling the grub back in slow and steady. Repeat the process a few times paying close attention for strikes or follow-ins.
If you do not connect, try a 7 count (middle) and again start reeling the grub back in slow and steady. Again, repeat the process a few times paying close attention for strikes or follow-ins.
For vertical presentations, you can do the same thing by counting down on the fall. Now when did the strike occur (on what count)? Let’s say you got a strike on “3 Mississippi”, try and fine-tune your presentation by making another cast and only let the bait fall for a “4 or 5 count”. If you continue to get strikes during the first “5 count” you now know that the bass are using the “TOP COLUMN” for the active feeding-zone. So you can simply fan cast around and only let the grub fall for a five count, then reel it back in steadily and cast again… no sense letting it go all the way to the bottom if you do not have to.
It’s important to remember that you’ll still need to try both vertical and horizontal presentations regardless of which feeding zone you find bass using, (top, middle or bottom) until you find their preference. When you can consistently put these two pieces of the puzzles together quickly, your fishing consistency will rise dramatically. You will be able to eliminate unproductive water more quickly and ultimately find where the bigger bass are feeding.
Sometimes they'll be all over a grub and you can just adjust the retrieval speed, depth, color, size, etc. to fine tune your presentation. Other times if you switch over to a crankbait, spinnerbait, swimbait or something that moves horizontally, you'll be able to start connecting with those bass that are aggressively chasing down baitfish.
Let's say you notice that your first strike occurred on the drop, you should try and duplicate that presentation. Make another cast and let the grub to fall vertically. If you are able to trigger more strikes, you now know that the bass are looking for a "vertical" presentation. Let's say that you are getting some strikes on the fall, but not really connecting with the bass that strike, you already have one piece of the puzzle solved (they want a vertical presentation) so now you can try using a different lure with a vertical presentation.
Personally when faced with short strikes, I like to immediately "down-size" the lure I am using. You might choose to throw a smaller grub on a lighter jig head (let's say a 2" grub on a 1/8 ounce ball head jig). Cast it out and let it sink to the bottom. Pay attention to where you get your strikes. Near the top? On the way down? At the bottom? This will let you know where preferred feeding-zone is. You will quickly start to see better and better results as you figure out more of these details. This is called fine-tuning a presentation.
As you start to imagine trying this, you’ll probably have a lot of “what if'” questions come to mind. Like, “what if the bass hits after the grub is sitting on the bottom after the 10 count is over”, or “how long should I let the grub sit on the bottom before working back in”, or “should I work it back in”. What I can offer is simply “experiment”… but pay close attention to when the strike occurs. For more insight on fine tuning your lure presentation, Frank Lapinski from our NY Prostaff wrote a great three part article that can help explain this in more detail, here's the link to "Bass talk, are you listening? - part 2"
The better you get at this, the more and bigger bass you will catch. I know it may sound complicated at first, but it is really very simple once make a habit of this process.
Well I was able to get out with my fishing partner Joey for a half-day trip on Sunday. We fished a small pond on the east end of Long Island. We arrived at the ramp around 1:30pm.
Date: 2/19/12 Air temp: 44 degrees Water Temp: 41 degrees Water Clarity: Clear Winds: West at 10 MPH
We set out to target largemouth bass. First area we approached produced two largemouth bass on back to back cast with a hair jig.
Both bass were located at the base of the drop-off into deeper water. We fished the break for about an hour and landed a total of 5 bass ranging from 2.5 lbs to 3 lbs. No giants, but some nice post frontal action for February. We also connected with a bonus fish, a really chunky perch.
We left that area to check another wintering spot and were rewarded with a 2 lb bass and this nice largemouth that was about 3.75 lbs (photo below). That was our biggest bass landed for the day. We connected with couple more 2-2.5lb bass in another wintering hole, but nothing big.
All in all we had a great day on the water. All of our fish were caught on1/8 oz. hair jigs. We managed to catch 9 Largemouth Bass, 4 pickerel and that fat perch, which got me itching to go target perch, so that became to focus for the following morning:
On the trip back, I put a call into my friends Dave and Nunzio to find out if they wanted to join me for a Perch trip. Both agreed and we planned to be on the water by 8:30AM. Our destination was another Long Island pond that holds a very healthy population of nice sized Perch.
DAY 2
Date: 2/20/12 Air temp: 37 degrees Water Temp: 40 degrees Water Clarity: Clear Winds: North 25 MPH (with Gust up to 35 MPH)
You know it’s cold when you are thinking of getting back into the truck while you are taking the tie down straps off the boat! The wind was howling and the pond we were fishing has no place to get out of the wind, so we knew it was going to be a long day. We started searching for Perch in a hole where they are often found schooled up this time of year. It is a large area with weeds and stumps, but with the wind at 25mph sustained, it made finding the perch a little difficult. In addition, the weed was gone. We worked around the area for a while and then decided that we needed to set out to find some good weed that might still be around. Once we found a good patch of weed near the creek channel, it was on! We connected with our first perch around 9:30am, kicked a buoy marker over the side and caught them almost on every cast until about 12:00pm.
Every now and then they would move around a bit, but for the most part they stayed within about a 100’ radius. We had tons of doubles and a few triples. We only had on one giant, but she came off before we could land her. The rest were all really healthy, fat and feisty perch. With the average perch weighing about 1.5 lbs. They’re a lot of fun on light tackle with 4lb test line.
People always ask me if I still like to fish from the banks or shorelines since I have a boat and compete in tournaments. My answer is always YES. In fact, my favorite part of shoreline fishing is that you don't need a lot of time to go. Here's a nice bass I caught during a lunch break from work.
