There's an older man who's earned a reputation in my area for being one of the best bass fisherman in my town. In September I was finally able to meet him, and talk with him about his fishing. I expected to see a fully rigged bass boat, with multiple rods, and the latest electronics. What I found was the exact opposite. JP fishes from a twelve ft jon boat. The only things in his boat are, one casting rod, one spinning rod, a small one tray tackle box, and a home made padded seat, along with an 8ft push pole. Here's his method: he launches his boat and always stays no more than 10ft from the shoreline. He makes long cast in front of his boat, with only two baits, a lightweight tube, or a straight tail plastic worm. When his bait hits the water, he starts a slow steady retrieve, keeping his bait high in the water, close to shoreline cover. When his bait reaches anything different along the shoreline, he kills the retrieve, and let's the bait fall. As the bait is falling, he gives the butt of his rod a light tap. This is when he gets almost all the strikes. He said he feels that the push pole is better than rowing, and he insists on a quiet presentation. He originally started fishing this way with plastic grubs many years ago. When tube baits became popular, he switched to tubes for the slow, deadly falling action. He catches scores of fish each season with this method, and, has caught some big fish over the years. The basics to his fishing are things many of us know. 1. There's always some fish hanging around shallow shoreline cover. 2. Bass love to get under a falling, wounded food source, and attack from below. 3. A quiet approach works best around shallow cover. Shallow fish are easily spooked. 4. Probably the most important for JPs style, bass always relate to something different, even the smallest change in cover. JP probably outfishes me every season with his simple style. Thought I might put this out there. He catches a lot of bass each year. He's come up with a method that works perfectly for him, based on old bass fishing principles which still hold true. I'm glad I got to meet JP. Sometimes, in the high tech world our sport has become, it's good to be reminded of the basics.
