Tips Appreciated

[HunterSmith]

How's everyone doing today?

 

So I am fairly new to the bass fishing world; most my life I fished for Rainbow Trout and Blue Gill while I lived in Cali. Trying to learn as much as I can when it comes to fishing for LM Bass but it can be interesting. Lots of videos out there to help out but one issue I have found is it is hard to see from videos how a lure is being fished.

 

Any tips when it comes to how different types of lures and baits should be reeled in would be very much appreciated. Taking my boat out Friday morning and wanna focus on jigs and crankbaits. I think I have the method of jigs down okay but not so much on cranks. What I am getting mixed understanding on is whether or not I should be trying to bump cranks into stuff or try to fish them right above the bottom.

 

Thanks in advance

[Scarborough817]

20 minutes ago, HunterSmith said:

How's everyone doing today?

 

So I am fairly new to the bass fishing world; most my life I fished for Rainbow Trout and Blue Gill while I lived in Cali. Trying to learn as much as I can when it comes to fishing for LM Bass but it can be interesting. Lots of videos out there to help out but one issue I have found is it is hard to see from videos how a lure is being fished.

 

Any tips when it comes to how different types of lures and baits should be reeled in would be very much appreciated. Taking my boat out Friday morning and wanna focus on jigs and crankbaits. I think I have the method of jigs down okay but not so much on cranks. What I am getting mixed understanding on is whether or not I should be trying to bump cranks into stuff or try to fish them right above the bottom.

 

Thanks in advance

cranks should be digging into the bottom and deflecting off of cover that's what people mean by running them into stuff, pick a crank that dives slightly deeper than the depth you're fishing. once you feel a lack of vibration set the hook 

[BassNJake]

If you are going to be throwing cranks, I'd suggest my favorite tool ...

 

A lure retriever

I couldn't count how many cranks or any other lure I have saved from being lost to the lake.

I like the one with the chains as sometimes they will grab a hook and make it easier to get back.

I connect mine to a mason's line reel as I needed more line.

I have seen people use old baitcasters and retractable dog leashes too

[pondbassin101]

Youtube is your friend 

[J Francho]

We have a ton of good info in the How To section of our videos:

 

https://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-videos/How-To-Fishing-Videos

 

There's a 3-4 that focus on each type of crank bait.  Good Luck!

[Turkey sandwich]

There are also some pretty good channels available.  Check out Glenn on the BassResource channel.  He generally does a good job explaining how to rig and present lures.

[Adleyfishes]

My jig knowledge isn't huge but swim jigs i will swim thru grass and stop ever so often and finnesse jigs i will yo yo lightly (yo yoing is pulling the bait off the bottom then letting it settle) and football heads I drag. And overall sign up for bassmaster and buy some books that's what I did. 

My jig knowledge isn't huge but swim jigs i will swim thru grass and stop ever so often and finnesse jigs i will yo yo lightly (yo yoing is pulling the bait off the bottom then letting it settle) and football heads I drag. And overall sign up for bassmaster and buy some books that's what I did. 

[HunterSmith]

On 5/24/2017 at 11:24 AM, Scarborough817 said:

cranks should be digging into the bottom and deflecting off of cover that's what people mean by running them into stuff, pick a crank that dives slightly deeper than the depth you're fishing. once you feel a lack of vibration set the hook 

Thank you, greatly appreciate it. The part about the vibration will certainly help out.

On 5/24/2017 at 0:03 PM, BassNJake said:

If you are going to be throwing cranks, I'd suggest my favorite tool ...

 

A lure retriever

I couldn't count how many cranks or any other lure I have saved from being lost to the lake.

I like the one with the chains as sometimes they will grab a hook and make it easier to get back.

I connect mine to a mason's line reel as I needed more line.

I have seen people use old baitcasters and retractable dog leashes too

I have the exact one in the bottom, already used it a couple times with some other lures. Chains come in pretty handy.

 

Thank you

On 5/24/2017 at 0:46 PM, pondbassin101 said:

Youtube is your friend 

 

Been watching a lot of youtube vids, just a bit hard sometimes to understand exactly how they are reeling because I don't know whats beneath the water. Some people are not very good at explaining that part of it. I find people are sometimes better at conveying things through text because you have to create the mental image; that can be lost in video.

On 5/24/2017 at 1:00 PM, J Francho said:

We have a ton of good info in the How To section of our videos:

 

https://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-videos/How-To-Fishing-Videos

 

There's a 3-4 that focus on each type of crank bait.  Good Luck!

 

Thank you, I will check them out.

On 5/24/2017 at 1:04 PM, Turkey sandwich said:

There are also some pretty good channels available.  Check out Glenn on the BassResource channel.  He generally does a good job explaining how to rig and present lures.

 

Appreciate it, he did a pretty good job of explaining different ways to fish a jig; better than most videos I watched.

[HunterSmith]

It should be added that my lake, Canyon Lake in Texas, is a difficult bass lake already... at least that has been my experience and what I have been told by just about everyone I have talked with who fishes it. We have no aquatic vegetation at all which makes a lot of what people talk about when it comes to bass fishing already out the window to an extent. There are plenty of rocks to bounce things off though.

[Bucky205]

4 hours ago, BassNJake said:

If you are going to be throwing cranks, I'd suggest my favorite tool ...

 

A lure retriever

I couldn't count how many cranks or any other lure I have saved from being lost to the lake.

I like the one with the chains as sometimes they will grab a hook and make it easier to get back.

I connect mine to a mason's line reel as I needed more line.

I have seen people use old baitcasters and retractable dog leashes too

I love my lure retriever, it has paid for itself many times over.  I keep the drop line wrapped around a 10" piece of a bright swim noodle.  LOL  I'm not above throwing it out for a marker.

 

Myself and a lot of my friends seem to have started with plastic worms.  That would probably the first technique I would work on.  You can throw plastics in so many different ways to catch fish.

[scaleface]

1 hour ago, HunterSmith said:

It should be added that my lake, Canyon Lake in Texas, is a difficult bass lake already... at least that has been my experience and what I have been told by just about everyone I have talked with who fishes it. We have no aquatic vegetation at all which makes a lot of what people talk about when it comes to bass fishing already out the window to an extent. There are plenty of rocks to bounce things off though.

 

No vegetation makes lure choice easier IMO . A lake I fish frequently was completely devoid of vegetation due to the introduction of grass carp.  Its a 200 acre  electric motor lake only so I do a lot of junk fishing ,  trolling down the banks and fishing everything . Squarebills were a major player along the banks until last year when the coon tail grass re-emerged . Now its futile to throw them .

 

My home waters Mark Twain lake has zero vegetation and square bills fished along the banks perform well . The fish  still have to be patterned   by eliminating unproductive water .

[WRB]

Shallow to mid depth running crankbaits 3' to 8', it's common to hit objects to deflect the lure path. Deep divers 10' to 15' you can run above the structure and occasionally bump the bottom so you know how deep the lure is running. It's more important IMO to change the cadence of your retreive and a few rod pumps then to continuously hitting things or the bottom to initiate more strikes.

Jig and worms are very effective in deep rocky structured lakes, like the California lakes you didn't fish apparently.

Tom

[RoLo]

 

Since your lake has no significant vegetation, that sharply raises the value of 'bottom contour',

which must also serve as cover.  If you concentrate your attention on bottom breaks (drops-offs & ridges)

then wide area coverage becomes unimportant. As a beginner to bass angling, I would hesitate

to place my bet on jigs, but would sooner recommend T-rigged plastic worms and plugs (billed & lipless).

 

Roger

[HunterSmith]

2 hours ago, RoLo said:

 

Since your lake has no significant vegetation, that sharply raises the value of 'bottom contour',

which must also serve as cover.  If you concentrate your attention on bottom breaks (drops-offs & ridges)

then wide area coverage becomes unimportant. As a beginner to bass angling, I would hesitate

to place my bet on jigs, but would sooner recommend T-rigged plastic worms and plugs (billed & lipless).

 

Roger

 

As of now, soft plastics have been my go to and what I have caught every bass I have caught so far with. So now I'm trying to learn some other lures and ways of catching some bass.

 

Appreciate it

3 hours ago, WRB said:

Shallow to mid depth running crankbaits 3' to 8', it's common to hit objects to deflect the lure path. Deep divers 10' to 15' you can run above the structure and occasionally bump the bottom so you know how deep the lure is running. It's more important IMO to change the cadence of your retreive and a few rod pumps then to continuously hitting things or the bottom to initiate more strikes.

Jig and worms are very effective in deep rocky structured lakes, like the California lakes you didn't fish apparently.

Tom

 

Sadly, living in the desert made getting to decent lakes too much hassle with my kids as young as they were. Heck, easier to drive to Vegas living in the Mojave desert.

[WRB]

My suggestion is to use high percentage strike rate jigs like spiders. The cost effective are Yamamoto football plain jigs with either Owner or Gamakatsu hooks, the head painted black. I would start with 3/8 oz and 1/2 oz with double tail Hula grubs, no other skirts. GYBC 221 & 330 are good colors for Rocky structure lakes.

Tom

PS, take a look at Old School Horizontal Jigging.