What’s your go to bed fishing technique-lmb or smb

[EWREX]

1. texas rigged sweet beaver with a pegged 1/4oz tungsten weight
2. wacky rig

 

[J Francho]

[Team9nine]

1 hour ago, J Francho said:

 

Looks like a finesse version for bass not completely locked down yet - 

[gim]

I've never had much luck with targeting a bedded bass.  I usually give it a couple tries and then move on.  Rarely does the fish bite so I don't waste my time.

 

Some lakes here actually have areas that are marked with "no fishing" buoys to protect spawning bass.

[MN Fisher]

4 minutes ago, gimruis said:

Some lakes here actually have areas that are marked with "no fishing" buoys to protect spawning bass.

Ya, there's a section of a backwater on Tonka that's permanently set to 'No Fishing'.

 

Gorgeous spot too - lots of laydowns in there, good weed mixture - bass heaven.

[PressuredFishing]

On 4/10/2022 at 9:10 AM, A-Jay said:

Go To for bed fishing is 

I go the other way.

Not my style.

Not judging.

A-Jay

This is how I've been feeling, I bed fished a little bit this spring buy its kind of easy and boring, I enjoy post spawn fishing more, I've been panfishing alot recently as I water for the post spawn fishing

[SkinnyWaterBasser]

On 4/10/2022 at 1:08 PM, Team9nine said:

Notice the small white swimbait added to the front hook. It is the key to this bed fishing setup ?

 

Whoda thought... I dig the whole schooling bait fish deal created with that swimbait. You should really paint those trebles red though. I'm going to when I steal your juice. ??

[clemsondds]

8 hours ago, EWREX said:

1. texas rigged sweet beaver with a pegged 1/4oz tungsten weight
2. wacky rig

 

Cool thanks! Sounds like a good setup

[SkinnyWaterBasser]

Chuck a jig for bigger bites on the outskirts. I like a bluegill imitating bait. Deps bull flat on the free rig

[RDB]

On 4/10/2022 at 11:10 AM, A-Jay said:

Not judging.

The equivalent of everything that  comes before the word but.

[Big Hands]

5 hours ago, gimruis said:

I've never had much luck with targeting a bedded bass.  I usually give it a couple tries and then move on.  Rarely does the fish bite so I don't waste my time.

That sounds about right. . . . if you don't stick it out and play the game.  IME, the first thing that happens when I have approached a bed is that the bass will swim away from the bed the same way a quail will try to lead a predator away from the rest of the covey. They swim off, but eventually come back around.

 

They may do this a few, or even several times. But if they come back fairly soon, there's a good chance that they will be players. Sometimes, the bed won't be well defined, but you can see the bass act differently when your bait dances across a certain area.

 

The more your bait dances around on that spot, the more interested they become, swimming off, but returning sooner and sooner. Often staring, sometimes getting closer. You can sense the agitation in their movements as they become more and more sudden and menacing. I know they are getting closer to mouthing the bait when they do what I call 'flashing' by making sudden movements and you can see the light reflecting off of them.

 

It happens quick, often before you realize it. Many times, you can be almost sitting on top of them by this time, and they are past the point of being spooked and are consumed by defending their bed. If they hit it once, most of the time they will keep doing it.

 

They are pretty slick about being able to grab a part of the bait that doesn't have hooks, so large baits might irk them quicker, but I find them harder to get them to stick. You can even switch out from one to another, but don't give them time to cool off too much. If you're quick and even anticipate the strike, that can help. A small fish looking bait like a 3" Roboworm Alive Shad in Hologram Shad color nose hooked with a number 4 light wire mosquito hook on a dropshot rig with a very short distance between the weight and the hook is very enticing, or even a small pure white grub or a hair jig you that you can see well enough, it's hard for them to strike it without getting hooked. And the sharp point with light wire does a good job of securing the fish. 

 

So, if you give it a few shakes and move on, it's not surprising that you find they rarely bite. It's often a matter of working them and the fact that they can clearly tell you're there and probably messing with them eventually becomes irrelevant.

 

I won't say that I never bed fish because I do occasionally, but much prefer to target feeding fish. 

[Bluebasser86]

I don't typically target bedding fish and it's pretty uncommon for the water to be clear enough for me to see them anyways. 

[clemsondds]

So thought this might be fun to try. I have a pond in front of my office. Went by the bank and saw a lmb staying in one area. It wasn’t on bed but just going back and forth in a 15-2.0 ft area about 3 ft deep. So came back next day with some baits:

1. black and blue rage bug pinned

2. White Rage menace on red ewg hook free rig. 
3. Drop shot with yellow truck worm wacky rig

4. Megabass dark sleeper

she didn’t go for any of those. Multiple times of her just staring but no commit. The white rage menace got her to circle around and nose down but never did anything. 

Today: 

1. Drop shot with big bites smaller smasher

2. Ned rig with pink trd

3. Red small lizard Texas rig

4. White truck worm shakyhead

went through those in that order. Not interested in any of them TILL the white shakyhead. Went and ate that immediately. Hooked her and had her back in the water in less than a minute. It was a fun challenge. I’ll check tomorrow and see if she’s still in the area and doing ok.  She was around 2.5lbs 

Any other ideas on what I should have tried? 
any ideas what he/she was doing…roaming back and forth for two days? 

[RDB]

Well done…frankly it was probably less about the shakey head and more that you had gotten the bass agitated by the time you got to it.  You can usually tell when they start getting agitated but sometimes you may have to work them a while to get them there.  Some will never get there.

[clemsondds]

1 hour ago, RDB said:

Well done…frankly it was probably less about the shakey head and more that you had gotten the bass agitated by the time you got to it.  You can usually tell when they start getting agitated but sometimes you may have to work them a while to get them there.  Some will never get there.

Who knows. Didn’t seem agitated with the others. In my past experience, if they strike out of frustration, it slowly builds. I didn’t see any signs of that. But like I said, who knows.  
I wasn’t super Impressed with the truck worm tho (even tho it did get the fish).  I was expecting more buoyancy. 

[RDB]

I had a similar situation as yours last year.  I worked a bed at Athens for probably 1 1/2 to 2 hours because I thought she would break 11lbs but I could never get her to fire.  I was so frustrated I stayed overnight to try again the next day.  Waited for the sun to get high and went back to the spot and caught her on the second pitch.  Sometimes they just aren’t ready.  Unfortunately she was a hair less than 10.  

[J Francho]

This isn't my go to method, but works really well when others don't:

https://www.bassresource.com/fishing/dropshot-bedding-bass.html

[Bankc]

I can't sight fish, as the water near me is way too dirty for that.  But when fishing a bed type area, I tend to prefer anything that moves slowly.  If it can stay in place and produce action, even better.  You almost have to annoy them into biting sometimes.  

 

Though it often depends on depth, bottom composition, and how active the fish are.  In shallow water with a muddy bottom (a few lakes around me are almost entirely muddy bottoms) I'll throw a shaky head with a floating trick worm.  In shallow sandy bottoms, I'll throw an unpegged Texas rigged lizard.  In deeper water, I'll throw a glide bait and/or a drop shot.  

[schplurg]

I only bed fished once and didn't realize that's what I was doing for awhile. Spotted bass from shore.

 

They didn't care about my senko or another bait (maybe was a chatter?) but when I plopped a craw on the right spot they went for it. That ticked them off I could tell.

 

My idea was that a real craw would eat eggs and a worm couldn't so a bass would react more to the craw. I have NO idea if ANY of that is true, but it caught some fish.

[J._Bricker]

For me when all else has failed catching a bedding green fish…. throw a Fat Ika 

[Big Swimbait]

Dark Sleeper. Stop it anywhere close to the bed. It sits upright and drives them crazy. The buck usually just picks it up by the tail and swims off about 10 feet and spits it out. The female wants to kill it.

[clemsondds]

On 4/15/2022 at 12:52 PM, Big Swimbait said:

Dark Sleeper. Stop it anywhere close to the bed. It sits upright and drives them crazy. The buck usually just picks it up by the tail and swims off about 10 feet and spits it out. The female wants to kill it.

Yeh I’ve heard it’s pretty good! Do you fish it for both lmb and smb? What color do you prefer? 

[Big Swimbait]

8 hours ago, clemsondds said:

Yeh I’ve heard it’s pretty good! Do you fish it for both lmb and smb? What color do you prefer? 

Yes for both. This is my go to color in the 3 inch size.