Breaking Down The Tule Wall
They might appear as innumerable masses of swaying stalks, but the tules common to Western fisheries such as Clear lake and the California Delta present multiple opportunities for bass anglers. Moreover, consistent success requires an awareness of multiple strategies and some knowledge of how to break through the tule wall and into the house of the bass that dwell within.
Location:
Bass pro Ish Monroe has found many random lagoons and small openings hiding just behind a seemingly solid tule berm. He looks for a small channels running into a berm, and if perimeter depth allows, he’ll ease his bow into the artery and peek over the stalks. When he spots open water, Monroe shoves his way through the creek until he finds enough room to cast a frog or flip. Where dead tules gather in mats, a prime punching opportunity awaits.
Sean Minderman, who won the 2011 EverStart Series Western Division event on the Cal Delta, spends much of his springtime hunting spawners in areas where thick submerged grass grows adjacent to tule berms. The key to this scenario is finding the grass growing a couple of feet off the tules, rather than directly alongside them. “There are tules on the bank, and then you have weeds,” says Minderman, of Spokane, WA. “You’re looking for a space between the two. The males will move into those areas and make the nests, and then the females will move into those areas to feed or spawn.”
Lure Selection & Presentation:
Ish Monroe might occasionally works his namesake Snag Proof Ish’s Phat Frog roughly parallel to the tules, but he expects greater opportunities by casting or pitching his amphibian imposter into specific nooks and notches. These target zones are small, so Monroe maximizes his opportunity with a specific presentation. “I call it walking the dog in place,” he says. “You want to make a cast to the pocket and leave the frog in the pocket by working it for a longer period of time. Giving the fish time to find it is what triggers a lot of strikes.” Pointing his rod tip at the frog creates slack in the line, so Monroe’s rod movements don’t advance the frog forward as it “walks.” Short twitches create the same nose-up walking appearance as a traditional retrieve, but the frog remains on the fish’s radar longer. Upon noticing crayfish clinging to tule stalks, Western pro Matt Newman once rigged a Wave Crawdude on his drop-shot and pitched the cover with great results. Since that day, Newman admits, he’s more likely to fish tules with beefy craw presentation than the light worms common to most NorCal drop-shots.
Breaking Down The Tule Wall April 2012 FLW Outdoors (David Brown pg. 90-100)
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Panfish Patterns
It’s payback time. Throughout the spawn, bluegill, perch and other panfish harass nesting bass, rushing in to gulp down eggs and fry anytime the parent fish are distracted. But the bass – both largemouth and smallmouth – get even a little later, when the panfish go on the beds. One of the most productive patterns for kicker bass in recent years has been homing in on bluegill and other sunfish in bedding and feeding areas, and presenting lures that imitate them.
Location:
Panfish often spawn in the heads of creeks on impounded lakes, and in shallow, weedy bays on natural lakes. Water 1 to 3 feet deep is the norm for bluegill spawning, but they may bed as deep as 10 feet in very clear lakes. Early fish may settle into the head of spring-fed creek bay, where the water is likely to warm early. Bays that are exposed to afternoon sun usually warm up faster and draw fish earlier as well. The best action will be around ñcolonies,î where a dozen or more beds are clustered closely.
Presentation:
Because bream move slowly most of the time and tend to stay in one place when bedding, a slower presentation than you’d use offshore around shad should do the job. In fact, some anglers targeting panfish beds use jigs in panfish colors and employ a “shaky” presentation that hardly moves outside the nest. In the extreme, they might even deadstick the baits right in the center of the beds.
Panfish Patterns May 2012 Bass Times (Frank Sargeant pg. 20-22)
Post Spawn Pre Rigged Swimbaits
In the last few seasons, “pre-rigged” swimbaits have become part of the rotation of go-to tools for fishing offshore in the shad rich waters of reservoirs in the Southeast and Midwest. They sink quickly, hold up against repeated attacks by schooling bass and display enough action to draw bites, even in murky water. While California still remains the swimbait epicenter, thereÍs a reverse flow of information occurring now that goes from east to west. New offshore tactics, particularly with the smaller 5 to 6 inch swimbaits are being refined on Tennessee Valley Authority lakes and other eastern impoundments with tremendous results.
Location:
Pre-rigged swimbaits work just about any time of year for offshore bass schooled up on offshore humps, points and drop-offs. In seasons when bass forage in shallower water, lighter swimbaits or hollow, unrigged simbaits are better options. “ItÍs a postspawn bite for me,” Kevin Snider says of Elizabethtown, Kentucky. “It slacks off a bit later in the summer, but I keep it out because you might still use it to catch a couple of big ones.” Gary Dobyns of Yuba City, California, is another swimbait aficionado and agrees that the postspawn bite can be good, but in the Golden State, thereÍs a tremendous bite that starts around the first of November and continues to the end of April.
Lure Selection & Presentation:
Typically, pre-rigged swimbaits have soft plastic bodies, internal lead weights and a single large hook protruding out of the back. They can vary in size from about 3 inches up to about 9 inches, with 5 to 6 inchers being the primary range. The Berkely Saltwater PowerBait Mullet, Storm WildEye Swim Shad, and Osprey Tournament Talon Top Hook are prime examples.
The key to maximizing the action and effectiveness is making an unusually long cast, then letting the swimbait sink to the bottom. The retrieve is a steady slow-roll. Ideally, the swimbait will travel just a foot or so above the contours the whole way back, bumping occasionally. “If you feel like its up 4 or 5 feet off the bottom, give it some slack and it’ll go straight down,” Snider says. You’ll feel the tail thumping the whole way. Bass canÍt stand it.î Once a fish is hooked on a swimbait, take control of the fight. “I donÍt care if theyÍre 10 or 15 pounds, you drag ’em into the boat,” Dobyns says. “DonÍt let them jump or fight. YouÍll lose far fewer fish by horsing them than you will by letting that weight swing around. Honestly, I lose very few fish with this technique.”
The Swimbait Frontier March 2012 FLW Outdoors (Pete Robbins pg. 62-70)
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Spring Popper Fishing With John Crews
Many bass lures come and go, but poppers are forever. Casting a popper to a bass is like giving a dozen red roses to your significant other on Valentine’s Day. The response is always positive. “A popper is one of those baits that bass never get wise to,” says John Crews, a Bassmaster Elite Series pro from Salem, VA. The reason is twofold, Crews says. First, a popper floats on top, so a bass canÍt see it clearly. Second, the sounds they make are realistic. A spitting popper mimics a flipping shad, and a plunked or chugged popper sounds like a surface feeding bass. The combination of sight and sound is a convincing one-two punch. The best time to use poppers is the immediate postspawn phase when a few bass are still on the beds and others are guarding their newly hatched fry.
Location:
Since bass fry flock to cover for safety, Crews targets isolated objects in spawning areas, such as laydowns, stumps, stickups, boat docks or clumps of aquatic grass.
Lure Selection & Presentation:
Crews chooses a popper over a walking bait or some other topwater lure because he can work a popper longer near an object where a bass stands guard under its fry. A discontinued 3/8oz Spro Hydro Pop is CrewsÍ go-to popper when he wants to show clearwater bass a slim profile. In stained water, he steps up to a 5/8oz balsa wood popper, made by a friend who doesnÍt sell them. The balsa baitsÍ larger profile and robust popping sound help bass home in on it before they can see it. “I love to walk poppers and make them spit or chug, but I usually slow down when IÍm casting to cover,” Crews said. Depending on the mood of the bass, the cadence can vary from three to five quick spits between a short pause, to one or two pops between a long pause.
Working Poppers Into Elite Game Plans April 2012 Bass Times (Mark Hicks pg. 30-34)
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