Entry 114-5

George Cochran and the Keys to Catching Bass

Weird Worms

Editor's Note: This week George Cochran, two-time Bassmasters Classic winner and long-time Strike King Pro Team member, will tell us how he fished five tough tournaments and the tactics and the baits he used to survive in them. Often to do well in a bass-fishing tournament or to catch bass on the weekend, you have to use somewhat offbeat and often seemingly inappropriate techniques and lures. Here's a look at how Cochran handled five tough tournaments.

Cochran: The fisherman's prayer, when he's on the water, is, "Lord, let me find the lure that matches the hatch. Let me find the bait that looks exactly like the bait that the bass are biting right now." But many times, you can use a lure that doesn't match the hatch to make the bass bite.

For instance, I fished a tournament in 2004 where bass were feeding on shad. That's when a crankbait, a spinner bait or a tube that looks more like a shad than any other bait that I know will be effective. So I tried every crankbait and each spinner bait in my tackle box. However, I couldn't get the bass to bite. Finally I decided to try a Strike King 3X plastic worm and dye the last 1/3 of the tail of the worm white. I pitched that Texas-rigged worm out into the cover where I thought the bass were holding and let the worm free-fall down through the cover. I found that the bass would eat that worm falling through the cover with that white tail wiggling when they wouldn't take any other type bait I had.

I didn't know why the bass ate the worm and wouldn't take the spinner bait or the crankbait. But I believed that perhaps when that 3X plastic worm fell vertically through the cover, and that white tail was swimming back and forth, the bass got a glimpse of something white falling through the cover. That white resembled a part of a shad darting through the cover, and that caused the bass to bite. Knowing that the bass were hitting shad, which were white, and knowing I could flip that worm into thick cover and have it fall right in front of the noses of those bass, I realized that presenting a small flash of white right at the bass' nose might trigger a strike before the bass realized exactly what the bait was. So on that lake under those conditions, matching the hatch to color but not in the size and the shape of the bait that the bass were feeding on made the difference in my being able to catch bass instead of not catching bass.

To pick the five baits that have helped me the most on the 2004 BASS circuit, I'll choose the Strike King:

• Wild Shiner,
• Series 3 crankbait in the crawfish color,
• Series 1 crankbait in the chartreuse-and-white color,
• Compact spinner bait in chartreuse and white with two willow-leaf blades, including a gold blade and a clear blade,
• Spence Scout. When I can't catch bass from logjams and thick cover I rely on the Spence Scout to save the day. This lure is one of the oldest baits that Strike King makes, and the white-colored one is the one that has proven to be best for me.

If I only can pick two lures to fish the entire bass-fishing tournament season on, I'll choose the Strike King Series 1 shad-colored crankbait and the 1/2-ounce Strike King chartreuse-and-white Premiere Elite spinner bait.

Contents:

• Part 1: Soaking a Jerkbait
• Part 2: How to Catch Follow Fish
• Part 3: Fluttering the Spinner Bait
• Part 4: Don't Be Afraid To Change
• Part 5: Weird Worms