Entry 165-2

George Cochran on Weed Whacking for Mr. Bass

Part 2: Diamonds in the Grass

Editor’s Note: The grass parts. The wake on the water shows the approach of a bass. Then the bass explodes on the bait, blowing it out of the water in as savage an attack as when a mountain lion kills a lamb. Regardless of where and when you fish, if you locate any type of water vegetation in that body of water, you can bet you’ll find bass in the grass, which provides a hiding place for baitfish, cover, shade and oxygen and acts like a fortress against anglers.

George Cochran of Hot Springs, Arkansas, uses various grass-fishing strategies for bass when he fishes these areas in the spring and the summer, and you too can have success with Cochran’s weed-whacking tactics for bass.

George Cochran has won over $1 million in tournament bass fishing, including the 1987 and the 1996 BASS Masters Classics and the 2005 FLW Championship. Most of his winnings have occurred while fishing shallow water. “The Strike King lipless crankbait known as the Diamond Shad has a tighter wiggle than some lipless crankbaits as they swim through the water and I’ve had great success with it,” Cochran explains. “The three best places to fish this crankbait include the inside edge of the grass line, the outside edge of the grass line or bare spots in the grass.”

Cochran casts his Diamond Shad out, holds his rod tip high, begins to crank the bait really fast and allows the lure to hit the edge of the grass, which makes the bait bounce or dart off the edge of the grass, triggering a reaction strike. “I like to fish this bait on either clear days or really windy days,” Cochran reports.

“On clear days, a bass will come up to a bait and look at it for awhile before taking the lure. But because a Diamond Shad comes through the water so fast, a bass doesn’t have time to study the bait before the fish takes the lure. The chrome-colored Diamond Shad gives off a strong flash in the water that the bass can see from a long way off.” On a windy day, Cochran likes to fish the Diamond Shad because it has rattles in it that call bass.

Next: Spit on the Grass

Contents:

• Part 1: A Grass Master Becomes Number-One Bass Master
• Part 2: Diamonds in the Grass
• Part 3: Spit on the Grass
• Part 4: Worms in the Grass
• Part 5: Spinner Baits and Jigs in the Grass