Entry 165-5
George Cochran on Weed Whacking for Mr. Bass
Part 5: Spinner Baits and Jigs 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.
Spinner Baits in the Grass:
“The correct weather and water conditions to fish a spinner bait usually will be when I’m fishing a windy, cloudy, rainy day with stained water,” Cochran explains. “I like to fish a spinner bait because that lure enables me to cover lots of water in a short time and find the fish.” When Cochran fishes around or in grass with a spinner bait, he prefers willow-leaf blades on his spinner bait, instead of Colorado or Indiana blades. “Colorado or Indiana blades will clog up with grass and often won’t turn. A big willow-leaf spinner bait creates such a large wake coming off the blade that it seems to move the grass away from the blade and the bait, keeping it away from the spinner mechanism.”
On bad-weather days, the bass may bury-up deep in the grass. To pull the bass out of the grass and get them to strike, Cochran buzzes his spinner bait just under the surface to give off a wake, just like a big minnow swimming right under the surface. If this technique fails to produce for Cochran, he’ll switch strategies and change the place he’s fishing in the grass for the bass.
“I’ll reposition my boat to parallel the outer edge of the grass with my spinner bait,” Cochran mentions. “I’ll cast the lure as far as I can down the edge of the grass, let it fall all the way to the bottom and then begin to slow-roll the spinner bait just up off the bottom where the bass are holding. The spinner bait allows me to fish a wide variety of depths and change fishing strategies without having to change out lures.”
Jigs in the Grass:
Cochran believes that the jig-and-pig will produce more big bass than most other grass baits will, although he may not get as many bites. “After I’ve fished all my other baits in the grass and caught a limit of bass, I’ll start fishing the jig-and-pig to try and catch a really big bass and cull my catch,” Cochran explains. “I fish the Denny Brauer Pro Model jig that rattles with real pork as a trailer in the spring of the year. Then in the summer months, I prefer a plastic trailer.” The pork chunk helps the lure fall slower. Since the fish’s body metabolism slows down in the spring in the cool water, the bass needs more time to look and attack the bait than it does in the summer months when bass have a much-higher body metabolism. Cochran chooses a plastic trailer in the summer months for the jig to fall faster and solicit more reaction strikes.
When Cochran approaches a grass bed, he not only searches for places where he hopes to locate bass holding, but also thinks about where and how most bass anglers will fish that patch of grass. “Most folks will fish the outer edge of the grass and the pockets in the grass they can cast to from that outside edge,” Cochran says.
“But, I’ll pull my outboard up out of the water and move my trolling motor up shallow. Then I’ll go across the grass and fish the back side of the grass where most anglers won’t go because of the difficulty involved in getting there.” To catch more bass each time you go out on the lake, search for grass. Then try Cochran’s grass-fishing techniques. Like Cochran, you too can catch more bass on every outing once you become a grass master.
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
