Entry 179-4

November Bass Fishing with George Cochran

Editor’s Note: George Cochran has won over $1 million on the B.A.S.S. circuit and is just shy of winning $1 million on the FLW circuit. He’s a quiet, gentle man who doesn’t get too excited. He talks and fishes slowly and isn’t extremely versatile, which he’ll tell you himself. But he catches bass, wins money and wins the big tournaments. Cochran’s primarily a shallow-water fisherman, and this week, we’ve asked Cochran where he’ll fish and how he’ll find bass during the month of November.

Part 4: The Wild Shiner

George CochranMost people think that the jerkbait is primarily a cold-weather lure. But in November, you can fish the jerkbait like you fish it in the spring. I’ve caught some huge limits of bass fishing the Strike King Wild Shiner this month. I like to fish this jerkbait around boat docks, riprap banks and brush. I cast the Wild Shiner past the target, reel it down, twitch it and let it float back up, or, I reel it down, twitch it and let it sit dead still by the cover.

The Wild Shiner is not a consistent bait this month like the crankbait, but I’ve had some great days of bass fishing where I’ve caught plenty of really-big bass using this technique. My favorite color is the shad-colored jerkbait. I use chrome if I’m fishing a bright, clear day, but most of the time, I’ll be fishing a shad-colored jerkbait at this time of the year.

George CochranOne of the real secrets to catching bass, especially on high-pressured lakes is to fish lures that everybody else is not fishing or to fish lures in a way that no one else is fishing them. If you’re fishing down a bank that’s had a lot of crankbait, spinner bait and jig pressure, oftentimes, the Wild Shiner offers an alternative to those bass baits.

The swimming jig, the crankbait and the spinner bait are all fast-moving baits. Although the bass’s biting metabolism may speed up because of the cooler weather or even slow down if the weather’s really cold, the bass get tired of seeing those faster-moving baits, especially if they’ve seen them all day, every day. The Wild Shiner has a different look and a really-different action from all the other baits that the bass are accustomed to seeing.

George CochranMany times, you can have a great day with this lure, especially if you’ll fish it slow enough and let it sit dead in the water by the cover. Since jerkbait fishing requires an angler to slow down his fishing, most fishermen don’t fish it effectively. We live in a run-and-gun, get-it-down quick, find-‘em-fast, catch-‘em-fast world. However, when you break out of that mold by using the Wild Shiner, you’ll often catch the bass, and many times, the bigger bass that the other fishermen won’t catch.




 

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