Entry 204-5

Bass Fishing in June with Mark Rose

Part 5: How to Fish Shut-Down Bass

Question: When the weather gets hot, and the water temperature climbs high, how are you fishing for those shut-down bass, and what baits will you be using?

Rose: The first bait that comes to my mind when bass shut down and refuse to bite is the shaky-head worm. I’ve grown to love using the shaky-head worm, and the reason may be that I’ve won a lot of tournaments and made a lot of money fishing that bait. Therefore, I have confidence in it. I like either a 7-inch trick worm or a 4-inch finesse worm on my shaky-head jig. I like to fish these two sizes of shaky-head worms in deep water, unless the water is so stained that I can’t fish that deep water with confidence. If I have to go to shallow water with the shaky head, I’ll usually skip it around boat docks or into the shade underneath overhanging willow trees or buck brush or any type bush in the water where I locate shade. I also use the Strike King Zero with the same type of application.When we have tough fishing conditions, those are the times to use your do-nothing type baits.

Question: Mark, how do you skip the finesse worm?

Rose: I put the finesse worm on 8-pound-test line, use a spinning rod, hold my rod tip low to the water and let her fly. As long as you are using a weight less than 1/16 of an ounce, you can skip that worm under almost any type of structure. I use primarily a 1/16- or 1/8-ounce lead when I’m skipping worms.

Question: How far can you skip a worm?

Rose: You can skip a worm about 15 feet. I use this skipping-worm tactic mostly under boat docks, shaded marinas and pontoon boats.

Question: How do you decide whether you’re going to fish a shaky head or rig your worm Texas style?

Rose: I’m fishing the shaky head in the areas where there’s not any grass. I like a hard bottom like a rocky bottom, shoals, pea gravel, bluffs and/or rip-rap. If I’m fishing a Texas-rigged worm, I’ll fish it around brush or grass.

Question: Are there any other tactics that you’re using in hot weather that we need to let our readers know about?

Rose: Yes, I’m using crankbait a lot at this time of year when I’m trying to find a school of bass. Looking for a school of bass is like hunting a needle in a haystack. However, if you can locate a school, you can often catch your limit of bass at the spot where you’ve found the school. I’ll primarily fish a crankbait to find schools of bass in clear water. Anytime the water has some visibility, I’ll often back away from the shoreline and try to find a school of bass to catch, instead of target fishing.

Right now, here on the Tenn-Tom I’m fishing for one bass in a spot, because the water’s dingy. I prefer to fish when the water’s not quite so dingy, and I can spend my time looking for a school of bass. When I find that clearing water, I’ll rely heavily on my Strike King crankbait to get a bite out of one of the schools. Once I locate the school of bass with the crankbait, I may start fishing slower-moving baits like the shaky-head worm or the jig to try to catch all the bass I can out of that school.

Question: Is there another lure that you’ll use this time of year that you like?

Rose: I almost forgot one lure that I depend a lot on and that’s the Strike King Compact spinner bait. I fish both the Compact Silhouette and the Compact Elite, especially when I’m fishing a tournament that has a 200-boat field, and I have to fish for highly-pressured bass. The Compact spinner bait gives you the weight of a 1/2-ounce spinner bait that looks like a 1/4-ounce spinner bait. I’m fishing that little spinner bait an awful lot now because it has a small profile, and I can chunk it a country mile. The colors I like best are chartreuse-and-white and the bleeding pearl when I’m fishing clear-water conditions.

Question: On what pound test line are you using this spinner bait?

Rose: I’m fishing it on 17-pound-test line because it cuts through the grass better than the 20-pound test that I normally fish.  I’ll be fishing the Compact spinner bait on a medium to medium-heavy rod, 6-1/2-feet long, and I’ll be using a Shimano Chronarch reel with a 6.2:1 reel.

Contents:

• Part 1: In the Heat of the Battle
• Part 2: Know What the Frog Knows
• Part 3: Where I Go Next
• Part 4: Do It on Top
• Part 5: How to Fish Shut-Down Bass