By : Dan O’Sullivan - Advanced Angler
I wanted to cover some of the things that make sight fishing a lot more fun and productive. Some of it is tools and equipment related, but also a little about the approach.
I don’t know about you, but this is one of my favorite times of the year to fish. Sure, the springtime bite can always be good when it comes to catching fish. However, the moment that the bass’ attention turns to spawning, I must admit getting a little turned on myself.
No, I’m not some sort of a freak, but sight fishing itself quite possibly may be my favorite way to catch a bass. I genuinely love Flippin’, and Frog Fishing is a blast too. But, when those fish get on the nest, and it becomes a battle of wills between me and the bass; I get charged up.
Let’s start with the gear.
Let’s just sum it up by saying that when you are sight fishing, variety is the spice of life. By the end of a day of sight fishing, I may have 20 rods on the deck of my boat, and they all have something different rigged on them. My basic rule of thumb on sight fishing is that if I think it might work, I need to try it.
My typical sight fishing choices vary from the natural to the absurd. I truthfully prefer to use natural colored lures in beds because so many people use white, but I sometimes put one spot of a bright color near the hook with dye or paint so that I can see the lure in dirty water or algae. Although I will admit, I do use a lot of white baits on bedded fish. I even have bright chartreuse and florescent orange lures that I use.
I like to have a selection of lures that represent a variety of “critters” when I go bed fishing. I also like to keep a selection of different sizes at the ready as well so that I can try and agitate different sized fish with lures that match their sizes. I’ve often found that a large female; one over five pounds, is more likely to take over protection if the male can’t make a large intruder leave the nest. so, I keep different sized offering ready.
For my smaller lures, I like things like a Missile Baits Drop Craw, a 3 1/2-inch tube, and I will even go as small as a crappie tube or 2″ crappie grub like a Bobby Garland, Big Bite Baits and Mr. Crappie rigged on a drop shot or a darter head with size 1 hook in it. Of course I throw all of these on spinning gear, usually with 10 to 15-pound test Superline and a eight to 10 foot leader of eight-pound-test fluorocarbon.
These offering are usually used when the fish is really tough to get to react, or when a big bait agitates it, but it won’t bite, I turn to this and they often snap it up in frustration. I do tend towards these smaller offerings a lot on smallmouth and spotted bass – especially on deeper beds – because they can be aggressive enough that they suck it in within minutes. Or, these fish have a real tendency to bite a worm behind the hook, so you lose a lot of baits before the fish takes the whole thing in its mouth
Baits in the three to six-inch range can create a reaction from just about any size bass. This bait selection can include, creature baits, craws, small swimbaits, bluegill imitations, stickbaits etc. In these instances, I prefer to use Texas Rigged soft plastics on the bed, and I like to pick baits that allow me to use a large a hook as possible to put the hook point as far back in the body as possible.
I will use 3 1/2-inch tubes, Strike King Rodents, Shellcrackers and Rage Craws, YoDaddy Craws and Real Deal Craws from Big Bite Baits, Gene Larew Biffle Bugs, Salt Craws and Salt Flick’Rs, along with Missile Baits D Bombs and Missile Craws.
