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- Save Shredded Worms
When your plastic worms get torn up. Bass like to ambush wounded prey, so a beat-up worm is perfect to use, especially in shallow water.
- Red Fools the Fish
In shallow cover — wood, stumps, clumps of grass — use a spinner bait with a red or pink head, and a crank bait with red hooks. The red makes the fish think the bait’s injured, and they’ll bite it.
- Skip Your Bait
When you cast, stop halfway instead of following through, similar to a check swing in baseball. This makes the lure hit the surface of the water a few feet before your target, so the lure skitters over the water. It’s a good way to get under docks and other structures.
- Keep Your Hooks Sharp
Use a file to sharpen your hooks every time you want to catch a fish and before every trip. It takes 30 seconds. Bass have boney jaws, so a sharp hook is more apt to penetrate the fish.
- Look at Your Livewell Water
When you put a bass in the livewell, they’re notorious for spitting up what they were feeding on. From there you can tell what color or kind of lure to throw the rest of the day.
- Face the Wind
Sacrifice some distance in your casts and fish with the wind in your face. Bass always swim with the current, so it’s better for them to find your bait before they find your boat. Plus, the noise of water slapping your hull will carry away from the spot you’re fishing, which is good.
- Fish Shallow in the Spring
In the spring bass hang out in spawning beds. Concentrate on shallow areas, especially in pockets and coves protected from the wind because this is where they like to guard their eggs. They’ll bite as much out of irritation with the lure as they will be out of hunger.
- Make Your Bait Seasonal
Bass eat different bait depending on the time of year. The general rule is early in the year they like crawfish, so use peach-colored patterns. In the summer and fall they like shad, so use chrome or silver baits.
- Fish before the storm
The best time to fish bass is before a front comes through, and the worst time to fish them is after. The pressure makes the bass more active, so watch for a wall of clouds moving in. When it’s too pretty out, bass aren’t likely to bite.
- Bug Those Bass
Bass is an ornery fish. You have to keep tapping at it to upset it into biting your hook. Bass position themselves in cover, and like the lure presented to them at different angles. Toss lures at the same location until finally getting a bite.