Deep Crankin' for Mid Summer Largemouth: Part II

Deep Crankin' for Mid Summer Largemouth: Part II

     Well here we are in mid-August.  In most of the country bass fisherman are beginning to gear up for one of my favorite times of the year.  The shad are getting larger and the bass will soon be following them up into the shallows and the backs of creek channels.  Fall is the time of year when you can catch them on top-water all day long.  Soft weightless jerkbaits and spinnerbaits will soon be flying off the shelf as the bass make their way through their end of summer migration.

     The problem of course, I (and most of my readers) live in Arizona.  The back-to-school season is in full bloom, and of course that means we still have 3 months of summer left.  Fishing is still tough around the Phoenix area, so you only have a few options.  1.  Take a drive to the high country, there's surprisingly great bass fishing up there and with temps in the 80s you can still get away with throwing most of your post-spawn tactics.  2.  Keep tossing that dropshot rig around and have a blast catching 13 inchers out of 25 feet of water.  Or, 3.  Read my blog, then use that information to catch a toad!

     If you haven't yet, before reading this post, go click on part I of this article.  Another option, be lazy and read the following review from last week's lesson:

Step 1: Pick a brand of crankbaits.  Strike King and Rapala both have many options of baits that will allow you to effectively fish from 10 to 25 feet.  There's many great companies out there, but these two companies have the widest range of baits that will fit most angler's budgets.

Step 2: Change the hooks.  Just do it.  It won't make for a very memorable evening, but you'll be happy you took the time to do it later this weekend!

Step 3: Use the right gear.  Medium power rods with a soft tip work great for most crank baits.  As you get into the real big guys (8XD and 10XD) I suggest upping the power to a medium-heavy in order to get those bigger treble hooks to stick.

Step 4: Pick a color.  I use shad color baits 95% of the time because I fish in lakes loaded with shad.  If you decided to head up north, or to the White Mountains lakes, grab a handful of bluegill and baby bass colors, those lakes don't have shad and your bait will be unnatural to the fish.

Step 5: Map study.  Find ledges, points, and humps in the 15 to 25 foot deep range.  Stick to the main lake or channel swings where there is deep water nearby.

     Alright, on to the new stuff.  Below I'm going to discuss the finer details.  How to fish specific cover, various retrieves, setting the hook, and some more random tips that didn't really fit into a category of their own.

Step 7:  Pay attention to your sonar

     Wait, what about step 6?  Is that what you're wondering?  If so, you were lazy and just read the quick review above.  Stop it, go read part I, slacker....

     So you’ve found a location that, based on bottom contour, looks like it should hold bass.  I mentioned earlier that there will often be a “sweet spot” in these locations.  The “sweet spot” is seldom random, there’s usually something down there (a rock, brush pile, grass bed, etc.) that the fish are holding onto.  Not every piece of isolated cover will hold fish, but you should fish it anyway.  Even if you don’t see an arch on your graph, it’s worth throwing a bait to.

     The picture above shows a boulder sitting on a gravel bottom.  Hard surfaces translate as red and oranges while softer surfaces will show as blues and greens.  In this image, you can see how the bass position themselves on and behind the boulder to ambush the baitfish as they pass by.  Use that information when deciding upon your presentation.  Bass don’t like it when the bait comes up from behind them.  The best approach in this situation would be to cast out beyond the boulder and pull your bait through the cloud of baitfish and deflect it off the boulder right in front of their faces.  (Remember, the graph shows what is under your boat over time, meaning that the bait fish on the left side of the screen is now behind you, the bass on the right side are underneath you.)  In this situation an 8XD (20 to 23 feet) would be ideal because it gets deep enough to hit that boulder, but not too deep that it would dig into the gravel and get hung up on the front side of the boulder. 

     This image shows submerged grass.  Grass can be tough to fish with a crank bait, if your depth and angle is off in the slightest bit, you’ll end up with treble hooks full of grass and the bass will leave your bait alone (baitfish swimming around with 3 feet of grass dragging behind them isn’t too often a natural occurrence in the environment).  You may find bass holding on the outside edge of the grass.  These are the bass that will be more willing to bite as they are out there for a reason (looking for food).  If you find these bass use a bait that will get down to the depth they are holding at or deeper.  In this particular case I would use a 6XD or 8XD.

     If you don’t see any fish on the graph, it’s because they are hiding inside the grass.  You can’t fish a crank bait efficiently inside the grass, but you want to get as close as possible.  Here, I wouldn’t go any deeper than a 3XD.  That bait will get you just deep enough to tap the top of the grass.  If you are still pulling up weeds with each cast, try holding your rod tip higher in the air.  A 3XD will reach about 10 feet if your rod tip is pointed down.  If held up 3 feet it will only dive to 7 feet.  Use the table at the beginning of this article, along with some simple math and you can pinpoint exactly where your lure will end up.

Step 7:  Throw it til’ your arm falls off

     There’s almost no wrong way to fish a crank bait.  A simple cast and steady retrieve will usually trigger a bite if there’s a bite to be had.  However, sometimes you need to put a bit more effort into fooling those finicky bass.  Below are a few tactics you can try to tempt even the most wary fish.

Power Fish:  Also known as “digging trenches”.  Pick a lure that runs at least 5 feet deeper than the depth of where you’re fishing.  If you’re in 10 feet of water, put on a 5XD.  Cast out and retrieve relatively quickly.  That lure will pound into bottom kicking up all kinds of dust.  This imitates a crawfish scurrying across the bottom, or even a large baitfish fleeing from a predator.

Stop and Go:  This technique imparts an erratic action to the lure, similar to a jerk bait.  It imitates a dying baitfish and does a great job attracting those finicky suspending fish.  Use a lure that runs the same depth the fish are holding.  Start retrieving with a few quick turns of the reel to get the bait down to it’s running depth.  Then simply stop and go, turning the reel handle just once or twice at a time.  This causes the bait to dart downward, then float up, dart downward, and float up.  Like a jerk bait, the bite will usually come on the pause as the lure is floating back up.

Finesse:  Like “digging trenches”, pick a lure that will dive deeper than the depth you’re fishing.  Give the reel handle a few quick turns to get the lure to the bottom, then slow it down.  Then slow it down some more.  Then, slow down.  Are you still moving the handle?  If so, slow down some more.  This slow retrieve allows the lure to lightly bounce off the bottom without kicking up too much dust.  It will look like an unsuspecting baitfish feeding on the bottom.  This technique works best in areas with sand or a fine gravel bottom.  

Fishing Up:  If you get hit within the first few cranks of the reel handle, the fish are telling you something.  Listen to them!   Schooling fish especially will feed up higher in the water column.  Use a bait that stays above where the fish are on the graph, or keep your rod tip high and keep that bait off the bottom.  When “fishing up”, your bait won’t be deflecting off anything, so any action you want to impart on it, you’ll have to add yourself with either an erratic retrieve with the reel handle, or with some pumps of the rod tip.

Step 8:  Set the hook

     Don’t trust the idea that a fish will set itself on a crank bait.  I’ve already mentioned that some of these big deep divers have huge thick wire hooks, and that any pressure you put on the hook will be divided by the number of hook points pressing into the fish.  What I haven’t talked about yet is just how easy it is for the fish to throw a crank.  These baits are big.  That means they can get leverage on it very easily and use the momentum of the bait to help throw it.  My advice is to set the hook when you get hit, and then keep setting the hook during the fight.  I’ve seen a fish jump on me with only the front hook in his lip, then by the time I get him to the boat, only the back hook is in.  If I didn’t reset that hook at some point, I likely would have lost him.

     However, don’t be afraid to wait on your hookset.  Once you get hit, watch the line.  Which direction is he swimming?  Pull your rod tight in the opposite direction.  If he goes left, turn him right with a sweeping hookset.  If he takes it down, jack him back up with an over-the-head hookset.  Most importantly, when he starts coming up drop the rod tip down and reel as fast as you can.  Dip the whole rod in the water if you have you, but don’t let him jump unless you’re trying to impress the ladies.  If you’re in a tournament with money on the line, NEVER LET THE FISH JUMP (unless you’ve got an audience of 9’s and above).  See that picture above?  Looks pretty cool, eh?  No...  I don't like seeing that one bit.

Final tips

-Invest in a “Plug Knocker”.  They can be found online for around $25, depending on the crank baits you use, it will pay for itself in just three or four trips.  This summer I snapped off probably $50 worth of crank baits/hooks before I finally decided I should get one.  Now, $75 later, I wish I would have gotten one at the start of this project.

-Get a pair of marker buoys, not just “a” marker buoy.  With two, you can mark a long extended ledge.  If you only need one to mark the end of a point or a hump, keep the other ready to drop when you get hit.  That way you can make the same cast over again.  So many times one piece of cover will hold several fish and they will only bite if the bait comes from one particular angle.  Once you find that angle, mark it and keep repeating the same cast.

-Buy more than one of the same color/model of each lure.  Often times, only one color will be working that day, and that’s the one that will get snagged bad enough to snap off.

- If you’re part of the 99%, don’t spend more than $15 on a crank bait.  Most of those lures are better at catching fisherman than fish.  Remember, a crank bait is a reaction bait.  It moves fast (usually) and the fish won’t get a good look at it anyway.  You don’t need a custom hand painted bait to catch a lot of fish.

- Don’t waste the flip!  The flip comes at the end of the retrieve, when the bait passes the end of your rod and is directly under the boat.  It will flip around before coming back up.  Occasionally, that quick flip will trigger a strike.  If you just reel quickly at the end and horse that lure back up, you’re missing out on this opportunity.  The majority of goon-fish I catch on cranks (mostly catfish) will hit just after the flip.

- Snaps and swivels.  Don’t use them.  Tie a knot like a man. 

                              I can only assume that the owner of this lure is an eight year-old.

     If you’ve made it this far, good for you.  Personally, I lost interest 15 minutes ago.  To reward you for making it to the end of this article (or two if I make this a two-parter) I will let you in on my final, yet most important bit of advice:  Always know where your bait is.  Not just how far out horizontally, but the depth at that point!  The important part of this is the “2/3 Rule”.  (Shout out to Gene Jensen for that one!)  Any crank, regardless of brand/model/color/bill will reach its maximum diving depth about 2/3 of the way in.  This means everything when it comes to boat positioning.  If you’re targeting a deep boulder, you need to be close to that boulder, real close.  Like, no more than 15 to 20 feet away from that boulder.  This is why long casts are important.  Regardless of the type of lure you’re throwing, you want to keep it in the strike zone as long as possible and a long cast is the key to doing that.

     Now, get out there and throw some cranks.  You’ll catch some nice fish, and you can skip “arm day” at the gym.  Like always, if you learned anything here that catches you a fish next time out, let me know in the comments below.  I’m a teacher at heart.  I get a bigger kick out of helping you catch a fish than catching one myself!

Deep Crankin' for Mid Summer Largemouth: Part I

Deep Crankin’ for Mid Summer Largemouth: Part I

     Today’s high in Phoenix, Arizona hit a blistering 115 degrees.  Most of you are lucky enough to be sitting in an office.  In the back ground you hear fingers clicking away on the keyboard in the cubical next to you along with the soft hum of the air conditioner, chugging along like nobody’s business pumping out a cool 76 degrees.  If you’re not at the office, you’re probably in your truck sitting in rush-hour traffic on the I-10.  You’re late for work, but you don’t care.  As that max AC blows straight through your face you can send all the emails you need to right from your phone, lucky you.

     Well not me.  I’m a teacher.  It’s the middle of July and the responsibilities that will eventually haunt my sleep for the next 9 months are just a blur off in the far away horizon.  Now I know I should feel blessed.  I have a career that I can survive uncomfortably on that gives me 3 months off to do whatever my heart pleases.  But why (and yes, I know I just began a sentence with the word “but”) do those three months have to be during the toughest time of the year for bass fishing?  Would it destroy society as we know it if the school year lasted from May to January?

     As you’re sitting there in your comfy office chair reading fishing reports behind your boss’s back, I’m out here sweating it out in the trenches to bring you those reports.  This summer’s field research project deals with a technique that I think many anglers overlook during a time when everyone is focused on slowing down their presentations in order to tempt a hot, lethargic, summer bass:  Deep cranking.

Step 1:  Pick a crank bait

     So which crank bait should you try?  Like the menu at Taco Bell, It really doesn’t matter, it’s all the same stuff wrapped up under a different branding.  However, I suggest you stick with a single company that has a wide range of deep divers.  I find that it’s easier to learn one company’s system for their whole line of baits rather than picking and choosing random models from five different makers.  For this reason I chose to go with Strike King and their XD line of baits.  Take the number, multiply it by three and you will get fairly close to it’s maximum diving depth.  Below is a chart I’ve compiled of how deep each one will run given how heavy of line you use: 

Step 2:  Change the hooks

     Story time; about 6 weeks ago I fished a motorless night tournament at Saguaro Lake.  I got my ass handed to me (more like thrown in my face by the left hand of a 2001 Randy Johnson).  I went 0 for 7 on decent sized bass that hit my 5XD and immediately swam up and spit the hook while airborne.  Heartbroken, I returned to weigh in two hours early empty handed to find 5 gallons of water in my kayak’s hull (but that’s a different story).

     The next day I changed my hooks.  I was never a big proponent of changing hooks.  I thought it was just something the hook companies wanted you to believe was important, but I put on a fresh new set of Gamakatsus anyway, and it paid off.  Two weeks later I hooked up over 20 fish and only lost one when he got tangled up in a dropshot rig I had dangling over the bow.  I won that tournament with a three fish limit of over 58 inches.  That was enough to convince me that these factory hooks are an issue.  In the diagram below you’ll see the hook size I recommend for each bait I’ve been testing:   

Step 3:  Use the right gear

     Ideally I’d love to be able to take nine crankin’ sticks out with me each day.  In the perfect world I’d have three 6 foot medium-fast action, three 7 foot medium-fast actions, and three 7 foot medium heavy-fast actions.  On each of the three I’d have one rigged with 8 lb, 10 lb, and 12 lb test fluorocarbon line.  With those nine rods, I could efficiently fish crank baits from 8 to 25 feet hitting nearly every depth in between.  Remember though, I’m a teacher…  So I use two.

     For baits up to the 6XD, I use a 6’6” medium-fast action.  I prefer using a glass rod as it has more of a parabolic bend.  That longer bend will give you more cushion on the hook set.  What I mean by this is, when you set the hook, the rod will give in a bit more, delaying the hook set by a fraction of a second.  That little delay will allow the bass to take the bait just a bit deeper to give you more of a chance to hook him with both treble hooks.

     For the bigger 8XD and 10XD I use a 7 foot medium heavy rod, basically my jig rod.  There’s a few reasons for this:  For one, it’s a big, heavy, bait.  Throw one of these bad boys on a light rod and you’re likely to snap the tip on the cast.  Another reason is that the hooks on these guys are beasts.  These are not your standard little trebles, these hooks are thick.  You need quite a bit of power in your rod to get these suckers to stick to the fish.  Unlike a smaller crank, the fish typically won’t “set itself” on these thicker hooks, you need to rear back on them the same way you would a jig or Texas-rig, perhaps even more.  Think of it this way:  The force you put behind a hook set on a single hook (like a jig) will be divided by the number of hook points that are pressing into the fish.  It’s the same concept being used when a street performer lies on a bed of nails.  You really have to hammer that dude to get any of those nails to break the skin!

     I don’t have a preference for rod makers.  Nah, that’s a lie, I do.  However, until someone give me free gear and pays my tournament entries, I don’t have a preference for rod makers. ;)

Step 4: Pick a color 

     I use the K.I.S.S model when it comes to selecting colors.  What kind of bait fish are in your lake?  Shad?  Use a shad color.  Bluegill?  Use a bluegill color.  The lakes around the Phoenix area are filled with shad.  I can’t take a piss out on the lake without stirring up a school of these guys.  Honestly, I don’t even put much thought into water clarity when choosing the color of crank baits.  They are reaction baits that put out lots of vibrations and rattling sounds.  The visual aspect is, in my opinion, the least important factor.  With all the crankin’ I did this summer, I only used two colors.  During the day I used the “sexy shad” color pictured above. 

     At night, I switch it up with the “green gizzard shad”.  I really like this color at night.  It’s dark, which creates a silhouette, but it’s also metallic and reflective.  Every now and then it will catch just a glimpse of moonlight, or light from a nearby boat dock or head lamp.  That quick little flash of dim light is just enough to catch the attention of any nearby bass.

Step 5:  Find a spot

     One of the toughest parts of this summer’s deep crankin’ experiment was forcing myself to pull away from the bank.  I grew up throwing squarebills, topwater poppers, and Texas-rigs.  Targeting shallow, visible cover was the only fishing I had ever done.  I rarely looked at topo maps, and I didn’t own any marker buoys.  Does this sound like you?  If so, the best tip I can give you is to visualize what the lake would look like with 20 feet of less water in it, place marker buoys along the drop-offs, then fish it as if those marker buoys were the shore line.  Many lakes around the Phoenix area already have a lot of great areas clearly marked with various kinds of buoys.  Even if those buoys aren’t set up along long stretches of bottom structure, something is anchoring them to the bottom, and that something might just be holding fish.  Try running a bait by it and see what happens!  Below you’ll see two of my favorite types of bottom structure.

Ledges: 

     Above is an example of a ledge.  Navionics makes it pretty easy to find ledges on their webapp.  The areas in blue are typically less than 20 feet deep, so look for areas where the contour lines bunch up together and have blue on one side, and white on the other.  These are ideal ledges for deep cranking as the fish will typically bunch up on them in 15 to 25 feet of water in during mid-day.  Use two (or more) marker buoys to mark where the ledge is, then fish the path between your buoys as if it were the bank.

     Ledges will usually have a “sweet spot” that will hold multiple fish, so once you catch one stick around and make the same cast over and over, most likely there are more where that came from.  A third marker buoy will help you make this same cast.  I like to keep one right by my feet, that way the second I get hit, I can quickly kick it over the side to mark the exact place my boat was when the strike occurred.  At the same time, take a mental note of the shore off in the distance, look for a landmark that you can remember casting toward so that you can copy the same angle again.  A fish can pull you around quite a bit in a kayak and the wind can blow you a good deal while you unhook the fish and take pictures.  When you’re far off the bank, it’s difficult to remember exactly where you were just fishing. You may think you’re making the same cast over again, but you could easily be 20 yards off the mark if you are extra observant.  When the strike zone may only be a small 5 foot wide diameter, that can be the difference between a 20 lb limit and just one single fish for the day.

Points: 

     Points (and secondary points) are another key location to look for deep summer bass.  Like ledges, look on Navionics for “peninsulas of blue”.  As you can see in the example above, you can’t always rely on the shoreline to find points.  In this example the bank is a long, straight, wall of riprap.  The point is entirely submerged, you need a topo map, depth finder, or a Carolina rig and a lot of time on your hands to find it.  Like I mentioned earlier, imagine that there is 20 feet of less water in the lake.  If that were the case, you would see the point as a shoreline point.  If you struggle to visualize the point, drop a marker buoy at the end of the point and make casts in several directions everywhere between your buoy and the shore.  Every thing about the marker buoys apply to points just as they did about ledges.  On a tough day, the angle of your cast could mean everything.  If there is a breeze or current, I’ll start by casting into it and retrieving the bait back across the point with the direction of the breeze or current.  If that’s unsuccessful I’ll work my way around the entire point casting to the shallow water and working down the slope on all sides.

     You may have noticed this particular point has a hump on the end.  There are quite a bit of examples like this throughout the Salt River chain of lakes.  You’ll also find the occasional isolated hump all on it’s own.  For practicality’s sake, a hump is just a point with four sides instead of three.  Fish it the same way.

Step 6:  Consider what you are doing

     You've been working hard all week to support yourself and your family.  Now the weekend is here and you want to go spend the day in 110 degree heat chasing after a fish that you are just going to release back to the water after looking at it for a minute or two?  How much money did you spend on the equipment for this?  How many hours did you work to earn that money?  Shouldn't you probably use all this effort and money to make the world a better place?  You could have slept in today, but instead you wake up even earlier than on days you have to go to work?

     No?  Still want to go piss off a fish by feeding him a fake breakfast full of hooks?  Cool, me too.  Check back here next week for the last four steps of Deep Crankin'.  I'm going to tell you all you need to know about finding the "sweet spot" I mentioned above, as well as a few different ways to work a crank bait, and more of my opinions on hook sets and fighting the fish.

     Let me know what you think down in the comments or on social media.  If any of this has helped you catch a fish on your latest trip, let me know!  As a teacher I always get more of a kick out of helping you catch fish than catching them myself!

Details of the Drop Shot

I 

After seeing this crazyness at the boat ramp on July 1st, I figured I stay away from the crowds for the remainder of the 4th of July weekend.  This gave me plenty of time to gather my thoughts together about my most successful technique and lay them out here for you.  Just a heads up, this is going to be a long post.  You may want to take a moment to pee and maybe grab a snack from the kitchen....

Alright, how was your pee?  Feel better now?  Good.  A few weeks ago I discussed several ways to rig and fish the small finesse worms from Cactus Wren Outdoors, for a quick overview of each, check out my previous posting here.  The most productive of these techniques for me on our hot, deep, Arizona reservoirs is of course the drop shot.  As a kid, I remember sitting in the living room as a family watching Walker Texas Ranger.  While I don't recall a single plot, or any of the characters names besides Walker, I do remember lots of roundhouse kicks to the face of various criminals.  That is exactly what a four inch Quail Tail from Cactus Wren Outdoors imitates while rigged up on a drop shot.

While many bait companies choose to design lures based on small baitfish profiles like shad, bluegil, or other various bass forage, Cactus Wren's baits are designed with a subtle action to imitate Chuck Norris's steel toed shoe against a drug lord's jaw.  Below, I will walk you through rigging and fishing a drop shot effectively, and I'll let you in on a few secrets I've learned that will produce bigger bass on what is widely considered to be a little-fish-presentation.

Where to fish the Drop Shot:

Many of my local readers are familiar with Saguaro Lake, just outside of Mesa, AZ.  Below, I've marked on a map of Saguaro a few of the places that I've found most productive with the drop shot technique.

As you can see, the above map is quite broad.  It shows a wide range of shallow cover, deep structure, points, cuts, ledges, docks, grass beds, spawning flats, ect.  Below I'll give a more detailed map, so that you will be able to go out and fish the same spots that I already know holds bass year round.

As you can probably tell by now, I'm just screwin' with you.  I'm not going to give out my spots for free!  However, the map is still accurate!  I'll throw a drop shot just about anywhere!  Regardless of the variables a bass angler has to sort through, you can catch a bass on a drop shot as long as there are bass in the area.  The technique works shallow or deep, clear or muddy, hot or cold, and rocky or grassy.  I'll even pitch it into flooded timber or into matted grass pockets.  In that case however, I'll use heavier baitcasting gear.

Equipment:

Many anglers have a very specific combination of equipment they recommend for a drop shot set up.  To keep it simple, you want a relatively light spinning rod.  That's all I'm going to suggest.  I'll tell you specifically what I use in just a minute, but the key is a light rod, and an open faced reel.  Pick one that you like, get comfortable using it, and once you figure out the slightest details of using your particular equipment you'll be just as productive with your rod as you would be "the perfect drop shot rod".  So with that said, here's what I use:

For a rod I use a Duckett White Ice series 6'10" medium spinning rod.  This rod is 4 inches shorter and a bit stiffer than their "drop shot rod" of the same series.  Since I fish from a kayak with limited space and stability, I find the shorter rods are easier to control, and I get a better hookset with the stiffer rod... Actually, that's all b.s...  I got it because some bozo employee mispriced it and I got it for $99.  Like I said though, use a rod you like and get comfortable using it.  Unless you're fishing tournaments with $100,000 on the line, there's very little reason to go overboard with buying technique-specific equipment for every single tactic!  If someone tells you otherwise, they are probably a salesman.

The reel I use is an Abu Garcia Orra S Spinning Reel with a 5.8:1 gear ratio.  That's a relatively quick retrieve for a spinning reel.  I like a fast reel for a few reasons, but there's one key reason:  It's easier to reel a fast reel slowly than it is to reel a slow reel quickly.  With regards to drop shot, there's not much reason you'd ever need to reel slowly anyway!

On my reel I use 20 lb high-vis braid with an 8 lb fluorocarbon leader of about 10 feet. I know a lot of guys that will run straight 6 lb fluorocarbon, however these are the guys that refer to the drop shot as a little-fish-presentation.  If you listen to the tips I'm going to give you, you're going to have a frustrating time on the water as you break off toad after toad on your 6 lb line! 

Rigging:

If you didn't read my past posting on how to rig Cactus Wren baits, here's what I said about the drop shot set up:

"To rig a drop shot, tie on your hook with a Palomar knot, be sure to leave plenty of tag end on your line.  Take the end of the tag end and run it back down through the eye of the hook.  Give it a little tug and it should pull the knot through the eye.  If done correctly the hook will be pointing up and the knot will be below the eye of the hook.  In the spring and fall I will generally put the weight about 8 to 12 inches below the hook.  In summer and winter, when the bass are holding very tight to the bottom, I'll shorten it up to 3 to 6 inches."

Here are two more details I didn't mention the first time:

1. If you find that your hook keeps slipping back up over the knot and turning sideways in the water, try using a double, or triple palomar knot.  The extra wrap in the knot will make the knot bigger so it's less likely to slip back through the eye of the hook.

2. If I'm picking apart deep off-shore structure like a hump or a ledge, I'll use a much longer distance to the weight, sometimes up to two or three feet.  I'll explain this in detail later.  

Vertical Presentation:

This is how many anglers fish a drop shot.  It can be effective when the bite is tough and the bass have moved deep and holding close to their structure or cover.  It's also boring.  It's why the drop shot has a bad reputation and gets made fun of by his peers by being called the "fairy wand".  If this is the only way you fish this rig, you are missing out!  This presentation reminds me of Chuck Norris's fist.  Is it productive in knocking out the leader of a dog fighting ring?  Sure.  But wouldn't you rather see a roundhouse kick to the temple?  Of course! 

The red line in the diagram above shows the path of the bait when fished vertically.  This presentation is fine when you locate a single isolated fish on your graph.  You can quickly drop down right on top of a bass and pick them off.  However, you'll see in the diagram that this only gives the one fish a look at your bait.  Often times there are several fish holding near cover like this brush pile.  Next, I'll show you a better way to cover this deep cover to give several fish a chance at taking your lure.

Horizontal Presentation:

One thing that many people don't realize about the drop shot rig is that once your sinker is on the bottom, you are essentially fishing a weightless plastic.  To understand this concept, let's think for a moment about another fairly popular technique:  The Weightless Senko.

In the diagram above, the red line again represents the path of the lure, this time a soft stick bait.  These baits can be killer when the fish are ambushing prey in water from 1 to 5 feet deep.  Fishing a weightless soft stick bait is a three step process.  1.  Cast it out to your target and let it sink to the bottom on slack line.  2.  Wiggle it a bit on the bottom.  3.  Lift it up and let it sink again.  When repeated, you get the zig-zag effect shown in the diagram.  Nine times out of ten the bass will hit it as it's sinking, not as you're pulling it up, and rarely as its wiggling on the bottom.  You'll notice that this presentation covers the entire brush pile, and the bait sinks slowly right in front of both of the bass.

Now, back to my point about a drop shot.  Once the weight is on the bottom, your worm will slowly drop straight down, just like the Senko did.  You'll often hear the pros talking about how you only move the worm, not the weight.  That is of course if you want the worm to stay in the same place.  In the vertical presentation that may be true, but in the horizontal presentation, keeping the bait in the same place is not the most effective thing you can do.

Think about this.  Bass are ambush predators, we all know this.  Many lures are designed to be ambushed by the bass.  Has Chuck Norris ever been attacked by an army of drug runners while sitting motionless on his couch?  No.  The enemy is smarter than to willingly chase down The Norris.  Instead, they set up in an abandoned warehouse and wait for him to come kicking the doors in.  They ambush him, it's their only chance.  A slim, slim, chance....

What I'm trying to say is, you've got to be like Chuck, keep that lure on the move.  Bust into the brush pile like a shad on roids!  Don't wait for the bass to come to you, cast out there and bring it right through the bass.

You might be thinking "why not just throw a weightless Senko then?"  Remember I told you there was a better way to attack that deep isolated cover than the vertical presentation?  Fish it like a Senko, but without the Senko.  Those soft plastic stick baits are know for their slow sink rate, it takes way too long for a weightless Senko to get to 20 feet in order to fish it effectively.  A lot of anglers will use a weighted wacky jig, or put a nail weight in their Senko to get that bait down deep quickly.  The problem with that is it gives the worm a completely different action.  It no longer has that tempting slow sinking wiggle that it has when fished weightless.  Unless of course, it was on a drop shot.

Same deal, the red line is the path of the lure (not the weight).  Cast it out over a hump, point, or brush pile.  It will sink quickly, all the way down until the weight hits the bottom.  Once the weight hits, the worm will slow down and sink weightless for as far down as the weight is from the hook.  For example, if the above brush pile in 25 feet of water and my hook is two feet above my weight, my worm is going to become weightless at 23 feet deep and slowly sink right beside that brush pile for two feet.  From here, the process is the same as fishing the weightless Senko.  1.  Let it fall straight down on slack line.  2.  Wiggle it while it's on the bottom.  3.  Lift it up (including the weight), reel in the slack, and let if fall straight down again.  Now, unlike the vertical approach above, that worm is slowly swimming right by both bass instead of just hanging out in front of the one.

Colors:

I'm not the biggest believer in matching the hatch.  I'd be willing to bet that 75% of you that read this aren't either (even if you claim you are), and I can prove it.  Do you have confidence in the Morning Dawn color?  Yeah, you do.  Now, can you tell me which of our Arizona lakes, in which that color is so popular at, has an abundance of purple bait fish?  Nope.

I'm of the opinion that, to an extent, color doesn't matter as long as you can make the lure look alive.  Bass don't have hands, if they see something that looks like it might be food, the only way they can tell for sure is to grab it with their mouths.  Present a lure properly, and most likely a bass will hit it regardless of its color.  Also, at 25 feet below the water, most colors appear as some shade of gray anyway.  For these reasons, I suggest you gain some confidence with a couple colors and just stick with it.

With that said, I do have one guideline for how I narrow down my options of color.  If the water is clear, maybe five or more feet of visibility, I'll use a translucent color (Amethyst from Cactus Wren Outdoors is my go to).  If the water is stained or muddy, I'll use a solid color (something along the lines of Saguaro Sunset, or Murky Water from Cactus Wren Outdoors).

Cactus Wren Amethyst 

Cactus Wren Superstition Skies

Which Worm to Use:

Quail Tail, or Talking Stick?  I get this question often.  (Just so we're all on the same page here, in the pictures above, the one with the curly tail is the Quail Tail, and the straight tail worm is the Talking Stick).  Usually, the question is formed this way "Which one catches more fish?"  The answer is the Quail Tail, but it's more complicated than that.  I choose based on how active the fish are.  If the bass are on the move and chasing down baitfish, I want a worm with more action.  One that almost dares the fish to come chase it down.  So in this case, I'll use the Quail Tail.  If the bite is tough and the bass are lethargic, I don't want lots of action.  A lively lure won't fit in to the surroundings and may even spook the lethargic bass.  For this reason I'll choose the Talking Stick.  So yes, the Quail Tail catches more fish by far, but there are times (especially win the summer and winter) that you need the Talking Stick in order to get bit at all.

I use the four inch worms exclusively on drop shot during the day.  Anything bigger tends to over power the small octopus hook I use.  At night, I step it up to the five or six inch worms.  Just make sure if you use these bigger worms you up the hook size too.  In this case I like to use the VMC Power Shot hooks, or a 3/0 EWG hook.

Was That a Bite?

Ok, so you're all rigged up and your worm is down there doing it's dance.  How do you know when you've got a bite?  We've all heard the saying "Hook sets are free", right?  Well, it's wrong.  Hook sets can cost you a weight, or if you're real unlucky your hook and worm too.  In shallow water a big hook set on a blade of grass could cost you the pain of getting a hook buried in your face.  But more than likely, the main cost of an unnecessary hook set is no longer being able to catch the 10 fish that may have been encroaching in on that tasty looking worm of yours.  Usually a bass will slowly swim up and lightly take the worm in its mouth to investigate.  If it likes it, he'll take another light gulp and begin to swim off with it before sucking the whole thing down.  With that first bite, the hook is probably still hanging out of his mouth.  Set the hook too soon and you'll end up pulling the bait right out of his mouth.  Ninety percent of the bites I get on a drop shot go exactly like this:

1. I feel two or three light taps (don't move a muscle)

2. I feel a bit of steady pressure (lower your rod tip and reel up slack)

3. My line starts swimming away (NAIL THAT BASTARD TO THE WALL!!!)

How To Catch Bigger Bass:

If you've made it this far, congratulations.  This is a very long post, and to reward your above average attention span I'll give you my number one secret for catching bigger fish on a drop shot:  Spike-It.

This is what convinced my personal best 11 lb 2 oz bass to eat.  A four-inch Amethyst Quail Tail with the tail dyed yellow.  Since catching that monster in April, I've caught six more 20+ inch bass on it.  As I said before, the drop shot has a reputation for only catching little fish.  However, this one detail seems to change all that.  I have a theory, it's based on very little evidence and no research outside of my own experiences, but here it is:

A four inch Quail Tail right out of the package most imitates a shad, regardless of its color.  Shad are small fish.  Small bass eat small fish.  If you dye the tail yellow, it looks like a bluegill.  Bluegill are much bigger than shad.  Big bass eat big fish.  Even though both worms are the same size at 4 inches, a big hungry bass will see that bright yellow tail and think "Bluegill, yum."  When a big bass hits, it seems to hit much harder than the standard drop shot bite like I described above.  It leads me to believe that a bright yellow tail causes a reaction strike for big bass, even when your fast moving reaction baits aren't working.  Not only does this lead to bigger fish, but better hook up rates, and a much harder fight.

What do you think of this theory?  Let me know in the comments!  And if anything I told you here helps you catch Moby, post his picture so we can all see!  Good luck out there.  I hope I see you out on the water soon.

Note: Drop shot only catches small fish.... :P

Rigging a Fishing Kayak on a Budget

    I get a lot of compliments about my kayak when I'm out on the lake, quite a few times people have  mistaken it for a fully rigged Hobie.  From a distance, I can understand why, it would appear as though there's some serious money invested.  Now, I'm going to give you all a close up tour of my kayak to show you how I fool people into thinking I have an expensive set up.

    First of all let me tell you a little about my kayak straight from the shelf.  It's a Lifetime (yep, the picnic table company) Tamarak Angler.  They carry them at Sports Authority for $449.99.  However, Sports Authority almost always has sales or coupons on their larger items.  After using my coupon I got from buying tortilla chips from Fry's, I paid $359.98 ($362.47 if you include the price of the chips).  I did quite a bit of research on kayaks in this price range before buying this one and it came down to these three details:

- It has a flatter bottom than any other kayak I looked at.  While a flat bottom will make a kayak slower and not track very well, it makes it more stable to stand up on, and I can store it and transport it right side up without worrying about warping the hull.

- It was the only kayak in this price range with access to inside the hull at the front and the back.  This makes it better for storage, but also for rigging.  You need to be able to reach inside to run cords for electronics, and screw nuts on to the bolts you'll be using to rig up various things.

- The color matches my car.

    WARNING: Before you go off and buy this kayak because of the things I say about it, I need to let you know that I'm a pretty small dude at 5'7", 150 lbs.  This boat is 10 feet long with a weight capacity of 275 lbs.  I would not recommend this kayak to anyone over 6 ft and 200 lbs.  it's just too small and standing up would be quite risky.

    Below are six relatively simple DIY projects you can do in just a few weekends to save all kinds of money:

1. Anchor Trolly

    Besides a fish finder, one of the first things I recommend is an anchor trolly.  Some of the higher end boats have these pre-installed.  If not, you can expect to pay about $30 for a kit.  My solution will come out to about half that price, plus an added advantage over the kits.  The kits you can buy use a metal ring or triangle to pass the anchor line through before tying off the other end.  My solution uses a carabiner wich allows you to keep both ends of the line tied down while you just open the carabiner and snap the line through.

What you will need:

Carabiner - $0.98

Paracord- $3.98

Pully - $2.95 (x2)

Eye Screws - $0.26 (x5)

Bungees - $2.47

Total: $14.62

Cabela's Kit: $31.99

Savings: $17.37

2. Anchor

    What good is an anchor trolly without an anchor?  The tricky part here is getting the chain inside the inner tube.  You won't be able to push it through, you'll have to pull it.  The first step is to tie the paracord to the chain, pass the cord through the innertube so it comes out the other end of the tube.  Lube up the chain with... Your preferred lubbing substance... And work it through all the way.  Tie off the end with zip ties and you're good to go!

What you will need:

Rope: $2.78

Carabiner: $0.98

Paracord: $3.98 (but you already have all you need from the anchor trolly)

Bike Innertube: $5.41

Zip Ties: $3.94 (for a 20 pack, you only need 2) - $0.40

Total: $11.63

Austin Kayak Anchor: $19.99

Savings: $8.36

3. Chair

    This is one of the biggest money savers I have discovered yet.  Cheaper kayaks like mine come with seats that are a pain in the ass, literally.  Nice kayak seats are more comfortable, but more importantly they sit up higher.  They are also crazy expensive!  It took me a while to find a seat I liked.  In fact, I gave up looking and was about to pull the trigger on a $350 Wilderness Systems seat.  However, one day I ran out of salsa!  What's a man to do when he runs out of salsa?!?!  Well, I'll tell you what I did.  I went to the grocery store, that's what I did!  And what did I find at the grocery store, you ask?  Salsa.  Salsa, and this chair!  It's not perfect, maybe an inch or two too big to really fit nicely.  But it was $11.99!  I used paracord, that I already had from other projects, and tied down the back.  You may want to tie down the front as well, but I chose to leave it untied so I can flip it backwards during transportation.

Total: $11.99

Wilderness Systems: $349

Savings: $337.01

4. Rod Holder/Crate/Rudder Combo

    The only downside to this is how big it is.  There are all kinds of DIY kayak rod holders on the Internet, but have you ever seen one with a built in rudder?  No?  Well scroll up just a bit, there's one right up there!  Some tutorials for rod holders I've seen spend a lot of time heating up the PVC and molding it around a glass bottle, then cutting a slit in it, and blah blah blah.  Well, I didn't do all that and haven't had a problem yet.  One and a quarter inch PVC is large enough for any rod I have to fit in, the frame and rudder is made of just one inch PVC.  Each kayak is built differently, so you'll need to measure yours and custom built it to fit.

    

WARNING:  I don't trust PVC cement alone with holding my expensive rods and reels above the surface.  So, in addition to the cement, I drill a screw into each connection to hold them together better.

What you will need:

10 ft of 1" PVC Pipe - $4.66

10 ft of 1 1/4" PVC Pipe - $5.06

PVC Cement - $4.94

Various PVC Adapters - About $20

Screws - $6.47

Spray Paint - $5.98

Milk Crate - $9.99

Paddle - $24.07

Total: About $80

YakAttack BlackPak: $124.95

Ocean Kayak Universal Rudder: $225.00

Savings: $268.78

5. Steakout Pole

    A steakout pole is a huge benefit in the spring, when bass are shallow spawning and you're sight fishing.  Whenever you need to hold position in water less then 4 feet deep a steakout pole out performs any standard anchor.  All you need is a four to five foot section of 3/4 inch PVC pipe and a PVC Tee adapter.  Cut the bottom into a point so you can jam it into the bottom of the lake, river, or stream.

PVC Total: $5.34

YakAttack ParkNPole: $59.95

Savings: $54.61

6. Kayak Cart

    Like the PVC rod holder, different kayaks will require different measurements.  The most expensive part of this kayak cart is the wheels.  They can be very pricy at Home Depot or Lowes, but if you have a Harbor Freight Tools nearby, you can find them there for five dollars.

What you will need:

PVC Pipe and Fittings - About $20

Wheel Barrow Tires - $10

Hardware for attaching wheels - About $5

Total: $35

Austin Kayak C-Tug: $149.95

Savings: $114.95

Alright, let's add up the costs and savings and see where we stand:

Total Costs of DIY Additions: $158.58

Total Cost of Non-DIY: $959.66

Total Savings: $801.08

Just imagine the fishing gear you can buy with $800 in savings!  Now, just for fun let's take it one step further:

Lifetime Tamarak Angler w/ DIY Projects: $521.05

*Old Town Predator MX w/ Non-DIY: $2,258.66

Savings: $1,737.61 

Yikes!  Kayak fishing doesn't need to be expensive, folks.  I understand that often times you get what you pay for.  The non-DIY accessories will no doubt be of higher quality and will out last any of these DIY projects.  The ideal fishing kayak probably lies somewhere in the middle of this spectrum.  I just want to show you that there are plenty of other options out there than what you will find in stores or online.  Try just one or two of these and you'll free up some room in your budget for that new rod and reel combo you've been eyeing.

* I picked the Old Town Predator for comparison's sake because that was the first kayak that was recommended to me when I began my search for a kayak.

Arizona Summer Fishing Tips

    Ask any fisherman about their favorite part of our long, hot, Arizona summers and you'll probably just hear them grunt and groan about long wait times at the launch ramp, wake boarders tearing up the otherwise calm lake, and the mountains of trash created by the merry nature go-ers around the Phoenix Metro area.

    Before you start shaming others on social media, or head to the local rec center and organize a trash clean up/community picnic, consider the bennifits of littering yourself:  1. Colorful trash will brighten up and add color to our otherwise bland desert landscape.  2. People get paid to pick up trash, not littering would result in those poor folks losing their jobs.  3. It provides plenty of artificial habitat for our favorite fish and wildlife species.  4. Everyone else does it, what difference will your styrofoam bait cup and bud light can really make anyway.  And, of course, 5. Those dang trash recepticals are all the way on the other side of the road.

    Since this is a fishing blog, I want to focus on the third point stated above.  Trash in our waters provide much needed habitat for all of nature's beautiful creatures.  An abundance of these man-made habitats in our lakes will provide the state's bass population with what fisherman refer to as "cover".  Bass use this cover year-round in hunting prey, spawning, and for those warm post-front conditions when they just want to chill in the shade with their homies.  Just look at all this garbage that the Game and Fish Department is willingly tossing into the lake:

    So, as bass anglers, how can we use all this trash to our advantage?  Below I've outlined some of the most common trash piles that you will likely come across in our summer waters.

1. The Classic Tire

    Tires are great, just look how happy those turtles are.  A tire, partially exposed above the surface like in the picture above, provides structure similar to a boulder.  This shallow cover can be used as an ambush point by bass, especially early in the morning and at dawn when the shad begin to migrate towards the shore line.  Try top water poppers in the morning and at dawn, as well as white spinnerbaits throughout the day.  Like any shallow cover, work from the outside towards the center from multiple angles.

    A fully submerged tire in 1 1/2 to 3 feet of water is ideal in the early summer when the bluegil have moved up shallow to spawn.  You may find a nest of these bluegil inside the tire, and several other nests nearby surrounding the tire as bluegil often like to spawn as large schools, kind of like the flower power generation of the sixties.  A chartuse and blue squarebill crankbait can be deadly anytime the bass have moved shallow and into the bedding bluegil to feed.

    But of course, the most common place you will find this type of cover is along the shallow river banks of the Salt and Gila Rivers.  In current, large tires create large current breaks.  A current break is exactly as it sounds, a break in the current.  This provides slack water that a lazy bass will rest in while awaiting his meal to float by in the outside current.  Position your boat just down stream of the tire.  Cast a a crankbait or spinner bait upstream of the tire and work it back slowly and naturally with the current past the tire.  A small jig or shakey head worm could be worked in the same way, but slower, if the fish are especially tight lipped that day.

2. The Blue Light Special

    A staple in the urban fishing program, a shopping cart may provide the majority of structure in many of Arizona's urban lakes and streams.  But nature-goers, don't worry, I've come across the blue light special as far east as the Salt end of Roosevelt, and as far west as LA.

    Think of the shopping cart as a metal brush pile that's much less forgiving to your crankbaits.  Get your Strikeking 5XD snagged on one of these bad boys and you best be getting out the clippers.  Shallow or deep my go-to lure here is a jig.  Shopping carts have lots of nooks and crannies for those sneaky bass to hide in, so you'll want to make plenty of casts before moving on.  I like to use no less than 50 lb braid with my drag cranked down.  Just like fishing in thick brush, you want to pull that bass out of there quickly to avoid him pulling your line into the sharp metal edges of the cart that can easily cut 20 lb flurocarbon.

    If a jig doesn't get the job done, you can try a faster reaction bait like a small swimbait.  Just make sure that hook is buried deep in the plastic so your swimmy doesn't suffer the same fate as that 5XD.

3. Flippin' and Pitchin' the Mats

    When the trash begins to really mat up around the 4th of July Weekend, I like to bust out the heavy flippin' and pitchin' gear.  The trash creates a thick canopy on the surface providing plenty of cool shade for that lunker bass.  Ideally, look for trash mats in the backs of shallow coves in 2 to 4 feet of water.  Butcher Jones and Cove #1 at Saguaro Lake are prime spots as the water depth is just right, and the nearby recreation areas provide plenty of jack-ass litterbugs.

   The biggest bass will hold tight to the larger pieces of trash as science has proven that bass take pride in their personal belongings.  Much like humans, their cast system is based on greed and material possessions.  You might just find a small school of four-pounders aggressively protecting that 84 oz. ThirstBuster.  Because of this territorial behavior, short accurate casts are a must as the bass will not move more than 12 inches out of its strike zone.

    For more information on what gear to use and how to fish it effectively, see last weeks post regarding punching grass mats.

4. The Bride

    Fishing brides can be great when there is a steady wind or current.  I fish brides the same way I do bridge pillars.  If there is wind or current, I'll position the boat on the down wind side.  Brides, like tires, will act as a current break.  The ambushing bass will wait on the down wind side and wait for the baitfish to flow by.

    Often times fish can become very active around brides, so I like to start with a fast moving reaction bait.  Cranks, spinners, and swimbaits will all get the job done.  My first two casts will be parallel with the current along both sides of the bride.  If I get no bumps I'll switch to a small finesse bait like a shaky head or drop shot.  I'll stay on the down wind side of the bride and cast as close as I can to the sides, ideally within inches.  Often times with a soft plastic I'll cast right into the side of the bride, as the bait hits I'll drop my rod tip creating as much slack in the line as I can so that the bait can fall straight down along her side.  Most of the time the bass will hit it on the fall.  If not, I'll let the worm rest for just a second or two, hop it once and then lightly shake it.  If I haven't got bit by then I'll reel in a recast.

5.  The Lazy Boy

    In my college days, I would approach this senario differently.  My friend Dale had a truck, I would have called him up in an instant and offered him a 12 pack of bud to help me pull this thing out and set it up in the dorm.  Well times have changed.  I get my sofas from Ikea now, and Dale goes by Susan.  He...  She, also wouldn't accept the cheap beer anymore, I'd have to step it up to at least a locally brewed Hefeweizen.

    If you're going to fish it go with something weedless.  A jig or weedless wacky senko would work well.  The reason for the weedless approach is just out of courtesy for the next college-aged numbnut to happen across a new sofa.  Snags could lead to large tears, and duct tape can get expensive.

    I would approach this much like The Classic Tire.  Work the edges first, then move into the center of the cover.  There's two reasons for this:

1.  If you go straight for the middle, but miss your target and snag up on it first cast, you're going to disturb quite a bit of the area around it, spooking off any potential bass that might be there.

2.  If there's one bass, there's probably more.  I like to pick off bass from the sides of a small school because I feel that there's less of a chance of that bass disturbing the others.  If I were to go right in after the middle one, he may spook off the whole remaining school.

6.  Target Practice

    "Hey man, I bet I can hit that oil can from 40 yards out with this Red Eye Shad..."

    "But why, Brah?"

    "Dude, just watch....  Tssssssssssssssssssss, splash.

  .... Ah crap."

    So there you have it.  Next time you consider packing out more than you brought in, reconsider.  It's for the good of the fishery.  Next week, I'll share with you my favorite recipe for Pre-Spawn Female Largemouth Bass.