Find and Catch Bass Year-Round with Top Bass Anglers
Day 5: Professional Bass Fishermen Woo Daves and Gary Klein Give Tips for Catching Bass
Editor’s Note: Professional bass fishermen must catch bass year-round. Here’s what they say about their best bass-catching tips.
Woo Daves: Keep Your Eyes Open
To locate more bass, pay attention to the liveliness of the region. I’ll look for:
*birds flying and chirping,
*minnows skipping across the top of the water,
* frogs croaking,
* current running,
*squirrels climbing trees, eating nuts and
* any animal activity on the bank or in the water.
Activity in an area by other critters often means that the bass there will bite more actively. If you see a place that appears to be dead and flat, more than likely you won’t find bass there. Learn to fish all types of lures. Find out how a bait feels when it runs properly, when it comes through cover, when it moves along the bottom, and when it works its way though weeds. The more lures you can fish, the better your odds for catching more bass on every outing. Fish lures you don’t like. To consistently catch bass every time you fish you not only have to fish a variety of lures, but also need to have confidence fishing those lures. To gain confidence, leave all your other baits at home, and take that one lure out on the lake to fish. Once you feel confident that you can fish that lure and catch bass on different types of cover and under various water and weather conditions, put that lure in your tackle box. Then learn to fish another lure. Remember, learning to fish lures takes time.
Gary Klein: Confidence in Live Bait
Fish with lures you have the most confidence in, which will help you catch the most bass. When you need to catch bass, don’t throw a new “wonder lure” you’ve heard will catch numbers of bass, if you’ve never fished that bait before. Stick with the old reliable bait that has produced bass for you. Then you’ll consistently catch bass. But to catch more bass, fish live bait. Live shiners, crayfish, shad or worms consistently will produce more bass quicker than artificial lures will. Remember that artificial lures simply imitate the real thing. By dropping live bait around visible cover, you’ll catch more bass. |