Hunt for Shallow Bass at Any Time of Year by Jimmy Houston
Day 4: Jimmy Houston on Catching Postspawn Bass in Shallow Water
Editor’s Note: When largemouth bass head for the shallows in the fall or at anytime of the year, finding them begins with knowing where they’re not.
  I don’t believe sportsmen ever should catch bass from their beds. I also don’t favor fishing during the spawn, feeling that allowing bass to lay their eggs and produce their young without being harassed is better. I sometimes feel anglers have become too skilled at catching spawning bass, a practice I believe will deplete the resource. In my opinion, fishermen who catch spawning bass should release their catches.
Catching Postspawn Bass:
During the postspawn, before bass move into deep-water, summer patterns, the structure of the lake itself dictates where bass will hold. In a moss-filled water, like Lake Guntersville in north Alabama, bass move to the outer edge of the grass after spawning. In lakes like Lake Fork, Sardis and Toledo Bend, bass hold near standing timber on the edges of creek and river channels, suspending in 8 to 10 feet of water over a 20- to 30-foot bottom. To catch these fish, an angler will have the best results fishing a lure like a Heddon Zara Spook or a Bomber Long A.
  I don’t understand why bass suspend in channels, unless they prefer these waters for post-spawn recuperation. Even when fishing deep water, I use shallow-water tactics knowing I can trigger a strike from suspended bass with a jerkbait, whether the fish are hungry or not. Even in a muddy lake like Dardanelle, on the Arkansas River, where the water remains stained most of the year, the fish move from the shoreline to suspend during the postspawn. Here, they sometimes suspend in just 1 to 1-1/2-feet of water, beside logs or other terrain features. I’m convinced one of the reasons postspawn bass are often difficult to catch is their tendency to suspend in deep water that offers few structures for the bass fisherman to recognize where to fish.
  These tactics are just a sample of what you’ll learn in the new Kindle eBooks, “How to Bass Fish Like a Pro” and “How to Catch the Biggest and Most Bass in Any Lake” by John E. Phillips. Go to http://www.amazon.com/kindle-ebooks, type in the names of the books, and download them to your Kindle, and/or download a Kindle app for your iPad, SmartPhone or computer.
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