 “HOW
TO FISH WHEN THE WATER IS UP WITH CLIFF CRAFT”
Angling Flooded Grass
EDITOR'S NOTE: This week we’ll look at fishing
high water with all the floods in the Gulf Coast  area
due to Hurricane Katrina and the rain dumped along the
Eastern Seaboard by Hurricane Ophelia. Cliff Craft of
Sugar Hill, Georgia, has been one of the country's leading
anglers for a number of years. A professional fishing
guide on Georgia's Lake Lanier as well as a tackle representative,
Craft travels the country teaching fishing seminars
and competing in bass fishing tournaments, and enjoys
fishing high water.
 When
a lot of grass has been flooded by rising water, the
spinner bait is your best bet. By casting a spinner
bait far back into the grass and retrieving it quickly
back to the boat, you often can pull the bass out of
the cover. With the spinner bait, you also can cull
the bass before you catch them. If you want to take
big bass, use a big blade that looks like a Buick hub
cap. If you want to take smaller bass, you can utilize
a smaller spinner blade. Just remember that the bigger
baits produce the bigger bass.
 A
buzzbait also is deadly on grass. A big buzzer that
can come across the weeds will call bass. Some fishermen
avoid grass in high water because they are afraid they
will hang up their lures, or they don't believe they
can get a bass out of the weeds if it attacks. However,
by using a spinner bait and/or a buzzbait with a fast
retrieve, you can work flooded grass without staying
fouled-up all day. I also believe an angler is much
better off to have a bass on and have to work to get
it out of cover than he is to have no bass on his rod.
So I work the vegetation thoroughly on rising water.
TOMORROW: BASSING STEEP ROCKY
BANKS, AND FINDING BASS ON BIG FLOODS AND IN HIGH WATER
|
