Got out Wednesday with my brother in law who is a very knowledgeable angler and a heck of a stick on the Wando to do some “lookin”. Being a bass guy I’m used to investing days on new fisheries to learn the nuances of them with my Lowrance units which is probably one of my strengths as an angler (electronics setup and interpretation) as I focus a lot of my tournament time on offshore / low pressure fish during the tournament season to get away from the bank beaters.
Well Weds was a bust for us, we looked and looked and looked some more at new to me water that he had not spent much time in either only to find blown out, muddy water, a ripping current, and no fish even in the deep holes that I had noted on my maps earlier. We chalked that up to an investment day of eliminating water which is a critical part of being efficient as an angler that I’ve learned as I’ve prepared for tournaments on waters that are new to me. How I practice and prepare has a direct impact on how I do and sometimes that means not making a cast while I locate fish, structure, bait, offshore cover, etc and it usually fares pretty well.
Fast forward a day to yesterday when i got out on a falling tide literally just after high tide in a creek that I rarely fish but happen to live on. It’s usually so busy with boat traffic and jet skiis, and paddle boarders, kayak fisherman, that I just opt to fish other less congested waters but I had limited time, had not really poked around in there too much and decided to go break it down as best I could.
Launched the boat and never cranked the motor until it was time to reload her. I pushed back up in to that creek with the TM as far as this fat little bay boat would go until I just literally had to back out and the further I went the more fish and bigger fish I caught. Hmmmmmm… Right?
So what did I learn? Plenty, first I needed clear water (or in this case clearer water) which I found, I needed to find bait with my Lowrance or my eyes and did (see photo), I needed to be in mov
Chuck D–Question about casting jerk bait ? Is it better to use a casting reel verses a spinning reel??
Chuck I see were you are using one and I do not own one because of possible line tangles. Guess I could learn to throw if that is the right combination. Sorry if this is a dumb question. Thanks, Larry
Not a dumb question at all Larry. Fishing hard baits (or any for that matter) is all about personal preference as long as you match the rod power to the line type/diameter to the bait you are throwing. The best jerkbait fisherman in the world of the BASS Elite tournament series and 5X Bassmaster Classic winner is Kevin Van Dam out of Kalamzoo MI and he is a fan of using a spinning rod up on the great lakes as the water is so clear and he wants super long casts. Conversely, one of the other best jerkbait fisherman of all time Gary Dobyns out of California uses a bait caster only so neither are right or wrong it’s about what YOU like and feel best about using; they are just tools nothing more.
I’m a fan of bait casters for a lot of techniques as I have been using them for so long that I have a great deal of confidence in my ability with them. However, I am using more spinning reels down here now that the SC low country is home as I am downsizing my presentations and line size accordingly. I’m a very accurate caster of my baits as I had to become one in order to be competitive. Where I did most of my tournament fishing was on very high pressure waters that were often lakes littered with thousands of docks, bridges, sea walls, and other cover the bass would use. Casting accuracy because critical as a blown cast could cost me a spooked fish, or even a $20 plug if I screw it up by hitting a dock, a seawall, rip rap rocks, etc and watched it explode… Therefore a bait caster gives me total control of the bait from the moment I load the rod to the moment it touches the water.
If you were to throw a 78-110MM jerkbait like a Lucky Craft Pointer or a Rapala shadow rap on a spinning rod you could do just fine with it using co polymer line or florocarbon line in the 10lb class on a medium action rod (I prefer 7 foot spinning rods for distance and I’m tall so they fit me fine). FYI, I would not use mono as my choice for jerkbbait fishing because it wants to float and the diameter is so big that it will aff
Hey Chuck, thanks for taking the time to share your knowledge with me on the right set up for the right bait. I use braid on all my rods because all I have used is trout eye jig heads on Z Man baits. I going to spool up with some 10lb. Copolymer line on a 3000 reel on a 7’ Medium power/ fast action St. Croix rod and give it a try.
Larry