Fish Sniffer On Demand Digital Edition Issue 3907 Mar 13-27 | Page 7

HOW TO... VOL.39 • ISS. 7 March 13-27, 2020 5 Spring Presentations That Catch Fish presents How To Hook Up This Spring! ^ It’s an oldie but a goodie. For spring bass a standard floating Rapala is not only effective, but it’s also one of the most versatile and exciting lures you can fish. ^ Spring stripers will gobble a variety of different baits including shad, mudsuckers and chicken liver, but author Cal Kellogg’s hands down favorite spring bait is bloodworms. Pin a worm on an 8/0 hook on a sliding sinker rig and get ready to yell, “Fish On”! > This big smallmouth couldn’t resist a Texas rigged Robo Worm inched along the bottom. Day in, day out soft plastics are the most consistently productive lure a bass angler can employ. A h yes, spring! The season when our fisheries heat up and anglers feel most alive. On some spring days, the fishing is great and the possibilities seem boundless. On other days’ things backslide to a winter like pattern and the fish develop a severe case of lockjaw. Never the less there are some time-tested approaches and presentations that consis- tently produce fish during the spring, provided you don’t find yourself fishing during one of the doldrums days when nothing seems to work. Let’s approach this on a species by species basis. Black Bass There are two presentations that I really like to employ for reservoir bass during the spring. One approach is super exciting. The other, while being less exciting produces lots of fish. My “exciting” presentation is built around either a 4 3/8 inch F11 or a 5 ¼ inch F13 Rapala floating minnow, but you can substitute a floating/diving minnow from other manufacturers too. My favorite color for most situations is silver/black but other finishes are also effective and it seems like everyone has their personal favorite. The presentation works like this. After knotting a Rapala to a spinning or bait- casting outfit rigged with 10-pound mono I cast the bait out near rocky structure along the bank that has immediate access to deep water. Once the bait hits the water I reel up the slack, but take care not to move the bait. I wait until all the rings around the bait have disappeared and then using both the reel and rod tip I twitch the minnow beneath the surface, propel it forward for a foot or two and then allow it to float back up to the surface. After that I wait once again for any rings and surface disturbance to dissipate. Generally, the strike will occur during this period, but if no strike comes I continue the twitch and wait retrieve until the bait is out of the strike zone or back to the rod tip. The colder the water the slower I work the bait. In general I find that this approach works best during the early morning hours before the sun hits the water and late in the evening once the sun is off the water. I have my best results when the water clarity is good. I catch largemouths, spots and smallmouths this way, but find it particularly deadly on smallmouths. My second spring bass presentation is really old news. Actually, it’s so old, it is sort of new again. I’m talking about a plain old fashion Texas rigged worm teamed with a ¼ or 3/8-ounce weight. In my experience, it has become increas- ingly rare to see an angler tossing a worm on a classic Texas rig with the bullet weigh resting right up against the worm. More often you’ll see them tossing a split shot rig or some sort of Carolina rig variation. During the summer and fall, I favor a split shot rig typically, but during the late winter and early spring I love the classic Texas Rig. At this time of the year the bass tend to hold tight to the bottom and stage offshore of spawning structure in water that ranges from 10 to 30 feet deep as they await the forthcoming spawning season. Targeting these fish requires an impres- sionistic offering that stays very close to the bottom. Some guys favor jigs for this work, but I do just fine with my Texas rigged worms. When the conditions are bright and the water is clear I like a minnow colored or clear flake 6-inch finesse style worm. If the water is a bit stained or it’s early or late in the day, I lean toward dark crawfish colored worms that have an active curly tail that creates movement and vibration. The actual presentation is simple. Toss FISH SNIFFER HOW – TO by Cal Kellogg < John Brassfield used a spoon trolled quickly to tempt this big rainbow during a spring trolling adventures. Spoons are great baitfish imitations that allow you to cover a lot of water quickly. CONTINUED ON PG 17