Of the many variables in catching bass, triggering strikes has to happen to make us a success. Place SPEED, DEPTH, and SIZE OF BAIT on the top of the list. Some place COLOR in this list and on some lakes and water conditions it has a prime place. Speed and depth are about equal in importance. We have looked at depth in past lessons, but let's look at it now as we look into the water column.

We have top, middle and bottom. In shallow water or heavy cover working the top or surface can produce a lot of exciting action. Speed you work the bait will determine the strikes you get and we are going to address this in detail in the next section. Catching fish in the middle column is a problem for all that try. Finding them is the first of the problems and keeping the bait at the right depth the last. These fish are known as suspended fish and are the toughest of the three groups to catch consistently. The bottom is the easiest of the three depths. Throw anything that sinks and fish slow and you are fishing the bottom. Bass prefer to feed from the underneath their prey. The placement of their eyes gives them good sight in front and over the heads. Most bait has similar placement of their eyes making them easy prey from underneath and behind.

We have all made a cast and had bass follow the bait right to the boat only to turn and swim away. What did we do wrong? Speed! Too fast, too slow whatever wrong speed. If the fish follows a bait he is interested, bass don't waist energy. Something triggered him to attack the bait but he changed his mind at the last second. Most of the time the bait is moving one turn of the reel handle too fast. Stop, leave the bait totally motionless and hold on, or you may loose your rod. We all have stories of fish we missed in these situations. I'll tell you one to drive my point home. I was working a Gambler Stud on the top along the edge of a hydrilla bed when a huge bass blew the bait out of the water. As it would he missed the bait but I could see movement behind as he followed. I fished the bait right to the boat only to see the fish following about 3 feet away. With no place to go except take the bait out of the water or stop, I let the bait just set. All 9 pound of fish eased up under and engulfed that bait. Rah! I caught a good fish but the lesson I learned has been much more valuable to my fishing than any one fish ever has.

Draw a chart as follows and we can get a good hand on speed. Start at the bottom left of the chart with 32 degrees far right 100 degrees. Number the left side at 0 and number 1, 2, 3…. At 49 degrees start a line slow turn up in a bell curve to 60 degrees. Top of the curve 65 to 75 and down turn at 80 and bottoming out at 98 degrees. At the top of this curve would be the most active fish would get. Now shadow this bell curve with an identical curve and label it on the side with speed. There is a direct relationship of speed and water temperature. The only difference is the right top will not turn down until 85 to 87 degrees. This chat will give you a good top speed to retrieving a bait and any speed under the curve is at one time or another right. This is one of the reason fish in the spring and fall are easier to pattern. I have trolled spoonplugs at speeds of 10 to 12 knots and had bass chased down the bait. I know of cases where another fisherman was standing right beside another and not catching anything and the other guy could not make a cast without catching fish. The only difference was, not the way he held his mouth it was the speed he worked his bait. It can get so precise the wrong beat of a song will not work. Beat of a song no this is not band. Fishing a crank bait to the beat of music is a good way to move your bait at the same speed every time. Just don't fish with me when I'm doing this because I can't sing.

When fishing a rise and fall type bait there are so many ways these baits can be fish it is hard to cover them all at one sitting so I'll just list a few here is my favorite. One of the best ways for catching bass can be dead worming. The first time I saw this tactic was by accident, call a backlash. Cast the bait to a likely looking spot and while picking out the mess I had created I started getting a pull on my line. Caught the fish threw the bait to another spot and let it lay there. Sure enough away it went. Flipping is another good presentation of rise and fall baits along with Slow worming, Trick worm, casting a worm and Carolina rig. The key even with rise and fall is speed. Too fast or too slow and you can go home with a goose egg.

God Bless, good fishing
Capt. John Leech
877 274 8433