[Jared]

It won't be too long and all of our lakes will be in the pre-spawn/spawn. I am curious how everyone feels about sight fishing? Do you do it? Do you have any favorite baits for catching bass off the beds?

 

[imonembad]

I love it and I hate it. I throw a fat butt tube and a tiny plastic craw t-rigged.

 

[Shannon]

I like it and I don't think it hurts anything when we pratice catch and release but those people who keep them during this time are in the wrong for sure. I like using a baby brush hog or other creature type baits with a lite weight if any and as big a hook as I can fit into the bait. I don't know if I could handle sight fishing for a tournament though with time constraints and presssure.

 

[Jared]

believe it or not I have not had the chance to fish the spawn on Santee in years for one reason or another. It always seemed that as the spawn approached I ended up with truck or boat troubles nd unable to go. This year I am going for sure. I am planning on focusing my efforts in an area called Jack's Creek and then checking out The Brickyard, which is where the BASS record setting tournament was won last year. Though due to my boat's size, I have to stick to protected back water areas, but that shouldnt be a problem.

I like to use a slug-go for bedding fish as well as tubes. I think I may buy some of those huge tora tubes to try out as well.

 

[joe]

I will catch a fish on the bed if I see it. I always catch and release. Yesterday at a local city park here, a friend called me to tell me all the bass were on beds. This place is heavily pressured by catfishing and sunfishing. The reason he called me was because guys were out there with cast nets which is illegal and catching the bass and keeping them. We called a couple of more frineds and 6 of us walked around the banks looking for bedding fish and stuck everyone we could. Some actually went straight back to the bed once released and were caugt again. By the time we were done, if you walked upon a shallow bass, he would immediatey swim out of sight. Hopefully, this will help with all the castnetting. We did call TPW and report what was going on and met with the game warden there. Most of the people left when we told them we were calling because of what they were doing. One guy was real agressive about the whole deal but that's okay, he was written a ticket for no fishing license and using illegal means to fish.
-Joe

 

[oldschool]

Fishing beds can have a drastic impact on the big bass population on high pressured small lakes, if the lake management hasn't set aside a sanctuary area.It really isn't about removing the bass from the nest site permanently, it simply disrupting the spawning process. The smaller males are the bass protecting the nest site 90% of the time and most anglers tend to catch the more aggressive male and generally release it. However the big trophy size females end up in live wells, are handled poorly, end in home freezers and some still become skin mounts. These big bass are concentrated and can be caught, so they are caught in high percentages during the spawn.
We are bassfisherman and thats what we do, catch bass. You can intentionally target spawner's or fish blind on the outside breaks and still catch staging spawner's. Sight fishing is fun and exciting to watch a big bass strike your lure. The key is not what you use, you need to be able to detect that the bass has it in it's mouth. If it moves and threatens the nest site the nesting bass will remove it in time. Please be a good sport and avoid using treble hook lures in beds, it's not necessary and unsporting in my opinion.
Drop shot pearl/chartreuse gitzits is a deadly sight nest presentation, easy to see, small size get very high percentage of hook ups. Matt lures bluegill is a very effect big bass lure during spawn and Tora tubes are very good...just don't trap hook rig them. Jigs of course are very good, however low hook up to strike ratio in beds. Lizards and creatures are bit a lot, however do to their bulk can be difficult to get a good hook set.
Tom
Ps; Haven't site fished nesting bass for years, unless when teaching my son or a newbie the presentation tricks. Leave them be if possible, if not treat them carefully because they are the nursery of our sport.

 

[Jared]

Tora tubes are very good...just don't trap hook rig them.

What's that mean Tom?

 

[oldschool]

Tora tubes are very good...just don't trap hook rig them.

What's that mean Tom?

A trap hook or stinger is a hook added to the lure in addition to the standard rigging practice. Tubes are usually rigged with a single worm style hook inserted in the front of the tube.Trap or stinger hooks are a size 4 to 2/0 treble hook, depending on the tube size, attached to the front single hook with a length of line or wire to move the hook back to the stranded end of the tube. Remember the poptentail world record bass caught last year at Dixon, this bass was snagged by a trap rigged jig in the back, therefor violated the IGFA rules that prohibit the use of trap hook rigged lures because it is a unsporting practice. Spinnerbaits are commonly trap hook rigged with an additional single hook and this is established as a standard practice, however I do not know the IGFA would rule on that.
Tom

 

[Texas Bass Pro]

I have no problem in sight fishing. I will use a Tiny Brush Hog to pull the gals off of there beds.

Here in Texas we have had some great warm weather for the past two weeks and you can tell it has had an impact on our largemouth bass. I think we are going to have an early spawning season.

 

[KeithsCatch]

I will catch a fish on the bed if I see it. I always catch and release. Yesterday at a local city park here, a friend called me to tell me all the bass were on beds. This place is heavily pressured by catfishing and sunfishing. The reason he called me was because guys were out there with cast nets which is illegal and catching the bass and keeping them. We called a couple of more frineds and 6 of us walked around the banks looking for bedding fish and stuck everyone we could. Some actually went straight back to the bed once released and were caugt again. By the time we were done, if you walked upon a shallow bass, he would immediatey swim out of sight. Hopefully, this will help with all the castnetting. We did call TPW and report what was going on and met with the game warden there. Most of the people left when we told them we were calling because of what they were doing. One guy was real agressive about the whole deal but that's okay, he was written a ticket for no fishing license and using illegal means to fish.
-Joe

Let me be the first to congratulate you Joe for what you did in calling TP&W :notworthy: I wish more folks would get involved and help out our Game Wardens by being their eyes and ears when they are not around. I can't stand poachers and I will not only call the Game Wardens but will have no problems having words with the idiots who would do such a thing.

 

[joe]

Thanks Keith. I believe we must do everything possible to keep the sport of fishing pure and I have no patience for those who do not follow the rules. It just made me sick to see how many bass these guys had on stringers or ice chests. All the fish I saw that were caught by those with a cast net were dead. Sickening huh? I know it's just a small park pond but c'mon, if they'll do it there in front of everybody, I can only imagine what they do when no one is looking.
-Joe

 

[dave0331_69]

Good job Joe! :cheers: as far as lures for bed fishing my 2 main are baby Paca Craw or a brush hog, however im experimenting with berkley's beast. I'll let you guys know how it does. Dave

 

[imonembad]

I thought you were just learning how to flip and pitch? Those are some pretty intricate baits for a novice. I like the way you work Jarhead!

 

[dave0331_69]

I've actually gotten pretty good at pitching, remember i had a hard ti8me letting the lure go? well not anymore, as for the flipping i still have to fine tune that a little more, but i've managed to catch quite a few fish with both. I'm honestly more comforable pitching, but with some more flipping practice i'll be good to go! Dave

 

[Jared]

Thats excellent news Dave! :clap:

I remember when I was learning I'd spend hours and hours in my back yard and driveway practicing. I found that a smoothly paved driveway or road was the best because it allowed you to practice keepin your bait centimeters from the surface without a stray tall blade of grass messing up your attempt. Of course the benefit of this when on the water is that you will have learned how to keep your bait VERY close to the surface which means silent entry into the water. Thats probably the biggest key to really using pitching and flipping successfully. Aggressive fish can be caught with a noisy entry but for the finicky or highly pressured fish, silence is the key to getting them to bite, atleast in my opinion.

 

[KeithsCatch]

I have recently rediscovered flipping as I usually pitch. But, unlike Jared I make noisy entrances with my bait. I flip floating Hyacinth mats with a few feet of water underneath. I was told to make noise with the bait as it crashes through the mat so it alerts the fish something is there and they will come check it out. So in this instance a noisy entry is better in my opinion. Plus sometimes it is so thick that you have to make allot of noise crashing the bait through the matted grass.

Here is one example I have a picture of. I am actually flipping into 2 feet of water to maybe 3 feet. It looks like I am fishing in a meadow but this is actually floating vegetation. I know this is not Hyacinth but it is what I could find right now. This was in the St. John's river. Stuff like this is kinda hard to fish as it takes a while for the bait to find a hole to drop down through. 1 ounce weights are important.

Now if I were flipping to an isolated tree or edge of boat dock then a quiet entry would be better.

Ok I found a good example:

Here is a nice fat 4lb bass I caught in a huge wad of Hyacinth in 3 feet of water:

Here is the actual spot I caught her in. I had a monster on right before this 4lber that was huge. I ended up having my 50lb braid get broke. I believe it was because the knot got caught in the end of the hook eye in that small slot and it cut my line. (Getting back to my braid is not abbraision resistant like mono thread)

I didn't hook the fish on the outside but right where I drew the arrow. It is pretty fun hooking a big bass in this stuff because it is a real fight getting them out.

 

[Jared]

Oh yeah I definitely agree with ya there. A heavy weight is definitely needed to punch through heavy weed matts like the hydrilla and rice fields on the Cooper River here in SC.

In vegetation that thick i can understand making noise to alert the fish to the baits presence. I never gave that any thought until now. Thank ya

I mostly pitch and flip to cypress and docks and in those situations I notice I do better when I keep the entry silent, as you said.

 

[KeithsCatch]

Yeah you are right Jared.

Hey, what is the deepest water you have ever seen a Cypress tree growing in? On a lake in central north Florida called Lake Sante Fe I have found Cypress trees growing in 6 feet of water at the base. Right next to it is 10 feet.

 

[oldschool]

Oh yeah I definitely agree with ya there. A heavy weight is definitely needed to punch through heavy weed matts like the hydrilla and rice fields on the Cooper River here in SC.

In vegetation that thick i can understand making noise to alert the fish to the baits presence. I never gave that any thought until now. Thank ya

I mostly pitch and flip to cypress and docks and in those situations I notice I do better when I keep the entry silent, as you said.

The late Tom Mann would run his boat through the heavy weed cover and go back to fish the path he just cut. Tom's logic was the boat trashing the weed bed attracted bait fish and bass to the new open waterway, thats not the stealthy quite approach!
Tom

 

[imonembad]

I have never had the opertunity to fish that type of cover but I'd love to flip and pitch that stuff. You guys are really lucky to have that stuff to fish. I fish lay downs and standing timber.