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Bass Fishing Tips

What Are Those Scratches - Next time you catch a bass take note if you find what looks like scratches on its head, gill covers or sides. These scratches often indicate that the bass are foraging on crawfish. These scratches are caused when bass poke their heads into rock crevices, under rock bluffs and even on gravel bottoms. When finding these scratch marks try switching to a crawfish imitating bait.

What Are The Bass Feeding On - When removing your lure from a bass always look into the fish's mouth and throat. Often you will find a crawfish pincher, tail of a shad or tail of a bluegill will be protruding out of the throat. If so switch to a lure and presentation that will best help you imitate this forage the bass are feeding on.

When To Fish Deep - Ever a catch a bass that is noticeably pale? This lack of pigmentation occurs when bass are spending considerable time in deeper water where there is much less sunlight compared to shallower water. Your next step when catching a pale bass is to fish adjacent deeper water if present.

Worming In The Wind - Windy days can present a real problem when fishing bass with a finesse lure such as a plastic worm. Because the wind creates a bow, or slack, in the line it’s hard to feel the lure. You can minimize this loss of feel by reducing the amount of bow in your line by holding you pole at a 8 or 9 o’clock position versus the typical 11 or 12 o’clock position.

Don’t Forget The Roots – When fishing tree stumps there’s a lot more cover than just a stump. There can be up to a 10’ diameter of roots around any stump that could be hold several bass, especially when on the edge of deeper water.

Crankbait Basics – Next time your not catching fish when using a crankbait for bass make sure your lure is actually getting to the bottom. If not check the tuning of the lure or switch lures. Another option I have used in the past is to place a large split shot or rubber core sinker on your line about 2-3’ in front of your lure.

Jig Fishing 101 – When jig fishing for bass you will catch more fish by watching your line addition to feeling for strikes. If you notice your line go slack all of a sudden, or start moving to the side you know a bass has your lure in its mouth and it’s time to set the hook. This is also the reason to use a highly visible color of line.

Top Water Bassing 101 – When fishing top water lures it’s really easy to set the hook immediately when seeing a bass attack your lure. But this often results in pulling the lure right out of the fishes mouth. Next time don’t set the hook until you can actually feel the bass through your rod.

Keep Your Lure In The Strike Zone - By making long parallel casts to a shoreline or a weedline versus casting to the cover perpendicular your lure will be in the fishes strike zone much longer. This means the odds you catching a bass are also much better.

Short Striking Spinnerbait Bass – Next time bass are short striking your spinnerbait try cutting the skirt down with a scissors. This will most often make the bass strike the lure closer to the hook. Another solution is to add a stinger hook to the main hook.