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Be patient with your bait
May 16, 2002
By RON WILSON
Got a bait that just doesn't
work for you? You don't like the smell of the bait? It looks funny so
you don't use it? Maybe you didn't use it at the right time or fish it
the right way! When I am bass fishing (especially at Kelsey Bass Ranch)
or fishing for other species, I am always experimenting. Trying this
style or that, different colors, different baits, different lures.
Flipping, pitching, splitshotting, Texas rig, etc. At Kelsey's I know
the fish are there it's just figuring out
what the fish want and how they want it.
At the recent Take a
Special Person Fishing event at Kelsey's, I tried lots of different
methods and styles of plastics from the bank and came up with a style
that was working for some of the larger-size bass there. Later that day
I went out with Don Longton and Ben Brooks, both of Merced. I gave Ben a
6-inch Fishin Musician Zipper worm to use and told him he would catch
some nice fish on it especially with the Carolina setup he was
using.
Ben soon set the hook on a
bass in the 4-pound class. The fish were on the bite! I was using a
specially prepared brush hawg and we were hauling them in while Don
guided the boat.
A fish soon threw Ben's
6-inch Fishin Musician zipper worm off and Don picked up the floating
bait so he could catch a few on it. In the next couple hours we boated
around 20 fish with four or five in the 4-pound class.
The moral of this tidbit is:
Don't disregard anything while fishing, and try different baits and
styles and setups and areas. The fish can change eating habits from day
to day and sometimes hour to hour.
Rudy Linn of Merced and I
were paired to fish the Nor-Cal Bass pro-am at Lake Camanche last
Saturday, May 11, 2002. Blast-off came and we headed upriver to the
gravel piles and started fishing. Rudy had some jig fish going. We
worked the area over and Rudy found the fish he was after in the middle
of the ravine in 25 feet of water. He set the hook and the line snapped.
Rudy said, "They are hitting it as soon as it hits bottom." He
retied and threw back to the spot and when it hit bottom he sat the hook
on another fish and the line broke again. I hadn't had a nibble and was
searching for a worm they would bite. I threw out a 6-inch Keeper rhythm
and blues and set the hook on a small spot that jumped and threw the
hook at the boat.
We should have had three
fish in the boat, and we had nothing. Things were looking very ugly for us. We
moved out to deeper water and I put in a nice 2-pound spotted bass. Rudy
put in a small largemouth and then the bite died for us there.
I suggested to Rudy that I
had a little honey hole around the corner that always holds fish for me.
I directed Rudy to it and how I wanted to fish it and we soon had three
more in the boat. We went back to Rudy's spot and he put another spot in
the boat and then on the next cast he lost another good one. Things were
looking up. Three hours to go and we had a 6- to 9-pound limit in the
boat. All we needed was a kicker.
We tossed back a few more
and then I directed Rudy to a spot where the wind was blowing in over a
deep-water ledge. We fished on top in shallow water and caught some
small fish and then Rudy's pole doubled over. It was the one we were
looking for. The line was pulling off the reel as the fish made its
first run and then the pole went slack as the line broke once again. It
was just one of those days when things go right and then go wrong.
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