My Big Bass Bash Strategy

7mm of the Glaize Arm. Transitions: pea gravel points that transitions to smaller bluffs midway back into coves. Fishing anywhere from 2′-14′ deep.

I started my practice fishing areas of the lake that I thought I could catch them. I fished docks in the backs of coves next to channel swings. After only catching a few fish I was uneasy about my ability to catch them when money is on the line. So I looked up the pros reports on bassinbob.com to either reassure what I was doing or to get insight on what I am doing wrong. Mike Malone’s report stated that he hasn’t had very much success either with dock fishing recently. Then a light bulb went off. The bass that I deemed catchable were not in the backs of the creeks yet, but on the staging areas leading into the coves. Living in the Glaize arm of the lake I kind of knew where the area was that I wanted to spend my time. I found the perfect staging area for my style of fishing in the cove next to LORA, the military complex. It has long pea gravel points that transition to chunk rock, then transitions again into smaller 9-12 foot deep bluff. Then the end of those bluffs taper out into little spawning pockets. This cove has four of these full transitions that I bounced around to for 8 hours each day. I abandoned the run and gun style and decided to concentrate my efforts there because I felt like the fish should be coming to me from the main lake and channel edges.
With all the boat traffic you’re bound to be following someone eventually and I felt like I still had the upper hand with a color strategy. If there was nobody in front of me going down the bank I would through a Spro Mcstick in an opaque cellmate color and I caught a lot of big fish on it. When I was following somebody down the bank I used the live target bait ball emerald shiner jerkbait. I felt that with a more natural jerk bait it would be ticket. Can’t get subtler than a clear jerkbait. I was a little concerned that the stained water would make it difficult for the clear bait to shine. After catching several 4 pounders and a 5 and a half pounder directly following people, I had the confidence to stick with it all weekend and I was able to cash a check because of it. I caught the most bass cranking the live target hunt for center crawfish crankbait on the pea gravel bluff end transitions but most were less than 2 lbs. I think the key to the success of that bite was the gear ratio of my reel. I used a 4.7:1 and was able to really bump and grind very effectively. I really wanted to use a spinnerbait but I didn’t have the confidence to throw it due the fact that everyone around me was fishing either it or the Alabama rig.
One More thing I did that helped me probably more mentally than anything was that I shut my sonar off. I had the cove memorized so there was really no need for it anyway. With all the boat pressure and the saturation of sonar waves, I thought that I might have an edge on sneaking up on them. If its one thing that I have learned in tournament fishing, it is to fish with confidence. It is a great feeling when you come home from a tournament and have no regrets even if you don’t win.