It's Time To Fish!
August 27, 2008
It’s the dog days of summer and you find yourself puzzled on a technique that can coax some of those summertime bass out from their hot weather summertime haunts. Your palms are sweaty and you’ve developed a nervous twitch because you want to get on the water but the bass just won’t seem to cooperate.
What’s the problem?
You have the Summertime Blues!!
What’s the cure?
A trip to Lake Anna, Virginia for some summer season bass!
It’s a great time to book a trip and get in on some of the best deep water action the lake has to offer. The bass are in a solid summertime mode and not ready to start feeding up for their fall patterns. This means you will find them on mid-lake points and deep drops. They are enjoying deep cool water but their bellies are still growling. It’s time to pull out the gear and go fishin! Have you tried drop shotting yet? Now is the perfect time. Drop shotting is a finesse technique that can be used year round but is very well suited for summer season deepwater fishing.
Deep is a relative term. When I say “deep water” I mean anything deeper than 8 to 12 feet. In Florida lakes, deep may be 10 to 20 feet. In California, Arizona or Texas, deep water may be 60, 70, or even 80 feet. For Lake Anna deep is 20 to 30 feet depending on structure and topography.
Next, you have to realize that fish move using a set of underwater sidewalks or highways for traveling around. It could be a creek or river channel, weed line or a break line. The key is to find a common area or depth where fish will feed and how they navigate to get to this depth. Often, the answer is points that extend the furthest out into the deepest water. Use your electronics to find the deepest, longest and narrowest points that extend into the deepest water in the area. If you can put all of those factors together, you will have fish.
Old creek mouths and even some do-nothing banks will have underwater points that extend into deeper water. Use your big motor and idle over the area mentally marking the point location and depths, while at the same time slowly moving to deeper water. You can use marker buoys if needed. Also be aware of fish and baitfish concentrations and the depth they are holding at. This time of year, they should be holding in about 25-feet of water. If you have done your homework correctly, you now have the location, structure and depth of your fish. In other words, you have a pattern that can be applied to many other locations in the lake.
Now let’s catch some fish drop-shotting! My rod of choice is a CastAway 6’8” medium light, fast action spinning rod spooled with 6 to 10 pound fluorocarbon line. My hook is a G-Lock # 1 by Gamakatsu and a specially designed dropshot weight made by Bass Pro Shops in 1/4 or 3/8-ounce sizes. These weights have a special harp that allows you to attach to your line without a knot and also adjust the depth of your hook above the bottom.
Pretty simple, right? Well, here’s where it gets a little tricky. Most big bass (four pounds and up) can use a #1 hook as a toothpick. How you rig the hook is the most important part of getting proper presentation of your bait and a good sturdy hookset. Tie your hook anywhere from 4 inches to 6 feet above your sinker depending on the suspending depth of the fish and the bottom structure. Use the trusty Palomar knot and start the knot by inserting your line into the eye of the hook with the curve and point facing away from you. When finished tying the knot, insert the tag end of the line back through the eye of the hook from the point side toward the back. This will insure that when you attach your weight, the hook will be in a 90-degree angle (straight out) with the point facing up. This is important. Make sure your hook is at that 90-degree angle with the point up otherwise; you will not get good hooksets and run the risk break offs.
The drop shot rig keeps your lure in the strike zone longer than any other bait due to the positioning of the hook and weight. Attach your weight according to how far off the bottom the fish are suspending per your electronics. You may have to experiment to discover whether the fish are orienting up or down (up for baitfish ambush or down for crawfish). If you are unsure, 1 and1/2 to 2 feet is a good leader starting length.
It is pretty obvious that a #1 hook is not going to hold a bait of any real size so you can put away the big worms, lizards, tubes and creature baits. There are baits made especially for this type of presentation. Usually they are small; hand poured and very “soft” meaning they have a lot of movement and action. Rigging can be Texas style but I prefer to rig them “wacky” (hooked straight through the middle, point exposed) or “nose” hooked (through the front of the bait, hook exposed). If I know how the fish are orientating, I will match the bait color to the prey (natural colors for bottom feeding and shad colors for baitfish feeding). My favorite is the Gary Yamamoto 5-inch Kut-Tail Worm (7L-10-297 to be exact).
We are positioned, rigged, baited and ready to hook Mr. Bucketmouth. Cast out into the deeper water and let your bait fall to the bottom. You want to be able to pull your bait up one side of the point and down the other. Once on the bottom reel up the slack and gently shake your rod tip without moving the weight. If you get no takers, pick up the sinker and move it toward you and repeat the procedure until the bait is directly below the boat. If you cannot get bit, change leader lengths or lure colors. Most of the time strikes will be soft; maybe a slight tension on the line or your bait begins to swim off. Do not set the hook the way you are used to on heavier tackle; you simply sweep the rod tip to the left or right. Boat-rocking hooksets will almost always pull that #1 hook right through the fish’s lip whereas the sweeping motion will firmly plant the hook in the upper part of the lip/jaw. Play the fish carefully; you are working with lighter line. Good electronics are a big plus. Dropshotting is the only technique where I can position my boat over fish, see them on my electronics and catch the fish I see.
For some on-the-water demonstrations just give me a call and we will go summertime drop shotting on Lake Anna.