Learn the Three B's of Bassing
Every Cast is a Lesson
I hope you are a "Trekkie" because
I'd like to give you a "Vulcan mind meld" on a heap of
stuff this week. Important fundamentals. Sort of like climbing
inside my cranium and seeing the gears turn. Don't mind the
cobwebs! Please enjoy.
In school, there's a golden rule and a core
curriculum to learn the rudiments - reading, writing and
arithmetic. We all know these basic subjects as the "three
R's" (even though there's actually only one R, a W and an
A)!
As students of bass fishing, each day we spend on
the water is also a day in the classroom. Every cast is a lesson,
and as we know, there are many, many lessons in fishing. Even in
a lifetime of fishing trips we cannot master them all.
One of the most basic fishing accomplishments is
to learn the "Three B's" - the bait, the bottom and the
bass. That's what I'd like to talk about in this week's Inside
Line in terms of presentation skills. You see, every single cast
you make is a lesson in the Three B's. On each cast, you either
pass the test by catching a fish, or fail it by going hitless.
Now, it is no disgrace to go hitless on a cast.
In baseball, the best ballplayers swing and strike out from time
to time. No one gets a hit every time, but keep in mind, the
potential is ALWAYS there for every bat swing or cast to be a
hit, and practice, practice, practice is required to increase
your "hit ratio" in baseball or in bass casting!
FIRST B: THE BAIT
Imagine you take a tackle box full of lures to
fish in murky water on a dark night. As you try each bait in your
box one-by-one, you can't see the lure, and it does no good to
try to watch the line or the rod tip. In fact, the only thing
you've got is "feel" of the lure. In a certain sense,
you are fishing like a blind man by Braille. As you resolve
yourself to fishing by feel, you'll soon notice that each lure
model and weight has a distinct "feel" (its own
signature let's say) that is different from the feel of all the
other lures as you reel them back in the darkness. You need to
feel that special pull when it is working right - and feel when
it is working wrong. This feel is what I'm talking about as our
first B - "the bait". This feel is the resistance each
bait makes against the water when you are working it correctly so
that the bait is properly attracting fish. The throb of a
spinnerbait or wobbling of a long-billed crankbait is obvious.
Less obvious but just as essential to know is the different feel
when a 1/4-oz Texas-rigged craw is working properly - and how
that feel should differ from a 3/8 oz. Texas craw. You need to
learn this difference in feel. You need to feel how the same
4" Senko works different on a 1/4 oz. jig or 1/4 oz. Mojo
rig or 1/4 oz. Texas rig. It's all in the feel. This feel is
modified by the rod, reel and line you use, the line drag against
the length of line under water, wind drag against length of line
above water, and any current.
Now, go out on a crystal clear body of water
under bright sunny skies. Cast every lure in your tackle box
again. Now, you may be able to see the lure, watch the line and
rod tip intently, but the signature feel of each bait is still
the same whether clear or murky water, day or night. This is the
first of the three B lessons we are studying today - the feel of
the bait when it is working properly to attract bass.
SECOND B: THE BOTTOM
Bass are basically bottom bandits. Eighty percent
or more of all the bass I have ever caught have been on the
bottom. The other twenty percent have been in mid-water or near
the surface, understanding wherever there is cover they'll get
all into it whether the cover is rising off bottom, in mid-water
or emerging near the surface.
Just like each type of bait has its signature
feel, each type of bottom also has a telltale feel you need to
learn - bushes, stumps, boulders, sand, mud, gravel, ledges,
drop-offs, different weed types, slopes, etc. You've got to know
what each section of bottom feels like, how to keep your bait on
or close to bottom, and how the bottom feel differs from the
other two B's - the bait and the bass.
There are three major mistakes to avoid when
learning this second B lesson:
1) Not getting on or close to the bottom to begin
with on the initial part of the cast, which requires you to strip
slack line off so the bait falls at approximately the same rate
as you hand-feed slack line off the spool until the bait comes to
rest on the bottom. At that point, the line goes slack, and you
can catch an awful lot of fish like that just letting the bait
sit quietly where it has fallen.
2) If no takers, begin a retrieve on and/or close
to the bottom. The second mistake to avoid here is to keep tabs
of what kind of bottom "feel" you are getting when you
catch bass. In general, open bottom is a low percentage of hits
whereas when you feel irregular stuff on the bottom, prepare to
stop the retrieve, shake the bait, bounce it off a few things
down there - and get hit! Now, it's important to know if you are
getting hit just as you come into stuff, smack in the middle of
the stuff, or as you are coming out of the stuff, plus what is
the stuff? Is it wood, weeds, rock rubble, brushpiles, etc? You
need to know all this, so you can pinpoint a pattern to repeat on
your subsequent casts.
3) The third common mistake is not continuing to
freespool and feed line as required to keep occasional contact
with the bottom during the duration of the retrieve. As you
either drift, troll, drag or retrieve your bait, you'll be going
over gullies, cracks, drop-offs, up and over big rocks, domes or
ledges on the bottom. When that happens, if you do not freespool
line, your bait will be up in the stratosphere like the Goodyear
blimp flying far over the heads of the bass down on the bottom
below. As you go over a crack, gully or other bottom depression
(which is what the bass lay in), or fall off the side of a ledge
or rock, you must be instantly prepared to drop the bait down
however far on a slack line to where the fish are in the gullies,
cracks, or on the drop off the top of a rock. When the line
bellies slack again, it usually means there's a fish on you or
you've re-touched bottom in the crack, gully or rock edge which
is just where you want it! Hits come on the fall as the bait
settles down, or as it lies there.
Bottom line, if your bait is not on or close to
the bottom, you are not effectively fishing for eighty percent of
the bass you'll encounter in your lifetime.
THIRD B: THE BASS
Well, this third B could have been called
"The Bite" but that is not exactly right. Many times
you never feel the bite. What you feel instead is "The
Bass" after it bites when it is holding onto the end of your
line, just sitting there, moving away, or whatever. So much has
been written about "bite detection" but it's often
"bass detection" in actuality.
With soft baits such as those made by Gary
Yamamoto, once you realize a bass is holding it, the bass is
usually not going to let go of the bait (unless you pull it
away). So, it is not 100% necessary that you feel the classic
"bite" but you do need to detect the bass holding onto
the bait - and you need to learn the feel of the bass holding on
as being different from the feel of the bait and the feel of the
bottom.
You also need to determine when the bait is
inside the mouth of the bass. When you swing and miss on the
hookset, it is usually because you pulled the bait away from the
bass too soon before the bait was fully inside its mouth. So, it
is not a situation with soft baits where you need to set the hook
as soon as possible. With soft plastics, the skill is to
determine how long you have to WAIT until the bass has the bait
sufficiently in its mouth before you set the hook. The last thing
most bass want to do is let go of their prize. Don't pull it away
from them too soon! In these days of catch and release, there's a
desire not to hook bass too deeply either. I will routinely
ratchet down one size if I am hooking them too deeply, or ratchet
up one size if I am missing a few on the hookset.
CONCENTRATE ON THE THREE B'S
Every cast you make, you should concentrate on
the Three B's. They're a part of what's called
"presentation", and the Three B's often matter more
than what lure or color you use.
Well, that's it on the "Vulcan mind
meld" for today!
I hope this transfusion of information has been
helpful.
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