BASSAHOLIC's
TOP TIPS
Targeting the prime spots when fishing jetties
As the temperatures soar in the mid summer months, bass will actively seek out shady areas on the dams and Jetties become one of the prime areas to locate these bass. With that said, many a bass angler I have noticed will target jetties but too often only end up fishing around it, completely bypassing the prime target area which is way back underneath the jetty.
This is often overlooked and possibly due to anglers being too afraid to try and pitch or roll cast their bait all the way to the back to where the prime target area is, for fear of them creating a birds nest on their bait caster or maybe just not being skilled enough to be able to pitch accurately. Practise, practise and more practise, together with the correct boat positioning as well as having the right tackle for the job is vital in being able to place your bait way back underneath the jetty.
However, one of the ways I have found to make getting your bait deeper or way back under the jetty is a simple trick which I learned from a top protea angler many years ago whilst fishing the famous sunken jetty at Hartebeespoort dam. The bait of choice is firstly a senko or similar plastic bait. All that is needed next is a small nail weight trimmed to the correct size which you prefer based on how fast you want the bait to sink as well as the depth in which you are fishing.
The Senko is then simply rigged weightless as per normal with the nail weight inserted at the back of the plastic worm. Traditionally as properly rigged senko style bait will fall horizontally when rigged weightless, but with the nail weight inserted into the tail, it causes the bait to fall diagonally but more importantly away from you. The key here is to ensure you feed line to allow the bait to fall freely as keeping a tight line with disturb the action and halt it from diving away from you, defeating the purpose.