ANOTHER TYPE OF BED BITE
When the spawn is on, sight-fishing becomes the most dominant technique
on fisheries where the water is clear enough to see bass on beds. However,
sometimes when anglers commit to “looking,” they’re missing an opportunity
to target bass that are much easier to catch.
“Generally, on almost every body of water, there’s somewhere you can’t see
[the bottom] very well,” says Cobb. “There’s stained water. That’s always my
first option. It’s also usually the least-crowded water because when people can
see fish nearly everywhere they don’t go to the stained water.”
In stained water, Cobb flips a Texas rig or winds a spinnerbait or crankbait,
but the key is to target isolated cover as if a bass is bedding next to each
piece, which actually could be the case. Likely targets include stumps, lay-
downs, small points and dock pilings.
“Try to visualize where they’d be on bed,” says Cobb.
If a fish bumps the bait, or you see a swirl, stop and fish it just as you
would when sight-fishing, and make multiple presentations.
Cobb’s other strategy is to slow down and dissect a broader spawning area.
“In your typical reservoir, a heavy population of fish is on bed in the back of
a pocket or the back of a bay,” he says. “I’ll take a light Texas rig or wacky-
rigged Senko and stop when I get to 5 or 6 feet of water and kind of fan-cast
around the whole back area. That works everywhere, but even more so in the
lower-visibility areas because those fish are more prone to biting. I’ll some-
times catch prespawn fish too.”
TRY TOPWATERS TOO
When bass are on beds, most anglers stick to slow-moving bottom baits, but a more aggressive approach can also work.
“They’ll eat a topwater really well when it [the water] is a little stained,” says Cobb. “You can catch them on a buzzbait or
a Spook. The bigger females that sit kind of off the bed are a lot more apt to eat a topwater bait. You generally want to look
for targets such as an overhanging limb or stick-up.
“I think that [fishing topwaters] increases your chances of catching the females. Even in clear water I will throw a topwater
or a floating worm, and females will come and see it, but for some reason the males won’t pay as much attention to it.”
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FLWFISHING.COM I APRIL 2017