TACKLING A
TOuGH BITE
Normally, a Jerky J on a Hog Wobbler head is Lambert’s main ledge tool, but this time around he leaned
heavily on a crankbait.
target areas
As far as finding schools of bass on
ledges goes, there aren’t many secrets
left on Kentucky Lake. For Lambert, the
critical factor was his understanding of
how to work around fishing pressure.
“One of the things I paid particular
attention to is community holes,” he
says. “I don’t necessarily fish the com-
munity hole part of it, but when those
fish start getting beaten on, especially if
they’ve been out [on ledges] for a few
weeks, they start moving around.”
The fish might relocate to another
spot, in which case one of Lambert’s
basic adjustments is to change his tar-
get depth. Playing this variable to his
advantage enabled him to find fish
when others struggled.
“The first two days, every fish I
weighed in except one came deeper
than 27 feet,” he says. “The morning of
day three, I caught them shallower, in
22 to 23 feet, and had a limit really fast.
But then I caught a 6 1/2-pounder in
the afternoon that was in about 26 feet.
“It’s just looking for those fish that
had a chance to rest. They’re easier to
catch than the ones that are wadded
up in big schools.”
It was also important for Lambert
not to be overly committed to fishing
one type of ledge, or ledges in one area.
For example, main-lake ledges get all
the hype, but they’re not the only game
in town, and Lambert mixed it up.
“I don’t prefer the river; I don’t prefer
the creeks,” he says. “I look at a lot of
different water, and wherever I see the
fish is where I fish. It can be back chan-
nels. It can be bends in creeks. It could
be many different things. Typically, it’s
all about a current break and a drop
where they can set up.
“My best school was on a back chan-
nel,” he adds. “They were still in 23 to 24
feet when I found them. When I caught
them on day two, they had slid off into
about 26. But every fish I weighed on
day three came off a river channel.”
presentation keys
Ledge fishing doesn't require the pre-
cision needed for flipping shallow cover,
but presentation details are equally
important, particularly when fishing a
deep-diving crankbait.
“The key is you have to get that
crankbait out there far enough, and it
has to grind,” Lambert says. “You take
that big C25 crankbait, make a big, long
cast, long-line it [let out some line while
moving away from the bait with the
trolling motor] a little bit, and you can
make it go 32 to 34 feet.”
Also, Lambert believes that fish can be
picky about how they want to see a bait
before they commit, depending on how
they’re positioned on the ledge. Trying var-
ious angles helps him dial it in, and when
the bite is tough, picking up a second or
third bite can be a difference-maker.
“A lot of people think you have to be
down-current or whatever, but I don’t
think it matters as much as recognizing
how you get a bite,” he says. “If you get
a bite, just repeat that cast.
“I got probably three or four schools
of fish to fire up a couple of times, but
all in all I didn’t get a lot of fish to fire. It
was one or two here, two or three
there. So it was more about fishing a
bunch of different places and hoping to
get one or two bites here or there.”
august-september 2017 I flWfIshIng.com
Ledge fishermen talk about ge