COLUMN : TACTICAL BASSIN
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Matt Allen and Tim Little are well-known big-bass experts who own Tactical Bassin , a website and social media channels dedicated to educating the public about bass fishing .
a whole new perspective
Going beneath the surface can open new worlds for bass anglers
A dvancements in marine electronics give bass anglers a betterthan-ever picture of what ’ s going on below the surface of the water . Whether it ’ s forward-facing sonar , Mega 360 or better mapping technology , anglers have more tools than ever to help break down a fishery and increase the size and amount of bass they can catch .
For Matt and me , in our many endeavors running Tactical Bassin , the one thing that has given us an even clearer picture of what happens below the surface is underwater videography . Whether it ’ s filming bass behavior in their natural environment or comparing bait actions , our underwater videos have helped us improve as anglers in ways we ’ d never imagined .
Over the last several years , we ’ ve been fortunate enough to record bass eating our lures and doing some amazing things underwater . Wolf packs of giant bass chasing down and eating swimbaits in front of our camera lens , topwater frog blow-ups recorded from below the surface , bass stalking and eating jerkbaits and spitting them out before we could react and set the hook .
Filming bass in their natural environment and seeing how they interact with other bass and with artificial lures has been truly eye-opening . Simply put , changing our perspective and going subsurface with slow-motion cameras to film bass and lures with the ability to review the footage afterward has taught us many invaluable lessons – things like the way light rays penetrate and reflect off the bottom , how the abovewater sounds like anglers talking or birds chirping sound underwater , how current can switch and change the sediment in the water and change a bass ’ aggressiveness or how each bass seems to have its own personality – variables we could scant account for in the past . Every time I review our underwater footage , I ’ m constantly reminded of three things : Bass are unbelievably fast . Bass are unbelievably accurate with their bite placement . And not all baits have the “ it ” factor .
PHOTOS COURTESY TACTICAL BASSIN
30 MAJORLEAGUEFISHING . COM | AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2022