ING DITCHES
How two top pros break down these vague yet important structures
By Sean Ostruszka
ohn Cox needs to look no further
than his back yard to see how
important ditches can be to
bass. Like seemingly everyone in Florida,
Cox has a pond in his backyard. And like
seemingly every pond in Florida, the one
behind Cox’s house has giant bass in it.
Cox enjoys fishing for them, of
course, but some of the real fun he has
is in feeding them. He’ll launch a small
boat out on the pond and then dangle a
bluegill above the water on a string or
with his hand. You can imagine the rest.
In doing this, Cox started to notice
something about how the bass ate the
bluegills, and, more importantly, where
he found the bass.
In order to launch his boat, he backs
down on a trailer, and with no ramp, it
didn’t take long for his trailer tires to
wear grooves in the soft sand bottom of
the pond. The grooves don’t look like
much; just the width of his trailer tires
and only stretching as far as needed to
get his boat in the water.
Yet, they’re sure something to the bass.
“It’s amazing how the fish will lie in
those ditches,” says Cox. “It’s like they feel
protected, but I also think they use them to
ambush bait. I mean, if I hold the bluegill
over an area away from the ditches, the
bass will come up and look, but they’ll
rarely attack. You’ll just have a couple nose
up to it looking. If I dangle that bluegill over
a ditch, it’s almost guaranteed a bass will
come up and eat your whole hand.
“That’s how important ditches can be.”
J
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