Target Areas
At Smith, Davis usually pursues schooling bass over main-lake points. His
approach is split between casting at bass he can see breaking on the surface and
casting over areas where he’s marked “streaking” bass – fish rising to the surface to
eat – on his electronics.
The scenario at Guntersville is different.
“There’ll be a grass mat, and then off the mat there’s probably a 20-yard section
of scattered clumps,” Davis says. “Usually they’ll school on a point or pocket in the
grass where the grass is scattered. They’ll stay on a point of grass all day long, so
at Guntersville I always have the swimbait rigged and ready because if I see them
busting I want to be able to go after them.”
Technique
Catching schoolers starts with a long cast, and Davis begins reeling as soon as
the bait splashes down.
“Don’t just throw it out and reel it in. Make it do something different,” he adds.
“Make it act like an injured minnow. Pump it, kill it or twitch it. I do it pretty frequent-
ly to make sure it doesn’t just track true the whole time.”
Tackle
Light spinning rods and light line enhance the casting distance with a small
swimbait. Davis’ setup is 7-pound-test Sunline Shooter Finesse Special fluorocar-
bon spooled on a Shimano Stradic CI4+ 2500-size spinning reel and a 7-foot, medi-
um-light Shimano Zodias rod.
He spools straight fluorocarbon to avoid having a line-to-leader knot that might
slow the cast down when the knot ticks through the guides.
Jackall Rhythm Wave
homemade
ball-head jigs
Keitech Swing Impact FAT
Davis’ preferred bait for targeting schoolers is the swimbait, but he’ll also work
on them with a 1/8-ounce silver Acme Kastmaster Spoon. He throws the spoon on
the same rod he uses for the swimbait but downsizes to 4-pound-test line.
The retrieve is similar to the swimbait retrieve, with a little changeup.
“You’ve got to watch really trying to twitch it because if you twitch it it’ll kind of
hang up on itself,” Davis says. “The best way I’ve seen is to throw it with a steady
retrieve and once in awhile kill it.”
OCTOBER 2017 I FLWFISHING.COM
SMALL SPOONS WORK, TOO
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