Thursday, September 16, 2010

Big bass Flippin'

Take a Dive into Vegetation with Rage Tail Baits

In the months June, July and August when its really hot and sticky many bass are heading to thick vegetation along with other types of cover. As the water warms from intense sunlight, aquatic plants such as pond duckweed and milfoil become more dense, which attracts bass. Bass will gather under this dense vegetation and you can present your soft baits to them in a variety of ways. You can locate the better grass beds and eliminate not so good ones in a variety of ways using heavy tungsten worm fishing weights or lead fishing sinkers to punch through the cover with lures such as the Rage Space Monkey and the Rage Smokin’ Rooster made by Strike king lures who also makes the strike king rage tail craw. You can also flip or pitch this set up into any visible holes in the cover using lures such as fishing jigs.

A good grass bed will often have baitfish around and if there is wood nearby it sometimes improves the chances for it to hold bass. To “test” a grass bed for bass I like to punch the vegetation with a strike king fishing Hack Attack jig bait, choosing the weight or size depending on how thick the cover is. When using the Hack Attack, I will add a trailer such as the Strike king rage tail Rage Hawg or Strike king rage tail Rage Lobster and after punching thru the cover, I’ll jig it up and down vertically, or shake and hop it to draw the strike. My setup for fishing cover with Rage lures is heavy braid, fluorocarbon, or Monofilament with a 7’6 Bass pro shops Graphite Flippin’ stick with a 7:1:1 Gear ratio bait caster. When punching through heavy vegetation with lures such as the Smokin’ Rooster, I would recommend using tungsten weights. When you feel a bite, make sure you are prepared for the fish to run and set the hook.

When your fishing Rage Baits in cover you should use the appropriate pound test line so you can horse the bass out of the Heavy cover. While working the bait I like to keep me rod pointing down towards my lure and the cover and shake it steadily in the cover. When you feel a bite, wait less than a second and then set the hook hard. If you want to add more bulk to your jig when flipping heavy cover try adding a Smokin’ Rooster or Rage Lobster by threading it onto the hook of your jig.ith the Right conditions, These techniques can pay off with some big bags of bass. When available, I like to flip soft plastics and Jigs under overhanging bushes and trees and let them jiggle. Usually a bass will take my jig or soft plastic as it falls or once it lands on the bottom and will run with it out of the vegetation, tree, or bush. A good time to target bushes and sunken trees with weighted soft plastics or jigs is during the postspawn.

In summary, learning to fish cover and thick vegetation can be very rewarding and can produce big fish. Sometimes, it may take a few times to find that perfect patch of vegetation, but when you do it will pay big dividends and most importantly BIG BASS.