All anglers have their 'confidence lure'
or their 'go to' bait. For some, it's a crankbait, others like a spinnerbait
and a few will live and die with the 'jig and pig'. All have their
place throughout the season or perhaps even a day of tournament fishing.
Personally, my confidence
bait is the tube and my favourite presentation method is the drift
and drag. It can be a slow, boring process if you
haven't done your homework before tournament day. You have to
know where the productive water is. Otherwise, you end up fishing
a lot
of dead water in the search for fish. Once you are aware of an
area (which can be a couple hundred meters in diameter) that bass
frequent,
because they will roam in search of forage, only then should
you start your drift and drag presentation.
Patience, at this point,
is the most
effective tool you can put into service. You know conditions
are right for the bite. You know your colour choice has produced
in the past
at this very spot. You know the fish are down there, it's just
a matter of time. The action may start right away or it may take
a few minutes
to begin, but it will start.
Once the bite is on, it's
important to identify the bite. Are the bass aggressive and waste
no time
in ravaging
your bait? Do they nip the tentacles of your tube before
gulping the whole bait? A few good strikes or near misses will tell
you
soon enough.
This is where patience comes into play. I see many anglers
set the hook, only to miss. Once the hookset is missed, they drop
their
arms
and rod in disgust and reel the tube in for another cast
or drop. DO NOT REEL YOUR BAIT IN ON THE MISS! I can't stress that
enough.
If you
have missed on the set, open the bait or freespool on your
reel
and drop it back into the fish immediately. Most often the tube
spirals slowly downward, right back into the face of the bass and
most
times
the bass is there to attack it once more. In many cases,
if the bass are short biting, he will hit the tube over and over
again
until
he
inhales it out of frustration. It is at this point that you
cannot get frustrated and pull your bait to the boat. I have had
bass
hit my tubes three and four times consecutively after I have
missed the
hookset, just by me dropping it back into their face for
another attack. The result? At least 80% of those 'missed fish' are
brought
to the
livewell and eventually to the weigh-in. In addition, more
often than not, there are other bass in the area that follow the
first
fish to
the bait and will attack the tube if the first fish should
drop or miss it, through your error on an early hookset or by theirs
on
the
missed attack. These 'opportunists' are generally the larger
of the fish in the school. Usually, the first fish to take your
lure are the
smaller or medium sized bass, as competition for food can
be tough in some areas. The 'opportunist' is usually larger because
he takes
the easy meal, the injured baitfish or craw and doesn't expend
a whole lot of energy having to chase his meal down. I use this
analogy in
my seminars; "What would you rather do at dinner time if your wife
isn't around, take an hour to prepare a gourmet meal yourself or make
a quick run through the drive-thru at your favourite fast-food place?" The
answer, more often than not will be fast-food. The same for the bass.
Save your time and energy, go for the easy meal. If the meal you're
offering is a tube, opt for the scented or salted baits like Exude
or Mizmo. The bass can taste the difference between just plain plastic
and the stimulant or salt found in these two baits. That little extra
time they may take to hold onto the tube for taste identification,
could make all the difference.
Being patient on the missed
hook-set, and we all miss at times, (probably more than we would
like to admit)
is key to dropping large fish in the livewell.
Fish on!
Tom Morrison,
Sportfishing
Education & Promotion
home office phone: 1-519-776-4261
home office fax: 1-519-776-9715
E-mail: mtm2002ca@yahoo.com mt.morrison@sympatico.ca
Essex County Outdoors website: Tom
Morrison
Back
