Post-spawn bass fishing means drop-shot, topwater, wacky-rigs and jigs. That was the situation I was faced with at the Spokane Bass Club event on Spirit Lake and I was able to win the event and get big bass with the help of three of these techniques.
Practice
My day of practice was the second day I had ever been on this lake and practicing was not my top priority. I was hosting a sonar logging event for Navionics with the help of several of my fellow club members to improve the charts for the lake. I was out there until around 1:00 idling, fishing and trying to cover as much water as possible. What I found was the fishing was tough, but the ones I was catching were good ones. I had a largemouth over five pounds and a three pound smallmouth, giving me hope for the tournament.
Tournament Day
I started the near the dock from where I caught the big one the day before. On my very first cast of the day, with a wacky-rigged Reaction Innovations Pocket Rocket in the Dirty Sanchez color, I caught a good one. That bass ended up being the big bass of the tournament at 5.46lbs. This was the same bait I used the day before to catch the big one and it is something I am really starting to like. I first heard of this bait from Becker's Tackle Shop in Coeur d'Alene. He gave me a single bait to try out and of course I caught a few fish on it and was quickly out of them. Having just one of anything always does that. I have since stocked up on them and have been catching them with it ever since. (I will have a video of how I fish this technique uploaded soon.)
The key for me with this bait is inserting a nail weight in one side of it to get a vertical fall. I like the Eco Pro Tungsten Nail'em weights in the 3/32, 1/16 and 1/32oz sizes. I was asked yesterday if tungsten made a difference and I truly think it does. You could get a nail from the hardware store and it would work, but a nail big enough to get that amount of weight would affect the action and make your bait look stiff. I also do not think it would not fall the same way.
Reel - Abu Garcia Revo MGX 7.9:1
Not long after I caught the big one I started drop-shotting as a way to cover ground before the next dock. My first cast with my Roboworm in Aaron's Magic was a four pound fish. I then caught two more in my next five casts including a two and three pounder. I caught several others on this combo throughout the day to fill out my limit and cull once.
At the end of the day I needed a good fish to be able to cull so I switched to my confidence bait, a black 1/2oz Eco Pro Tungsten Heavyweight Flipping jig and never put it down. I was able to catch a few more including one close to three pounds that allowed me to cull. I was targeting shallow docks, grass and lily pads and just pitching to anything that looked good.
Line - 17lb Seaguar InvizX
It was a great event and I was happy that the conditions played into what I would consider my strengths. Now on to the next one. I will be sure to post the before and after shots from our day sonar logging the event for Navionics.
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