My 5 Best Largemouth Tips
My 5 Best Largemouth Tips
By Todd Reed
The largemouth bass, the most familiar fish in the country lives all around us. No matter if you fish a farm pond, a local river, county park, one of the 100’s of man-made lakes around Iowa, or the Mighty Mississippi River, the largemouth bass is waiting for you. Typically we all got hooked on bullheads or bluegills as a young outdoor person, but I bet most of us can remember that first big bass that we caught. If you are like me, you can remember the exact details. That day, way back in the 80’s hooked me for life on chasing these beautiful fish all around Iowa. I was about ten years old and fishing a farm pond with my Dad. The bass, at the time, was the biggest fish I had ever caught in my young life. It measured just over 18 inches and the old ZEBCO scale marked it just over 2.50 pounds. It was a monster in my eyes, and the largemouth bass and I have had a serious relationship from that day on.
Fast forward about 30 years, four boats later, hundreds of days on the water, a few dozen rod/reel combos, hundreds of lost baits and countless numbers of bass caught…like all of us, I have learned a few things. Here are my top five tips and tricks that have kept me busy catching these green fish all over Iowa.
#5- Go Small
To consistently catch bass all over the state anglers must be willing to go small with their baits. Some of my favorites include a four inch ring worm on a shaky head and a five inch stick bait. When the bite gets tough and the usual bass baits aren’t catching them it is time to bring out the small stuff. One common time this occurs is when the barometric pressure is high or you have one of those blue skies, no wind kind of days. Those are two common times when bass just don’t want to chase around fast baits and you must slow down and give them an appetizer. Spring and winter cold fronts can be other times when going small will end up getting a few baits when other baits will not. The shaky head can be fished like a jig, try different speeds, but slow is typically what these lethargic bass will like. The stick bait can be rigged a number of ways depending on what cover you are around. Texas-rigged for heavy cover, t-boning the stick weightless for those windless days and if needed adding a split shot a foot above the stick to move it around more quickly. Again, when the bass turn negative, it is time to go small.
#4- Topwater Baits
If you are a bass angler I know you have a dozen or so of these, perhaps many more. Too many anglers think that these can only be used in the first and last hour of the day. This is something that you need to forget from this point on. It is true that using them in low light conditions will help get more strikes. Other times that topwaters shine are ANYTIME! Buzzbaits are great whenever it is cloudy out, and if you are fishing in the rain, you should be fishing a buzzbait. In my opinion there are only two different kinds of buzzbaits; a white one or a black one. Keep this bait simple on your next purchase and as long as it is one of those two colors you picked out a good one! Buzzbaits and prop baits work well in areas with current all day long. When fish are congregated in current areas, they are hungry and they are feeding, they will smash a topwater bait. If fishing clear waters with structure like wood and docks is your cup of tea, then a Pop-R should be tied on your rod during the warm season months. Pop-R baits work well to slowly present a bait to fish feeding around structures. Try to match the hatch on the colors of baits, as the fish will often have plenty of time to examine your bait before blasting it. It is vital to try many different cadences of a Pop-R when fishing it. Some days the bass will want it to sit still for up to twenty or thirty seconds. It is a patience tester, but it can be very rewarding. Lastly, and my favorite way to fish is to throw a hollow body frog. These can be fished every minute of the day and are best on top and around the weeds. Many people do not like to fish around weeds, this is a huge mistake. Weeds have everything a bass needs; shade, high oxygen levels, and food. Frog fishing is a book in itself, but a few quick tips; make sure your frog has big hooks and you are using braided line. I have used just about every brand of frog, one rises to the top, the Optimum Baits Furbit Frog. It has a dual 6/O hook and is everything you need in a frog.
#3- Jig and Chunk
This simple bait has probably caught more big bass than any other bait in the state. This bait is typically used in two different situations; dragging it deep on and over structure or pitching/flipping it at shallow cover. Either way this bait is deadly all year long. It can be fished fast, slow, a lot of action, or hardly any action at all. The colors are endless, but if you want to get a few make sure they are black and blue. This color seems to work all over the state and is a favorite of the largemouth bass. No matter the day, if you are fishing for bass in the state of Iowa you should have a bass jig tied on.
#2- Keep up with the bait trends
Just as you are doing right now, reading about the sport of bass fishing, is a great way to keep up with the recent trends. In the game of bass fishing there are a few hundred pro anglers that spend up to 300 or more days on the water chasing the same fish we do. These professionals are always trying something different, making modifications, and tinkering with baits to get the advantage on the water. From this profession we get the many trends and new tackle that are available at tackle stores today. The sooner you try new things the more bass you will be able to catch. The following three tackle trends rocked the world of bass fishing in the past couple of decades. The 4-inch tube, Chatterbait, and Shaky Head all have become popular bass baits because of national attention brought to them by professional bass anglers. The 4-inch tube was brought to the bass world by Denny Brauer when he won the years’ biggest event in 1998. In 2006 the birth of the Chatterbait came, however it didn’t become a tackle box favorite until well into the 2010’s. Finally, a bait mentioned above, the shaky-head started to dominate tough-bite bass tournaments around 2012, making it a favorite of weekend bass anglers. I wouldn’t think about going bass fishing without each of these three tied on…neither should you. Keep up with the trends, you never know what might be the next “big thing”.
#1- Change
All anglers are guilty of this from time to time. We get stuck in our ways and we think we know what the bass want to eat that day. Many bass anglers have a 100 baits, lures, colors with them on any given day but tend to only use a few…why? The truth be told is we shouldn’t. Change things up when things aren’t going well. The number one reason we have bad days of bass fishing is because we didn’t throw everything at them. Sometimes just a change in the size of worm, or craw bait can make all the difference in the world. Trying a chartreuse spinnerbait instead of our favorite white and red one, putting on a deeper crankbait to try…the list goes on and on. When you are searching for bass it is important to change things up, we may think we know what the bass want, but if you are not getting a lot of bites, it is time for a change.
Bass fishing has been a huge part of my life for about three decades, I have learned a lot of information by reading, viewing videos and watching professional anglers. I have also had the chance to fish with many, many different anglers throughout my life and that too has helped me flatten the learning curve. I hope these five tips will help you flatten your learning curve and help you get more bass this year.
