Things I shouldnt be writing...

The last post was a little taste of what you need to be able to catch smallmouth bass at Alum Creek in the spring and early summer. I made it as simple as possible because I dont think anyone wants to read some convoluted essay about how to find and mark waypoints on a lake. Those sort of articles are as boring as an episode of River Monsters. Too much detail can make the task at hand seem overwhelming so my idea was to give you the meat and let you fill in the small stuff so that it works for you in your situation. I 100% guarentee that if you find rock piles at Alum Creek you will find smallmouth bass on them from april till early june. It really is that simple. In fact, the ONLY reason I would have to give you more information then that would be to make you think I am smarter then I really am. Find a pile of rocks, find brown fish. EASY.

Of course, the weather, the water temps, the depths of your rock piles, the boat traffic, the fishing pressure and the time of the day will all add to the confusion, not to mention the lure selection, the lure color, the line choice, the lure size, lure depth all also contribute to even more confusion and I dont really feel like writing a book about a tiny 3000 acre lake so be prepared for some trial and error, its all apart of the game. I should emphasize, dont get discouraged because its completely worth it the first time you lay into a nice smallmouth bass.

Essential Tips that nobody else is going to tell you!

In case you didnt know, this sort of stuff people always keep to themselves. Why am I sharing, mainly because I dont care and secondly because I hate when guys are all secretive about what they are doing. I will never be that guy, if you ask me what I am doing at a lake, I will tell you. I want people to understand that I am as accessible as people get and I never want anyone to think they cant ask me about how I am doing what I am doing.

The simplest, easiest way to catch them on that lake is to drag, drag, drag. Pick a soft plastic that you like, that you wont mind losing over and over again and throw it. Natural, clearer colors seem to work much better when the barometric pressure is high and/or the skies are clear and clear water. Darker, non-transparent plastics seem to be better when barometric pressure is low and/or skies are cloudy. Shakeyhead worms, leach type baits, tubes and similar baits all work wonderfully. If its not a tube, make sure it floats. All of Warrior baits soft plastics float so now that you know that, make sure you check out http://www.warriorbaits.com/

Always skin hook your plastics. You will almost always be using some sort of a texas rigged version of whatever you are throwing. Make sure your hook is texposed or you will miss more bites then any one man can handle.

Your hook sets have to be gradual and non snapping. When you get a bit, slowly apply pressure in a sweeping motion from side to side rather then from low to high. The fish will do the rest. This method requires a thin wire hook so your shakeyhead jigs must have as thin of a hook as you can find. Warrior baits offer an excellent shakeyhead that was designed with this specifically in mind. This hookset results in far more hookups at the roof of the fishes mouth, why? I have no idea but thats been my experience and anyone who fishes for bass know that if you get a hook in the top jaw, that fish is coming in the boat.

When you find a good rock pile, do not under any circumstances go up on top of it to retrieve a lure, if you do, you might as well leave. If you want to throw crankbaits, do it after you have thrown a dragging lure for a few minutes, I assure you, it will get hung up and you will have to go up on top of the rock pile to get it loose and in the process spook anything that might have still been there.

After you have done all your homework and you have 50 rockpiles to fish remember this. If you dont get bit within the first few casts, there arent smallies on that spot. Smallies are ultra aggressive this time of year, most of the time they are on those spots because they are in some part of the spawning stage and they are far more aggressive then largemouth. If you drop a lure on a spot where smallies are, they will eat it immidiately, you dont have to make 50 casts in order to get one to bite. If you dont get bit in the first 10 minutes, every cast thereafter is a waste of valuable fishing time.

4 things will ruin a spot, make sure you remember them
#1- MUSKY, if you catch a musky, if you see a musky, if you smell a musky, pack up your stuff and get the hell out of dodge cuz there aint any smallies within 25 yards of that rock pile.
#2- lost fish, if you let one come un-buttoned, chances are you aint gonna get another bite from that spot for at least 30 minutes afterwords so time to bail for awhile
#3- letting fish go. whether your in a tourny or not, if you want to catch more then one fish from the same spot, you better put your fish in a livewell because that fish will absolutely alert other fish that something is up. if your in a tourney and you catch a short fish, chances are pretty good that your spot is shot for awhile.
#4- taking your boat up on the spot to get a lure. just remember it, be aware before you start slinging that dd20 around also remember it when your buying those tungsten shakeyhead jigheads.


Getting hung up is a way of life when your fishing this type of structure, knowing how to get un-hung is a major advantage to keep you fishing, to keep your fish from leaving and saving you money in the process.
#1- while dragging your plastics over the rocks, do not put too much pressure on the bait when it comes into contact with something. If you start to feel some resistance, raise your rod tip straight up in the air statue of liberty style and shake the hell out of your rod tip. This usually frees up the bait and allows you to keep fishing. If you put to much pressure on the bait it usually just drives it deeper into whatever it got stuck on in the first place. Max pressure should be your last resort.
#2 - the ole snapping line trick, I cant explain it but Im sure youtube has videos explaining it in much better detail than I can.
#3 - max pressure, again, last resort but at the point you have to do this, its the only option left anyway. Sometimes it pops free but if it doesnt, dont go get it, just break off and re-tie unless you were planning on leaving anyway.

When I read back through this, I cant help but think that alot of this stuff could apply anywhere so if you have a lake that has rocky points, smallmouth bass and giant muskies, Im sure these tips are going to help you out in some way and if you already knew all this stuff, I am sorry for wasting your valuable interwebs time! If anyone has any questions, dont hesitate to ask

Late S.T.P.