Inside Angles: A Study in Contrasts

Heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson got it right when he said “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” So many of our best-laid plans for a day of fishing never survive the first 10 minutes on ice or open water, but we still need something in place to help us get started. Then it’s a matter of adapting and modifying the parts of the original plan that seems to be working, as situations unfold in the field.

I often put plans together to shoot TV by envisioning a set of presentation options that are, you might say, a study in contrasts, given the fish species in question and the presumed habitat options on the body of water.

This past November I fished a small reservoir in North Texas for largemouth bass. It was my first time on this water. I knew there would be flooded timber, presumed there would be some shallower weedgrowth, anticipated water depths to about 20 feet near the dam, and water temperatures in the 50°F range. Past experience suggested the fish wouldn’t be in the shallower upper end of the reservoir during the third week of November, but somewhere deeper, although during the morning fish might still be up shallow near deeper water.

I always assume, unless I know otherwise, that fish may be more aggressive than most anglers might imagine. So, my original “study in contrasts” this day would pit aggressive lure options against a couple of rods rigged with what might be called “precision selections.” The aggressive options could be fished faster and serve as search tools, while the precision choices are for slowing down and dissecting specific spots.

On the aggressive side of the equation I could have chosen crankbaits, spinnerbaits, and a few other “grinder-style” lures, but I chose to work with blade jigs, in this instance specifically Z-Man Chatterbaits, dressed with a longtime favorite trailer, the 4-inch Berkley PowerBait Power Grub. This combo offers a compelling visual picture with a distinctive profile. Chatterbaits also give off distinctive vibrations.

Granted, square-billed crankbaits can also be dynamite ricocheted off timber, but that might come later, after I got a feeling for the fish and the fishing. The single-hook blade jig likely would initially work well through and around both weeds and around timber.

But my study in contrasts didn’t stop at the initial lure-choice level—the aggressive Chatterbait option versus something more precise. (I’ll discuss the precision choices in a moment.) The next step is a study in contrasts at the Chatterbait level; so I chose one lure with a bigger blade to provide maximum flash and vibration, along with a larger body profile. I went with a white and silver color scheme because of the shad in this reservoir.  In contrast to that bolder choice was a more tempered-back option, with a smaller clear (stealth) blade and a smaller body profile. So, something with no flash, reduced vibration, and a smaller look, here again in the white-silver pattern, although it also often works to go with a flashy color on the more-aggressive option and a distinctly different darker pattern on the less-aggressive option.

To keep things simple I could have stopped with those two choices, but, given that I didn’t know exactly how difficult it would be to work through some of the timber and remaining weedgrowth, I also rigged a rod with a grinder-style paddletail swimbait body, the 4.3-inch Berkley PowerBait Power Swimmer, on an Eagle Claw weighted Lazer Sharp L111 swimbait hook (6/0 and 1/4-ounce lead weight).

With the paddler body rigged Texposed, anytime cover was too heavy for the Chatterbait and the exposed hook, I could pick up this option and get it through. Just grind it along slow and steady, with the swimbait body rolling and the tail thumping. This, though, also is a combo that can be killed and allowed to sink into or next to cover, as a more precision tool.

On the precision side of things what could be better than a skirted jig and trailer, one of the best big-bass baits of all time? But here again, I wanted options that play in contrast to each other. I wanted one option to be big and bold and longer and leaner. My choice in that regard was a jig dressed with 10-inch Berkley PowerBait Power Worm, trimmed right at the ring back to 5 inches, with the curl-tail portion on the back of the jig. I’ve often described this one as a jigworm on steroids.

The other option would be more compact, so a jig dressed with a Berkley PowerBait MaxScent Creature Hawg, the jig-and-trailer combo that has produced more big bass for me the past 4 years than any other option, including a fish right at 10 pounds from Texas, and many bass up to 7 pounds in Minnesota.

Most skirted jigs on the market have weedguards or fiberguards that work well in weedgrowth, but are too soft to get through brush and timber. One jig that does both well is the Santone Rattlin’ Jig. I keep it simple with a darker-patterned jig like black and blue fleck, mostly in 3/8- and 1/2-ounce sizes; and with trailer colors of black and blue fleck or green pumpkin.

We hit the water as the sun was rising, with me searching past obvious shallower cover near deeper water about mid-reservoir with the boldest Chatterbait. I caught a few fish, but the catching got better after I picked up the stealth bait as we checked the other shoreline. I followed one 5-foot deep point out where it dropped into about 10 feet of water and noted via electronics a pile of sticks and brush near the base of the drop-off.

I picked up the rod with the long, lean action jig and trailer and made four casts before switching rods. One cast in with the rod with the compact jig package and I got bit by a fish that went close to 4 pounds. It was one of 6 fish that I caught in the next 10 casts to this deeper cover, a likely sign of what was to develop as the sun rose higher.

What I figured was about to happen was happening, as I switched back to fishing the Stealth Chatterbait in shallower water. We were 1.5 hours into the morning and the shallow bite already seemed to be dying. As I pushed past visible shallow woodcover without getting bit on the Chatterbait, I picked up the rod with the compact jig and made a cast. Three casts in I got bit. And then it was two more.

But that quickly died and I could either keep pitching jigs to shallow cover or start looking deeper. I made a pass along one shoreline in 10 to 12 feet of water watching my side-imaging electronics to note sunken timber or brush. I dropped in waypoints as I moved down the breakline. By now the wind was blowing 20 from the south.

When you’re shooting TV, sun position is a constant factor that other anglers don’t have to deal with. Basically, you need the sun shining on you over the camera person’s back in order to produce usable footage. In November, with the sun low in the sky in the south, one can’t work with the trolling motor into a south wind to fish. So with it blowing 20 and gusting to 30, the choice was to spot-lock the bow of the boat with the trolling motor pointed south into the wind about 60 feet above a waypoint identifying some woody cover, then walk to the back of the boat to cast and fish.

This worked remarkably well. There were fish in most of the timber/brush spots in 10 to 12 feet of water, scattered from mid-reservoir into the deeper water nearer the dam. The compact jig option was what they wanted, so the Chatterbait rods and the rod with the action jig stayed on the deck for the rest of the day.

We caught 52 bass, with two at about 4 pounds and one about 6. These kinds of waters typically can also stand the harvest of smaller fish so there’s more forage for the bigger fish, so we kept 6 fish from 12 to 14 inches. Smaller largemouth bass are one of the most delicious of all freshwater fish. Kill them immediately after catching them, bleed them, and get them into crushed ice or a crushed-ice slurry.

As we have so often said: Every day on the water is an unfolding experiment in action. This kind of “study in contrasts” is one method to help work through the experiment. Or call it what it fundamentally is, which is “aggressive versus precision options in action.” Swing for the fences, on one hand, while you’re ready to temper back and play small ball, on the other. And let the fish tell you how to proceed.

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