In the summertime when the weather is hot (Mungo Jerry) I can bass fish all day and sometimes come up completely empty. So frustrating to see some nice heavy cover and know deep down in your heart that there's got to be a nice fish in there hiding from the bright sun...but you throw the book at him and come up empty. It's like seeing a twenty dollar bill laying on the street and as you reach down to pick it up, a gust of wind blows it down the drain. I've come home a few times silently screaming..."Why am I doing this?!!" The summer of 2014 was really tough for me. My wife and kids had weekly Wednesday activities going on, so it had morphed from my mountain bike "ride night" into an almost guaranteed weekly evening of bass fishing. As the summer grew hotter, the bites grew thinner until finally I was considering myself fortunate to have caught just one or two fish in a 2-3 hour evening out.
I hopelessly chased the barometer, the water clarity, wind conditions, cloud cover and sun position fervently like an obsessed OCD crazed lunatic making spreadsheets and calendars of when the best possible bite would occur...but all of my studying and planning was as effective as a 3-legged dog trying to bury a bone on a frozen lake. I mean...that previous spring, I was catching 2-3 pound slimeballs on a regular basis...why must they be so tight-lipped over the summer?!
I read a story centered around getting back to the roots of fishing and just having fun. These guys were talking about their childhood memories, glass rods, Zebco 202's and how stoked they were to just catch fish. Not big fish, not necessarily any specific species...but just have fun playing and reeling in fish. I took a step back and assessed my situation and realized that the very few bass that I was actually able to allure during the "tough bite" season, were the runts of the litter. They weren't even fun on a medium-heavy rod and a full-sized baitcaster. I thought to myself...wouldn't it be nice if I could throw tiny baits on light tackle so I can "bass fish" all summer long when the juicy toads seem to lay dormant, but still have a total blast like when I was a kid and catch all these little dinks, bluegill, sunfish, and crappie. At this point, I had never heard of the Ned Rig or Midwest Finesse fishing.
Excerpt from the In-Fisherman:
"In addition to [Chuck] Woods, Ray Fincke, Drew Reese, Dwight Keefer, Harold Ensley, Guido Hibdon, Ted Green, Virgil Ward and Bill Ward played a role in making Kansas City the epicenter of bass fishing in the 1960s and '70s, and finesse tackle and tactics are what these men liked to make and employ."
"In addition to [Chuck] Woods, Ray Fincke, Drew Reese, Dwight Keefer, Harold Ensley, Guido Hibdon, Ted Green, Virgil Ward and Bill Ward played a role in making Kansas City the epicenter of bass fishing in the 1960s and '70s, and finesse tackle and tactics are what these men liked to make and employ."
Unbeknownst to me, I was inventing what had already been out there since the 1960's as a viable, bonafide tough-bite technique. I experimented with finesse worms bit in half (yup, I bite 'em!) with a #2 EWG hook. The action wasn't as fluid as I had hoped, but it did produce...and as a shorline angler, I could appreciate that it was weedless. I moved on to other scaled down baits like the 1/16oz Beetlespin, Strike King Bitsy Bug jigs, Wobblehead Lures Jr., the Tiny 'Trap by Bill Lewis Lures, and many others. All of the sudden, I was catching fish again and having a great time doing it. My favorites have really become the 1/16oz Beetlespin, Wobblehead Jr., 3" weightless Yamasenko, XTS Mini Hopper, Bomber Baby Square-A, and Rat-L-Trap's Tiny 'Trap. After finally studying the Ned Rig / Turd Rig / etc...I have employed the technique with some success. The drawback being the open hook can snag on all sorts of lovely things when throwing them from the bank. When shoreline fishing is all you have, the smaller 1/32oz jighead is usually a must which doesn't work well in the wind. I had communicated with Ned a few times regarding technique and setup and he explained that the general idea of the bait is to stay away from heavy cover. It's more of an open water bait and becomes more productive based on your retrieve technique.
Light Tackle Options
The lighter the bait, the more difficult it is to throw on baitcasting gear without becoming suicidal. You won't efficiently throw these baby lures on full size "man gear". Throwing a 1/32oz beetlespin on 15# line with your favorite casting reel is almost a direct invitation to a game of Duckett Golf but there are more options now than ever for nearly any mini-angler's budget seeking finesse tackle. No matter the hobby or passion, there's guaranteed to be a huge following complete with forums, chat groups, and articles to get lost in and rob you of your valuable time. Light tackle fishing is no different but beware...the BFS underworld or "Bait Finesse System" is a virtual vortex aimed directly at your wallet and has the capabilities of replacing time on the water with long hours of overtime at work just to afford the highly specialized gear. Since this is "Blue Collar Bankfishing", I'll stress that there are more budget friendly options that will get the job done almost as well as the alluring $1500 BFS rod and reel at 1/10 the cost.
Obviously, spinning gear is going to shine in most finesse situations unless you are like me...a died in the wool lover of finely tuned levelwind reels. If you love spinning gear, an inexpensive Light to Medium setup will only set you back a few bucks. I'm a total gearhead and bigtime baitcaster junkie. I like the spool control, accuracy, palming comfort...pretty much everything about them. I tried for a year to utilize a more budget-minded baitcaster like the Wally Marshall or CrappieMaxx models, but professional overrun became the norm. A used Daiwa Pixy is not terribly expensive and will chuck a Tiny 'Trap like it's a 1/2oz Rat-L-Trap. The key here is a super light, low capacity spool that will turn when you look at it cross-eyed and a magnetic braking system that is easy to fine-tune.
I've become a fan of the BPS MicroLITE series of rods because of their affordability and performance. Best bang-for-your-buck light tackle rods out there in my opinion. I've got a 9'6" ML with a Pfleuger Trion spooled with 4# line, and a 6' ML casting rod with a Daiwa PX68R that I found used from Japan. If you keep your eyes and ears open and watch the sales, you can BFS with the best of them for $150 or less.
More often than not, average sized fish will be your bread and butter with this style. Midwest Finesse (see "Ned Rig") style of fishing is kind of an open challenge to catch 100 fish of any size in an outing. The target isn't trophy bass but quantity. There is however the occasional fat-daddy on the end of the line. I've found that the Tiny 'Trap has given me larger fish on light line than other finesse baits that I frequently visit.
Last year, I snagged a 4-foot grass carp on 12lbs mono that I eventually lost. I fought that monster for an eternity and got his tail onto the bank...TOUCHING THE GRASS!! Then I reached down to try to lip him and he flopped his tail twice, broke my line and went on his merry way. Frustration set in and I considered calling it quits for the weekend, but I'm so very happy that I kept at it because the following morning I was completely blessed with a trophy-sized fish in the form of a 16" Crappie caught on light tackle and a Tiny Trap in the exact same place where I snagged the carp. The following week, I did the same thing in the same place and was rewarded with another beautiful crappie measuring 15". There's something magic about that little fishing hole for sure.
The same weekend yielded a new personal record for me on light tackle (at the time) by way of a 4lbs largemouth bass on 4lbs line. I was throwing a chrome / blue back bleeding Tiny 'Trap on 4lbs mono and an ultralight glass rod sporting a vintage 1980's Ryobi ultralight V-Mag 3 reel. This is not the most ideal casting combo for light baits due to the rudimentary design of the reel, but it will handle 1/8oz 'Traps just fine. Tiny Trap's are the virtual Ned Rig of crankbaits and seem to really pay out in that role. I recall this little future 5-pounder fighting me in and out of the weeds a couple times. I was beginning to wonder which of us would fail, but my line held firm and I kept a cool noodle and was rewarded with new line-class self respect.
Days later, I landed a beautiful 16" White Bass on a Pink / Black Tiny Trap in the same area as the 4lbs largemouth. This was my third Missouri Angler Award for 2015 and a real confidence booster in the capabilities of pink lures. I have since literally annihilated white bass on pink Tiny 'Traps.
I've read about anglers just "staying on the 'Trap" all day and they get fish. This often rings true with the Tiny 'Trap. I've caught everything from green sunfish to crappie to bluegill to bass on it and it just plain works. On the off day that the bite slows down or there are too many snags, there are plenty of other finesse presentations to try. The Tiny Trap has proven to catch fish for me when they're not hungry but also puts the big meat on the line, thus it is often going to be the first on my line. It's one of my light tackle bank fishing confidence baits and I can count on it to deliver smiles for miles.
My favorites:
No comments:
Post a Comment