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Get Rid Of That Macho Bass Man Attitude!

  by Capt. Rick LaPoint
Chauffeured Guide Service, Inc.

A typical summer Saturday morning at the fuel pumps brings tournament anglers together early in the morning scurrying to be the first to the lake. As I fuel up my boat the question gets asked, “How’s the bass biting?”  I respond with truthful humility, “ Been great we are catching lots of keepers every day and today should be no different.” With a glimmer of hope in his eye the burly angler asks, “ What you catching them on?”   I reply carefully, “Finesse worms with split shots and drop shots.” The burly man says, “ I can’t throw that finessey type stuff, I don’t even have a pole that light.  Besides that, if they don’t bite my jig and pig they ain’t bass enough for me.” I say to the unconfident man, “How about a jigging spoon, that’s what we are catching the big ones on.” He gruffly replies, “I ain’t jiggin no dang spoon all day.”  I shake my head and know he’s a lost cause. “Well good luck then!” I say, knowing he’ll need it.

  This is the typical Macho Bass Man Attitude! This man dreams about throwing his extra heavy action, double fast taper, flipping stick, with #50 pound test spider wire. Horsing that bass out of the brush, flying into the boat before it even twitches. The bass is so stunned from the reaction that it lays there motionless until the angler tosses it in the livewell.

  Get real, Macho Bass Man! Fishing has changed a lot over the period of a few years. Along with the growth of the sport and fishing tournaments that silly little green bass has become conditioned to the easy presentations that the Macho Bass Man offers. No matter what people think, bass aren’t smart. They just become conditioned to presentations that are slammed in front of them every day. Bass are like any other animal in this sense. Dogs are a perfect example. To teach a dog to do something you do it repetitively. You think your dog is smart, but it is just conditioned to react the way you want when you present it with a certain object or food.

  Meanwhile in my office (ZX250 Skeeter) my clients and I are moving in on the next honey hole. I point to the underwater tree. One client drops a jigging spoon down to a tree in 105 ft of water. “Am I on the bottom already?” my client asks. “Set the Hook!” I shout. And wham! The medium action Grandt Rod is doubled over. Drag stripping the #8 test line.  I shout to my other client, “Drop your spoon now!  Drop, drop, drop, (line stops) set it! Wham! There goes his rod, another doubleheader on the jigging spoon.

  Jigging spoons, Drop Shots and Split Shots are all techniques that require you to leave the Macho Bass Man attitude at home. I use these deepwater techniques on Table Rock Lake Reservoir near Branson, Missouri. They demand a desire to learn new tactics and lower your self to the finesse fisherperson’s level. Did I say lower? I meant raise your self to the level of the finesse fisherperson. Learning new techniques means change and for a lot of us change is difficult.

Do-Nothing Finesse fishing is a skill I, and others have refined over the past few years and it puts bass in the boat. Most fish this method with a drop shot. This rig works very well. There has even been some controversy over this type of fishing. Some call it trolling or strolling. In my opinion it just an excuse to use against a method that is very effective. I use the split shot rig the same way. I lower it to the depth the bass are located at and just hold it there. Typically on any guide trip with a husband and wife, the wife catches the most bass. She has the patience to just hold the split shot steady. All of a sudden I hear, “I got one!” When the bass bite the finesse worm there is a subtle tap or nothing but a steady pull. You give the bass time to eat the worm then rip them lips!

Good electronics are the key to this type of fishing. My Skeeter boat is equipped with a Pinpoint 7520 and the perfect match to it a Pinpoint 3700 trolling motor with 5 transducers.

  The key to using good electronics is knowing what you see on that screen. Realizing that what you see is real. The thing that was helpful to me was learning what I was seeing using an underwater video camera. When you use the camera you can tell at what depth the camera is at and then really see what you depth finder is telling you. I was shocked when the guy with the camera dropped the cable and said, ”Holy cow look at all the bass!” I have a lot of confidence in my Pinpoint 7520 and would be lost with out it. Every day we catch bass that we see and sometimes watch them come to the lure and hit it. Some clients say it’s like playing a video fishing game.

  Deepwater fishing can be some of the most rewarding fishing you could ever do. All it takes is someone to show you how or have the patience to learn your self. Teaching these techniques has proven to be a successful tactic to use with my guide service. Even the novice angler can learn these techniques readily. These techniques I learned only after getting frustrated getting my butt kicked continually by the lake experts that used these tactics. The years they started doing this the only thing we had that showed fish were paper charts. Now with electronics moving to a superior level some LCR’s can do the same as a paper graph does. Now all you got left to do is, Get Rid Of That Macho Bass Man Attitude.