Big Indiana Bass

I came across the following article which really kind of resonated with me when I read it. I believe because of some of the things I've seen or heard of from bass anglers this year, along with my own stepping down from much of the tournment scene. The article is "What Do You Give Back to the Sport of Bass Fishing?" by Darin Roddick-Small. It is one of a whole bunch of good articles from a variety of bassing individuals over at the Future Bass website. Check them out if you haven't already seen them.

I've gathered some pictures and am ready to explain how I would approach the area in question from a bank angling perspective. I've marked the original map with 4 section numbers representing the 4 different areas. The reason will be a little more clear in a few moments. First though, lets talk about what I see most people doing. They grab their tackle, head to section 2 or 4 and go out to the end of the docks and start fan casting out into the open water. If they don't get bit, and they usually don't, after a bit you'll see them walk down further along the line of docks and back out to the end of another dock and repeat the casting. If they only realized the majority of the quickly catchable bass were right under their feet.

Area 1: Upon closer inspection this area turns out to be a large shallow flat with posts for docking boats and several boats pulled up to the bank and tied off. As such, one of the fastest and best ways to cover this area is with a shallow running crankbait. You can quickly cast the flat, run the crank by the poles and even parallel to the pontoon boats which provide the bulk of the shade or cover in this area. This is especially productive on cloudy or breezy days. On sunny days I'll usually fish something slower and more vertical such as a dropshot or a wacky rigged worm. The trick though is to only focus on the specific posts and tight to the pontoon boats. You throw out no further than the end of the boat and work the short stretch back to shore. We're talking 25' and less here in all instances. On posts, it is literally a pitch to the post and a few seconds for the bait to drop and work beside the post. No bites, immediately move to the next one. Either way you can quickly cover this entire area in less than 20 minutes most days.

Area 2: This is a deeper area with permanent concrete docks forming boat slips. While the flat in area 1 is 1'-4', the docks in this stretch run 2'-6' deep. The real key here is looking closer at the docks. You'll notice two permanent large supporting posts holding each one up, one in the middle and one near the end. These docks are also much narrower tha a pontoon boat. As such, the key target here are the two posts. These can easily be targeted from one side only due to their narrow width, and simply pitching a slightly faster drop bait to each post (two pitches per dock) then moving on gets the job done. If I'm really in a hurry, a single pitch to the far supporting post followed by working the bait to the middle post will work in most instances. They get one chance to bite before I move to the next walkway and repeat. My favorite setup here is a Little Pek jighead from RedShad teamed up with some sort of plastic. Check out the link to see all the rigging options available! I can easily take a single platics bag and throw in 3 or 4 different types of plastics (2-3 of each) and have all the variety I need for any given day. No need for weights, hooks, pegging toothpicks or any extra gear. Remember, efficiency is what I'm striving for. I want one little baggie of stuff to throw in my pocket along with a pair of long nose pliers - that's it!

Area 3: This area is basically the ramp and the straight riprap banks leading into and out of the area. This calls for parallel casting right down the shoreline and within 3'-5' foot of the bank. Here again, two options already mentioned work fine. A shallow crank for stained water, cloudy skies or breezy days or a Little Pek jighead rigged with a plastic bait and fished slightly slower and on slightly shorter casts down the rocks. One really cool thing to keep in mind is that many ramp areas have either washouts at the end of them from all the loading of boats or some type of reinforcement material to prevent these washouts. In this case, they applied a line of riprap that runs straight across the entire ramp about 15' out from the bank. This little hidden jewel is a bass magnet. The jighead teamed with a plastic craw-type bait and pitched parallel to that line of deeper (4'-5') riprap at the end of the ramp will produce as many as a dozen bass on a good day. As long as you can catch this area when the boat traffic is light allowing casts across the loading area, you can score big here. The fish in the pic came from this area on just such a setup.

Area 4: This final area is a small stretch but with a lot of options making it potentially very productive. You have a shallow sand beach guarded by a pair of riprap points that both lead into deeper water as well as a couple docks over that deeper water with the supporting posts similar to Area 2. Key spots are the rock points which form the transition. The crankbait tossed a few times over each point from a cuple different angles covers the area well. From either point I can also cast straight across the beach area when no one is around. I can also parallel crank each side of the 2 docks as well as step out onto the two docks and then parallel several casts in either direction down the riprap shoreline. Again, on sunny calm days the plastic/jighead combination gets the nod in the same places working tighter to the bottom as well as directly on the supporting dock posts.

This pretty much covers the entire area with a limited amount of baits. One bag of assorted plastics with jigheads and a small container with 2 cranks tucked inside the plastics bag is all I need most days. If I know conditions are going to be prime (or limiting) for a certain technique, many times I'll only bring 2 baits. In all cases I only bring one rod that will handle all the options for the day. A little pre-planning here can pay off. Also keep in mind that you can adjust all these suggestions based on your exact water and weather conditions. Some days (calm and cloudy) the only bait I'll bring is a topwater fished parallel to banks and docks or immediately next to posts. On other days I've made the entire trip with a single spinnerbait. The point I'm trying to make is to not drag a whole set of rods and a full box of tackle with you. In most cases they're not needed and will only slow you down and cause headaches. The more you fish and learn your bank areas, the more refined your tackle selection will become. Move quick and fish intelligently - the system works!

I haven't even had a chance to see it yet, but a friend told me today that an article on fishing Glenn Flint Reservoir that I contributed to hit the mailboxes this week. The article appears in the June issue of Indiana Game & Fish magazine which subscribers are now receiving. Not sure if it has hit the newstands yet, but it should shortly. There is a decent chance that it will appear online at their website after a bit (another month?) and if so I'll link to it in another post. Kind of anxious to see the article myself to see how it turned out.