Don't Just Fish on the Front Porch

[Roy]

Don't Just Fish on the Front Porch

By Jeremiah T. Bagwell

October 22, 2013
There have been countless times out on the water when I’ve witnessed anglers severely limit their success when it comes to fishing cover. They come across a spectacular piece of fish holding cover and only fish the very outer edges. This drives me nuts and I’ll almost always fish the cover as soon as they leave it – because they’ve left the best parts untouched.

I look at the outer edge of cover sort of like the front porch of a house. There may be a few people on their porches in your neighborhood from time to time, but the majority of them are inside their homes. The same holds true with fish holding to cover. There might be a few hanging out beyond the outer edges of the trees but you really need to put your bait up in the nasty stuff to get the most out of it.

When I approach a good looking tree in the water, I like get a good visual of the structure and plan my attack. A high quality pair of polarized sunglasses, like my Wiley X which eliminates glare, improves my ability to see submerged targets. I determine where the outer edges of the cover are, and then I get a visual on as many different quadrants of the cover as possible. I look closely at each limb, how different objects cross each other, and if there any holes in the cover. I’m basically analyzing the area to find each and every place I think a fish might hide.

Before I even make my first cast I position the boat 10 to 15 feet away from the outer edges of the cover at an angle that provides me the most direct approach to the target. No one wants to make a bad cast to a great piece of cover. Have enough restraint to wait the extra few seconds it takes to put the boat in the proper position. As you work around the perimeter of the cover, do so with your trolling motor on a low setting to keep the noise levels at a minimum.

I like to hit the outer edges with a Yamamoto Senko first. The Senko gives me the opportunity to fish the perimeter without disturbing the entire area. It’s gentle fall and subtle movements quietly get me into the strike zone. I don’t immediately go straight for the main trunk of the tree – this could potentially scare off everything that is positioned around the tree by pulling a fish out from the deepest part first. There is also a possibility that I might get hung up. If that happens I will probably have to pull my boat up in there to get it and potentially scare the fish away, at the very least, making them gun shy. My goal is to disrupt the cover as little as possible as I fish it from the outer “porch” to the inside of the “house”.

After I dissect the outer edges, I switch my weapon to a square billed Lucky Craft crankbait like the LC 1.5 DRS. The 1.5 is a tough bait that holds up well when bounced off of hard, rough objects. I run this shallow diver parallel to some portions while crashing into other sections of the cover trying to trigger a strike. These sudden changes in speed or direction very frequently result in a fish eating your lure. With the crankbait I am trying to draw out the more aggressive or active fish.

When my crankbait has drawn all the reaction strikes it can out of the structure, I switch up again and start casting into the cover with a jig. I find the Siebert Outdoors Elite jig with a Yamamoto Craw trailer to be extremely snag resistant and I have no problem crawling it through the nastiest stuff out there. For me the jig serves several purposes: I’m putting it into heavy cover and it’s snag resistant. Additionally, I have the ability to flip and pitch it with near laser beam precision hitting very specific targets. Lastly, I can keep the bait in the strike zone for as long as I want, all while trying to antagonize any finicky bass into biting.

By adopting a multi-step approach to cover, I am trying to maximize my fish catching potential and get as many fish as I can from each piece of cover. If you are only fishing the outer edges of any cover, you are skipping right over dozens of fish every single time you are on the water. If you want to get the most out of fishing cover, you have to cast back in the intimidating mess.
You will get snagged. You will get hung up. Don’t let this discourage you from fishing these areas. That little bit of aggravation will all be forgotten when you pull out a giant bass on another cast. At the end of the day, it’s worth it.

[jaki1979]

Very good and interesting read. I will certainly apply these techniques next time round.

[Marmaduke]

Hi Roy, great article. Thanks for posting it.