News & Stories

Big Flats, Big Bass!

By Mike Frisch

The dog days of summer are a time when some outdoors enthusiasts concentrate more on water sports or golf and less on fishing.  Not me.  In fact, one of my favorite fishing patterns is happening right now!       

The pattern I’m fishing is one that Duane Peterson, one of my fishing mentors, keyed me in to many years ago.  It involves targeting largemouth bass on big weed flats on hot, calm, sunny days. Duane taught me that these conditions actually suck big largemouth into heavy weed clumps often found on flats for the cover and shade they provide.                                                                                                                                                                         

Big flats and lots of weeds can intimidating.  To simplify my search, I target three areas. First, the deep or outside weedline holds lots of fish of all species during summer. However, I’m usually penetrating inside that weedline, not actually fishing the edge, as the bigger bass seem to tuck tighter into the actual weeds, especially during mid-day on bright days.                                                                                                                                                                                           

Also, the inside or shallow weedline, particularly if there is a distinct inside edge, maybe where the weeds quickly give way to sand, can be an overlooked hotspot. Again, I look for fish tucked inside that edge here too.

Lastly, any heavy weed clumps right on top of a flat can be dynamite.  When holding in those “on top” clumps, the fish can be hard to pinpoint, particularly on very large flats.  A good way to shorten the search is to “run” the flat with my main outboard and use my sonar’s Side Imaging to look off to the boat’s sides for good weed clumps.

Once a target area is I identified, I start fishing by quickly moving along making short pitches with my bait to good weeds seen on my depthfinder or seen visually looking in the water.   In addition to weed clumps, I look for holes in the weeds or dark spots to drop in.  Dark spots are often thick coontail weeds that draw bass.  Good polarized sunglasses are a necessity for seeing these spots as well as other targets.  The RLVNT glasses I started wearing this summer have been really helpful as they feature great polarization and contrast for increased visibility.

Patience is often required too, regardless whether targeting fish tucked inside the shallow or deep weed edges or fishing “on top.” I might go a half-hour or 45 minutes fishing down a flat without a bite, and then, suddenly, boom, I hit four fish in four drops and they’re all big!

Luckily, once some bites are had, patterns usually emerge. For example, if I get on an inside weedline and find that the fish are tucked a few yards inside that edge in say 7 feet of water, odds are good I can target that depth and find more fish.

As for baits for dropping in weeds, a “big jig” (a flippin’ style jig), tipped with a high action trailer is my choice. My favorite jig is the Hack Attack which is available in  ½ and ¾ ounce sizes (the two I use most), comes in great colors, and has a stout, sharp hook.  It’s specifically designed for fishing heavy cover like dense weeds.

Bama Craw and Blue Craw color pattern jigs are my favorites. And, I always tip with a Rage Craw of a similar color. The kicking action of this craw on the fall can’t be beat.  I fish jigs on 20 pound fluorocarbon line and use a heavy flippin’ stick and quality baitcast reel.  Power and strength are required in my rod, reel, and line for quickly horsing big bass from heavy weeds.  Lew’s makes a variety of flippin’/pitchin’ rods that work great for this method as well as several quality baitcast reels that do a good job too.

If a good “job” for you yet this summer involves setting the hook on aggressive, hard-fighting fish, consider heading to the flats on your favorite lake and putting to use the tips just offered. You’ll probably find largemouth bass willing to bite and flat bass fishing might just become your favorite summer hobby too!

As always, good luck on the water and remember to include a youngster in your next outdoors adventure!

Mike Frisch hosts the popular Fishing the Midwest TV series.  Follow Fishing the Midwest on Facebook for more “fishy” information!

Photo – Mike Frisch dropped a big jig to catch this summer bass!

By Bob Jensen

Fishing is so many things to so many people.  Some folks go fishing to relax, some go fishing to enjoy being outside or being with a person that they like to be with, and other people go fishing to catch a specific species of fish.  For most people though, fishing is a combination of all those things.

Along those same lines, people who like to fish like to fish in different ways.  Some like to park a lawn chair next to the riverbank, put a line or two in the water and wait for a fish to come along. Others prefer to troll.  And there are those who stand on the deck of a boat casting for hours.  Some would say that standing and casting for hours can be quite a workout, and it can be.  But we should chase fish the way that we like to chase fish.  The wonderful thing about fishing is that we can make it exactly, or almost exactly, what we want it to be.  And there are so many things that fishing can be.  Here’s what I mean.

A while back I took a couple of young anglers to a friend’s pond for a couple of hours.  These were anglers that didn’t have a lot of fishing experience, so we used very basic equipment.  We used a long, lightweight rod with no reel and about six feet of line tied to the tip of the rod.  A tiny jig and a tinier piece of plastic was tied to the end of the line.  We caught lots of bluegills that were no more than five inches long and a couple bigger ones.  We also had a big bass bite our jig that provided ten seconds of excitement (pandemonium) before it escaped.  Very simple fishing, very nice, very memorable. Some might think that our simple fishing gear was for rookies.  And they’d be right.  However, I have a friend who is an outstanding fishing guide, and in the spring when the crappies are in the shallows, he employs the exact same set-up.  And you know what?  My friend and his guests catch lots of crappies and have an outstanding time on the water.  That rookie equipment helps an expert angler to lots of catches.

Trolling is a technique that most anglers can employ if they have a boat.  Some boats are better for trolling, and some anglers are better at trolling, mostly because they’ve spent a good amount of time learning to troll. Trolling can be a laid-back technique if you want it to be.  Tie on a bait, let it out behind the boat, put the boat in gear and you’re trolling.  When you feel a strike, you reel it in. Great way to spend a day, and you’ll catch some fish.

But I’ve fished with a good number of trollers who never sit still.  They’re letting lines out and bringing them in all the time.  They change baits to vary the color, size, or running depth.  They troll faster, then slower.  Their eyes are constantly on the sonar unit watching for fish that might be deeper or shallower.  They’re always changing something and they’re enjoying their style of trolling.  And they usually catch fish.

Which brings us to electronics, sonar specifically.  Electronics have come so far in the past few years, and they do so much more than show depth.  They can show what’s to the side of the boat and in front of and behind the boat.  Mapping systems within the units show your location on the body of water and the underwater structure around you.  Some anglers are really into the technology aspect of fishing. Some are a bit intimidated by it.  They wonder if they need all those electronic features to catch fish.  Us older anglers remember back when our electronics showed depth and maybe a fish every now and then.  We caught lots of fish.  However, I’m certain we catch more fish now, and some or much of that is because of modern sonar and such.  However, many of us older anglers don’t use the modern stuff like we could or maybe even like we should.  We like to fish the way that we like to fish, and that’s the wonderful thing about fishing:  We can almost always find a way to fish the way that we most like to fish.  And that’s the way it should be.