Sight Fishing: Seeing Pressured Bass

To all of you that live in parts of the country where the water is too murky to sight fish in Spring, I’m sorry. Its a fun and exciting way to fish for a brief part of the year and should be experienced by everyone at least once. However, it can be humbling, will test your patience and make you more frustrated than you knew you could be while having “fun”. For those who do get to sight fish you know that as the spawn really begins the pressure from anglers becomes an ever-increasing problem. In many clear water impoundments the pressure is so bad you can’t even approach the fish before they are gone.

Jeff wrangled this bass out of deep cover on Day 1 of the FLW

Over the last couple weeks I spent a great deal of time on the California Delta, unfortunately so did many of the West’s greatest pros. The FLW tournament series had come to town and there were wrapped boats every which way you turned. Not wanting to be rude I did my best to stay out of the way while still having a shot at trophy bass. Even so, you could feel the bite shutting down more and more as the days ticked by. The timing was right but there was too much boat traffic.

Instead of getting frustrated we put our heads together, selected a couple patterns that consistently produced, and went to catching fish. The primary pattern was sight fishing with a secondary pattern throwing swimbaits in shallow water. The swimbait bite was self-explanatory (we covered a lot of likely water) but the sight fishing took some work. As I mentioned we were constantly surrounded by boats but I was amazed day after day to see that most of them weren’t sight fishing. There were beds all around but many anglers managed to overlook them.

What I believe set us apart was our ability and willingness to look deeper. As the FLW approached the bass started spawning deeper than usual. The week before there were beds in 1-2 feet of water. During the event most beds were in 4-6 feet and as deep as 9-11 feet. Remember, the delta is not a clear-water fishery so finding these beds in 10+ feet of water was a real challenge. What was happening was the pressure was pushing these fish down and away from the boat traffic and many anglers failed to make that switch, those that did cashed big pay checks from a variety of techniques.

I’m not usually one to push products through the website. I want anglers to have freedom of choice and I want this website to be a place to learn rather than a place to be fed a cheap line and a bunch of gimmick products. Understand that when I do mention products by name it is because they have made a major impact on my fishing and I believe they can do the same for you.

If you’re trying to fish without polarized glasses you’re on the losing end of the game. There is no way you can compete without them. You need to invest in quality polarized lenses but you don’t need to break the bank. The particular pair I choose to wear during the spawn is the Amber lense made by Eye Surrender Eyewear. Why am I telling you this? Because I finally found a pair of glasses that don’t cost a fortune. I’m not big into the hype and gimmicks about glasses, all I really know about these is that I can see deeper than the people around me, they were inexpensive ($39.99), have a lifetime warranty, and are widely available in shops and direct from the manufacturer.
I hope these insights help you prepare for the rest of this season or the beginning of the next. When the bass are feeling the presence of boat traffic don’t give up, back off, look deeper, and you may just catch a giant (or two

9 Lb Bass Crushes the Swim Jig

For those of you that read the California swim jig post, ran to tackle warehouse and completely wiped out their stock of 3/4 oz California swim jigs, this isn’t for you. But for everyone who ran there and found the baits were already sold out, I thought you might like to see a video that was sent to me yesterday afternoon.
Personally, I catch the majority of my fish on the 3/4 oz but the 1/2 oz has a time and place as well. Nationally, a lot of guys are using it with great success.
As I’ve said many times before, I don’t want all the videos on this site to be about me. I love when other anglers film great content. The timing was perfect when Dave from Florida sent me this video. He was wearing a head cam when a 9 lb bass completely inhaled his 1/2 oz Dirty Jigs swim jig. Its going to be an eye opening video for a lot of people. Not only do the baits work, they draw incredibly aggressive strikes, often from extremely pressured fish.
The good news is, at the time of this posting there are still a few 1/2 oz jigs available at tacklewarehouse. Here is the link: 1/2 oz California Swim Jigs

To all of Tacticalbassin’s readership, if you get a great catch on camera (on any bait) feel free to contact me via the “contact Us” link at the top of the page. If it seems like a good fit I’ll put it on the site. Tacticalbassin isn’t about me, its about the fisherman who come here to learn. I am all for user-generated content as I believe keeps the site relevant to cutting-edge trends around the country. I look forward to what you can come up with in the future.
Dave, thank you again for this submission. Great video, great fish, and perfect release.

California Swim Jigs

The trouble is, I don't follow a lot of the "rules" regarding how they should be fished. I'm a big fish, heavy line, stout hook kind of guy and it never made sense to me that it wouldn't work with a swim jig. Over the last few years I've been searching, experimenting, fine-tuning, and ultimately helping to develop a new genre of swim jigs known as the California swim jig.

The baits are available exclusively through Tackle Warehouse for the next 30 days and can be found via this link: Dirty Jigs California Swim Jig

If you've read my posts or watched my videos about swim jigs in the past what you've seen were the prototypes. You've probably even seen the jigs catching fish but didn't know that's what they were. Thanks to Curt Demerath of Dirty Jigs Tackle (the godfather of innovative jig design) the California-style swim jig is a reality. Curt and I put our minds together on this one and created a jig that swims unlike anything else and allows you to target fish that other jigs simply can't reach. Other companies will follow this trend (as they should) but make no mistake, you are witnessing the beginning of a whole new wave of swim jigs. In addition to an extra-heavy wire hook and custom weedless head design, the jigs come in a variety of swimbait-derived color schemes. You no longer have to settle for black/blue or matte white. You have colors like Tactical Trout, Light Hitch, Gizzard Shad, and many more to choose from. No matter where you are located in the world you can find a color to accurately match the baitfish in your local waters. The following video is approximately 7 minutes long and covers everything you need to know to get started. I discuss why the baits work, what sets them apart, and some of the unique approaches that make the jigs so fun.

I hope this jig impacts your fishing as tremendously as it has mine. When I first started to experiment with swimming big jigs I had no idea the caliber or quantity of big bass I would begin to catch. Its also important to understand that these baits are not enormous. While I've trophy-class bass on the swim jig I've also caught significant numbers of 1-2 lb fish and have found the baits to be equally capable at filling a limit. The baits have worked equally both day and night and have produced fish in every month of the year. Pick up a California Swim Jig today and see what all the fuss is about. I look forward to hearing the stories and seeing the photos in the weeks and months to come. Dirty Jigs California Swim Jig

How to Modify a Swim Jig

Saying that the big swim jig and switchblade jig have “caught on” would be a gross understatement. Almost overnight everyone seems to be throwing them. Of course, this brings up a whole new assortment of bait and technique related questions. One that has been coming up lately is how to modify the jigs to improve or change their action.
This video discusses what you can do to both the swim jig and the switchblade jig to get different actions.
The baits fish very well “as is” if you use the trailers I recommend but if you start using other trailers, brands, weights, etc… you will need to make these changes to keep your baits swimming properly.

I hope you find this video helpful and I look forward to hearing your thoughts.