Successful Summer Smiles

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By [url "http://www.bassdozer.com/about_us.shtml"]Russ Bassdozer[/url] Successful Summer Smiles By [url "http://www.bassdozer.com/about_us.shtml"]Russ Bassdozer[/url]
Andreane Daviau recently released these beautiful smallmouth. Andreane likes to dropshot deep main lake humps with wacky-rigged 326 (golden shiner) Senkos. The golden shiner Senko may imitate a tight cluster of larval shad, an injured adult shad, a dawdling walleye smolt or simply something that looks shiny and easy to eat. She's also scraped up some whoppers with purple/brown (921). On her latest trips, she's topped the day's catch off with the biggest bass by using cinnamon red w/blue (215) wacky dropshot Senkos.
Most of what you read or hear about dropshot espouses smaller baits. It's true that 3" and 4" Senkos do work - but catch way too many undersized bass, says Andreane who favors using the 5" Senko in order to mitigate unnecessary wear and tear on the undersized, yet still attract medium bass that make for a fine meal and large bass that make for a fine photo and release.
Andreane dropshots using a Yamamoto 6'6" dropshot rod and Shimano 2000 spinning reel with 6 lb Yamamoto fluorocarbon line. She adds a Rod Balancer weight to the end of the rod for enhanced bite detection, which can be so subtle on the dropshot, and less wrist strain. The size #1 Gamakatsu splitshot/dropshot hooks she favors may seem small for the 5" Senko. However, the advantage of using this small size hook is the Senko's relatively wide girth actually acts as a belly-bumper to bounce the hook point away from snags. Hooked right in the middle (wacky-style), the two protruding arms of the Senko also serve to boing the hook back off of snags, says Andreane. She doesn't add any action to the wacky dropshot Senko but simply reels slowly once it hits bottom, always ensuring she can feel the sinker contact bottom occasionally throughout the entire retrieve. She'll open the bail and release line to get bottom contact back. Slow-reeling causes both tips to constantly bend backward, flex and vibrate in an active struggling manner, which is the strike trigger. Six to eight inches below the bait, she clips a long thin 1/4 oz Mojo Pineapple Swivel sinker on the line. The Mojo shape is the most snag-resistant sinker shape I've tried, says Andreane, adding that she hand-bends the sinker slightly into a banana shape which courses through rugged terrain even better. MegaStrike scent attractant keeps bass holding on while a slow rod lift with continued smooth reeling practically guarantees the fireworks are about to begin! A loose drag and a landing net are needed when big smallmouth like these go ballistic on 6 lb line. [#ff0000]Heaving Hefty Jigs[/#ff0000]
Also working well for Andreane are 1/2 oz to 3/4 oz Yamamoto football jigs on 12 lb test spinning gear. These have a long keeper collar designed to let you lace on a Yamamoto jig skirt first, then a Yamamoto saltwater tough grub. The saltwater tough grubs last much longer than the standard Yamamoto grubs, says Andreane. With the standard grubs, sometimes I have to replace them after every bite. This not a complaint, since it means I probably just landed a bass! On the other hand, it's not unusual for the same saltwater tough grub to last half the day, all day, sometimes even the next day, landing many bass on the same tough grub.
The caveat here is that she feels the 1/2 oz or heavier jig head is necessary to make the sturdier saltwater grub tails paddle properly. Any lighter head than that, you really need the supple tail of the standard grub in order to get the proper tail-paddling action.
At first using the grub without any skirt, I tended to entice a smaller grade of bass. By simply increasing lure size with the skirt, I instantly upgraded the size bass I am catching, says Andreane.
In terms of color, it's hard to beat an 031 (pearl blue with silver flake) skirt with an 031 tough grub, says Andreane. She's also found an unusual combination of 042 (watermelon) skirt with 320 (merthiolate) tough grub that can work better than anything some days. I'm not sure what this imitates, if anything, but I have heard of and seen photos of crayfish carrying egg clutches attached to their underbellies, which are translucent pinkish egg masses, says she. [#ff0000]Where to Jig in Summer[/#ff0000]
Jigs rule in sping, says Andreane. I've been on a wide-open jig bite all spring, but with the water warming rapidly now in early summer, this is causing fish to move deeper for the summer, and the jig bite typically withers with the hot weather, she says.
The jig can still be best for me in summer when bass are active and cruising up on top of shallow offshore shoals during windy, cloudy or low light conditions. On the other hand, jigs may not produce as well as dropshotting during bright, sweltering windless periods.
I'm getting the better quality bass deeper on dropshot, and that's become my primary pattern for right now, this time of year, she says. The jigs, which were of prime importance during spring, have become my secondary pattern for now. The way the secondary jig pattern is working well is if I can mark dense numbers of gamefish and shad on the electronics on the deep side of channel breaks in 20 to 30 feet of water - they appear active, but I cannot easily get them to eat my offerings although they follow them up to the boat. I can only assume that these fish are just hanging on the shad, waiting for a school of stripers or walleye to come along and pen the shad in against a ledge, shoal or hump, at a divantage. Until other gamefish schools make it easy for them, the bass don't seem to bother trying to eat much of the shad.
However, if I can visually locate a nearby hump, ledge or shoal rising into 15 to 18 feet that intersects the deep shad-holding channel breaks, then I am almost certain there are going to be a few catchable bass on top of each lighter-colored spot, stuffed with craws. So I suppose until the deepwater shad bite turns on, some of the bass are slipping up on top of nearby shoals to root in rubble for craws. That's where the swimming jig still works well for me, either in shad colors or craw colors.
Shaded bluff walls are other places I find bass suspended throughout summer, and either the 031 or 320 tough grub coupled with an 038 luminous white skirt can excel in the cool dark shade lines beneath the deep bluff walls, says Andreane. Just look for deep walls adjacent to otherwise good structure. Bass will forage on the nearby structure at morning, evening or when it's windy or overcast - but suspend along the nearby bluffs during bright midday periods whenever shade is cast under the walls. Nooks, cracks and an occasional van-sized rock are high percentage spots along walls, but don't overlook sheer straight walls either. Shade is the key and even the thinnest sliver of shade line can be as good or better than a wide swatch of it.
If it is over fifty feet deep such as on the shaded bluff walls or under ten feet deep such as where offshore shoals top out, I keep the jig swimming high near the surface, not feeling a need to let it sink down. But if I feel I can reach the bottom anywhere from 10 to 50 feet deep, I also try letting the jig sink. I don't add any action to the jig but simply reel slowly once it hits bottom, always ensuring I can feel the jig contact bottom occasionally throughout the entire retrieve. If I lose bottom contact, I'll slow way down or stop reeling and just let the jig pendulum fall on a tight line until I feel the jig tick bottom again. Either slow reeling or simply falling on a tight line, the heavy jig head causes the tail to paddle, which is the strike trigger. [#ff0000]Spinnerbaits for Wood[/#ff0000]
The football shape is the most snag-resistant jig shape I've tried. Whereas the football jig is snag-resistant in rocks, its exposed hook point buries quickly into wood of whatever variety. So when around submerged trees and brush, I switch from the football jigs to 1/2 oz spinnerbaits, using the same skirts and tough grubs in the same colors. With the spinnerbait, which she says is nothing more than a jig wearing a pair of flashy gold and silver earrings, Andreane has found that the spinnerbait wire arm forms a huge, wide vee-guard that deflects the hook away from snags surprisingly well. I can wind a spinnerbait through a treetop all day that would halt my jig dead in its tracks on the first cast, says Andreane.
For both spinnerbaits and jigs, Andreane uses a medium/heavy 6'6" Shakespeare Ugly Stik Lite Model SP 1166-1MH and a Daiwa 2500 spinning reel with 12 lb Berkley Trilene XL monofilament. With a hacksaw, she takes about two inches off the end of the rod in order to customize a shorter handle to her liking, and she adds a Rod Balancer weight for less wrist strain and enhanced bite detection. [#ff0000]Getting Back to the Fine Art[/#ff0000]
However, whenever conditions are slick calm during summer and it burns her fingers just to pluck a fresh MegaStrike-soaked golden shiner Senko out of the bag left in the sun on the boat deck? Well, that's when Andreane successfully s while she dropshots for the very biggest bass that were among the earliest to spawn and therefore the first to slip furthest offshore out to the deepest summer sanctuaries.
Undeniably dropshot is the ultimate fun for Andreane. Nothing compares to the sizzling runs and ballistic high jumps on wispy 6 lb test! Some of these fish I watch rocket straight up from fifteen feet underwater to launch three feet into the air! The jumps are the last you see of some of these trophies as they gain their freedom with this ploy. It's a sight not soon forgotten, she says.
In early summer, many bass, especially the earliest wave of spawners, seem that they've moved out from backs of coves and creeks and onto the deepest main lake points, says Andreane. Typically, this first wave of spawners are the lake's lunkers, the best that any lake or impoundment has to offer anglers. Most anglers lose track of these lunkers after they leave the spawning grounds in spring. By summer, they have moved to the very furthest offshore locations already. Meanwhile, most anglers are still fishing shallow in summer for fewer and smaller bass.
It seems bass in the deepwater haunts I fish are mainly fish-eaters, says Andreane. They typically spit up large partially-digested and therefore skinless finfish. I've positively identified adult shad, sunfish, chunky catfish and walleye smolt on the menu. Most bass barf is spit out too deep to see what it is, except that no crawfish parts have been seen, possibly because I'm fishing deep slick rock humps without rubble debris to support craws. It seems they're indiscriminately foraging on any fish they find, and the electronics show multitudes of sunfish and other small bottomfish residing on top of these deep humps. When the wind blows, I expect the graph to show shad schools filtering into these deep areas with the wind.
To summarize what I look for in summer, my prerequisite is first having a diversity of small resident groundfish and young-of-year occupying my deepwater fishing spots, mostly humps. Then I'll keep frequenting these spots, as surely will the quality bass, so long as I can still graph some shad filtering through the area.
That's my basis for a successful summer, s Andreane.
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