Techniques To Turn On A Dead Sea

Some days bass just won’t bite. Tried and true spots fail. Favorite lures fail. And you’re not alone, according to folks at the baitshop. Buddies and guides write it off and go elsewhere. Do you, too, fly the white flag? Or might you fiddle with downsize finesse baits to tempt a bite or two?

At tough tournaments, you hear the refrain, “Somebody always manages to catch ’em.” True, one or two anglers often manage to find a few good fish, enough to take home the trophies and leave the rest of the field puzzled. Rumors may spread about a fantastic new lure or an offbeat spot. According to Gregg Meyer, a veteran In-Fisherman contact living in Nebraska, that’s rarely the case.

“At times, an angler may stumble into an area that’s loaded, despite generally poor fishing conditions,” he says, “but 90 percent of the time, success in tough times requires work, patience, and concentration. When adverse conditions arise, you have to create your own bite.”

Meyer’s advice recalls that of powerfishermen like Kelly Jordan, Skeet Reese, and Kevin VanDam. “Go and make them bite,” they say. In spawn-time situations, this can mean pestering a bedding fish until it strikes. But at other times, it involves presenting a big bait in thick cover and working it fast, hoping to place it directly in a bass’ face. The lure’s proximity and sudden appearance often generate a reaction: flight or fight. Bass, being bass, often attack.

Ground Rules for Agitation Angling

Meyer’s concept of agitation angling goes farther. He tries to alter the underwater environment to elicit bites. “Agitation angling works in warm-water conditions,” Meyer emphasizes, “and shouldn’t be attempted in cold water. Fish should be metabolically capable of aggressive feeding, but are turned off due to weather conditions, fishing pressure, reservoir drawdowns, or other negative factors.”

And as you’d guess, this is a technique of last resort, when the lake seems dead and no one is catching fish. Meyer notes, however, that to create a bite, you need to find concentrations of bass. For that he relies on a top-end sonar unit. “Agitation methods work best when sonar reveals suspended fish that aren’t moving, or fish lying on or near the bottom. If you see fish moving in diagonal slashes, they’re probably feeding and you should be able to catch some with conventional techniques.”

When Meyer encounters such conditions, he first turns to big, deep-diving crankbaits that can be retrieved fast to stir the bottom and ricochet off objects, creating a disturbance trail. “Use the largest lures you can find, even saltwater models 4 to 6 inches long,” he advises. “Experiment with wide and narrow wobbling baits.

“The first step, though, is to remove hooks from lures you plan to use. You don’t need them since you’re not trying to catch fish yet. That comes later. You want your baits to move freely, stir up the bottom, and blast through cover. Snags are a setback.

“Lures should bounce off rocks, set brushpiles shaking, and tear through deep weeds. Establish a disturbance trail by casting and working lures from shallow water to deep, following structure contours. When targeting bass suspended farther off bottom, removing hooks isn’t necessary since you shouldn’t hang up.