Finesse Rigging

Old Becomes New Again What happened to the venerable split-shot technique for finesse bass in clear water? Crimping a tiny sinker 12 to 18 inches ahead of a finesse worm or other soft plastic lure has been proven deadly by generations of bass anglers. “It’s a pain in the butt,” Carol Martens laughs. “Especially when the bottom is rocky. You’re hung up all the time. That’s why Aaron and I drag a split-shot worm when the bottom is smooth and sandy, especially along a weedline. It’s such an effective presentation for pressured fish in clear water. We won with splitshot rigs a night tournament on Lake Castaic. Our smallest bass weighed 7 pounds and the biggest weighed 101⁄2.” Interestingly, Martens believes she’s noticed a trend. As more and more anglers discover drop-shot rigs, she believes they’re “wearing out” the technique and conditioning the fish. As a result, she says split-shotting (and shaking) are enjoying rebirths.

“Gary Yamamoto probably was the originator of this thinking,” explains Jarrett Edwards, who at 23 is the youngest touring pro on the BASSMATER tournament trail. Edwards also caught the Colorado state-record largemouth bass, an 11-pound 6-ounce behemoth, when he was just 17 years old.

“Gary invented one-ton tubing,” Edwards explains, “which involves stuffing 1-ounce jigheads inside standard 4-inch soft plastic tube baits and then retrieving them down the steep banks of desert lakes like Mead and Powell. You’d think a big bulky bait would spook cautious bass in clear water, but it doesn’t.

The heavy weight lets you cover water thoroughly and quickly. It hugs the bottom and mimics a panic-stricken crayfish. Plus, it intimidates the bass. When a one-ton tube drops into their house, they have to decide quickly what they’re going to do about it.”

“Gary was the first to do it in 1995 when he won the U.S. Open,” Edwards says. “One-ton-tubing is a 10-year-old technique that no one knows about. But it works in 6 inches of water all the way down to 60 feet. Turn the trolling motor on high and cast in front of the boat and up toward shore, just far enough ahead so that you’re finishing the retrieve as the lure comes under the boat.

Cast any farther ahead or behind the boat and you’ll snag bottom. Is it effective? Some day we’ll be talking about 5-tonning and 6-tonning. If anglers think that finesse fishing only involves light tackle, they’re making a big mistake. You have to think of it in terms of fooling cautious bass in clear water. That is a huge distinction.”

THE HANSEN HOP

Jerry Hansen wouldn’t argue with that assessment. The owner of Big Boys Baits and a perennial western tournament winner, Hansen modified Yamamoto’s heavy tube tactics, creating the Hansen Hop. He starts by threading a 6-inch Hula Grub onto a 1/2- to 11⁄2-ounce football jig equipped with a wire weedguard. Then he ties the lure onto a stiff 7- to 71⁄2-foot baitcasting rod and reel spooled with 16-pound-test Sugoi fluorocarbon line. Hardly the equipment most anglers would equate with fishing for educated bass in swimming-pool-clear waters. But that’s not the half of it.

After Hansen casts the lure out of sight into a brush-filled cove or onto a point, sloping bank, or weedy feeding flat, he waits until he feels the lure crash onto the bottom. Next, he palms the baitcaster with his reeling hand while he wraps his other hand around the cork handle immediately above the reel and below the first line guide. Then he pops the jig so hard you can hear his line crack, quickly ripping the rod tip from the eight o’clock position to the 12 o’clock position. He rapidly retrieves the heavy jig like this all the way back to the boat, pausing only long enough to feel the jig smash to the bottom after each pop.