New Technology Brings Life To Old Tricks

Pro Perspectives Rick Clunn has found new benefits in brushpiling, as anglers have been able to discover formerly secret honey-holes by using mapping GPS units. He’s found that placing brushpiles in obscure locations is one of the best ways to stay ahead of pressure from other anglers. At the Bassmaster Elite tournament on Table Rock Lake, Edwin Evers scouted for brushpiles after dark. “When the wind subsided and recreational boat traffic disappeared, I was able to follow structure breaks and scout for brushpiles more easily,” he reported. “Moreover, I didn’t have to worry about local anglers or other tournament contestants following me and finding them, as well.” Brian Snowden prefers to build brushpiles from sycamore trees about 15 feet tall and 9 feet wide. “Sycamores are durable and don’t quickly rot away,” he notes. “Their broad branches give bass many places to hide, but you can work a worm or jig through the cover without hanging up too much.”

Advanced GPS units have made offshore brushpile fishing far easier than when he sank his first one a quarter of a century ago. Back then, they were situated at spots he could visually triangulate by using a series of objects on shorelines. GPS, by contrast, allows piles to be placed at any potentially productive spot.

During his dives, Sainato has noticed that active bass invariably mosey around on the outside edges of brushpiles. Inactive fish snuggle inside the pile, with their noses pointed into the junction of the tree’s trunk and a limb, making it difficult to properly present a lure. That’s another reason he favors sycamores: Their wide branching makes it easier to work a lure close to inactive bass that have their noses pointed into a crevice.

Presentation Options for Brushpiles

In May and June, when bass are in prespawn, spawn, and postspawn phases, Sainato focuses on piles placed on gravel main-lake points at the entrance to spawning coves. Unless a cold front wreaks havoc with the fishes’ moods, he expects to find bass foraging on schools of threadfin shad at the edges of the trees.

He notes, however, that bass often hold on the structure itself and may not be directly associated with a brushpile. “At times, shad and bass may suspend 20 feet off the bottom and 10 feet below the surface, while at other times they’re tight to bottom in 15 to 20 feet of water.”

After checking bass position on sonar, he typically fishes a 1/4-ounce jighead and a 4-inch grub on spinning tackle with 8-pound-test fluorocarbon line. He fancasts the vicinity, making long casts and allowing the lure to fall to the depth bass and shad are holding, swimming it slowly through the shad schools.

At other times of year, Sainato experiments with three lures: a 3/4-ounce Jewel Bait Company PB & J-color football jig with a Chompers’ cinnamon-brown twin-tailed grub; a 3/4-ounce spoon; and a drop-shot rig with a 4-inch finesse worm that he fishes on spinning tackle. He makes long casts with the jig, but works the spoon and drop-shot rig more vertically.

Snowden’s Selections: When Snowden fishes piles in about 15 feet of water, he typically works with a football-head jig and soft-plastic trailer, Bomber BD-7F Fat Free Shad, and a Texas-rigged 6- and 91⁄2-inch Zoom worm in green-pumpkin and plum hues. For brush in 15 to 20 feet or so, he goes with a 1/2-ounce football jig and upsizes to 3/4-ounce in 20 to 35 feet of water. He casts the jig and executes a hopping retrieve through the brushpile and along its edges.

Snowden works the drop-shot vertically, dropping it within the branches. Once it reaches bottom, he lifts the rig 6 to 10 inches, gently shakes it for two seconds, then holds it dead-still for 20 to 30 seconds, repeating the shake-and-pause routine until a bass strikes.

For his deepest piles in 40 to 50 feet of water, he fishes a spoon or a drop-shot rig. He probes the interior portions of the brush with a drop-shot, working outside areas with a spoon. Snowden and Sainato both feel a drop-shot rig is the best tool for catching bass in deep brushpiles. That’s how Snowden caught most of his bass during a top-10 finish at the Table Rock Bassmaster Elite Series tournament in September 2006.

Tournament Tactics for Reading Brushpiles

The winner of that event, Todd Faircloth of Jasper, Texas, and runner-up Edwin Evers of Talala, Oklahoma, used drop-shot rigs, as well. In fact, Evers fished several of Sainato’s brushpiles, and Evers and Faircloth shared several piles throughout the four-day event.