I have not been able to write anything in a few weeks. I have been too busy at work and too busy trying to exploit these green fish during the fall. No time to write! But, on this Sunday I am at the kitchen table going through my thoughts on the latest bass fishing excursions.
Sat Oct 7th (The Donkey Rig)-
The picture above was from a Saturday excursion to a local public lake I like to hit often. This lake is notorious for having tons of grass mats and algae blooms that take over the lake during the summer. The lake is also not very deep (probably 3-4 feet deep at the most). I tried a new tactic called the Donkey Rig. I have played around with this tactic in the past, but I don't think I truly had it rigged up correctly. This time, I watched a few anglers talk through the Donkey Rig. Check out Tactical Bassin to get a better understanding on how to set up the Donkey Rig.
Here are the biggest keys to successfully rigging the Donkey Rig:
-use a smaller fluke and hook for the top bait
-use a larger fluke and hook for the bottom bait
-use two separate swivels, and make sure the top bait swivel freely moves on your main line.
Bam! As you can see the Donkey Rig was working! I caught 5 on this day with this rig. I had one bass hit the bottom larger fluke but then after that it seemed like the bass were mostly hitting he top smaller fluke. What a way to fish! It was exciting to learn a new technique and get the bass to bite on it.
Bass Pattern Changes-
I am going to jump back a few days...
Oct 1 I wrote about how the Blue Rage Craw really got it done in the neighborhood pond. But on Oct 3, the bass were chasing the baitfish. I could see some boils that would move around the pond. On this day they didn't want the Blue Rage Craw and were hitting the drop shot rig as you see in this picture below. I was trying to mimic out the balls of baitfish they were chasing, and I had a lot of luck mimicking this pattern. I caught 6 bass on this day.
A couple days later on Oct 6, I went back to the pond after work and the conditions were completely different. It was more cloudy, and maybe a bit windy. On this day which was a Friday after work I noticed the bass were really chasing baitfish balls even more than the last time I was out at the neighborhood pond. The most luck I had was with a single Houdini pattern Super Fluke in a Mojo Rig or Carolina Rig configuration. I just use a splitshot weight about 12-14 inches above the hook. I would cast it into the bait balls or boils that I was seeing and the bass were hammering the fluke. Here is one of me setting the hook!
I definitely caught some nice ones on this day with the trusy Super Fluke. The success on this day was really just paying attention to what the pond was telling me visibly. I could have easily missed the fact that that there were "boils" if I had not paid much attention and did not look around while I was casting and retrieving. I think I managed to catch another 5-6 bass on this day.
Okay now I am going to go all the way back to Oct 8, which was a Sunday. I went to my parent's neighorhood pond that Lil' Shaka and I call "The Canal", because it looks a lot like the canals that we fish in South Florida. The weather was 60s, low 70s for temperature. The water was definitely colder. The crappie were hitting my little ultra light rig with an inline Mepps spinner.
In my experience, when the water gets colder the crappie start to get activated, and this was what happened right away on this day. I also noticed that the big bass in this pond were still chasing minnows on the bank. I was actually witnessing BIG BLOW UPS on the banks. So, I was able to exploit that a bit by catching two really nice 2-3 pounders with my Donkey Rig or Double Fluke Rig that I have been talking about in this post. I was trying to cast the rig into the boils or blow ups across the canal to the bank. I caught two big ones doing this and they were hitting the bottom, larger, heavier fluke.
As you see in the above photo these bass are very healthy in the canal pond. They are a secret 😉 so don't tell anybody. The canal has been a great addition to my normal fishing spots. Definitely getting a lot of production and enjoyment out of fishing this one. AND, I get to visit mom and dad afterwards.
Okay, finally I was fast forward one more time to Oct 10 and Oct 13 back at the normal neighborhood pond. All I can say is the bass patterns have changed again! Now that it is even cooler outside...we are sitting right now around air temps that are 55-65 tops, it has now dropped the water temperature even more. Now the bass are NOT biting on dropshots or flukes...I was having more luck on the Bass Jigs!
This is a pattern I am definitely comfortable with. The jigs are absolutely deadly when the water temps get cold in mid to late fall. I am going to continue to try and exploit the bass with the Jigs for the coming weeks. Here is a funny video from Gerald Swindle if you need to laugh and get inspired with the trusty bass jigs.
Tight lines to all of you.
