How do you catch bass in crowded conditions?
01.Sep.2009 by Al Lindner
--------------------------------------
Editor's note: This article originally appeared in the April 2006 Bass Edition issue of FLW Outdoors Magazine. Learn more about FLW Outdoors Magazine and how to subscribe by clicking here.
--------------------------------------
Let’s have some fun. Let’s say you’re in a 200-boat bass tournament. The body of water is totally new to you, but it isn’t that big – a 16,000-acre chain of natural lakes located somewhere north of the Mason-Dixon Line. Some of the lakes in the chain are clear; others are quite murky.
For the past week, the water has been literally flogged to death. Everywhere you look, you see someone working every piece of prime structure. And why not? The lake is mapped with a very accurate GPS chip. Even some co-anglers are fishing in their own boats, so it is really crowded. And because it’s early summer, there is also added pressure from local anglers and tourists. It is a good largemouth bass lake (no spotted bass and just a sprinkling of smallies). The local scuttlebutt says it takes a five-fish, 3-pound-plus average to win one-day local summertime events. There is also good news. On any given summer day, quality fish can be caught from the shallow docks that rim the shoreline, as well as from lily pad fields, the back ends of weedlines, on weedy flats, along deep weedline drop-offs and atop rock-capped sunken islands.
Unfortunately, a lot of jaws will have been jerked by blastoff time. You can assume the majority of the fish will be spooky and very tentative. You must, however, still work out some kind of pretournament strategy.
Angling, particularly tournament angling, is an art – not a cut-and-dried science – so judgment will play a huge role in how you cobble together a strategy. To be realistic, there are a number of different ways to fish this body of water, but there really aren’t that many options to offset the effects of heavy fishing pressure.
First off, good spots are good spots regardless of pressure. And secondary or marginal spots, even if they receive less pressure, are still marginal spots. So, do you try to fish the obvious but heavily worked “good spots” and maybe try techniques that the majority of anglers just might not be using? Or do you spend a lot of your precious time looking at marginal spots, with marginal populations that might not have received that much attention or pressure? After all, you only need five good bites a day.
Then there are other questions. Do you practice with cutoff hooks and simply feel for strikes without knowing the quality or, in some cases, species of fish? Or do you actually try to catch a few to build up a little confidence? Since this is new water and you have no past personal history to fall back on, you must go with what your practice tells you. If it were up to me, I would fish with an open hook, unless I was dock fishing. Then, I might try to lift the fish on a closed hook to see them, but that’s about it.
In this situation, however, it’s my guess that your takeoff flight number will be the prime-determining factor on what to do. If I knew my flight position well in advance, I would have a set game plan. If there was a draw for position the night before takeoff, however, I would have to opt for an open-ended strategy.
In either case, I would have to spend some time looking at all the good spots. And yes, I would try other techniques, as well as colors, actions, shapes, sounds and even scents other anglers might not be using.
In a week-long practice, I’d also take a good, hard look at the mid-level weedy flats. In a heavily pressured situation like we’re faced with, the fish typically using the back sides of weedbeds and the deep front faces of weedlines just might be pushed to the center of the flats. If there is an area that might not receive a lot of scrutiny, yet hold at least some fish, it’s this one.
I would also look for fish deeper than the weedline drop-off area – down the drops on sharp breaks – again, targeting areas that pods of pressured fish might just retreat to.
First day, if I had an early draw, I would open on whatever “classic” spot I felt was my best bet. Regardless of pressure, particularly in the morning on lakes like this, there will be some kind of activity on the good spots. If I were lucky enough to be able to get on another good spot nearby before it was beaten by the pack, I would also go there. If not, I would start looking at those mid-level flats (especially later in the day) as the inside and outside weedlines became more and more pressured.
If I had a late draw and all the good spots I had found in practice were occupied, I would look down the drop-off first if I had any fish contact there in practice. This is especially true if these deep areas are near good spots, but far enough away for me not to step on any fishermen working the popular area. Small pods of pressured fish can move off into areas like these.
Secondly, I would move to and work the mid-level weed flats. If the conditions looked good, like lots of sun and little wind, I might, by midday even, give the docks a whirl. Naturally, at any given juncture, if I saw a pattern developing, I’d stay with it.
This exercise was not meant to be a hard-and-fast tutorial. As I said earlier, angling, and especially tournament angling, is an art, not a precise science. There are surely different ways to approach such a situation. Did a cold front roll through the night before? Was the sky really overcast? Was the wind blowing hard? All these factors could mitigate one’s plans. Even so, there are still processes and axioms to follow – procedures that help tip the odds in your favor.
