Rogues

[JB]

Its almost time for the rogue to come into play, if your water temps are in the low 50's, try these ideas....
Years ago at a professional bass tournament weigh in on Kentucky lake, Rick Clunn said "I have had the best day of fishing that I have ever had in my life" as he weighed in a huge sack of smallmouth bass. He was one of many of the pro's in that tournament that had unbelievable fishing. The winning ingredient that day was a Rattling Suspending Rogue. This was a lesson learned for many local anglers, because most fisherman are waiting for the bass to warm up and move in. After that day, early season bass fishing changed forever. Many fisherman are confused by what to look for and when to fish a Rogue.
WHERE TO FISH: Points are very important. Largemouth and smallmouth both orient to some type of point before they move in. These are excellent places to start looking. Deep water also is usually very close. You may be holding your boat in 20-40 foot of water but casting into single digit depths. A point sticking into deep water is an excellent location and this time of year it doesn't have to have wood on it. Pea gravel, chunk rock and bluffs will hold bass, but a stump, brushpile, or stakebed is a bonus but not required. Fish every point up and down a lake, most probably won't do any good, but some of them will be good year after year.
COLOR SELECTION: Color selection is important. Colors this time of year can make the difference between your partner or competitor beating you or getting skunked. Chrome/blue back, Chrome/black back, Gold/black back, Clown, chartreuse/fire tiger, purple/chartreuse are all good colors. Experiment to find the best colors.
WATER CLARITY: This is a very important ingredient for Rogue fishing. A rogue is basically a sight bait. Cloudy, muddy water conditions can significantly reduce its effectiveness.
RETRIEVAL SPEED: This is also very important. The basic technique is twitch, twitch pause. Twitch, twitch pause. Usually pauseing is important and this is almost always when you will get a bite. Possibly the fish has your bait and you don't realize it until you twitch, and then the fight is on. If there is one hint I could give an angler it is to slow down. Most people fishing a rogue are fishing too fast. This brings us to another point.
TUNE YOUR BAIT TO SUSPEND: Even though the bait you bought is supposed to suspend, usually it can be fine tuned, and this is what makes the bait stay in the strike zone. Once you catch a 6 pound smallmouth after you had given your bait a 15 second pause you to will be a believer. I prefer to tune a bait so that it suspends horizontally. Suspendots is a product that is easy to use. They are actually small lead dots with an adhesive on the back. The dots can be placed anywhere on the bait to make it suspend head up, head down or horizontal. You can even tune it to float up, in a head down position, and this will make the bait actually float up away from you.
Line choice is usually 8 to 10 pound test. Since there is often no woody cover involved and the water is clear, heavy test line is not required, plus a lighter line will enhance the action of your bait. This is an excellent technique to catch a bass of your lifetime, it probably won't be a trick to catch large numbers of bass but it is an excellent time to catch possibly that elusive big'n that you have been looking for.