Sight fishing technique

[BassinID]

Is it more effective to use a drop shot or shaky head when sight fishing bass on or around beds?

[doc]

I don't use either. so I can't tell you wich one of those would work better. But I can tell you what I use.
I'll use a t-rigged soft plastic of some sort (brush hog, lizzard, beaver, etc..) A jig (my favorite.) A weightless senko, (dunno why but around here they like em, on the beds.) or if none of that excites a bite, burn something thru their bed, shallow crank, jerkbait, swimbait.

One thing I have done this year is catch a fish guarding fry, using a floating worm. dont forget when the bass leave the bed, and the fry are small, the bass are usually not far away guarding the fry.

[Love of the Sport]

I prefer a light T-rig. I generally just pitch or cast my bait a few feet past the bed and drag onto the bed. After i'm on it ill twitch and hop and do a good bit of dead sticking.

[dietz31684]

I am with doc, i dont use either for bed fishing. I would have to think that shaky head would be more effective, around here the bass beds are only in about 2' of water so i dont know how well the DS rig would work. The bass here go absolutely nuts over a wacky rigged or weightless TR senko.

[cassidyta]

I love to use a DS when sight fishing. However, it is used as the secondary bait. I will usually go with a large profile bait at the bed. Once the male is mad enough, the female will often begome more aggressive.
I never drop shot the bed. My drop shot is done in the deeper water where I can see the female. I smack her in the face with it a few times to get a strike.

[carolina-rig-01]

when bed fishing i usually have 2 rods on the deck of my boat. one will have either a tube or salt craw type bait or maybe a sweet beaver. the other will have a finesse jig with some kind of craw trailer. i like baits that aren't too long, i like a smaller bait because it decreases the chances of a fish picking up the bait to move it off the beds without getting the hook in their mouth.

[ronniek524]

either works. on the shakey head, use a white lizzard, and on the drop shot use a 2~3" gap from the hook to weight... if the bass doesnt take it on the drop or couple twitches, make sure you hit the weight on the bass

[BassinID]

Sorry for not specifying, around here beds are usually 5-8 feet down.

[bamabassman]

if i am sight or bed fishing i will usually use either a worm or a lizard or crawdad. try to put it RIGHT on the bed. then......................wait..................wa it..............wait,lol.

[zooker]

actually cause the baits i use are tiny i use a shakey head.. a tiny bush hog

zooker

[pacmanrocks]

If you can sight see where they are bedding, you can use all kinds of baits to get them to strike. You could try a creature bait and drag it across the bed to trigger a strike (like a texas rig lizard, paca craw or weighted fluke). If it ignores it then I would switch up to a rattle trap and zip it past the bed or a get a crank and bob it on the bed.

[ejvesper]

I agree with everyone on this one...t-rig tube, beaver, lizard.......right on the bed....

[BassinID]

I also fish smallies if that makes a difference to anyone, clear water on this site, but stained where I come from (green color with about 4-6 foot visibility)

[B-I-G]

I was sight fishing today and lizards were working really well for me... I would cast past the bed or whatever the fish is at... then I would sort of bounce it/crawl it along the bottom until it gets into the bed/nest. then let it sit.... give it a small bounce and repeat... the bass take it eventually if you are patient enough

[BassinID]

I've been thinking about getting some of the tru-tungsten weighted plastics for a finess presentation in the deeper beds, they aren't on them for another month or so, so I am chompin at the bit right now, but the crankbait bite is starting to heat up... Finally!

[JB]

I did some site fishing sat and ended using one of woody's cinnamon zoom lizards weightless. Got seven dinks but it was better than I expected they had treated the lake for algae last week and the water was blue and the fish were inactive for the most part. Most of the fish were in timbers or under moss getting warm, its still about sixty here

[BassinID]

Ooooo sixty! thats like late june water temp here. I would be swimmin in that

[JB]

brrr watch out fer "shrinkage" rofl

[bamabassman]

jb ya gotta remember that bassinid is fropm idaho,lmao, got taters in his head. hahahahaha, kidding buddy. ya'll have the BEST baking taters in the U.S.A.! they are the only taters i buy.

[BassinID]

Originally Posted by JB

brrr watch out fer "shrinkage" rofl

Haha, yeah, well, I still think the 7 in rage tail anaconda works better than the 10, haha jk

And bama yep taters hahaha. Actually there are only two counties in the state that grow taters and both are hundreds of miles away, but the famous potatoes thing still sticks. Wonder why georgians don't get made fun of about peaches??

[bamabassman]

hahaha, cause of jimmy carter. they now famous fer peanuts, get it? carter was a nut in the white house, hahahahahahaha.

[cassidyta]

Google will answer the question of why Georgia does not get made fun off for the peaches. Do a google search on georgia peach and you will find that only half of the images are a fruit. The other half are a quite different peach.


But, back to the topic. If you truely are fishing beds rather than the fish considering beds, I suggest a Fat IKA. Good profile bait that will bounce on the bed even rigged weightless. I rig mine backwards and it works great when sight fishing a bed.

[Flatfish555]

I love to DS beds. The thing I've found to be most effective is to use a soft plastic that truly floats (I prefer worms, but just about any floating plastic will work). Leave the weight just to the edge of the bed and "float" the plastic right above it. This irritates the heck outta the fish and they'll hit it nearly every time. With this technique, you won't spend near as much time on a fish.

[BassinID]

Originally Posted by Flatfish555

I love to DS beds. The thing I've found to be most effective is to use a soft plastic that truly floats (I prefer worms, but just about any floating plastic will work). Leave the weight just to the edge of the bed and "float" the plastic right above it. This irritates the heck outta the fish and they'll hit it nearly every time. With this technique, you won't spend near as much time on a fish.

I've noticed this too, in fact, this is the reason for the post. Glad someone else has seen this.

Btw, welcome to the forum Flatfish, you'll like it here.

[Bender]

Drop shotting the bedding fish up here has been killer this year, and most fish have not even moved up yet. Of course I have only been using the 3" gobies that I make, but the bass really hate them. I just use a 4-6" dropper and 1/8 oz. round weight.