Basstrike Fishing Blog

Generally speaking, the bass refers to the largemouth bass, also known as California bass, and it's a kind of bass living in freshwater areas. Bass has a ferocious character and like to attack and prey other small fish, so it is one of the lure fishing fish species.

We will talk about how to lure freshwater bass in the six aspects of the bass habits, fishing time, Lure artificial bait, Texas rig, fishing place and fishing techniques.

1. Bass Habit

California bass is a meat-based omnivorous fish, with strong aggressivity and big appetite, adult fish mainly prey on small fish and shrimp, even more gentle compared to other species in the sea, it's also a hegemony in the river, it's very sensitive to moving objects and likes to take the initiative to pursue and prey. It has the strongest predation desire in the spring and summer.

2. Fishing Time

California bass is intolerant to low temperature, can survive with the water temperature range of 1 ~ 36 ℃, begins to feed above 10 ℃, and the optimum growth temperature is 20 ~ 30 ℃. The breeding temperature range for sea bass is 3 ~ 29 ℃, and the most suitable water temperature at 16 ~ 27 ℃. So spring and summer are the best time of lure. Bass can be lured both in the morning or evening, but after 3 pm and before sunset, it's the golden period. While when the weather is gloomy, the activity of small mouth bass will be reduced, and it'll be a bit difficult to lure.

3. Lure Artificial Bait

For the fishing of California bass, you can use fresh water minnow, VIB (vibration lure), soft worm + worm hook + bullet lead (ie: Texas rig), crankbait, spoon&wire bait, minnow, shad, shrimp, spinner as the artificial bait. Of course, Lure players still have to make adaptations according to the actual situation.

1. Small hook matches a soft pole, and big hook matches a hard pole; use big bait for big fish and small fish with a small bait. The length of the artificial bait for the fishing of large bass should be 10 cm or so, and 5 to 7 cm for small bass. Soft pole can overcome firmness by gentleness.

2. Select the artificial bait in dark color or in the color close to the water at the sunny noon with clear water and on the shallow beach. Select the artificial bait in eye-catching colors for muddy water, evening, rainy days and deep water, and golden color for cloudy days. In addition, the color of the artificial bait should be as close to the food color as possible.

3. Use the sinking minnow of 18 grams to guarantee the casting distance. If the technology is good enough, you can use soft bait, such as the “Texas rig”.

4. For the artificial bait of bass for green hands, it's recommended to use 7 to 15 grams of minnow, swing CRANK and composite rotating spinner, as these are easy to cast and draw back the line.

5. The artificial bait of soft worms, VIB and spoon, wire can be sued for California bass luring, and soft worm will produce the best effects.

4. Texas Rig see our another atctile Texas Rig Detailed Explanation with Softbait&Worm Hook

5. Fishing Place

1. Bass tends to be hiding in the complex waters, and like places with a terrain or structural changes, such as rock, dead wood, free rocks and so on. It will be hidden near the rocks, under the tree shade, inside the water plants, or next to the man-made water building. Generally, there'll be more small fish along the shore and there'll be more bass in water areas with more small fish.

2. The water cannot be too shallow at the off-shore fishing place, and it's better to be that kind of hard slope and small cliff; secondly, it's better to be with the aquatic plants, which cannot be too dense, otherwise it will affect the lure moving, and also easily lead to misjudgment; then, it's better to near the shoal, the small mouth bass prefers the environment with slightly high water temperature, and there'll be more small fish in the shallow beach.

3. Bass like in the crystal clear water areas filled with reeds and plants and deep water depth. It cannot be fished at places with muddy river water, high flows or mountain torrent discharge.

4. California bass like to inhabit in sandy or muddy hydrostatic environment with low turbidity and aquatic plants distribution, as well as clear slow flows. It's always hidden in underwater rocks or plants.

6. Fishing Techniques

The bass mainly lives in the middle and lower layers of the water, and sometimes dives into the bottom layer for foraging. Therefore, after casting the lure bait, do not rush to draw the line and let it sink for a little while. Draw it back about 5 seconds later, the curved spinner bait do not need actions by hands when you draw the line, just draw it stably, try to keep at a certain depth, but change the line drawing speed and depth to probe for each time.

If the bait is bitten but unhooked, the reason may be that the fisher fails to grasp the opportunity to raise the rod; or the twitch speed and frequency of the artificial bait are too fast, causing the hook not in the center of the fish mouth; or the fish slipping or control is not well mastered.