How To Fish For Spring Bass

What's up, guys?
Winter time is over, it's starting to heat up, and so is the fishing.
And what happens inevitably is these big fish move up shallow from the deep water wintertime
areas, up into that shallow water cover.
Any kind of structure they can find that's sub-shallow, they're going to hoard all around
because they feel safe and comfortable.
So today, we're gonna use V&M's brand new little flippin bait, the Flat Wild, to really
target these shallow water fish, and I'm gonna show you how to maximize your time when flipping
the structure to look for those big ol' mommas that we all wanna catch.
Let's break down this spring technique, starting with rigging.
All right guys, real quick, let's talk about the bait.
Do you see how thin this is?
This was done so you're not having as much plastic wadded around that hook, so you can
really get a good hook penetration on that fish.
Next, is these little claws on either side.
These things are balanced so that they actually kick.
As it falls, you'll see these little legs kicking, and any time you're working that
bait, those things are gonna be kicking, in a little bit more enticing action of a fish.
Last here, we got these different little ribs, we've got the legs, that's all for water displacement.
We're working that bait, that's moving that much more water in the water, that these bass
can hone in on.
Let's talk about the setup.
I have a one half ounce to one ounce tungsten bullet weight, and then below that I use a
2/0 to 3/0 straight shank flippin hook, rigged at Texas rig, and then I peg that.
Now, the reason you want to peg that weight is because if the weight just freely swings,
that's gonna go down in the cover.
You want this thing pegged, and you want the bait and the weight to fall through together,
so you can get in that nasty stuff.
All right, now let's talk about flipping this thing.
We are close quarter combat, we're not making long casts, we're making little flips, but
we wanna stay stealthy with it, okay?
So we hold this bait in our hand, and we let this bait pendulum out, and as it gets closer,
we slow it down, and we want this bait to just barely fall in that water.
And as...once it hits the water, I wanna engage my reel and I wanna let that bait sink all
the way down.
So let me show you.
We pendulum out, now that bait's on top of the water right now, I've got the gears engaged
now so I'm not letting any more line out, but now as I shake this bait through, I'm
gonna slowly drop my rod tip, then I'm gonna hop it once or twice.
Let it sit for a second, and then I go to my next target.
Now I've found that when my fish are shallow like this, they're aggressive, they're up
there for a reason.
Either they're feeding, they're guarding their nests, but you don't need to work that bait
very much.
So you wanna get it real quiet in there, shake it through once or twice, let it sit, and
then go to the next one because you've got so many targets, you wanna be able to fish
efficiently as well.
You don't wanna spend too much time because you wanna find out where these active fish
can be.
This could be one of those techniques that you don't catch a lot of fish, but what happens
is the fish that you do catch are quality fish.
And so, you've gotta make sure that you're able to cover enough water to actually find
these bigger fish.
It's only about a foot of water underneath there, and I saw the whole thing move.
And I hopped the bait, and there was no fish on it, then when it landed again I felt, tap!
And just set into that, and you guys, that is a pig right there.
And these fish are not bedding yet, it's still a little early, it's still cold water, but
because we've got sun, it's heating up.
These fish, they go shallow, that's what they wanna do, is they move up shallow and start,
you know, look, this fish is kinda beat up.
It's been rubbing up shallow in there, but these fish are not bedding yet.
All right guys, here's a quick tip for you shore anglers.
I know you're always trying to be resourceful or efficient with the tackle you're bringing,
because you can only carry so many rods.
And sometimes you don't wanna have 20lb fluorocarbon or 40, 60lb braid tied up on your rod.
So what you can do is actually just take 20 to 30ft of line and just wrap that up, put
it in your pocket, and if you come to a pond when you're walking along and you see that
you wanna be able to flip, but you don't think you have a heavy enough line, just add that
20 to 30ft to the top of your line.
So just tie a uni to uni knot, spool that up, and now you've got enough to really flip
efficiently in that little structure you've found.
And if you don't have any success, just take it back off, put it back in your pocket, and
you're good to go.
There's no such thing as bad cover.
If it's something the fish can hide under when they're up shallow, the fish are gonna
use it.
So it could be trash, it could be some brushpiles, it could be toolies.
And look, you've got these lay-down toolies, dead toolies that have been pushed back by
the wind, this is perfect, this acts as a huge canopy for them.
And these fish can slowly cruise through here, whether they're up...
Sometimes they're gonna be up here feeding, sometimes they're up here just checking out,
you know, the spawning areas and trying to find that area that they're actually gonna
put their nest.
But whatever it is, they can be aggressively feeding or just guarding, being very territorial.
And so, as you just make your way through here, you're eventually gonna run into some
fish and hopefully get a big one out of it.
A lot of times, if you're on top of the cover like that, these fish can feel that up there,
and they'll follow it until it finally goes through and then they just slam it the second
it finally does go through.
But what happens is, look, we got this canopy stuff, we've got real shallow water, this
water's gonna warm up.
Even though the main lake, you know, is about 56 degrees right now, up shallow here, we
could have, you know, much warmer, 60, low 60s up here because you've got this nice stagnant
water, you've got this lay-down cover that's absorbing up the sun and everything.
And these fish, they're looking to feel comfortable, they want something they feel comfortable
on and that's what this...that's what the structure does, it's something for them to
hide in and everything.
Hi guys, when we're talking about location, it really varies throughout the country, whatever
your body of water really has a lot of.
Whether it's toolies, whether it's brushpiles hanging over, whether it's just trash piles
that have blown into a corner of the lake.
Any time a fish can feel safe, any time there's some kind of cover that a fish can come under
there and feel safe up shallow, they're gonna take advantage of that.
And so that's what you wanna look for.
Right now behind me we've got these lay-down toolies that really are providing a canopy,
and then also we've got brushpiles, isolated brushpiles along the bank.
Anything these fish will move up to feel comfortable, they are gonna use, and that's why you've
got to really stealthily move through there.
But once you do, once you figure out what these fish are on, chances are there's gonna
be multiple fish doing this throughout the lake.
Some other things to key on, especially early on right out of that, you know, right out
of that first warm stretch coming out of the winter and stuff, you really wanna focus on
banks that are in the sun the longest, okay?
So that sun comes up, you want those banks that that sun hits first and it's really heating
up throughout the day.
If you can find cover on those banks, chances are that those are gonna be your more productive
areas all the way through the beginning of that spring time.
Okay, when it comes to equipment, I don't put much emphasis on the reel, just need a
baitcaster that's gonna be able to hold your 20lb, or, you know, 40 to 60lb braid.
And then you need to use a heavy rod, okay?
I like a nice, heavy, fast action rod so I can have a little bit of tip to really feel
those bites, be able to control that bait, but you want enough backbone that you can
really be able to handle these heavier weights you're using, and then be able to horse these
fish out of that heavy cover.
All right you guys, I don't know if you can see this behind me, but look at it, all this...you
got just this nice corner that's got a nice, deep channel that tucks right in there.
Wow.
Yes.
Don't resist, come on, baby, come on.
I gotta show this for the ending, baby!
Yeah!
Holy cow.
That fish, look at the belly on that.
Oh, baby.
Guys, we came back into this little corner, I tossed in there and there was actually a
big commotion, I thought I spooked a big carp or something, but I went to lift up, you'll
see that as I lifted up, I wasn't sure that I had a fish, I thought I was caught on a
toolie and, woo, woo.
That was a big ol' baby.
Guys, that's how you end a video.
This is the V&M Flat Wild Flippin bait, and if you look, this is what I was talking about.
Look at that, you don't have too much plastic.
There was enough hook to get through there and get a nice...
I mean, that's as good of a hook set, you can't ask for a better hook set than that.
You guys, you got to be flipping shallow water.
When those water temps are heating up coming out of the winter, those big girls, they go
shallow just like the ladies flock to the beaches and wanna get those tans, and you've
gotta be in there with that right bait.
I love it.
Love it, love it, love it.
Guys, if you enjoyed the video, throw us that thumbs up, and make sure you comment.
Do you have any questions, or you got some comments that you wanna see some different
techniques, let us know in the comments section below and make sure you subscribe so you can
get updates on all the videos.
That is a beaut.
That is a big ol', pre-spawn, Betty.
Dude, that's how I end a video, I am so pumped that that's how we're gonna end this video
because I love motivating people.
It's...
You know, when you see somebody else go out there and have success with a lure, that gives
you that much more confidence to do it yourself.
And that was exactly how it was supposed to go down.
I'm thinking this is gonna be a good video.
If you guys enjoyed this, make sure you hit that thumbs up right now.
If you like seeing Liquid Livin, I want a thumbs up and I want a comment below: what
you like about the Liquid Livin series.
Peace.
Maybe peace.

How To Fish For Spring Bass | Bass Fishing

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