Up your fishing game by trying a few of these advanced bass fishing techniques to build your skills and boost your catch rate in challenging conditions. Find out about the terminal tackle to use, when to use advanced fishing techniques, and get helpful fishing tips that will encourage you to switch it up from your usual “go-to” baits or lures.
1. Sight Fishing with a Tokyo Rig
The Tokyo Rig (hook connected to a short three-inch wire with a tungsten weight) is one of the best fishing techniques to use when sight fishing bedding bass during the spring months. The Tokyo Rig has an enticing compact profile. The soft plastic bait sits above the weight and rig bar in the water, so it’s an ideal presentation to use sits around rocks or vegetation when you still want plenty of movement from your bait. Small creature baits and soft-plastic stick worms are the best choices when it comes to maximizing the impact of the Tokyo Rig. Be sure to keep an assortment of tungsten weights in various sizes in your terminal tackle box.
2. Skipping Jigs Under Branches and Docks
Work on skipping jigs under low-hanging cover like branches and docks during the summer months. Advanced fishing techniques like this might take some practice, but they can be a great way to earn bites from unpressured fish that other anglers can’t access. When using a baitcaster to skip jigs under cover, use a rod with a fast or extra fast tip and make sure that the reel spool tension and the brake are tighter than you would normally set them.
3. Underspins to Cover Water and Locate Fish
Certain types of fishing lures excel as search baits for locating fish in freshwater lakes. For example, a paddle tail swimbait fished on a heavy underspin jig head can be a fantastic summer presentation to use for locating numbers of fish during prime feeding periods. The key is to focus your efforts on hard bottom structure like rock piles or rock and gravel points that extend out into a main body of water. Heavy underspin jig heads are conducive for long-distance casts, which will allow you to cover a lot of water quickly while using a steady retrieve. Keep jig heads from a 1/2 ounce to an ounce in your terminal tackle storage trays for this type of technique.
4. Topwater Frogs in Unlikely Places
You might not think of using topwater frogs as an advanced bass fishing strategy, but they can be if you break free from the idea that they must be used solely over thick vegetation. On clear lakes, bass will often stage in deeper water near drop-offs and bluff banks. Cast your frog parallel to the bank, work it back with a steady retrieve, and then get ready to set that hook. You might be surprised to see how bass in deeper water come up to strike a frog on the surface in this type of situation.
Now that you know about a few advanced bass fishing techniques to keep your skills sharp, head out on the water and put them to the test!
