Fishing Tips for Making that First Bass Strike Count

We tend to hold onto the painful angling memories the longest and for me, that means missing an eye-popping topwater strike from a bass that rolled up from a piece of wood, knocked my One Knocker Spook a foot and a half into the air and then rudely denied me the follow-up bite.

Over the next 30 minutes, the Spook produced several catches, but none bore the dimensions of that first-cast bruiser.

The lesson? Make those early bites count, because the biggest and most aggressive fish are usually the first to bite reaction baits and once they’re done, they’re done. Essential here is to go big and bold right off the bat and then downsize, only if needed.

Start small and you’re likely to burn the spot by catching a bunch of little fish before the big ones take interest. I think a stubbly little popper would’ve gotten clobbered, too, but opening the show with the substantial profile of a spook gave me a shot a glory, along with a handful of quality fish.

Other examples:

Flipping Wood
Compact craws, tubes, etc. do a fine job on laydowns, but let a big 10-inch worm slither its way into the cover and the big boy of the block won’t be able to resist the sizable snack.

Punching Mats
Driving broad body creature baits through thick vegetation with big weights is textbook reaction-bite fishing. When summer finds big fish tucked far back in the dense stuff, sending an oversized bait like Strike King’s new Rodent XL into the shadowy caverns increases your chance of tempting the local stud.

Also, try punching with medium soft-plastic swimbaits. This presents not only a larger profile, but a different kind of action that can trigger the larger fish that may turn up their noses at standard sized baits.

Ledge Baits
ICAST saw YUM introduce a super-sized 7 3/4-inch version of its popular Christie Critter. The soft plastic creature bait’s namesake pro angler, Jason Christie, has found that a big profile like this can actually renew a ledge bite when the crankbaits and swimbaits have worn out their welcome.

A subtler look can trigger fish that have soured on the reaction baits, but the hefty meal will appeal to the bigger fish in the school.