Catching Bass on New Water

How do you catch bass on a lake you’ve never fished before?

I posed that very question to our intrepid bass expert, Big Fred Contaoi the other day. A valid topic, I figured, as he has been fishing a bunch of new waters in his first two seasons as a pro on the FLW Wal-Mart Tour for Orange County Choppers.

Many of the tournaments he’s been fishing have been on bodies of water that Fred had never laid eyes on before. Most have been quite unlike the lakes of the West that he has cut his teeth on. So, what the heck do you do in that situation?

In Fred’s case, he can only practice for a short time on a tournament lake. So, he often practices on other lakes in the area when the one that the tournament will be held on is off-limits.

“For example, my first-ever tournament on Tour was at Florida’s Lake Okeechobee,” he says. “The first thing I did was fish a nearby lake — Lake Toho — so I could get a feel for the fish in this general area,” he said (he caught a nice 8-pound largemouth that day). “Then, I drove my truck around Lake Okeechobee for a couple days to just check things out and talked to people at local tackle shops, etc.”

Fred says that, when you’re chatting up the local experts, ask them about the size and color of the forage that the fish are on and what sort of cover they like in the lake.

When it was finally legal for him to begin pre-fishing, Fred simply got out on the water and started sniffing around.

“You have to remember that bass are still bass no matter where they live and they all have the same basic needs like food and shelter,” he says. “Once you figure out what they like to eat and where they like to live, you can set up a game plan.”

It’s not a bad idea to also try to set up a couple “emergency plans” in case you get a sudden change in weather between the time you’re practicing and tournament day. For example, poll the locals about stuff like where the area’s bass go when a sudden cold front moves through (think deep water) or what happens when the north wind blows on that particular lake.

When you’re going to try a new water for the first time, hiring a guide isn’t a bad idea. You can learn more in a day with a guide than you could in weeks of doing it on your own. Depending on what part of the country you’re in, a guided bass trip can run you $125 to $250 per person…money well spent, to be sure.

Swimbaits for BIG bass

They’re big, realistic and expensive, but big bass truly love swimbaits. If you’re looking to get into this ever-growing craze, here’s a partial list of top baits to get you started…
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Fiberglass Fish Mounts

By having a fiberglass fish mount made of your trophy catch, you can have the best of both worlds: a fish for the wall that you didn’t have to kill!

A mounted trophy from a past trip is an awesome addition to an office, sports room or den – and they’re not as expensive as you’d think. Now before I go on here, guys, I know what you’re thinking – you’d love to have a fish mount in the house, but your wife would sooner let you buy another boat than have you hang a dead fish on the wall. And you know what, she’s right! I’m not too into the concept of having a dead critter hanging in the house, either. Just seems kinda weird…
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In Search of Trophy Bass

So you’ve been out there bass fishing for years and years and haven’t caught anything over 10 pounds. You feel like you’ve been doing everything right because you always seem to catch fish, but just not the big dogs. What gives? Well, read on, my big bass-free friends!
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Jigs for pre-spawn bass

So, as bass get into a pre-spawn mode, how do you go about catching a boatload of lunker largemouth like these dandies (part of a 5-fish limit that weighed 34 pounds) that Big Fred Contaoi caught in Texas?

Fish jigs…that’s how.

To find out exactly how to approach the pre-spawn time frame, we went to our bassin’ guru, Big Fred, who said that he often targets fish before the spawn in deeper water, tight to structure.

“If the water’s in the 50’s, you can bet that the bass will be getting active — feeding and trying to bulk up for the spawn,” he says. “Jigs are a good bet for the bigger fish at that point.”
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Catch more bass on a tricked-out Senko

Senkos are some of the deadliest bass baits on the planet…here’s how you can make them work even better:

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In search of trophy bass
Jigs for pre-spawn bass
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California smallmouth

How to catch winter bass

Now that the cold weather months have arrived, it’s time to give up bass fishing right? Well…not so fast!

While it is true that bass will get more lethargic as the water temperatures drop, you can still have some seriously good days of fishing in the winter…if you keep some basic principles in mind.

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What are you looking at??

This smallmouth bass looks kinda pissed at the camera but, if you look more closely at his mouth, you’ll see the true object of his ire…there’s a 1/64-ounce tube jig stuck in his lip.

I hooked this guy and a bunch of his buddies along the…

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Bassing the “Off-Brand” spots

Weedbeds are good; docks and lily pads, too. Rock piles and creek channels, and all the rest…

But sometimes, sometimes….the best (and often overlooked) big bass haunts are less obvious.

Instead of finding a lunker largemouth on the “name brand” types of spots like a rock heap, you may find one, lonely boulder that holds fish like crazy. Or it could be just a small finger off a creek channel or a random post like this one.

One of the reasons these non A-List spots can be so productive is…

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Down the hatch!

When you take a close look at a pie hole of a bass, a few things immediately come to mind….

1) I’m very, very glad I’m not a shad, pond smelt, hitch, small bluegill, frog, crawdad or floating hotdog!

2) You can kinda see why bass are able to throw a lure…even one with three sets of trebles. A lot of that tissue in there isn’t particularly soft — in fact, the inside of the mouth is pretty tough, making it harder for hooks to penetrate. Lesson of the day: don’t skimp on your hooks! Buy the good stuff…and stay out of the water if you’re less than a foot long!

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