(Editor's note: "Catching Bass with Dustin Wilks" airs four times per week on Sportsman Channel – 6:30 a.m. ET Monday, 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, 5 a.m. Saturday and 4:30 p.m. Sunday. The six-time Bassmaster Classic qualifier provides BassFans with additional insight about each episode in these submissions.)
If you watched my show this past week, you will probably enjoy some behind-the-scenes information and my thoughts on that day. A lot of stuff never makes it on the show because time is limited. The setting was summer on a big river and hearsay was that the fishing was tough. There were several issues that made me even going fishing that day a struggle.
First was road closures. I attempted to get to the ramp and was greeted by closures around every turn. I’d follow the detour right to another closed road. I drove around for what seemed like hours, only to find closures at every alternate route.
Finally, I just had to put in many miles away from where I wanted to fish and just run. I've got to hand it to my Caymas and Yamaha – they handle big water with ease and comfort. I’ve spent a lot of time in that boat now over the past two years and it gives me a lot of confidence to make runs in less-than-ideal water conditions to get the fish.
After I finally get fishing, I land right on an area with dinks everywhere. We try not to bore the audience with too many of those, so many are edited out of any given show. I even switched to a big-fish lure to deter them (an Eco-Pro swinging swimjig with a Culprit Incredi-Bug) and still couldn’t hold them off. What I ended up doing is running away from that area to find better quality. I’ve found that to be the case all over the country – you have to get in a different part of the lake with a different set of baitfish and structure parameters to find bigger fish. Sometimes it's just a depth thing, but often it’s the area of the lake or river.
What I learned through the course of the day was the fish were really concentrated in certain areas and all I could do was guess and cover water. Sometimes the guesses make you feel like a genius, others make you seem foolish. One of the keys to fishing is not to get discouraged after an idea or two come up short. We have no control over the water conditions, all we can do is make the best guess.
My first guess was they were on outer cypress trees, then I caught a good one up shallow. Then I fished shallow and didn’t do so hot for a couple of hours, then started catching them on outer trees like I originally thought — I guess all the road closures and detours were an omen.
Just as I was getting cranked up putting a nice pattern together, I hit a cypress knee just right and broke my trolling motor prop, which is highly unusual, but happens.
So after breaking the prop, I’m just drifting along with the wind that has luckily picked up. I’m putting the Power-Poles down as needed to fish more thoroughly. This begins to work in short order. I’m fishing a 10-inch Culprit worm with a 3/8-ounce Eco-Pro Tungsten weight. That big worm is one of the best all-time summer baits. I’ve always liked fishing it shallow, although it is better known for effectiveness on deep structure. Fish want bigger meals as their metabolism speeds up all summer and the worm is something they don’t see a lot of in shallow water from other anglers as well.
I fish a lot of lakes and rivers with abundant cypress trees. Feeling the cypress roots is very important as often the best spot is 10 or 15 feet away from the tree on the edge of the root system. The Eco-Pro along with Yo-Zuri fluorocarbon line and a Falcon Expert Rod allowed me to feel the better spots and be somewhat patient. Some trees have no knees, others have enormous systems and can harbor a whole school of fish.
The day turned out a fun one with lots of quality fish, but nothing huge. The main takeaway was not being caught up in an area catching dinks – if that is happening and your goal is to find quality, then it's time to do some boat-driving. Consider trying a 10’’ Culprit in shallow water, as well.
Next time you're out there in summer, take some big worms and a full tank of gas and that will keep you "Catching Bass." A spare prop might come in handy, too.
