(Editor's note: The following is the latest installment in a series of fishing tips presented by The Bass University. Check back each Friday for a new tip.)
In the springtime most anglers wisely turn their attention shallow, where bass are spawning in huge numbers, and that makes for easy pickings. Once the spawn is in the rear-view mirror, though, most of us like to look deep, as the offshore game that was difficult to master years ago now sits at center stage. Modern electronics have made the learning curve easier and thus more popular.
Greg Hackney isn’t afraid to go deep. In fact, he’s sure that he’s won more trophies in recent years off of deep spots than via shallow patterns. That doesn’t mean that finding those winning spots is easy, though, and he’ll continue to look for shallow fish throughout the year, even when conventional wisdom dictates otherwise.
Hackney believes that once the majority of fish leave the bank, if you stay shallow you are fishing for resident fish and his general rule is that “the hotter the weather, the shallower I’ll start looking.”
While many anglers abandon the shallowest water in the summer and early fall, a certain percentage do not, but Hackney said that heavy shallow fishing pressure shouldn’t deter you from chasing this bite. If they’re not dialed in on the key spots, and the key techniques, you can still have it virtually all to yourself.
So what are the places he looks for in the summer? One type of key area is places where water runs in at the back of creeks. On deep, clear lakes, he’ll look for fish to set up shallow on bluffs. No matter where he goes, he’ll look for undercut banks, which are a dead giveaway of natural current flow.
He’s a loyal power-fisherman, so key boats include a KVD 1.5, KVD 2.5, a frog, a swimjig and a flipping jig, but he’s not too proud to avoid going shallow. In fact, he believes that one of the best lures anywhere he goes shallow during the summer months is a Strike King Ocho or Shim E Stick. Unlike earlier in the year, when he’s forced to fish it slowly on spinning gear, in the summertime he rigs it on baitcasting gear, 16- to 20-pound Gamma fluorocarbon and a 3/16-ounce tungsten weight. “It’s a bite-getter,” he said simply.
As summer transitions into fall, Hackney will often stay shallow, but he’s careful not to get suckered into a less-than-optimal bite by early returns.
“The first fish in the back of the creeks are typically rats,” he explained.
It takes two or three cold fronts for the larger fish to start their migration, and he’s convinced that it happens later and later every year. Even when they leave their summer haunts, he’s certain that the biggest bass tend to relate more closely to the main lake. That means that instead of hitting the far backs of the creeks, he’ll focus on main-lake points and the first two or three pockets into a tributary. In places where you can easily catch 12- or 13-pound limits in the backs of the creeks, it may be possible to catch 20 or 25 closer to the front, even if it takes a little bit more work.
While creeks with runoff may be a drawing card in the summer, Hack avoids them like the plague in the winter. It’s the “reverse mentality,” he explained, because they stay colder. He’ll find key creeks and start his search on the first channel swing on the way out.
Another type of area he avoids during the colder months are flats. “They’re shallow, but like change,” he said. “It doesn’t have to fall into 10 or 20 feet, but it needs a little drop.”
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