(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.)
Pete Gluszek learned to fish on the tidal river systems of the Mid-Atlantic and he still guides there regularly, so not only has he learned to tolerate current, but he’s actually learned to rely upon it wherever he goes. It may be most prevalent on both free-flowing and tidal rivers, as well as on the TVA lakes at certain times of the year, but Gluszek often makes current work for him even on non-traditional venues like natural lakes, including the Great Lakes. Even when there’s no flow under the surface, wind can create the same effect, so he seeks it out.
Why does he like it so much? Because it drives the food chain, getting bait moving and both positioning and congregating the bass predictably. Find one and you may find the mother lode.
While any flow can be good flow, the popular Bass University founder’s preference is for places where there’s a change in flow – where it effectively downgrades from heavy to light. “That’s where predators set up,” he explained. They’ll stick their nose into the current and wait for dinner to come to them. He also looks for eddies – places where the current changes direction and even reverses its flow. When the current is strong, he’ll typically use power fishing techniques and when it’s slower he’ll employ finesse, which means that many times on tidal systems he’ll switch back and forth between the two.
One of his favorite targets to fish on heavy-flow systems are pilings, whether they be barge tie-ups, multiple lashed poles or bridge supports. Most anglers’ natural tendency is to fish the downstream side of such objects, bringing a lure through the slack water that sits behind them. Gluszek believes that this is a way to catch some fish, but he typically catches more and bigger fish by targeting the front side of the pilings, right where the current smacks into the hard cover. Those pilings create a seam of their own, splitting the current in two directions, and in that gap are tiny eddy pockets.
Big fish are like big, strong, tough guys at a buffet, he explained. They want to be “at the front of the line … so (they) can dart out and catch that food.” These current contact points are best in the post-spawn through the fall, when bass are active, “because that’s where the feeding opportunities are.” In cold weather, and during the spawn, he’ll focus more heavily on slack or backwater areas.
When fish are relating heavily to current, Gluszek's first lure choice is often a square-bill crankbait, like the buoyant models from Rapala. They have a big presence, displace a lot of water and deflect on impact, generating strikes. When he needs to slow down, he’ll often turn to a jig, usually a 1/2- or 3/4-ounce model to get down in the current. If the fish are super-deep, though, like around many main lake bridge pilings, a shaky-head often gets the call. The fish may be out over 100 feet of water, but they’ll often be suspended less than 25 feet down. Cast out your shaky-head and “slowly swim and twitch it back off the pilings.” It has an erratic fall that tempts bass that aren’t actively feeding. Just be sure that if you see the bass suspended on your graph at a certain depth, if you count it down and it doesn’t reach that point, set the hook, because you’ve fooled another bass relating to current.
If you want to learn some of Gluszek’s other tips for learning to love current, including his thoughts on picking apart big laydowns, check out his two-part video series on the topic, available only by subscribing to The Bass University TV.
