(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.)
While flipping willow bushes or cranking the tip of an offshore point may be dream scenarios for amassing a big bag of tournament bass, they don’t always work out perfectly. When things get tough, and no other pattern is available, Brandon Cobb gravitates to bridges.
“It’s something that might not be the most fun or exciting technique, but it’s a technique that can bail you out when you’re having a tough day,” he said. “Or maybe you’re going to a lake you don’t know, just something to get you started.”
That’s because these structures, which are available at some place on just about every lake or river, are super-prolific. “If there’s a bridge, there is fish on that bridge pole pretty much 12 months out of the year,” Cobb explained. Of course, there’s a downside to that – just about everybody knows it, which makes them community holes. In other words, “somebody’s fished it or will be fishing it pretty much every day.”
That means it takes a carefully conceived and often finesse-oriented approach to be successful. For Cobb, that usually starts with a dropshot, often with a Zoom Z Drop Worm. Because the fish are usually suspended in the top third of the water column, he’ll employ a “little bitty weight,” often 1/8-ounce. You want to effect a vertical presentation, “as tight to the pole as you can.” That means he’ll cast the dropshot close and then lay slack on the water to create a free fall rather than a pendulum effect. Be sure to watch your line: “If it ever stops a fish has got it,” he explained.
He throws the dropshot on a 6’10” medium-action Ark Rods Hartwell Magic paired with an Abu Garcia Revo X spinning reel. He spools it up with 10-pound Yo-Zuri Super Braid and a 6- to 10-pound fluorocarbon leader. He doesn’t like to go down to 6, but sometimes pressured fish won’t bite on anything heavier.
When bass are suspended higher in the water column he’ll turn to a jerkbait, especially on sunny, calm days, and especially if the bass are around larger, longer bridge pilings. This is for when the bass are suspended 4 to 6 feet down, and almost never more than 10. He fishes his Yo-Zuri 3DB (three-hook) jerkbait on a 6’11” Ark Century rod paired with small Revo MGX. His usual line is 12-pound Yo-Zuri T7 fluorocarbon.
His third favorite lure for bridge pilings is a small swimbait, usually a Zoom Z Swim 3.8-inch model, although he’ll go larger or smaller depending on the mood of the fish and their favored forage. The great thing about this presentation is that it can be fished at an extremely wide range of depths, and he’ll employ jigheads from 3/16- to 3/8-ounce to make that happen. He fishes the swimbait on a 7’2” medium-action parabolic Ark casting rod, once again paired with the relatively small MGX reel. He favors 12-pound fluorocarbon because it allows the lure to fall freely, doesn’t inhibit the action and doesn’t cause the swimbait to rise too much on the retrieve.
If you want to learn some of Century Club member Cobb’s additional tips for fishing bridges, including his thoughts on the situations in which this strategy is most likely to produce a giant bag of bass, check out his full on-the-water video, available only by subscribing to The Bass University TV.
