By David A. Brown
Special to BassFan
Wind-blown shorelines, water clarity, pollen, schooling activity — we’ve trained ourselves to watch for certain surface-level variables, quickly calculate their impacts and take the appropriate action. But what about the sub-surface dynamics? Savvy anglers do more than react when things fizzle or fall apart; they proactively analyze the two principle players — baitfish and bass — and make whatever changes are necessary to find or remain with the bite.
Obviously, electronics are the cornerstone of such strategy and recent developments like Garmin’s Panoptix and Raymarine’s Axiom offer anglers sharper scalpels for dissecting the day. For example, when Bassmaster Elite pro Alton Jones is searching for smallmouth around rock/grass flats on deep Northern lakes, he often stops and sweeps his trolling-motor head nearly a full circle to check for sneaky bronzebacks hovering within casting range.
“My Panoptix shows me a complete picture of what’s down there based on where my trolling motor is facing,” Jones said. “Smallmouth are notorious for suspending, so I can stop and move my trolling motor around and find out if there are any catchable fish in the area.”
The key, Jones said, is to trust that the info relayed on screen is accurate and then follow up with the appropriate adjustments. Maybe a cast to the left, maybe one to the right; maybe they’re dead off the nose.
Whatever the case, Jones turns his trolling-motor head (where the Panoptics transducer is mounted) toward his lure to see if fish are following his bait. Spotting a looker allows him to alter his retrieve to, hopefully, push the fish over the edge.
Mike McClelland’s recent Bassmaster Open win was anchored by his ability to keep his bait in the proper zone.
“The sooner you see him, the more room you have to manipulate the cast and possibly entice that fish to bite,” Jones said. “Once he sees you, your odds of catching him go way down. On forward view, I don’t scan out too far; I zoom in to 70-80. I don’t necessarily need to see the fish on the end of a long cast; just about three-quarters the length.
“Also, once I hook a fish, I’m always pointing my Panoptix toward that fish to see if there’s a wolf pack following him in. Sometimes you’ll see them in the water, but if you can spot them before the boat spooks them, you know where to make your next cast.”
Follow the Food
During his Costa FLW Series Southwestern Division win on Lake Texoma, Oklahoma angler Jeff Reynolds enjoyed a great topwater bite that anchored his success. The key was targeting areas where shad were rising in the water column and drawing smallmouth to the dinner table.
Sounds simple, right? Wrong — fall finds shad on the move and hungry bass in tow. Waiting and hoping is a fool's errand, particularly in timed competitions. That’s why Reynolds relied so heavily on his Garmin Panoptix to show him banks with bait.
“The shad would get up shallow on those sand flats when the sun got up and the smallmouth would start roaming around and feeding on them,” Reynolds said. “I was catching them really good on a topwater because I was able to follow those big balls of shad around.”
As Reynolds notes, he fared best when the bass came up schooling. Best part about his deal was removing the guessing game. Monitoring his Panoptix allowed him to track the bait’s direction, so he could stay close; locked and loaded for the next shootout.
Ups and Downs
Expounding on Reynolds’ point, Elite pro Mike McClelland credits his Panoptix for keeping him in position to win the Bassmaster Central Open on Table Rock Lake. As the Arkansas pro explains, he fished around bait schools that weren’t keen to walk upstairs.
Considering that the bait was not showing on the surface, McClelland said that without the ability to look at a slice of the lake in front of his bow, he would have had to get lucky and idle over a school to even know the opportunity existed. With this perspective, he knew just where to put his Spro McStick 110 jerkbait and under-spin.
Effectively employing SideVision strategies enabled Brandon Lester to pick out the peripheral boulders where he caught most of his AOY Championship fish.
“I was able to keep my (lure) at the correct depth based on how high or low the bait was in the water column. I’d find the bait on Panoptix, make a long cast past them, let the (lure) fall through them and then retrieve just under the school.
“The fish were suspended even lower in the water column and would feed up. If you ever got below the fish, you very seldom got a bite, so it was critical to keep that (lure) below the bait and above the fish.”
Elsewhere, FLW Tour pro Scott Martin took 8th in the Forrest Wood Cup on Lake Murray, largely by spotting fish that were using the vertical cane stands and adapting his presentations based on where they were sitting. Fish holding higher in the cane, about 5 feet from the surface, were ready to eat; while those 10-15 feet down required more coaxing with slower retrieves.
Likewise, when Reynolds’ topwater game fizzled, he turned to deeper brush piles. Here, again, his Panoptix not only helped him target the structure by showing him precise locations, it provided key detail on fish positioning.
Focus on Sweet Spots
Elite pro Bobby Lane loves scanning for grass, but he’s not content with locating the sub-surface lawn; rather, he wants to find those little breaks where big fish tend to stake out their ambush spots. For this, he relies on Axiom’s RealVision 3D for the detail-rich images of subtle grass features where the best opportunities await.
Furthermore, would you rather make a dozen skips to finally fool a dock fish, or improve your chances by sending your bait right where it's sitting? Lane prefers the latter, so he’ll idle a string of docks to A) identify the ones with multiple bass; and B) determine any consistencies in precisely where they’re sitting. From there, he can maximize his time by focusing on the target zones.
Lastly, consider this advice from Elite pro Brandon Lester, who leveraged his Raymarine SideVision to locate isolated boulders during the Bassmaster Elite Series Angler of the Year Championship on Mille Lacs Lake. He set his SideVision on 60-80 feet to mark the hard cover and once he had a handful, he’d go back over them with sonar to pick out the better fish.
“When I’d see a fish, I’d drop down on it, but while I was easing around looking, I’d pitch out and make a few blind casts,” Lester said. “I’d catch a few just blind casting, but most of them, you’d see on your sonar and drop down to them.”
With the SideVision, Lester said he lowered his scroll speed from the factory setting of 100 percent to 60 percent. The benefit here was greater image clarity, especially with the shadows of big rocks where smallies like to hide. Dialing in his gain and contrast further enhanced the image and helped him pick out the better fish.
