Mumpys Jigs

Have you ever noticed that Fishermen will do things time and time again because it worked previously? If a certain pattern works for a fishermen he will stick to it like superglue. Even when it stops producing for them. The Bass will change its habits as soon as the food moves on, but not the angler.

One pattern I find that Anglers are stuck on is throwing their lures at the banks when the Bass have moved on. To consistently catch fish, you must change your patterns with the Bass. Don’t get fixated on what was working a few hours ago or even a week ago.

I will be the last person to stand on the soap box and say Anglers need to move to the ledges. Most Anglers know that is where fish are holding, but a lot of anglers, me included don’t know how to fish these spots.

This has been one of the most disheartening areas of fishing for me over the past 10+ years. I have struggled with Ledge fishing for so long that usually it is this time of the year that I pick up other hobbies. Well, I have had enough. It is time to put the nose to the grindstone, put my time in and figure this technique out.

My first quest in this adventure was to find someone to teach me. I found an article written by Dave Stewart. You can read his article Here. I will be using some parts of his Article here in my Article to explain more about what we’re looking for when learning how to fish Ledges.

After reading Daves article and talking with a friend of mine in Tennessee, I see that I have been going about it all wrong. In years past, I would simply go fishing that morning and cast at the banks while the fishing was good. Once the bite stopped we would back off into deeper water and cast the entire tackle box at them with no success.

Kevin, who will be doing some Articles for Southern Sportsman here in the future, wrote me a letter explaining that he will go out and spend hours and hours idling over ledges that he previously found on the map. Kevin wrote, “I have put a ton of hours on my outboard idling without casting and just reading a map and depth finder. That is the secret, forcing yourself to look and idle, and not fish. Mark 15-20 spots in a day. Comeback the next day and fish them. Remember just because you don’t catch anything on a new spot doesn’t mean the fish don’t use it. Always GPS it or mark it on your map for the next time.”

With all of that said, I am going to introduce to you a way of finding these spots that is a little less talked about. You won’t hear a lot about Trolling Crankbaits because it isn’t a Tournament tactic. I have yet to find a tournament that allowed Trolling, but boy what a way to help you find Bass when you aren’t in a tournament.

This coming Wednesday @ 6pm, 16 June, 2010, The estimated water temperature during that time of the day will be somewhat near the 90 degree mark. We are going to use Manns Deep Diving 20+ Crankbait, fished approximately 100 – 150′ behind the boat. The line we use will be 50lb Braid with a heavy duty reel and an 8’6″ Rod. My goal is to find bass that are hanging on the ledges of the River Channel. Using the Sonar at Idle speed, we will troll the Crankbaits behind us while keeping the boat on the edge of the River Ledge in 20′ to 22′ of water.

Using the GPS on the Lowrance, we will mark each spot where we catch a Bass or get hung on Cover.

This is Part One of a Three Part Series. Part Two will be an update on our adventure while Trolling and Part Three will come next week when we go back to the marked spots and fish them with Mumpys Jigs.

Please come back and visit for the two remaining parts.