Trying to catch bass when they are bedding.

I'm still reminiscing a lot lately. For some reason I have been thinking a lot about fishing. When I was younger I fished a lot in some delta lakes for perch and brim. When I got into business for myself there was not time for this. I realized that while I could easily take a couple of hours off at a time I could not take the time to fish as I had done in the past.

I always loved fishing so I needed to find another way. After thinking about it a while I decided to start bass fishing. I could keep all the fishing tackle I needed in the car and if I could fish within a fifteen minutes drive, I could take off for an hour and a half and fish for an hour. My father was a member of a small fishing lake north of Jackson so I would be able to go there.

I started bass fishing during spawning season. The water was crystal clear and you could see the bass on the beds. This was great. Just look at all the bass I could catch. I would leave with a tug full. I could not get them to hit. You could run a plug right over them and they would not hit it. I talked with several people I knew who fished regularly and found out why. The bass do not eat while they are guarding the beds. Everyone said you could not catch bass while they were bedding.

I never did like to be told that I could not do something. I was determined to catch the bass. I did a lot of thinking and trying over the next several days. They are protecting their beds. How can I make them protect the beds? I tried running lures to make it look like they were going to attack the beds. This way I was be able to catch a bass maybe one time out of a hundred casts. This was just too slow.

What else might work? Would the bass pickup something that was in the bed? It was worth a try. What little bass fishing I had done with worms was with plastic worms. I had always put a hook in the head of the worm and fished that way. I tried it.

I dropped a worm right into the bed. Whoa. I could have had a heart attack. The bass went to the worm. Would he take it? Yes and no. The suspense was terrible. He picked up the worm! Hooray! He picked up the worm by the tail and carried it outside of the bed and dropped it. I tried it again. The same thing happened. Again and again.

He was going to pick the worm up by the tail. OK. I just needed a hook in the tail. I added about six inches more line from the front hook to the tail and put a hook in the tail. My first cast was made. Would this work? I was so excited it is a wonder I was able to get the worm in the bed. Sure enough he picked up the worm by the tail and had the hook in his mouth. I set the hook and had the bass.

This might be common practice now. As far as I know I was the first to start catching bass when they were bedding. Since then I discovered another way or two that worked for catching bass on beds, but this way always seemed to work best.

I was worried about leaving the eggs on the bed unprotected. I was told that another bass would come along and start protecting the bed. I hope that this was true.