Posted By: Laner
The West Side Report from Ft Worth Fishing.com - 03/20/17 04:09 PM
I've been going back to my roots a lot here lately, wading in the waters of the Brazos in search of all fish with stripes. Stringers of white bass and stripers have been readily available, with the best bite being where pools and bottlenecks occur in the river.
Our tackle consists of the usual sandbass gear. I personally like to use the 8ft G Rod casting series to keep my line out of the water for better control of my bait, and to have more leverage while wading. My reel is a Pflueger President spooled with 8lb Hi-Vis chartreuse line. We are all throwing Thump Buddies and grubs provided by www.contantpursuitoutfitters.com rigged on 1/8 ounce unpainted heads with #4 hooks. The Midnight Special and White Hot Thump Buddy has been tough to beat. I particularly like these jigs for sandbass because you wont need to change them until you catch 50-60 fish.
What I'm looking for when showing my clients how to fish the river is slack water pools on the edge of swift current, specifically where the bank either juts out or goes in just slightly different than the surrounding areas. If I can find slack water with a lot of bait activity, it's game over for the fish. I'll have the customer cast at the top of the target, then allow the current to push the bait in front of the fish.
In low light conditions, I'll rig the jig 18" under a bobber, and begin twitching the bait back to me. As the sun gets up and the fish lay lower along the bottom, I'll move the jig as far as 3-4ft under the float. A good secondary technique is to cast the jig without a float, let it touch bottom, and reel back very slowly, keeping the jig close to the bottom. In areas where the current is light, you'll have better luck with a 1/16 ounce jig head.
Yesterday my friends and I went out and tagged 107, 80-90 of which were males. Judging by the eggs, we've got several more weeks of fun on our hands
Our tackle consists of the usual sandbass gear. I personally like to use the 8ft G Rod casting series to keep my line out of the water for better control of my bait, and to have more leverage while wading. My reel is a Pflueger President spooled with 8lb Hi-Vis chartreuse line. We are all throwing Thump Buddies and grubs provided by www.contantpursuitoutfitters.com rigged on 1/8 ounce unpainted heads with #4 hooks. The Midnight Special and White Hot Thump Buddy has been tough to beat. I particularly like these jigs for sandbass because you wont need to change them until you catch 50-60 fish.
What I'm looking for when showing my clients how to fish the river is slack water pools on the edge of swift current, specifically where the bank either juts out or goes in just slightly different than the surrounding areas. If I can find slack water with a lot of bait activity, it's game over for the fish. I'll have the customer cast at the top of the target, then allow the current to push the bait in front of the fish.
In low light conditions, I'll rig the jig 18" under a bobber, and begin twitching the bait back to me. As the sun gets up and the fish lay lower along the bottom, I'll move the jig as far as 3-4ft under the float. A good secondary technique is to cast the jig without a float, let it touch bottom, and reel back very slowly, keeping the jig close to the bottom. In areas where the current is light, you'll have better luck with a 1/16 ounce jig head.
Yesterday my friends and I went out and tagged 107, 80-90 of which were males. Judging by the eggs, we've got several more weeks of fun on our hands