It’s often the case that bass in any given body of water are in transition between calendar periods. Such was the case on this day where some bass were spawning while better quality fish were post-spawn and had pulled off the bank and scattered across grass flats. Wired2Fish’s Mitch Anderson shares some general guidance on how to use weedless ChatterBaits to cover water and trigger hungry post-spawn bass in transition to offshore haunts.
TACKLE USED:
- Z-Man ProjectZ Weedless ChatterBait
- Daiwa Tatula Elite Casting Rod, 7’4″ Med Hvy Howell
- Daiwa Tatula SV TWS Casting Reel, 7.3:1
- Seaguar Tatsu Fluorocarbon, 15lb
Mitch provides 4 general points to find and catch post-spawn bass on grass lakes:
- Have one angler fish shallow and one cast out. There are often still quality fish to be had casting toward the bank so you might as well have one person targeting those fish while the other casts deeper — this helps determine the predominant pattern. Mitch explains how he uses mapping depth highlight to make quality split casts shallow and deeper.
- Use a weedless ChatterBait on the deeper grass flats. A ChatterBait is an excellent bluegill imitator this time of year. Choose a weedless version to cover water quickly without hanging in the grass.
- Use a rod with a softer tip and “straight reel” the bait. Mitch stresses the importance of using a purpose-built ChatterBait rod that allows you to simply reel and flush the bait off of grass stems without the angler having to jerk the rod tip. When the ChatterBait hangs on a grass stalk, a softer rod tip loads up and eventually flushes the bait off which often triggers the bite. It’s the same concept as a crankbait deflecting off cover like rock and wood.
- Use a mid-speed reel. A casting reel in the 7.3:1 range seems to be the optimal blend between winching power and speed. You don’t want to burn the bait too fast, yet you need adequate speed to catch up with bass and get ’em out of cover.
