The bluegill (bream) spawning season is an excellent time to target hungry post-spawn bass in the shallows. Wired2fish caught up with Chris Lane on Alabama’s famed Lake Guntersville for a lesson on locating bluegill bedding areas with the naked eye and catching bass using wacky-rigged stickbaits.
TACKLE USED
- SOFT PLASTIC – Bass Pro Shops 5-3/8” Stik-O Worm, color – June Bug and Green Pumpkin
- HOOK – Eagle Claw TroKar Pro-V Weedless Finesse Hook, size 1
- ROD – Duckett Black Ice Series Spinning Rod, 6′ 9″ Medium-Heavy
- REEL – Johnny Morris Signature Spinning Reel
- LINE (braided mainline) – Bass Pro Shops XPS KVD Signature Series 100% Fluorocarbon, 12-pound
- LINE (fluorocarbon leader) – Bass Pro Shops XPS Hyperbraid 8, 10-pound
With the shad spawn completed, bluegills present the next easy feeding opportunity, but not all bedding areas are equally productive. Lane fishes both large and small colonies but favors those with abundant life — spawning bream draw in the food chain such and where there is life, there’s bass.
Look for circular light-colored spots — these can be white spots down south (fanned beds with shells) or just underlying sand and gravel. Beds make easy casting targets, and there are few better tools than a wacky rig fluttering down into them. Lane casts to these areas, pulls the bait up, then lets it sink on slack to create a gentle undulating action.
Beds are often visible from a distance. Keep your boat way off the fish and make long casts to avoid spooking wary bass in shallow water. Move on after making a few casts to “the white” if you don’t get bit. Lastly, Lane shares his go-to tackle and rod setup for this simple, fun, and productive finesse fishing system.
