The bass have moved to the beds on many lakes across the country, and sight-fishing is a fun way to interract with the fish and actually learn a lot on how they react to lures. Anglers can educate themselves on how a bass will strike out of aggression as readily as they will out of hunger.
This weekend, the bass on Kentucky Lake were on beds in very skinny water, and fishing for them was very difficult because they could see the boat from so far away which made them very anxious and leary of locking on their bed. What we did figure out though was that nearly every bed was next to a piece of cover or some form of shelter like an old dead grassline.
Drawing from something professional angler Craig Powers proved, a blind cast to a long-distance target and imagining there was a bed there yielded some quality fish. It’s critical to feather a cast in there with a light bait and if possible cast beyond the target so as not to spook a potential fish. Senkos, Yum Dingers, Zoom Trick Worms and other light casting baits make great options. A floating worm can be deadly in this situation as well. The key is to pretend on every cast that there is a bedding bass there that will spook if you crash a bait on her.
Some of the bass found on beds were later caught with a blind cast to that spot. A bedding bass is generally not as defensive if the boat hasn’t come into the territory yet. It’s the presence of fishermen that generally make the bass so hard to catch when sight fishing.
