The lake is quiet and you’re in your bass boat, loaded for bear as anglers usually are. You start to see signs of some random schooling activity but no luck on your well-placed cast. It’s fall now, but it’s still hot outside and both you and the fish are waiting on that first big cool down. This is the scenario that can make for some tough days in bass fishing. It can be a grind to catch a limit, but breaking out everything and the kitchen sink to throw at these early fall fish is sometimes the best way to go. Think of it as your final exam for the year. You’ve been tested over the coarse of spring and summer, and now it’s time to put all those tricks and lessons to the test.
LITERALLY: A BUNCH OF BAITS
I don’t have an exact number of rods I prefer, but it usually ends up being around a dozen different baits. Around half a dozen soft baits and half a dozen hard baits all told. The moving baits are your seeking and searching lures. I like to have a few cranks with different diving depths, a few blade baits, a lipless crankbait, a topwater bait of some sort, and a scrounger-head fluke (for the occasional schooler). For soft plastics, I like to have a drop-shot worm, a weightless trick worm, a Texas-rigged creature bait, a finesse jig and a Carolina rig.
Having a variety of baits that behave differently is essential. A crankbait behaves differently from a spinnerbait, just as a weightless worm behaves differently than a jig. The different actions will allow you to cover all the major behaviors of bait prey species. Rolling out your arsenal on key targets can help you figure out if there’s one particular bait that is working better than others. However, on most tough days when you resort to junk fishing, it becomes a technique where no bait accounts for the majority of the fish you catch.
Having a variety of baits that behave differently is essential. A crankbait behaves differently from a spinnerbait, just as a weightless worm behaves differently than a jig. The different actions will allow you to cover all the major behaviors of bait prey species.
KEY TARGETS
Scanning for key targets while you’re junk fishing can pay off big time. It’s always a good idea to have some good polarized lenses when junk fishing to locate the targets that might be just under the surface, such as stumps, laydowns, brushpiles, etc. When you locate key targets that just scream, “keeper bass here!” that’s when it’s time time run through the arsenal, mixing up multiple casts with moving baits and then switching to your soft baits that are better for probing the cover if necessary.
Once you locate a promising hole, hit it with everything you’ve got before giving up and moving on.
MULTIPLE RODS
This isn’t a tactic that involves a few rods, but rather many rods. Being able to quickly switch between different techniques will make you much more efficient in putting multiple casts with different baits on a target. In fact, this is the key to junk fishing: making multiple casts to targets with different baits to try and get a reaction strike. The faster you can switch up, the faster you can get to your next target. You might lose some real estate next to the trolling motor, so watch that back-step when you set the hook!
Being able to quickly switch between different techniques will make you much more efficient in putting multiple casts with different baits on a target. In fact, this is the key to junk fishing: making multiple casts to targets with different baits to try and get a reaction strike.
STAYING CONFIDENT
Junk fishing can often feel like you are just spinning your wheels, but once you begin to put a few fish in the boat on a few different baits, it becomes very mechanical. You find yourself getting into a habit of reaching down for another rod every minute or two. When you are in the zone during junk fishing, you will have full confidence to land a fish on one lure and then immediately pick up a different lure because you know the only pattern is covering water with different baits.
You didn’t buy all these lures from the bargain bin for nothing. Put them all to use when you’re junk fishing.
When it’s time for junk fishing, it really pays to have a buddy to fish with you. You can be twice as efficient and spilt the work load in half by each of you taking half of the baits in the arsenal. It’s fun to work together as a pair, and the guy up front in this case isn’t always the one getting the bites!
Something else you want to keep in mind is tuning of your reels. If you’re like most anglers, you don’t have a dozen of the exact same reel in the boat. Each reel can be a bit different in its tuning, so be mindful of switching from reels that might be set differently. It can be a formal invitation to a day of picking out backlashes if you’re not careful. So, make every cast count and put all those lures you’ve been collecting to good use next time it’s a junk fishing day.
