While spotted bass look quite a bit like their large-mouthed cousins, any angler who has spent much time targeting spots knows that these black bass are a breed of their own.
With the largemouths not biting like a tournament angler had hoped, he decides he’d better opt for spotted bass with hopes of putting a limit of fish in the boat. While the first location he’ll visit with spots in mind isn’t far away, he’ll need to overhaul his gear and his mindset.
Spotted bass, which abound in much of the South and the West, are unlike largemouths in many ways. Generally speaking, spots like deeper water and smaller offerings than largemouths favor. Where a Texas-rigged YUM Zellamander fished at the base of a point might be the ticket for largemouths, a 5-inch Zellamander, Carolina rigged and dragged across the deep end of the same point, would be more apt to produce spotted bass.
Spots also gravitate toward open-water structure, often through the lower main bodies of reservoirs, where they feed mostly on shad and herring. In addition, they often relate to rock, and they feed far more readily in current than in slack water.
Many anglers consider late fall one of the best times of the year to target spotted bass. Spots often feed aggressively at the surface this time of year over points, humps or ridges. A Heddon Super Spook, Jr. or Excalibur Spit’n Image is ideal for bringing spots to the top. If spots are busting bait but won’t take a topwater plug, a pearl white blue back YUM Houdini Shad may draw a fierce strike.
While many techniques will produce spotted bass at times, most anglers consider finesse fishing with YUM Shakin’ Worms, 3-inch Wooly Hawgtails, Baby CrawBugs and other bite-sized offerings the most dependable way to put spots in the boats. Drop-shot rigs, rattlin’ Texas rigs and Carolina rigs all have their advocates. The common denominator is that anglers like to work their offerings slowly, isolating key structural features and keeping the bait close brush or rocks atop the structure.
Excalibur Tg Tungsten weights give anglers a real advantage for spotted bass fishing because the weights make a lot of noise and get the fish’s attention. Anglers often barely move their offerings. They’ll just shake the rod or hop the bait a tiny bit and wait for the spots. In addition, Tungsten offers tremendous sensitivity, allowing anglers to feel every boulder and crevice.
One attribute that makes spotted bass valuable to tournament anglers is that they tend to be less fickle than largemouths or smallmouths. If they are in a place one day, they probably will be there the next day as well – even if the weather changes.
The only real change that tends to turn off a spotted bass bite is a loss of current. When the current quits, anglers have a couple choices. Either they can slow their approach even more, turning to the most natural colors imaginable in hopes of coaxing inactive fish into biting, or they can return to the banks and fish for largemouths.