7 Top Tips for Winter Bass Success with YUMbrella Rigs

“Make the same cast. There should be more,” Jimmy Mason directed as I released a Guntersville Lake largemouth. I followed Mason’s suggestion, which was easy because of a lined-up shoreline landmark he’d directed me to cast toward previously, and within a few cranks another bass stopped my Flash Mob Jr in its tracks. And another, a few casts after that.

Mason, a long-time tournament pro and bass guide on the Tennessee River in North Alabama, has been close to the castable umbrella rig craze since its start. He was among the small group of Alabama anglers who were not surprised by the big national tournaments that put multi-bait rigs on the map, and he has been fishing YUMbrella rigs since before they hit the market.

The YUMbrella Flash Mob Jr plays a critical role in Mason’s winter strategy, so over the years he has had the opportunity to refine his total approach and has learned how to maximize winter bass fishing productivity. We’ll examine some difference makers.

When one of Mason’s clients is notably out-fishing another, often the one doing the most catching is managing longer casts. Winter fish are often spread over bars or points or along slopes, and longer casts allow you to keep your YUMbrella Rig in the strike zone and doing its job a higher percentage of the time. Part of achieving distance is using a fairly long rod that suits your casting motion and matches the weight of the rig. Part is simply being intentional about a long, sweeping casting motion.

Whether working a slope along a main river bank, the edge of a submerged weedbed or the top of a bar or a point, Mason keeps his boat a good distance off the top of the structure. In fact, he might start more than a cast’s distance from what he expects to be the most productive zone and then work gradually closer. If fish are suspended farther down the break, he doesn’t want to spook those fish before ever giving them the opportunity to commit.

Anytime you catch a fish – or even get a strike – on a YUMbrella rig, be intentional about noting the angle of the cast and where you were in your retrieve when the fish bit. That intentionality is extra important when you are fishing structure that’s away from the bank, and repeating a cast isn’t as simple as landing your offering beside the same log. Whatever it takes, repeat productive casts, because subtle current breaks, cuts in submerged weedlines and small structural features make some spots far better feeding zones than everything around them, and bass sometimes will stack up in those spots.

YUMbrella rig depth is mostly controlled with presentation speed, but for deeper fishing, you sometimes need to pause and let the rig sink to the primary zone before beginning your retrieve. Because Mason is often positioned to cast toward the shallow part of a structure, he typically starts reeling right away and slows the retrieve through the first part of the presentation to “parachute” his baits down to the zone. That keeps him swimbaits actively working as they move deeper. The primary depth zone for working a YUMbrella rig is slightly above where most bass and baitfish are suspended. Live sonar makes it extra easy to track your rig and keep it above specific fish, but traditional sonar shows prevalent depths, and experimentation with retrieve speeds allows you to figure out the retrieve rate that keeps you working in the most productive zone.

Anglers tend to want to add action to lures with rod lifts, snaps and twitches. While that’s effective for triggering strikes with many lure types and techniques, Mason has found added action more likely to spook fish than prompt strikes with a YUMbrella rig. He prefers to keep the rod steady and move his rig by reeling. Along with maintaining steady swimming action, keeping the rod still makes it easier to keep the rod in “hookset position” of 45 degrees or less from the water. While the hookset for this technique involves reeling into the fish while lifting – as opposed to a hard snap – the rod needs to be relatively low for there to be somewhere for it to go.

Mason usually rigs his Flash Mob Jr with YUM Scottsboro or Pulse swimbaits, but those two baits open a vast range of size and color options. The YUM Scottsboro baits come in four sizes ranging from 3 to 4.5 inches, each in ten colors. The Pulse comes in 3.5- and 4.5-inch sizes and a dozen colors. Forage size, water color, weather and fishing pressure contribute to decisions, but finding the right bait for a day sometimes requires experimentation. Mason starts most days with clients rigged with differing combinations and pays careful attention to the fish’s preferences.

Finally, and continuing with the topic of bait details, Mason often mixes up baits when rigging. The Flash Mob Jr has five wires, with one in the middle that stays slightly back because it doesn’t flare out and the others on the top and bottom and on each side. Mason often uses one color for his top and bottom baits and another for the two sides. The center bait might be one of those two colors, but frequently it’s one size larger. Two colors help the rig appeal to fish in different moods and can accelerate the patterning process.