Ever Know a Backseater Who Could Kick Butt?

My current tournament partner is one of those guys. Wayne Hayes (right) not once but twice won bass tournaments from the backseat. The first time was in January 2003, while fishing the amateur portion of a Bassmaster Pro Tour event on Lake Okeechobee. The second occasion was only a few months later, in July 2003, to be exact, while fishing as an amateur partner to a pro in the Maryland Bassmaster Northern Open on the Potomac River.

His prize each time was a fully-rigged bass boat. He kept the first one but sold the other (a $24,000 Skeeter) and eventually traded the first one for a new Ranger, which he still drives today.

During a reporter's interview after his second backseat win, Wayne said, "I've been fishing good, but never in my life could I have imagined winning two of these things. The competition is so good in an event like this."

When asked to explain his winning philosophy, Wayne responded, "I try not to throw the same baits they do when fishing tight cover. If they fish fast, I fish fast," adding that he keeps six rods rigged with baits to allow him to fish at the same pace as his boat partner. "You have to adapt and try to make friends with the guy and enjoy the day," he continued. "If you don't, you won't have an enjoyable outing. Whatever you do, don't give up. Sometimes, the last cast can do it for you," he concluded.

Another angler who has won tournaments from the backseat is Wired2Fish bass pro and writer Walker Smith, who pointed out that one of the toughest challenges for backseaters is to catch sluggish summer bass behind somebody. Following are some setups he offered to increase a backseater's success under these conditions.

Ditch the braid and grab a popper on monofilament. Braided whale rope and hollow-body frogs may be all the rage for shallow power anglers today, but back when Smith fished primarily as a co-angler, it felt like the boaters, in his words, "threw frogs nearly nonstop. I would try to change things up by throwing a pointed-nose frog if they were throwing a popping frog (or vice versa), but I never really had a lot of success. I'd catch a few fish but nothing to call mama and brag about.

"If you notice your boater obsessing over his heavy-duty frog setup," he continued, "I strongly suggest grabbing an old-school popper on 12- or 15-pound monofilament. This setup has caught big bass for decades, and it certainly hasn't gone out of style. I'm a firm believer that big bass quickly become conditioned to popular baits. I remember back when hollow-body frogs first came out, and giant bass would inhale them for a few years because they'd never really seen them before. But in my area, that has all changed. They've been dive-bombed with 'em for years now, and they're becoming wise to our offerings, which means we have to get a bit more creative about things."

Smith pointed out that a popper such as the Strike King KVD Splash (pictured above) is an excellent co-angler choice for targeting isolated cover in lieu of a topwater frog.

"Boaters tend to fish frogs pretty quickly," he said, "especially when they're searching for a pattern, which means they can certainly overlook key pieces of cover. With a popper, you can really saturate a specific limb or stump and leave that popper over key areas for an extended period of time, even if you're having to cast behind the boat. I've caught a lot of key 'bonus fish' doing this over the years. It's a much different sound than most frogs on the market, and to be quite honest, I hardly ever see anyone throwing poppers anymore. So maybe that has something to do with it as well.

"Simply cast your popper past the piece of cover you're targeting, pop it a few times, and let it sit completely still until the ripples dissipate...and repeat. Most of your bites are going to come on the pause, and be sure to keep your wits about you. The vicious bites will scare the tar out of you."

When the boater is hitting everything, reach for a wakebait. Smith confessed that he drew some really good boaters back when he was doing the co-angler deal.

"That's both a blessing and a curse," he said. "It's great because you're probably going to be around fish, but it can be frustrating, because they leave absolutely nothing for you to fish. It has really spun me out a few times.

"During one tournament, I got desperate," he continued, "and I tied on an old Cotton Cordell Jointed Red Fin...a great lure all around the country but not one I had a bunch of experience with. Instead of throwing it right at the bank, I'd land my cast about 10 feet from the bank and slowly retrieve it at a 45-degree angle. In my mind, I (hopefully) was targeting a totally different population of bass than the ones being annihilated by my boater...and it worked.

"The fish I was catching were situated off the break line, where the shallow water dropped into that mid-depth range of 12 or 15 feet. I think a whole bunch of anglers, myself included, totally forget about that depth range, and we get too caught up with the words 'deep' or 'shallow.' There's a lot of 'in between,' too, and you can bet your fishing rod that plenty of fish live there."

Smith's absolute favorite wakebait of all time is the old, original Buckeye Wake Up, a discontinued bait, but he's quick to admit that a Red Fin will work just fine as well.

"Be very careful, however," he said, "to avoid reeling it too fast. It's not a crankbait, and an accelerated retrieve will really hurt your chances of getting bites. Instead, keep a high rod tip and very slowly reel it along the surface, so it leaves a pronounced V-shaped wake behind it. If you see it start to dive, stop your retrieve, let it float back to the surface, and resume a super-slow retrieve. You'll be amazed how many big summer bass will absolutely smoke this expensive lure."

Pitch and flip a weighted fluke behind a jig. This is another trick Smith learned out of sheer desperation.

"I was fishing behind a buddy who honestly is one of the best jig anglers I've ever shared a boat with," he noted. "After several hours of watching him make all kinds of crazy-good casts, my confidence was pretty low. I love skipping a jig, and I can hold my own with one, but there wasn't a square inch this dude wasn't hitting.

"So instead of trying to beat him at his own game, I decided to totally change profiles to give the bass a different look. I never had tried it before, but I ended up taking a Mardi Gras-colored Zoom Super Fluke (pictured above) and Texas rigging it with a 3/16-ounce weight. It was hot, there wasn't a breath of air, but I kept seeing a bunch of bluegill suspended beneath the boat docks, so I figured there had to be bass stalking 'em nearby. This little rig looked like one of those two-finger-sized bluegill bass love to ambush in summer, so I started skipping that little sucker around the dock posts.

"Long story short, I crushed 'em that afternoon and discovered a cool little rig for tough fishing from the back deck. I've had so much success with it as a co-angler that I'll still pitch it around, even when I'm on the front deck of my own boat. I haven't seen any underwater footage of this rig, but I figure the bass might think it's a little bluegill pecking around, looking for food or something. Either way, I guess it doesn't matter because the bass eat the heck out of it either way.

"As I mentioned," continued Smith, "try to imitate a bluegill when picking your colors this time of year. A good ol' green pumpkin-colored Fluke will work just fine, but personally, I like to choose a green color with a little bit of red flake in there. It might just be a confidence thing, but I feel like I get more bites that way. Mardi Gras can be a tough color to find at times, so another great option is traditional watermelon red.

"The next time you find yourself stuck fishing behind another good angler on a hot summer day," concluded Smith, "I highly recommend trying one of, if not all three, of these techniques. Get a little creative because, in 90-degree water temperatures, any little thing sure helps a lot."