Doing Something Bass Ackward Doesn't Always Spell Doom

Read here just recently about a guy who used monofilament for his main line and braid for his leader on a Carolina rig. Unless I'm mistaken, I think that pretty much runs contrary to probably everything any of us likely have ever read or heard before, right? Nevertheless, it worked.

As the guy explained to his tournament partner at weigh-in that day, "I wanted my lizard to float up off the bottom. Braided line floats, whereas mono sinks."

The partner always remembered what he had seen and the success that guy had with this bass-ackward rig but never got around to trying it for himself. As a result, he ended up in a rut with his fishing...one that just kept getting deeper...and he eventually gave up bass-tournament fishing.

As this situation demonstrates, finding an oddball bite can make a big difference in your fishing success...or lack thereof. One person who understands the importance of finding that little something different that will give you an edge is Bassmaster Elite Series pro Jeff Connella (right).

"The changes you make don't have to be really big," he said. "It can be something as simple as throwing a bait (one that most people would fish slow) extremely fast, right under the surface of the water, or maybe fishing a topwater when it's cold during the winter. There really aren't any limits to what you can do, other than your imagination."

Following are some other unconventional things Connella and fellow pro Homer Humphreys (left) have done over the years to catch fish when others around them just keep on digging deeper ruts for themselves.

Lopped-Off Lizard. Before baits like the brush hog came along, Humphreys used to tear off the body of a 9-inch lizard, so that all was left was the head and front legs. He tried this whenever he was pitching and flipping, but the fish weren't biting typical baits like jigs or lizards. Humphreys conceded that most flipping bites used to be pretty much the same once the bait entered the water, as the bass were biting out of pure reaction. That argument could be made today, but with increasing pressure, flipping a piece of plastic that the fish aren't used to seeing could result in a few more bites.

Swimming Toad. Connella adds a little weight in front of a V&M Bayou Bullfrog (right) and swims it right under the surface, rather than buzzing it on top. It doesn't always work, but when the bass want it, "they just can't turn away," he said. "The key to fishing this bait is to make sure it's rigged perfectly straight. "Rig it on a round-bend offset hook to keep the head up a little bit. That's what keeps it from turning." Connella urges anglers to try swimming topwater frogs in places where you would typically throw a spinnerbait, shallow-diving crankbait, or soft jerkbait. He concluded by saying that swimming topwater frogs is especially effective around shallow wood and grass cover.

Carolina-Rigged Hardbaits. One day, Humphreys could see suspended fish on his graph but couldn't get them to bite until he cut the lizard off his Carolina rig and tied on a floating Rat-L-Trap. He used a 1-ounce lead, with a 2-to-3-foot leader. "What happens with this setup is that when you sweep your rod, the bait is pulled to the bottom, then floats back up when you stop," he said. He went on to explain that many people think they get the same action from a Carolina-rigged soft plastic, but that isn't the case. Instead, the plastic pulls along the bottom...it doesn't get up to where suspended fish may be lurking. "You also can do the same thing with a Rogue or square-billed crankbait like a Divin' Ace," added Humphreys. "What this does is put your bait in an entirely new realm where bass aren't used to seeing these kinds of lures."

Jig-and-Lizard. While conventional wisdom says to fish a lizard on a Texas or Carolina rig and to fish a jig with a pork trailer or a plastic craw or chunk, Humphreys urges you to add a lizard to a jig for more and bigger bass. He said this combination will catch fish just about anywhere in the country. While not radically different from the normal, "this illustrates how even just little changes can make a big difference when fishing around other anglers," noted Humphreys.

Speedy Trick Worm. Anglers typically work a 7-inch floating worm just deep enough to be barely visible. And they think a slow and steady sashay is how they're supposed to be worked. Sometimes, though, that isn't the case. As Connella learned during a trip to Florida, bass occasionally will eat this worm when twitched really fast across the surface...in the middle of summer. The water temp was in the 90s, according to Connella. "My best retrieve," he said, "was one where the worm was just barely on the surface. Sometimes it even would flip out of the water. I guess the lesson here is don't be afraid to go super shallow (12 inches to 2 feet) in hot water, and don't think that you have to force-feed fish by fishing slowly all the time."

Cold-Water Buzzing. Buzzbaits primarily are thought of as warm-water surface lures. However, there are times when some anglers make it a point to throw one in cold, shallow water. While there are various floating styles of buzzbaits on the market, Humphreys favors his own Sputter Ace (left), which is a wooden plug with a buzzer in front of it. No matter which kind you choose, the key to a cold-water buzzbait bite, according to Humphreys, "is being able to fish it slow and even pause it at times." He went on to explain that he once got on a bite like that at Lake Norman in North Carolina, when the fish were up shallow and the water temperature was only 60 degrees. "After everything else had failed," he said, "I tied on a Sputter Ace, and it was like flipping on a switch." As Humphreys pointed out, "Bass that first move in to spawn are especially vulnerable to buzzing lures if the water is above normal-pool level. The high water will make them push back into the newly flooded areas, where they will stay until the water starts pulling out. Sometimes, this water is so thick with cover that the only clean area to fish is on the surface. That's the place to try the slow buzzers."

Schooling Tricks. When Humphreys finds himself in a schooling situation, he often rigs up a tandem Rat-L-Trap rig, which features a 1/4-ounce Trap with a 1/8-ounce Trap tied on a dropper line behind it. "What happens when bass are schooling," he said, "is that the fish will get so excited and gorge so much that they go to throwing up some of the shad they have been eating. I would say that about nine out of ten times, I wind up catching the bigger fish on that little trailing Trap." Another thing he tries on schooling bass is a smoke-colored spade-tail grub rigged on a big gold crappie hook and a small willow blade that he slips on the hook after bringing it through the head of the lure. "Schooling bass typically will eat just about anything," he added, "but they can be so focused on what they're eating that they pass up typical schooling baits. You can throw this little rig out there and skip it across the surface, and the fish will smash it."

Knocking Heads. Sight fishing for bedding bass is typically the realm of finesse presentations that are intended to aggravate the fish enough to make them bite. Anglers usually try to get the fish's attention by dying a tail or adding a rattle. Connella, however, gets their attention another way. "A lot of anglers bed fish with light line and small lures," he said. "If the fish don't respond to that, one thing you can do is go to big baits with heavy weights up to 1 ounce and braided line. If you're looking to make them angry enough to bite, all you have to do is pitch that bait in there and try to hit the fish on the head." He said another way to get the bass angry enough to bite is to toss a marker buoy in the bed, so that the weight is sitting right in the middle of it. "Leave it for a while, then come back to it, and you're likely to find the fish ready to bite."

As these suggestions outline, going against the grain is simply a matter of applying one's imagination to figure out how to throw the fish a change-up with the lures you already have in your box. If Humphreys' and Connella's ideas don't work, you might try a Zara Spook rigged backwards or a plastic crawfish rigged through the head, rather than the tail.

There's no guarantee that any of these ideas will work, but as these two anglers have proven, sometimes all it takes to catch bass are some crazy ideas that go against the grain.