THE BASS COLLEGE

Ok guys, I'm about to spill the beans on one of my VERY BEST KEPT SECRETS!!!  How many of you have pulled up to your favorite lilly pad flat at daylight to find shad flipping on top of the pads and giant largemouth busting them up???

When those bucketmouths are gorging on live bait, it can be tough to get them to hit anything else.  Well, here's how to whack em!  Here's my set up for this technique:  a 7' MH to H action rod, a 7:1 gear ratio reel, 65# braid, and a Tropical White Spro Poppin Frog.  Make a long cast into the pads, then let it sit.

After a few seconds, start making small twitches with your rod tip.  If it hangs on the edge of a pad, LEAVE IT! Just gently twitch it in place.  This perfectly simulates those shad spawning on top of the pads.  

Those big sows will BLOW UP on that frog!!!  I've tried this with ribbit and horny toad style frogs, but they don't work as well.  By twitching the Spro frog slowly, it stays in the strike zone a whole lot longer.  Get ready for some VORACIOUS strikes!!!  This bite doesn't last very long though.  Once the sun gets up, that's all she wrote.

Usually, you can get a good 45 minutes in before they quit, so you must make the best of your time.  I won several local tournaments the past few years using this technique.  Just remember, once the bass blows up on the frog, give him a second to get the frog completely in his mouth before you set the hook!  It's going to take you a few blow-ups before you can settle your nerves, but once you settle in, get ready for the most explosive 30-45 minutes of fishing that you have ever experienced!!!   Try it and please give me some feedback and pics.  I promise that if you try this tip, you WON'T be disappointed!!!

killer technique chris and a great one in some of the local lakes and ponds with shad in DE. On the upper bay when the shad spawn is on we catch 100 or more bass a day throwing a double willow terminator in white. swim jigs in sexy shad,chart/wht chatterbaits,RC 1.5's,sebile magic swimmers and twitching a zoom super fluke or white seko along the banks of the major creek arms.The bite only lasts a week or two but when its on there isnt a pattern on the bay that can beat it. Those postspawn bass gang up on millions of shad getting frisky along wood covered banks and go ballistic gorging themselves. One year in a tourney with a 200 boat field every angler in the top 20 was fishing the shad spawn and some creeks had 30 or more boats crowded together on one bank but all of them caught fish. We came in 4th  with  18.5 pounds fishing hall and dupont creeks on the sassafras with those baits. The 2 biggest bass  both 5 lbers came on the fluke and senko but the majority of the bass came on the crankbait and spinnerbait.We probably caught 50 keepers that day and another 40 under 15 inches. You could literally see thousands and thousands of shad up against the bank swimming in circles all day spawning. It was unreal.