Secrets of the Guides
By: T. Edward Nickens
7. The Bass
Artist
TODD KERSEY
Specialty: Catching huge Florida largemouth
bass
Years Guiding: 9
Home Waters: Lower Florida's famous bass waters
‹Lake Okeechobee, Lake Walk in Water, plus Lake
Kissimmee, Stick MarshFarm 13, and the Everglades.
Philosophy: Relax and enjoy what you're doing.
On 72 percent of our couple trips, the woman catches
the largest fish. Most often that's because she's just
fishing and enjoying herself, while her husband is
operating under so much pressure. His buddies back
home want to hear about the big one. He forgets the
beauty of it all and the pressure makes him miss fish.
Contact: Hawghunter Guide Service:
888-629-2277;
www.bassonline.com
Skill 34:
Cook fish with beer. A cold one is the 11th
essential on a good fishing trip. Besides being the
beverage of choice after a long day on the water, it
can help you cook your catch. Any kind of beer is
perfect for poaching fish. It's simple: Build a good
fire. Lay out a sheet of heavy-duty aluminum foil
two-and-a-half times longer and two-and-a-half times
deeper than your biggest fish. Drizzle the bottom with
olive oil and a 1/2-inch-thick layer of sliced green
onions. Place a cleaned fish on top, and souse it with
the first few ounces of a fresh beer. The rest of the
can is for you. Roll it all up in a tight pouch and
put it near hot coals for about 15 minutes for a
decent eating-size walleye. The onions will char. The
beer will steam. The fish will flake with a fork. You
will eat and drink like a king.
Skill 35:
Set the hook and get control. A hookset is more
than hooking a fish. It's one continuous motion that
ends with the angler in the proper body posture to
control the fish. None of this hands-over-the-head,
rod-stuck-out-to-the-side business. You must assert
control and wind up in a position for the fight ahead.
And I say, take a swing every time you even think you
feel a bite. Here's the right way.
[1]
Start with a slight bend in the knees, just like a
golf swing. This gives you stability and balance,
which you're going to need in the next few seconds.
[2] Think about where the fish is going. Don't
snap-strike. Lower the rod tip and point it in the
direction the fish is traveling as it moves away with
your bait. This is a critical detail. [3] As
you start the strike, keep both elbows close to the
body. This gives you a lot more leverage, and you're
not relying on the muscles of your arms for the swing,
but your entire upper body. [4] Retrieve slack
line and as the line goes taut, pull back swiftly with
your forearms and lean backward as you set the hook.
This is where the bent knees come in, because you now
straighten the legs to get the whole body behind the
hookset. You're in balance, the reel is close to your
chest, the rod is in control. You're in position to
handle whatever comes next.
Skill 36:
Fish with a shiner. Lake Okeechobee is famous
for its wild live shiner fishing. The fish chase those
shiners to the surface, and oh man, the world blows up
right in front of you. It's very exciting.
We use a 4/0 live-bait
hook and a standard egg bobber, and really large
baits, shiners between 6 and 10 inches. It's a
handful. The trick is to always keep the shiner right
above the grass. Sometimes you need 1/8 or 3/8 ounce
of lead to keep the shiners down, but if you use lead,
make sure you've got a real kicker. That bait needs to
spook, to really go on the run. Bass love to attack a
moving target.
That setup is pretty
easy. The trick is in working the bite. A bass can
only eat a big shiner headfirstãif it goes down
tailfirst, the shiner's fins will get hung up in his
throat. What happens is this: The bass blows out of
the water, grabs that shiner and starts buzzing drag
off the reel. Your first instinct, to lock down and
let him have it, is the worst thing to do. You have to
let the fish run, and when he stops to turn that
shiner around in his mouth, that's when you hit him.
Sometimes it's 5 yards. Sometimes it's 35 yards. You
never know.
Skill 37:
Flip a lure the Florida way. When most people
flip they let the line go, it hits the water, and if a
fish hits the lure on the way down then releases it,
the angler never feels the bite. Half the bites go
undetected. Not down here. If they bang the lure on
the way down, we catch them.
We don't worry about
finding a hole in the grass. We throw right into the
middle of a weed mat and let the lure drive a hole
into the hollow beneath. But the real key is this: As
soon as the lure hits the water, apply slight thumb
pressure to the spool to control the drop of the lure.
Don't let it free-fall to the bottom. Set it on the
mat and lower it with your thumb. That gives you the
chance to feel even the slightest take on the drop.
Skill 38:
Fish with braided line. A major gear shift down
here has been new braided lines like Stren Super braid. In the Big O there's
so much grass, these fish whack the bait, and by the
time you can get the bow out of the rod and the
stretch out of standard mono line, he's already balled
up on the bottom with his head in the grass. With
braided line there's no stretch, and you can put it to
him when he still has his head up. In heavy cover you
can feel a subtle bite so much better with braided
line, and we rely on that when pitching and flipping
in grass and cattails.
GEAR I CAN'T
LIVE WITHOUT
Todd Kersey
"There's something about the polarization process of
Maui Jim sunglasses that gives me much better vision
underwater, especially in my peripheral vision. I've
used a lot of sunglass brands, and I can really tell a
difference in water glare."
