The large majority of bass waters near my home here in Korea are only very small lakes or ponds. None of them have a boat ramp of any description, so this leaves me with only 2 options. 1. Fishing from the bank or 2. Use a small inflatable or portable boat.
The large majority of bass waters near my home here in Korea are only very small lakes or ponds. None of them have a boat ramp of any description, so this leaves me with only 2 options. 1. Fishing from the bank or 2. Use a small inflatable or portable boat.
Due to the above comments, it’s fair to say that 70% of my bass fishing is done from the shore. How do I tackle catching bass from the shore? I will use the pond I fish from the most as my test pond for this article.
This pond at full pool is around 8 ~ 10 feet deep over 90% of the water area and the other 10% is around 2 ~ 5 feet deep. During the summer months 75% of the water surface is covered with water chestnut plants. Other than that, there is no obvious cover or structure in this pond.
This pond is right on the edge of a small town and gets quite a lot of fishing pressure almost 7 days per week. I am the last person to call myself a good bass fisherman, but I must say that I seem to out fish almost all the other anglers on this pond on a given day. In Korea, the average weekend bass fisher will use either a Texas rigged plastic worm or a spinnerbait 99% of the time and the anglers fishing this particular pond are no different. Although they do catch bass, they never seem to catch bigger numbers of bass, so I try to always use something different.
I have looked around the shores of this pond while pounding the shoreline and have often seen the bait fish that are present in this particular pond. There are tons of bluegill here! Now, this may seem obvious, but all I do is fish lures and plastics that resemble the bluegill or anything similar in color ..hey, it works!
I usually carry 2 or 3 rods with me with 3 different set-ups. 1. Bluegill colored lipless or shallow crankbait 2. 5″ watermelon/red plastic stick baits, weightless wacky rigged 3. Bluegill colored buzzbait or spinnerbait (depending on time of year).
I will walk the bank and fan cast each bait/lure at various depths and speeds, starting by casting along the bank to my left, then working the open water in front of me and finally ending by casting along the bank to my right. If there are no bites or fish I will walk along the bank and start the same fan cast process again until I find what the fish want.
The above fishing style works 9 times out of 10 throughout the whole year, except for during the summer months when the water is covered by water chestnuts and a few pads, all I need at this time is just one rod ..my FROG ROD!!!! I would like to thank all of the members at Ultimatebass.com forums for giving me the opportunity to learn and put into practice everything I know to help me catch more bass and be able to write about it in these articles.
Tight lines,
Steve Bell, catching bass in Korea.
