matter as long, as the bait is natural-colored.
Woods targets the smallmouth by throwing small swimbaits such as 3.5 and 4-inch Basstrix Paddle Tail swimbaits. He rigs up his swimbaits with a ¼- ounce lead head tied to 12-pound Hi- Seas fluorocarbon line. Woods opts for natural shad colors such as Alewife and Anchovy. He rigs the swimbaits on a Daiwa Tatula rod with a matching Tatula 100H 6.3:1 gear ratio reel.
PRE FISH PLANS
The sheer size of Mead lends itself to power fishing to catch actively feeding bass. It is nearly impossible to cover the amount of water necessary to catch winning sacks of bass employing slow moving baits, such as jigs or dropshots.
Even at the current water level, there is simply too much water in the lake to cover.
Power fishing allows anglers to target aggressive fish by running and gunning the lakes expansive flats, reefs and coves. Both anglers use practice to determine the style of retrieve or style of reaction baits that is necessary to induce strikes. Each angler suggests NOT hooking bass during practice! Each angler fishes baits with rolled over hooks on their reaction baits.
Both Lain and Uribe will either cut off the hooks from their baits
FALL 2016
or use needle nose
pliers to cut off hook
points, so they won’t
actually hook the bass
that explode on their
topwater baits.
Not hooking bass
during practice becomes
very important during
multi-day events, as
Mead can be notorious
for being challenging
as tournaments days
progress. But, with more than 290 square miles of shoreline, anglers have a lot of space to cover in search of landing a five-fish limit.
OTHER THINGS TO CONSIDER
Mead covers two states and each has their own specific fishing license requirements.
Anglers should not be afraid to beat the bank with the trolling motor on high chucking and winding their favorite reaction bait; Mead is a power fisherman’s lake. That being said, the bite can vary so much that anglers have to decide whether to employ power fishing methods or adjust to slow moving baits.
There is a lot of fishable water and it is important
to let the fish determine the style
of bait and speed in which they
want to chase.
There is growing debate
over targeting actively feeding
smallmouth bass during the
morning hours or opting for
largemouth bass later in the
day once the sun comes up.
Basically, it can be very hard to
decide if an angler should stick
to one species when catching
a five-fish limit.
The name of the game for
doing well on Mead is covering
a lot of water and fishing new
water every day.
Good luck on the water
and stay safe!
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