This tournament season has started like many others for California's Ish Monroe. He's put himself in the best situations to catch big bass doing what he likes to do and that is power-fishing. When asked what he's been using the most this year, he rattled off a "who's who" on proven springtime lures.
Throwing a spinnerbait, ChatterBait, flipping, squarebills, and fishing a frog have been his top baits to start the year. He says they are all proven big-fish lures that he always has tied up early in the year.
What Ish Targets
The theme for this spring, and every spring for that matter, has been looking for the high-percentage areas.
"Flats. It is always about finding those flats this time of year," Monroe began. "It doesn't matter where you are in the country, that is the number one thing I am looking for."
Monroe said he also leans towards finding off-colored water when he can and opts for bigger baits.
"This time of year, I fish how we all grew up fishing. Beating the bank with moving baits because the fish this time of year want to be shallow," said Monroe. "There are not a lot of deep fish and all of those big ones are coming in heavily to shallow water to spawn right."
Depending on where you live, the bass are either about to spawn, spawning, or just wrapping up and that plays into Monroe's plan.
"Those big females are up shallow and are going to be the easiest they are to catch all year long. Once it turns to summer and fall, those fish are going to be tough to find," Monroe shared. "Right now, they are up and you want to be using those bigger baits because they are hungry."
A Nationwide Approach (And Goin' Back to Cali)
So far this year, Monroe has fished MLF Bass Pro Tour tournaments on lakes Eufaula, Okeechobee, and Fork. These three are premier big bass fisheries and his approach worked well with him catching quality fish at all of those locales.
As we chatted with Monroe, he was on his way to another big bass factory, the California Delta and he was planning the same attack plan.
"It is something that will work just about everywhere, targeting shallow flats with bigger lures. The few places where it is not the best would be somewhere like Lake Shasta or Oroville, but the same general principles are the same," said Monroe.
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Target Vs. Distance Casting
Another thing that comes in to play this time of year is how he utilizes his selected lures.
Two of his favorites are the ChatterBait and spinnerbait and he often utilizes precise casting to shallow targets. While he utilizes different rods for each technique, he uses the same line and reel.
"I use a 6.3:1 Daiwa Tatula SV TW reel for both of those. The SV spool was designed as an anti-backlash reel that is awesome for skipping baits and things like that," Monroe said. "But, I use it all of the time when I am making precise casts to cover. You can make a lot more casts in a day and not worry about backlashing."
He fishes a spinnerbait on the Daiwa Tatula Elite 7' medium heavy Takahiro Omori Signature Series cranking rod and the vibrating jig on the 7'4" medium heavy Brent Ehrler Cranking/Bladed Jig rod.
For both lures, he opts for 20-pound Daiwa J-Fluoro.
"The great thing about all of those rods is they were designed by pros who are the best at those techniques. It is exactly what they would use, so it makes it easier to know you have the perfect rod for each lure," shared Monroe.
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Flipping and Frogging
Two other techniques that just about always do well for Monroe are flipping and frogging. He's built a career on fishing like this and this year has been no different.
He's been fishing a frog already this spring with success for bass in all stages of the spawn and for that technique, he's been using his signature series Daiwa Tatula Elite 7'4" heavy frog rod paired with a Daiwa Tatula Elite spooled with 50-pound J-Braid.
"I use the Elite reel for that technique because it is such a great reel for long casts," he feels.
For flipping, he's been using his 8' Tatula Elite punching rod often this year, and he's been pairing it with the 7.1:1 Daiwa Tatula Elite Pitch/Flip and spooling it with 65-pound J-Braid.
"It goes without saying that the reel is made for flipping and pitching; it has a shallow spool and big oversized handle. It's perfect for it," added Monroe.
No matter where he goes in the spring, Ish Monroe follows the same springtime attack plan: go shallow and fish for the biggest fish in the lake.
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