Bass Fishing Forum - Westernbass.com

I recently discovered an old video by a guy David jones showing how to doodle for bass and had clips with Don Iovino back in the day. With all the livescope and techniques for suspended bass I found this pretty cool. Was wondering if any old timers had info on what this technique was meant to do and how they fished it. From what I saw it was basically just fishing vertically with the special worm and sinker combo. What caught my attention was the David catching fish over 120ft 30 ft down in the middle of the lake. Thanks!

i havent doodled in a long time - maybe Don Ivino himself will comment on this. I don't see him on the board often but he's still on Facebook.

Personally I would rather swim a kietech or underspin on a pendulum - but doodling was essentially a finesse presentation when they wouldn't eat the spoon. drop it down to the depth and shaky shaky above them

People still do a modified doodle by shaking their drop shot, or an actual shaky head.

mark poulson wrote: ↑Thu Nov 17, 2022 11:04 am People still do a modified doodle by shaking their drop shot, or an actual shaky head.

Good point Aaron Martens (RIP) was fantastic at lightweight drop shot for suspended fish. It definitely takes another layer of patience that I don't have

It's always in my toolbox and setup to go when the conditions dictate using this technique.
But then, I am old school

Yep, never stopped. The brass n glass bullet weight with tempered glass faceted bead is my standard Texas rigged worm set up for over 30 years.
FYI Don’s Major Craft Splash-It rod makes a good finesse doodling rod.
Shaky head jig worm has taken over doodling, the original still works good.
Tom
PS, Dick Trask using dart heads on suspended bass, another forgotten lure.

WRB wrote: ↑Thu Nov 17, 2022 6:42 pm Yep, never stopped. The brass n glass bullet weight with tempered glass faceted bead is my standard Texas rigged worm set up for over 30 years.
FYI Don’s Major Craft Splash-It rod makes a good finesse doodling rod.
Shaky head jig worm has taken over doodling, the original still works good.
Tom
PS, Dick Trask using dart heads on suspended bass, another forgotten lure.

I live next to Folsom lake and use the darter head all the time!

ash wrote: ↑Thu Nov 17, 2022 11:17 am

mark poulson wrote: ↑Thu Nov 17, 2022 11:04 am People still do a modified doodle by shaking their drop shot, or an actual shaky head.

Good point Aaron Martens (RIP) was fantastic at lightweight drop shot for suspended fish. It definitely takes another layer of patience that I don't have

I was thinking of trying this I just poured a bunch of 1/8 and 1/16 dropshot weights over my normal 1/4 I use.

ash wrote: ↑Thu Nov 17, 2022 9:29 am i havent doodled in a long time - maybe Don Ivino himself will comment on this. I don't see him on the board often but he's still on Facebook.

Personally I would rather swim a kietech or underspin on a pendulum - but doodling was essentially a finesse presentation when they wouldn't eat the spoon. drop it down to the depth and shaky shaky above them

The pendulum is something I just caught fish on this year with a tail spin. Definitely a specific technique but very cool to experiment with

its a great way to fish more active fish from a distance - a lot of guys don't consider that by casting out to the depth you want your bait to primarily be in when it suspends for a few seconds - I am literally bringing my rod tip from 12 o'clock to 4 o clock and staying in slight contact with my bait and fingering the line waiting for the slightest tic or stop - once it gets to 4 you can shake it or doodle from there then slowly began the ascent back to the boat - its crazy effective with schooling fish

ash wrote: ↑Mon Nov 28, 2022 3:47 pm its a great way to fish more active fish from a distance - a lot of guys don't consider that by casting out to the depth you want your bait to primarily be in when it suspends for a few seconds - I am literally bringing my rod tip from 12 o'clock to 4 o clock and staying in slight contact with my bait and fingering the line waiting for the slightest tic or stop - once it gets to 4 you can shake it or doodle from there then slowly began the ascent back to the boat - its crazy effective with schooling fish

Gonna give it a try tomorrow!