Do this to reach fish hiding next to the bank

 As a well-aged fisherman, I am like a well-aged wine, one that gets a bit better with each passing season. (My fishing buddies think of me more as aging catfish bait.) But the net effect is the same: Like the infinite number of monkeys sitting in front of an infinite number of typewriters, occasionally my time in a belly boat pays off with something useful. In this case, I’ve found a quirky way to ambush some fine fish that have been safely hiding in shallowest water they can find. 

I’m not conceited enough to think there aren’t other anglers experimenting with something similar. (On the other hand, at least one of those social media geniuses should have spilled these beans on Facebook or something before now.) Regardless, let me tell you about a new (to me at least) tactic to adapt gear meant for "forward facing sonar" and deep water to fish Colorado’s notoriously shallow, weed-choked shorelines.

If you fish gravel ponds and other small bodies of water along the Front Range, you will be frustrated by the native and invasive weeds that infest our shores. Other parts of the country probably have similar problems, but I for one haven’t seen the green slop this bad anywhere else. Toss even the smallest hard body popper up near most banks around here and you’ll see why my Dad called some of it “pond snot" (green filamentous algae) . It kind of looks like pea soup, which I don’t like either. 

Other weeds are also sprouting in deep water, including an invasive green monster called "Curly-leaf Pondweed" (Potamogeton crispus). Topwater tactics are often the only ones that work around it as well. 

No wonder the folks who can afford it are investing in expensive "forward facing sonar" rigs, and learning new “hover strolling” techniques to haul tired, overly pressured bass out of deep, deep water. Doesn’t sound like much fun. 

Here’s what to do instead: Just throw away or donate the heavy gear, and adapt that hover strolling gear to use with decent ultralight spinning gear. Add it to your arsenal of Ned rigs and other finesse tactics that take advantage of today’s revolutionary tough, stretchy, floating plastic baits from suppliers like Z-Man and Mule Fishing. Fishermen using these tiny baits on Ned rigs and such use sinking fluorocarbon leaders and lead or tungsten jigheads to pin the baits to the bottom, where they floats tail up like sexy crawdads or clueless minnows. I’m not telling them to stop. 

But when conditions are right, use 3 or 4 feet of floating monofilament or nylon leader in place of the fluorocarbon, and and tie on one of those unweighted, ridiculously sharp Japanese Domestic Market hover hooks intended for use with nail weights and forward-facing sonar. (They also come in a weedless version) Add a 1- to 2-inch paddletail or other micro-plastic bait.  

Forward-facing sonar is turning the well-equipped angler into a video gamer. The gear allows that angler to watch fish suspend way down there in the dark, while they hover or “stroll” their soft plastic baits deep in front of them. The technique requires nail weights or weighted jigs to overcome the plastic’s buoyancy.

Instead, you will be going weightless, using an ultra fine, #4 or #6 hover-style hook. (The best are Japanese, made by Ryugi. For now, you’ll have to get them online. 

Use whatever micro jig suits you, 1.2 to 3 inches or so, as long as it’s made of Elaztech or a similar super plastic used by Mule Fishing. Often you’re going to be casting into less than a foot of water. The unweighted micro-rig lands with a faint “splat” like a beetle falling off an overhanging branch. And because the rig is defiantly weightless, you can twitch, stall and dead-stick the lure inside tiny pockets of open water. I like baits with a micro paddle tail. That plastic just doesn’t get torn up, and throws off a subtle V-wake across the surface film that can drive big bluegills and bass crazy.

That’s it.  

If you’ve been using micro-finesse gear for awhile, you have the skills you need. Toss that Z-Man Tiny Ticklr or Mule Fishing Horsefly as close to the bank as luck and skill allow. Let it sit like a popping bug, and then let the tentacles or paddle tail create that tiny wake as you slowly swim it back to your boat. And brace yourself. Despite what Southern pros preach about needing a big bait to catch a big fish, finesse baits catch big ones, small ones, and everything in between. 

 (As an aside, Strike King also markets Elaz-tech products, I guess under license from Z-Man. Mule Fishing is a smaller fishing gear source that markets a soft plastic similar in toughness, stretch and buoyancy) And there are doubtless others trying to enter the market.

We’ve gotten kind of nerdy here. But I’ll be doing another column soon on micro finesse baits themselves, and maybe another on why our ponds are so damned weed infested.

Hope you find this useful.