What’s with the Shotgun for Bass Fishing?

Would you think to bring a shotgun to bass fishing? Well this guy sure did, and with good reason.
In this video you’ll get to see some great blasting and casting when two guys bring a shotgun fishing.

They give some great tips about filling your bird tags and hooking lunkers for anywhere you call home.

As you just saw the reason this guy wanted to bring a shotgun bass fishing was because of the cormorant bird. These ‘water turkeys’ frequent lakes where you can also find hungry pre spawn bass.

Although the shotgun worked well for the birds, the angler was using a Zoom 4? Lizard to lure in the pre spawn bass. The fisherman used a dragging technique to find where the fish were biting. He put the Lizard lure on the line and with aide of the split-shot, it bounced along the ground as the boat slowly over along.

After searching around the lake, tho guy had the most luck with the lizard lure and the chatterbait. Keep in mined each area has a unique environment, so you’ll have to find out which patterns will catch fish in your neck of the woods. However if you’re after birds, shotguns work well no matter where you go.

Video Transcription
Alright, so you’re probably asking, ‘why would you ever bring a shotgun out on a fishing trip?’ Well here in the south, we have birds that I call ‘water turkeys’, but their official name is a Comerand, and they’re a nuisance to a lake, and they can actually come in and take over. They fly in in the south and they eat all your baitfish and your bluegills, and they can really destroy a lake in a short amount of time. So my man Fred here, his job today is to run ’em off, shoot ’em, do whatever we can do to kinda get rid of some of these and kinda help get some of these birds out of this lake before they destroy it.

Here we go!

[Shot]

Get ’em Fred!

There he is! [shot] Got him!

Alright guys, it’s pre-spawn here in Alabama, and I’m gonna show you some techniques I use that really work. And this is what I call the #Hundie rig, and I say that because it works 100% of the time. But all joking aside, it is a really good technique to catch pre-spawn bass, and specifically to find out where these fish are at. So I’ll just show you, for instance.

I’m gonna target areas that are maybe 40-50 feet off the bank, and in the pre-spawn, these fish, the water temps aren’t warm enough to go spawn yet, so they’ll sit out here in what I call the prime real-estate. So just say, if there’s a stump right out here, 40 ft off the bank, there’s always gonna be a fish on it, even if you pull up and you catch that fish, you know, thirty minutes later, a day later, another fish is gonna move in. These are paths that they use in the spring, and kinda staging positions that they sit in. And the thing that I like to do is throw a really tiny lizard, I use a Must-add grip-in hook, and that hook will keep that lizard head from sliding down, so that’s a really cool hook for this technique. Eight-pound test line, a split-shot weight, and a spinning rod. And I’m just gonna cover all of this area, and I’ll catch a lot of small fish using this technique, but it’s really good to let me know what depth they’re holding in. Because the water’s still cold enough that they could be sitting out here in the deep part, they could be 20-40 feet off the bank, I don’t really know yet, so I’m gonna use this rig, find out where the fish are, and then I may swap over to a chatterbait or something, or maybe try to go for one of those bigger fish. But this is really successful because it’s a finesse presentation, and in the wintertime when the water’s still cold, or pre-spawn, they’re not necessarily wanting a heavy meal, you know. They’re fattened up over the winter, they’re looking for something a little light, and this is just small enough and just tempting enough to get them to bite it. So let’s see if we can catch something with this technique, and then we may swap them over to something and look for something big, but I have caught big fish on this finesse presentation before. So let’s try it out.

Oh yeah, and don’t forget the secret sauce. I always use it on my soft plastics. Make ’em hold on to it.

Here’s one. Got her. ‘No giant, but I’ll take it. Probably the number-one question I get asked on my Youtube channel, is ‘have you ever caught a small fish’, and of course, I catch a bunch of small fish throughout the year, but a lot of them don’t make the cut. But I’m gonna make sure that I show you guys some dinks in these videos. Little dinks, but still just lettin’ us know, we’re trying to key in on where they’re hanging out at, and hope to get into a big one soon.

So just to take a quick look, I probably caught that fish about fifty yards off the bank, but the fish that’re hanging out here are probably gonna move up into that cove there in the spring, and that’s where they’re going to spawn at. That’s the number one problem I see in the people fishing at the pre-spawn, they go straight to the banks, but a lot of the fish are still hanging out here offshore, so it just takes a little time to find ’em, but it can be rewarding.

There he is. Got him. Got a little drag for a little guy. I like it. A little junebug lizard. Come in here buddy. There we go. A little male bass. Got pretty colors on him, a little technique. There’s my lizard.

Now I’ll show you one other technique I like to do, I call it a dragon technique. What you do is just flip it out behind the boat and uh, if the wind is blowing, you just let the wind carry you. But if not, you just put the trolling motor down on the slowest speed and just drag it along every now and again, just cut it off. You’re not wanting that split-shot to be sitting down there on the bottom, and you’re wanting that lizard to kinda be bouncing back there on the other side of it, and I’ve had some good luck doing this, especially if I don’t know what area to target, I’ll drag until I get a bite, and then I’ll start casting and try to pick a spot apart, but we’ll see if they’re up for Dragon technique today.

Got him. Let’s see, what do we have here… Feels like it might be a decent little fish. Nope, not a little dink. Still fun catching ’em. Notice how far it was off the bank right there. That’s what I’m looking for, information. Not necessarily big bass right here. Oh this thing’s a fighter. Come on in here, buddy. There we go. Little healthy fish. Well alright, I think that’s enough to kinda tell us what we need. So we’re gonna put this one back. Haha.

Here we go. Oh yes sir. That’s a nice one. [something about good females] She’s got some power to her. Just gonna take my time, let her run out. Come on in here. There we go. A nice springtime fish right there. That could be a big male. Now these fish are confusing me. If that was a female, she should have some eggs. That’s probably a nice male right there. But hey we’ll take it on the hundie rig. Can’t beat that.

Alrigh now I’ve figured out where they’re at, located ’em, might swap over to spinner bait or chatter bait and try to get a real big one. But my rig did its job.

Alrighty, first fish out here with pre-spawn techniques. Chatter bait, search bait, trying to figure out where they’re at. Nice little chunker, female. Yep, that is a good way to start. Females are moving up. I’ll take it. No red tails, but you can tell she’s getting ready to pop.

Oh! That was not a good female; chopped up, spitted out. Hey we’re runnin’ a little bite here.

Alright guys, I’m gonna end today’s video here. I did end up catching some really nice fish, but I’m gonna save that, it’s gonna be a whole new video in itself, and it’s all thanks to this new rig I showed you. So hopefully you can go out and use it and find some pre-spawn patterns in your area, but before I end this video, I want to show you some typical spring lures that you’re gonna see me using this upcoming spring. Spinner bait, that’s the rig I was just using, swim jig, chatter bait, now these are all really good baits for the springtime. ‘nother chatter bait, and something like a big– that’s a custom-painted bluegill. And if you wanna see me use any other techniques or whatever for the springtime, just make sure to leave it in the comments below and I’ll try to make sure to cover those techniques, but make sure it’s a shallow water springtime technique. So get ready folks, I’m pumped up, it’s finally spring, the fish are finally moving up, and you’re definitely gonna see some big bass caught on our channel, so guys, get out there, and catch some of those springtime fatties!

Sources: BammaBass Youtube, Johnny Certo