In their classic 1965 folk-rock hit “Turn! Turn! Turn!” The Byrds reminded us that:
“To everything, there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven
A time to build up; a time to break down
A time to dance; a time to mourn
A time to cast away stones; a time to gather stones together.”
In an effort to bring order to our universe, we bass anglers like to believe that for every lure, there is a season. As a longtime Bassmaster correspondent, I plead guilty to writing multiple “Seasonal Lure Selection Guide” articles recommending that readers throw squarebill crankbaits in spring, plastic worms and topwater frogs in summer, swimbaits in fall and jerkbaits in winter. Well, just forget all that nonsense. In this month’s DOTL episode, pro Koby Kreiger proves that coloring way outside the lines in your lure picks just might be the winning ticket to putting together a nice limit of bass … regardless of the season!
6:11 a.m. Kreiger and I arrive at Lake P. It’s clear, breezy and 60 degrees. He preps his boat for launching.
7 HOURS LEFT
6:30 a.m. The Ranger hits the water. Kreiger checks the lake temp: 68.6 degrees. He pulls an arsenal of Abu Garcia rods and reels from storage. “This region has seen its share of erratic weather this spring, with wildly fluctuating daytime temperatures and heavy rains, so bass could be in any stage of the spawn. The water in this lake looks clear enough for sight fishing, so once the sun gets up, I’ll spend some time looking for bedding fish. In the meantime, I’ll cover water in and near likely spawning areas. There should be some good fish up shallow.”
6:40 a.m. Kreiger idles to a point at the entrance of a nearby cove and makes his first casts of the day with a Livingston Cherry Picker jerkbait in the blue pearl color pattern. I comment that this lure choice seems surprising, seeing as how most anglers view jerkbaits strictly as cold-water lures. “Not me,” he replies, grinning. “I fish them all year long.” Spawning carp are churning the water in emergent grass near shore. “Some bass are usually on bed at the same time carp are spawning. I’ve also noticed some bluegill beds near the bank — they look like little craters on the bottom. Hey, there could be an all-out fish love fest going on in this lake!”
6:43 a.m. Kreiger catches a short fish on the jerkbait. “See? I told you jerkbaits aren’t just for winter!”
6:46 a.m. Kreiger repositions his boat a bit farther off the bank. “There’s a huge school of bait suspending in 14 feet of water off this point, and I’m marking some bass around them on my graph.” He makes a long cast with the jerkbait and retrieves it with sharp snaps on his rod. “The warmer the water, the more aggressively I like to fish this lure.”
6:50 a.m. “Several good fish are suspending around the 10-foot zone, and the water’s clear enough so they should be able to see the jerkbait flashing overhead in this bright sunlight.”
6:52 a.m. Kreiger switches to a bone white Heddon Super Spook Junior topwater bait and dog-walks it near the edge of the grass.
6:54 a.m. He retrieves a white half-ounce V&M swim jig with a matching generic double-tail trailer through the grass.
6:57 a.m. Kreiger rounds the point and enters a cove lined with boat docks. Here he alternates between the jerkbait and stickbait. “This looks like an awesome spawning cove! It’s protected from the north wind and gets plenty of sunlight.”
7 a.m. Kreiger sticks a good fish on the jerkbait. He works it close enough to see that it’s securely hooked, then swings aboard his first keeper of the day, a 2-pound, 4-ounce largemouth. “This bass was a good 20 feet off the bank. Its tail isn’t beat up, so it probably hasn’t spawned yet.”
7:03 a.m. A tiny perch falls victim to the Cherry Picker. “This lure catches anything that swims!”
7:09 a.m. Kreiger ties on a battered Bomber Long A floater-diver minnow. “I’ve had this bait so long, all the paint’s worn off it down to the bare plastic.” He retrieves it slowly so it wobbles across the surface while throwing a telltale wake. “Often a big bedding fish will roll on it but not strike it; then I’ll pitch a wacky worm or creature to the nest.”
7:18 a.m. Kreiger has waked the Long A around a dozen docks without success. He’s now moved into the shallow upper end of the cove. “I’d like to see one about 8 pounds cream this thing in a foot of water!”
7:24 a.m. A short fish hits the Long A near a dock.
6 HOURS LEFT
7:30 a.m. Kreiger begins working his way out of the cove via the opposite shoreline with the Spook.
7:34 a.m. Kreiger spots what appears to be a bass bed near a concrete retaining wall. “I don’t see any fish on it, but I’ll check it again once the sun gets higher.”
7:41 a.m. He casts the jerkbait in front of a dock and bags two tiny bass on back-to-back casts.
7:42 a.m. Kreiger makes his third cast to the dock and reels down the jerkbait, and a lunker bass loads on! He plays the fish carefully; then, once he’s determined that it’s well hooked, he swings the 5-pound, 7-ounce largemouth into his boat. “Yes! There’s probably a submerged brushpile or some other object in front of that dock that’s holding fish. Those two dinks I caught may have fired up the school because that big girl really slammed it!”
7:47 a.m. Kreiger repositions his boat, and his graph reveals a large brushpile in 12 feet of water. “That was probably a postspawn fish that moved to that cover to recuperate.”
7:56 a.m. Kreiger breaks out a custom umbrella rig with multiple spinner blades and a Keitech swimbait. “I want to try this rig around these deeper docks.”
8 a.m. Kreiger slow rolls the umbrella rig over the brushpile where he caught his 5-7.
8:12 a.m. Kreiger exits the cove and runs a mile downlake to Lake P’s dam. He stops two cast-lengths off the structure and begins jerking the Cherry Picker.
8:25 a.m. No luck on the dam, so Kreiger blasts uplake to a submerged rockpile cordoned off by warning buoys. “There’s 20-foot water all around this thing.” He casts the Spook to the top of the structure; it comes back mired in slimy grass. “It’s like an inch deep on top! I wonder how many lower units got busted off here before they installed those buoys.”
5 HOURS LEFT
8:36 a.m. Kreiger reverses direction and casts the jerkbait toward deep water. “They could be suspending out here.”
8:38 a.m. Kreiger bags his third keeper, 2 pounds, 5 ounces, off the rockpile on the jerkbait. “The fish knocked it once, didn’t hook up, then I twitched it again and he came back and ate it. He was in 6 feet of water.”
8:45 a.m. He tries the umbrella rig around the rockpile without success.
9:09 a.m. Kreiger moves to a nearby wood retaining wall and tries the jerkbait.
9:14 a.m. Kreiger follows the wall into a shallow cove, then switches to the Spook. “This is a natural spawning area. Should be some beds back here.”
9:20 a.m. Kreiger spots a bed in a foot of water and lowers his anchors. “I saw a big fish run off the nest; it looked about 5 pounds. There’s a small buck hanging around the edge of the bed.” He picks up a spinning rod with a green pumpkin V&M Chopstick worm rigged wacky style (hook through the middle) and pitches the lure to the nest, shaking the rod tip so it wiggles in place.
9:24 a.m. The buck bass is uninterested in the lure and his girlfriend hasn’t reappeared, so Kreiger lifts his anchor and works his way out of the cove with the wacky worm.
9:26 a.m. He bags a 6-inch bass on the worm.
4 HOURS LEFT
9:33 a.m. Kreiger has abandoned the cove and moved across the lake to a steep channel bank, where he tries the jerkbait.
9:43 a.m. Kreiger switches to a watermelon red wacky worm. On his first cast, he gets a tap near a dock and tightens down on the fish, and it jumps clear of the water and throws the worm. “That was a 3 1/2-pounder! It swam right toward me, and I couldn’t get a good hook set.”
9:48 a.m. Kreiger catches two short fish on the worm. “These little guys are eating it up. I hate that I missed that good fish.”
10:01 a.m. Kreiger bags keeper No. 4, 1 pound, 12 ounces, near a dock on the wacky worm. “I saw a bunch of fry scatter when the worm hit, then the bass grabbed it. He was guarding those fry.”
10:25 a.m. After boating a half-dozen more short fish, Kreiger catches his fifth keeper, 1 pound, 2 ounces, on the wacky worm. What’s his take on the day so far? “I’ve finally got my limit, but they’re getting smaller instead of bigger! I’ve had a lot more bites since I moved up on the bank, but they’re all small buck bass. I still think the 6- to 8-foot zone is holding those bigger females, but with the sun getting higher, they could very well make a move shallower, so I’m going to keep covering water while mostly alternating between the wacky worm and jerkbait.”
3 HOURS LEFT
10:46 a.m. Kreiger has been catching one micro-bass after another on the wacky worm. “Amazing that the only fish I’ve lost on the worm is the biggest fish that’s hit it so far.” He skips the worm under a dilapidated wood dock and catches a bluegill.
10:59 a.m. He bags a 2-3 keeper on the jerkbait off a cement wall; it culls his 1-2. “It’s about 4 feet deep off that wall. Like I said, the bigger fish are out a little deeper.”
11:07 a.m. Kreiger walks the Spook across a gravel launch ramp and braces for a strike that doesn’t happen.
11:21 a.m. Back on the main lake, Kreiger catches a short fish off a point on the jerkbait.
11:27 a.m. Kreiger zips back to the rockpile he fished earlier and tries the jerkbait.
2 HOURS LEFT
11:32 a.m. Kreiger moves downlake to a retaining wall, where he throws the Spook and jerkbait.
11:45 a.m. He moves back to the cove he fished shortly after launching and works the jerkbait over another submerged brushpile. “I want to run the bank back here again to see if I can see any bedding fish.”
11:52 a.m. Kreiger spots a bed in 4 feet of water between two docks but can’t see a fish on it.
12:08 p.m. Kreiger bags three tiny bass in a row on the wacky worm. “I’d love to see one about 10 pounds on a bed, but it’s not happening today!”
12:14 p.m. Kreiger casts the jerkbait parallel to a moored pontoon boat and twitches it, and a big fish crushes it! He steers it clear of his trolling motor and swings aboard his seventh keeper, 5 pounds, 1 ounce; it culls his 1-12. “She really smoked it! Best strike I’ve had so far today.”
12:20 p.m. Kreiger spots a 2-pound bass on a bed between two docks. He tries to tempt it with the wacky worm to no avail.
12:26 p.m. Kreiger pitches a white Zoom Super Hog creature to the bed, but the bass couldn’t care less. “There are several bluegill darting around the nest, and that fish is more concerned about them than it is my lure. He’s probably not big enough to spend more time on anyway.”
1 HOUR LEFT
12:34 p.m. Back to twitching the jerkbait around deeper docks in the cove. It’s starting to cloud over and the air is hot and humid.
12:39 p.m. Kreiger catches a crappie off a dock on the wacky worm. “What do you know, I’ve caught four different species of fish today!”
12:46 p.m. Kreiger chunks the Spook to a wood retaining wall at the cove’s entrance and gets a solid strike! His eighth keeper weighs 3 pounds, 2 ounces and culls his 2-3. “This fish was guarding fry, also; they shot out of there like welding sparks when the lure hit the water.”
12:56 p.m. Kreiger runs to a cove near the dam. He catches a 6-inch bass on the wacky worm.
1:01 p.m. Kreiger catches a 1-pound keeper on the wacky worm; it’s no help to his weight total.
1:04 p.m. He expertly pitches the Spook beneath a cypress tree’s overhanging limbs and walks it back toward open water.
1:10 p.m. Kreiger races back to the submerged brushpile where he caught his first 5-pounder and twitches the jerkbait above the cover, but can’t coax another fish into striking.
1:17 p.m. With minutes remaining, Kreiger roars back to the cove where he spotted a 5-pounder on its bed. He casts the Spook to the adjacent retaining wall and gets a savage blowup, but the fish comes unbuttoned! “Awww man, that was a 4-pounder, and it had the Spook sideways in its mouth!”
1:21 p.m. At the rear of the cove, Kreiger spots the bed and buck guarding it, but the big female is nowhere to be seen.
1:30 p.m. Back to the boat ramp. Kreiger has had an excellent day on Lake P; he’s boated nine keeper bass, the five biggest weighing an impressive 18 pounds, 3 ounces.
The Day in Perspective
“I caught prespawn, postspawn and bedding fish today,” Kreiger told Bassmaster. “My best fish were in slightly deeper water close to spawning areas, and four out of my five biggest bass were caught on a jerkbait, a lure most guys quit throwing once the water temp tops 55 degrees. If you only learn one thing from what happened here today, remember that jerkbaits work all year long, and they’re especially deadly when bass first come off their beds and move out a little deeper to feed on shad. It’s supposed to rain tomorrow, so if I were to fish here then, I’d anticipate that the jerkbait may not be quite as productive as it was today under sunny conditions, but the topwater bite should be even better.”
Where And When Koby Kreiger Caught His Five Biggest Keepers
2 pounds, 4 ounces; blue pearl Livingston Lures Cherry Picker jerkbait; spawning cove; 7 a.m.
5 pounds, 7 ounces; same lure as No. 1; brushpile near dock; 7:42 a.m.
2 pounds, 5 ounces; same lure as No. 1; submerged rockpile; 8:38 a.m.
5 pounds, 1 ounce; same lure as No. 1; moored pontoon boat; 12:14 p.m.
3 pounds, 2 ounces; bone Heddon Super Spook Jr. stickbait; retaining wall; 12:46 p.m.
TOTAL: 18 POUNDS, 3 OUNCES
