Byron Velvick Sets His Sights
on Bedding Bass
A spring day of bed fishing on the crystal clear waters of Texas' Lake Amistad can be like watching a horror movie, as egg-laden monster largemouths migrate to the shallows to nest and spawn.
For Elite Series pro and sight fishing junkie Byron Velvick, there's not a more exciting time to be on the water than during the spawn. As the owner of Amistad Lake Resort, Velvick has had the opportunity to fine-tune his approach to bed fishing on one of the country's greatest bass fisheries.
The 2009 Bassmaster Classic qualifier has a few tricks of the trade when it comes to finding, selecting, and catching bedding largemouth with a drop shot.
Velvick's hunt for bedding bass is made easier when done under ideal weather and water conditions. A strong warming trend early in the year combined with slick water, high sun, and an isolated pocket make the perfect ingredients for finding the "right" spawning bass to catch.
"When there are lots of fish cruising all over in a clear water pocket, I want to find the right fish," explains Velvick. "What I mean by that is that I want to find a fish that is committed to the bed — I mean locked on. When the boat goes by, the bass doesn't move off the bed. Some bass will be fairly committed — cruising off and not coming back to the area — but I'm looking for the most committed bed fish in the pocket that I'm fishing."
After finding a bass locked on the bed, Velvick takes time to circle back around the bedding bass and position his boat so that he can easily reach the bed.
In many instances, if he has selected the correct bed fish, one cast is all it takes to hook up. "I can look at 20 fish in a bay and if I find the right one, it's a one-cast bass," he claims.
Velvick's go-to offering for bed fishing is a drop shot. "Line is kind of important. And especially when there is a lot of stuff in the water, I really don't want to throw 8- or 10-pound test. I like to throw 12-pound test and will even go up to 15-pound test if I can get away with it. In ultraclear applications, Velvick favors a soft plastic Basstrix Bait Fry fished approximately 12 to 15 inches above his drop shot weight.
After pitching to the bed, Velvick analyzes how the bass reacts to the intruder. "If it's a super aggressive fish, it will spin back around, swim over to the bait and inhale it with little hesitation," he says. If a strike is not immediate, Velvick will lightly shake his rod tip to pulsate the bait without moving his drop shot weight.
(Provided by Z3 Media)
