By Mike Frisch
The past open water fishing season was one of the best that I can remember! Various fishing partners and I were fortunate to be on several bodies of water when the fish were biting, we were lucky to catch lots of fish, and were fortunate to catch some big ones. Here are some of the things I learned, or at least was reminded of, as it relates to bass fishing during 2024’s fishing. I’m writing another blog detailing walleye fishing lessons too.
Forward Facing Sonar (FFS) Rules, Or Does It?
In 2022 and in 2023 we caught lots of bass by “looking at them” out ahead of the boat utilizing FFS. Some of these bass were smallmouth around rocks, while others were largemouth relating mostly to deep weed edges. I am fortunate to fish from two different boats each year. In 2024, several of our best largemouth catches came while fishing from the boat without FFS. That wasn’t by design as much as just how circumstances played out. Interestingly, when we were without FFS, we didn’t view the situation as a handicap, but rather we went fishing with the traditional sonar we had rigged in the boat and did our best to find and catch bass.
As you we will see below, we caught fish from shallow water and deep water. Never did I once hear myself say, “boy I sure wish we had FFS.” Not to say that the technology isn’t effective because it certainly is. Rather, my lesson for 2024 is that we can still catch ‘em without it!
Bass Are Shallow
One of the reasons we probably didn’t rely on FFS a great deal is because lots of our bass catches all summer long and into fall came from shallow cover. We targeted shallow shorelines featuring overhanging trees, undercut rush banks, and boat docks and lifts. All these forms of cover provide overhead shade the bass seek out. We skipped, flipped, and pitched a variety of Texas rigged plastics and jig-n-plastics to reach the fish living in the shade. We didn’t always find great numbers of fish, but when we did find them, they were often big. We caught numerous 4-plus pounders from shallow shade, some 5’s, with one pushing the 6-pound mark.
In addition to shallow shade, another reliable shallow pattern came from fishing what we call “junk weeds” that extend out from shoreline and are in water 2 to 3 feet deep. Here we simply cast and retrieved ½ ounce Tungsten Thunder Cricket Vibrating Jigs tipped with Rage Swimmers and reeled them quickly back to the boat.
The shallow shade bass and the junk weed fish were caught mostly from off-colored water lakes which feature lots of that kind of cover.
Bass Are Deep
In August I found a dynamite bite casting ½ ounce Compact Tungsten Casting Jigs tipped with plastic trailers to largemouth bass holding in mid-depth weeds on flats. Most of the fish I caught came in depths from 6 to 10 feet of water, many in the 3 to 3 ½ pound size range. As summer gave way to fall, however, I found more and more of the bigger fish moving to deeper water, say 13 to 15 feet. What I observed was as the mid-depth weeds started to die for the season, the bass moved to deeper, still living, green weeds and were still just as aggressive, just from a bit deeper waters.
Whether fishing deeper waters, or shallow, shady cover, the 2024 season was a good one for largemouth bass fishing. Here’s hoping 2025 is just as good!
And, as always, remember to include a youngster in your next outdoors activity!
Mike Frisch hosts the popular Fishing the Midwest TV series on Sportsman Channel, World Fishing Network, and FanDuel Sports. Visit fishingthemidwest.com to see TV schedules and all things Fishing the Midwest!
Photo – Mike Frisch with a big bass from last summer.
