Whenever you fish brush piles I always like to number one; either get them in a specific
location on a piece of structure, whether it be a ledge, a point, or a bank. Then you
also want to try to get a good line up or reference. That's two things; two objects,
two trees, or two something’s where you can make cast over them.
Whenever you're fishing brush piles fish relate to them differently. Sometimes the fish will
be down in them, sometimes they'll be up above them, and sometimes they'll actually be off
to the side of them.
One thing I'll do is I'll usually always use a Texas-Rigged Worm, which is usually a good
brush pile bait and also crankbaits, jigs, worms, and different things.
I always like to when I very first come into a brush pile a lot of times I may throw a
crankbait or something to come over the top of that brush to try to catch any fish that are either on
the edge of it or up above it. Then I may go pick up my plastic worm or my jig and try
to get the bait down into the brush.
Sometimes you'll find that say a brush pile in 14 ft. of water everybody thinks that they've
got to hit the brush. But what you'll find sometimes is a DT16 or a DT20 something that
dives real deep and gets under the brush. A lot of times I'm caught them on a DT 10.
Something I can just barely tick the top of the limbs of that brush pile.
I think you'll find it wise to kind of play with your crankbaits and learn the specific
depths that those baits will run on 10 pound, 12 pound, and 14 pound. A lot of times you
can take a 10-foot running bait and put it on 15-pound line and cause that bait to run
only 7- 8 feet.
So if you kind of know how deep the top of your brush is you can kind of work that bait
over the top of it.
Get my boat turned around here.
That's another big thing when your fishing brush you know is your line size can vary.
I've seen times where say you're fishing for say spotted bass in Georgia you may be using
spinning tackle and 6 or 8 pound line. If you're in more dirty water you may go up to 20-25 pound line because
a lot of times you can get your line broke pretty easy fishing brush.
What you want to do is pull it up into the brush, feel the cover, and a lot of times
don't be in a real big hurry to drag it out of there. A lot of time I'll take it and hop
it over a limb, watch my line as it falls, and I'll actually try to get it over a limb
especially when you get into the late summer say July or August. A lot of times those fish
they'll be in this brush piles and a lot of times you have to get it over a limb and see-saw
it. Just up and down. Get over a limb and pull it up until you feel the limb and let
it back down.
Now every now and then you'll get your feelings hurt because you'll get ahold of something
and it will grab it and run back over the limb and break your line. But a lot of times
don't be in a big hurry to pull it out of there. Leave it in the brush awhile, seesaw
it up and down maybe 5-6-7-8 times. I've seen a lot of times especially ledge fishing in
summer when the longer you let that bait in there that jig or worm the more bites you
would get.
People a lot of times feel a piece of brush and I don't want to get hung so they try to
pull it up over that limb real quick and get it away from it and a lot of times that's
not the thing to do in brush. You want to leave it in there as long as you can.
It's kind of like we were talking about earlier about making multiple casts to a piece of
shallow cover. A lot of times that bass is in there and the longer you leave it in there
and see-saw it up and down will aggravate him into biting or you get him interested
in it.
Got him on the Flutter Worm. He was up in the top of the brush right there just kind
of hanging out. When I pulled the worm out all I did was felt a little pressure and he
just started pulling down. I'm going to let him go and a lot of times I'm going to throw
back in there and see if I can get another bite.
Whenever you're using a marker on brush when you idle over it or troll over it with your
trolling motor always throw it off to the side and don't drop it just straight down.
What will happen is you'll put it right on top of the brush, you’ll get a bite, and
then the fish will get into the marker buoy. So always try to get the buoy off to the side
of the piece of cover that you want to mark. You're just kind of using that marker as a
guide to know the general vicinity of where that brush is.
That way it will keep your bait from getting hung. There's some of that brush right there.
There's one! Come out of that brush pile right there! Now as soon as I felt that fish thump it I got on him as fast as I could right there
because I don't want to give that fish much time to get back down in that cover and either
break my line or hang me up in it. If you noticed as soon as I felt that thump I reeled
down and set the hook on that bass as fast as I could. That's another thing that’s
sometimes fishing brush pile you will get your feelings hurt.
That's a nice bas right there!
Fishing brush a lot of times is relative to the part of the country you live in and
the clarity of water. If you live on a lake that's got a lot dirty water and low visibility
it's very possible that your brush piles may not be very deep.
They might be 2-3-4-5-6-7 foot deep. In other parts of the country where you have 10-12
feet of visibility your brush piles might be 15-20-25 foot deep. So it's the same no
matter where you go. A lot of times your line size, the size of your worms, and the size
of your weight may vary. But it's all relatively all the same thing no matter where you live.