One of my favorite things to do is fish brush piles. Any lake that has docks on it a lot
of the dock owners actually put brush in so they can fish right off their dock and catch
some fish. A good rule of thumb is just kind of look at the dock and see if it's got any
rod holders. This particular dock here has two rod holders on the end of it and that's
a pretty good indication that there's probably going to be something sunk out here probably
a brush pile. You could also just ride with your Lowrance's and see if you can see the
brush pile. The jig is definitely my number one bait. This is just a 1/2 ounce Structure
Jig, which is designed to come through brush because of the viper shaped head that kind
of rolls through the brush and don't get hung up. I've got a Strike King Rage Bug on it.
One of the simplest tips I can give you about brush fishing, but it's also probably the
most important tip is always keep your rod coming up. Don't drag sideways like maybe
you see some guys doing with a Carolina Rig or maybe even a big worm out on a ledge. You
always want to lift your rod straight up. That is going to let that bait come over that
brush. You're still going to get hung a little bit, but you're not going to get hung near
as much as you would if you pulled the bait sideways.
I'm basically going to throw it out letting it go to the bottom and you typically want
to throw past the brush. If you throw dead in and it goes right down into the brush that's
a good way to get hung too. If you can throw past the brush and kind of work your way up,
see how I'm coming straight up with my rod and I'm at a limb right now. So if I come straight
up, just kind of work it, I just came over that limb, and it just fell back down. That
is when you're going to get a lot of bites.
You can feel it. You'll feel it kind of mushy pulling up and then you'll hit something hard
and that's when you've actually hit the limb. Then keep pulling straight up and when you
feel it come over the limb it goes from hard to mushy drop your slack and let it fall back
in the brush pile. Basically you just crawl it through. I'm coming up on another piece
of brush here straight up. Kind of the last thing is when the fish bites. When he bites
in a brush pile you're going to jerk pretty fast because you don't want to give him time
to swim up underneath another limb or something. As soon as he bites using a high speed reel
(this is a Daiwa Tatula 7:3:1) I'm winding down fast and jerking so I can get him out
of that brush pile before he gets hung. Then I can get him in the live-well and get him
to the weigh in.
You may catch multiple fish when you pull up to a brush pile that's big like this one
right here. One key deal is a small brush pile if it's just one little tree sitting
beside a pole on a dock. Those little pieces of brush or one little tree is a lot of times
where I can catch a big fish. You aren't going to catch multiple fish, but you may catch
one big fish.
So there's two types of brush piles; there's real big ones, and there's real isolated trees
that your typically going to catch bigger fish. The big brush piles you still catch
big fish, but you can catch multiple fish out of them.
One reason the fish actually stay in and hang around the brush, stumps, and lay-downs is
the bream, baitfish, and crappie like to hang around. Bass actually eat crappie. When I
crappie fish a lot of bass come up and eat the crappie when I'm fighting them. There
will be a lot of bream, crappie, and algae for the baitfish to eat in these brush piles.
It's a good ambush point whether it's a stump, a lay-down, standing timber, or a brush pile
for a bass to lay underneath there.
When that specific forage comes by that he wants such as bream, crappie, or baitfish
he can pounce on it and get back in the brush pile, crush it up, and enjoy his meal.