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Subject: Lower Colorado River, Arizona
Submitted by Desert Rat (ip 169.228.122.197)
Date Fished: 2/5/2000
A while back I made a post looking for help on techniques for deep-water bassin'. Bubba of Inside Line contacted me and suggested I give Yamamoto split shot hooks a try. I have used split shots when stitchin' or using a small finesse bait on light line so I was skeptical of what he was saying. What could be magical about crimping on a split shot? Actually Yamamoto Custom Baits calls it's Gamakatsu circle hook a split shot hook (as I soon found out). I ordered some hooks and set them up as Bubba suggested with a 3/8 oz. weight, bead, swivel and 2.5 foot leader. It looked like a C-rig. The only difference was it had a circle hook instead of a wide gap or offset worm hook. Then I was ready to go fishing.
I went to an impoundment above the Colorado River near Martinez Lake, AZ. They pump in excess river water and hold it until they need more downstream and release it, getting back some of the electricity in the exchange. Full, the impoundmentis maybe 250-300 acres. Saturday it was down as far as I have ever seen it, maybe 25-30 feet. There was only half the normal surface area. I checked with the resident snowbird and he said the water was falling for 9 days straight and he thought it had hit bottom for the drawdown. I said to myself, all those fish in half the water and no excess cover...it could be good or bad. Reading that bass pull out and suspend when this happens I decided to give it a try, knowing they may not bite. But after 9 days they got to be hungry.
We launched using 4WD as the water was so low. I started trolling, which had worked for me the weekend before. I caught 3 bass trolling before the action went dead. They were all about 2 pounds. Then I tried the Yamamoto split shot hook method Bubba told me about. Bubba said to run the hook through the nose and leave it exposed. First I tried a smoke-colored twin-tail hula grub. Nada, no takers. I fished it down a bluff and then tried it up the bluff and still nothing. My buddy had a brown Culprit worm and he wasn't doing any better.
That is when I switched to the Yamamoto Ika in watermelon with red/black flake. On my second cast I felt a telltail bump, bump and the line started moving off. I took up the slack, and started reeling. I soon landed a 2.5 pounder. Ten minutes later I caught another in the same general location. I gave my rod to my buddy who had not had a fish yet. I started rigging another setup. I pre-tied some hooks and swivels the night before to not waste time on a bite. We both started catching fish. When this spot went dead after an hour we both had caught 3 or 4 on the rig.
I tried to find similar locations with the sun exposure and slope of this site. I finally found one and we both caught one more each...all nice bass. Not large but healthy and fun. The last two were caught on a double tail grub and a baby brush hog (watermelon). One of the last bass spit out a baby bluegil and it was exactly the color of the double tail grub.
Total for the day was 13 bass between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. and the Bubba/Yamamoto split shot hook method accounted for 9 of them.
I had been warned to test for pressure and when you feel something just to start reeling and it will set the hook itself. It worked perfectly, just and steady retreive all the way to the boat. All the fish except one was hooked in the corner of the mouth. I sure had a hard time with my saltwater fishing buddy who kept trying to pump the rod bringing in the fish. I said, "Jose, these are bass not bluefin tuna!"
We used this setup on a spinning outfit and on a baitcaster. After fishing it for a while I preferred the spinning outfit for this kind of fishing. I did not need pinpoint accuracy in casting and the rod had the kind of limberness and feel I preferred.
Also we were fishing open water with a riprap rocky shore...no sticks, trees, stickups or anything to get hooked into. I found the weight got wedged in rocks more often than having the exposed hook hang up. When I tried an egg sinker it was much better than bullet sinkers.
I am sure glad that Bubba put me on to this new style of fishing. It will be a main technique in my arsenal from now on. And it made me a believer in Yamamoto split shot hooks and baits. I wanted to share this experience with my cyber buddies on the BFHP. It is a method you really need to try.
Keith Mayberry
Desert Rat
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