What you are about to read comes with a disclaimer. There is no guarantee this is exactly what BASSTrakk 2nd place angler Cliff Pace is doing now, but it offers a hint of what he likes to do under the conditions playing out today on Grand Lake.
Pace dislikes sight fishing but he does like spawn fishing. Let him explain.
“Spawn fishing often gets referred to as what people like to call sight fishing, and those are actually two different tactics,” he told me.
“Sometimes sight fishing is not the best approach,” he continued. “Typically all you are doing is making things harder on yourself.”
Pace noted that some anglers spend minutes and even an hour or more trying to coax bedding females in biting a lure. Keeping the trolling motor on high, covering water and targeting more fish is another option he likes to follow.
“I like to catch spawning bass by not visually looking at them on the bed, and sometimes they are actually easier to catch from a distance,” he continued. “If you can see a bass, then it also can see you, so why not remove that handicap?”
Using such a tactic eliminates much of the spook factor associated with sight fishing.
“How I do it is more like hunting, so you still get the thrill of tracking down the fish,” he added.
How Pace does that is by seeking the spawning beds or given areas where the bass will bed down. Once located his GPS marks the spots to identify locations to save for later on. Then, he returns to pick off the areas, one by one.
“Knowing exactly where that fish is located is still very important because you want to make the right, perfect cast, the first time, so as not to alert the fish,” he cautioned. “It’s almost like you are trying to sneak up on that fish instead of sitting there for an hour and a half.”
Pace makes long casts to the spots with natural colored baits, instead of the typical white hues used for sight fishing.