Some sight fishing tips to help bass anglers score when the fish are on spawning beds.

Story and photography by Matt Williams

Let’s face it.  A bass hanging around a spawning bed can at times be a pretty tough nut to crack. But not always.

I like to compare a bedding fish to a stick of dynamite with multiple fuses. Some are much easier to get fired up than others are. Things can get explosive pretty quick once the right fuse gets lit.

Therein lies the allure of sight fishing, a popular springtime tactic that involves casting to fish you can see in shallow water, then attempting to aggravate them into biting a lure. Eyeballing beds in clear water with the aid polarized sunglasses has always accounted for most sight fishing success.

Up north, some anglers rely on a cone-shaped device called a “flogger” to spot smallmouth beds in clear, deep water. Placed beneath the surface, the flogger eliminates sun glare and surface ripple that can distort vision and hinder the ability to spot spawning beds in deep water.

Some anglers are even learning to sniff them out using LiveScope set to the “Perspective” mode.

Last April, Bassmaster Elite Series Pro Kyle Welcher banked $100,000 and set a new Elite Series winning margin record with a convincing win in the Bassmaster Elite at Pasquotank River/Albemarle Sound. Welcher showcased the effectiveness of perspective mode forward facing sonar on bedding bass by targeting spawners that set up camp stumps and cypress knees. Welcher weighed in 118 pounds, 12 ounces over four days, besting the second-place finisher by a staggering 45 pounds seven ounces.

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