Spotted Bay Bass Fishing Tips

[Gotfish?]

I have been recording what I have learned over the years about fishing for Spotties and thought I would post it here. I learn something new all the time so anything that can be added is appreciated. Comments?

Spotted Bay Bass Fishing Tips:

1. These tips are mainly for lure fishing spotted bay bass from a float tube in the bay but may be applicable to many other situations as well e.g. freshwater bass, kayak, boat, etcetera.
2. Compared to fishing from a boat with a trolling motor or a kayak, the float tuber moves much slower, so power fishing (run and gun) methods don’t work as well as slower more methodical methods. In a float tube, you are targeting both active fish as well as the inactive fish that must be teased into striking.
3. Almost any type of lure and technique will catch some spotties (except topwater, haven’t succeeded at that yet). This is a compendium in no particular of what I have found works best order. Most of my experience is in San Diego Bay. Much of what is below is oriented towards soft plastics.
4. Spotted bay bass mainly feed on or near the bottom on slow moving things like crustaceans, scuds and mollusks. They will also feed on bait fish if available. See https://calcofi.com/publications/calcof ... osales.pdf . It seems that spotties really, really like a lure that repeatedly touches bottom. I am not sure if this is purely from instinct, because most of their food is on the bottom, because it resembles a clam or ghost shrimp burrowing or because they are trying to pin bait on the bottom or all the above.
5. When fishing soft plastics on jig heads, point the rod tip at the bait, move the bait only by turning the reel handle (1/2 to 1 turn, imagine teasing the fish into biting), not by lifting the rod which should stay pointed at the lure. Pause between cranks. Make sure the jig touches the bottom often. You probably have been fishing too fast. Run the line between the forefinger and thumb with enough tension to feel every bite, this is much easier to do with a baitcaster. Bites on slow moving soft plastics are usually subtle pressure bites. This is super important advice. Fish have your lure in their mouth a lot more often than you think. Underwater observation by divers has verified this (according to some book I have). The only way a fish can determine if something is food or not is to mouth it (“fish have no hands”).
6. Any slack or movement of the line generally indicates a bite. If you see the tail of the lure on the hook or the lure pulled down on the hook, you had a bite and missed it.
7. Don't set the hook with a wild sweep, just reel down and reel faster and raise the rod tip when you feel weight. Setting the hook hard might jerk the bait out of the mouth. You will certainly be more likely to miss an opportunity for a follow up bite too if you set the hook hard the 1st time. A spotty’s instinct is to bite down and not let go if it feels like a bait is trying to get out of his mouth so take advantage of that. Put your finger in a spotty’s mouth if you don’t believe his instinct is to bite down. Spotties eat things like clams so they don’t spit lures out right way because they feel hard.
8. Dead-sticking lures (especially soft plastics) a few seconds to a minute before moving sometimes really helps. Ever have a fish immediately strike a lure after you removed a backlash and started to retrieve line, even on a slow day? I will often pause the lure after casting or between cranks until I see bow in the line indicating the lure has settled on the bottom.
9. Cast where there is current, where the current goes around a corner or where the current slows down (i.e. the harbor opens up).
10. Fish the right depth (use a depth finder). Some days they are in the grass, sometimes in the middle of the channel, sometimes at the edge between the channel and the grass. You must find what works best and it will change from day to day and within a tide cycle. And even when you have identified where they are in general (channel, grass, edges, etc.) there will be spots where they are concentrated and spots where they are absent. Spotties do not school but they do congregate. During a tide cycle, they will move around but often staying near constant depth.
11. Don’t fish 2nd hand water if float tubing with a buddy. Especially if he is using the same lure.
12. Because it is harder to feel the line with a spinning rod and reel, I will usually reserve the spinning setup for throwing lighter lures, small crankbaits or windy days and will use braid to get better sensitivity and casting distance. Light braid doesn’t work well on a baitcaster (digs in) but will work well on a good spinning reel. I typically use 6-12 lb. braid on a spinning reel. Daiwa J-Braid and Gliss are my current favorites, I use extra turns on knots for better strength. I normally just use a swivel to attach braid to a 18-24” fluorocarbon leader.
13. I usually use 6 lb. monofilament, 10 lb. maximum. Lighter line has better sensitivity, casts further and allows for better lure action. As far as line visibility, in murky water I am not convinced it matters. No difference seen between fluorocarbon and monofilament in bites in my experience and neither is completely invisible underwater (test it yourself).
14. Check your line often for abrasion. Spotties do have small teeth and sharp gill covers and the line will eventually wear thru with enough fish.
15. I use smaller baitcasting reels (typically 100 yards of 10 lb mono capacity), 7-7.5’ one piece graphite rods rated for 1/8-3/8 or ¼ to ¾ ounce. If the lower line rating is a bit above 6 lbs (but still ≤10 lbs), don’t worry, it will still work fine. You could use BFS gear but you will regret it when the occasional legal halibut bites.
16. Speaking of halibut, they are often in the same area as spotties. The same slow bottom touching retrieve that gets spotties will catch halibut too. And you will occasionally have a halibut chase a hooked spotty up to the tube or even grab a hooked spotty (I have pulled spotties in with teeth marks).
17. Make long casts. Fish will often follow the lure some distance before committing and they won’t follow it all the way to the surface. Stop kicking your float tube fins when the bait gets close to the tube.
18. Light wire hooks with sharp points have better hookup ratios than heavy wire. You don’t want heavy hooks when using light line. When you see in reviews someone complaining the hook straightened out (probably some yahoo using >40 lb braid), that is probably the hook you want. I have never straightened a hook out with 6 lb. line.
19. If you miss hooking the fish after a bite, then pause a second or two and resume, Lots of bites come during this. If I don't get another bite within a few cranks, I will reel in all the way as the soft plastic is usually pulled down. Is the 2nd strike the same fish or another fish following the 1st? I suspect another fish. I have seen spotties follow another hooked spotty up to the float tube in hopes the bait would get away and they would have their chance.
20. I usually don’t use scent but I will use scent if I get a lot of short strikes or missed strikes though. I use Smelly Jelly when I do as that seems to stay on longer. Scent is used to get the fish to hold on a bit longer. Gulp works even better for getting the fish to hold on but it is not as durable and doesn’t have as good action.
21. A swivel 18-24” before the lure will act as a grass catcher and keep some of the grass off the lure. So will a split ring or snap if you prefer that. This is more of a problem in the winter with the grass die off than other seasons. I will usually use fluorocarbon between the lure and swivel just because it is more abrasion resistant.
22. When you get a fish, cast again to the same spot and around the same area. I have gotten as many as 20 fish from an area not much bigger than a living room although 2-4 is more common. Don’t leave fish to find fish.
23. If you have got several from the same area but the bite stops, change to a different lure and try again. This often results in 1-4 more fish from the same spot.
24. Fish where the fish are. Determine what depth works (use a depth finder) best for that day. Look for spots where shallow water flows into deep water (water slows down). Points, grass, constriction spots and channel edges are usually good. Get a topo map and look for spots like that. The more you use a depth finder, the more useful it becomes, you should start to recognize patterns and remember where you got fish the times before. I usually start out fishing 4-6’ depth and then go deeper if that isn’t working, have caught spotties in >35’ of water.
25. You will also be looking for anything that is irregular. An underwater mound or an underwater depression will sometimes hold fish. If you find a spot that seems to produce and is hard to locate, store the location on your phone in Google Maps so you can come back to it. There may be underwater features (boulders, shipwreck debris) that hold fish that you don’t know about.
26. Sunny days, clear water, no weeds and no wind will put fish in deeper water. They instinctively avoid being targets for diving birds.
27. Try different things. I like to try a different lure or different technique each time I go out. I will have several rods but usually at least one rod set up to try something new.
28. On slow days, try slowing down and downsizing (finesse fishing).
29. If you see a lot of bait fish in the water and are not getting bit, try matching the size and color of the baitfish. Similarly if you catch a spotty and it vomits up bait.
30. Color is not super important most of the time but I have found bicolor combinations to work well. Green, chartreuse, gold, brown and darker colors work well. Solid white or solid black have not been as good although laminated black/white has been good. Clear sometimes is very good, especially if there are schools of slough anchovies in the water. Spotted bay bass probably don’t have blue vision cones (largemouth bass don’t for example) and would likely perceive blue as black or dark green and chartreuse as white. There are many color picking philosophies out there, spotties are cooperative enough that they all work at times:
1. Pick bright colors that fish can easily see. Trout and salmon fishermen follow this. But trout have 4 color cones (red, green, blue and ultraviolet).
2. Bright colors in muddy water, natural colors in clear water.
3. Light colors and flash or sparkle on sunny days, dark colors on cloudy days, night, sunrise and sunset.
4. Bicolors, especially laminated dark top, light bottom. A bicolor will have more flash as a lure rolls. Same for tricolor.
5. Make the lure hard to see. Fish know the lure is there from vibrations picked up by their lateral line, try to keep them from knowing it is fake. Brown against brown bottom, green against vegetation and clear or nearly clear in open water. Beat up lures are better than shiny lures.
6. Pick lure colors that other fishermen don’t use.
7. Photographic finishes that try to look exactly like bait. They still look fake to me and I can’t say they usually catch more spotties than other choices. But sometimes “matching the hatch” in size, shape and color works well, especially if the water is packed with bait.
8. Various theories of picking colors related to depth.
9. Use whatever color lures your tackle making buddy gives you. Or whatever is in the bargain bin at the store or online. An advantage of being a cheapskate is that it makes you open minded to trying things. And yes, closeout lures can sometimes work very well. And sometimes not.
31. Crankbaits work very well but they foul up with grass easily. If the water is mostly free of grass, try them. They can be especially effective at low tide in channels next to shallow flats, possibly because the water is murky and the vibrations from the crankbait attract fish better than subtle lures. The crankbait should dive close to the bottom, even occasionally touching; reel fast initially to get deep and then slow down, keep rod tip at waterline or below. Choose a crankbait that dives at least 8’ deep. 7 cm long is a nice size.
32. With all lures but especially crankbaits, a 2nd pair of pliers is nice for holding the mouth open while removing hooks. I like the plastic ones from Bass Pro: https://www.basspro.com/shop/en/bass-pr ... per-pliers . I use needle nose pliers for grabbing on the hook and removing it.
33. A hard jerkbait over the tops of grass is sometimes good too. Early in the morning, you might pick up a corvina that way too.
34. Large tide swings are better and moving water is better than slack but don’t let non ideal conditions keep you from going. I have caught plenty of fish under less than ideal conditions including at slack tide.
35. Early morning is almost always the best time of day, especially at 1st light to an hour after sunrise. And sometimes the bite will pick up on a cloudy day when the sun finally comes out.
36. High winds and cold fronts do seem to slow down the bite. The day after is usually poor. It can be good fishing during light rain though.
37. I fish swimbaits faster than I fish curly tail grubs. The curly tail grub tail will move around even with tidal current. The curly tail grub is usually more productive. Go to sizes are 4” curly tail grubs and 3” swimbaits. Double tail grubs do not work as well as single tail. Soft plastic craws, lizards, worms, Senkos, Fat Ikas and creature baits all work but generally not as well as single tail grubs and swimbaits. The swimbait should be one with tail wag even at a slow retrieve.
38. Regarding brands of soft plastics, they all work to some degree. AA Worms Single Tail Shrimp grubs were developed with inputs from by the late Mike Gardner (https://www.amazon.com/Mike-Gardners-Fi ... 096493311X ). Big Hammer swimbaits are very well known for spotty fishing. I use curly tail grubs more often than paddle tail swimbaits but both work well. Other brands that have worked well for me include mostly freshwater plastics from Zoom, Berkley, Yamamoto, Lockett, Z-man, Mr. Twister and Bass Pro/Cabelas.
39. If your soft plastic (grub, swimbait, Ned bait, fluke, etc.) gets beat up, then you can rotate it 180 or even 90 degrees on the jig. The spotties will still bite it. A drop of superglue helps keep the bait from sliding down too.
40. Jig heads:
1. Round or football jig heads are good if there isn’t too much grass in the water. The ones with a wire keeper are less likely to split your lure than ones where the keeper is molded lead. If you have a jig head without a keeper, you can make your own keeper by tying a bobber stop knot to the shank.
2. Standup (Ned) jig heads are nice; these sometimes work very well. I use ones with an offset hook (weedless). The floating TPE bodies are good too.
3. Weedless Slider jig heads are nice for fishing grass. Weed guards also work but I like the Texas method of burying the hook point in the soft plastic, the fish hold onto it longer.
4. A Texas rig with cone sinkers is the most weedless of all. But jig heads get bit more often (or at least, I feel more bites).
5. Jig heads with the eye far forward get hung up on grass less and are what I usually use if around grass. Jig heads with the eye further back dart and spiral during the fall and wobble more on the retrieval so they are better if there isn’t grass in the water.
6. Skirted jigs and lures don’t seem to offer any advantage for spotties compared to no skirts.
7. Darter heads and tube baits work too, especially if the fish are very active and the lure is worked accordingly (popped instead of fished slowly). These lures dart and spiral when they fall and a swivel can help prevent line twist. Putting scent in a tube bait helps (lately have been using Mermaid Milk).
8. Wobble or swinging heads: they seem to work about the same as round heads for spotties. The weedless versions come thru the grass well.
9. Fine wire and smaller hooks work better for me. For all the heads above, I usually use 3/16-5/16 ounce heads. Maybe 1/8 ounce if I am using spinning gear and smaller baits and maybe 3/8 ounce in deeper water.
41. Spotties spawn in early summer at the mouth of the bay over a period of a few weeks so fishing slows in most of the bay then, at least for the bigger fish. They don’t spawn all at once and some will be in deeper water, getting ready to go to the spawn or coming back. A good method (lots of exercise in a float tube) is long lining where a lure is cast and the boat (or tube or kayak) is moved away until the reel is almost empty of line and then you retrieve the lure slow and steady close to the bottom. A swimbait is usually used for this. My float tube is rigged up with a 45 degree rod holder on each side so I can be paying out line on one setup while retrieving on the other. Simple casting and retrieving in deep water doesn’t work as well because spotties hang close to the bottom and the lure doesn’t stay there for long when casting and retrieving in deep water. And fish will follow a lure for some distance along the bottom before committing but will swim away from a lure that touches bottom and then starts back up.
42. Winter can be spectacular in San Diego South Bay as the South Bay is shallower and with the grass die off, some fish move out of the grass to the deeper channels and are easier to find. Don’t believe any nonsense about winter being slow fishing for spotties because it is cold and their metabolism slows down. Bay water temperature only varies about 9 deg F from winter to summer, nothing like inland US where it can go from 80F to 32F over the course of a year. https://www.seatemperature.org/north-am ... -diego.htm
43. While some people swear by fishing docks, I have usually had better success (particularly during the winter) with the methods described above. If I do fish docks, I will try to get the lure as close to the dock as possible and have it fall as vertically as possible and I usually use spinning gear for that. Dock fish run bigger than average. A backwards falling bait like a Fat Ika that backs into the dock piling can work but that has a slow fall so you won’t cover as much territory as with other lures.
44. Dropshot is great for freshwater but usually it hasn’t worked as well from a float tube on spotties as dragging soft plastics on jig heads. But dragging a dropshot from the float tube in deep water can work well on a slow day and it is less work than long lining. Gulp is a good choice for a drop shot in deep water. If I was fishing from shore, I would probably use a dropshot more just because it is more snag resistant if rigged weedless.
45. If you are into numbers (I am), then have a net, fish counter and unhooking tools handy. When you catch a fish, net it, unhook it, immediately throw the lure back to the same spot, engage the reel (sometimes you will get bit on the fall). Now, click the counter and drop the fish into the water, put the net back. Give the lure a few seconds to sit on the bottom and then start the retrieve. If I catch a corvina, I will release it immediately before casting out again as they have a lot higher metabolism than a spotty and don’t survive as long out of the water.
46. You don’t get much better by doing the same thing over and over. Go out fishing with different partners (anglers better than you are the best choice but you can learn something from most anglers). Try different locations, different lures and different techniques. Experiment with sizes, weights and colors. I will usually try at least one thing different each time I go out. I take several rods but will usually have one rigged up with a different lure than I usually use. Read articles, books and go to seminars at shows to get ideas.
47. As mentioned, this is oriented towards float tube fishing. From a boat you may want to use faster moving techniques such as trolling crankbaits, Rapalas or Alabama rigs. From the shore, you may wish to use natural bait, Gulp and even more weedless and slower moving rigs like dropshot and Carolina rig.
48. There is a lot here to absorb, read again after a few outings. Let me know anything I missed.

[foulhook]

Wow! That's some great info!

[Fishtricks]

Nice write up!

[vito1023]

That says it all, great job thanks for all your work it must have taken awhile.

[Gotfish?]

That says it all, great job thanks for all your work it must have taken awhile.

I just kept notes for a few years. I find that if I write down what I know about a subject (fishing related or not) or teach it to someone else , I get much better at it as it forces me to think thru what I know and don't know. So it was to my benefit too.

[CaptJoel]

Great info, thanks for sharing your years of experience!

[Serrucho fish]

This was super informative! Thank you for taking the time to write this up.

[sdfriday]

Thank you for sharing your knowledge! Many will benefit.

[Alldaylong]

Very nice! Thank you