Using Boat Traffic To Stir Up Bass
Keith Lusher 04.30.24
As the weather warms here in the south, the rivers and lakes are becoming busier with boat traffic. From pontoon boats to jet ski’s, this commotion can make fishing down right difficult sometimes.
Chris Basey of Covington, LA is no stranger to fishing busy rivers. He fishes the Tchefuncte River which is one of the most heavily trafficked waterways in Louisiana. “It can get frustrating sometimes when I’m fishing a tournament on the Tchefuncte,” he said. Basey has been fishing the Tchefuncte River for over 30 years and has learned how to not only ignore the boat traffic, but how to use the commotion to his advantage.
On Basey’s most recent trip he launched his bass boat up river north of Interstate 12 in Covington, LA. He then proceeded to make a run south into Madisonville to fish a deep water canal that was dug to allow boats to access the harbor at Salty’s Marina. “I’ve been wanting to try some deep-water cranking and with the clean water we’ve been seeing, I figured this was the perfect chance,” he said.
After entering the canal that lead into the harbor, Basey started making bomb casts with a chartreuse Sexy Shad KVD crank bait. His casts were landing in 8 feet of water and after a few turns of the reel handle, his crank bait dove down into a the main channel that was 25 feet deep. Then Basey felt his lure stop. He set the hook and started reeling in a bass. As the fish neared the boat he spotted another fish trying to bite the crank bait out of the mouth of the hooked bass. “At one point, the bass bit the lure and I had two fish on one lure,” Basey said. After landing the fish, Basey weighed it and it. It totaled 1.6 pounds. “When I saw that I knew that was a good sign,” he said. Basey added 4 more fish to the livewell and all of a sudden the bite died. “It’s a blast getting on a good deep school of bass because when you find them, it’s usually a ton of action. But when the bite dies it over,” he said. Fortunately, Basey’s seen this pattern play out before so he knew what to do.
He turned around to see 2 boats heading his was in the canal. One was a pontoon boat and the other was a large yacht. “I seen it happen time after time when these big boats pass through it gets the water moving. Sometimes that’s all it takes to stir the fish up so I waited on the boats to pass,” Basey said. His hunch was right as he began casting after the large boats passed and set the hook on a 2-pound spotted bass. He continued to catch bass both largemouth and spots and ended up with a nice stringer of bass. “Nobody likes boat traffic but sometimes you can use it to your advantage. It worked for me today,” Basey said.
