Zaldain Drops Jigs on Vertical Rock

BASSMASTER ELITE SERIES pro Chris Zaldain may be a westerner by birth, and a Californian through and through, but he’s adopted north Texas as his home base.

Although others who live in the Lone Star State are watching football and preparing for spring, this veteran pro spends much of the winter honing his skills on the region’s waterways.

“By December, the cold of winter has definitely kicked in,” he said. “That’s when I head out to lakes like Lewisville, Bridgeport and Texoma. It may be cold, and you probably won’t get many bites, but you have a really good chance of catching six-plus pounders if you drop a jig on any vertical rock.”

The jig in question is a Texas product, a Santone Football jig, either ½ or ¾ ounce, usually with a black/brown/amber skirt, and paired with a green pumpkin or black “big meaty chunk trailer.”

“I always start at the dam and then work my way around from there,” he said, providing a simple road map for anglers. Although two-dimensional sonar, down imaging and side imaging may come into play, mapping is his primary technological tool.

“I use my Lakemaster chip to find the most vertical lines. I’m typically looking for tight topography in the 12 to 24 foot range. You’re looking for places where the deep main channel intersects rocky banks.” He’ll start on the first few channel swings closest to the dam and then expand it outward from there. While he’s happy to get started early, he noted that the best bite often occurs in the afternoon, after the sun has beaten down on the water for a few hours.

The retrieve itself is simple. Whether he’s letting the jig descend 4 inches or 4 feet between stopping points, the bite most often occurs on the fall. “That real vertical fall is what triggers it,” he said. “When you lose contact with it and it’s free falling, that’s when you can expect to feel pressure.

His favorite jig rod is a 7’2” extra-fast Megabass Orochi Perfect Pitch which combines extreme sensitivity with the ability to set the hook firmly and decisively. He pairs it with a 200-sized baitcasting reel with a 7:1 gear ratio, which enables him to take up line quickly on a bass that’s grabbed his jig on the descent and decided to swim out toward the boat. He spools it up with 25 pound test Seaguar InvizX, a supple and sensitive fluorocarbon that handles well even when the mercury dips below freezing.

“This is something that will work on just about any north Texas lake,” he said. “Don’t be afraid of the cold. This is the time when you’ll catch some of the biggest bass of the year if you stick with it.”

Stay with painfully slow presentations, obvious contours on the map, and a lure that’s in just about everyone’s tackle box and you’re bound to intersect the mother lode. When it’s on, this experience is good enough that you won’t miss California at all.

 

Email Pete Robbins at ContactUs@fishgame.com

 

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