THE BASS UNIVERSITY by Pete Robbins

guns of little big horn
THE GUNS OF LITTLE BIG HORN
March 3, 2021
TEXAS BOATING by Lenny Rudow
March 3, 2021

Bird Goes with Moving Baits on the Highways

TWO DECADES AGO, Cody Bird established himself as one of the best sight fishermen not just in Texas, but in the world.

Homing his craft onto north Texas lakes such as Possum Kingdom and Texoma, he learned how to tempt the fish that he was looking at. Even when he can’t see them because of water color or other weather conditions, he still loves to fish during the spawn, casting a wacky worm or a jig to likely spots.

Although he’ll rush to the bank as soon as the bass get there, he’s not necessarily in a hurry. Some of his favorite fishing of the year occurs when they’re still not quite there.

In March, if he doesn’t think they’re on the beds yet, he’ll look for spawning “highways” – drains, ditches and depressions leading to the promised land, and he noted that “there’s a big difference here in Texas between the beginning of the month and the end of the month.”

Before the bass officially start the spawning ritual, he has a ritual of his own, and it involves looking for channel swings that lead into a flat. He wants to find deep water intersections that give the fish options to move up when the right water temperatures and amount of daylight provide that option, but also enough protection to keep them safe.

“It’s all about water depth,” he explained. He scans topo maps or map chips to find them on new lakes, noting that “the chips are all so good now” that you can do much of your homework at home. But even without those aids he can often tell the key areas with his eyes, just by looking at the bank for likely areas—“like places where it transitions from a rock bluff to a flatter bank,” he explained.

Cody Bird

Cody Bird
(Photo: Bass University)

In those zones, he’ll seek out stumps and vegetation and other holding cover, but on venues like his home waters of Lake Granbury, that can often mean docks. Just like any other pattern, docks can be picked apart and compared to make the process easier. “There are all sorts of dock patterns,” he said. “Walkways can be a pattern in itself. Sometimes a jig on a ladder can be a pattern.”

While the jig is a noted big fish bait, and excels when a slower presentation is required, Bird primarily uses two moving baits to pick apart the cover. The first is a square bill crankbait such as the 6th Sense Crush 50X. In the fall, red is in play over vegetation and shad colors are his favorites. In March he tends to lean on “more of a perch color.”

He also uses a vibrating jig extensively, either the popular Evergreen Jack Hammer or else a homemade version that he constructs of various parts from other models. In either case, it’s almost always a half ounce, model. He knows that many pros like to drop down to a 3/8 in shallow water, but he said that the slightly heavier lure allows him to fish fast and cover water. It, too, is usually a perch color with a black blade. His preferred trailer is a Lake Fork Magic Shad, usually in watermelon, sometimes with a dash of orange.

The key docks are often the first ones inside or outside the transition zone from shallow to deep. To cover water, Bird picks them apart with just enough casts to get full covering.

“I’m throwing right to the inside corner, then underneath the back,” he said. “I might pick up a jig along the front, but then I’ll go back to the square bill to go under the walkway and inside the other corner. And I’m scanning for brush the whole time.” Most of the time, he’ll pick up that brush on his Humminbird units, but occasionally he’ll spot a branch or two visually. One of the keys is to deflect off the available cover in high-percentage areas to trigger strikes. Both of these horizontally moving baits come through cover well, bouncing off dock posts and grinding through bushes. He uses a 6-foot,10-inch Castaway spinnerbait rod for both of them, paired with an Abu-Garcia Revo (6.6:1). He relies almost exclusively on 15-pound test Trilene 100 percent fluorocarbon, a line which is exceptionally abrasion-resistant, but still allows his lures to act naturally.

Among Texas tournament anglers and fans who’ve followed his career, the 2021 Bassmaster Classic qualifier is known for making long runs up an impoundment’s river to get away from the crowds. During the prespawn bite of March, however, he bucks that expectation.

“I do fish those places in the summer and the fall,” he explained. “But in March, I usually fish the middle and lower sections of most of our Texas lakes. The bigger fish live down there, and the average size definitely tends to be better than on the lower end of the lakes.”

 

Email Pete Robbins at ContactUs@fishgame.com

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