Early Summer Cranking

LAST APRIL, Lee Livesay set the bass world on fire by weighing in a four-day catch of 112-05 to win the Bassmaster Elite Series event on Lake Fork. That total included a final day haul of 42-03, an average of more than eight pounds per fish, caught mostly on big topwaters and glide baits.

If that didn’t scare the competition enough, they should be duly frightened by the fact that April isn’t even his favorite time of year on the lake. The Elites will be headed back this year in May.

“The good thing about that time of year is that there’s a little bit of everything going on,” he said. “There should still be some fish on beds and a little bit of a shad spawn, and a deep bite as well.”

It’s that deep bite that he loves, and which gives the long time Fork guide a competitive advantage. He knows the key spots to find the biggest groupings of true pigs, and the best angles to approach them from. Indeed, he said that the two biggest hurdles to success as summer approaches are finding the right school or schools and the right angle to approach them.

His key tool?

A crankbait, specifically a 6th Sense C15 or C20.

“They get down quick and stay down,” he said. “Those baits don’t have lift. A lot of fish will follow, follow, follow and then eat at the trolling motor.” The constant bottom-bumping over a long distance is one key to getting bites consistently. Another one is reeling the lure as fast as you can.

“They like it on the bottom going 100 miles per hour,” Livesay said. “When I see my guide clients reeling too slowly, I tell them you can’t reel it faster than a bass can swim.”

A third component to success is finding the right casting angle. Sometimes the fish want the lure coming uphill. Other times they want it heading downhill.

On occasions they want it to hit the targeted cover in a certain fashion. That can change from day to day or hour to hour, and Livesay said that relevant factors include current, baitfish and the positioning of nearby timber. “It’s different on every little spot.”

When he suspects the fish are deeper than 18 feet, he’ll hunt for them in likely spots by idling on his outboard and watching his Humminbird graphs closely. He’s trying to find not just single fish, but schools – preferably big schools – on hard spots or roadbeds.

If they’re not there at all, he certainly won’t stop, and if there’s fewer than 10 bass in a given area, he’s unlikely to slow down. For fish residing on cover and structure shallower than 15 feet deep, he’ll try to use his Humminbird Mega 360 to target them, but this usually requires a little bit more actual casting and retrieving to find out their mood.

“I’ll make three or four casts, and if I see them or they follow the bait back, I’ll keep fishing,” he said. “Otherwise, I’ll keep moving.”

Fortunately, the 6th Sense Deep Divers come with quality hardware, including strong split rings and razor-sharp hooks, so Livesay fishes them straight out of the package. After a day of cranking and grinding through gnarly cover, though, they may get a little bit off kilter.

If the lure is not running true, he knows that he’s losing diving depth and probably missing opportunities, so he’ll carefully tune it to run straight again. On the off chance that he can’t get it perfect, he’ll swap it out for another lure.

Fortunately, his color choices are simple: Chartreuse blue and gizzard shad. “That’s all I throw,” he said plainly.

Befitting his need to reel the crankbaits back as fast as possible, he dotes on a smooth, high-speed reel with sufficient line capacity to hold ample 12-pound test (for the C15) or 15-pound test (for the C20) Sunline fluorocarbon. He mounts the reel on a Halo HFX 7-foot, six-inch medium-heavy cranking rod.

“That length helps you cast long distances,” he explained. “That parabolic action makes it load up good and really make it fly out there, and then when you hook them, it’ll keep them hooked. That’s important because they fish may be hooked in the side of the head or they may jump, and you don’t want to lose them.”

Fortunately for Livesay, even if he loses one or two, he usually knows how to keep the schools fired up. Unfortunately for his competition, they’re usually the biggest schools of the biggest bass on Fork.

 

Email Pete Robbins at ContactUs@fishgame.com

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