Handle ‘Em in Heavy Cover
IT’S BASS FISHING’S version of urban warfare — going “door to door,” shaking things up and extracting the high-value targets wherever you find them. It’s often a rough-and-tumble deal, but forethought and precision also factor into mission success.
While dense trash mats and pad fields certainly qualify as heavy cover, we’ll save those for our next punching tale. For now, let’s examine the lessons of timing and precision spawned from a few particular moments in the 2019 Bassmaster Elite Series season.
For starters, who can forget Aussie sensation Carl Jocumsen plucking chunky bass from a tree wedged against an underwater island during the final regular-season event on Lake Tenkiller? With the Illinois River impoundment falling rapidly after extreme flood conditions, Jocumsen said he knew the shallow deals would fizzle, while flood-washed timber would likely become fish magnets.
After locating the magical tree on his Humminbird 360 Mega Imaging unit toward the end of Day 3, Jocumsen deftly bumped a 3/8-ounce Molix football jig and Strike King Rage Craw trailer through the limbs and tempted the final-round bites he needed to win his first Elite title. A key midday moment captured on Bassmaster LIVE saw Jocumsen respond to the false alarm of his bait hitting a limb; but rather than reel up, he wisely dropped the bait back
