Lake Fork Bass Fishing: Shell Bed Tips

hey guys welcome back to your lake full guide we got a hot topic on the guys networks got my boy Mike McFarlane with uh McFarland fishing calm and the lake fort guide.com D Lake for guys he's the I'm ee we got the hot topic of the day yes sir talk about they will talk about Shelby this might be the hot topic of about a month you know I know you get asked about a lot I get asked about it a lot this my customer this morning asked me about it it's a great way to hit a homerun and there's a lot of people doing it and a big portion of the big fish they're being caught on Lake Fork this year yes or being caught on these shale beds you know I do a lot of different things I do a lot of grass fishing and there's some big fish in that grass but by far the majority of the Giants are being called on this show baby's consistency the day after the day in day out day in day out producing those big bites is definitely show men so we're gonna kind of talk to you today about shale beds about how to fish on give you all the details right now what Kyle you what one looks like you guys are coming off your with a real got an island right over here to our left okay then if you'll kind of notice I hope this will show up on the camera but as you look out you'll see a little bit of a red line that runs out and then there's darker water past it well there's a drop right there and you can kind of see and identify this red clay running out here and as you get further up so you see it red clay run out well as you get outside that continues to be shallow and that's where those shells will stack up we'll talk more about that here in a minute but just want to give you guys a visual something that you can kind of cruise around the lake if you spot that a red point running out there will slow down look for those shells that's where you're gonna find them that's right so that's the topic today Shelby I'm going for an absolute expert at these main lake structure type of fish we brought him here to help me out because he knows more about it than I do we're fixing get after shell base today so you guys stay tuned [Music] [Music] I'm ready when you are [Music] that is a beautiful way to start the morning yeah folks for folks who don't know this is one of my heroes sons right here mr. Dean strowman he got it here for a long long time as a legend around this lake actually passed away earlier this year I got his son mr. Roger strowman and Bo this morning it's an honor sir thank you for coming out with me and that's awesome let's start brother yes sir thank you it's a big way to catch big fish everybody likes to throw those big baits on if I wants those big swim baits on them we'll talk about big swim bass today because that is definitely a player as literally there is shed gizzard shad slapping on this shell bed that we're sitting on right now so we're gonna talk about the big swim bait so you guys hold on for that but first I want you to talk about another technique if for me it happens earlier and it's more consistent yes so let's talk about that what we got so I've officially shell for about six weeks okay on the show the McFarland's corner it's documented you know this I started fishing Michel Vincennes with a Carolina now why would I throw a big Carolina rig a 3/4 or a 1 ounce weight and 4 foot a liter at two four foot of water it just kind of doesn't sound right right well first off is remember any of these shale beds they must have wind right it's real critical there sometimes we catch them but later in the season we'll get in that and when to the point where the waves are coming over your boat pretty much the rougher the better and there's a point where those power Falls walk where it's too rough but I do want it rough I do want mean do we need you do need big boy britches to go do this but in essence what I'm achieving is a weightless presentation like a weightless fluke or a weightless cinco in heavy wind conditions in that shallow water and that's why I do it this way the main reason that I found this bike be so successful is at that time the fish are just coming their pre-staging to eat the gizzard shad are there that gives it shatter on the edges that gizzard shad are beginning to pile up there the loons are there everything is beginning to happen but it's not completely committed to the top and because the gizzard shad are feeding there they're not staying on top so I found they're not ready for swim bait until that water gets in that upper 60s you start seeing 67 68 degrees in the gizzard shad commit to their spawning cycle which they stay there all day long and now that swim bait bike comes around in the first half it happens in flurries yes you might say absolute there's windows where they bite and I bet earlier they don't bite remember I've talked about it as a feeding table like a coral reef in the ocean that's nomadic times that's what I was doing the end of February the first week of March very nomadic and it was a matter of staying there there was some shell beds that I literally stayed on for four hours before you started getting me it would be two hours in we start catching our fish two hours or 45 minutes we start catching our fish and so it was you know once I knew some timing and I had a little bit of better time I can make a milk run and spend my time a little more I know this is my setup here you're doing the single mother and I throw my Carolina oh seven eleven medium/heavy able to you say my father seven eleven I want a big big heavy I like it to be a big I go eight-foot if I can I'm fishing for really big fish so I want that power it's definitely got to be a heavy I prefer you know a 7 to 1 gear ratio 6 3 we'll get your buy on it we think you're lighter rig slack in your line sometimes well Caroline when they buy because you got that anchor 1 ounce weight then you can get so it helps to have that long rod just pick up that slack and what you'll also find with this is that because they're they're feeding they'll take that bait and they're running off there's other fish on there so it's not you don't feel it thump thump or a pullback it's not fish it's already turning the other way so you got that hit going you want to turn ahead big heavy rod and if he comes to you you got a way that big rod won't be able to stay with long just like they hit that swim bait hard I've had them take this and literally knock four feet of slack even yeah I'll sitting you just weird my bait go and so you need that higher speed I'm first 7 to 1 when I'm Carolina rigging I tend to use a 3/4 1 ounce tungsten and I actually use a swivel Billy's gonna tell you a really cool trick that I've just really intrigued by in just a second but I'll run a four foot five foot leader I tend to use a very heavy gauge remember we got big fish that's mine that's a four but it's heavy wire I know you use a five or six I'll use a five otter six-eyed I will use a straight shank or an offset shank I do like the ewg if it's compact like this it's not that extra big ewg and this is a great way to do it I'm doing the big brush hog for the bait yeah big brush hog or a magnum lizard so that's what I was doing first okay waiting for the shad to commit to the top five weeks of that yeah this is my Carolina rig here and there's something I do you know I don't like the tile a lot of knots I feel like I feel like knots or that's potential for weakness in normal Carolina rig you have a swivel here below your your weight so you'd have it not on top of swivel not underneath the swivel and of course you're gonna always have the not on the hook which I still do all right then you got that problem of your tungsten beating up you're not hooks are beating up you're not all that you can chase you la know if you've got a glass bead glass beads or better they shatter a bead if I'm gonna make the noise I do use tungsten be yeah glass beads bad to Chaffey line yeah so what I do actually do something little different if you ever heard Babur stuff and a lot of you guys have but what I've got I've actually got three bobbin stuff she is full bark something comes on the tab you run your line through it and then slide it up on your line and then it moves up and down your line so what I actually do here is I use three bottle stock you know if you just use one when you go to sling that one else way to slide down your line but if you use three you can sling it all day it never comes down really cool here's the advantage it's quiet it's silent I know people like to make noise on Carolina rigs that's the reason I don't like four we got so many people doing it one way I like to do it the other absolutely and I go the other way too when people are doing things that are silent I like to add noise to it something to just be a little bit different for can pay off high-pressure places that's huge so I like being solid on my Carolina rig I don't have as many knots not as much weak spots yeah I don't have to worry about beating up I'm not with my weight or my bead okay so I've got clean there that's never gonna chase that line doing that right ever right there's an insert in that weight and here's maybe the coolest part this is pretty cool I'm intrigued by this if I wanted to take this thing down you know if I let's say those shad pop up there in a foot of water for the water yeah and I want to slide that down to have me an 18 inch leader yep I can literally just take these Barbour stops slide them down and now I have a very short Carolina rig so I've got a Carolina rig we've got a mojo rig and look what I get hung up here's what happens you know nobody had Carolina rig up hey you might get the weight loose and then you then you bass hung right right you get all Carolina rigs bad to hang up in these shells how to percent so you can take this and when you get hung up in a show and you pull on it it's gonna turn into a compact one-piece bait which is way easier to get off that hang up when you get it back in and you want to slide it back up if you just ease it right back on up that line that's definitely cool and now I've got a three-foot Carolina rig again so yeah well my concept is is that when they get hung up a lot my clients coming up a lot I mean use a 25-pound big game four foot five foot leader on the fluorocarbon and I use that heavy big game so that when I do get hung up most the time it is the hook in the wood and I'll snap off only lose that leader in a hook and I'm quick to retie I don't know just got a red tiger later I don't lose this tungsten but this little ID right here all right let's talk about the big baits because that's what everybody wants to do on the easel right everybody wants to throw these big plates and they absolutely work on this pattern to get your arm hurt you know here's the thing and not from throwing it you know I work with smashed our partnership with smash take bait and smash ten custom baits here's the best part that I really you know I like to work people have a personal relationship with I've known Heath for a long time now he's a very good man and that makes me proud to work with him well one thing that I really love about him is when it comes to big baits there's not a person in East Texas throws them a higher percentage of the time on the water that he's on the water he's throwing big baits almost all the time he's very passionate about it and he doesn't make these basses hello he makes these baked steamed usually use a brush and he's got about six or seven different line throughs and they all catch fish and so this is just one of them this is the headhunter right here tell the scale and there you guys can see he actually hand-carved a bowl where he would get scales I'm telling you he's obsessed he loves it no pick one you like right because here's the deal guys if it's a big profile this is a seven-inch bait this is what most of them look like that's the standard monitors from that you'll sell fork right there if it'll swim slow that's key it swims true true it's slow it'll get bit absolutely it doesn't matter what's the smash take bait whether it's a Talon bait it was any of the brand's they can all work they're all just as good as the other in certain ways now the big deal for me is one thing you have confidence hitting you'll leave your hand on leaving your enemy it may be my favorite I don't have one sitting here handy but the felon can smash damn right it's a little bit smaller line through it's a six and a half to 70s bait but it's a little slimmer profile easy to use it's honestly it's the most realistic so I love the felon but anyway perfect starter for somebody it's not too big it's not too intimidating it's not then it's fits right right that's right don't get tied up on colors you guys either find yourself a light hitch or a pearl white or this is fork smoke pick a color that you like stick with it yeah they're not that particular when they get up with Michel beds they're feeding and when they're feeding the color is not that big it's not just keep it simple a light hits a dark hitch and a white pearl that's all I throw all that being said this one's a little bit different listen I know this is next-level maybe the one that Heath is the most proud of yeah because they are eating gizzard shad and that's a gizzard change right on the money I mean it looks just like I guess I said we're going to show you guys how to rig up a line through these Landers will have an insert you can kind of see that hole in the head right there and what you do is you just feed your line and all the smash tech baits will come with a hook in the package with with a split ring tied onto it all you do is run your line right through that then insert that little tubing in there it comes out the bottom and then you tie whatever night you prefer to the split ring on the hook now here's the neat deal this hook they include I believe it's a must out of not a harm settlement brand but as one point on this hook that will line up perfectly with the hook shank if you'll notice that right there so what we're gonna do is take that point that lines up with the hook shank and we're gonna stick it in all these line things will have little fins on the bottom to help you balance the bait we're gonna stick this one that lines up with the hook shank in right back here behind those fins right there those belly fins okay what that's going to do now your split ring as you see right there to lay dead flat on the bait as it goes through it also sinners sinners your bait and in-between those fins that's very important when you have this much plastic that basically arrives and it's going to roll okay so if you're not rig perfectly straight and for a rod you know you're tying directly to the split ring I like 20 pound fluorocarbon I told my big baits on a 7/11 and Iran most of the bikes get on this they're gonna be from absolute slobberknocker see one big steep a floor it they actually rip your arm right off and they're big fish you'll get a big round to be able to hand that's right you don't get a lot of followers or get a lot of bumpers but when they take that you know I guess it's yeah there's kind of spineless it's like an HOV in the ocean it's real soft spine so bass will actually take a gizzard shad from the side and the wit the bait folds in their mouth you'll see a lot of the fish that you get your bait your smash tech baits gonna be turned sideways in their mouth so you're gonna make you wonder they do not have to and choose not to take a gizzard shad head first because it's a spineless type bait just fold in half it's amazing it here's the big advantage of the line through when they do eat that bait you set the hook on this is why it's better than a weedless version this is why it's better than a hard bait you know those big heavy baits that's a lot of leverage yes there you lose a lot of a lot of fish they throw the hook a lot on those big trouble with glide baits and such like that so here's the big advantage of line through that fish eats the bait you set the hook hook comes out of the bait well this goes up the line now all you've got is a giant treble hook a giant fish and no leverage have no leverage that yeah when I get hooked on this you can't diagnose enter 100% pretty much unless they break you're lying yeah I had a guy just the other day set the hook fish jump May 20th and said oh man I lost it and ice left and I said just keep reeling and still there he said no I saw the bait go I said I'm Mel debate went but keep really that fish was so hooked he could have pushed a button and let it swam for days it wasn't coming undone without a pair of pliers well hey there's the gear that's the two main tactics we use to attacking let's talk about a couple of things that will happen as the year goes on these fish will pull out from spawning it stop on these same places and I was on and there's that's when the big thread Finch happen there's a little bit gives response to everything and so they pull right back out and do the same thing again now these tactics will both still learn but there's a couple more that I think are a little more effective in that situation one is maybe my favorite because it's just so much fun to watch you meet it but those big tough water walking bass try for the post-spawn fish that's what go six cents makes a very good big walking bank called the dog I like that one that's my favorite big walking babe I think the other thing is a squirrel yep no when it comes to square bills six cents is the king yes we've proven it I'm already throwing that movement ATX again been throwing it all all James great I love it it works on these show but the ones that I even prefer more for this are the ones that get a little bit deeper and grind that shell right now Jeff you're a fitter and so the crush 100x and the movement l7 we'll get that in at five see deep range and they'll grind on that shell you can catch a lot of fish on those spooks on that dog on that top water bait when you catch some studs on that on that square bill so remember clarify that early in the season these pre-staged fish are feeding on these gizzard shad it's a nomadic feeding table because your chat come to feed there after the water warms gets in the upper-60s that gives you a chance to spawn there during the spawn of the gizzard shad that's when the swim bait bite is the hottest okay also that's about the same time that you can throw these square bills you can throw potentially for pre-staging fun I don't know about that top water if the water on the day that's on the day but as soon as they're done spot in the cup every day every day thing you're gonna start on these shale beds up shall over the top water a square bill you much don't get that's one big bite you can back off the edges and go back to the Juke and Carolina rig and believe it or not this pot we're right we can end up going out to the Tate XD catching them out on those points in eighteen to twenty hours they taper down yeah by the time we get halfway through May to typically halfway two-thirds through May will be out there that 30 foot of water doing that but we're working the deeper shell bits this is all shell anywhere there's a proper area here that gets the right currents got shell you got shallow shell you got deeper shell you got two foot for foot 6 foot egg foot you got shells throughout it you see I don't I don't ever throw that 10 XD though I throw that clown on Sears from 6 cents the see 25 now just check well I know this has been a long tutorial we want to give you guys all the details and we want to just make sure you understand fully from very beginning the most complex all the details of this deal but I know let's uh let's get over on the map and let's show them one of these areas yeah it show how to find them come take a look here you'll see this structure sorry that that graphs moving around this little bit but you see that I've actually put a highlight okay what I've done start on a 5 foot highlight on my sonar that's what those little red dots are and that's showing me the contour of this structure okay it's really an island but these flats that you've seen here here in this deep water contour this is what shale beds can be made of okay this is the typical stuff that you can actually search your map and find on a regular map locations like this that have these big flats they're really it's a reef this is a coral reef underwater in essence and in the ocean they'd call it a coral reef here we call the shell-bed but this is how you find these shale beds I run a five-foot highlight on my sonar which helps me locate them all throughout the lake just because you see a highlight over here doesn't mean this is shell-bed the potentially a point if it's windblown it can't have shell on it all right now what you'll find is that up on the top you can get a lot of those shallow shells that are dead water drops three to four feet on this Lake every year so that's three to four-foot range they're really not alive up on top the live shells are under edges okay a lot of the times they're in these saddles there in these ditches this is you can find them big big huge shell bets okay on the outside edges in these little pockets you look right here you just see this little indentation okay the last time on this spot that we whacked him was last Saturday before the big storm the north wind was coming in clipping like this and and we actually had setup out here I said guys boy I just don't know if it's going to go this morning the fish came and showed themselves busted surfaced so I come around a tree positioned over here and we caught him off this back corner without windows driving in to that corner of the shell-bed south wind comes in from the opposite direction comes in here and we usually set up out here and throw over the top of this so this is a real good diagram a very simple diagram if you use the shallow water highlight under your sonar you'll be able to identify some of these areas when they look like this with these big flat sections on it more than likely on Lake Fork they got shell on it so we're looking for shallow sections in two to five foot yep they're flat they're flat flats that come out they're shallow two to five foot all your points all main Lake points yeah Lake dinner in the shape of a point that are in the shape of a point that if they have any long Gatien are flat you know one of the holes I'll talk about it it's not not secret the golf course right the golf course I think it's hole 13 if you can just picture the golf course green that's sitting up there on top okay take the golf course green and submerge it under water right on it's for food on top it's that's all it is it's a little under water island it's a little long point with a flat top on it just about every main Lake point has some shale beds and then once you find a bunch of those it's just a matter of going to the ones that have the wind ripping across that's right and just following the direction of the wind and a little bit of the nomadic fish that feed on these when they're feeding tables it's very good hard to get the timing down you got to fish them a lot you got to commit to them as these gizzard shad get here this is that main bite this is not now right now the next four to six weeks we're gonna have a continuation of all day long okay we can even don't even have to have as much wind sometimes no wind can still catch them when it gives you chatter on top spawning because the bass are going to take advantage of that so these shale beds are really important for the pre-staging fish coming to eat for the post staging fish coming back out to eat and then the rest of the year very nomadic as feeding tables all work and retrieve these big swim baits to catch these fish Michel bets like I said we got a big 8 foot rod here this is excellent 711 heavy is what this is if we can fire these baits a long way now you don't want to try and whip this bait around like it's a spinner bait well let the thing load up you can see that sucker will fly soon as the bait hits the water I'll put my rod directly at the bait slowly reeling you can see just how slow I'm reeling that bait in and I actually wanted to bump around on that shell a little bit if it starts bumping too much I'll pick my rod up and get it off there like just a nose bump and I picked it up and you knew if you need to hold your rod up to keep it off that she'll go ahead but you want to go as slow as possible with that bait being as close to that shell as possible so you really want to go low and slow and see if you feel the bottom then lift up a little bit and just keep it coming now when they bite it they'll thump it they'll thump that swim bait a lot they'll come up you'll feel them tag it just keep on coming boom keep coming boom just keep coming when they load up on that bait that's when you load up on them but you got to wait guys school's a basketball get behind these big baits and follow him for a mile and they'll sit there and want to come on pump it from the back want to come up and bump it again from the back and then eventually one of those fish in that school is gonna decide hey that's mine he's gonna hit it from the side like Mike talked about he's go just about take the rod out of your hands you'll have no doubt you're gonna set the hook out of instinct you're not going to think about it what I always tell my customers is and youth on a big swim bait if you think you might need to set the hook don't you won't hesitate no honest Carolina Regan I can explain to you how I use this we start to pull on it and we're seeing that rod as a rod moving or as the rod loading so the rod sliding right now sliding very slow I want to count the rocks I want to move that slow all right if it's slides I felt it slide I'm gonna pause it moved an inch it slides again what's happening is in these areas you can get some nasty cover so all think it's gonna stop like right there and I load the rod and put some pressure on I go man that solid okay there's a solidity to this if I pull through it it happens to be wood I'm getting in bed that wait I'm gonna embed that that hook so when I feel that rod you can see it I'm on it I'm off it I'm on it I'm off it it's a load he's telling me it's pretty solid I'm gonna drop the bow and I chunk with the looseness I don't move the rods bang on it I'd sheriff with a looseness and that allows it to slap free and come through that junk then go right back to that same position again so testing the load of the rod is really critical to work through this shallow shale beds okay so each time you're gonna move it now what I'll add to that it's I'm pulling on it there's a load right there so but it's free I like to add a little snap okay remember this is a weightless presentation even though it's a Carolina rig that little snap makes that bait do some things it's not just dragging along dead behind it so again I kind of start to slide when I feel it move a stop if I feel I'm free I'll give it a little surge or a little like a jerkbait pop okay if I feel that rod loading solid like it is right now I come I'm dropping a clunk on it if you keep running here I want to show you something what I mean by clunking so it's not that I'm worried about getting stuck it's not the inconvenience of getting stuck it's the ability to work through getting stuck that gets the strike so what I want you to do is focus on something I'm gonna take my fingers and what happens more often than not is that weight is coming through some kind of a V okay and if I can fit in this enough where as I load that rod if you can kind of watch the rod as it reaches my hand look at the rod I'm bidding it if I drop slack see what happened that weight drops back and it clumps it drop back send it clunks I'll do it again real quick for you so in between my fingers I've achieved that taut load I could sit here and bang on it all I want if I'm maintaining load it's never gonna come out if I drop the bow drop that loose line in like clunk clunk there it comes right through the stuff so that is the key that'll get you more bites learning how to work that Carolina rig through the stuff pay attention to your loading rod the bite itself is you're leaning into that load you'll actually feel that fish tuck it away with you you just hit them home retail beds then it's literally everything that we know about show beds and I know this was a long tutorial long video we gave you all the goods they were not if you guys that I love you guys I want to teach its you guys that we want to see it have it better success we want to see you guys send us some pictures tell us thank you but we want you to figure this out on your head that's what it's all about the more people that we see out here catching more fish the better off we all are as business owners and be honest with you it does my heart that's right that's the reason I guide us because I thoroughly enjoy helping people catch more and bigger fish hey we appreciate you guys watching they hope you like this video hope you learned something from it hope like we said this helps you catch more and bigger fish gentle we're after helping people catch more fish than our fellow man that's what we do that's what we're all about here if it's your first time watching us do me a favor go ahead and subscribe to the channel we have over 60 in-depth instructional videos like this one here so any topic you want to know about embarrassing there may be a few we've covered the vast majority of them with guys like this full-time professional for many years Mike McFarland and myself the rookie professional Billy Lawson but we get it done and we go share it all with you so subscribe to the channel if you want some more of this and other than that that's it I say we got 60 right now we are we on track for 100 it's gonna be here before 2019 yes sir that's right hey we appreciate you guys watching as always and we'll see you next time right here on your Lake guy [Music]

Channel: YourLakeForkGuide

Views: 13,951

Rating: 4.959866 out of 5

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Id: a1mQVC3ebiA

Length: 28min 26sec (1706 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 18 2018