A DIRT-SIMPLE WORM RIG FOR THE SPAWN

April 6, 2016  by Greg Bohannan

I love to power fish as much as the next guy, but around the spawn and the immediate postspawn, when I need to put fish in the boat, I often turn to a dirt-simple – and somewhat gaudy – finesse-worm rig that excels in shallow water. It’s easy to set up and skips like a dream, which could help you reach shallow bass around wood cover and docks that you might otherwise be missing.

This rig helped me earn a $10,000 check at the Walmart FLW Tour event on Lake Hartwell and a top-25 finish at the Costa FLW Series event on Lake Dardanelle. Whether or not you fish for tournament checks, consider giving it a shot in the coming weeks.

THE RIG

Around the spawn, I always start with a brightly colored Gambler Floating Worm – yellow, pink or orange. Yeah, it’s pretty loud. If I’m not getting bites on a bright worm I go to something natural, such as green pumpkin.

I rig the worm Texas style with an offset worm hook and fish with a 7-foot, medium-heavy Denali Lithium spinning rod and a Lew’s Speed Spin reel. Braided line makes the rig easy to skip, so I spool up 10-pound-test Lew’s APT-8 Braid Speed Line and connect it to a 2-foot-long leader of 10-pound-test Lew’s APT Fluorocarbon Speed Line.

A key is to connect the leader to the braid with a small barrel swivel. The swivel isn’t there to avoid line twist as much as it is a way to add a little extra weight for easier casts and just a hair faster sink rate.

HOW TO FISH IT

If the water is clear enough to see a bass on bed, the bright color of the worm certainly helps with sight-fishing, but that’s not really the point. Bright worms just seem to work this time of year. Maybe the color aggravates them a little bit, whether they’re spawning or guarding fry.

And that’s the prime time of year to fish it – during the spawn and postspawn, when bass are shallow and set up on shoreline cover. Given their location and activity, the best target areas are overhanging trees, shallow vegetation such as hydrilla or pad stems, docks, and shallow wood cover such as laydowns and stumps.

I like to make direct casts to targets or skip the worm under or past obstructions. If I think there’s a fish on a bed somewhere, even if I can’t see the bed, or if there’s an obvious piece of cover that might attract a bass to spawn next to it, I’ll let it sink right there.

Otherwise, I twitch it out from the cover, just like fishing a soft-plastic jerkbait. I’ll work it really fast, and then I’ll kill it when it gets out to the end of the cover – around the last branches of a laydown, for instance. At Dardanelle, a lot of times I’d get to the end of the log and I’d watch those fish come up and eat it. When it was sinking, it would bring them up off that bed.

To cover more water, I don’t waste too much time fishing the worm all the way back. Rather, I keep my Old Spice boat moving at a pretty good clip along the bank as I pick apart the cover. If they don’t bite within a couple seconds of me letting the worm sink, I’ll reel up and repeat. If one swirls and misses, I cast right back to the spot. That’s probably a fish on bed.

Yeah, this is a finesse presentation, but I’m often able to cover a good amount of water with it in the same kinds of places where other anglers fish a spinnerbait or a soft jerkbait. And since bass can’t resist that subtle Floating Worm in their face, it’s a good way to get a lot of bites.

CAST for Kids Auction | Greg Bohannan Fishing Trip

I'm very fortunate to be able to live my dream by fishing professionally. Today, I ask for your help in making someone else's dream come true. I would like to auction off a one day fishing trip with me on any of the following lakes: Beaver Lake, Swepco or any of the Bella Vista Lakes.   All the proceeds benefiting the Cast for Kids Foundation. C.A.S.T. is a non-profit foundation that provides fishing and outdoor activities for special needs, disabled, and disadvantaged children through their Cast for Kids program as well as for military personnel through the Take A Warrior Fishing program. Learn more about the Foundation at www.castforkids.org

Please submit all bids via Facebook message. The auction will conclude at 5:00 PM CST on Friday, March 10th. At that time I will contact the winner and set up a time that works best for us both. The high bidder will pay the full amount directly to the C.A.S.T. Foundation.  The C.A.S.T for Kids Foundation in a non-profit 501(c)3 and the winner will receive a receipt for their tax deductible contribution to the Foundation.

We'll have a great day on the water and your money will be well spent. Please be generous for this great cause.

Let the bidding begin!

Bohannan Aiming For Better Outcome At Hartwell

By Todd Ceisner
BassFan Editor

Courtesy of

Greg Bohannan thinks this is the year he finally figures out Lake Hartwell. He senses it, believes it. Now, he just has to go make it happen.

In 2011, 2012 and 2014, Hartwell has served as an early-season stop on the FLW Tour schedule. All three times, Bohannon was coming off a money finish in the previous event only to stumble at Hartwell and was unable to recover. This year, he’s hoping to break the trend when the FLW Tour visits the South Carolina fishery in mid March.

Last week, the Rogers, Ark., native posted an 11th-place finish at Lake Okeechobee to set a good tone in the season opener. If he’s to get back to the Forrest Wood Cup for the first time since 2010, he’s going to need to conquer Hartwell (translation: finish in the money) and carry that momentum over to Beaver Lake in his backyard in April before the schedule shifts to the Tennessee River for the fourth and fifth stops.

“I just want to be consistent,” he said. “If there’s one thing I want to do better going forward, it’s to be more consistent.”

This might be the year to do it, too. Bohannan landed Old Spice as a title sponsor – there’s no tie in to FLW or Walmart) in the offseason and it’s taken some of financial burden off of him.

“I’m real fired up this year,” he said. “I feel like I have a renewed vigor on and off the water. I’m just having fun this year.”

Hartwell Heartache

Bohannan’s best finish in three trips to Hartwell was the 71st he posted in 2011, roughly three weeks after kicking off the season at Beaver with a 41st.

The following year, he had a money finish in the opener at Okeechobee (51st), but a 116th at Hartwell followed by a 119th at Table Rock Lake short-circuited his Cup hopes. In 2014, it was similar scenario. Following a career-best 2nd at Okeechobee, three straight triple-digit outcomes, including a 115th at Hartwell, took him out of Cup contention. So what gives at the deep, clear impoundment that straddles the Georgia-South Carolina border?

“It’s a deep and clear lake and I should be very good there,” Bohannan said. “I’ve had a couple bombs there, but then I’ll go to the Tennessee River where I shouldn’t be any good and I’ll get checks there.”

He says he’s tried to approach lakes like Hartwell and Smith Lake, to some extent, the same way he breaks down Beaver, but he’s learned that isn’t working.

“They’re herring lakes and I should be smart enough to know how to fish them better,” he said. “Herring lakes are a lot different. I try to analyze all that stuff all the time. I’m going to try to do a better job in terms of finding better keeper patterns on those lakes.”

Followed His Instincts

At Okeechobee, Bohannan laid a good foundation with 13-09 on day 1 before calling an audible on day 2 that led to a 15-15 stringer that bumped him inside the Top 20.

“I followed my guy on day 2,” he said. “On day 1, I’d caught them on the East Wall like a lot of people, but we had a high north wind on day 2. I was out toward the outside and couldn’t fish so I ran up to the North Shore near Tent House Cove. I felt like I could get up there and get out of the wind.”

It turned out to be the right move. He caught a 5-pounder right away and added a couple 4s.

“I knew when I caught that first one it was a good move,” he said. “I had an earlier weigh-in that day so it was key that I made the decision when I did.”
He added 10-03 on Saturday and wound up 11th, just 5 ounces shy of making the Top-10 cut. He went back to the North Shore, but in hindsight he wishes he’d have gone elsewhere.
“Coming out of the lock, I was torn between going back to the North Shore or South Bay. I wish I’d gone to South Bay now.”

While it was a good start to the season, he badly to make the Top 10 in his first event with Old Spice as his new title sponsor. A Top-10 finish also would’ve pushed him past the $600,000 career earnings mark with FLW.

“I’ll get it at the next one,” he said. “I hope to capitalize on it. The last time we were at Hartwell, I was 34th after day 1, but only caught one on day 2. I hope I can learn from that and find some better keeper patterns and hopefully come out of it and go to Beaver in good standing for the Angler of the Year.”

Notable
> As part of his deal with Old Spice, Bohannan is doing appearances at Walmart stores throughout the season and speaking to youth groups and high school fishing teams at each tournament with Old Spice making a $1,000 donation at each stop as part of its Hook, Line and Leaders program.
“They came on board with me last year as an associate sponsor and wanted to feel it out,” Bohannan said. “They’re really excited about it and so am I. It’s a fun brand to be associated with.