“It is an absolute fish catcher and has turned into a major confidence bait for me. “I cannot possibly count the number of fish I’ve caught this year on a 1/2-ounce Strike King Thunder Cricket,” McDonald said. He’ll start off with a moving bait in hopes of maximizing his efficiency, but if there are no takers, he likes to slow it down with a bottom-contact presentation. ![]() Once he finds a good-looking area and pinpoints a high-percentage piece of isolated cover with his Garmin units, McDonald keeps his bait selection surprisingly simple. ![]() I shoot my Panoptix 75 to 100 feet in front of the boat.” Instead of running your boat over the cover and spooking fish, you can see it way ahead of time. I can pan the trolling motor and find outer edges of grass, root wads, hidden laydowns, stumps, rock piles… you name it. It shoots a 20-degree wide angle and a 135-degree wide vertical angle. “While you can see the fish in real-time, I prefer to use it to find pieces of cover. “It really has been a huge player for me,” McDonald said. He has the utmost confidence in his units and has learned them quite well. Because this is where current-washed cover accumulates, it’s a great place to find a lone log that’s holding a big fish.Īs earlier stated, a huge part of McDonald’s approach revolves around his Garmin Panoptix. He also urgers anglers to seek out any down-current river bend. “If I can find an area where a ditch meets a creek channel or maybe the last bend in the ditch before it hits the creek channel, I’m going to dissect it looking for something isolated.” “I’m looking for depressions a lot of the time,” McDonald said. While in the rivers, he looks for isolated cover in two particular types of areas. Sometimes just a few degrees can make an enormous difference. While it does fit his fishing style best, he also noted the importance of cooler water temperatures. In the late summer, McDonald prefers to head up-river on most fisheries. Now that we understand the “why” behind this technique, let’s explore the “how”. ![]() Isolated cover, whether it’s a single stump, a grass clump or a few rocks, gives big bass that exact opportunity. They want to “own” and piece of cover and be able to feed without constant competition. They don’t want to run around with a bunch of 14-inchers and be forced to out-compete them for food. As they age and become larger, they become much more territorial of their space. In addition to finding and having small sweet spots to yourself, it’s also important to understand the way a big bass thinks. Almost every single fish I’ve caught has holes in their lips.” “But yesterday I caught a 5-pound, 6-ounce smallmouth with a hook hole in its mouth. “Sturgeon Bay is a huge place,” McDonald said. He was shocked by the amount of fishing pressure throughout his practice. We conducted our interview while McDonald was at Sturgeon Bay practicing for the FLW Tackle Warehouse TITLE Presented by Toyota. So now, more than ever, it’s important to put the time into finding small, isolated pieces of cover that aren’t being fished.” This has really changed the more traditional bites throughout much of the country and I really think it’s because more of them are being hooked. “You pull up to a boat ramp and it’s absolutely packed all week long everybody is fishing. “With the pandemic going on, this is a year like none other in terms of fishing pressure,” McDonald said. The result, of course, is a drastic increase in fishing pressure and more skittish bass. Due to COVID-19, a droves of people are fishing throughout the entire week. McDonald believes isolated cover is even more important in today’s world. But those special pieces of isolated cover don’t get beat on very much so those fish are a lot more likely to bite.” “Fish definitely figure that out quickly and fishing pressure will cause them to move I’ve seen it a lot throughout my career. “Everyone finds the obvious stuff,” McDonald said. ![]() While it’s tempting to get in the thickest cover you can find, more isolated cover can actually pay bigger dividends. As anglers, we’re naturally going to flock to the best-looking and most obvious cover on the lake when we begin our search for big bass.
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