Junk Fishing

Junk Fishing There are many anglers out there that fear going into the junk to fish. I for one love it! Bring on the nastiest stuff out there. There are so many different types of junk fishing let it be back bays of pads, arrowheads, reeds, floating islands of cattails, lay down trees with cut weed on them, that yellow scum that floats on the surface(mustard or cheese whatever you want to call it) or just the shore line of docks with cut weed against them. You can't be weak hearted when it comes to junk fishing. You can't just fish the edge; you have to get all the way in to make yourself wonder if you're going to get back out. Aside from the proper rods and reels, the one main must have accessory in the boat is a push pole. You have to be able to maneuver the boat around; this also ensures you don't make too much noise with the trolling motor. I have two different techniques for fishing the junk. The first way is to go over the top half with a surface lure looking for aggressive fish to bite. The surface lures I prefer are: the Snag Proof (Tournament Frog Bleeding Series) or the Gambler Flappin' Shads and Reaction Innovations Skinny Dippers. My combo of choice for throwing a frog you may laugh at this is a SABBR963C 8' Mag-Heavy G Loomis Salmon Backbounce Rod. (after a few years I had this rod modified took a little off the butt and re-guided with recoils) with a Shimano Curado 200DHSV spooled with 65-pound Power Pro Braid. For my Flappin' Shad's and Skinny Dippers' 7'2 BSR864 GLX Heavy G Loomis Senko Rod (Don't let the name fool you lots of power) with a Shimano Curado E7 spooled with 50-pound Power Pro Braid looking forward on trying the new Super 8 Slick for both this year. After I go over an area with these baits, I start looking for some non-aggressive or neutral fish. My second technique is mat punching or dunking. You either look for small holes in the mat or you make a hole yourself with your bait. You can use many different types of bait to punch with, my choices are: Sweet and Double wide Beavers with 1 to 1.5 oz. Ultra Tungsten Weights and an Owner Wide Gap Plus XXX hook and a Revenge Flipping Jig 1oz. My combo of choice for the beavers is a FSR906X 7'6 Mag-Heavy IMX G Loomis Rod (they don't make this rod anymore)but I also use BCFR954 GLX 7'11 Heavy G Loomis Rod with a Shimano Core with 65-pound Power Pro braid. For my jig rods I have 2 different rods. My dock rod is a BCFR894 GLX 7'5 Heavy G Loomis Rod with a Shimano Core with 20 pound P Line Fluorocarbon. For anything else I use the same rod but with 65-pound Power Pro braid. So now you see when it's time to get down and dirty you need to pull out the big stuff. No need for light gear here you want to get the bass out of the junk. The reason why I like fishing the junk is this is where you'll find the biggest and nastiest bass in the jungle that will give you a fight to the finish. I think once you get over the fear of going in and getting your boat dirty. Even if you're a weekend fisherman or an avid tournament angler you'll be rewarded with the bass of your life.