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Master Bed Fishing with Elite Series Pro Drew Benton

Published: Updated:

Drew Benton gives some helpful insights and tips on how to target bedding Bass!

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I'm just looking for a place, I'm looking for a garter spot. I can mix a little dawn and spray it like that. It slits all that ripple off. You see how it makes a big slick right there? I'm just looking for any pockets that I can look in that's relatively protective. We had this is the first, this is the brightest we've had so it's been really really cloudy so the name of the game obviously is being able to see. And it's late in the year we are not quite down to the dam but as a rule of thumb the spawn happens from the upper part of the lake to the lower part of the lake so we're mid-lake right now so from here down to the dam would be where it would be going down. This would be like the very tail end of the spawn. Are you determining that by water temp? Yeah it's like 75 right now. It was 77 to 81 at Murray. I think the rain is what cooled it down a few degrees here. You know I think that these fish probably are around the same stage as they are on Murray. You know honestly. I'm just looking for a place. I'm looking for a garter spot. You know they've got one spot in that bed that you know obviously they're really particular about. And that sweet spot is where you want to be. But like see this fish right here. If after about five minutes he's not showing me any aggression I'll actually go start pitch at its tail and get it to turn around and try to aggravate it more or less. Get it snapping at the bait. See when he moved off of it that that other one got up there on the bed. How often do you run across beds and there's multiple fish on them? More than two I'm saying like. Oh it's pretty rare for me. I mean if we're fishing a full out spawn event I might find one or two like that over the course of the tournament. Oh he's got it. That's the male that's got it in his mouth right now though. I'm going to try to see if he'll swim off and she'll get up there because every time that he's got off of it she's got up there. And ideally you'd like to catch her first. Does that really work the whole lot of the male go if you catch it? It'll go back and the females go right. 50/50. I've done it a couple times since worked. I've also done it. I did it at Lake Murray. I caught the male three times in the tournament I won fishing for a six pounder. And he every time I would catch him the female would get up there and she'd be about to bite and he'd run back up there and run her off and then he'd bite again. So it was almost to the point where he'd bet it again. It was almost to the point I needed to get him out of the way. But the thing about side fishing is everyone has a different personality. There's something that makes it tick and you just got to figure that out. On average how long do you give a fish? Like how much work time would you put in this? It depends on the size and what I've got at the time. It has a lot to do with it. Where we're at in the tournament. I mean it's just a lot of factors. I've spent an hour on some that I'm like if I catch that one bass I'm getting in the cut. So it's all a coordination scenario. Is there ever a behavior that tells you this has not happened? Yeah if they're rubbing really hard and like staying off the bed and caught what I call courting it's hard to it's they're almost like in a trance. They're not worried about protecting a spot and it's almost hard. You have to get them out of that trance to even get on the bite. And I can you can do that but it takes a lot of time and you're better off if you've got time in the bay leaving coming back and fishing for them at a different time. Rod and line how do you choose it? I'm a like seven three extra heavy MBX. Phoenix Rod 20 pound cigar and Visix. Sometimes I'll go straight braid if we're in Florida in pads or something like that. It's not something you got to skimp online. So anytime there's a ripple in the water like that and I can't really see what 's going on. I can mix a little dawn and spray it like that. It slicks all that ripple off. You see how it makes a big slick right there? And I can kind of tell you know really what's happening. If I thought I saw a fish and you know I wanted to check to see how big it was or if it really wasn't fish I'll turn back around and spray and air you down. Look at it. I feel the thing with water and I just put it like squirt it on in there. It doesn't take much. See this is the scenario right here that I wish I would have waited you know and came back and caught the female first whenever I could because I caught the male and she has left the building. She's not friends. Because there's really if you think about it she's up there. Actually there she is right there. She just came back but she's not acting right. If she's up here she's up here to pair up with a male and the male is not there then what reason does she have to stay you know unless she's already laid. I've seen it where you catch that male and it fires her up and she gets in there and bites at the first piece and I've seen it where it does the total opposite. Check to see what this one does. She's sitting over there to dry the bed right now. She nobody but us needs another took me like way longer than she should have took. (upbeat music)