Struggling to catch bass on highly fished water? Lately, there has been a tremendous amount of fishing pressure on Sand Hollow. Reports say there can be anywhere of 30 bass boats on a weekend. This is crazy high for a lake where you can literally run-around the entire lake on foot in only an hour. I’ve heard of people feeling frustrated about not being able to catch fish. Here’s some tips on what to use when the water gets highly fished and the bass are feeling pressured. I was able to go out from my paddle board on Sand Hollow, and caught a dozen in only a few hours of fishing with the stuff here in this post. Enjoy!
Bass can be tough to catch when baits are being hucked at them all the time. This report on Sand Hollow outlines the baits, the techniques, where, and how you can catch fish even when the fishing pressure seems insurmountable. You should be able to use these same techniques to get bites even when those around you aren’t catching much. Hopefully, you can find some useful stuff in here for highly fished water to keep you “Kraken” bass!
On my recent outing at the lately highly fished water of Sand Hollow, I found two main baits to catch bass. I tried a few other things, but these presentations out worked the rest. The description of these baits is below which includes the color, the size of the hooks and weights, and the rod and reel set ups to use them. These are solid baits, and have produced on other lakes as well when conditions are tough. Give them a try!
The Ayu Megabass Dot Crawler produced a few nice bass for me. This bait works well in highly pressured water, because of it’s natural color and unique action in the water. It’s a bait not very many people use, because they can be hard to find unless you shop online. At Sand Hollow, the Dot Crawler worked well texas rigged with a 3/16 oz tungsten bullet weight and a 3/0 gamakatsu offset worm hook. This set up seemed best on a medium heavy bait casting rod and reel set up with 10 lbs fluorocarbon line. Fish the dot crawler by slowly dragging it along the bottom. Pay close attention to your line, so you don’t miss those bites from those highly pressured fish. The bites can often be a lot more subtle on highly fished waters.
The 3″ Roboworm Nedworm is an incredibly natural bait that will catch bass in highly fished water. This bait works well for me in Sand Hollow. Hands down it out fishes a lot of other baits in crystal clear water. The key is to use a good spinning rod and reel set up, so you can get some distance out of your casts. The Robo Nedworm worked the best on the 1/10 oz Z-man ned rig jig head. This super light jig head let the bait fall super slowly, and stands the bait up on it’s head. I saw a bass literally swim over and eat this thing in front of my eyes. Definitely, an amazing bait to produce bass on highly fished waters.
The key to success is to find areas tucked away and not obvious to most anglers. Here’s a map of where I found the fish on my Paddle Board on Sand Hollow. Plus, some tips to help you locate similar spots on highly fished water.
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This area doesn’t get fished because of the no-boat zone buoys. Areas like this obviously don’t get pounded on by the bass boats, and can produce well. Also, fishing out deeper proved to be beneficial. Most anglers in the spring concentrate on shallow fish, when there still are plenty of bass to be found out deep.
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Here’s a super short video of these techniques in action. This should give you a better idea of how these baits work, and how to fish them to catch bass. Don’t forget to hit the like button, and subscribe to the YouTube channel while you are viewing. This will keep you informed of any new video’s to help you get “Kraken” bass!
It’s easy to get caught up in “Dock Talk.” Don’t let what other people say discourage you from going out fishing. Mix it up. Use smaller baits, and you will never know what you can find. I caught a dozen bass in only a few hours of fishing with these techniques. The key is to not get stuck throwing the same things because they worked in the past. Bass are always moving and changing to their environment, and we should learn to adapt and change like they do in order to catch more of them.
Hopefully, you found these tips beneficial. The links in here are affiliate links were you can pick up baits, rod’s, reels, line, and anything else I use to “Krak” bass on this trip. KrakenBass.com receives a small percentage of the sales through these links. I only use links to baits, and gear I personally trust and know work. The links are here to be helpful for you, and not for the small amount made on the sale of the products. Check out my products page for other stuff help you in your quest for bass: Krakenbass Products. I hope these things can help keep you “kraken” some bass like they have for me. Thanks for your support!
As Always,
Stay Stoked!!
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9 Responses
Good stuff. Thank you m
Your welcome!
Great write up! Keep them coming.
I will thanks for the motiviation!
why do I always have to enter my name and email to see ‘premium content’? you already have my email.
Unfortunately, that’s the way the widget I purchased works for viewing maps. Once you unlock the map though you can save it google maps for later to view whenever you want. The cookie should last for about 3 months, so you can always see it when you hop on, but if you access the site from a different device it will ask you for your email again. Glad you are digging the maps!
I think I have caught every fish in Sand Hollow. Twice. From the bank. Just click on Sand Hollow in the the Fish Brain app and scroll down, you will see my hand and my japanese lures, over and over. My most recent post is from this weekend, where I killed it on the Dot Crawler. Good Call Krakin! Best lure on Sand Hollow from Oct. to March is a 1/2 to 3/4 Lipless, yo yo’d off the bottom in 20-30 ft. of water. I honestly don’t think I will go out there again until the fall. The fishing pressure is redic, every fish you catch looks like it has been caught 3 times.
Keep Krakin’, Krakin. Great articles and content.
Very Nice work, son. You know your stuff!!
big pumpers know what to do id say