Matt Kelly launched his Ranger bass boat, and we quickly started searching for bass last Saturday at a secluded lake in West Alabama. The sun was bright, and there wasn’t much activity at first. As we worked the shallow flats, I cast a Junebug colored Bass Pro Shops Stik-O near a patch of grass and saw the line twitch slightly as the lure sunk.

Wham! I reared back and jerked the bass slam out of the water and quickly brought him to the boat and deposited it in the Ranger’s “supper well.” Kelly was running the trolling motor as we worked the shallow water, and he followed up with his first bass caught on a shaky head soon after mine.

As Kelly worked the grass patch, I spotted a submerged log and cast just past it and worked it back over it, but it never made it all the way as a bass smashed it and bore down toward the bottom. I slammed the hook home and drove the Gamakatsu hook deep into the jaw of the bass, and it exploded through the surface and tail walked all the way to the boat, wallowing wildly and shaking his head from side to side! I finally wore him down and swung him into the boat, and our fishing trip started off with a bang!

Kelly continued working the shallow water, and he alternated between a Texas rigged worm and a shad-colored fluke. We never went far without getting a bite, and Kelly was working the bass over regularly. On several occasions, we caught bass back-to-back and even caught a double.

Although the bass were not striking aggressively, they would bite when you slowed down and worked the lure very slowly. When they struck the plastic flukes and Senco style worms, they meant business and usually tore out like they were shot out of a cannon. If you could catch up to them and get the slack out, they were fairly easy to catch.

Our main pattern involved grass, and most of the strikes came along the edge of the grass on flukes, Bass Pro Stik-O’s and Texas rigged worms. We caught the shallow-water fish in or alongside the grass with the unweighted plastics and caught the bass that were a little deeper on Texas rigged worms. In fact, our biggest bass of the afternoon came off of Texas rigged worms fished along the submerged stumps and brush in 4 to 5 feet of water.

Matt would cast his shad-colored fluke out and set the hook and catch one, and I’d follow up with one of my own caught on a Stik-O. Numerous times, we’d catch bass off of the shallow grass and then catch a couple along wood cover or brush.

I was catching bass and alternating between a shad color or Junebug colored BPS Stik-O and catching fish regularly. There’s just something about enticing bass to bite in the late afternoon when they’re not very active.

However, with many years of tournament fishing under our belts, it’s usually easy to establish a pattern and then catch fish. After we honed down our pattern to grass or wood cover just off of the bank, we got bit regularly and had quite a bit of success finding them and catching them. Even though the cold front and bright sun had slowed them down a bit, we had a great day on the water catching and releasing bass to the supper well to be filleted and prepared for a scrumptious fried meal!

Kelly is an excellent bass angler, turkey hunter and dog trainer, and he loves living in the great outdoors and taking his passion to the schools and outdoor events, conducting seminars about fishing and hunting and also warning youngsters of the dangers of drug use, prescription or otherwise. Not too many people love to fish or hunt more than Kelly, and it shows as he spreads his passion for God, family and the great outdoors! Carpé diem!

Call Mike Giles at 601-917-3898 or email mikegiles18@comcast.net.