Interesting bass fishing technique

My best friend is a professional bass fisherman. He isn't a fly rodder, but the typical baitcasting, fast boat, loads of technology, "today's modern pro" type guy who has had a good deal of success. I often go with him when he pre-fishes tournaments which are nearby. This fall, we got into a good routine when we would find spotted bass schooling near the surface on big impoundments:

He would throw a crankbait and get hooked up (immediately when they are schooling). As he reeled in the fish, I would throw a streamer (usually the biggest deceiver I could find) close behind his fish. Inevitably, several fish will break off from the school and be following the hooked fish to the boat. We doubled them up all Fall (even tripled once when he hooked two on a crankbait, one on the front treble, one on the back. I'd heard of it, but that was the first time I'd actually witnessed it).

Loads of fun! Like sightcasting to really small, really stupid tarpon http://www.flyanglersonline.com/bb/smile.gif

The old "bait and switch". Not a bad tactic.
It's used in salt water fly fishing a lot for catching sailfish and marlin. A teaser is trolled behind the boat and when the fish comes up to hit it, the engines are placed in neutral and the teaser reeled in then pulled from the water when the fish is in casting range. The fly is cast and more often than not the fish nails it.
I won the fly fishing division of a salt water tournament this past spring because I was in the right spot when the three guys around me who were throwing hardware hooked up with bluefish. As they fought the fish into my casting range I made a cast in the general area and picked up one of the trailing bluefish that had followed the hooked fish in.
I've also seen it in Canada with smallmouth where several fish will follow the hooked fish to the boat. Drop a fly or a lure in front of them and you can usually get one to grab it.

Did the same thing this fall that landed me my personal best to date LMB. Sorta.....anyways.....I was BG fishing when the lunker Bass ambushed my hooked up BGs more than a few times. I would quickly reel in the BG, release away from the hookup zone and re-tie my Bluegill Imitator fly on and cast it back where the ambush took place and strip the BG fly in a herky jerky, spastic ,"HELP! I'm-a-bluegill-caught-on-this-fly-that's-taking-me-to-dryland!" mode of retrieval. and the big Bass would naturally come to the aid of the BG---"Here little fishy, I'll help ya, just ride in my mouth back out to the deep water with me, har har".

Now I only wished I had taken two rods with me and had the second one rigged with the big BG imitator at the ready when the ambushes occurred. But it sure was loads of fun!

Steve

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I fish, therefore I swam.

I seen that tactic work on smallmouth bass and white bass. A similar tactic works on Musky or Northern Pike. When you get a follow from a Musky or Northern Pike on a standard "active" bait (crankbait, spinner, etc) and can't get the fish to hit, toss a streamer or leech pattern at the fish and sometimes the toothy critter will hit the more subtle fly.