STRAIN THE WATER FOR MORE FISH
By Bob Jensen

Sometimes anglers get in too much of a hurry to catch fish. Sure it’s natural for us to want to start catching fish as soon after hitting the water as possible, but at times it works better to slow down and work a spot very thoroughly before moving to the next spot. Here are some ideas for catching more fish by straining the water.

Perhaps you have heard of the idea of fishing the “spot on the spot.” Let’s say there is a large flat on a body of water, and at times the fish will be spread out all over that flat. 

Extending from one corner of that flat is a small finger. All of the flat looks pretty much the same except for that one finger jutting out into deeper water. That small finger is where most of the fish go when they aren’t spread out on the flat and is what many anglers refer to as the “spot on the spot.” The flat is where the fish loosely congregate, but the finger is where they concentrate. 

When the fish are aggressively feeding, they will spread out on the flat and will be best fished by moving quickly.

But when weather conditions move in that cause them to slow their feeding, or, when they just go off their feeding frenzy, you can expect to find them tightly schooled on or very near to that finger. Now is when you will want to slow down and strain the water on that finger.

In the summer, it’s pretty hard to beat a Roach Rig for straining the water. This set-up is about as bare bones as you can get: It’s simply a hook, adjustable snell, and a sinker that slides on your line. The sliding sinker prevents the fish from detecting pressure when they bite, and the adjustable snell enables an angler to quickly change the depth at which the bait is running. This time of year we will usually have a leech or crawler on the hook.

When straining the water, it is very important that you know exactly where the “spot on the spot” is. This is where some depth-finder work comes in. The most successful anglers will cruise an area until the concentration of fish is found. Those anglers aren’t just looking for an area that looks good, they’re looking for fish on the depth finder. Some depth finders do a better job of marking fish than others. The Humminbird Legend 3000 does an excellent job, and the new Matrix 35 that I started using recently has been equally impressive.

Straining the water is a much slower, deliberate method of catching fish. It works best to slowly work through the fish with different types and sizes of bait, and different snell lengths. Sometimes switching to colored hooks will pay big dividends. Every now and then you might want to drop a jig down there to see if that is the preferred presentation of the day. The action might not be real fast, but there are usually a few fish that will be willing to eat, and on days when the bite is off, a few fish are much better than no fish.

Remember that straining the water and fishing the “spot on the spot” will put fish in the boat when nothing else will and you’ll find that your “no fish” days will decrease quite a bit.