A Few Inches Deeper

"I'm not hitting any cover," Nathaniel said, having been thinking about my comment from a few minutes earlier that most strikes were coming after I felt my crankbait bump off a stump.

I'd caught four bass and lost another in pretty short order since Doug Markham had figured out that the bass were using a shallow, stump-covered flat and that they were tuned into crankbaits. Nathaniel was throwing an XCalibur Square Lip Xcs2, just like I was, and was making the same presentations over the same stumps, but so far he'd not had a strike.

Then it hit me. His baitcaster was spooled with 17-pound-test. The one I was fishing was spooled with 10. The lighter line was allowing my bait to go just a tiny bit deeper, and in that specific setting, that gave me just enough depth to hit the tops of the stumps and trigger strikes. Nathaniel didn't want to trade rods with me, and it was too late in the day for a total overhaul. He did pick up a rod that was spooled with 14-pound-test, though, and even that difference allowed him to hit a little bit of cover. Just a few minutes later he was in the game with a bass of his own.

Little things can make a big difference some days, and yesterday was one such day.