Fishing different sizes of fishing line to catch bass in lakes with lots of rocks and trees is always a big variable.
Use too small a line and you risk break-offs and losing fish. Use line that’s too heavy and you impart less action to lures and risk not having adequate “feel” to detect strikes.
At Falls Lake, guide Kennon Brown sticks with 15-pound test line.
“I’m looking for sensitivity,” he said. “I always try to look for my line moving off, especially after I’ve had a lure hit the water around a tree, stump, rock or blowdown, but sometimes it’s just a matter of feeling a small ‘tick’ on the line.”
Sometimes a bass will simply suck a lure into its mouth and not move away.
“With 15-pound line, it’s pretty strong, and I can feel a lure if he’s just grabbed it but isn’t moving,” he said.
Brown prefers Stren or Trilene monofilament fished on 7-foot St. Croix rods and Daiwa or Abu-Garcia baitcasting reels.
“When I’m fishing deep with a Carolina rig, the secret to hooking bass is to use a sweeping hookset,” he said. “You don’t jerk the rod. The secret is to see where the line’s moving, then sweep the rod tip in the opposite direction. When a bass feels tension on a lure, that’s when he’ll chomp down on it.”
This article is part of the Three Times the Charm? feature in the June issue of North Carolina Sportsman, which is now on newsstands. Digital editions also can be downloaded right to your computer or smartphone.
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