Shiners are great baits for fall bass on Lake Marion

Plenty of Lake Marion bass will hit live bait fished around heavy cover in the fall.

Fishermen would do well to take a “shine” to bass through November and into the winter on Lake Marion. The use of live bait, specifically shiners, produces both quality and quantity of largemouth bass. The entire lake is good, although the upper end of the lake is a prime spot with flooded forests of cypress trees, large flats with an abundance of stumps and logs and the dense cover of the upper-lake swamp.

Guide Andy Pack of Packs Landing said November is prime time for using live bait for largemouth.

“The water temperature is dropping, and there’s extensive cover in the swamp flats and back in the standing cypress tree areas,” Pack said. “The colder water has the bass less aggressive for artificial lures but very willing to take live bait. Not only are the prospects of catching a trophy fish very good with live bait, fish up to 8 pounds and larger are not unusual, but so is catching a limit of quality fish.”

Pack said he uses a simple rig that consists of baitcasting tackle with 17-pound line. He said a 6-inch shiner is a good average size for bait, hooked through the lips or just in front of the dorsal fin. He will put a float on the line from a foot to 4 or 5 feet deep depending on the depth of water he’s fishing. He adds a small split-shot to keep the bait down, but not large enough to restrict it from free swimming. He uses a 1/0 hook, small enough to allow the live bait to move naturally.

“I fish shiners in different ways,” Pack said. “One of my favorites is to get in the swamp and cast the bait around targets such as trees, stumps and logs. I work those at the edge of deeper water, especially along the deeper runs in the swamp where current exists. I fish the open spots or ‘lakes’ in the swamp. Anywhere creeks enter the main runs in the swamp are ideal, and here I’ll fish the eddy water as well as any stumps or logs that offer target opportunities. Another favorite technique of mine is to drift over stumpy flats that have lots of woody cover. Doing this,I can employ a couple of rigs.

“Always look for bass schooling and fish those places,” Pack said. “Bass school a good bit in November, and when you see fish schooling, move in quiet, drift-fish that entire area, and you can quickly catch multiple fish. Also, by fishing live bait a bit deeper, I target the bigger fish that are often beneath the shallow, aggressive, topwater schooling fish.

About Terry Madewell 799 Articles
Award-winning writer and photographer Terry Madewell of Ridgeway, S.C., has been an outdoors writer for more than 30 years. He has a degree in wildlife and fisheries management and has a long career as a professional wildlife biologist/natural resources manager.

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply