Callum Munro is an exciting prospect on the tournament bass scene. This young angler has shown and proven consistency when it comes to tackling the older heads on the circuit. Plenty of time on the water and a youthful approach to bass fishing currently has him ranking amongst the best in the country. Here he describes how to attack a fresh summer’s day on any bass fishing impoundment.

Competitive Bass Fishing
I’ve been competing in bass tournaments for six years now and I still really enjoy them. There are few things better than being on the water early and competing against other skilled anglers and the sometimes elusive bass. Bass tournament fishing has really made the use of lures popular and the catch and release aspect helps keep the bass population booming in the freshwater impoundments in QLD and NSW. Summer is an exciting time to be fishing our impoundments because there are so many options available. It is easy to fall into the trap of spending too much time wondering what to do instead of just choosing a strategy and fishing it hard. I’ve had some good success in warm season tournaments and many mates of mine often ask how I approach a new day on the water. I thought it was worth running through some consistent summer time techniques; having digested the information, hopefully you’ll be able to settle on one or more that will hold you in good stead on your next bass fishing excursion!
Edge Bite
Summer is a great season to catch chunky bass and early morning is an awesome time to be out on the water. The conditions are usually calm, the wildlife is out and it’s definitely one of the peak periods to be casting a lure. In the early morning I like to cast to the edges because the water is a little cooler and there is low light penetrating the water. This usually means that the fish will be up in the shallows feeding on small baitfish or yabbies. The strategy used when targeting edges is to have a few rods set up with a couple of different lures on them. My quiver of rods usually includes one rigged with a surface lure, another with a sub-surface lure and the remainder with spinnerbait and vibration bait style lures. Once you start fishing an edge you’ll soon be able to see if it is going to be a surface bite or not. If the fish are biting on surface lures you will usually catch some cracking bass. If there is little in the way of visible surface action, I rarely persist with throwing surface lures and begin to concentrate on my sub-surface approaches.
Spinnerbaits are a loud and annoying lure when put in front of fish and they are best used to provoke ‘reaction’ bites. My favourite retrieve when fishing these flashy offerings is to pitch a cast right up into the shallows before quickly burning (fast retrieve) the lure for a short distance; this lets any fish in the near

vicinity pick up the vibration of something new in its space. Having burnt the lure for 5 to 10 m, I then let the spinnerbait fall back to the bottom before completing the retrieve by using a very slow wind. Use your eyes to determine where to best land the lure and then watch your fishing line to establish how the lure is working and when it has hit structure or the bottom during the retrieve. Always try and follow the contour of the edge you are fishing. By this I mean control the depth of the lure during the retrieve so that it’s always within striking distance of the bottom or local structure. Maintaining a constant watch on your sounder makes for good fishing practice. I often glean valuable tips about where fish are tending to hold by watching the sounder screen. For example, some days they tend to cruise the mid to upper parts of the water column, while other days will have them anchored tight to bottom. This allows me to adapt my retrieve to keep my lure in prime fish strikezone territory.
Vibration baits are a versatile lure choice and will produce fish in many scenarios. These lures are often referred to as lipless crankbaits and can be jigged close to the bottom or wiggled through upper areas of the water column. My favourite approach is to ‘slow roll’ these lures. Pitch a cast up onto the edge, let it sink briefly and then just slow wind it back to the boat. The fish just love it and strikes are often savage!

Bass are becoming an increasingly popular target species. Employ the right techniques and the results will come.

Ice Jig bite
Many anglers associate schooling bass primarily as a winter phenomenon; this is not the case. In many of my favourite impoundments, fish will often school against dominant structures during various stages of the day. For example, in my local impoundment of Borumba, large schools of bass are often found in the summer months holding tight against rocky drop-offs or the edge of the old creek bed. Over the last couple of years ice jigs have been one of the best lures to use in a school bite and plenty of tournaments have been won using these baits.
Lake Somerset in Queensland is one of the best dams to ice jig good-sized fish. At the time of writing, the last two Bass Pro Competitions have been won on ice jigs. These lures are versatile in that they can be used on flats or drop-offs into deeper water. The key to catching fish on ice jigs is less about the lure and a great deal about how you use your sounder. You really need to have a quality colour sounder that can pick up the bass that are tight to the bottom. Down-imaging is a great feature that has made finding the fish a lot easier. I have my sounder screen split to show down-imaging on one half and sonar on the other. This allows me to identify schooling fish on both, but with the detailed definition to be able to distinguish between schooling bass and schools of just baitfish. The Hummingbird 898 CXI is my secret weapon when tournament fishing.
Ice jigs will work all day long, the key to catching fish on them is to keep the lure in the fish’s face for as long as possible. When fishing the shallower flats with ice jigs, make sure you have the lure as tight to the bottom as possible throughout the retrieve. Successful flats fishing requires slow jigging of the lure along the bottom. This retrieve is made easier with the direct contact that a baitcast outfit provides. My standard ice jig retrieve employs plenty of pauses, and many strikes occur during those important pauses. A valuable lesson when using ice jigs is to not strike at those investigative taps. The act of striking a bite will pull the hooks away from many interested bass. It is critical that you wait for the rod to load up with the weight of a bass before leaning on a fish. It is common to receive subtle taps at the lure when presenting an ice jig to schooled bass. In the event that you are getting repeatedly ‘tapped’ without provoking solid strikes it often pays to speed up the retrieve. This forces the fish to make a decision and properly mouth your lure.
A good strategy when fishing a rock wall or a creek bed is to fish the jig just off the bottom to prevent snagging. I’ll often fish the jig quite quickly so as to make it look like a baitfish or yabby trying to find cover. Fast jigging means you rarely feel the bite; following a pause you will commence the retrieve only to find you are solidly hooked-up! There are quite a few ice jigs out on the market but my favourite has got to be the SMAK. These have got very sharp hooks and come in two different models: the Darter and the Glider. There are also two different sizes: a 7 and a 12 g lure. The 12 g is most often used in my fishing as I usually fish in 8 to 15 m of water. However, when the fish are schooled in shallower water, the 7 g lure becomes my go-to option.
Blade Bite
Blade lures have helped me win quite a few tournaments over the past few seasons. These metal vibration baits can be used to great effect on edges and schooling bass. There are many ways to use blades when targeting bass; my favourite however is when you are faced with the option of schooling fish. The majority of my bass are caught while ‘hopping’ a blade close to the bottom. It’s important to firstly identify an area where bass are concentrating and then casting a lure so that it is presented as closely as possible. Your line will notify you that a lure has struck bottom by subtly relaxing as the substrate takes up the weight of the lure. These lures can then be jigged from the bottom by simply lifting the tip of the rod. Once you have jigged the lure, it’s important to always retrieve any slack line while you are dropping the rod tip back towards horizontal. This is quite often the time that bass will bite. Another successful blade retrieve involves slowly winding the lure through key fish holding territory. Let the lure hit bottom and then start to retrieve it for around 10 cranks of the handle before pausing and letting the lure settle; continue this retrieve all the way back to the boat.
Plastic Bite
Soft plastics have been around for a long time yet bass continue to love them. This could be attributed to the fact that there are so many techniques you can employ with these lures. They can be cast towards edges or when targeting schooling bass but I use them most when chasing suspending fish in amongst timber. Some of the hook-ups you get with these fish are awesome with the smallest of taps often turning into cranky 50 cm bass. Effectively targeting these suspending fish requires the study of your sounder as it will give you clues as to the depth that the fish are sitting. I most commonly use jigheads ranging between 1/4, 3/8 and 1/2 oz: my favourite being the 3/8 oz because it keeps the plastics in the strikezone the longest. Having sounded suspending fish, sit over them and drop the plastic down towards them; estimating the sink rate of the lure is important and practicing techniques such as counting while the lure sinks, will quickly help you to gauge where the lure is in relation to suspending fish at all times. Once you believe the lure has reached the depth the fish are positioned, slowly turn the reel handle 10 or so times before letting the plastic sink again for 5 seconds. This allows the lure to fall back into the strikezone.
Bass will take a soft plastic subtly; when a fish starts biting the lure DON’T strike! Let the fish load the rod up before adding your weight to the rod grips. This is a hard practice to adopt initially but if you strike at the fish you will usually pull the lure straight out of its mouth. When choosing the right soft plastic, I usually pick a paddletail or a curl-tail style lure: I believe it’s important to throw something that possesses an action when the lure falls. My favourite soft plastic has got to be a Berkley Jigging Grub in the Pepper prawn colour. Berkley Ripple Shads are also a close favourite.
The Summer Wrap
New variables will be thrown your way every time you hit a bass fishing impoundment. Having a few tricks to fall back on is always a good thing. Use your eyes and instincts as a guiding tool. The clues on your sounder and those that the local environment is presenting will often be the best guide as to what strategy to employ. Spend some time studying the water whenever you start a new day and then reach into the bag of tools to pull out the best option, cast with confidence and you will be hooking ‘em in no time!