Arizona Lake Fishing

What is Pitching?

Pitching is a bass fishing technique anglers use to guide their bait to a desired location. It works best when you need to get your bait into a small opening near heavy cover, under low-hanging limbs, and/or around boat docks. The best anglers, the ones who always catch the big ones, are all proficient pitchers.

Pitching is ideal for:

1. Off-color or muddy water
2. Targets between 10 and 30 feet away
3. Target provides a quiet lure entry into the water

Pitching for Bass You’ll need:

• 25 pound test 100% fluorocarbon line
• 7′ 6″ heavy rod with plenty of backbone to wrestle the biggies

What to Pitch

A jig. But nearly any single-hook bait can be pitched. Rig it into a Texas rig.

How to Pitch for bass

1. With your rig on the line, face the target.
2. Depress the line release and let out enough line so the bait is even with the first guide.
3. Put the bait in your off-hand at about waist level.
4. Lower the rod tip toward the target and put a little tension on the line.
5. In one smooth, quick motion, swing the rod tip toward the target and upward. Letting go of the bait.
6. As the bait moves under the rod tip, release the line and continue raising the rod tip and control the spool with your thumb.
7. Stop the line just before it enters the water.

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Drop shot fishing is a great way to catch largemouth bass especially in the cooler months when they are a little slower than during the spawn. With a drop shot you can catch bass consistently in deep water, say 25 feet to 35 feet or even at 45 feet deep.

How to rig a drop shot?

Photo: Roboworm: Red Crawler RoboTail

The drop shot rig is a finesse worm technique. I prefer to use Roboworms (pictured above) and have found them to be very effective at Bartlett Lake

1. Tie your hook (#1 wide gap hook preferred) about 18 inches above the loose end of your line. Use a Palomar Knot.
2. Take the loose end of your line and bring it back through the eye of your hook. This will help the hook stay straight.
3. With the loose end, attach a 3/16th once drop shot weight with another Palomar knot.
4. Choose your bait. Work with 3 to 4 inch soft plastic worms or soft plastic shad type imitations. Color is dependent on the water color. Use watermelon or green shades in clear waters and reds to June bug in murky water.
5. There are 3 ways to rig your bait for a drop shot:
   1. Texas rigged where you hook the bait into the worm and bury the hook into the back to make a weed less hook. Texas rig works best in deeper waters.
   2. Wacky style where you hook the bait through the center and leave the hook exposed. Wacky style works great in deep water when fish are suspended away from structure
   3. Standard style hook your bait directly through the nose and leave the hook exposed.

Using a Drop Shot Rig

• A drop shot is best used on a spinning rod and reel. You want a rod that is flexible and sensitive to any taps.
• Your choice of line depends on water clarity. In deep clear water use 6 and 8 lb test line.
• Cast out into the lake. Drop shot has a tendency to twist. Try tying a swivel onto your weight.
• Allow the bait to sink to the bottom. Pay attention and you’ll feel when the sinker hits the bottom through your rod.
• Slowly work the bait back and keep the line taunt. Try walking, skipping, swimming the bait and wait several seconds in between each motion. The timing is important. Cool water bass, like in the early spring and fall, will have a slow reaction time where warmer water bass might move in quicker.
• You’re waiting for the “TAP-TAP”, the trademark of the largemouth bass strike on your bait. Sometimes it’s very soft and you might miss it, others it’s so sharp you can’t possibly miss it.
• When you feel the “tap-tap”, set that hook as quickly as you can. You got a fish.

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Roosevelt Lake is 94% full with an elevation of 2100 feet.

Night anglers are catching a bunch of largemouth bass, some reported up to 40 fish. One angler caught 20 and all were in the slot. Even though the bite is slow, the action is not. The water temp is at 84 degrees in the morning and water clarity is around 8-10 feet.

For best results: Use the drop shot method with plastics. The Texas and Carolina rigs are working well. If you are seeing boils which are more common in the mornings, try crankbaits and topwater lures.

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Water elevation is 1,692 feet, which is 89-percent full.

Largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, white bass, striped bass and crappie are all biting at Lake Pleasant. Morning bite lasting until around 10:30 a.m. and evening picking up around 6 p.m.

For largemouth use drop shot and a shad looking swim bait.

For small mouth use minnows.

For striped bass use frozen anchovies with a little or no weight.

Best results: Go to the middle coves and look for schools of bait fish. Use Texas-rigged worms and brush hogs. The biggs (18 – 19 inch) are hitting on top water Spooks along the brush line.

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Water elevation is at 1,640 ft (43-percent full)

Catfish are biting at Lake Pleasant. Reports are saying there are good boils at first light and then tapering off rapidly as the sun rises. Others say they have had good action all morning. It may depend on location.

Try using poppers, stick baits, jerkbaits at dawn. Then move to spinners or curly tails especially for stripers and whites.

After the surface action wanes, try drop shots, Texas-rigged plastics, or Carolia-rigged plastics.

Stay in the northern portion near the “fingers” until late morning.

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Texas rig (Texas-rigged) – The method of securing a hook to a soft-plastic bait, such as a worm, lizard or crawfish, so that the hook is weedless (doesn’t protrude). Typically, a slip sinker (often a bullet sinker) is threaded onto the line and then a hook is tied to the end of the fish line. The hook (often an offset hook) is inserted into the head of the soft-plastic bait for about one-quarter of an inch and brought through until only the eye is still embedded in the soft-plastic bait. The hook is then rotated and the point is embedded slightly into the body of the soft-plastic worm without coming out the opposite side. Many anglers try to ensure the bait stays straight once it is Texas-rigged.

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Carolina rig or Carolina rigged – A special rig in which an exposed or hidden hook is used with a soft plastic lure placed 2 to 3 feet behind an egg or barrel sinker and swivel. Used primarily for deep fishing with heavier weights than a Texas rig. This rig is most commonly used with a plastic worm or lizard, but can be used with floating crankbaits and other lures.

A variation on this theme is using a lighter, spinning outfit with a split shot placed on the line 12 to 30 inches above the hook, with a small worm or lizard (4 to 6 inches) rigged Texas style. This style can be used in shallow or deep water, and is especially good for use in the clear, Western reservoirs, or when it is appropriate to down-size, such as in winter.

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California rig or California-rigged – A method of deep-water fishing in which a plastic worm is placed at the end of a leader trailing behind a sinker.

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