Lake Jackson Bang-O-Lure Bustin’ Bass

With a twitch of the rod tip, the long, skinny plug darts and wiggles seductively on the surface. The next twitch, a bit sharper, makes the tiny prop at the back of the plug gurgle and the propeller sends water flying back over the front of the lure.

For the angler on the other end of the fishing line, the anticipation is nerve-racking and difficult to control. Just one more twitch will pull that Bang-O-Lure in front of the nose of a bass the angler can see, it’s bigger than any he’s ever caught, and this fish will not just hit the lure, it’s gonna explode on it.

“They blow it to pieces,” is how Eric Perkins describes a bass hitting a Bang-0-Lure when it is twitched across a bed.

Erie lives on Lake Jackson and knows the lake as well as any angler that regularly fishes its waters for largemouth. He also fishes successfully in several tournament circuits including the HD Marine Trail, so Eric is not just a “homer” who does well only on his home lake.

Other times of the year he might be found on any Georgia lake fishing a tourney or getting ready for one, but there’s a magic period in April when the Lake Jackson chunks—those 5- to 9-1b. bass everyone talks about catching on a well-known winter patter —move up and guard the sandy pockets, and Eric will be on Jackson daylight to dark.

‘That’s the week I live for,” he said. “When it’s right, boy you can kill ’em.”

And if catching big bass from a public reservoir isn’t reason enough to get excited, it’s the technique—topwater with a bait that the big bass seem to attack rather than just eat. That’s what really gets you hooked. For Eric, this Bang-O-Lure over-the-bed technique is about the excitement of the hit combined with the size of the bass. When fun fishing like this, Eric quickly releases the big, egg-filled bass, and he said nine times out of 10 they go right back to the bed—he’s even seen them hit again!

The No. 5 Bang-O-Lure, a 5-inch skinny crankbait with a very small lip made by Bagley’s, is well-known as a great postspawn lure when big bass will readily eat topwater baits. Personally, I’ve never heard of anyone using a Bang-O-Lure on bedding bass, but Eric swears it’s the best way to catch the biggest Jackson bass.

“A lot of times when the bass are really up, you’ll see maybe two males and a big sow on a bed. A lot of times you have to catch those males first, and after all that you stand a chance of spooking a big female. I don’t know what it is, but with that Bang-O-Lure she’s the one that’s going to blow up on it. Sometimes a male will hit it first, but I don’t know what it is—that big female just can’t stand it and usually it’ll be her.”

When you think of the bass spawn on a major reservoir, the word unpredictable might come to mind. Factors such as water temperature and cold fronts can affect when a bass moves up and how long it stays there. On Jackson, however, Eric has found that the peak time for big bass to move up is about the same year-after-year.

“Ever since I’ve lived down here, I can set my clock by it,” he said. “The magic day is about April 18. Really that period from the 15th through the 18th—they’ll be on bed like crazy. Like anywhere else, I’ve seen a few bed earlier and a few later, but generally it’s right there around the 18th.”

Jackson is full of good spawning pockets from up the tributaries down to the dam, but there are characteristics that make some pockets more attractive to a bass than others.

“We search for pockets that have a creek channel. Sometimes the fish will be bedding in stumps next to the channel or next to a boat-dock post or some kind of structure, or maybe in a little cut back in a creek or pocket,” he said. “They like a creek channel where they can hold in case of bad weather, which will sometimes knock them back off the bed. They have a place to retreat to.

“The other thing I look for is sand. Sandy pockets are best, and you’ll find sand from one end of the lake to the other. The pockets up the Alcovy are real good, and up Tussahaw Creek. I just run from pocket to pocket until I find what I’m looking for.”

Eric offered a specific pocket that is a great spawning location where you can see the factors that make it good, then you can try to find others like it.

“There’s some real good fishing at the dam this time of year. One good pocket is right at the dam, on the left going up the lake from the dam—the first one up from the beach. It has a real good creek channel in the back of i1 with a lot of timber and stumps in it, We catch some real big fish in there when they come up.

The key to the Bang-0-Lure over-the-bed technique is being able to see the bass.

“If the lake muddies up this time of year, I’ll try to find clear water. A fresh rain will muddy the tributaries u{ the lake, so go down toward the dam Two or three days after a rain, head up the tributaries—they’ll begin to clear while the mud moves down toward the dam. The Yellow and South rivers are the worst for getting muddy. Tussahaw Creek will get muddy but not as bad as those others, and the Alcovy is more of a rocky river and muddies less. Clear water definitely helps. That’s the whole key to it.”

When you find a bass, Eric says it is important to not spook the fish. A quiet trolling motor helps, and so does fishing early and late in the day when the sun is low.

“When I cast, I stay back off of them pretty good, but I don’t make a super-long cast because they have an opportunity to throw your bait. It also helps to wear dark clothes where you don’t stand out like a sore thumb.

“If you spook them, just go on by and then come back later. Mark where the fish was and then when you come back be really careful. I’ve found a big fish and then come back the next morning when conditions are perfect. I guarantee when you come back the next morning with that Bang-0 it’s like taking candy from a baby.”

Eric uses 17-1b. line on baitcasting gear when fishing the Bang-0-Lure.

‘Throw it past the bed, bring it up in the bed, and then twitch it on them. Don’t get real crazy with it, you don’t want to spook the bass. Man I tell you, they can’t stand that Bang-0.

“It’s got to be one with a tail-spinner on it, though. I take the tail-spinner and bend it forward where it spits water back over the plug. There’s just something about it, they’ll kill it.”

Eric’s preferred color on Jackson is the black and silver Bang-0-Lure with black bars on the sides.

“A Rattlin’ Rogue will catch them, too, but I like the tail-spinner on the Bang-0-Lure.”

Eric feels that hooks are extremely important, and that’s an area he never skimps on He’ll replace all of the factory treble hooks on crankbaits with super-sharp Gamakatsu or Excalibur treble hooks.

“If a bass just won’t bite the Bang-O-Lure, I’ll work a Gitzit on it or a lizard. I like the Denny Brauer flippin’ tube, the 4 1/2-inch tube. It’s a little bigger and I like that. I throw a white tube on 8- to 12-lb. line with spinning gear. Another secret is a 4-inch Rapala that you twitch across just like the Bang-O-Lure.”

If you get to Lake Jackson this month and aren’t seeing any fish locked up on the beds, Eric says pick up a spinning rod with 8-1b. line rigged with a’floating worm, like a Trick Worm or Super Fluke.

“Sometimes you have to just kind of hunt and peck until you see a bedding fish. Just go down a bank piddling, throwing the Trick Worm or a Fluke. A floating worm is great on bass that is up cruising but not locked on a bed.”

With a floating worm Eric uses a swivel about six inches above the hook to keep the line from twisting.

“You can take a Trick Worm on a spinning reel and skip it way under a dock. Sometimes people will laugh at me for throwing a Trick Worm up in the middle of a blowdown, but generally you can walk a bass out of there. For the Trick Worm in super-clear water, I like the green-pumpkin color the best. Yellow is probably my favorite all-round color. I use a wide-gap hook, and I use a 2/0 or 3/0.

“With a Fluke, the pearl color is my favorite, and I throw a 3/0 or 4/0 hook with it.”

Lake Jackson is known for quality-sized bass in the 5- to 9-1b. range, and Eric says when they move up this month and it’s right, an angler can have an incredible day.

“I had a week down here one year when I had 35 bass over 7 pounds, and they were all off Bang-Os. Now we fished every day that week, morning to evening, but that’s still a bunch of big fish.

“My biggest from Jackson was 9-14, and it came off a lizard. The biggest I’ve ever caught off a Bang-0 was about 9 pounds. I’ve seen days when you go out and catch two or three in the 8- 9-lb. range and four or five in the 5-lb.  range. Ifs nothing to locate big fsh when they’re like that.

^When they get right, you can hunt and find some good fish. And they’ll be swollen up as big as they’re going to get. Just take a picture and let ’em go.

“The Bang-0-Lure is so much more fun than fishing a tube or something you have to watch for hours. That’s the whole thing—they just blow it to pieces, and you get to see everything.”