John Neporadny Jr. With so much bait around, bass have little reason to attack your lures - unless you make them play hard to get . . .
T o find bass, find the bait.
Everyone knows that rule. But in summer and fall, finding bait doesn't necessarily mean catching bass. Massive schools of baitfish swarm our lakes at those times, driving bass into a feeding frenzy and bass anglers into fits of frustration. It's especially unnerving to see fish charging through bait schools while ignoring your repeated casts to this surface activity. When bass only slap at a slow moving topwater lure, Oklahoma pro Jim Morton provokes the fish into striking his Rattlin' Chug Bug by speeding up his retrieve.