Niggemeyer: Be Versatile for Shadapalooza
By Alan ClemonsPAA Communications
PARIS, Tenn. – Even before James Niggemeyer could get his Bass Cat to settle down in the back of the cove, he’d already spied three groups of bass flailing shad like piranha on a wounded beast.
“Look right off that point!” he said as another spray of water erupted, followed by a violent surge of chasing. “There’s another one, and another one back in there by that boat house.”
To say the shad were piled up in the pocket would be grossly understating the situation. Kentucky Lake is long, wide and has untold areas where shad can migrate in autumn. In this particular creek, it looked like a combination of Woodstock, Live Aid, Lollapalooza, and a college frat row post-football game party night with a few rave parties thrown in for good measure.
“They’re everywhere in here, all over the place,” Niggemeyer said. “You could spend days in here having fun with these.”
For about 45 minutes, we did have fun. Had a blast. We were kind of like Ralphie and his little brother in the now-legendary movie “A Christmas Story” when they stand agog in front of the department store window looking at the toys.
Niggemeyer had gotten a tip about the feeding frenzy from fellow Strike King team members Luke Estel and Todd Witt. We were attending the company’s annual media event and switching boats – cameras, writers, photographers, anglers – for the next session of interviews and photos.
“Tore ‘em up on the Pure Poison,” Witt said. That was enough for us, and after some photo work Niggemeyer and I headed to party cove.
With so many shad, and “millions” might be entirely appropriate, picking out a lure to imitate or trick a bass seems almost impossible. Obviously they were keying on the shiny 3-inch morsels. Niggemeyer suggested the Pure Poison vibrating jig, which got my undivided attention after about 10 casts with a buzzbait didn’t produce squat, while he picked up a Sexy Shad 1.5 square-bill crankbait.
“I’m going to see if this crankbait gets down under those groups of shad a little deeper where the bass are herding them around,” he said, firing a long cast. His crankbait and the Pure Poison banged through the bait, which fluttered, separated, followed and regrouped in varying degrees.
The white Pure Poison lived up to its name, with a fast retrieve combined with a momentary halt seeming to work best. Strikes were violent when the bass connected; sometimes, they seemed to just want to slam the bait to kill it, but not take it. Niggemeyer’s crankbait attracted a few bites but didn’t have the mojo at that specific time.
“That’s one thing about situations with big groups of shad like this,” he said. “You need to have a few baits tied on and ready to throw to figure out which one they want best. It might be something like the Poison or the crankbait, or they could be hitting something on top.”
You’d think a small buzzbait might be the ticket, and it very well could be. No harm in trying it. A chugger, walking bait and prop bait also would be viable possibilities. So would lipless crankbaits burned through the school with an occasional wrist-flick flutter. With bass keyed in on anything moving that resembles a shad, it’s good to have options readily at hand.
Niggemeyer also tried, briefly, a double-willow leaf spinnerbait. Again, the combo of blades, flash, vibration and shad-sized mimicry is worth a look. These Kentucky Lake largemouths didn’t have a notion for his fluttering blades, though.
One of the biggest challenges, possibly, is determining where to cast. Bass that erupt on top may be fun to try to trick if they stick around where you make a pinpoint cast. Chances are good, however, that you’re chasing ghosts … they’re on the prowl, your cast may be late by a hair and the fish have gone down or followed the school of shad 15 feet away by the time your bait gets there.
To combat that, Niggemeyer looks for pods of shad or “lines” of them along structure contours.
“I’ll try to throw at the seam or edge of the group of shad because that’s generally where the bass are moving with them,” he said. “They’ll either be working those edges or underneath. That’s just part of figuring them out. The good thing is that you know they’re there, somewhere. It’s not like you have to search for them.”
