My dad got me hooked on jump fishing as a kid. He pretty much raised me on Chickamauga Lake, and he loved to jump fish himself. It just got in my blood and I’ve loved doing it ever since.

This past summer I spent a day fishing with Michael Porter on Nickajack and Chickamauga Lakes not far from Chattanooga. These two Tennessee River reservoirs are surrounded by foothills of the southern Appalachian. As manager of Harbor Lights Marina and Lakeshore Marina on Chickamauga and Hales Bar Marina on Nickajack Lake, Michael is blessed to be on and around these beautiful lakes every day.

The natural splendor of the region is phenomenal, but that mid-July day what we admired most wasn’t the lush forested slopes rising up from the lake shore but the boiling, churning and splashing water all around us. Bass were cutting up the shad on mid-lake sand bars and humps. Like Billy Holladay sang, “Summertime, and the livin’ is easy; fish are jumpin’, and the cotton is fine....”

We were in the right season, at the right place, at the right time, and for fishermen it just doesn’t get much better.

When the fish are jumping and chasing shad minnows, we throw right in the middle of them and wear them out. In summertime, bass in the jumps are mostly the one to two year class — not too much more than twelve inches. Every now and then you’ll get a two- to three-pounder, but summertime jump fishing is mainly a numbers game. With so many little ones chasing shad, you’ll get lots of them.

Things improve in the size department come fall. From September to October, bigger bass will move in to the humps to feed on schools of shad so hooking up with three to five-pounders is not uncommon.

Any time you expect to see fish in the jumps, it’s a good idea to have a couple of rods rigged up and within easy reach. On one rod, tie on a top-water, spitting bait like a Rebel Pop-R. The splattering, spitting action of such lures resembles shad skittering across the surface and the popping sound and appearance when fished slowly is not unlike a feeding bass. Both appeal to bass that area going crazy competing with each other for an easy meal.

On the other rod you’ll want a lure that emulates a wounded shad that’s struggling beneath the surface or fluttering to the bottom. For this effect, nothing beats a BoJoLe Flutter Spoon. Michael and I started out with the chrome ones. Available in four sizes (2/0, 3/0, 4/0 and 5/0) and four finishes (white, chartreuse, chrome and gold), we chose one that matched the predominant forage. The 3/0 size worked well for us that day.

I recommend fishing the BoJoLe on 8-pound monofilament. I pre- up the lures on a 2-foot shock leader of heavier but nearly invisible fluorocarbon, which I then attach it to my fishing line with a barrel swivel. If you need to grab your line to boat a bass, just remember to grab a hold of the shock leader rather than the main line.

Bass herd shad like dogs do a flock of sheep, circling and compressing the school. Rounding up a ball of shad is easier to do when there’s a barrier that cuts off escape routes: the lake bottom, the water’s surface, a bluff or retaining wall. If you’re fishing relatively shallow water — 6 feet or so — then the bass just have to surround the bass on all sides. If the shad are wadded up against the vertical face of a retaining wall, so much the better; then shad are penned in by three boundaries — top, bottom, and one side. Bass that corral shad in such areas can really go to town on them. Position your boat near the vertical wall or bluff and retrieve parallel to the shore, right through the kill zone.

Schools of shad move in mass so predators can’t focus on individual target. Rather than pick out single shad, the marauding bass slash through the dense ball of shad, wreaking havoc on each pass. Lacerated shad, no longer able to move in concert with the rest, stick out like sore thumbs. They twitch and flutter downward to hide among the rocks and vegetation on the bottom or float to the surface where they’re picked off one by one. This is what you’re trying to emulate with your flutter spoon — a mortally injured minnow.

If a bass hits your bait and misses the hook, keep winding at a steady pace but add a little erratic action with your raised rod tip. Another bass will nail it.

Lots of time when you no longer see them, the bass still there, but they’ve just gone deep. Allow your BoJoLe to go right to the bottom. Raise it up with your rod tip and crank it a few turns, and then pause to let it flutter down again like a wounded shad minnow struggling to the bottom. The bass are still there and they’ll nail it down deep.

Any time you see frantic shad skipping across the water and bass cutting up the surface, scoot right on over to them. This is a good way to get a kid spoiled on fishing... and there’s some kid in each of us, no matter how old we are. You’ll never have more fun than fishing bass in the jumps.

Remember to take a kid fishing!

Benny Hull
“The Ol’ Stump Bumper”

To see video of this day on the water and some of the fish we caught, go to myoutdoortv.com and watch Fishing the Jumps.