Capt. Mike Gerry says this disease is one you won’t mind catching

Most parts of the world have four seasons. On lake Guntersville, we have five. “Rat” season falls somewhere around late summer to early fall.

In the past I have shared Guide Tips on how to catch big bass during Rat Season. Now I am going to expand on that and reveal details on how to find and exploit productive rat fishing areas on my home lake

As the evenings start to show a few signs of the cooling north winds, you will find the grass starting to turn brown and pull away a little from the roots. The wind will move clumps of dying grass, creating holes, and you will start seeing some foam floating around the edges of the grass. This is exactly the pattern you need to look for to catch those late summer bass on a rat.

One key to great late summer fishing is that the bait fish start to move back to the shallows and school up. If you can find some of those schools of bait and this foamy, icky grass, you have found rat heaven. The shallower the water in this pattern, the better.

Let’s talk a little about how to work a rat, what and how to rig for it as well as some techniques. Although sometimes if the bass are real active it would appear that all you need to do is throw the bait out and retrieve it, usually that’s not the case.

Rat fishing in Guntersville requires some proper rigging. You must get a rod strong enough to pull those fish out of the grass, like a 7- or 7-1/2-foot flipping stick. This will give you a strong tip and a rod long enough to get a good long cast.

Spool up with a good brand of braided line of at least 60-pound test that has the strength to pull a fish out of thick grass without breaking. Braids and super-lines will also slice grass better than monofilament.

Now that you are rigged and have an idea of what to look for to find fish, let’s talk about how to use this bait.

First of all, I like a rat or frog that has a weight under the rear area. This allows you to cast into the wind easier, and it allows the rat to land with the hooks pointed up and the head up so you don’t get as many hang-ups in the grass.

Getting a strike on a rat requires some thought as to how and where to retrieve the bait. I believe there are several patterns to try.

One pattern is working that rat deep into the grass. Cast the bait to the far edge of a grass patch and work it back to you. this pattern requires patience as you need to work it slow, stop it in the holes in the grass, twitch it while it is stopped. Vary speeds and retrieves with each cast, and be aware of the grass movement underneath your bait. Many times you will see a little movement even though you didn’t get a strike. When that happens, throw back to the same spot. Always throw back to a strike when the fish blows up on your bait but misses it. Many times the follow-up cast to the same area will produce a bite. As always in bass fishing repeat any pattern that produces a bite.

If this pattern doesn’t produce a bite then move your boat off the grass and work the edges. This may require you to throw the bait into the grass only about 20 feet. You will find in doing this you are fishing more of the holes in the grass as the grass generally deteriorates from the outside in. When you’re pulling the bait in this pattern, the bites will usually come from the open areas in the grass, so when you hit those open areas, stop the rat, make it rock, move it slowly, and pop it some in the open area. Then let it sit, jerk it, and try different movements until you find that productive pattern.

A third way to use a rat is one that may require you to move more quickly in your boat, as this pattern is one where you are looking only for grass points. I have found over years of rat fishing that there are many times when the bass stage on the points as this is where the bait fish seem to congregate. When jumping from one grassy point to the next, you are moving your trolling motor quickly to the points and not wasting time in the other grassy area in between.

The key to successful grass point fishing is boat position. You will find many times in this pattern that you need to back off 20 to 30 yards as well as trying different angles to the point. This time of year, when you are fishing grassy points with a rat the wind has a tendency to position the bait fish, thereby requiring you to position your boat. The key here is being aware of the wind and the position of the first bite to the wind. This will really make a difference when you approach the next grass point after getting that first bite. If there is ever a time to make the wind work for you, this is it. I promise you the bait will be positioned the same and the bites will come from the same position relative to the wind on every point.

The fourth rat fishing pattern is paralleling the grass edges. There are times when you just have to get the boat positioned so you can throw and work the rat down the edge in order to keep the bait in the strike zone. Position your boat so your buddy in the back can throw and work the edge as well as you can from the bow.

Sometimes when working this pattern I go to a popper rat, which allows you to make a splash and move the rat along the edge with a little racket and movement. As always, try different retrieves until you find one that produces a bite, stop it, let it rock in the water, pop it and move it quickly.

The last pattern is one where you need to establish that the bass are hitting in the open areas inside the grass. When this occurs, don’t waste time pulling up to thick, solid grass areas. Look for grass that has many opens spots and spend your time in those grass areas. It’s kind of like “fishing where the fish are.” You can’t go wrong if this occurs. Sometimes those open areas are the only places the bass will strike, so be a smart fisherman when this occurs.

When making presentations about rat fishing I often am asked about color. Well I beleive that the color just needs to provide good contrast to the surrounding. Try white when the sun is bright or brown or black when it is cloudy. I’ve used other colors but nine out of ten times I will be fishing one of those three colors.

The next tip on rat fishing I am going to pass along is how to partner up when rat fishing. As a guide I do this when rat fishing.

Many times when rat fishing we miss a bite, a bass strikes short, or the bass rolls behind or under the rat. Something I do often as a guide is to have one of you fishing the rat and other rigged with a worm ready to throw back in where the miss came from. I’m telling you, the misses on that rat can produce a boat full of bass for the worm fisherman. The activity produced by the miss generally works on that aggressive nature of a bass, and if the same fish doesn’t strike the worm, another bass often will. In this pattern I almost always fish a long worm, usually red in color. Don’t forget to rig heavy. Rig with braided line and a heavy, pegged weight. Use a long, heavy-power rod as this is the time you will need that backbone to pull the bass out of the heavy grass.

One last point about this rat fishing technique: setting the hook. I have seen many anglers set the hook way too quick while rat fishing. This is generally why fisherman get frustrated fishing a rat. Just be patient when setting the hook. A bass will pull the bait down when it strikes, so give it time to do so. A couple of seconds or feeling the fish pulling should allow you time to get a good hook set and catch the fish. Most misses come from the fisherman just setting the hook too quickly before the fish has taken the bait in yet. Also, when using braided line, too quick a hook set will pull your rat out of the fish’s mouth before the bass has fully engulfed it.

Hopefully these tips will prepare you for “Rat Season” on Lake Guntersville. The grass this year is as thick and as well covered as it has been in many years. I believe we will have a great late summer, and the rat bite will produce some great stringers. Come fish with me this fall or late this summer. Let’s experience this rat bite together.

Captain Mike Gerry
Fish Lake Guntersville Guide Service
Web: www.fishlakeguntersvilleguideservice.com
Email: bassguide@comcast.net
(256) 759-2270