Richard and Allen Anders take their bass fishing on Caney seriously. Recently, before a Media Bass tournament, the father-son team both went out in their boats separately scouting for good spots to fish on the Jackson Parish reservoir. They both found good spots and on tournament day, fished both areas and caught five bass that weighed 32.53 pounds.
It wasn’t a fluke. It was a sign. A sweet sign that the bass bite at one of Louisiana’s top big bass lakes (some say the best) has turned on. And it will stay that way through the end of February and March. And it looks like another good run for the lake that has produced the state record bass, a 15.97 pounder, and six of the top 10 largemouth in the state. Each spring, numerous 10-pound-plus lunkers come from the lake.
“Caney is an awesome place to fish, but it can be frustrating, too,” said Allen, a resident of Sterlington. “This time of year, it can really be on or you might get one big bite every two or three trips. That’s kind of where we were in the tournament. We had both found spots where there were good bass, but they were entirely different. The weather and water temperature plays a big part in it.”
What they did in the tournament serves as a good fishing report for anybody fishing the lake in March. Allen had located a huge point in the hydrilla that was holding good fish, proven by the fact that they caught an eight pounder on their fifth cast in the spot on one side of the point. Two casts later, they landed a five pounder on the other side of the point.
Time to move
When the grass bite dropped off, they moved out to his dad’s spot in the lake to a bend in an underwater creek where the water was about 12 feet deep. They finished out their limit and some culls there. The point is, that there is more than one way to catch Caney bass this time of year. But the easiest and most popular, unless you target a huge fish and sit on it all day, is to stick with the grass.
The team works well together and Allen is quick to point out he never hesitates to follow his dad’s advice since “he’s taught me everything I know.”
“Caney has got loads of grass and the hydrilla is really the key to catching most of the fish, especially right now,” he said. “Even if you aren’t familiar with the lake, you can find a good stretch of grass, cover as much water as you can, and usually you’ll get on them.”
Anders has an important piece of advice for fishing that way, too.
“If you catch a good one, keep fishing in that area,” he said. “There is probably another one or more. And never make just one cast. Several casts to the same spot are sometimes necessary to trigger a strike.”
Make bass see red
And there is more than one bait to fish with at Caney now. Just like their fishing spots both produced, so did different lures. And these same baits will work throughout the spring.
“When I’m on that grass, I’m probably going to be throwing a red pattern Rat-L-Trap,” Allen said. “That’s what I depend on. And fish the healthy hydrilla, the grass that is bright green. Skip the brownish green stuff. And focus on any irregularities in the grass beds. The fish love to sit on the hard edge of those spots.
“When we move out deeper like the creek bend, we throw black and blue jigs and fish them very slowly across the bottom. The bite won’t knock the rod out of your hand. Sometimes it is just a tick. But they’ll nail it.”
Caney is heavily pressured this time of year and Allen Anders said there’s nothing you can do about that. Find some fish and just get in where you fit in, he said. In other words, find a spot and fish it hard and don’t pay attention to everybody else.
