Distinctly different, the waters of southwest Alabama offer bass anglers the adventure and challenge of fishing extremely diverse habitats. Nowhere else in our state do you find a fishing destination that includes tidal creeks, undeveloped riverine lakes and a national wildlife refuge.

Casting crankbaits in creek mouths is a pattern that works for big largemouths on Coffeeville Lake this month. Photo by Stephen E. Davis.

In this corner of the state, winning tournament anglers have developed specific techniques for catching bass from the contrasting habitats of the Mobile Delta, Claiborne and Coffeeville lakes. Their late-spring patterns for largemouth and spotted bass may surprise you.

MOBILE DELTA
Last May, brothers Jerry and Randy Casey of Saraland won a Fish'n Fever tournament with five largemouth bass weighing 14.64 pounds. This was the heaviest five-fish stringer on that trail last year. Two years before in March, they won the two-day Fish'n Fever Mobile Boat Show bass tournament with 26.09 pounds. Amazingly, they won both tournaments fishing the same pattern.

Furthermore, the brothers did not make a long run to the sweet water of the upper Delta, which is known to produce winning stringers in May.

Instead, the Caseys chose a very short trip to fish the lower Delta in places like the Dog and Fowl rivers. Their pattern, especially in May, requires specific habitat not found throughout the Delta's 20,323 acres of water. They fish clear-water creeks with small drainage areas that have limited flats covered with aquatic vegetation. Perfect places to sight fish for bedding bass.

"In May," Jerry Casey revealed, "fishing can be tough. We try to fish for bedding bass through the month. It's my primary pattern in May. When we won the tournament last year, we looked for and caught those fish off beds. We had a great day!"

According to Casey, limited spawning habitat in the creeks and rivers where they fish prolongs the reproductive cycle.

"Every time one group moves off the beds," he explained, "another moves in to take their place."

To find bass in the lower Delta, Casey searches for beds at depths of 3 to 4 feet.

"Look in gin-clear water," he instructed, "and the thickest grass you can find. The grass is mostly milfoil. When you spot a fish, make sure she is locked onto the bed and will not move. Sometimes, a bed will hold two or three fish weighing up 4 pounds."

When Casey finds a promising fish, he positions his boat near the bed with the sun shinning on his back and then sets an anchor at the bow and stern.

"We concentrate on each fish that we want to catch," Casey pointed out. "It can be slow fishing. Often, it takes 20 to 30 minutes for a 3-pound bass to bite. When you catch the first fish, it may take another 20 minutes for the second fish to return to the bed."

To catch bedding fish, Casey fishes a floating, soft-plastic minnow vertically, but it's not a traditional presentation. He rigs the minnow Texas style on 12-pound-test Big Game Trilene with a 3/4-ounce egg sinker. Casey fishes the rig by placing the sinker in the bed, which is not far from his rod tip. Once in the nest, lowering the rod tip allows line to feed back through the sinker, and the minnow floats to the surface. Raising the rod tip pulls the minnow down to the sinker.