Throw-back: A term that you have most likely heard in the language of bass fishing. To be clear, the throw back we are talking about here is not in reference to busting out a vintage Bill Dance mesh back Tennessee Vols cap. What we are referring to comes in various forms, from follow up to second chance, each carrying the same meaning. Surely every fisherman who’s ever cast a topwater frog or swimjig through a grass bed has had it happen. An explosive splash or strike, a hook set, but no bass.
schauf-hawk“You’ve got his attention, he’s on guard, and he’s vulnerable,” Bassmaster Elite Pro Kevin Hawk says. When you evoke a strike while using shallow power techniques like a top water frog or swim jig and the fish misses, this is the best time to employee a throw-back bait.
While on the 6th stop of the Bassmaster Elite Series in La Crosse, WI, Hawk engaged his throw-back tactic to help propel him into a solid finish. On Day One of the event, the weather was stable with high, sunny skies and vicious strikes. Kevin caught his fish by using a frog and swim jigs thrown on sporadic clumps of hydrilla grass. Day Two was a different story. The bright, sunny skies turned to torrential downpours, heavy wind and thunderstorms and the fish threw anglers a curveball right along with the weather. The vicious blow ups and strikes turned to half-hearted attempts and very little action. Kevin’s Day Two luck began to change when he starting using a Texas rig Senko as a follow up bait to the diminutive strikes he was getting. “When a fish would short strike the swim jig, I would immediately pick up that Senko, pitch it back in there and almost always catch that fish”, said Hawk. That was really a turning point for the day, using a throw-back technique to help finish off his limit. Read more….