Ken Mah began each day with a custom vibrating jig rigged with a Missile Baits D-Bomb trailer around riprap-lined levees. After that he threw a white tandem D&M Custom Baits buzzbait or punched with a 1- to 1 1/4-ounce weight, a punch skirt and a Missile Baits Missile Craw fitted to a 3/0 Gamakatsu flipping hook.
A two-part program worked for Ken Mah. In the mornings, he threw a custom vibrating jig with a Missile Baits D-Bomb trailer along riprap-lined levees with grass at the base of the rock. On the first morning, the vibrating jig produced 15 pounds in the first three hours. On the second day, hyacinth blew into his areas and made it difficult to present the bait. That was his toughest morning of the week.
The vibrating jig fish were mostly postspawn bass that had spawned early and were already feeding up again and putting on some weight. The key areas were inside turns where the current was slower.
Most of the fish that Mah caught in the afternoon were even heavier prespawn bass holed up in stands of grass.
“After high tide I went and picked up a punching rod and went and punched, and as the water dropped out more I threw topwater – a [River2Sea] Whopper Plopper the first day and a buzzbait,” Mah says.
Mah says two of his keepers this week came on the buzzbait, which is made by D&M Custom Baits, while about 10 were caught by punching. The rest were caught on the vibrating jig.
The key to his punching presentation was to fish very, very slowly and to thoroughly pick apart beds of hyacinths, primrose and peppergrass – and a little bit of hydrilla one day – in four areas.
Mah punched with a 1 1/4-ounce weight early in the week but had to slow down later in the week with a 1-ounce weight. He fished a Missile Baits Missile Craw with a punch skirt and a 3/0 Gamakatsu Super Heavy Cover flipping hook.
