The Art of Triggering a Reaction Bite
The idea of a reaction bite is simple, you force a bass to commit and strike your bait regardless of fishing conditions. The word commit is the key to fishing and catching fish when nothing seems to work, the aggressive movement that triggers strikes this is the art of triggering a reaction bite.
My belief is that the presentation is everything in reaction bait fishing; it's your ability to mimic the local bait fish and trigger the strike. This often takes erratic movement of the bait, and keeping the bait in the strike zone long enough to get the bass to commit. Most people describe to me that speed is the key to reaction, although speed is an ingredient it's the correct speed that is the key, too fast can be as bad as too slow. Bass can travel and move at tremendous speeds but they don't always react that way, watching the distance they will travel can sometimes be the key to correctly presenting the bait.
Cover can many times complicate reaction, if the bass are relating to cover more often the speed is slower that is needed to create a reaction bite; hence if cover is no where around then a faster presentation is probably better. You see bass don't have to travel far from cover to react and commit with heavy cover, but the lack of cover forces them to move farther and commit to faster presentations because of the expanded zone of commitment.
Water clarity can also change how you approach your presentation; lure size in clear water can allow you to use smaller faster baits as the bait can be seen from farther away. Yet stained or muddy water can increase the need for larger or noisier baits because bass generally react by sight or sound. Reaction bites can be the difference in a good day and bad, I hope this gives you some insight and makes you a better fisherman.
Fish Lake Guntersville Guide Service
www.fishlakeguntersvilleguideservice.com
Email: bassguide@comcast.net
Call: 256 759 2270
Captain Mike Gerry