Casting a lure beside a cypress and reeling it back to the boat often garners strikes from hard-hitting, high-jumping hawgs. But few anglers ever fish the insides of the trees where big hollows often form.

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Video transcript:

Jeremy Francis:
Catching big bass out of big trees is what we're talking about today right here on the MONSTERBASS Channel. My name is Jeremy the Fishing Lonestar. If you haven't yet, my channel will be linked below. Make sure you head over there, subscribe, give me a follow as well over on Instagram and TikTok, etc. You know what to do when you get there, go find me. But while you're here make sure you subscribe right here to the MONSTERBASS Channel. Turn on the notification bell as well so you catch all the video content that we're sharing with you to help you go catch more fish, bigger fish, your PB, just all around help you fish better right here on the MONSTERBASS Channel. Now, like I mentioned today we're talking about catching big fish out of some big trees. I'm going to break down for you kind of the way I've been targeting lately to catch a lot of really good fish. How I've been doing it, some of the gear, some of the retrieve and just a couple of things to watch for.

Jeremy Francis:
Kind of some 2.0 type tips that you probably haven't really maybe thought of just yet or maybe you have that'll just be great reminders. Hopefully you learn a lot in this video. It's definitely going to be more for the boat or the kayak guy, but the bank anglers can benefit from this too. I just had a buddy text me today actually in New York and said, "Hey, I've been using the big worm just like you mentioned. I've been throwing it around trees, just like you mentioned from the bank and check out these fish I caught." So I know that this can apply to bank fishing as well. All right, let's dive in. I want this to be somewhat of an interactive video, meaning that I'm going to share with you some on the water catches so you can watch those. Then we'll break down kind of what worked. I'm going to go through that a couple different times, show you some different catches and explain to you what was happening and what I learned from that experience. So check out the first one.

Jeremy Francis:
That's a big one. That's a big fish. Oh, God that's a big fish. Oh, that's a freaking tank. That is a freaking tank. Boom. Look at that. Heck yeah. Yes. It's about a seven pounder. That is a beauty. Beautiful fish. Heck yeah. All right. So I'm still pretty pumped about that particular fish because it's the biggest one so far this year. I did not have my... Actually I did have my skills, but the batteries weren't working. But I believe that fish was probably around seven, seven and a half pounds, somewhere in there. It was a great fish. But first of all, that was my first cast pulling up on that spot. I will tell you it was a tree somewhat, not necessarily isolated. You saw those others nearby, but it was at the end of a point that jetted out towards a creek channel. All right? So a sloping point and about 13 to 15 foot of water. That was actually my first cast and I had thrown it to the tree but I could tell it was coming up over a tree limb with my lure. Right?

Jeremy Francis:
So I was pulling it up you can kind of see me lifting my rod and feeling it as it's coming through the trees. But I'm pulling it up and then letting it fall down and then pulling it back up and letting it fall down. Now, as I mentioned I was only in 13 to 15 foot of water. So it didn't have very far to fall, but I was using a three eight ounce weight and I was using the big ribbon tail worm by X Zone Lures. This is called the Blitz Worm. This is our 11 inch floating worm, right? So it's going to drop kind of similar to this. This particular color is black water mill and red flake. So kind of like a California 420 and I do use a pegged weight. But I was throwing it, pulling it over a tree limb as it was falling, felt that bite and set the hook. Now you'll notice the hook set in that video was straight over my shoulder, right?

Jeremy Francis:
So normally if I'm fishing and I've got my rod in my left hand, I'm going to hook set up to my right shoulder, kind of this way make sure I hit the ceiling. But this time I hook set straight up... And that time I did hit the ceiling. But straight up to my left shoulder. The reason why I went with a straight vertical hook is because I knew my lure was coming in and out of tree limbs. Right? So I didn't hook sideways or kind of diagonal across my body or sweeping because I didn't want to brush sideways across the tree limb. I want to go straight up to have the fish and my hooks that come up over the tree limb and to get that fish out of that tree. Right? So big hook, that's a five aught castaic cook, right? Five aught EWG, pretty heavy gauge. Three eight ounce weight is what I was using, it is pegged 7'2 heavy rod. This is a TFO Resolve Bass rod. You do need a sensitive rod for this, right?

Jeremy Francis:
If you're throwing it around trees you want to be able to feel the difference of when your lure is coming up over a tree limb versus when it's hit the top of it and it falls or it releases off the tree. Right? You want to be able to feel all those different things versus when you hit the bottom, right? All those things are important. Now throughout the day or throughout your time fishing big trees you'll learn. Am I catching them on the fall? Am I catching them on the bottom? Am I catching them on the rise? It kind of just depends on the day and how the fish are feeding and how they're being active. But they use those big trees as kind of ambush points, sometimes they use them as their, "Bedroom." That's just where they go to sleep. Sometimes they use them for like I mentioned hunting ground. They're looking for bluegill there, Shad coming by, all kinds of things. But the fish are in the trees, no doubt the fish are in the trees.

Jeremy Francis:
You just need to know how to go in there and get them, target them and pull them out and for me the Blitz Worm by X Zone is what has been doing it and trust me fish this big they're going to eat the whole worm. Right? This entire 11 inch worm, they're going to engulf the whole thing. You don't have to worry about them just biting the tail, if you're getting the tail bit that's bluegill. All right. So that particular fish as I pulled it up, I want to make sure I kept its head down slid my rod in the water, got it in that, obviously was an awesome fish. Now this next catch was a little bit different and I'm going to show you this and we're going to talk about it. But notice my proximity to the tree. This is more of a pitch and flip and this time instead of being in 13 to 15 foot of water, I'm in 22 foot of water.

Jeremy Francis:
So watch this catch and then I'll describe it. That's a terrible hook sir, but I watched my line jump on the fall. Got him. Not a really long fish but that fish is fat. Look how fat that fish is. All right so as you saw there, I pitched in and quite honestly after I pitched, right? My spool was still engaged. I'm pulling out slack so that my weight drops straight down. What I don't want is once I pitch in there, if I keep my rod or my line somewhat tight that lure may hit the water. But it's just going to slope down back towards me at the boat. Versus if I pitch out and immediately give it slack it's more apt to fall straight into the trees. In that particular case this tree was very much, had a lot of limbs sticking straight up. So I was trying to penetrate into those and drop right into them. So what I wanted to do is as soon as that worm hit was basically drop straight down and what I was looking for as it's falling I wanted a reaction bite.

Jeremy Francis:
I wanted a fish that was sitting in those limbs to see the worm maybe coming by and immediately dart after it. Now I've always heard people say watch your line on the fall, watch your line on the fall. In this particular case that's exactly what was needed. So as that lure was falling, as the worm was falling, I was watching my line and I saw it kind of jump. Just a quick little tick and I thought you know what? That looks like it either hit something or got bit. So I'm going to go and reel down and set the hook and let's see what happens and that's when I landed that fish. So the key takeaway there is watch your line as it's falling but also give it slack, right? When you pitch give your lure some slack so that it can fall. The trick is to give it enough slack quick enough that you can also then engage the spool and get the slack back out to feel the bite, right? So you'll learn the more you do it, the better you'll get at it.

Jeremy Francis:
But that's exactly how that fish bit and again you'll notice that hook set was straight up to my left shoulder. It was not diagonal again, it was not sweeping. It was straight up because I was close to the tree and I needed that fish to come back out of the tree. I think I mentioned, but I'm using a 7'2 Heavy Fast Action Rod. The rod sensitivity does matter. So make sure you have a very sensitive rod, in this particular case I'm using the Lew's Custom Pro Reel. Simply because I can pitch and flip pretty good with this reel. I like it a lot, it's light. So in this particular setup, again it's a 7'2 Heavy Fast action custom pro reel by Lew's. Love it a lot, that's just my particular setup. The main key though here is make sure you have a very sensitive rod so you can feel all those things. I'm also using 20 pound floor carbon and here's the next tip I will tell you. After you make each pitch and flip check your line, all right? Check especially this part right here.

Jeremy Francis:
Because this is the part that you're going to be having the most stress come up and over those branches. Right? As your line is doing this over a branch, right? When the weight is coming up and getting heavier as well. This is going to get a little worn and I'm speaking from experience because right before that four pounder or after that four pound fish I just showed you. I broke off on an even bigger one. Don't know how big, but I do know it was a fish. I saw it. It actually came up and threw the big worm out of its mouth after I broke off. But I have no doubt that I broke off because my line was compromised. So you may have to retie often doing this because again you're fishing around a lot of heavy brush if you will or some heavy tree limbs. Now I was discussing this [inaudible 00:11:27] angle with Alex. He had a great suggestion so I'm going to share this but I'm going to give him credit.

Jeremy Francis:
Also look for some tactical style line. He mentioned Pline makes some line that is a tactical type four carbon that has a little bit of a thicker coating to it. So it doesn't get compromised as much, I would advise that as well. Either that or check it often and be ready to retie often, you definitely need to be doing that. All right, last thing here as I'm wrapping up this video I will say this. You can use this technique fishing in trees, pitching into trees, letting your lure fall in and out of trees or over tree limbs. You can use it any time of year. Actually I caught probably one of my second biggest fish this year back in February, it was pre spawn. But another staging point where a bass was up in a tree, I was throwing a shaky head in about 10 foot of water. Quarter ounce, pitched it in, let it fall, hit the bottom, popped it twice, felt the bite and again pulled that fish up out of there and it ended up being a really good one especially considering the time of year.

Jeremy Francis:
But ultimately to say this isn't just a summer fishing technique, you can do this in the fall. Maybe not in the spring, because the fish are going to be up shallow spawning. But you can certainly do it pre spawn, post spawn, summer, winter, trees fish love them. You can go find them there. You can hunt them there. You can catch them there. I've been using either the 11 inch Blitz Worm or I'll throw like the six inch MB Fat Finesse Worm on a shaky head if I'm in shallower water. So probably less than 10 foot I'm comfortable throwing the shaky head, more than that I'm going to step up my weight. I'm going to throw a bigger worm and I'm going to try to get the reaction bite or catch them pulling the lure up over the tree limb. But I'm telling you guys the big fish are in the trees and you can go find them there, you can go catch them there. The beauty of all that is I'd never even heard about X Zone Lures until it came on MONSTERBASS Box.

Jeremy Francis:
So make sure you subscribe to MONSTERBASS, make sure you subscribed right here to the MONSTERBASS Channel as well. Check out all the other content and video that we're putting out, hit the notification bell so you're informed of what's to come. Drop me a comment below, let me know how you like this video. Let me know if you like any of these tips or found them useful and we'll see you on the next video.