Conventional wisdom has many anglers targeting deep bass after spawn. We all know that bass head for close cover and deeper waters to recover and regain their strength. But Mongo rarely fishes anything deeper than 20ft...and most of the time, he's catching bass in less than 3 feet of water. Even in the dead of summer. Why? Guess you're gonna have to watch and find out. Check out his favorite shallow water assassins for targeting big bass post spawn.

Video transcript:

John Carroll:
Hey, what's up guys? John from Mongo Fishing.

John Carroll:
Today, I'm here on the MONSTERBASS channel to talk to you guys about my top post-spawn baits that I like to throw here in Arkansas. So in the south or... Heck, they'll work pretty much everywhere. I'm primarily shad-focused. So if you guys don't have shad, then, I don't know, adjust your trailers to the primary forage in your lake. But for me, the primary forage where I live is mostly shad. So that's why most of these trailers are going to be shad-related. But, again, this is my top baits that I like to use for my style of fishing, here in the south, post-spawn. So let's get into it.

John Carroll:
Again, guys. My name is John from Mongo fishing, and this is the MONSTERBASS channel. Now, if you guys are new to bass fishing, or even experienced in bass fishing, you guys want to learn how to become a better angler; this channel is dedicated to that. Tips, techniques, tricks to make you a better bass fisherman, and a better angler in general. So if you're new to the channel, hit that subscribe button right down there, along with the bell notification button, so you get notified every single time MONSTERBASS puts out another video. My channel Mongo Fishing will be linked in the description below. My channel doesn't have a lot of these tips and stuff. It's primarily tournament footage. Whether I do well, or if I suck, you guys still get the video. I'm a firm believer that in order to learn and grow, you got to have the good and the bad, man. And so, that's just what I do.

John Carroll:
But let's get into this. These are my top baits that I like to do for my style of fishing, this time of year. Post-spawn, our last little batch of spawners should have just pushed through with this last full moon. I mean, they're fish, right? So there may be some stragglers, who knows? But for the most part, the spawn is done here in Arkansas, and it's time for these fish to start moving out and going into their summer pattern.

John Carroll:
So me, I fish dirt-shallow, year round, okay? Rarely do I go out and fish anything in 20 feet of water. I'm normally catching fish in three foot or less. Even in the dead of winter, or the dead of summer, that's just how I like to fish. And so right now, the spawn's over, the next spawn that should be happening is the shad spawn. After the shad spawn, is going to be the bluegill spawn. So I'm focused on shad eaters and blue Gill eaters.

John Carroll:
In no particular order with what I'm going to do, I'm going to start this little video with the swim jig. Okay. I want shad pattern swim jigs. This is actually my custom color. It's called a Mongo's Minnow, but it's a shad pattern. I'll typically put a rage menace, or one of my other sponsors. Motivated Fishing, they have thing called a revelation craw. I have one on another bait. It makes a really good trailer. You can use any sort of swim jig trailer you want, but again, I'm looking for shad pattern stuff. Whites, whites and chartreuse, stuff like that. Because I'm looking for shad eaters. I'm trying to find that shad spawn early early early in the morning. Might be throwing top waters on it, might be throwing swim jigs on it. It's going to let the conditions dictate, and the conditions and the location of the shad spawn dictate what I'm throwing, but I'm definitely going to have a shad pattern swim jig on the boat.

John Carroll:
Now I will also have a black and blue swim jig on the boat. I may not have them both tied on at the same time, but they will definitely both be on the boat. Same sort of thing. I like flatter bottomed trailers on both of these so I can skip them a little better and get them underneath docks. It's a preference thing. I know a lot of guys will throw swim bait style trailers, and there's nothing wrong with that. It's just not my preference. I prefer rage craws, rage menace, flat body profile. Maybe not a rage craw. Structure bug, rage menace, that flatter body style so that I can get a little better skip getting underneath docks.

John Carroll:
But black and blue is the other color I'm going to have tied on this time of year. I mean, I could possibly have some other natural, like green pumpkin sort of thing. But my thought process is, I'm looking for shad eaters number one, because that's what I'm I'm focused on is a shad spawn. But I'm also paying attention to what's going on in the ecosystem that I'm fishing, right? If I'm not seeing shad, well, those bass are eating something. So I'm paying attention to see if there's bluegill. If there's bluegill, I'm probably going to switch to the black and blue. If they're shad, I'm staying with that white.

John Carroll:
But swim jig, there you go. Size of the swim jig can be totally dependent on your body of water. I'm a huge fan of throwing the quarter ounce. But again, I fish dirt shallow, and a quarter ounce allows me to keep that... I don't have to reel it nearly as fast to keep it up off the bottom. Again, it's a preference thing, right? So you're going to have to play with that and figure out what you like.

John Carroll:
Another thing that I'm going to be doing is throwing a buzz bait. I absolutely love buzz baits. This is a little eight ounce motivated fishing buzz bait with the revelation craw. This is the other swim jig trailer I was talking about that I like to use. This little guy right here. It's an eight ounce buzz bait. It's a Finesse buzz bait. Doesn't make hardly any noise at all, which is weird. You'd think, "Well you want buzz baits to be all allowed and obnoxious.". And most of the time you do, but I'm telling you right now, this little dude is killer. And because it's so light, and an eighth ounce, this flat bottom, you can skip this thing like there's no tomorrow. It's incredible. So back with that same sort of thought process of why I'm fishing white, looking for that shad spawn.

John Carroll:
Now I'll have another buzz bait that would typically be a black trailer, or a green pumpkin trailer, and same thought process with the swim jigs. [inaudible 00:06:07] I'm looking for the Bluegill eaters if they're not shad eaters. This sort of thought process isn't just for May. I mean, I follow this for post-spawn through the Bluegill spawn. That's my batting order. This one, I happen to have another white trailer on it, because I was looking for shed eaters yesterday. But normally it'd be a black or dark something, that can give a different silhouette, or a different look for those fish that aren't the shad eaters, the ones that are feeding on bluegill or something along that those lines.

John Carroll:
All right. So walking bait, this is going to be a one, two punch. All right, this is strike king, sexy dog junior. You can use the sexy dog adult size if you want. I just prefer the junior for me.

John Carroll:
It's just what I prefer to throw. Again, shad. So I'm throwing the white, but I'm going to have a backup for that for the fish that miss it. And that is a green pumpkin Senko. Flip the Senko in there. If you have one that blows up and misses, either with a lightweight or no weight, throw it right back up in that same location where that fish missed, and you can pick him up with the Senko. So that's my one, two punch there. Walking bait, Senko right behind it. This one I have Texas rigged, with a small piece of tungsten so I can flip it around.

John Carroll:
Another little thing that I do with mine that some people don't do, is I do put an O-ring on here, takes a little bit of getting used to, but I do put an O-ring up on the tip of my Senko to help keep it pegged to your hook just a little bit better. You don't go through nearly as many stick worms with it tearing right here if you have a little bit of an O-ring up there. So keep that in mind. Do it however you wish. That's just something that I like to do when I'm flipping, or any sort of thing like that, is have that little piece of O-ring sitting up there to help hold my soft plastic.

John Carroll:
All right. So that's three different baits. I'm going to have a frog. Now that seems to play in a little more later on in the season, but I'm going to have a frog. Color, still... Oh, you know what? There's one more buzz bait trailer I forgot to mention. If I'm not doing those, a Castaic Jerky J Swim makes a really good buzz bait trailer, also. I don't use buzz baits with skirts most of the time. I use buzz baits with soft plastics, because a soft plastic feels like something that feels like food. A skirt feels like steel and metal. This feels like something you bite onto it, it feels like food. Soft plastic trailers feel like food. So I might have a swim bait for my buzz bait trailer, also. So sorry about that.

John Carroll:
Okay. Where was that going with that? So we did the walking bait and the Senko. Frog. Okay. Frog colors. Sort of the same thought processes earlier. We're still looking for shad eaters. We're still looking for Bluegill eaters. And so there's three colors that I like to throw. And it's your option on how you want to do it, obviously. But black and red, huge fan of those. Dog frog is the color. It's a Stanford Boom, Boom Frog. I got a couple of those. Or a white for those shad eaters. White there, little white Spro, Booya Pad Crashers, whatever. All sorts of different white ones, because again, I'm looking for shad eaters. And then I'll have a Popping Frog, also possibly, if I just can't get them walking, maybe I'll have a Popping Frog. This one is another Stanford Boom Boom Frog. Fred Frog is the color, but that's their popping version. So a little orange chin right there, like a blue go would have. So I really dig this one too.

John Carroll:
Again, I'm not going to have three frogs tied on, but I'm going to have those frogs available so that I can find out which one seems to be the juice. But honestly, most of the time it's going to be black. I just really dig throwing a black frog. And unless I have an active shad spawn going on in some place that I can't get any other bait, like if it's way up underneath a bunch of brush, then if I have to skip a frog back there to get that bite, then I will. And then it'll be a white frog. But most of the time, if I'm throwing a frog this time of year, it's going to be black. It's just a personal preference of mine.

John Carroll:
And then probably the last thing that I'm going to have, always, is going to be a flipping bait. And that's not shad spawn related. That's just for after the shad spawn dies, and I'm still around the Water Willow, or the brush, or the docks or whatever, then I can start flipping. You can punch also if you want, but some sort of Strike King, Structure Bug. Natural colors, black and blues. This is, I think, a green pumpkin blue. Sorry, blue craw. Or, I'm also a really big fan of summer craw, which is bright chartreuse on one side, and green pumpkin on the other. And I don't know why I'm such a huge fan of this, but it seems to work really well for me. Bam. Bam. I really dig this one. It does really well for me.

John Carroll:
But that's that guys, I think. And of course, I mean there's a couple other things that I might have tied on, situationally dependent. I'm just going to feel it out based on conditions. Throwing a weightless fluke around can be really good, again with the shad spawn going on. If you're in some Water Willow or something like that. Maybe a donkey rig. A dual fluke rig works really really well. I'll probably have one of those tied on, at least in practice, just to feel them out and see what I got going on. Of course, if it's practice, I'm not going to have hooks most of the time. I just want to get bites. I might catch a fish or two just to make sure my area is holding the quality I'm looking for, but I'm not going to smack a bunch of fish in the mouth during practice. I just want to get bites, mark the spot, move on. So yeah, a fluke, or a swim bait, or something along those lines is another option that I might be throwing.

John Carroll:
But that's about it guys. Hopefully you guys enjoyed the video. Do me a favor, drop a comment below. What is your favorite post-spawn bait to throw? And are you a shad fish chaser, or are you a bluegill fish chaser? Which one do you prefer to chase? A lot of guys move offshore, go start cranking deep and throwing big worms out deep and all that stuff. And like I said, man, I fish dirt shallow year round, on the hottest days and the coldest days in the winter. That's just where I live. I live dirt shallow. So again, drop a comment below. Let me know what you guys do.

John Carroll:
If you guys have any questions, feel free to drop those down below, also. Myself or one of the Monster Bass staff will gladly answer it. If it's specific to me, you can either try to tag me in it, or hit me up on my channel asking the question, so I make sure that I get the notification. Again guys, thank you very much for watching. If you are not subscribed to the Monster Bass channel, please hit that subscribe button right down there, along with the bell notification buttons so you get notified every single time Monster Bass puts out another video.

John Carroll:
My channel, Mongo Fishing, be a link in the description below, I'd dig it if you came over and checked me out also. Guys, as always, get out on the water, be safe, and go catch a Monster Bass.