October 03, 2018
By Florida Sportsman Editor
Mike Surman speeds a crankbait across a shell bar, prime bass habitat often bypassed by other anglers.
When you snag one of these, it's worth marking the spot.
Appearance: Look for what's not there. “Typically, mussel bars do not have grass growing on them,” Surman said. “They may have grass growing around them, but in the middle, the bar area will be void of grass. Fish that relate to the surrounding grassy areas often come out early and late in the day to feed on the mussel bars. It's really hard to find them on charts. You may have places you fish continuously for years, and once in a while the mussels die off or silt over. Depths aren't specific, either; it's kind of a hunt and peck thing. I'd say in Florida, anywhere from 2 to 12 feet—those are key feeding areas.”Technique: Catch the active fish first, then go after the big bite. “One of my favorites is a Yo-Zuri 3DB Pencil for the topwater bite,” Surman explained. “Then I'll go to a crankbait like a Rattlin Vibe or the 3DB Square Lip. I like to cover water. After I catch the initial 5 fish—or sometimes as many as 10 or 12, I'll slow down and fish a worm slowly on the bottom, like a Gambler 10-inch worm. Throw that worm and work it really slow and you might get the biggest fish, the one that didn't go after the aggressive, faster lures.” Finding Bars: “In the old days, the only way to find them was casting something and feeling it drag on the bottom, a characteristic duh... duh... duh feel. One standard a lot of guys used over the yearsis a Carolina rig. You can also fish a crankbait that hits bottom, like that 3DB Square Lip, which works great in 4 feet of water or less. Also, today's technology makes a difference—using my Gen2HDS Lowrance with Side and Downscan, I can see the bars represented as a series of little dots—they show up differently than bass dots.”Seasons: “Shell bars are good year-round in Florida, but they fish best when the weather is stable and the fish are active. When it gets really cold, they may leave the bars, but a warming trend could bring them back.”Parting Hints: Pay attention! On a hot summer morning in Central Florida, I watched Surman and Ryuji Sonoda, a lure designer from Yo-Zuri, pull a dozen hefty fish from a mussel bar that would've been tough to locate. Surman, of course, knew the spot.A few things I noticed: One, there was a suspicious group of cormorants working open water, again and again. Now and then, one would come up with a sunfish. Sunfish don't typically roam open water. Their presence suggests submerged structure or a food source—in this case a mussel bar.Two: The bar was set back in a circle of Kissimmee grass (a.k.a. Egyptian paspalidium). This type of emergent grass, with long, flat blades dividing from thick stems, typically roots in hard sand bottom. That's precisely the kind of substrate favored by freshwater mussels. FS First published Florida Sportsman October 2016
