Lake Bogue Homa features early fall bass action

September anglers on Bogue Homa can expect to catch some fish in the 3- to 5-pound range.

The author likes to use the Mann’s Stone Jig even in the places he’s fished the shaky head jig and the C-4 crankbait, since the Stone Jig gives the bass something different to look at.

Lake Bogue Homa, 6 miles east of Laurel on Highway 84, was restocked by the state about three years ago. This lake, with its 15-inch size limit, has a healthy population of bass. You’ll catch numbers of small fish here, but also some 3- to 5-pounders. The lake holds a lot of vegetation, including lily pads, grass and cypress trees.

The real secret to successfully fishing Bogue Homa in September is to pinpoint the three narrow creek channels running through the lake. One of these starts at the spillway, runs northeast across the lake, goes through part of a small island, makes numerous bends and flows into the right of the second cove on the northeastern side of the lake. A boat channel goes up the middle of the lake that has lots of cypress trees and stumps in it. You need to be really careful with your boat in this section.

To pinpoint the third channel, look to the right of the boat lane. You’ll find that creek channel about 200 yards up after you hit the timberline, to the right of the main boat channel. This third channel zig-zags, runs through the standing timber, comes out behind that standing timber and flows on to come out behind another island. I’ll spend the majority of my time at Bogue Homa Lake fishing these three creek channels with three different lures, especially in the mornings.

The bass will be somewhat sluggish in September due to the heat. I like to start off with a subtle bait I can put in front of their faces to aggravate them into biting, by targeting the creek channels going through the cypress flats. I’ll fish a 1/8-ounce shaky head jig with a 7-inch green-pumpkin Mann’s HardNose WonderWorm on my medium-action 7-foot Pinnacle spinning rod and a Pinnacle spinning reel with 10-pound-test Berkley fluorocarbon line.

I’ll pitch the worm out, let it go to the bottom and work it really slowly, until I feel the cypress stumps on the edge of that creek channel. Once the shaky head jig reaches the bottom, I’ll start shaking the end of my rod tip, and cause the worm to quiver. Then I’ll drag that jig head along the bottom to make contact with the stumps and the roots of the stumps on the edge of that narrow creek channel before pulling the jig off the lip of the break and down into the bottom of the creek channel. I’ll be fishing that shaky head jig and worm shallow in 2- to 3-foot-deep water with a channel bottom of 5- to 6-feet deep.

This tactic spells success when you keep the worm shaking and moving in one place before slowly dragging it across the bottom — in, over and around stumps and through cypress tree roots — and then letting it slide down the lip of the break to the bottom of the creek channel. When the worm reaches the bottom of the creek channel, I’ll allow the worm to sit still for a few seconds before I reel it in. Usually the bass will take the worm when it comes over or drops off of a root, stump or the lip of a break.

Bogue Homa has many places for bass to hide, and these creek channels give the bass depth changes and heavy structure. If you put that shaky head jig with a worm down in structure, the bass will want to eat it, especially since it’s standing on its nose and quivering.

I’ll also fish with a C-4 crankbait in my favorite September colors of chrome/blue back and sexy shad. I’ll start off with a medium retrieve, but will let the bass determine the speed of retrieve they want. I’ll run the C-4 over stumps and through those cypress knees and let it deflect off the roots — not stopping and starting the bait but crashing it into the structure while continuing to reel. I’ll fish the crankbait on 15-pound-test fluorocarbon with a medium-action Pinnacle rod and 6.4:1 Pinnacle reel.

I’ve never found an inappropriate time to fish a jig, and Mann’s Stone Jig is a year-round bait for pitching around cypress trees and into the stumps on the channels of feeder creeks. My jig of choice will be a 1/2-ounce Stone Jig in black/blue, and I’ll fish it on 30-pound-test Stren Sonic Braid using a 7-foot, 11-inch Pinnacle Rod and a 6.4:1 Pinnacle Reel. The blowndown trees, cypress knees and stumps along these creek channels are ideal places for pitching the Stone Jig. On the back of my jig, I’ll have a black-neon Mann’s HardNose Craw, and will be fishing the jig very slowly. I’ll allow the jig to fall all the way to the bottom and then crawl it through the stumps, reel it in and make another pitch. Because these creek channels are so narrow, I won’t be pitching the jig more than about 30 feet. Using these three tactics in a day of fishing, you’ll likely catch 15-20 bass, with about five to eight of those more than 15-inches long.

In the middle of the day, from about 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., I’ll fish the Mann’s HardNose Frog and pull it across the lily pads. I’ll use 30-pound-test Stren Sonic Braid on a Pinnacle 7.5-foot rod and a Pinnacle reel. The bass will move up under the pads when the sun gets hot and high to find shade and cooler water.