About 25 years ago I was fishing with Mickey Bruce in a tournament on Lake Lanier, where the water was so clear you could see a brush pile in 25 feet of water. As soon as we got to that first deep brush pile, Mickey started marking fish – one here, one there. Then, all of a sudden, he started cutting figure eights over the brush pile with the big motor – back and forth.

“What in the world are you doing?” I asked Mickey.

“I’m making the fish pull back into the cover where we can catch them,” he told me.

And that’s exactly what happened after things settled down. In low light, fish will pull away from cover and wander around, though they won’t wander too far from home. As soon as they feel threatened, they’ll get back to the closest cover.

It’s an old fishing trick, but it still works whenever bass are suspended around brush piles or treetops in deep, clear water. First thing in the morning, or whenever it’s cloudy and dark, raise a fuss with your outboard to get a school to tighten up on deep cover.

— Walmart pro George Cochran of Hot Springs, Ark.