AZ Lakes, AZ Pros Marc Townsend At Pleasant

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This Angler Can Catch Fish Just About Anywhere

AZ Lakes, AZ Pros Marc Townsend At Pleasant — Marc Townsend At Pleasant

Marc Townsend is one of those guys who can catch fish just about anywhere, and Pleasant is no exception. We went out with him one September and started out fishing very shallow with Yamamoto buzzbaits, literally throwing them right on the bank and dragging them into the water. This works very well when the angler in the front of the boat is throwing the buzzbait, and the angler in the back follows up with a Yamamoto Senko.

To Fish A Senko

To fish a Senko, one of the most popular ways is to Wacky Rig it. This means simply using a small sort of circular hook – a “mosquito hook” – and just putting it right through the middle of the bait so it’s flapping around on either side of the hook. Then you simply toss it out on light line (using spinning gear) and let it sink to the bottom. Once it hits the bottom your line will go slack, so just pick it up and move it a bit and let it fall again or reel it in and cast to a different spot.

Fish generally take a Senko on the fall, so watch your line. Also, if it feels heavy when you start to pick it up, set the hook by simply pulling the rod to your side while reeling fast. The little hooks set easily.

A Trailer Hook

When Marc throws a buzzbait, he always uses a trailer hook. “It makes a difference – big time,” he says. He’ll even put a willow leaf blade behind the buzzbait to make more noise. When he catches a fish, he’ll stop and fish the area thoroughly. He says that usually there are a lot of fish all bunched up at Pleasant. And if a fish swipes at his buzzbait and misses it, he’ll throw in a white/sparkle Senko. That particular September day, we were fishing buzzbaits and Senkos in the back of Cottonwood Cove. Marc put two fish in the boat within ten minutes of starting.

Fish Roadbeds

Until he gets a hookup, Marc moves down the bank at a good clip. The one thing that will slow him down is getting a bite or getting his buzzbait stuck on something. “Welcome to the world of trailer hooks,” he says. He keeps his eyes on the surroundings as well as his graph, and when we came to a roadbed that ran into the lake, he put the buzzbait down and picked up a Carolina rig.

“One thing I learned about Pleasant over the years,” he told us, “Is to fish roadbeds. Any road beds.” Other than that, Marc says it seems like you can fish a buzzbait all day every day at Pleasant from August to the end of November.

Deep Water, Shad, Birds

That said, he usually buzzes his way into a cove and flips his way out. He looks for deep water and shad – watching for balls of shad on the graph – and he likes coves with steep sides, like Jackass, etc. He also watches for birds like grebes that eat shad. If a cove is full of feeding grebes, it’s full of fish.

He likes to drive the lake when it is low, and he also has a good lake map that he uses to find the steep banks that he likes. Banks with chunk rock, an area with lots of trees in the water, boulders, etc – when the lake starts coming up and stuff is floating, those are the areas where he’ll throw a Senko.

Marc has been fishing since he was just a kid, and he is a regular on the radio show, formerly known as “Shake Rattle and Troll” with Don McDowell. You can find it live on Facebook Sunday mornings from 7a.m. to 9 a.m. – just look for Don McDowell Outdoors.

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