If you're not dragging along the bottom, meaning that you're feeling every bump, weed, indentation and rock, then you're not dragging it correctly. You should be able to constantly feel the bottom. This usually requires a never-ending cycle of releasing and taking up line as bottom and depth contours change while you move over structure.

With time and experience, you'll learn to recognize structure on the bottom by how you feel it coming up your line and into your rod blank. Little clicking-type vibrations means small, broken rock and pebbles; gentle pulls back at the rod tip means sand or mud that's uneven or lumpy; climbing up and dropping means big rocks.

All day long your rod tip will be bending back and easing forward as the grub moves along the bottom. The tricky part is knowing when the pull back is a fish and not another rock, weed or sandy hump. When in doubt, of course, set the hook. With time you'll be able to recognize a fish since it's a slightly odd and just slightly different feel than the bottom.

If you're dragging a Carolina rig with a floated bait behind it like a minnow stickbait (a floating Rapala, for instance), the strike will be easier to detect since it will likely be a lot more violent than the simple supping of a grub off the bottom. The same holds true for plastics on a Carolina rig, such as a Reaper or creature bait.

"In the spring, especially in early spring, the fish will be fairly deep, so you're dragging in deeper water," Colby said. "But once (bass) start to explore for pre-spawn and spawn, they'll be moving closer up. That's when I throw the thing right up on the bank - out of the water so it doesn't even splash - and I drag it back down the bank."

Colby claims this is also a great method for determining the depth at which fish are holding in relation to the bank. "If you fish from the edge of the water on down the bank and you hit fish at 10 feet and your boat's in 20 feet of water, you know you can move up," he says. "It's a great way to find fish if you aren't sure exactly how deep they are."

Colby has put the hurt on some big fish this way, including lots of 7-pound Delta largemouths and plenty of 6-pound bronzebacks in his home state of Utah. "Dragging is a great way to fish, in the spring especially," he reports. "That's when the bass are really keying on crawdads. If you're in a lake where that's the primary forage, dragging grubs in browns and greens will get their attention."

Colby also says that when bass key on perch fry, as they do in many Western lakes, dragging will help you stick some hawgs then, too. "I like a chartreuse/black grub then," he says. "It mimics a perch color, which is really effective in the spring."

One of the dangers of dragging down a bank, however, is the sudden lack of feel when a fish hits and swims out, moving toward you. "It's a pretty soft bite to start with," Colby explains. "Then sometimes they'll pick it up and swim right at you so you don't feel anything for a second. That's when experience helps, because once that's happened to you a few times you'll know what it is and you'll know to crank up and set the hook."

Rather than using packaged football-shaped jigheads, Colby fishes his own hand-poured round jigheads with No. 1 or 1/0 hooks. "I've always fished that way," he says. "When I first used grubs, I used a round leadhead or a darthead, and dragged grubs along the bottom. It was the best way to catch bass. If the bite was tighter, I'd use a split-shot rig, Texas-rig the grub on a 1/0 hook, and drift or drag that right on the bottom. It's very productive when the fishing is slow."

This way of grub fishing has become a signature style for Gary Yamamoto. He lowers his grub and jighead to the bottom, then does a rod lift up to the 10 or 11 o'clock position in a kind of lift-and-glide motion that picks the grub up a few inches and swims the grub's tail. He then slowly drops the rod, which again swims the tail, and lets the grub glide back down until it hits bottom again. The bait moves in almost a pendulum motion. There needs to be enough weight -again, it's important to fish a fairly heavy jighead - to make that pendulum swing correctly.

You can combine dragging and swimming as you cover different structure to determine what the fish respond to best.

"When I come across significant structure, like two or three rocks, I'll drag it over them, and then stop and let it sit," Colby says. "Then I'll drag it just a little. You kind of have to let the bottom dictate the speed."

What the fish have to say about speed is also critical to Colby. "I let the fish tell me that," he says. "The most important thing is, at least for how I fish, is to stay in contact with the bottom at all times. It's harder than it sounds. A lot of guys aren't on the bottom and don't know it. But I keep my rod at 9 o'clock and kind of sweep it, parallel to the water, and pull the bait along, so it doesn't lift."

Colby points out that you've got to be in tune with your equipment to detect a strike. "I like to use light line, small grubs and a really sensitive rod," he said. "You're looking for the weight change that indicates a fish has picked up the grub."