Posted by Jason Sealock on Fri, Nov 09, 2012 @ 08:00 AM
By Ronell Smith, RonellSmith.com
We’ve all heard the quote “There are two things you never want to see made: sausage and legislation.” As a country kid who grew up seeing his father make sausage from freshly slaughtered pigs and who spent some time covering politics as a newspaper reporter, I can attest to the validity of the statement.
Lately, however, I’ve been wondering if another process doesn’t need to be added to that list: pro staff/sponsor interaction. Anglers, for their part, feel squeezed from all sides, what with high entry fees, tough-to-come-by sponsor dollars and the ever-increasing cost of travel. Sponsors, too, are in a vice, struggling under the weight of sluggish sales, frequent top-down cuts to overall spending and marketing budgets that grow about as swiftly as the economy of Greece.
The pressure can make for an uneasy relationship, at best. Pros are often being asked to do more for less money, and at a time when they cannot afford to lose a sponsor; Manufacturers expect more, pay less and are quick to pull a deal off the table at the slightest sign of a balk on the behalf on an angler.
As I have said before, manufacturers (and tournament organizations) have the upper hand.
“What (pros) want and what they bring to the table is out of whack,” said the vice president of a Midwestern tackle company. “I have pros who haven’t won a tournament since...they were a co-angler asking me for more money. But if I ask him ‘Hey, I need you to work two shows for me in January and do a couple of appearances during the season,’ they look at me like I have a horn growing out of my forehead. Everything they do...I don’t care how small it is, they want me to pay them an ‘appearance fee’ if it’s not written into the contract. You have to get nasty with them sometimes...saying ‘If you don’t sign this contract, who does it hurt (more)? You? or me?”
The conversation above might seem like an anomaly to some, but it’s one of the variety I have at least twice a month. Admittedly, I see and hear things a little different from most media members, mainly because I cover a side of the business that is largely ignored. That doesn’t change the fact that the sponsor/pro staff relationship is, in many ways and for many companies, broken.
My three-step plan for fixing the fractured relationship includes...
1. Anglers have to drop the attitudes. No one wants to do more for less, but when you are negotiating from a position of weakness, your options are bleak. The only alternative is to chase after numerous small contracts, which can often result in being even more frustrated. If you signed on the dotted line, the expectation is that you fulfill your responsibilities, first and foremost.
If you desire to see your contract renewed, your job should be to go above and beyond, which means having the initiative to ask sponsors if there are additional duties you can perform, other areas of the company where you could be of use. A chief complaint I hear from anglers is “companies knock (your contract) back” after a bad year or two, so why not make yourself indispensable (at least as much as possible) by creating opportunities beyond on-the-water performance?
2. Anglers must understand that the game has changed. Long gone are the days when sponsors looked after a pro, even when his best years were behind him. No news there, right? What is news for some, however, is that even pros who perform on the water and off, through events and such, are on a much shorter leash than ever before.
As I have said numerous times, the name of the game is selling products, extending the reach of your sponsor’s brands, which is only significantly impacted if (a) you win a tournament and (b) you are already a household name. See the problem there: You cannot guarantee a win, and last I checked there is really only one household name (KVD) that moves products. That means companies are always on the hunt for the hot stick, not necessarily the best overall stick.
Instead of trying to be the best or the hottest stick, work to be the most marketable stick, which is greatly aided by your becoming the best salesman possible. Don’t believe me? Take a second and look at the list of Elite Series or FLW Tour pros who have not won a major event in years, if ever, but who continue to get new sponsors and hold onto existing ones. What’s the commonality? They can sell.
3. Companies need to be honest. I’ll admit that I’m a little bit “biased” when it comes to the whole angler/sponsor relationship. While I have an affinity for many of the anglers on tour, my business most often puts me in touch with sponsors, so I hear their side of things more frequently. One thing I do challenge sponsors with is the need for more transparency. They must, somehow, find a way to share with their pro staffs just where the relationship is at a given time.
I’ll use a recent example to make my point. While talking to a pro staff manager of a well-known company, the topic of contracts came up, and I asked about a popular pro.
“He hasn’t really done it for us like we thought he would. He’s done well...but when you look at what we are paying him...I cannot justify renewing (his contract.)”
Since this pro’s contract was not up for another year, I asked if the pro staff manager had shared his feelings with the pro.
“Things will run their course, Ronell. He knows what we are paying him. He knows he isn’t performing. When the time comes, I’ll make a decision based on the facts.”
Only it’s not so simple. See, the pros contract covers far more than tournament wins. And though he admittedly wasn’t getting it done on the water, he likely did think he was making up for it in other areas, such as product design, product testing and media exposure. That’s not how sponsor sees it.
The items above are just three of my ideas for fixing what I think is a broken system. I’m sure there are numerous others. I’d love to see your thoughts. Agree? Disagree?
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Posted by Walker Smith on Wed, Sep 26, 2012 @ 08:00 AM
Power generation lakes are notorious for tricky fishing, but a few key tips can maximize your success
By Walker Smith
Often times, we tend to view our local fisheries as just that—fisheries. Aside from the recreational activities our lakes provide, we fail to realize that many communities rely on their local lakes for power. These power generation lakes present anglers with several challenges—from fluctuating water levels to confusing generation schedules—that can be difficult to figure out. Once the puzzle is solved, however, these fisheries can provide some outstanding fishing for both novice and veteran anglers.
Chevy pro Jay Yelas has had great success on power generation lakes throughout his career, including a 2002 Bassmaster Classic win on Lay Lake. Yelas recently shared some great tips for fishing fluctuating water levels that are sure to increase your success on these fisheries.
Photo courtesy of B.A.S.S.
Generation schedules
I live on Georgia’s Lake Sinclair, which was built to be a power generation lake. There have been many instances when I’ve been waiting for blast-off the morning of a tournament and noticed all of my favorite shallow structure sitting high-and-dry. To combat frustrating situations like this, Yelas urges the importance of learning the lake’s generation schedules before you hit the water.
“The majority of dams have online generation schedules or provide a phone number you can call that will give you generation forecasts,” Yelas said. “It is imperative that you always know what the water levels are going to do in order to plan your fishing day around it. While the forecasts aren’t always accurate, it is still helpful to get an idea of the day’s water movement.”
Because some power generation lakes don’t have easily accessible generation forecasts, Yelas has developed a general rule-of-thumb. Throughout his career he has noticed that most of these lakes begin generating water in the afternoon, due to the increased electricity usage of nearby residents during the course of the day. It is also important, however, to pay close attention to recent weather patterns in order to have an accurate idea of the generation schedule.
“I always keep an eye on recent precipitation amounts, especially when I’m fishing a power generation lake,” Yelas said. “Following periods of heavy rain, a lot of dams will run wide-open all day long to prevent flooding. Conversely, during draught conditions the water may not move very much at all during the day.”
Regardless of the generation forecasts, Yelas stresses the importance of remaining flexible throughout the day. Since generation schedules are simply an approximation, there is always a chance that the dam will deviate from its timetable.
“There have been numerous times that I’ve been caught waiting for the water to move, and it didn’t move an inch,” Yelas said. “Those situations aren’t fun, so now I make sure that I have alternate game plans. Although my pattern in the 2002 Classic relied heavily on water movement, not having a backup plan can be a pretty big risk.”
Fish positioning
When fishing fluctuating water levels, Yelas believes that the biggest key to success is understanding the connection between water movement and fish positioning.
“Shallow fish move with the water, so when the dam pumps water into the lake, the fish get into a lot of very shallow cover,” Yelas said. “The same isn’t true for deeper fish, however. If a bass is sitting on a ledge, it’s not going to abandon that ledge when the water rises a few inches. They will, however, turn on and start feeding aggressively when that water starts to move.”
As the water movement stops and the water level begins to recede, Yelas has noticed that the shallow fish will move off of the bank and become difficult to catch. For this reason, he prefers targeting deep fish in low-water situations.
“I wish I knew where the shallow fish always go when the water drops, but nobody really knows,” Yelas said. “I do know, however, that they are pretty tough to catch. A lot of times they will suspend on break lines, and suspended fish are some of the hardest to catch. Deep fish are a better bet in low water because they remained positioned on channel ledges and points. You may have to slow it down with soft plastics, but they’re still there.”
Where to find them
In high-water situations, Yelas doesn’t spend much time targeting deep fish. Instead, he will fish his favorite high-water cover— shoreline grass. When the tips of the grass are barely out of the water, that’s when he knows that things are right.
“You can definitely catch some big ones flipping and frogging shallow grass with about 1- to 2-feet of water in it,” Yelas said. “But if there’s less than 8-inches of water in the grass and I can see the stalks swaying in the wind, there’s generally not any fish in it. You may be able to catch some smaller ones, but nothing tournament-caliber. You have to remember, 12-inches of water is an enormous difference when you’re talking about shallow, shoreline grass.”
Shoreline grass isn’t the only cover that Yelas likes to target in high-water conditions. Rising water levels can push bass into all types of shallow cover, such as boat docks, seawalls and laydowns, where Yelas loves to flip a Berkley Gripper Jay’s Flipping Jig for unsuspecting big bass.
When the water drops on power generation lakes, shallow bass move towards deeper water. As the fish largely vacate shallow cover during low-water conditions, it becomes harder to pinpoint their location. Yelas has learned, however, that the bass don’t move far.
“When the water’s low, I’ve seen a bunch of bass just cruising in front of the cover—about 10- to 20-feet in front of it,” Yelas said. “You can still catch these fish, but it takes time to figure out the right technique. I will still pitch my bait to the edge of the shallow cover, but I make sure to work it all the way back to the boat, because that’s where I’ll get most of my bites.”
In these situations, Yelas looks for places that have great shoreline cover accompanied by isolated pieces of cover in front of it, such as big stumps. When the water is sucked out of the lake, the bass will position on the isolated cover, providing an opportunity to make pinpoint casts to likely big bass hiding spots.
“It’s important to have a good pair of sunglasses when you’re dealing with low water levels,” Yelas said. “My Typhoons let me locate isolated cover before I get too close—if the fish see you first, you won’t catch them. When I find good-looking cover, I’ll fire a Berkley Frenzy Rattl’r or a big buzzbait towards it and get some really big bites.”
The right mindset
While power generation lakes can be difficult to fish, attitude is everything. Yelas believes that patience and a good mindset can lead to some really great days on these fisheries.
“Every fish doesn’t do the same thing,” Yelas said. “There’s always some fish that don’t follow the crowd—kind of like people in that regard. When the water is down, don’t be afraid to try different things, whether it’s the outside edge of shallow cover, adjacent hard cover or nearby ledges. There’s no science to it, so just have a good time with it.”
Open-mindedness is an invaluable trait for an angler who frequents power generation lakes. The bass aren’t always going to be where you think they are, so trying different techniques can pay huge dividends. If you caught them using a certain bait in the morning, don’t be easily frustrated when they don’t eat the same thing in the afternoon.
“No matter what, you’ve always got to have an open mind,” Yelas said. “One of the biggest mistakes people make is running all over the lake to history spots when the fishing gets tough. If you know the fish are there, stay put and try some different stuff. They didn’t just pack up and leave.”
Yelas believes that nothing can compensate for time on the water. Spending a lot of time on the trolling motor is a great way to find those key areas where shallow fish relocate towards during low-water conditions.
“Pros fish a lot of lakes where we don’t have many honey holes,” Yelas said. “I’ve had to learn to catch all of the fish in my specific area, and running all around the lake isn’t always helpful. If you hunker down, read the conditions and figure out where the fish go during the water fluctuations, you will figure it out rather quickly.”
If you have the chance to fish a power generation lake this year, I strongly suggest it. Learning to fish in fluctuating water conditions is an outstanding way to improve your angling skills. With some basic knowledge of how bass respond to water generation and a good attitude, you can really put a hurting on some bass this year.
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Posted by Jason Sealock on Wed, Aug 15, 2012 @ 07:00 AM
A look at the variables, decisions, notions and conditions that lead to winning fishing tournaments
Jacob Wheeler won a tournament in a way no one thought before hand would be the way to win on a dominant spotted bass fishery. He found an area all to himself and milked it for 20 bass that put him well over the top in this tournament. But as anglers we think it's important to recognize the factors that came into play in this tournament. Tournament bass fishing is a lot more than lures and areas.
Preconceived notions
The Forrest Wood Cup visited Lake Lanier two years ago but under very different conditions. High sun, flat waters that were then stirred and made rough by boat traffic. The lake was higher which put more grass in the lake in the shallow areas. It would seem the shallow largemouth patterns would have been better. But that wasn't the case. The deep spotted bass dominated and guys who ran up the rivers lived and died up there. Ronald Hobbs made the top-10 cut in 2010 fishing nothing but shallow largemouth, however he failed to catch a keeper bass on the final day.
Ott Defoe ran up the river the first day and caught 13 pounds and was in the hunt but after blanking on day two, he was out of the tournament. Defoe fished the area that basically won the tournament for Wheeler two years later but it was still a gamble after seeing what happened to Defoe.
What having the same tournament on the same venue did was convince a good portion of the field that what happened two years ago was what was going to happen this year. So guys that would normally go shallow no matter what, decided they had to be out deep to be competitive. That put a lot more pressure on the fish in those places but it wasn't the only thing that added pressure. More on that in a second.
Guys like Andy Morgan were disgusted with themselves. Morgan didn't pull a spinning rod out all year on the FLW Tour, but then focused almost exclusively on fishing deep with spinning gear in this tournament. A hard lesson for any pro but one that will make him a lot tougher in future championships. "This will be a good lesson for ole' Andy," he said about his preconceived decisions.
Dion Hibdon probably summed up his success best.
"I was one of a few guys who came here and just ignored all the spotted bass talk and what everyone said about there not being enough largemouth to win here," he said. "I just came here and found out what the fish were doing and caught them. I didn't listen to what everyone said had to be done or could be done."
The local effect
It's no secret anglers get insight from locals on various venues in pre-practice. This is more apparent when the conditions are tough on a given fishery and especially in championships. It seems pros have more time to ride around with locals and find out the hot community holes. And locals are usually all too willing to show anglers other locals favorite haunts.
Whether you agree or disagree with the practice, it's how fishing has become. Some pros don't get any help at all and still do well. In fact, where they shine are when the conditions change drastically during a tournament. Other pros, however, might get a point in a right direction and then find their own stuff in the real practice. Another good option that can help you adjust on the fly.
But the local effect comes into play when you start seeing anglers playing round robin on the same 10 spots in one section of the lake. So those bass are then spread out among several guys. The guys fishing deep brush and trees with a drop shot might only get a shot at one bass per pile or tree. If you come in behind Cody Meyer or Brent Ehrler in the rotation on the same spots, what do you think your odds of catching fish will be. So actually being shown the same things as others on a lake hurts the most in these situations.
Changing conditions
Sun, wind, rain, current, water clarity, temperature and more all impact fishing on any giving fishery. The more the conditions change from one extreme to another, the more anglers have to adapt on the fly. That can be hard to do when you have a strong practice doing one thing in one set of conditions and don't get those same conditions throughout the week of an event.
Sunday of practice for the tournament, we contacted several pros and the stories ranged from a good day to being on the winning pattern and group of fish. The old adage of winning practice came to mind as we heard how good the fishing was for many pros. It was sunny and the water was flat except where boat traffic was making big waves. As the practice period progressed, the clouds came in and out and anglers were starting to get a taste of how tough the deep bite could be.
By the time the tournament started, rain and fronts were moving in and out of the area and the sun, although it did come out some, was an afterthought. The sun might seem like a hindrance in a hot summer tournament but it was actually beneficial in this event on Lake Lanier for a number of reasons.
The sun not only drove deeper bass down closer to the deep brush piles and trees, but it also put the shallow fish around more hard targets. It also gave these fish a better bead on the artificial lures anglers were throwing.
"These fish on this lake are visual feeders," said Wesley Strader who found the bass crushing topwaters on sunny days and completely missing it on overcast days. "They see your bait from a long way and swallow it on those bright days. But when it gets overcast, it's like they see the commotion but can't find the lure and just sort of roll on it."
The first three days of fishing saw mostly clouds with a little sun. Some guys were able to capitalize on the small windows of sun while others struggled. It became clear early that there were fish shallow on both ends of the lake, but Wheeler's nearly 22-pound limit took the wind out of a lot of sails. He actually caught three of his biggest bass on reaction moving baits like vibrating jigs and topwaters, playing the clouds that were making the fish roam.
Meanwhile some good limits were caught around some brush deep on drop shots and other baits. As the week played out those fish were picked off, and the ones that remained got way high in the water column away from the brush and made them much harder to target effectively.
As the sun came out more the fish got around their targets shallow as well as deep. There were good fish being caught deep and good fish being caught around docks and the notorious bream beds.
The forage factor
Lanier isn't like other fisheries on say the Tennessee River. Some lakes have an overabundance of forage. Lanier has a lot of bait but it doesn't have a lot of shad compared to other fisheries. You have blue back herring that can cause bass to roam and meander over 100 feet of water not relating to anything. There are things like glass minnows that stay shallow, but a major forage base for the bass on a lake like Lanier can be bream or bluegills.
Several of the top finishers, including eventual winner Wheeler, found the bream bed pattern and actually found several big bass just "hanging out" around them. This pattern won't be found on all lakes, and it also makes a plan like running way up a river feast or famine depending on the fishery. If you run way up a river and the forage isn't up there, you're not going to find many bass.
However, Wheeler found many bass in a small area, and they were easy to target. He was able to cast to isolated targets and catch bass feeding on bait in not only current but also around old bedding areas. And because of preconceived notions by his peers, he was able to keep the small area mostly to himself.
Adapting daily
Adjustments make or break anglers on the water in multi-day tournaments. Bass fishing pros get to the highest level based on their decision making skills as well as their prowess for making leery bass bite. It wasn't enough for Wheeler to have a hot area up the river. He also had to catch those fish, and if they didn't cooperate, he had to be smart enough to go to his backup stuff down lake and not just die up there.
The first day he was able to catch the tournament's biggest limit with reaction baits. The second day there was a bit more sun, and the fish had to be caught flipping Trigger X plastics to specific targets. He also picked up a few larger fish down lake on some bream beds with his topwater prop bait. On day three, the fish were already accustomed to the prop bait, so he changed the profile with the more slender Rapala X-Rap Prop. By the final day he knew what he had to do, and he stuck with his flipping baits and his topwaters to get the job done.
Those small adjustments every day are what lead champions to victory. The fact is we'll never know everything about bass. We'll scratch our heads as much one day when we can't make them bite as we pump our chests the next day when we sack them up. But it's always interesting to hear the psychology and conditional factors that come into play on figuring out the fish on a body of water. For us that sometimes is more interesting than the lure they used.
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Posted by Jason Sealock on Mon, Jul 09, 2012 @ 08:00 AM
At tournament time, tight territory and too many anglers put extra pressure on the bass and on you as angler, but one professional angler has learned hard lessons on how to make the most fishing in crowds.
By Walker Smith
Professional anglers are the best in the world when it comes to overcoming adverse fishing conditions. Whether they are facing torrential winds, 6-foot swells or brutal cold fronts, these guys will put fish in the boat when many anglers will want to go to the house. There is one condition, however, that even the most accomplished professionals loathe: fishing in big crowds.
These anglers spend countless hours searching for bass fishing nirvana – perfect structure, great water conditions and limited fishing pressure. However, circumstances and, lately, restrictive tournament boundaries sometimes force the pros to get up close and personal with each other.
Megabass pro Aaron Martens is known for his ability to fish effectively in crowded areas. We all remember watching him battle it out with KVD in the 2011 Classic and most recently in the 2012 Green Bay Challenge, sharing water with the likes of Ott DeFoe, Terry Scroggins and Mark Davis. Martens believes that four key elements enable him to catch more bass in crowded areas.
Attitude
When your most productive areas are covered with other anglers, it can really take a toll on your state of mind. Optimism, flexibility and open mindedness are valuable antidotes.
Most folks that follow professional fishing and Aaron Martens have noticed a more upbeat and positive angler this season, and it has reflected in his fishing.
“You absolutely have to stay open-minded and relaxed," Martens said. "It’s too easy to get stuck on a few select places when you’re surrounded by boats. It’s important to have the confidence to leave a good area in order to look for something better.”
During the 2012 Green Bay Challenge, Martens believes his willingness to “stay put” cost him the victory. Although several of his best waypoints were often swamped with upwards of 20 boats, he recognizes that he should have stayed the course and ignored the significant fishing pressure.
“I had the fish figured out really well in practice, despite the heavy fishing pressure,” he said. "Several of the other guys weren’t fishing these spots the same way that I was. I should have taken advantage of that. I blew off a few of my more crowded spots when I should have covered more water fishing my strengths.”
According to the Elite Series pro, unconventional methods help him refocus and ignore the surrounding madness. For the first time in his professional career, Martens looked to his iPod for a much-needed distraction.
“I had never really done that in the past, because I like to have total concentration when I fish. This time, however, I needed something to drown out my surroundings in order to focus my mind.”
Lure Presentation
While a natural bait presentation is always important, it is paramount when surrounded by a multitude of other anglers. Martens goes to great lengths to assure the proper presentation of his bait while fishing crowded water.
“Attention to detail is everything," said the meticulous pro. "If I see some guys catching a few bass on 8-pound line, I will generally downsize to 6-pound line in order to give the bait a better presentation. My go-to bait in crowded scenarios is usually a 6-inch Roboworm. It displays a ton of natural action, and when they’re eating it, nothing else compares.”
When considering lure presentation, he is very observant of wind speed and current.
Even if there is no wind, there is always current. It may be less than 1 mph, but it is still there, and it still matters. You have to look beyond the obvious when battling other anglers for water. Your opponent may be picking off a few bass here and there, but you can catch tons of fish when you present the bait correctly. Bass position toward the current to ambush prey, and if you’re working your bait from the opposite direction, you are not going to get as many bites. Casting into the wind isn’t always fun, but you’ll catch more fish if you do.
Boat Positioning
While many anglers prefer to fish the areas leading into their productive spots, Martens does the exact opposite while fishing crowded water. Throughout the Green Bay Challenge, he targeted small schools of fish that were holding in very specific areas. In order to maximize his efficiency, he went straight to his waypoints without wasting time elsewhere.
“I really made an effort to fish only my most productive areas. I wanted to get straight to these areas quickly because it decreased the chance of other anglers easing in on me,” Martens said. “Whenever I landed a fish, I would make sure to immediately get my Phoenix back into position. As soon as I put the fish in the livewell, I would get on the trolling motor to reclaim my spot. You have to play a little defense in crowded water.”
Time Management
Effectively managing one’s tournament time is always important, but Martens considers it even more important in tight confines.
“If I know ahead of time that a fishery is going to fish relatively small, I will cover more water during the practice period,” he said. “This allows me to have multiple backup areas. If a bunch of boats are piled on a few of your spots, you can run around and hit other, less pressured areas. I wish I would have done this a little more on Lake Michigan.”
While Martens doesn’t necessarily mind fishing in crowds, he does acknowledge that there is a limit to the amount of fishing pressure that an area can withstand.
“While I don’t prefer bumping boats with other guys, I can deal with it to an extent. We’re all buddies out there. However, when you stop getting bites, sometimes it’s better to start running and gunning. Bass will get used to fishing pressure and eventually they’ll just shut down.”
The next time you find yourself competing in tight quarters, don’t let the fishing pressure get the best of you. A positive attitude, natural bait presentation, effective boat positioning and conscious time management will put more fish in your livewell. Remember: you’re fishing against the fish, not the anglers.
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Posted by Jason Sealock on Tue, Jul 03, 2012 @ 08:00 AM
By Ronell Smith
I used to use Sticky Notes to keep track of the things I needed to get done over the course of a week. Now, instead of small bits of paper, my desk is littered with notepads of all shapes and sizes, and in each I scribble details from interviews, jot down random thoughts and keep track of tidbits of information that can be shared via Facebook or Twitter.
At the end of each week, I take inventory of all the important information from interviews, perusing it for any similarities, hints, clues, signs of things I missed or could have done better.
More important, I look for common threads, things that kept coming up, whether in conversations, thoughts, emails, texts or in-person interactions. When I looked over last week’s notes, the commonality slapped me across the face: We can do better.
I’m not picking on just the pros here, either. As a matter of fact, much of the reporting I do on a daily or weekly basis has little to do with professional bass fishing. But usually in the course of conversation folks will share a complaint or voice a pet peeve that I might totally miss at the time, only to recognize it after it’s said for the third time by someone else.
For example, last week, while writing a piece for the newsletter, I came across a quote from Jeff Pierce, head of sales for Mustad, where he singled-out the relationship with his pro staffers as invaluable to creating new products. “It’s critical to have the right guys,” he says, “and I’m not just talking about national guys, like Denny (Brauer) and Kevin (VanDam). The regional guys are important, too.”
The truth of the matter is that most of us, despite our desire to will it, might never be the household name we imagine ourselves as, but we can still make an impact. Here’s a simple checklist of things to think about whether you’re trying to join a staff or already enjoy such privilege:
1. There’s a fine line between persistence and annoyance. It’s OK to reach out to a contact and gently ask if they received the email you sent or the voicemail you left; It is not cool, however, to pester someone to the point of continuously emailing or calling them. If you sense the level of contact is excessive, then it is excessive. It’s likely better to connect through a mutual friend or acquaintance anyway. Remember, most people in this industry hold the opinion that if you’re worth their time, they should already know who you are.
2. Social media is now part of your resume. Spend anytime around Facebook and Twitter and you quickly wonder “What were these guys thinking?!” Whether it’s offensive language, vulgar images or derogatory comments about nothing in particular, all of this stuff lives on and is out their for sponsors and potential sponsors to see. Believe me, they are looking. And before you think you have your Facebook page all sewed up so no one can view your posts or images, remember that it’s easy for your friends to “share” them.
3. Understand that it’s not about you. Even if you win every tournament you enter, your sponsors won’t be satisfied. What they really want to know is how willing you are to work shows, travel to film TV spots or stay after hours to meet with media and fans.
“What makes KVD so great isnt’t just that he’s won everything,” said one of his longtime sponsors. “The guy is tireless at staying late to do interviews with our staff for the web and he’s always willing to be a part of events that we sponsor. He doesn’t pull out his contract and say ‘You know, that’s not part of the deal.’ ”
4. Your ego will starve you to death. I hope by now we’ve all come to realize the farce that is “You just need to catch ‘em.” Even if you hook every bass that swims, if you are difficult to deal with, your career will be shorter and far less fruitful than it could be. The way companies see it, there are enough good guys out there that they don’t have to put up with jerks who blow off interviews, use foul language at events, never hang around to sign autographs or who frequently get testy for no apparent reason.
More and more, this behavior is being tied to character, and you would not believe how many times a blow up, whether on stage or on the water, has cost a pro sponsorship from a company that was looking to bring him aboard. Words travels fast. Instead of good sticks, companies are looking first and foremost at good people.
5. Be accessible. Simply put: if you make an appointment, keep it; Return calls in a timely fashion; If you cannot return calls in a timely fashion, don’t make excuses when you do return calls; If you don’t have anywhere to be, stick around for a few minutes after tournaments to greet fans, thank tournament staff and talk shop with anglers. You do not want to be the guy who has a rep for being the first to leave the scene of a tournament.
A great example involves a now-well-known pro who, a few years back, was coming off a rough few years. One of his major sponsors was looking to boot him, but right before he did, he mentioned to a media member that the angler was on the way out.
The media member shared these thoughts:
“I can’t speak for anyone else, but I know that no one—and I mean no one—sticks around longer to talk to fans or is more willing to do interviews or is quicker to pick up his phone when I need him.”
Nearly six years later, that pro is still on the staff and totally unaware of what was about to transpire.
Remember, I’m not just talking to pros or potential pros. I’m talking to the entire industry, even myself.
Ronell Smith is widely considered as one of the top industry, tackle and business insiders for the sport fishing industry. His paid-subscriber newsletter, The Tackle insider, is available at RonellSmith.com. Follow him on Twitter and FaceBook.
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Posted by Jason Sealock on Mon, Jun 25, 2012 @ 07:53 AM
Guest blog by Ronell Smith, The Tackle Insider
If you’re an aspiring angler, just starting out, full of hope, determination and confidence, potential sponsors have a message for you. If you’re a successful up-and-comer who’s had some success on the pro tour but feel you need more sponsors to reach the next level, potential sponsors have a message for you. And if you’re a successful pro competing at the highest levels, consistently placing in the top 10 percent at many events, respected by fellow pros and media alike, potential sponsors have a message for you as well. In fact, the message is the same for all three groups.
“We are not here to fund your dreams,” said one tackle company marketing official. “We don’t care who you are, what you’ve done, how many fans you have, how much people love you. It’s not about helping you.”
After the feedback from my two earlier W2F blogs, I reached out to several tackle company marketing officials—each of whom has pro staff management duties—to get their opinions of the scuttlebutt and try to get a feel for the strategy employed when deciding who is accepted as a pro staffer and who is not.
To my surprise, they were all willing to talk, even openly, candidly. However, none would go on the record and only two would allow me to use their words in any form. [Ed. note. The folks who agreed to be interviewed would do so only under the condition that their names, titles or companies would be protected. For the sake of avoiding confusion, I’ll refer to them as Official I and Official 2. Also, in some cases, I show only one of them answering a question.]
RS: When you hire a pro staffer, especially a young pro staffer, like a college guy, what are you looking for?
Official 1: “Obviously you want someone who is clean-cut, articulate, humble, well-liked and a solid angler. He needs to be able to make a good impression during an interview, and he also has to be able to get along well with the other pros. Right now, the best example of the perfect young pro is Brandon Palaniuk. He’s very humble, he does well in the press, he gets along with the other guys and he is having a lot of success. If young pros want an example to follow, Brandon is it.”
RS: Do you feel like there is a lot of selection out there that fits that mold?
Official 1: “Ronell, let me tell you what I get every day. Every day. ‘Dear Sir, I use your products. I fish several tournaments a year. I could win more tournaments if you sponsored me.’ That’s an (excerpt) from an actual email. So, no, there aren’t enough folks out there fitting that mold. Are there some? Yes. But they have issues as well.”
RS: When you say issues, what do you mean? Can you be more specific?
Official 1: “Sure. I’ve managed the pro staff for...years, and what you find is that everyone has moles. This guy might be the best on the tour, but no one likes him because he’s a jerk. Or this guy, well, he might not catch them, but he can promote. What you really, really want, what you hope for, is to find someone who is very passionate about your brand, someone who has used your product for years and who contacts you and says—first, he knows my name, not some Dear Sir. He ain’t getting anywhere with that, I tell ya’. But he says ‘I have used your product for years. I have great confidence in it...’ It needs to start something like that.”
Official 2: “Let me comment on that. The No.1 thing we’re looking for is a passion for the brand. Look, if someone calls me and spends 15 minutes talking about what they need, that person is not getting sponsored. But if someone calls me and is passionate about the brand, they’ll get sponsorship. They might not get money. It might be product-only. But they’ll get sponsored.”
RS: What about the pro who is a good, a consistent high-finisher, even an occassional winner. You are going to sign him no matter what right? I say that because all I hear from anglers is “If you can catch’em, you’ll get sponsors.”
Official 2: “That’s absolutely not true. It might be true for non-endemics, because those companies aren’t committed to the sport and their personnel aren’t at events. I can think of several very, very successful pros who, to this day, struggle with getting tackle industry sponsors. It’s about more than wins. Can they speak well during interviews? Do they have a large following? Do they stick around and sign autographs. Also, and this is a big one that debunks the myth of what the pros told you: Are they dynamic? Is there something interesting, exciting, distinctive about them? If you’re talking about signing a pro today, there had better be something that makes him unique, and that has nothing to do with his fishing.”
RS: What about the contention, voiced by some pros, that their job is not to help companies sell products. From your perspective, do pros help sell products to a significant degree.
Official 1: “Well, if that pro is KVD, yes. Listen, Kevin isn’t even on my staff, but I know the numbers. I know he moves product. Him and—. No, it’s just him, if we’re tallking pros. Bill Dance moves product, too, but that’s a different demographic. (KVD) has won enough, he’s won everything. Anglers trust that if he’s using a product, it’s something they can have confidence in. But the biggest thing is, so many young anglers want to be like him, so they identify with products that have his name on them.”
Official 2: “Overall, the reason you have pros, especially the Elite Series pros is that it adds to your brands aura. There’s only 100 guys on the Elite Series, so if one of those guys is using your product, it adds to the allusion that your product is the best, or among the best. But, no, consumers aren’t going out and purchasing a product because an angler uses it or because he sees your patch on his shirt.”
RS: For those anglers reading this, what can they start doing today to increase their odds of getting on your pro staff?
Official 1: “I say, just go out there, be yourself, fish hard and achieve a level of success before you start reaching out to companies. Then, when you do reach out to them, make it clear that you are willing to work hard for the brand. You’ll sign autographs, shoot videos, travel during your off time.”
Official 2: “I keep a short list of 5 to 10 anglers that I’d like to sign. Over the course of a season, I talk to folks—tournament officials, other anglers, even officials at other companies—to get a sense as to the reputation of each angler. I pretty well have an idea of who is a good fit for my team. So if an angler is looking to join my staff, he needs to keep his head down and work hard, but he also needs to be a good person, have some humility, works well with the press and try to cultivate a following. That’ll get him noticed, and he won't have to look for sponsors.”
Ronell Smith is widely considered as one of the top industry, tackle and business insiders for the sport fishing industry. His paid-subscriber newsletter, The Tackle insider, is available at RonellSmith.com. Follow him on Twitter and FaceBook.
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Posted by Jason Sealock on Mon, Apr 23, 2012 @ 09:11 AM
We recently spent a week with several top bass fishing pros from the Bassmaster Elite Series and the FLW Tour on Table Rock Lake in between the FLW Tour event there and the Bull Shoals event for the Elite Series. Table Rock is a highland reservoir with generally very clear water. However, because of the crazy weather we’ve had this spring, the lake actually turned over.
So it made for an interesting week of fishing. The water was still somewhat clear but it also had a weird tannic color to it. So you not only saw great crankbait and jerkbait fishing but you also had great finesse fishing with shaky heads, wacky rigs and drop shots. The lake was also still up some so there was quite a bit of cover in the lake. So we found it interesting that you could finesse fish in shallow cover.
But more interesting than the conditions was the trend among the pros that were finesse fishing. Every rod that was rigged for finesse fishing, save for one rod Aaron Martens pulled out just to shoot a video, had braid with a fluorocarbon leader. At least four pros we worked with who were finesse fishing were using some sort of light braid and a fluoro leader.
Obviously we’ve known and used the braid to fluoro combination a lot but over recent years, we have seen such an adoption of the tackle among the pros. The fact is nearly every pro we see now fishing finesse baits has the braid and fluoro combination working for them. Which prompted us to quiz some of these top sticks on why the braid.
“I don’t get as nervous as I used to,” Kriet said. “I mean I’ll still sometimes fish just straight 6-pound fluorocarbon. But it makes me really nervous when I get a big one on. If I can get away with 10-pound braid, then I’d rather use that and not be so worried about a big one busting me off.”
The strength of braid is obviously a critical factor among the pros. The fact that you can keep a small diameter and have increased breaking strength opens up a lot of great options for finesse fishing. Strength, however, may not be the most critical aspect of using braid though.
Another aspect we hadn’t considered until we fished with Shinichi Fukae was visibility. Fukae had about 6 rods on his deck while we were at Table Rock. The Japanese pro knows a lot about highly pressured bass in ultra clear water from his days spent fishing and competing on tough fisheries like Biwa in Japan.
He uses a 16-pound braid from Yoz-Ami YGK (not readily available in the US) with an 8-pound fluorocarbon leader. The braid is a sinking braid made of the highest quality materials very tightly woven. The tight weave gives him incredible distance on his casts but more importantly, the yellow line acts as a strike indicator for him on subtle bites especially on the fall.
“A lot of the bites occur on the fall with wacky jigheads, drop shot, split shot and shaky heads,” Fukae said. “With the yellow braid, I can see my line if a bite happens before I feel it.”
So there is strength and visibility aspects to the line, but other factors still may make it a better reason to change. We talked with Arizona pro Brett Hite about how he and his travelling partner, Brent Ehrler have adopted the braid in their finesse fishing.
“It’s all we use now,” Hite said. “We’ve experimented with a lot of braids and a lot of leaders and even things like knots, leader length and more. Now we have it down to a science and it’s made us so much more efficient – especially when you’re talking hooking and catching bass from a distance.”
Hite gave us an example of what he was talking about from a recent FLW Tour event on Lake Hartwell earlier this year. It’s not always just about casting distance but also the distance straight below the boat.
“Rob Newell had pulled up to me on the first day of the Lake Hartwell event as I’m pulling up to my starting spot,” Hite said. “I had a channel swing that came in close to a little island and I was way out off the swing easing up to my spot with my trolling motor. As I move up there I see an arch in 65 feet of water on my graph. So I open my bail and drop my Roboworm down on the fish. Next thing I know, the fish bites, I set and land a 5 ½-pounder. My first fish was a 5-plus-pound bass out of 65 feet of water. Braid gives you that ability to get a good fast drop with a drop shot because of the small diameter, but the no stretch to give you a good hookset at the end of a long drop or long cast.”
Hite has been experimenting with pound tests and really likes a 10 to 12 pound new prototype Sunline SX-1 that will be unveiled at ICAST this year. The new braid is a dense, tightly woven braid that sinks. It’s made specifically for those deeper contact presentations like shaky heads, drop shots, wacky rigs and more.
An added bonus to using the smaller diameter braid is casting distance. When you’re finesse fishing, it often means that water clarity is an issue. That also means the further you can keep your body and boat from the fish, the less defensive and spooky the fish will be. With 10-pound braid, we’ve found we can cast way ahead of the boat to unsuspecting bass. We caught a 15-pound limit this weekend on shaky heads by making very long casts to areas where bass were guarding fry. Keeping that distance in clear water was a big deal.
“A lot of anglers use too heavy a braid,” Hite said. “You want a 10 or 12 pound test braid with a good fluoro leader. If you go much over 20 pound test, it’s not as manageable on your reel. The 10-pound braid casts so good. You won’t believe how far it casts and how good your hooksets are. I use a 7-pound Sunline Sniper fluorocarbon leader that I measure to about the first guide in my rod.”
What Hite means is he ties the leader material to his braid with an Alberto Knot (which we’ll be showing a how-to tie video of this week) while the fluoro is still on the spool. Then he winds it through his rod guides until it reaches the feeder or butt guide, the last guide before his reel. The key is to keep the fluoro from going into your reel where it will slam against that first guide as you cast.
“If I can keep my knot from banging that first guide, I won’t have any issues with casting, knot strength or wind knots,” Hite said. “And that Alberto knot is the deal. It’s so small; you can’t even hear it going through your guides. And my line twist problems are gone on my drop shots with braid. So it’s really the best of all worlds.”
Take a lesson from the guys who have to be sure they capitalize on every way possible to hook and land all the fish that bite through the course of a day of bass fishing. Braid can give you added security in strength, castability, visibility, no stretch, good hooksets and more. Keep your pound tests to a reasonable strength and small diameter and you’ll enjoy a lot more bites and a lot less problems.
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Posted by Jason Sealock on Mon, Apr 09, 2012 @ 12:58 PM
By Shaye Baker
Florida bass fishing can be some of the best in the country no matter what time of year you hit the water. With mild to scorching hot temperatures year round the bass never get cold in Florida, so they never stop growing. Arguably the best time to head south however is on or around the spawn. Large females move in to the shallow weedy waters of lakes like Lake Okeechobee to feed up, lay their eggs and then feed heavily again before returning to open water or burying up in thick vegetation.
The tail end of the spawn is one of the most exciting times to bass fish in Florida. It seems that there are hundreds of bass per acre fresh out of the spawn and no longer preoccupied with furthering the species along. Once the females lay their eggs, they don’t wait around for room service. Instead they hop out of bed and get on the prowl for whatever they can find. This presents a perfect opportunity to peruse the shallows with reaction baits and load the boat.
The aggressive males hang around and guard the new hatchlings, or fry. Their innate protective nature tells them to protect their offspring at all cost. So as they work to keep bluegill and other predators away they make themselves susceptible to almost anything that looks like it could eat one of their young. This is where the avid angler comes in again with the reaction baits and takes advantage of Mother Nature’s bounty.
These Florida tricks can work on other grassy lakes in the Midwest and northern parts of the country as well when bass are around the spawn.
One such angler who has been targeting these post-spawn feeders for years is Mercury pro John Cox. He has used tricks that he learned from an early age to catch fish all over Florida as well as similar lakes across the country. His most recent accomplishment came while swimming a jig to finish second in the Walmart FLW Tour Open on Lake Okeechobee in February of 2012.
While most anglers were flipping for fish buried in thick matted vegetation, Cox was able to swim a jig in sparser weeds to bring in nearly 20 pounds a day and inevitably finish runner-up.
The swim jig Cox uses is made by Rattle Head Baits. Cox typically trails his jig with a Skinny Dipper style bait, one that has become synonymous with grass fishing, especially on Florida lakes. Depending on the depth of the water and the thickness of the vegetation, Cox will vary the size of his swim jig from 1/8 to 3/8 ounce and typically go with a darker color to imitate a bream after the spawn.
Fry usually hang pretty close to some sort of cover for protection, so Cox likes to throw at targets. He’ll pick apart an area clump by clump and is always sure to parallel whatever vegetation that he can to get the most out of each cast.
Another bait that is a must have for these type situations in a Zoom Speed Worm. This is also a staple in most Floridians arsenals during the post spawn months. Cox adds a small tungsten weight to the nose of the Speed Worm and then Texas-rigs the bait, making it is weedless.
This more subtle bait offers a nice alternative for some of the moody Florida fish that have not completely progressed out of the post-spawn funk that most fish go through shortly after spawning. Rigging the worm with a small weight helps submerse the bait, allowing it to be fished a little quicker and also greatly improves the baits castability.
Don’t let the small stature of the speed worm fool you. Like many Floridians, Cox has hauled in some giant bass on the little worm. Although he doesn’t like to downsize, he knows it’s a must at times to get the big girls to bite. Green pumpkin, junebug and black and blue are all great colors in the Speed Worm which comes in two sizes.
While Cox meanders through the spawning grounds he is also always on the lookout for a late spawner that he might be able to double back on. Often times, bass in the grassy, shallow reservoirs in Florida will bed offshore to the point where landmarks become non-existent. With no visual reference points it becomes difficult to triangulate and locate the fish on the next pass.
While GPS waypoints on Cox’s Lowrance unit are a big help in getting him back to the general area where he spotted a bedding bass, he needs a little more to hone in on exactly which one of the numerous beds on a spawning flat actually held the big bass.
This is one reason Cox keeps a push-pole in the boat at all times. The obvious advantage is using the push-pole to sneak up on weary spawners during the height of the spawn. However, towards the tail end of the spawn Cox will typically use his trolling motor as his primary mode of transportation in the shallows and the push-pole takes on another purpose.
If Cox happens to stumble up on a bedding bass that he wants to return to, he will take his push-pole and jab it down into the ground near the fish’s bed. There are a few disadvantages to this approach, one being that he can’t venture too far away since he runs the risk of someone making off with his push-pole or someone cracking the code and using his marker to find his newly acquired fish.
Cox’s solution to this is simple. If he is in a high pressure situation or perhaps the ground is just too hard for him to get the push-pole to stand up, he has a few pre-rigged bobbers attached to a short piece of fishing line with a weight on the end. He’ll use these to mark fish and then let them settle back down. When he returns, he is able to get the exact position he needs and has the best shot at extracting the fish.
Using little tricks to help himself get a step ahead of the competition has put John Cox on the national fishing radar and has jump started his young career. Company that with the patience that only a Florida fisherman can inherently exude and Cox has a fairly fool proof guide to shallow grass, post-spawn bass fishing.
Using reaction baits to cover water and trigger strikes is always a fun and fast way to catch big stringers during the post spawn if the fish are biting. But don’t be fooled if for some reason they want strike or commit to your bigger baits. The big ones are likely there, and if they are, they can definitely be caught. Just slow down, and you’ll be fishing like a Florida pro before you know it, catching big ones and beaming big smiles.
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Posted by Jason Sealock on Fri, Feb 17, 2012 @ 09:30 AM
The rod jiggled. Then three rods jiggled. Then six rods jiggled. Then all shook violently, baits and weights flopping to and fro as lures struggled in a knotted mess like calves with bolos wrapped around their ankles. Don’t you just love when your baits get tangled up and tie all your rods in a knot? Your drop shot weight has taken a correspondence class in basket weaving apparently and has now woven him in to nooks and crannies in your favorite reel that it won’t even budge.
Meanwhile your Alabama rig makes five hooks on five swimbaits seem like 25 hooks on a gill net. There are hooks through other hooks through swivels through clasps. It’s bundled up so tight a pair of snips sounds like a better alternative than spending the next hour breaking your lures out of their harnessed imprisonment.
Pro anglers Chad Brauer and Dave Wolak have an ongoing joke when they see anglers with their rods strapped to the passenger seat ramp in the back of the boat and the baits hanging 5 to 12 inches off the end of their rod. They will pass by the boat and motion to the other one with a circular helicopter motion. They call it the “butterfly effect.” By the time the boat runs down the lake at 60 mph, and stops on the first spot, that loose lure has found a way to tie every one of that angler’s rods in a knot.
Tangled rods are frustrating. No denying it. Sometimes you just have to cut your way out of the mess. Drop shots and the new castable umbrella rigs have become particularly annoying when stored or riding on the deck of a boat, not to mention storing open rigs in a tackle box. But we found a little trick to tame these tangle-prone rigs.
The secret: a Velcro strip.
Velcro comes in a lot of different shapes and sizes but the kind we’re talking about has the hard prickly stuff on one side and the soft sticky stuff on the other. It can be wrapped around itself and locks itself in place with … itself (sorry for the Austin Power’s moment). You can buy the strips in rolls and these things are dynamite for a variety of uses with fishing tackle
.
We’ve used them recently to store all the different umbrella rigs we’ve been testing them. Rather than bend wires in and out and cause stress points in the wire, we simply wrap the rigs with Velcro and throw them in a big Plano waterproof box. When we unwrap them, the wires spring right into place, and the rig is ready to go.
With a drop shot, we’ll fasten it to the rod first and then begin wrapping it. Before we secure the last wrap around, we’ll slide the line and weight underneath and then finish the wrap. The weight is held against the rod and it keeps that tag-end ball-and-chain effect from tangling other rods. It’s quick and easy and holds the drop shot in place well on a split grip rod.
We’ve used them to secure cables around a trolling motor . It’s a quick and easy way to hold cables in place, makes a great temporary fix for transducer swaps, Hydrowave swaps, etc. The Velcro strips seem to hold up to water, although I have seen some cheap ones finally lose their stickiness over time.
There are probably a lot more uses for Velcro strips for managing tackle and removing some of the frustration. What tricks have you found to organize a fishing mess with Velcro?
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Posted by Jason Sealock on Wed, Feb 15, 2012 @ 01:15 PM
Janet Parker with a nice J-Rigged bass - photos by Todd Hammill
Necessity, they say is the mother of all invention, or in the case of fishing, maybe the mother of all ingenuity in rigging. Competing in bass fishing tournaments can be a pressure cooker. It forces folks to speed up, fish too fast, race from spot to spot, and often over think what needs to be done to get pressured bass to bite.
Randall Tharp made everyone look silly in the recent FLW Tour Open on Lake Okeechobee when he won the event by more than 23 pounds just hunkering down and flipping small areas on the massive grass laden fishery. His sit and soak yielded impressive catches in cold-front riddled event.
Janet Parker has been making a name for herself on the Bassmaster Open trail. She’s really focused again this year on earning that elusive Elite Series berth. She recently shared one of her “ace-in-the-hole” techniques and more importantly her J-Rig way of rigging a wacky style soft bait to methodically pick apart an area.
The J-rig is an extension of a wacky rigged soft stickbait like a Yamamoto Senko that makes it weedless and extremely effective for fishing a bit deeper than other anglers.
“I fished as a co-angler on the FLW Series and FLW Tour for a number of years and really learned a lot about how pros fish wacky-rigged soft plastics,” Parker said. “They would fish them deeper by inserting nail worms into the bait. But it limited the action of the bait so much. I thought if I could weigh the hook I could keep the action of the bait but fish it deeper.”
What she finally settled on after a bit of trial and error on the tournament trail was a 2/0 Owner Mosquito hook that she wrapped with about 1-inch of golfer’s lead Gamma tape. Since that time there has been an influx of wacky jigheads but she still sticks with the tape for a number of reasons.
“The tape has been perfect for several reasons,” Parker said. “I can quickly alter the rate of fall by adding or taking away some tape. So I can modify it on the fly. Those new jigheads you can change the head. You have to have a bunch of different sizes. And they are so expensive. So this is a much cheaper alternative. You can get 3 yards for something like $3.”
Parker employs a very vertical approach to how she fishes her J-Rig. She will skip it up to or around vertical structures like bridge pilings, retaining walls, dock posts, moorings, grass line edges and more. From there she feeds line off onto the top of the water as the bait falls and starts studying her line. She uses 20 pound braid always because she likes the added power she has to set a hook and it’s so easy to watch her line lying on top of the water.
It’s a lot like fly fishing. She’s watching the line floating on the surface. If the line jumps or just starts going under a lot faster, she knows she has a fish. But if she casts it out and it sinks to the bottom without a bite, she’ll reel up the slack, then lift the bait slightly and let it fall again. If nothing bites again, then she reels up again and shoots for her next target. The only exception to this is when fishing around grass.
For submerged grass she’ll cast up to the edge of the grass line and work the bait out with lifts and drops if nothing bites on the initial cast. She’s looking for those fish suspending off the grass lines or hanging on isolated clumps. IF it’s bank grass, she’ll cast up to the bank and flutter it across the top of the grass. Sometimes they will pounce it like a frog, but usually the bass follow it to the edge and when she kills it and lets it sink, they jump all over it.
Parker favors the rig around boats docks. She’ll use a skipping cast to get it as far back under the cover as possible and let it sink. Sometimes she’ll make 30-40 casts on a single dock to make sure she covers all the ambush points.
“It’s really effective for fish busting on the surface,” she said. “If I see one bust, especially in shallower water, I will throw over to it with the J-Rig and 8 out of 10 times, the fish will eat it.”
Another key situation for her J-Rig is long distance casting to bedding bass. She follows the theory that a bass that is not on the defensive is a lot easier to catch. So she will line up the beds and make blind casts to the beds from as far as possible. The bass are not as spooky and skittish and the subtleness of the bait really makes them attack.
“I like to scale down to a 5-inch Yamamoto Thin Senko on bedding bass,” Parker said. “The bait is so subtle and because I’m so far away, the just run off the bed and grab it before it sinks all the way down. It’s so effective on deeper beds to. I don’t have to see the fish. The rig makes them show themselves. I’ve not found any other bedding bait that they will chase out and grab before it gets into the bed like this bait and rig.”
The gear for fishing the J-Rig is pretty simple. She uses a Dobyns Champion Elite Series 743 spinning rod and spinning reel. She likes 20-pound braid with a 4- to 6-foot fluorocarbon leader. She’ll use 8 or 10-pound fluorocarbon if where she is fishing is free of grass or abrasive cover. If it’s cover that could shred the line, she’ll go up to 14 to 15-pound leaders.
The fish are reacting to the presentation; even though most anglers would consider it finesse fishing. They are not looking at the line or studying the bait. They are seeing something that looks alive slowly sinking and reacting to it. Parker has found the fish really eat it, even on the beds.
She also uses it as a follow up bait. If a fish comes up and busts on a topwater lure, she’ll reach down and grab the J-Rig and catches those missed topwater fish more often than not. For that reason, she always has a J-rigged and ready.
Her favorite lures are Senkos, Thin Senkos and finesse worms.
“I rig it like you’re hanging the worm vertically on the short part of a ‘J’ with the hook point buried in the plastic,” she said. “This looks like it wouldn’t work, but that Owner hook is so sharp it just cuts through all the plastic and you stick them every time. It’s really weedless and falls right every time.”
Clear fisheries are the best for this technique as the bass need to be able to see it. Lightly stained fisheries will work but you’ve got to put it right on the fish’s nose. The best days for Parker have been on those flat slick calm blue bird days when fishing can be tough on clear fisheries.
She would have blanked at Table Rock last year in the Opens until she picked up the J-Rig and took off down some docks and scraped out a fish in the waning hour of the tournament. She also caught several key fish at the Arkansas River in Muskogee, Okla.
It doesn’t work all the time, but when the conditions set up for it, she thinks she can compete with anyone.
“I’m really looking forward to the Open on Table Rock this year,” she said. “Those fish will be on the beds and roaming and if we get some calm days, I’ll really catch them. I had some quality fish found on Table Rock last year before the floods hit. So I’m excited to get back there and throw the J-Rig.”
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