W2F Blog

Two simple ideas to keep the warmth in and the cold out

By Walker Smith

Unless you have the ability to pay hundreds of dollars for state of the art gear, staying warm while fishing can seem difficult. Not only is it simply uncomfortable to have a permanent chill in your spine during your time on the water, but it also makes simple tasks, such as knot tying, a pain. If the cold keeps you from chasing big winter bass, there are 2 simple and inexpensive things you can do to maintain a warm core temperature.

Hand warmers in your wrist bands


Many anglers use hand warmers to keep their hands warm on the water. More often than not, however, I’ve found hand warmers to be a very temporary relief. Sure—they feel good when you’ve got them in your gloves, but they get annoying eventually and end up stuffed in my jacket, never to be used again.

To combat this problem, I like to put these hand warmers under the wrist band of my sweatshirt, directly on the underside of my wrist. The veins in your wrist are a major highway for blood, and when you warm those veins, your blood also warms up and pumps into the rest of your body.

Keeping these hand warmers out of your gloves allows you to firmly hold your rod, therefore increasing sensitivity, while also freeing your hands for knot tying, fish handling and lure modifications.

If you’re having problems keeping the hand warmers in place, simply wrap them loosely with athletic tape. Be careful not to wrap them too tightly, and if it feels too hot on your skin, remove them immediately.
 
HeatWraps on your back


Nothing is more uncomfortable than leaning over in cold weather, exposing your bare back to the elements. If you thought you were cold before, you’ll be miserable in a hurry if this happens. Once that chill gets to you, it’s hard to get rid of. To avoid this situation, here's a little secret a duck-hunting buddy gave me.

Get some HeatWraps at your local drug store and wear them on your lower back while you’re on the water. Depending on what’s comfortable, you can either put them directly on your skin or over a thin first layer. They don’t get too hot, but provide the perfect amount of warmth to keep your core temperature at a reasonable level.

HeatWraps come with an adjustable and reusable fabric wrap that doesn’t itch or dig into your skin. When worn correctly, they won’t ride up when you cast or move around the boat—you’ll forget you’re wearing them. If you’re the thrifty type, most major drug stores carry generic brands that are available for nearly half the price.

Don’t let the cold weather scare you away from bass fishing this winter. Whether you’re on the ice or the open water this winter, these quick and inexpensive tips can make your fishing days much more enjoyable. Stay tuned for more tips on keeping warm!

Tackle modifications that will help you catch more fish

By Walker Smith

One of the best parts of our job is when we have the privilege of communicating with our readers. We read every email and comment from our readers and we always appreciate and enjoy your feedback. Just as we hope to keep our readers up-to-date on the latest fishing information, we often learn some pretty cool tips from our fans as well. In the past few months, several of our readers have commented on our feature pieces with their own tackle modification ideas.

Being the bass fishing addicts that we are, we’ve tried many of these ideas and have been impressed with the functionality and simplicity of them. In order to keep you “in the know”, we have compiled a list of some of our readers’ simple ideas that will help you get the most out of your fishing day.

Double split rings on jerkbaits


Try adding an extra split ring to your hook in place of a longer shank! I do this on my jerkbaits and it works just fine.
Posted on Wednesday, December 05, 2012 7:21 AM by Michael Clifford on Short-Shank vs. Long-Shank Treble Hooks

Not every angler has the available tackle to quickly switch from short-shank to long-shank hooks—and that’s totally fine. If you’ve ever experienced the heartache and frustration of multiple short strikes when fishing with your favorite jerkbait, you may want to consider adding an additional split ring to it.

Just as a long-shank hook allows for better hookups on a jerkbait, double split rings will serve the same purpose if you don’t have a wide selection of treble hooks to choose from. In addition to giving the bass a better opportunity to get hooked, doubling up your split rings is also a great way to alter the buoyancy of your jerkbait in different water temperatures and conditions.

Spinnerbait blade dye for hooks


Red hooks are dyed red and it doesn’t take long for the red to come off of the hook, so get a bottle of red blade dye—you can dip the hook in the dye without taking the hook off the bait.
Posted on Wednesday, November 28, 2012 8:44 AM by Larry on When and Why to Use Red Hooks for Bass Fishing

With the right water clarity and sunlight, red hooks are a great way to get extra bites when the fishing is tough. It’s not always easy to get your hands on the right size or style of red hooks, but don’t worry—red spinnerbait blade dye makes for a very effective hook dye as well.

If you’re fighting the battle against short strikes, especially in time-sensitive situations, it’s a hassle to rummage through your terminal tackle box, untangle a big ball of sharp hooks and replace them all. Red blade dye saves a lot of time by allowing you to keep the hook on the bait and simply dip it into the dye—it’s that simple.

Don’t be concerned about the dye dulling the hook points, either. Blade dye is formulated to be extremely thin as to not alter the weight of spinnerbait blades. When you experiment with this modification, you’ll notice that the blade dye is no thicker than water.

Coffee stirrer in the tail of a Zoom Ultravibe Speed Worm


To get the paddle tail or any plastic worm tail up off the bottom, insert a thin, plastic coffee stirrer in the tail section. This creates an air pocket, raising the tail slightly off the bottom while giving the extra action often needed to entice a strike.
Posted on Friday, December 21, 2012 8:37 AM by Richard Ziert on Four Ways to Fish a Zoom Ultravibe Speed Worm

This simple tackle tweak can make a big difference on the water, especially when targeting pressured bass. As if the Ultravibe Speed Worm doesn’t make enough racket in the water, inserting a simple coffee stirrer into the tail of the worm will make it irresistible to big bass. To make it easier to insert the stirrer, simply dip it in the water to minimize any tearing.

Whether you’re fishing the UV Speed Worm weightless, Texas rigged or on a shaky head, this handy modification will get more bites. Not only does the coffee stirrer allow the tail to float when at rest, but it also creates a ton of bubbles as you drag or swim the bait in the water. Several of the best grass lake anglers have been doing this for years with consistent success.

Feathered treble hooks on walking topwaters


Great article! I also love to use walking topwater lures. I often change out the rear treble with a feathered treble hook to increase chances of a good hook up.
Posted on Friday, October 05, 2012 9:44 AM by David J. Gutierrez on Big Walking Topwaters in the Early Fall

There’s something about a feathered treble hook on the back of a topwater bait that big bass simply cannot ignore. In the fall and spring, bass see a plethora of topwater baits whizzing overhead every day and eventually become wise to them. In order to differentiate your offering from others, adding a feathered treble hook to the back of the bait can draw strikes from even the most finicky bass.

Because many bites on walking topwater baits can come while the bait is paused, feathered trebles are a great way to add a little more action to the bait while it’s at rest. As the bait sits in the water, the feathers quiver and pulsate with the movement of the water, making it a tantalizing addition to any topwater bait.

Loop knot for “walking the dog”


A Loop knot also makes “walking the dog” easier for me.
Posted on Sunday, October 07, 2012 4:40 PM by Rollie Van Cleave on Big Walking Topwaters in the Early Fall

“Walking the dog” is an age-old technique that has caught big fish for years. Although it is possible to execute this retrieve with a generic Palomar knot, many anglers prefer a loop knot instead. Because the loop knot allows the bait to move more freely, anglers are able to perform a wide-walking presentation with the slightest twitch of the rod tip.

If you’re just learning this technique or if you’re tired of jerking your shoulder out of socket to make your favorite topwater walk, this simple tweak is a must-try in our book.

We cannot thank our readers enough for the constant support and feedback over the years. As we continue to do everything in our power to help you become better anglers, we hope that you keep the lines of communication open with more awesome tips and suggestions. Thank you for being Wired2Fish!

My most productive non-ice fishing lures for winter time bass fishing

By Jason Sealock

You're scraping ice off the windshield, as the truck sputters and grumpily tries to warm its interior. Breathing in exhaust fumes as cold chills pulse down your spine as you hook the trailer to the hitch. The nose begins what will be a full day trickle as your ears already burn from the frost trying to adhear to your lobes. The allure of big lumbering sluggish bass in icy cold water fills your brain as you scramble to the cab of the truck. It's winter time, and surprisingly some bass anglers hate it.

To an extent, all anglers probably fall victim to "rut fishing" at some point throughout the year, and winter can be the worst time to be in a rut about how you approach your fishing. A few simple facts will hopefully give you better perspective and hopefully some tips on tackle will make your quest to catch bass a little easier this winter.

First, bass don't need to feed every day. There metabolisms slow to a crawl and they don't need as much coal for their furnace so to speak. So they don't have to eat as much or as often. That makes smaller baits a good option or extremely slow moving big baits that they don't need to run down to satisfy a week's worth of food requirements.

Second, bass group up and spend a good portion of their winter motionless. They populate an area that has food and deep water nearby and hover there until early spring. So spend time looking for deep concentrations of bait, cover and bass and realize fish use the smallest percentage of the lake of any other time of the year.

Now for the good news. Bass do eat in the winter. They stay near the bait because they need to eat. Also, they stay with their friends, so if one bass isn't eating today, chances are a buddy right next to him is. They are very keyed into shad this time of year and the shad can be struggling to stay alive if the water temperatures are dipping into the low 40s. So while they are looking for those injured dying shad, they won't pass up a slow crawling craw right in their face either. They are still opportunists and will seek to eat whatever they can in close proximity.

Having addressed their "tendencies," here are my 8 choices for targeting and catching sluggish cold water bass and some tips on how to make them more effective.


Deep suspending jerkbaits

I spent a lot of time watching shad die in the winter when I fished on clear water fisheries like Table Rock and Beaver Lakes in the Ozark Mountains. These shad would kick and pause, flutter and float and sometimes sink slowly out of sight. I've incorporated mimicking this kick-and-float behavior into chasing winter bass with deep diving suspending jerkbaits. A Lucky Craft Staysee, a SPRO McRip, Megbass Ito Vision 110+1 and a Jackall DD Squirrel all do a great job of twitching and jerking in water 8-12 feet deep. The sound, flash and water displacement in clear water can all lead big bass out of deep haunts to grab a quick easy meal.

Tip: I sometimes weight my jerkbaits so they will slowly sink. When I know I'm fishing for bass deeper than 10 feet over much deeper water, I actually like for my jerkbait to mimic those shad I saw dying for many years on other fisheries. I will add lead golfers tape or a few extra split rings to make my deep suspending jerkbaits slowly sink after a rip or pull so they look like a shad struggling to stay afloat.


Blade bait

A blade bait is a dynamite lure for stair-stepping down steep 45 degree banks into the zones bass are holding. Where a spoon derives its action after the hop or pull as it flutters on the fall, a blade bait attracts on the actual rip and drop.

Tip: I will fish a blade bait like a lipless rattling bait and just slowly wind it along, hoping it bumps a rock or two. I think the subtle vibration, couple with the clinking and clacking over rocks, draws those deep bass in for a closer look and the slow crawl is easy for them to run down.


Jigging spoon

A jigging spoon has been a staple over the years for deep wintering fish. It looks like nothing, but it casts like a rock, gets to the bottom and into the strike zone with blazing speed and can be worked in place easily on a vertical presentation with a simple snap and fall on slack line.

Tip: Slack is critical so learn to drop or cast the spoon and watch your line as it falls. Think it stopped too early, reel up fast and set the hook. See your line jump, set the hook. I often cast out a few yards from the boat and hop it around to cover a small circular area where I think the bass are holding and being out away from the boat helps me watch my slack a little easier as well.


Tail spinner

Another deep small hunk of lead with some flash, a tail spinner has been a hot ticket in Texas lake in colder years. The ability to hop it, wind it, pump it and work it various ways both near the bottom and up in the strike zone make this simple tear drop lure a dynamite presentation.

Tip: I use a lighter one a lot of the time to get a slower fall in the winter. I think a lighter weight really lets the blade work and you can keep the bait in their strike zone for a much longer period on each cast, which is critical in the winter.


Under spins with shad tails

When you are fishing deep flats, a lure you can cast and wind slowly along the bottom or up off the bottom if you find the bass suspended can be the ticket. Something like a Sworming Hornet or a Buckeye SuSpin with a small swimbait or shad tail like the Optimum Opti Shad or Basstrix can easily mimic a shad in cold water that might have a slight stain to it.

Tip: Super glue is your friend. Super glue the swim tail to the head and you can fish all day with one tail and head, well at least for a lot more fish than you would otherwise. And a pumping and stop and go retrieve can also trigger bass who might slowly lumber behind but never strike.


Grub

A grub is such a simple and old faithful lure, that many anglers totally forget about them. Fact is, this bait really shines when the water is ultra cold. I've caught bass in water below 40 degrees on a grub and 1/4 ounce jighead. When bass suspend in vertical cover, a grub can be a dynamite lure to catch those otherwise stationary bass. Wind it slowly and methodically and most bites will just feel like a little pressure as you wind it.

Tip: Small diameter line helps keep the lure down and swimming steady through the water. The lure doesn't weigh much so heavier line causes it to rise too much. I like some of the new grubs like the Strike King Rage Tail grub or Zoom Fat Albert that put out a lot of vibration.


Casting jig

One of my favorite ways to catch smallmouths this time of year, is casting to 45 degree banks and steep points and bluffs with a casting jig. Something like a Cumberland Pro Lures Pro Caster or a Stan Sloan's Booza Bug are ideal for this technique. I will tip the jigs with a Zoom Chunk or Zoom Super Chunk Jr.–something with flat appendages that undulate more than twist and thump.

Tip: I'm normally fishing this on fairly open rocky banks with occasional stumps or laydowns. So I will opt for very light line like 10 to 12 pound fluorocarbon. The lighter line gives the bait better depth control and I think the fish look at a jig this time of year longer than other times of the year before biting. So I want to stack the deck in my favor with very natural presentations, trimmed skirts, natural chunk  colors to give the bass a real meal looking profile.


Drop shot

I've definitely built up a lot of confidence with a drop shot over the last decade. And I just smile when I hear guys tell me bass won't bite plastics in cold water. They will bite the right plastic. Especially if presented in a very realistic manner. The bass are often tight to the bottom so I will keep my leader lengths fairly short and I will let the drop shot sit for long periods. I still want to butt it up against a rock or a stump and work it painfully slow around an isolated object. But sometimes just barely flicking the tail is all the action it needs.

Tip: Choose a bait that gives you more of an undulating or vibrating tail action. I think a bait with a slightly thicker body and tapered tail gives you that tail vibration or whip you need for cold deep water bass.  I really like the new Strike King KVD Dream Shot and the new Berkley Twitchtail Minnow for cold bass.

Red hooks really do have an application in bass fishing, according to Marty Stone

Photos and Article by Walker Smith

If you’re like us, you don’t have enough fingers or toes to count the number of times you’ve heard fellow anglers banter back and forth about the effectiveness, or perceived lack thereof, of red hooks. You’ll find a couple of them scattered about in random compartments of many anglers’ boats, but most of us never pay them much attention. Truth be told, I only buy red hooks when I’m in a rush to the lake and the local tackle shop is out of black hooks. Sure, they look sexy, but do fish really care what color hook you’re using?

A recent conversation with bass fishing legend Jimmy Houston has turned Vicious Fishing pro Marty Stone into a bona fide believer in red hooks. Under the right conditions, he has had some monster days with his Daiichi Bleeding Bait hooks. Recently, Stone shed some light on the colored hook conundrum and provided us with a lot of interesting food for thought.

The marketing misnomer

Remember when red fishing line was the big talk in the fishing industry? As a young teenager, I thought it was the bee’s knees, guaranteed to turn me into a pro overnight. The allure of red line was simple—the fish couldn’t see it, and when your line is virtually invisible, you’re going to catch a lot more fish.

Now, let’s look at it from an alternative perspective. While many fishing line companies were adamant that their red line was indiscernible, there were some hook companies claiming their red hooks to be the ultimate difference maker on the water.

So let’s get this straight—red line is invisible, but red hooks make bass more apt to attack a bait? At this point, it doesn’t really matter who was wrong or right. Common knowledge would lead us to believe that someone, whether it was the line companies or the hook manufacturers, had to be wrong. Not so fast, says Stone.

Seeing red

Stone got the answer he had been looking for during a recent conversation with Jimmy Houston, who had taken part in a light penetration study. His findings were interesting, to say the least.


“In water of normal stain, considered to be 12- to 24-inches of visibility, a red hook is, indeed, very visible from 5-feet or less,” said Stone. “On the contrary, anything red—whether it’s fishing line or a hook—is going to disappear in more than 5-feet of water.”

Technically, both sides are right. Since learning that red hooks are, in fact, visible from less than 5-feet away in water of normal stain, Stone has noticed a substantial increase in his shallow water fishing success.

When to use red hooks

The use of red hooks is something that is becoming increasingly popular amongst the world’s top professional anglers. While not ideal in every situation, Stone has developed some very effective techniques for exposing bass’ weakness for red.

“Any time I’m flipping shallow water with a normal stain, I almost exclusively use a red hook,” Stone said. “If you’re struggling during a tough day on the water, don’t be afraid to tie on a red hook. It may take a bit to get used to, but I truly believe that you will catch more fish.”


The use of red hooks should not be limited to just flipping and pitching, however. Stone loves chunking shallow crankbaits, which has allowed him to experiment at length with red treble hooks. While effective, It’s not always as simple as throwing on some red trebles and going to town.

“If I’m throwing a squarebill that dives less than 5-feet deep, I always replace the front hook with a red treble hook,” Stone said. “I never put red hooks on the back because I want that big bass to attack the middle of the bait, giving me a great chance at getting a really solid hookup.”


Because bass can be triggered by a subtle flash of red like gills on a fish, red trailer hooks are outstanding on bladed baits, as well. When targeting sluggish shallow fish holding tight to cover, Stone uses red trailer hooks on his spinnerbaits and buzzbaits to give the bass a little extra “something” to hone in on.

Although he has had an enormous amount of success using red hooks, Stone believes that changing hook colors makes the biggest difference on bright, sunny days.

“The cloudier the day and the lower the light, the less that red is a factor,” Stone said. “For that light penetration to do what it’s supposed to do, you need to have a sunny day in order to get the maximum benefits from red hooks.”

The next time you are having a tough day on the water or getting a lot of short-strikes on a crankbait, switch to a red hook. While it may take some time to get confidence in it, you just might crack the code and enjoy some killer fishing. All it takes is one monster bass to make you a believer.