W2F Blog

•    Not all bass spawn at the same time
•    Not all bass spawn
•    Big fish can spawn earlier
•    Shallow pressure moves fish

By Walker Smith

Stick worms for bass are widely regarded as one of the most simple, yet effective ways to catch more fish. In a time where many soft plastic baits look more like spaceships than bass cuisine, sometimes keeping your bait selection simple can pay big dividends.

Throughout the spring, it’s not uncommon to see Yum pro Matt Reed and Keystone Light pro Brent Ehrler ditch the appendages and opt for the simple, subtle profile of a stick worm. It’s almost impossible to fish a stick worm incorrectly, but Reed and Ehrler have keyed in on a few simple, yet very useful tips.

Throw it early and often

•     Be Patient
•     Get in position
•     Don't throw too hard
•     Train your thumb and wrist
•     See your targets
•     Rods and lines matter
•     Cast by any means necessary

Jared Lintner shows off one of his favorite ways to catch spring bass

By Walker Smith

Spring bass have a reputation for being especially gullible throughout the spawn—it’s a welcomed occurrence for anglers after enduring a long, brutal winter. As the spawn begins to die down, however, and the last waves of spawners move onto sandy, shallow areas, they can actually become a bit difficult to catch. After being relentlessly pursued for weeks on-end, these wary bass become wise to our tricks.

Tackle Warehouse pro Jared Lintner has found a way to overcome suspicious late spring bass. For the past 2 years, he has been using an ultra-finesse technique that has fooled countless giant bass—he calls it the “micro bass grub”. With a basic understanding of when, where and how to use it, you can make the most out of tricky late spring bass fishing.

What is it?

At one point or another, most of us have caught bass on soft plastic grubs—many of us have probably caught our first bass on it. If you thought that was a finesse technique, Lintner’s technique will make it seem like power fishing.

When rigging his micro grub, Lintner uses a 3/32-ounce Keitech Super Round Tungsten Jig Head for calmer conditions and a heavier 1/8-ounce model for easier casting in breezy conditions. If he’s around particularly large bass or thick cover, he prefers a Jackall Weedless Wacky Jig Head due to its thicker hook and small weed guard. Lintner maintains his ultra-finesse mindset when selecting an appropriate soft plastic bait.

“Don’t be afraid to throw a really small bait with this technique,” Lintner said. “I like to use a 1-inch or 1 1/2-inch Yamamoto Single Tail Grub. They’re loaded with salt and have an excellent swimming action. In reality, you can use other tiny grub models, too, but I have the most confidence with the Yamamotos.”

Where to start


When the fishing gets tough, Lintner turns to his micro bass grub in areas likely to hold both bass and bream beds—shallow, sandy flats. As he approaches these areas with his trolling motor, he keeps an eye out for any white spots on the bottom. These spots are indicative of bass and bream beds, which make them prime candidates for the often-overlooked micro grub.

On popular, heavily pressured fisheries, the majority of anglers power fish with big, bright-colored baits and heavy line. Lintner is a staunch believer that late spring bass get accustomed to these techniques, which lets him take a totally different approach with the micro grub.

“When I’m faced with bass that have been bothered by big, bulky tackle for the entire spring, the micro grub allows me to show them something they’ve probably never seen,” Lintner said. “Basically, if I see a late spring bass on bed or a big bass hovering around a bream bed, it won’t take more than 2 casts to catch them with this technique.”

How to fish it

The biggest key to effectively utilizing the micro grub is making the longest casts you can possibly make. Because Lintner most often uses this technique in clear water, heavy pressure situations, the bass will easily spook if you get too close.

“I like to keep my trolling motor on a fairly low setting and stay far away from the fish,” Lintner said. “Once I get my boat into position, I always want to cast past my target. Whether I’m casting to a visible bed or simply blind casting to shallow cover, I don’t want the grub to plop down on top of the bass.”

Following a long cast, Lintner lets the Single Tail Grub do most of the work. Reeling just fast enough to keep a small bow in his line, he’ll incorporate an occasional twitch or pause as the micro grub rig nears pieces of key cover. He uses extremely light tackle for this technique, so a strike isn’t difficult to detect.

“Whenever you get a bite, you’ll know it,” Lintner said. “Most of the times you’ll feel it in your line, but I’ve noticed a similarity with a lot of the bigger fish I’ve caught on it—a lot of times you’ll just see your line slowly swimming to the side. You don’t want to go crazy on your hookset with such light tackle, so just reel and smoothly sweep on the hookset.”

Conditions to look for

Because the micro grub technique calls for such a lightweight jig head, wind is not necessarily your friend in this case. A slight breeze, however, is a very different story.

“I like sunny conditions with a small ripple on the water,” Lintner said. “Too much wind will not only mess up your casting, but it will also hinder your ability to feel the bait, which is a big deal when fishing the micro grub.”

If you’re faced with cloudy conditions, don’t give up on the micro grub altogether. Although the location of bass may not be as easy to predict with the decreased visibility, it also doubles as an effective search bait, too.

“This rig isn’t as easy to use in cloudy conditions, but it will still definitely catch fish,” Lintner said. “I’ll just get on sandy, shallow flats and fan cast it to probable bedding areas—they’ll still bite it.”

Equipment and color selection

According to Lintner, there are two key factors to your equipment selection for throwing the micro grub—a high-quality rod and excellent line. Due to its fast taper and powerful butt-section, Lintner exclusively uses a 6-foot, 8-inch medium-light action G. Loomis GLX Spinning Rod.

When it comes to his reel and line selection, he trusts 6-pound Sunline FC Sniper and a Shimano Sustain Spinning Reel.

“I’ll definitely take my chances with the light tackle,” Lintner said. “I’ve caught fish up to 12 pounds on the micro grub around heavy cover. If you just hold steady and avoid getting in a big hurry and horsing them in, they usually swim away from cover. They’ll initially want to go in there, but if you just hold pressure on them, they’ll come right out and you’ll get ‘em.”

Regardless of the conditions, Lintner keeps his grub color selection very simple. Because of the abundance of small baitfish and bluegill that inhabit the shallows during the spring, he chooses natural colors.

“99 percent of the time, I’m throwing very subtle, non-aggressive colors,” Lintner said. “My favorites are green pumpkin, watermelon and watermelon red flake.”

If you’re dealing with spooky, stubborn fish this spring, break out the lightest tackle you have and try the micro grub. Although it may seem dainty, your opinion may be changed when you see the fish it will catch.

1. usually introduced to a body of water after they have grown past the perilous early stages of fish life, and ...
2. generally few in number for their species in the water they grew up in!

When Nate Herman calls, I listen

A discussion about lake and farm pond management practices with Nate, the mind behind Herman Brothers Pond Management, sets my mind reeling for weeks on end.

Herman creates countless fisheries, from tiny ponds to lakes of several hundred acres. Some of his waters have such varied and complex structure and biodiversity that, had you come blindfolded, you would swear you were fishing a vast reservoir.

Musky sighting

Last week, Herman sent me photos of a musky and hybrid striper caught at one of the lakes he manages. The musky photo showed a fat 42-incher that he might have passed off as a 42-pounder were the truth not in him. The hybrid striper was thick and well fed, to say the least.


The musky was only four years old!

Neither catch surprised me. Herman often grows huge fish on lakes he has designed or managed. But the recent catches compelled the Peoria, Ill.-based lake maker to reflect on the reasons behind his success.

“Whether the species is smallmouth bass, catfish, hybrids, crappie…we can always grow the fish we stock into big fish. Why?” Herman asked himself. “With any game fish, the first year or two of life is pretty rough in a pond, small lake or even a big body of water. But when we can grow a fish first at a hatchery pond or fish farm or sanctuary of some sort, they really have a chance to grow into trophy fish.”

What particularly interested Nate was that it didn’t matter if he had tailored lake management practices to a specific species. He often could grow giant fish -- largemouth bass, smallmouth, hybrid stripers or muskellunge -- with multiple species in the same body of water.

His memory flooded with more examples, and the questions each raised. Why , for instance, was the rare catfish always growing to big proportions in a pond where bass “stunted out” at 12 inches?

In most cases, the lone or “outsider” species wasn’t reproducing.

Controlling numbers of the species reduced competition in the niche the fish occupied. They may even have spared individual fish the stress of annual spawning.

State record fish catches also convinced him he could turn this knowledge into a fisheries management principle.

“I’ve really dug into it, and I’m finding that state record fish basically are stocked fish,” he assesses. “Rarely do you find a trophy of record proportions that is born in a given body of water and has lived in that body of water his whole life.”

Herman’s observation got me thinking, too, about countless records and fish anecdotes. I recalled a northern pike from a private strip mine lake that briefly held the Illinois state record. I used to fish that lake regularly with friends, and rare indeed were the pike we caught.

My fishing buddy John Hynds manages a 28-acre lake with an abundance of relatively small carp but nary a big buglemouth in the bunch!  My cousins, on the other hand, own a farm pond that everyone believed to be carp-free -- until a 35 pounder surfaced one day.


Head start program

Herman has been applying this simple principle to pond and lake management practices.

“I am growing bigger fish by stocking them at one to two years old,” he explains. “I am especially applying this to managing smallmouth in ponds. We can grow really big smallmouth just by stocking fish at a slightly advanced stage of development. You really don’t need them to reproduce. In fact, the research on stocking sterile largemouth bass seems to indicate we can grow almost all these fish to three or four… on up to six or seven pounds.”

Food source

The management logic goes beyond stocking a fish too big to get eaten, too, Herman stresses. Fish need an adequate food source at each stage of their development! And sparking an early growth spurt helps them in multiple ways.

“Often by stocking musky at 12 to 16 inches, they have a much better chance of growing big,” he explains. “If they are only eight to 10 inches when they enter the system, yes, they can be eaten, but they also may not have a food source sufficient for them to do well, to hunt effectively.”

He has stepped outside the box to apply the principle to stunted bass populations, too.

“People think I am insane when I tell them to stock 50 14-inch bass per acre in a lake with a bass population stunted at 12 inches,” Herman said. “The key point is that stunted fish are old by the time they reach 12 to 14 inches. But once a fish gets past the (size) hump of that population, it finds so much food available!”

Mike Pehanich is publisher of Mike Pehanich’s Small Waters Fishing website  (www.smallwatersfishing.com ) featuring videos, articles, multi-species angling tips, and in-depth information on small waters fishing and management.

• Swim it high
• Power swim to slow the bait
• Contact the cover
• Take a step towards the bass
• No cover necessary
• Tackle matters

Photo courtesy of B.A.S.S./Bill Lowen fights a bass to the boat on a swim jig

Keep it up

All four anglers agree that it's a high in the water column retrieve that often produces better. They want the fish to see it and come get it rather than dangling it right in front of them. So they will keep the swim jig usually within sight the whole cast. And for that reason, all agree it's more effective in stained to more clear water.

"I reel it slow and high in the water column and it doesn't seem to matter whether it's sunny, cloudy, raining or windy," Lowen said. "I haven't found one magic condition where they bite it better. It comes through all sorts of cover but I like to keep a visual on the jig when I swim it."

Pump the rod for longer strike zones

Howell and Horton advocate swimming a jig with a series of rod pumps. The will hold their rod at about 10 o'clock and pump the rod tip succesively to cause the jig to pulse through the water.

This action makes the skirt and trailer pulse as it ticks through cover, but more importantly, it slows the bait's forward progression. It seems to cause the bait to stall half the time and what you end up with is a very active jig that stays in the strike zone longer.

Small, easy changes can lead to big increases in your crankbait fishing success

By Walker Smith

Crankbait fishing is widely misunderstood. While many brand it as a technique as simple as casting and reeling, paying attention to the smallest details will greatly increase your catch.

I have the opportunity to take a lot of novice anglers fishing when I guide trips on my home lake, and over the years, I have found 4 effective ways to land more crankbait fish. It’s important to understand that there isn’t a “right” or “wrong” way to fish a crankbait, but the following tips have helped both myself and my clients enjoy more success on the water.

Keep your rod tip at a 45-degree angle to your target

One of the biggest mistakes anglers make when crankbait fishing is holding their rod tip at a 90-degree angle to their target. When I first started crankbait fishing, I did the same thing—it feels most natural at first. Try to fight that instinct whenever possible.


When you hold the rod in this manner, you don’t leave yourself enough room or leverage to set the hook. If a bass happens to bite when you’re in this position, you’re left having to torque your back in order to make up for your decrease in leverage. Doing so results in a delayed hookset and it also takes you out of position to counter any strong runs or jumps the bass may make. I jokingly refer to this as being “caught with your pants down”.

Instead, try to keep your rod tip at a 45-degree angle to your target. When a bass bites your crankbait, you leave yourself an additional 45 degrees to lean into your hookset while also staying in position to effectively fight the fish. This approach also allows the bass to eat the entire crankbait and get both hooks in its mouth, therefore increasing your chances of landing it.

Make sure to keep your rod tip low to the water

When you fish a crankbait with a high rod tip, you’re immediately taking the control from yourself and giving it to the fish. If you get bit with your rod tip in the air, you have to make an extra, downward movement in order to get into fish-fighting position.

This position can also tempt you to set the hook upward when you get a bite. When a bass eats your crankbait, you want to drive the hooks that are on the bottom on the bait into its mouth. Pulling upward on the hookset drives the top of the crankbait—the part with no hooks—into the top of the fish’s mouth, resulting in a decreased probability of getting a solid hookup.

To counter this issue, simply keep your rod tip low to the water. I prefer to keep my rod tip approximately one foot above the surface. When I sweep to the side on the hookset, this technique makes sure that I am driving the hooks downward into the mouth of the bass. If you combine a low rod tip with a 45-degree angle to your target, you’re going to notice an immediate improvement.

There’s one exception to this tip. When fishing in ultra-shallow water, sometimes you have to “high stick” your crankbait to avoid snagging vegetation or other cover. If you find yourself in this situation, make sure to give the bass a little “tip” when it bites. Pointing the tip of the rod toward the bass will give you a little extra time to drop the rod tip and get into position to execute a proper hookset.

Pull, don’t snatch

This is a mistake that I still make sometimes. Assuming you’ve got your rod tip dropped and at a 45-degree angle, always pull on a crankbait hookset—don’t snatch. When you snatch the crankbait during the hookset, you’re actually pulling the bait away from the bass before they can really eat it.

Next time you get a crankbait bite, reel a couple times to ensure a solid hookup and then swiftly sweep your rod tip to the side. You’ll hook more fish than you’ll lose with this technique.

Play the bass slowly

We always see pros on television making huge hooksets and skiing bass across the top of the water. That type of approach is necessary at times, but try not to do that with crankbait fish. I had a guy in my boat lose a 7-pounder on a crankbait a couple of weeks ago because he “horsed” it too much.

You can categorize the majority of crankbait bites into 2 categories—“pops” and “stops”. Most, but not all, smaller fish tend to pop the crankbait. When I feel this, I sweep to the side and slowly reel it in. Nothing too crazy. Sounds simple, right?

It gets more interesting when you get a good, old fashioned “stop”. It’s either going to be a giant bass or a big stump. Either way, it’s important to always set the hook. I’ve seen a lot of folks mistake a 5-pounder for a stump and get their hearts broken when they didn’t set the hook. If your line stops, set the hook. You can always get your crankbait unhung, but you can’t make that big bass bite again.


When I lay into a big crankbait bass, I drop to one knee on my front deck. Not to be dramatic, but to discourage the bass from jumping. While I am on one knee, my rod tip is underwater—the lower you keep your rod tip, the more unlikely the bass is to jump.

If I feel a big head shake, I stop reeling and keep steady pressure on the fish. It’s important to remember that you don’t have the bass in these situations—the bass has you. Let the bass do what it wants to do. When the head shakes stop, slowly reel the fish in while remaining on one knee. Not only does this discourage jumping, but it also puts you in position to quickly belly land a big bass if you’re without a net.

This is a great time of year to be cranking, so try these quick tips next time you’re chunking a crankbait around. Everyone does things a little different, but I’ve seen proper rod angles, a methodical hookset and patient fish fighting greatly improve anglers’ crankbait success.

• Fish high for warming bass
• Go small for spawners
• Scatter fry like turkeys
• Bump the shad
• Go big on tackle

Follow the bass upward in the prespawn

"Prespawn  is easily my favorite time to throw a spinnerbait," Combs said. "The big females suspend up in the water column to sun themselves in cold water. They're not ready to spawn yet and generally I catch them best around standing timber or over other cover in stained water."

The early spring bass tend to relate to cover but they are up in the water column. So many bass anglers will miss them fishing crankbaits and bottom bouncing baits like jigs. Those warming trends can really get big bass up higher in the water column.

"It's not a numbers deal for me," Combs said. "But it's a 30-pound limit deal. You don't get a bunch of bites fishing like this, but you get big ones."

Combs runs his bait slow fishing it 5-8 feet down over 12-15 feet of water with standing timber on a lot of lakes he frequents all through Texas and various lakes across the country. The fish that come up and suspend in the tops of the trees will react to a big slow rolling spinnerbait. Combs likes a willow Colorado combination in a 3/4 ounce Strike King Hack Attack Heavy Cover spinnerbait.

Spin small for bedding bass

Comparatively speaking, Combs reaches for a much smaller spinnerbait when the bass move to the beds. Most guys put the spinnerbait away when bass are on the beds, but Combs has found that big bed guarding bass will crush a 1/4-ounce Strike King Baby Burner Spinnerbait.  

He targets heavy cover-laden banks and that 1/4 ounce burner and small blades pulls through and over cover easily. The spinnerbait gives him an advantage over flipping and pitching because he can target a lot of cover on a single cast and find active fish without even having to see them.

But he admits that spawn is still very situational for spinnerbaits. "I like those dark, cloudy days with some wind when they are bedding for using a spinnerbait. It's a lot more effective when you can't sight fish or flip well because of wind. "

You want fries with that shake

There is definitely at time after the spawn when spinnerbaits produce well for Combs again – fry guarders. After the bass have guarded the nest and their offspring are hatched, they will spend more time lurking in the shallows seeking cover for the fry to hide as they watch and ward off fry eaters. This makes them vulnerable to a blade again.

Combs opts for a big blade in the post spawn. He likes a 1/2 ounce Hack Attack Heavy Cover spinnerbait with a big willow leaf blade on it. He's purposely trying to get the fry around bushes and wood cover to scatter so he can draw the attention of momma. The round head of the Hack Attack spinnerbait comes through cover easily.

The other spawn

Another time when bass seemingly get "dumb" involves the spawning of their favorite bait fish. When Combs fishes lakes with shad, he will throw a blade on a fast retrieve and keep his bait up near the top.

"You know you're in the right area when you feel shad bumping your blade all the way back to the boat," Combs said. "I will work areas of hard bottoms, floating docks, shallow cover fast trying to draw shad to my bait and likewise bass."

Go big on spinnerbait tackle

Because Combs has caught some big bass on Texas lakes and all over the country for that matter, he really beefs up his tackle when spinnerbait fishing around the spring spawn. He likes 25-pound Seaguar Abraz-X in the prespawn fishing wood cover and hoping to catch double digit bass around said cover. After the prespawn, he drops down to 20-pound Seaguar Tatsu.

He'll use a stouter rod in the prespawn, choosing a Power Tackle PG144 rod because the fish are much bigger then. All the rest of the time he'll use a Medium Heavy PG 143 Power Tackle rod with a 7.3:1 gear ratio reel. He likes the faster speed because those big fish swim fast and he needs to be able to take up a lot of line to get a good hookset as those fish notoriously seem to swim right at him at high speed.

The spinnerbait has become slightly passé in recent years, and Combs admitted he still switches to a vibrating jig or swim jig at times. He, however, always seems to end up back at the spinnerbait because he's developed so much confidence in it as a big fish bait. He uses heavy line, strong rods and spinnerbaits with stout hooks because as he says, "It catches big ones in the spring."

Anti-Swindle rant belies fact that youth is not ready to be served

Ronell Smith, whose blog can be found here, is widely considered a tackle expert and business insider for the sportfishing industry. Follow him on Twitter and FaceBook to learn more about the business side.