Posted by Jason Sealock on Tue, Jan 31, 2012 @ 10:00 AM
By Shaye Baker
Growing up I remember watching intently as images of feeding and spawning Florida strain bass projected from old VHS tapes and onto the walls of my imagination. Shot in aquatic wonderlands throughout the sunshine state, I began to dream about one day venturing south and sampling the large, aggressive black bass beauties for myself.
While I was daydreaming, Terry Scroggins was living life to the fullest, swinging giants into the boat on an arsenal of baits of which I had yet to be introduced. Since the dawn of the information age, the evolutionary rate of bass fishing has hit an all-time high. Many baits have been ushered out and replaced with 2.0 versions, whereas others have for years and will likely permanently reside in the tackle boxes of every angler who wishes to land a lunker from one of the great Florida fisheries. For Scroggins, his top 5 lures include innovative new comers and relics alike. And they are hard to beat.
Topwater Twin Prop
Getting its start in the 1940s, the Smithwick Devil’s Horse earned its spot as a true classic that never went out of style. Scroggins uses this double-propped bait to aggravate spawn and post-spawn fish by working it through shallow spawning flats that are littered with vegetation.
“When I am sight fishing, I always have a Devil’s Horse in my hand, casting it around while I am looking for beds,” Scroggins said. “Even if the fish doesn’t get the bait, it will usually swipe at it and show itself. When this happens you can usually follow up with a YUM Dinger and catch it.”
The color of choice for Scroggins is 310B. It has a black back, chrome sides and an orange belly.
“For some reason, Florida bass love orange,” Scroggins said. “Anything that’s got some orange on the belly seems to generate a few more bites. I try to stay away from muddy water when I throw the Devil’s Horse and whenever I am fishing in Florida for that matter. I either fish the darker, clean water or I fish in clear water.”
Punch Baits
Flipping and pitching thick vegetation is one of the most tried and true methods for catching these temperamental giants. Many Florida bass live in the thicker vegetation year round, but if a cold front pushes through, nearly every fish in the lake will bury themselves in the thickest entanglement they can find. When this happens, you have to dig them out.
“I designed the Big Show Craw to flip heavy, dense cover,” Scroggins said. “I designed it small to get through the cover easy but also to mimic the bait. If you look under these grass mats, all the bait is small. The grass shrimp, little crawfish and bream are all small, so the small profile bait does a good job of matching the hatch.”
When the water is black or tannic, Scroggins goes with Cooter Brown which has a brown back and orange belly. In clearer water situations, he’ll pitch the craw in black blue shadow.
Soft Stickbaits
Since its conception, the soft plastic stickbait has become a mainstay in finicky Florida fisheries. A finesse tactic that is used to tempt the most non-aggressive fish without spooking them in the least. With apparently no action from a distance, the bait must be placed on the nose of a fish where it then reveals its tantalizing undulating action, often too much for the big girls to pass up.
“It’s a great bait to fish around the grass and a great sight fishing bait,” Scroggins said. “I also use it as a follow-up bait when I miss fish on other baits like the Devil’s Horse.”
Pitching the YUM Dinger into beds either weightless or as a light Texas rig is deadly for bedding bass. However, blind casting it down grass and reed lines is another technique that garners a lot of bites. Fishing the bait slow is crucial when you aren’t looking at the fish as is giving the line plenty of slack line to fall straight and work its magic.
Lipless Baits
Pre-spawn and post-spawn bass setup along shell beds in Florida and are often stacked in a few areas. Finding them can prove difficult, however, and that is what makes a search bait like a lipless crankbait such a key player in Scroggins tackle box.
“You can cover a lot of water with a lipless crankbait,” said Scroggins. “I like to yo-yo the Xcalibur One Knocker around these shell beds. It’s a great way to pick off these bass as they are coming and going from the spawn.”
Foxy Momma and Blue Chrome Orange are the two color patterns in the Xr50 and Xr75 that Scroggins relies on the most. If he gets into really dark water that still has a clean look to it, he’ll go with a Lemon Lime for added flash.
Carolina Rig
A Carolina rig has been used to haul bass in around the country and is likewise a stellar performer in Florida fisheries. Rigged with an ounce weight and a 4-foot leader, Scroggins uses the subtle approach to trigger strikes from bass along the shell beds that wouldn’t respond to the lipless crankbait. Trailing the rig with a YUM Houdini Worm or YUM Wooly Hawgtail proves most affective for Scroggins.
“If the water is real clean, I’ll go with a green pumpkin,” said Scroggins. “If it’s real dark, I’ll go with a junebug or redbug color. I keep my colors fairly simple down here. Over the years, I’ve learned what works in different situations, and I try to stick with what works.”
Knowing what, when and where baits work best is a great jumpstart to breaking down any fishery and can go a long way to help make the most of that long awaited voyage down south. Perhaps these tips from a legendary local will also help those fishing the grassy tannic-colored waters south of the panhandle to refine their approach. Either way, be sure to keep these 5 baits in mind the next time you’re out on the water and let us know how they treat you.
Read More
Posted by Jason Sealock on Mon, Jan 30, 2012 @ 10:50 PM
We got wind of a story about a big bass caught on Pickwick Lake. Turns out it was caught by our friend Lance Walker, CEO of Browning Eyewear. And it may have been the Tennessee state record largemouth to boot.
Walker has been travelling the country this winter attending various trade shows and boat shows for Browning Eyewear. He finally got a few days at home and called his friend Ray Rittenhour to go chase crappie with him on Pickwick Lake.
Recent rains have had the Tennessee River a mess and the rising of muddy water on Pickwick Lake really hurt the crappie fishing. With a few hours left in the day, they decided to give up on the crappie fishing bust and see if they could just catch a few bass to salvage the day. The rain, mud and rising water limited their options but they figured if they fished some shallow river bars, they might at least catch a couple bass.
Their first fish was a bar fish (striper) and at that point they figured the bass fishing might be a bust too. Walker was fishing with a Yumbrella umbrella rig but because he was fishing Tennessee waters he only had 3 wires on it. On the two outside wires he had 3 1/2-inch Yum Money Minnows and on the middle one he had a 5 1/2 Yum Money Minnow. The two small ones were on 1/4-ounce Buckeye J-Will heads and the middle one on a 1/2-ounce Buckeye J-Will head. He used a 7-foot, 6-inch heavy action Duckett Micro Magic rod with 65-pound Bass Pro Shops braid and a 6:4.1 Johnny Morris Signature BPS reel.
A few casts later, Walker hooked up with what he guessed was another bar fish or a big catfish. It was making runs, swathing back and forth through the water, but then he noticed his line surging to the surface and he went down to his knees hoping it might be a big bass.
It came to the surface, about 25 yards out from the boat, and rolled and Walker saw lateral lines. The fish made several big runs and Walker thumbed his spool to keep the powerful fish from tearing loose. He finally got the fish up to the boat and they new it was at least a 10-pound class fish, as Walker has modestly caught several double digit bass from Pickwick Lake.
"As soon as Ray grabbed her by the lip with two hands and pulled her in the boat, I knew I had a fish bigger than the 13.3 I caught from Alabama waters on Pickwick three years ago," Walker said. "I got the livewell filled up and put her in there and then took about 10 minutes to 'freak out.'"
Afterward, Walker started calling folks to get the Tennessee State records and find a TWRA official to help weigh his catch. His wife and son met him at the Pickwick State Park where the Park Rangers were waiting to meet him and get good photos of the fish. They finally found a set of reliable scales to weigh the fish. It weighed 14.58, slightly better than the 14 pound, 8 ounce state record caught in 1954. So they knew they were close if not over.
They got a TWRA biologist on the line and he informed them that to certify the catch as a state record they would need blood samples, certified scales, 2 witnesses, dorsal fin clippings, and more to document the catch. In short, the felt the fish would have to die to provide the evidence of the catch being a state record.
The pair deliberated at length on what to do. Go down in the record books and kill the fish, or set it free for someone else to catch down the road some time. It was not an easy decision to make with such a beautiful, healthy, impressive largemouth bass. They measured the bass at 27 1/8 inches and a girth of 24 inches. The formula puts the bass at somewhere between 14.5 to 15.7 pounds.
They made their decision ...
... and took the fish back to the lake and waited for her to shake her head and give a big powerful kick before letting her loose into the wild once again. It's not easy to know you probably have a state record and choose to let it loose, knowing full well you won't get credit for such a magnificent catch.
The potential state-record largemouth bass is swimming in Pickwick Lake. We believe it is. And even if it isn't now, in a month or two, it probably will be. Way to go Lance! We hope to be as Wired2Fish as you one day! What a bass!
Read More
Posted by Jason Sealock on Fri, Jan 27, 2012 @ 10:26 AM
We ran out to the site of the Eggner Ferry bridge collapse this morning so we could see first hand the damage and "what happened" in last nights boat crash with the tow boat the Delta Mariner knocking out a section of the bridge around 8pm Jan 26.
Here a few different angles of the wreckage. The boat is stuck under the bridge still because so much of the bridge is wrapped around the front of the bridge. We certainly don't want to point the finger or assign blame in a case we have no knowledge of the actual events. However the pictures seem to show exactly what happened here and we're reminded of those "low clearance" signs you see on over passes on county highways.
Click on the photos to see larger images. Mouse over the photos to get descriptions.
Read More
Posted by Jason Sealock on Thu, Jan 26, 2012 @ 12:01 AM
Editors Note: We’re starting a new department called Visit Fish that will highlight some of our favorite bass, walleye, panfish and other destinations. These will be based on our personal experiences and those experiences of trusted anglers (i.e. “sticks on those fisheries”). It will also be based on the area being fisherman friendly with good lodging, restaurants and visitors bureaus that cater to the angling public.
Many anglers call Alabama the first home and several of us that have never lived their but have fished its many great fisheries call it our second home. There are a few states in the union that offer such a diverse variety of fisheries and high quality fishing for multiple species of bass and other game fish. Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia and Minnesota to name a few hold very special places in our heart because they offer great largemouth, smallmouth, spotted bass and other game fish fishing in many diverse fisheries.
Last year we got to experience a couple of new Alabama fisheries for the first time and since have learned a great deal about them from fishing and other great anglers that have been fishing them most of their lives. We’ll highlight several Alabama fisheries in Visit Fish but we’re going to start with one that is not likely a top pick for a lot of anglers, but it might be after delving into what makes it such a unique fishery.
H. Neely Henry Lake was impounded when the Neely Henry Dam project completed in the 1960s. It was first of the Alabama Power Company’s many dam projects on the Coosa River in the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s.
The dam was named for a high-ranking executive in Alabama Power and thusly so was the fishery it created along the Coosa River.
The fishery is roughly 77 miles long with 332 miles of shoreline (a key number as we’ll later see) but it’s only 11,900 acres. Which means it’s a very long, windy and narrow fishery relatively speaking with some windy creeks stemming from the inundation of the river and surrounding hollows.
Fast forward to today and fishermen have a truly unique angling gem. The star of this show is definitely the native Coosa River spots, a breed of spotted or Kentucky bass that some call the meanest bass that swim natively in North America. There are plenty of big largemouths in the lake as well but the Coosa’s are the unique breed that out-of-towners are usually seeking to catch.
“It’s really a fun lake to fish,” said professional angler and long-time Alabama guide Jimmy Mason of Florence, Ala. “It’s the lake I don’t get to fish as some of the others, but I love to come over here and fish because it’s like a throwback to how fishing used to be before we all had these technically advanced fish finders and big boats. You can honestly just drive the lake and pull in and fish what looks right.”
Mason isn’t exaggerating. He won a tournament a couple of years ago with 24 pounds and was catching 25 keepers a day during practice and en route to his win. He’s caught 5 ½-pound Coosa spotted bass on buzzbaits and largemouth weighing 7 pounds. And 8 pound largemouths are not unheard of although a 6-pound bass will usually get you big bass in most tournaments.
What is unique about the fishery is not its size or shape, but rather how it fishes.
“You can literally fish shallow 12 months out of the year here,” Mason said. “Obviously it can get harder in the winter and summer but I’ve had some amazing Coosa spot fishing in January and February fishing current related places in relatively shallow water. I will sometimes idle around looking for fish out deep, but most of the time I just hop around until I find those active shallow fish.”
The lake offers three key ingredients to good shallow fishing on any lake or river – docks, water willows and other shallow vegetation and current. What makes the fishing so good is not just the presence of all three but the fact that all three show up in a wide variety of situations and thus you can run different patterns on seemingly like stuff.
For example, in the spring the bass might be relating to the shallower docks in the flatter pockets and creeks off the main river. In the winter, the Coosa’s might be relating to current breaks and eddies off main river obstructions. In the fall you might be able to run seawalls with topwaters and buzzbaits and catch a mix of nice bass. There is where the fun lies for anglers.
“I’ve been fishing it since I was old enough to hold a pole,” said Dustin King, a life-long resident of the fishery, having lived most of his life in the major Canoe Creek arm of the lake. “I’ve had some amazing days on the lake. Even in the heat of the summer, I’ve caught big bass weighing more than 7 pounds fishing stuff I hit a lot. It’s a lake where you might fish a spot all morning without a bite and then they kick the current on and you have one of the best days you’ve ever had.”
Both anglers employ a variety of tactics throughout the year as is the case on any fishery. But a few common themes we found on the lake were crankbaits, jigs, plastics and topwaters.
When the fish are relating to current on the main part of the river, a crankbait can be hard to beat.
“This time of year a Bomber Flat A can be really hard to beat,” Mason said. “I get one custom painted in a pumpkinseed pattern that is just a killer on the lake. But you can figure out the type of banks, cover or eddies the fish are relating to and just run the whole lake looking for similar stuff. It’s such a patternable lake.”
Square billed crankbaits were the hot ticket when we were there this past fall. Fishing them along rip rap, current breaks, seawalls and even main lake docks yielded some nice Coosa spots and largemouths as well. They can also be real good in the early prespawn all the way up to the spawn also.
In the colder months, finding Coosa’s relating to current and gently letting a finesse jig like a Booyah Boo Bug tumble with the current into the eddy often yields big Coosa spotted bass for Mason. The other time he likes to catch big Coosa’s is in the fall with a buzzbait or topwater.
“There is nothing like the way a Coosa spotted bass savagely attacks a topwater plug,” Mason said.
This past summer, King was asked to take a magazine crew out fish in the doldrums of August fishing. The crew literally couldn’t find a guide to take them out because fishing had been so miserable. So King took the crew to a few of his favorite crankbait holes, and as luck would have it, the current kicked on and they whacked the bass with a Jackall Muscle Deep 15+ crankbait. In fact King caught his personal best on the lake, a bass nearly touching 8-pounds on the scale in the blazing summer heat.
Two of Mason’s favorite patterns for bass on the lake is flipping boat docks, which he said can be dynamite year round and is just a matter of figuring out what type of docks the fish happen to relate to. You have docks that hang out over deep water in the main river and you have docks that are in the skinny mud flats in the backs of the bays. He loves to flip a green pumpkin Yum F2 tube or his Booyah Boo Bug around the docks.
His other favorite pattern, and something we plan to come back to Neely to do this spring is swimming a jig around water willows or “Coosa grass” as the locals like to call it. The lake sets up perfect for some arm breaking bass fishing with a swimming jig.
Gadsden is a great place to find hotels, restaurants around the lake that are fisherman and boat friendly. If you want to plan a trip to Neely Henry, we suggest you check out Alabama Mountain Lakes Tourist Association at NorthAlabama.org. They are a travel and tourism group that really caters to anglers and the assets they have in the way of bass fisheries in North Alabama. They can get you hooked up with some out of the way places to stay, good places to eat along the river and more.
For guided trips, check out Jimmy Mason’s guide service at JimmyMasonBassPro.com.
Read More
Posted by Jason Sealock on Fri, Jan 20, 2012 @ 09:00 AM
“You’re just in a rut,” a friend said.
The situation: I had lost several big fish or not caught a fish weighing more than 5 pounds in several weeks of fishing, while other folks sharing my boat had boated several big bass. When fishing “turns for the worst”, anglers have a tendency to over-analyze the situation. Truth was, I probably was just in a rut, or maybe it was just fishing. But it got me to thinking about ruts. So I started asking guys some of what they often heard or witnessed in other anglers or themselves that had their fishing a little off to say the least.
So we came up with five common assumptions that fishermen make that can lead them to a ditch of despair when it comes to lack of fishing productivity. Ruts can cause an angler to make the cardinal sin of “just going through the motions” and not focusing on triggering fish to feed or to react on every cast. Here are five pitfalls to avoid in your own fishing. Make a conscious effort to avoid that “rut” thinking and you’ll be more productive on every trip.
All fish “sit” in one spot
Of course not every bass in the lake is sitting up next to a single piece of cover waiting on some prey or imitation to happen by. Bass are constantly moving. Studies have indicated that during the warmer months smallmouth bass especially can roam miles each day foraging. The pitfall to avoid here is not covering the water thoroughly with fan casts and varieties of lures.
Think of it like this. You make a cast on a ledge. The bass is making routine passes up and down the ledge. You have to crawl the jig or worm back or grind the crankbait back just as the bass is making a pass up the ledge perpendicular to your cast. The odds are on most casts, the lure isn’t in front of the bass because he’s moving one direction or the other. So you’ve got to make repeated casts in an area until you can find that intersection point, with a presentation that will trigger that fish to react. That’s how a lot of folks find those “sweet spots” or “spots on the spot” that you hear anglers talking about.
All fish are feeding all the time
We have a tendency as anglers to hit spots we’ve had success fishing in the past. And because we caught them there before, we assume they will be chomping the next time we pull up on it. The fact is fish are very much like people. They don’t always eat. In fact they eat in windows and often as groups at times of the year when they are grouped up. But for a large majority of the day and night, they aren’t hungry or eating.
They are however opportunists, much like us. They may not be feeding, but they can be triggered to eat. Sure you might not be hungry, but then your buddy sits down next to you eating a warm chocolate chip cookie. Your other buddy gets up off the couch and gets him one. Before you know it, everyone in the room is eating one. There are cookies everywhere, and finally you can’t stand it and get up and get one for yourself. You trip a bass’s trigger, agitate him long enough or finally just make him mad and he’ll attack. And he’ll often get his buddies fired up to eat something in the process.
Fish that bite will bite again a day later
“Man I shook of 20 down this stretch in practice. They must have left.”
Ever heard that scenario? Last spring I learned a hard lesson preparing for a tournament. My partner and I were hopping from area to area trying to find concentrations of fish in shallow cover. We were hooking an occasional good fish and shaking off a bunch more in several different areas. Come tournament day we hit several of our best areas without a bite. We thought maybe the fish had moved on to get closer to spawn. Maybe they were already caught.
We started to fish similar areas that we didn’t hit in practice and we started jacking the fish again. We had a good showing and got a good check but we knew we could have done a lot better. We both agreed we had conditioned the fish in our areas. By simply letting them gnaw on a bait and then take it away from them, we educated them on our baits.
Kevin VanDam and Brent Ehrler are two of the best anglers on the two major tours and both have told me in interviews for articles that they both want to figure the fish out in practice. They want to find a few biting fish in practice in an area that has the right ingredients to expand. Then learn how to catch them best during the tournament. They don’t want to tempt and tease the bass too much and make the leery of their offerings when the tournament rolls around.
This spot always produces
Like we said earlier; we have a real natural tendency as anglers to fish our memories. Man this spot yielded a 7-pounder last year. This spot got me 20 pounds and a check. The truth is fishing spots are situational just like the fish. We spend our lives as anglers trying to understand the fish. We really should spend our time understanding the forage and how the fish ambush them. The fact is when the bait leaves certain areas, the fish won’t hang out too long waiting for them to come back. They’re eventually going to figure out the bait isn’t coming back.
Spots are seasonal. In colder months, the forage wants to be deep, the will be stunned and most vulnerable to suspending fish often. In those comfortable climates like spring and fall, the forage likes to be shallow and bring the predators shallow with them. Sometimes the bait will be relating to current breaks, certain types of cover and the bass follow seasonal migrations. So just knowing a good spot is not enough. You have to know a good spot and when the spot is good to really add it your plan of attack.
Slower is better
We all heard the same advice from our fathers and grandfathers. Fish slowly and when you think you’re fishing slowly enough, slow down some more. And that can be an effective presentation. But it’s not the only presentation. And when it comes to triggering fishing, slower is actually not as productive as quick fast movements. Darting, diving, and deflecting lures often get bass to make impulsive judgments more than a bait the bass can slowly study and determine might not be the real thing.
Some of the most consistent anglers fish fast and move a bait faster than a lot of anglers ever consider fishing a lure. Some of the best strikes you can have are when you’re ripping a crankbait, burning a spinnerbait, waking a swimbait or pulsing a swim jig.
Don’t get stuck fishing your lures the same way every time. Sure slower can be better at times, especially when the water is very cold. But that doesn’t mean a stop and go, radical jerk and pause or quick movements in small spaces can’t draw a reaction from big fish.
Fishing is not an exact science. But variety is definitely a key and is what keeps us wired2fish. We love to explore the puzzle and figure the pieces out. Some days we seem to predict the fish’s movements and other days we’re the blind squirrel looking for a single nut. So avoid fishing in a rut and just going through the motions. Often just getting aggressive about approach can turn your fishing from misfortune into jackpot.
Read More
Posted by Jason Sealock on Thu, Jan 19, 2012 @ 02:50 PM
The professional anglers and designers at Berkley have been busy working on some new shapes for the Havoc line for 2012. We just caught a glimpse of the new Hawk Hawg, Smash Tube and Juice Worm from Berkley and wanted to pass these along to anglers that may be stocking up with bass fishing tackle for 2012. You might want to leave some room for these new baits.
The Berkley Havoc Smash Tube
This new concept on a tube was designed by Michael Iaconelli. The common problem folks have with tubes is unless you rig them on an insert jig head, the hollow, thick-walled body can be hard to rig weedless and still get good hook penetration. With the new Smash Tube, an angler gets a flattened tube that will rig more like a worm than a tube and give much better hook penetration. Plus they are double laminated so that the interior is one color while the exterior is another and the tentacles are custom cut to be a bit thicker for more water displacement.
The tubes come in a 6 colors, 6 tubes to a pack for around $3.49. To see more about the bait, the other color options and a quick video of the bait in a test tank, visit this link on Berkley-Fishing.com.
The Berkley Havoc Juice Worm
Boyd Duckett won an Elite-50 Major on Lake Dardanelle back in 2007 and won of his staple baits was a 7-inch power worm. He's always been a good worm angler but wanted a worm that had a great tail action at ultra slow speeds and one that wouldn't try to turn over and you pulled it through and over various types of cover.
The new Havoc Juice Worm will come in both 6 and 8-inch sizes and be offered in 20 colors to start. The worms will come 12 to a pack for $3.49. To read more about these worms visit this link at Berkley-Fishing.com.
The Hawk Hawg
Designed by Bobby Lane, this bait will appeal to the creature bait crowd. Lane spent his whole life perfecting his bass fishing skills on grassy lakes in central Florida and has made a name for himself in the Bassmaster Elite Series ranks with his ability to catch bass on plastics in the grass.
This bait features flappers, soft thin tails and bird-like wings that will give the bait a lot of action at both high speed lift and drops and slow drags or pitches into cover.
The bait measures 5-inches, comes in 15 proven colors and will come 8 to a pack for around $3.49. To learn more, visit Berkley-Fishing.com.
Read More
Posted by Jason Sealock on Tue, Jan 17, 2012 @ 10:00 AM
A cold water killer in bass fishing is often overlooked
The temps are finally dropping to their normal levels in much of the country after several days and nights of below freezing temperatures through the Midwest and south. No doubt that the mild temperatures probably had the bass, crappie and other gamefish relating to areas and fishing presentations a little atypical for January in much of the country. Now that winter is settling in, a few techniques will really start to produce.
One technique we really like in the late fall, winter and early spring is working 45 degree banks and offshore high spots with a blade bait. This time of year the shad on many Midwestern and southern reservoirs are stunned by the colder temperatures. As the waters dip into the mid 40s, the shad struggle to survive and as the temperatures continue to drop, they begin to die – often in massive quantities.
We really like to capitalize on that stunned shad situation. The bass, and other game fish as well, know they can get a pretty easy meal without having to expend much energy, something they relish in the colder months. They can just ease around and pick off struggling baitfish from the pack.
Many anglers opt for a jigging spoon first during this seasonal event, but a blade bait often yields better catches as we feel it’s easier to cover a more horizontal swath of water. So if you know the fish are suspending or relating next to steep breaks but you’re not sure where along the breaks they are, you can simply cast and work the blade back to cover the water more effectively.
Where a jigging spoon is extremely effective at covering the water in one narrow band vertically, a blade bait is effective at both vertical and horizontal. The lead in the nose of the bait and thin metal body get it down quickly but also give it a very subtle but noticeable vibration. A blade fishes many different ways effectively as a result. That is why we feel it’s such an effective tool when the water cools.
As far as tackle goes, we keep it pretty simple. You can fish these on spinning rigs with light line, but we’ve found because they cast so well because of their very narrow and front heavy design, we’re able to stick with our baitcasting gear and 10 to 12-pound fluorocarbon line as the water is typically lightly stained to clear when we fish these baits. A good 6 ½-foot medium-heavy power rod with a moderate tip works well to cast the lure a long ways and detect the changes in vibration.
We also like a pretty fast gear ratio on our reels, which is another reason we opt for a baitcasting gear. We can use our 7:1 gear ratios to our advantage. Anytime you have a bait that you lift and drop, you impart a lot of slack into the mix and you need to be able to get the slack out quickly to hit those light-biting fish. The higher gear ratio makes controlling the fall on a semi-slack line a lot easier. A 1/2-ounce bait is a great one to start with. I occasionally go up to 3/4-ounce if I’m fishing in deeper water.
On the hooks we often swap the stock hooks that come on blade baits. Baits like the Silver Buddy, Buckeye Jiggin Blade, Poor Boys Blade Bait, and others often come with standard bronze hooks. These hooks are fine for smaller fish, but knowing that we’ve taken 6 and 7 pounders on blade baits in the winter, we always upgrade the hooks. I really like the Mustad KVD Elite Triple Grip hooks and of course a standard round bend Gamakatsu hook is tough to beat. I do make one modification to my hooks.
Because where I fish is often littered with stumps, I will snip the down facing front treble off. Now if you just like to cast and wind the blade bait back in, you might not even need to do that. But what I’ve found is if you yo-yo the bait, as I often do, the bait drops nose first and then you jerk it up into the cover. So the bait raises its nose and exposes the belly hook to the cover. So I like to cut that front barb off. It doesn’t seem to affect my hook-up ratio with the fish, and I seem to get snagged a lot less.
If your bait does hit a piece of wood, then the phrase “knock on wood” is never more appropriate in fishing. Because the bait is designed with a weight in its nose, you can use that weight to often free the lure. When a hook is snagged, simply get close enough to the snag where you can pop several inches of slack line. With a series of 3 to 4-inch pops of the rod on semi slack line you can feel the bait knock against the cover. This repetitive knocking will often wiggle the lure free of the snag and save you a few bucks in the process.
There are a variety of presentations and retrieves that work with the blade bait, but a lift and flutter retrieve can be the best one to start with. As you continue to fish, you should continue to refine your retrieve to how the fish are reacting. You might start with a 2-foot upward snap of the rod but later find out short light hops of 6 inches work better. One typical rule of the thumb is the colder the water, the smaller and slower your hops should be.
Keeping control of your line is the most important part to yo-yoing a blade bait. You want the bait to have freedom to fall, but you also need to follow the slack so that if it stops falling early, you can stick a hook in the bass. So you raise your rod up to about 10 o’clock position, then as it falls you drop the rod tip so there is a slight bow the whole time in the line but it’s not laying slack on the surface of the water, reeling in slack to maintain a consistent bow. If the line suddenly stops falling before you think it should or you see it snap tight, it’s time to set the hook.
I am looking for certain types of banks and sharper offshore breaks this time of year with the blade bait. I like those banks that feature larger than average rock, stair stepping steep breaks or just a nice 45-degree bank where I can sit in 20 or 30 feet of water, yet still reach the bank. Some days I’ve found bass in less than a foot of water when it’s less than 45-degree water temps. So I like to try to get as shallow as I can on a cast, keeping in mind that you’ve got to move the bait immediately or it can snag. Then as I work it out on a steady retrieve, I will start my yo-yo retrieve when I feel there is enough water to start letting it drop safely.
On the yo-yo retrieve you also are keeping semi-taut line and anticipating when it hits bottom because you never really want it to stay there. You want it to just touch bottom and then you’ll raise your rod again and let it fall. So as you lower your rod, you’re taking up line watching to keep that small bow in the line to let the bait fall naturally. Then as it just goes slack, you raise it again. How hard and fast you raise the rod is really a matter of the mood of the fish. Sometimes you’ll snap it up. Other times you’ll barely pull it up, feeling that light thump as you do.
A vertical approach can be good too. Where a jigging spoon flutters and dances as it falls. A blade bait does its vibration as it rises and falls. Sometimes it can trigger fish that shied away from the spoon, and it can give you another vertical option in deep cold water. Try to avoid light pops on slack line as the bait will have a tendency to turn on its side and grab you’re line. You’ll know when it’s grabbed the line because it will suddenly feel heavier and have a lot more resistance in the water.
The bites are often not felt but perceived and the line is the best indicator so make sure you can see it and watch it. A blade bait is a great bait because it’s equally effective on smallmouth, largemouth and spotted bass. It will also catch other gamefish as well like walleye, sauger, crappie, stripers and more. So it can be fun fishing in the winter because you can catch other big fish that you weren’t expecting.
Read More
Posted by Jason Sealock on Mon, Jan 16, 2012 @ 11:39 AM
Kicker Fish released and brought back a popular soft plastic finesse bait called the Bubble Fry recently. This 4-inch lure looks like the old ring fries that were the rage in the 80s and 90s for Carolina rigging but these are a bit more unique. Instead of having rings the soft bait has tons of tentacles that encircle the bait, 136 to be exact.
These tiny extremeties trap air and cause the bait to glide and suspend while releasing bubbles in the water. They incorporated their Hole Shot technology into the bait which really seems to help it glide and suspend naturally.
We dropped the bait in a test tank and could see where this soft plastic could have a lot of applications. It could be used on a Carolina rig, shaky head or even wacky rigged. It has a nice fall. Subtle shakes release some of the trapped bubbles which draw attention to it, especially this time of year when the water tends to be real clear.
The best part is the bait is symetrical, so after it gets torn up on one end, flip it around and rig it on the other end. It will make one bait go a lot further.
The baits come 10 to a package and are available in 8 popular soft plastic colors.
To check out the baits, visit KickerFishBait.com.
Read More
Posted by Jason Sealock on Fri, Jan 13, 2012 @ 10:30 AM
15-year-old angler breaks a 51-year-old state fishing record
Nick Tassoni of Rockford, Ill., thought Saturday Jan. 7, 2012 would be like any other fishing trip he’d been on since he was old enough to hold a rod. Nick and father David towed their boat down to Pecatonica River to begin another day of winter fishing in Illinois. The caught a 2-pound walleye right off the bat but then the action slowed, at least for walleye.
Read More
Posted by Jason Sealock on Tue, Jan 10, 2012 @ 07:00 AM
By Shaye Baker
There comes a time every year when you just have to slow down out on the water. That time of year when you have to defrost your compartment latches just to get to your tackle. When every fifth cast is spent popping little ice pellets from your rod guides. When a frog’s only business in your boat is to remind you of warmer days and that there are more to come.
But don’t let the short days and cold weather get you down. The fish are still in the water, as frigid as it may be. And they still have to eat. You just have to change your offering and sometimes where you look. Although there’s a plethora of techniques that will produce in the winter, one of the most tried and true is finesse cranking.
The tight, subtle action of a finesse crankbait is preferable to the wider wobbling baits we use in warmer water situations primarily because the fish are so lethargic. With less going on around them, a lighter vibration can be detected and loud, intrusive baits can spook fish where they would have triggered a strike in the summer months.
The tactic works extremely well on lakes with a lot of rock and a little stain to the water, which is one reason Straight Talk pro Scott Canterbury relies heavily on the method in the winter months. Fish can and have been caught finesse cranking all over the country, but it’s Canterbury’s home lake of Logan Martin that instilled a love for baits like the Rapala Shad Rap in him at an early age.
Having used the technique to catch a dump truck load of Coosa River spotted bass on Logan Martin alone, Canterbury has developed a keen eye for when and where to utilize the baits. On the rougher winter days with low light, the bass setup on the steeper 45 degree banks where he brings the boat in a little tighter to the bank in order to get the most from each cast.
By bringing the boat in tight, Canterbury is able to keep contact with the steep embankment longer by making more parallel casts down the bank rather than perpendicular to the bank. Although finesse crankbaits come in various sizes that dive to different depths, his bait of choice is a Jackall Soul Shad 68 SP which dives 4 to 6 feet. Keeping contact with bottom is crucial since the bass are typically relating to it in the winter time.
Reason being, the rock along the bottom warms up as the day wears on, and the bass use this heat to regulate their own body temperatures. In addition, the bottom is where you’ll find a lot of the food during the late winter months. As the water cools it becomes too much for the shad too endure and they begin to die off, falling to the bottom.
If the sun is out however, bass will move up to the shallow, flatter points where they can warm in the shallow sunlit waters and actively feed. Contact with the bottom is still important but typically implied due to the depth. Finding road beds and shallow water humps others often overlook has led to some of the better honey holes for Canterbury.
Two tools that he uses to find these areas are his Lowrance HDS 10 and his Typhoon Optics. A quality GPS and a good pair of sunglasses will lead the way to some premier fishing in the winter time, especially on a reservoir that is dropped to winter pool when not all water hazards are marked with buoys. They’ll also prevent the unfortunate mishap of locating a winter pool roadbed with the lower unit.
The shades can also reveal submerged brush piles along docks or logs and laydowns on the rocky banks. Any cover can hold fish in the wintertime according to Canterbury and should be picked clean before moving on.
A slight breeze in both sunny and cloudy conditions helps the bite but a stiff wind can really hinder the casting of these traditionally lightweight baits. Wind is one reason that Canterbury favors the Soul Shad.
“Jackall added a weight system to the Soul Shad that helps a lot,” Canterbury said. “I can throw this thing twice as far as other crankbaits.”
Although twice as far might be a stretch, a weight-transfer system definitely provides advantages. A single ball weight moves freely within a chamber along the belly of the bait. When the bait is tilted forward, the weight comes in contact with a magnet at the front of the chamber. The weight is held there to balance the bait until it is dislodged in the back cast when it loads up in the rear of the chamber and helps propel the bait. This system is a pretty nifty solution to casting light baits in the wind.
Color choice when finesse cranking comes down to forage as it does with any other bait. Keep in mind that you’re not necessarily mimicking a shad. There are numerous finesse crankbaits which are painted in crawfish patterns that work extremely well when bass are targeting the little lobster-like crustaceans instead.
If the fish are relating to shad in the clearer water conditions, stick to something a little more natural like a shad pattern. Loud colors like orange and chartreuse seem to work best in muddier conditions. The muddier the water the more contrast is needed in the color of the bait. However, due to the light action of the lures the water can be too muddy entirely for the technique.
Retrieve is key as well when using a bait like the Soul Shad. Once contact is made with the bottom the trick is reeling it just fast enough to maintain contact. The fish are lethargic for the most part so they aren’t likely to chase bait very far or very fast. If you have a hard time slowing your retrieve, the best remedy is a slow geared reel. Employing a 5.1:1 Abu Garcia Revo is Canterbury’s solution.
Using 8- to 10-pound test Berkley 100 Percent Fluorocarbon line helps Canterbury gain a little more depth and maintain contact with the bottom when throwing a finesse crankbait. A 7-foot, medium-action rod is preferred to prevent losing the fish that often times only get the back hook due to a sluggish strike.
All the pieces are needed to complete the puzzle. The retrieve is slow and the bait stays stuck to the bottom; this will result in some awesome fishing in cold winter months. Don’t go crazy with color choice until the water clarity forces your hand, and be sure to work every piece of cover where the fish can still relate to the bottom. There’s no need to dread the winter. Finesse cranking can turn a drab winter day into a fish filled phenomenal one if you just take the time to apply these tips to your local fishery.
Read More
Posted by Jason Sealock on Mon, Jan 09, 2012 @ 10:01 AM
By Jason Sealock with Jason Baggett
Sputtering. Spitting. Choking. No Power. The motor refused to muster up the strength to get the 20-foot bass boat up on plane. It was more like a tow boat dingy than a bass fishing machine. The angler was confused. He’d been meticulous about care for the engine and the boat.
The boat raced down the lake. The gentle breeze made for the perfect bow lift and the boat was roaring at full tilt on the way to the first stop during practice for the Central Open on Lake Lewisville. In a split second the boat lurched and started pushing water in less than 50 yards. It was like the lower unit was thrown but the boat could still get on pad although barely able to touch 3,500 RPM.
Sound like an old boat and old motor? Well it wasn’t the condition of the motor or boat at all that caused these woes. It was the well maintained boat and motor of Bassmaster Central Open pro Jason Baggett of Mansfield, Ark. The little gremlin in the outboard was a relatively misunderstood culprit called ethanol.
When we reported about the new E-15 gas laws coming down the pipe last January, we were anticipating more problems for fishing boat owners. Ethanol is not your friend if you own a fishing boat or pretty much anything that consumes gas that was not an automobile made in the last 7 years. The subsidized fuel alternative can and will wreak havoc in your bass fishing machine if you let it.
Baggett is a testament to that fact, having just picked his boat up out of the shop for more than $1,500 of damage and repairs completely caused by ethanol and its effects on fuel filters, spark plugs, fuel lines and more. Baggett fished the Central Open circuit in 2011 but was plagued by what he thought was fuel filter problems.
It finally came to a head when fishing on Lake Tenkiller on a fun trip on Black Friday, ironically enough. The boat was sluggish, running rough and just pushed water refusing to get on plane. He pulled the boat out of the lake and headed straight for Brad’s Boat Sales in Alma, Ark. He worked with Robert Sampley, the chief mechanic on the issues and discovered that ethanol and the deposits it was creating had wreaked havoc on his fuel filters, fuel lines, spark plugs, fuel pumps and more.
Sampley has 33 years of experience and is 5-Star Yamaha and Mercruiser/Outboard certified and has seen a growing number of ethanol related issues coming into the shop.
What is Ethanol Blended Fuel
Manufacturers generate ethanol, which is short for ethyl alcohol, by fermenting and distilling crops like corn, wheat and barley. It’s the same stuff that is in alcoholic beverages. Alcohol is an amazing cleaner and solvent and its natural tendency is to bond with water. There is where the problems lie. Unlike automobiles, boats don’t go through gas as quickly. Where a car might fill up every week, boats often sit for weeks on end with the same gas in them.
What happens is a process called phase separation where the alcohol separates from the gas and alcohol bonds to any water that is inherent in the system, corrupting all of the fuel in the process. That is the second problem with boats as opposed to cars with ethanol. Boats live in a watery environment. There is a lot more water present all the time. Once a fuel tank has reached phase separation, there is no fixing it. The fuel really needs to be discarded.
The other issue besides the water is that because alcohol is such a good solvent and cleaner it can dry out, damage and corrode plastics, rubbers and cause pieces to flake, break off and travel into the fuel system of an outboard.
In Baggett’s case that’s what happened. He was unknowingly putting ethanol fuel that was at a much higher content than is supposed to be allowed into his boat and his boat was sitting for extended periods of time allowing for breakdown of fuel lines, filters, and other components that were creating deposits in other parts of the system.
As seen in the photos here. You can see fuel lines that were cut open and inspected to find the inner walls were deteriorating and flaking off into the fuel. The fuel lines themselves became very hard and brittle. The fuel filters got gummed up with debris which also lead to fouling of spark plugs. The fuel filters swelled and broke into two pieces. Spark plug injectors filled with gunk and failed to spark.
“I’m embarrassed that I let this happen,” Baggett said. “I honestly didn’t know that there was ethanol in the system and that it was doing this to my outboard.”
Some early warning signs that you might have a fuel system problem are constantly dirty and clogged fuel filters, sputtering and choking of the outboard, lack of power, premature rusting of parts, gunk and build up in the system and complete shutdown of fuel intake.
But the blame doesn’t necessarily lie solely with Baggett. Retail locations have been found to be unknowing victims of ethanol in their own gas, especially those supposedly with less than 10 percent ethanol. Stations using gas with less than 10 percent ethanol aren't mandated to put up signs to that effect either. Sampley has tested fuels in boats at more than 24 percent ethanol levels who purchased gas from stations with no ethanol signage whatsoever. You can purchase ethanol content testers to perform these tests on your own fuels if you have concerns.
Basically you’ll follow the instructions and place 25% or 50% water in the tube with graduations on it and then add your fuel sample, shake to mix and then wait was the ethanol will bond to the water. Then by performing simple calculations, you determine the actual amount of ethanol in the system.
Ethanol Precautions
Sampley and Baggett offered several suggestions on how to avoid these ethanol nightmares in your own fishing boats.
“If I could save one angler from going through everything I’ve been through in the last year, it would be well worth the time,” Baggett said.
The first and easiest fix can be to avoid ethanol fuels all together in marine outboards. Seek out those stations that adamantly announced and promote they use non-ethanol based fuels only. Avoiding the root cause of the problems is obviously the best solution in any case. Test the fuel if you’re concerned. Some stations may unknowingly be carrying ethanol fuels.
Another precaution is to use a fuel and ethanol stabilizer like Lucas Safeguard Ethanol Fuel Conditioner with Stabilizers. This product will stabilize the ethanol to a degree in your system until you can burn through it all. Gas has a shelf life of about 3 weeks. After that, octane begins to diminish. These stabilizing agents can prolong that. However they cannot change the nature of ethanol, and its natural tendency to bond to water.
Buy gas from busy gas stations because their fuel will be replenished more and fresher than a gas station not frequented as much.
Replace your fuel filters every 50-100 hours, and more often if you suspect you might be getting unlabeled ethanol fuels from your local station.
Avoid running your tanks when they get close to empty. If you have had phase separation, the bottom of the tank will hold the highest water content. You may be able to run the tanks low enough and then remove the bad fuel and discard properly. Check your state laws on rules governing this.
Final Thoughts
“I was plagued with issues that resulted from the effects of ethanol,” Baggett said. “The relationship with ethanol and me was quite volatile and it crippled me more than once this season. It’s been extremely humbling and costly.”
“Ethanol is the No. 1 reason we see in our shop for a blown powerhead,” Sampley said. “If left to do its dirty work, ethanol will make any and all rubber lines useless and cause plastic filters to swell and break. Just avoiding some of the common sense things can alleviate a lot of problems. Things like leaving if you see a station being filled by a gas tanker. That old fuel and water separation is being stirred up as new fuel is pumped into the holding tanks.”
Ethanol is here to stay. Anglers and boaters need to be cautious and aware of the impacts to outboards and fuel systems in vessels that spend their lives around the water. Take some extra precautions up front to avoid costly repairs and downtime on the water later.
Read More