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Vertical Jigging Spoons for Early Winter Bass

Posted by Walker Smith on Thu, Nov 29, 2012 @ 08:00 AM
  
  
  
  
  
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SpoonBass
As the bass become sluggish, fool them with a jigging spoon

By Walker Smith

Early winter fishing can, without a doubt, be some of the year’s most frustrating fishing. The days of the explosive topwater action, quick limits and raw thumbs characteristic of our fall fishing endeavors are all but a distant memory to which we desperately cling. In its absence, anglers are left with the unpleasant aftermath—lethargic bass, gloomy skies, frigid water temperatures and bone chilling air temperatures that turn even the simplest tasks into laborious undertakings.

Before you winterize your bass boat and let all of your hopes for productive fishing fall to the wayside, don’t overlook a timeless, fish catching technique—vertically jigged spoons. Vicious Fishing pro and Alabama bass guide Jimmy Mason is renowned for his deep water fishing abilities, and he recently shared some helpful tips for vertical jigging that will salvage some tough, early winter fishing days.

Where to start

As with any unfamiliar fishing technique, location is important in order to maximize your success and quickly gain confidence. When it comes to vertically jigging a spoon, covering water is essential. As the cranking bite dies and the water temperatures drop into the lower 50s, Mason looks to the creek channels as a solid starting point.

“As soon as my fall fish start to dissipate, I heavily target creek channels,” Mason said. “As the bass move towards deep water, they use creek channels as paths to travel to their winter time dwellings.”


In order to find these creek channels, Mason looks to his Humminbird 1198c for guidance. While studying the creek’s contours and depth changes, he idles in a zigzag pattern across the width of the creek in order to cover water quickly. In the earlier stages of winter, big bass love to frequent the ledges of these channels, so any time he notices a sharp drop in water depth, Mason gets a little excited.

“While it’s definitely possible to catch a few stragglers here and there, I specifically look for big schools of fish,” Mason said. “Don’t overlook big balls of shad, either. A lot of times big bass will get in the middle of the bait clouds, which can make it hard to differentiate them from the bait.”

As winter progresses and the bass continue their voyage, it is important to begin surveying nearby river channels as well. Although the differences between a creek channel and river channel can be a bit difficult to distinguish, think of it like this: Bass use creek channels the same way we use entrance ramps onto highways. When the bass leave the creek channels, they head straight to the river channels, or highways.

The universal honey holes

Although early, transitioning winter bass are notoriously difficult to pinpoint, there is one place on nearly every fishery that is guaranteed to hold fish throughout this time of year—bridges. While it may sound obvious, we’re not necessarily talking about cranking the rip rap. Mason takes a very different approach to fishing bridges.

“As the bass move out of the creeks, on most fisheries they have to pass right through the creek channels underneath bridges,” Mason said. “If you can find a causeway in which the channel hits a silt line within a couple hundred yards, you’re going to get right and load the boat in a hurry.”

It is important to be extremely careful when targeting these bridges, however. Because these bridges funnel boats, stay on the lookout for oncoming traffic. It may be necessary to stay tight to the columns to not only better target the fish but to stay out of the flow of traffic in these funnels.

The gear

Using the correct equipment while vertically jigging spoons is essential, and again, Mason takes a slightly different approach to the technique. While many anglers opt for baitcasting gear for spoon fishing, he prefers spinning gear with jigging spoons weighing less than 1/2-ounce. When the fish get in their obstinate, sluggish winter moods, he believes they are more apt to be fooled by light line.

“I can’t overemphasize the importance of light line in cold water,” Mason said. “When you work so hard to find the fish, the last thing you want to do is spook them with line that is too visible.”


When using spinning gear, Mason uses a 7-foot, medium-heavy Dobyns Champion Spinning Rod spooled with 15-pound Vicious Braid and a 4-foot leader of 8-pound Vicious Pro Elite Fluorocarbon. For the business end, he fools a ton of bass on 1/4-ounce Bomber Slab Spoons and Cotton Cordell C.C. Spoons.

If you’re graphing a lot of fish on a windy day, don’t fret. In order to counteract high winds or rough water, Mason won’t hesitate to pull out his baitcasting gear when using heavier spoons. Due to the sheer weight and profile of bigger jigging spoons, they can be very easy for bass to dislodge. For this reason, he uses a 7-foot, medium-heavy Dobyns Savvy Casting Rod, as it has enough backbone to ensure a solid hookset.

Mason keeps his line selection fairly simple for his baitcasting gear. In areas free of gnarly cover, he opts for 12-pound Vicious Pro Elite fluorocarbon line, as its low stretch allows him to get a good hook in deep water bass. Whenever he finds himself fishing in more precarious areas, such as standing timber, 12-pound monofilament line gives him the necessary shock absorption and aids in popping spoons loose that may get hung in wood cover.

Presentation

While the name implies that one would be fishing vertically when vertically jigging, it is important, however, to understand the different between a vertical spoon and a flutter spoon. Instead of casting, ripping and covering water as you would with a flutter spoon, jigging spoons are meant to be dropped into the schools of fish.


“I don’t cast jigging spoons at all,” Mason said. “You want to simply drop it down right in front of the fish’s face and make him eat. If conditions call for casting to the fish, I’ll switch to a Heddon Sonar.”

After dropping down to the fish, Mason stresses the importance of experimentation. Because bass’ preference can change daily, even hourly, anglers should always keep an open mind in regards to specific presentations. For a good starting point, he begins with short, 1- to 2-foot upward jerks of the spoon. Whenever he catches a few, he will rip the bait more aggressively to trigger a feeding frenzy.

Conversely, in tough fishing conditions when the bass aren’t actively feeding, a more subtle approach is often necessary to draw strikes. The metabolism of a bass slows dramatically as the water cools, making them much more apprehensive to chase down a meal. When faced with slothful bass, Mason presents his bait in very short, 6-inch hops.

Regardless of the mood of the bass, there is one constant presentation factor that always holds true. No matter what, always allow the jigging spoon to fall on a controlled slack line. After lifting the rod upwards, Mason follows his slack line downward with his rod tip.

“Slack line is the only way a jigging spoon will possess the right action to make bass bite,” Mason said. “It’s important, however, to follow the slack all the way to the water in order to detect a bite. If your line stops prematurely or acts funny, set the hook immediately.”

Vertically jigging spoons are, by far, one of the most effective early winter strategies for targeting big, lazy bass. When you get on a productive spoon bite, the potential for large quantities of bass can be a great way to introduce newcomers to the sport as well. If you dedicate a few full days to finding the bass, using the right gear and learning to present your bait correctly, you just might discover a new favorite technique.































































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When and Why to Use Red Hooks for Bass Fishing

Posted by Walker Smith on Wed, Nov 28, 2012 @ 07:00 AM
  
  
  
  
  
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RedTrebleBass2

See why Marty Stone likes to add a front red treble hook to his shallow running Bandit crankbaits.

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.

















































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Why You Should Go Fishing for Other Fish

Posted by Jason Sealock on Mon, Nov 26, 2012 @ 08:00 AM
  
  
  
  
  
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How to fish for crappie with curl tail grubs

How to fish for other fish to recharge your fishing batteries

By Jason Sealock

Relationships were overly dramatic and serious during the high school years. Or at least it seemed to me with most of the young ladies I dated while growing up. They seemed to think the whole companionship thing took a lot more effort and forced focus than I did. If you weren’t talking with them on the phone 24/7 or displaying your affection for them every moment you were near them, it was a monumental meltdown with the changing of the wind. I never grasped the passion they had for dating in high school until much later in life.

Fishing, however, had an entirely reversed grip on me, one that I’ve often found now to parallel what I saw as a somewhat “clingy” and overbearing relationship growing up. In other words, my passion for fishing carries me to the brink of insanity or at least the point of complete disconnect where I no longer want to be in a relationship with it. If you fish long enough, you will reach that point where you come back from several tough trips in a row and decide it’s time to put all the gear on eBay and take up golf or something else less demanding.

After all, fishing isn’t luck, or so we seem to convince ourselves when we reach a certain level of tackle accumulation. How is it possible to own a $40,000 boat, $3,000 of electronics, $10,000 of rods, reels and tackle and still not be able to catch a bass? I’ve been studying the sport and the anglers in it for the better part of two decades and one thing I’m certain of now, we don’t know as much about fish as we think we do. And that typically becomes apparent in the fall transition periods.

There is a time when the fish are transitioning from summer to fall feeding zones and then again from fall to winter feeding zones. And the weather can grey the areas even more, making finding and then catching fish a monumental task. If you’re an angler like me that prides himself on being able to not only find bass but also figure them out, when you don’t for a trip or two, those little demons on the shoulder pop up to raise some doubt about your manhood and your ability as a hunter/gatherer.

Some guys need a break. Others need a distraction. For me I need a distraction to give me a break from being the fish snob that I am. The fact is, that to some degree, we’re all fish snobs. The bass guys chunk crankbaits and pitch plastics for bass, the crappie guys spend their time spider rigging and shooting docks for crappie, the catfish guys set limb lines, trot lines and cast big dead parts for big bad cats, while the trout guys go light line, light fly and sight fish their way to more trout.

We get locked on our quarry of choice, and we become singularly focused on the bass, crappie or trout at hand. We are driven to catch more, bigger and better fish every time we go – haunted by memories of trips of past. Our ability to find and catch the fish of choice somehow defines us as an angler, as a person. Or so we let ourselves believe. When in actuality we lost sight of the thing that drew us to the fish in the first place. It’s the unknown.

The unknown drew us in. The more we do it, however, the more it can drive us away. The unknown might simply be not knowing how big a fish we will catch, how many fish we will catch or where we will catch them. There is unknown from lake to lake, spot to spot, and cast to cast. That unknown fuels our fire and extinguishes it if we let it. Because the unknown can empower you or haunt you depending on how you let it affect your fishing.

The fix

So I recently had a few bad outings bass fishing. Catching a 4-pounder and nothing else in 5 hours of fishing. Catching a few dinks and no keepers. And one outing, for 4 hours, never having a single bite. That doesn’t seem like a big deal. But when you live on a premier fishery and you have had many experiences on said fishery the same time of year that suggest you should be catching them, you start to feel that doubt.

So what did I do? Switched gears. I pulled the bass rods out of the boat and stood them up in the corner of the garage and reached for two wispy but wiry spinning rods with tiny reels then respooled them with bright white and yellow lines and small jigheads with curly tails on them. I pulled crankbaits and jerkbaits in exchange for curl tail grubs and hair jigs. A filet knife, some Ziploc bags and a net and I was out the door to meet a buddy for a day on the lake.

“I’m mad at the bass right now,”  I said on the phone call to Terry Bolton, “You want to go fishing for crappie next week?”

“I’ve been catching quite a few lately and the bass fishing isn’t really swell right now so let’s go,” he said.

So we got up early and hit the lake recently for a day of “relaxed” fishing. No agendas. No unnecessary stress placed on our own psyches to be all we can be with an Alabama Rig or a jerkbait and catch huge limits of bass. Just a few little spinning rods, a handful of small jigs and an open livewell lid.


“Splash.”

The first crappie hit the livewell and it was a beautiful sound. A big smile washed over my face and I was back. My passion fulfilled, my energy for fishing renewed.

“I used to be a pretty good crappie man,” Bolton said of his days guiding on Kentucky Lake. “About this time of year, I couldn’t tell you what the bass were doing because I wasn’t chasing them. There were no tournaments, and I was so addicted to catching crappie with a jig, I couldn’t make myself pick up a bass rod. Somewhere along the way that changed, but I’m having fun and not even thinking about bass fishing right now.”


We launched the boat a bit after sunrise; no hurry in our step and for a moment we stopped and just appreciated the fine calm morning we were experiencing. I had forgotten that I get so driven in bass fishing that I can’t just enjoy a beautiful morning because my mind is spinning with locations and presentations.

We hopped from pile to pile of scattered brush on isolated areas away from the bank along Kentucky Lake’s many bays, points and humps picking up a scattering of crappie here and there. Nothing fancy at all about the approach. Reels spooled with 6-pound monofilament or 8-pound braid tied to 3/32 or 1/8-ounce jigheads that we tipped with either white or chartreuse curl tails. The technique wasn’t anything special. Idle around until we found a nice piece of brush on the Lowrance HDS, drop a buoy, spin the boat and cast.


When the jig hit the water, we’d let it go down until we were on bottom or near the cover. A couple of casts was all it usually took to catch a fish or find the brush that was holding the fish and then we’d work around it with ultra slow presentations.

“I’ve said for years that a good crappie won’t let a jig get hung in the brush,” Bolton joked. If you cast a jig and let it sink down near a piece of brush, some sort of fish should grab it if he’s around.

Well, crappie master, I am not and found my fair share of stakes and limbs that refused to let go of a jig or seven. But I also found my fair share of crappie that never let the jig get close to the cover.


It was fun. It was pretty simple. It was rewarding and fulfilling and ultimately it will be filling for me and my family who love to eat fried crappie with sides of coleslaw and hush puppies. Those fish will feed our family for a few meals, but they fed my soul for the whole season. My fishing coffers were overflowing again, and I couldn’t wait to be on the water again as I pulled the boat out for the day.

I had a feeling of being in high school and what some of those girls maybe felt about my lack of attention and unwavering passion for them as a nerdy 17-year-old.

“So Mr. Bass, I’ve decided not to break up with you just yet, although I do think you could pay more attention to me and my offerings and give us the time of day when we’re near. I mean after all, that’s part of a healthy fishing relationship. Because if not, don’t think for a second I won’t start seeing more of one of your cousins from the panfish family.”

Maybe that’s a little overbearing, but I guess a break from your significant other is what a fish snob needs every now and again to renew the passion. It’s okay to fish for other fish.





































































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Carolina Rig Tips for Cold Water Bass | Part II

Posted by Walker Smith on Wed, Nov 21, 2012 @ 10:00 AM
  
  
  
  
  
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CarolinaRigLine

Line type and leader length are two huge factors that will catch more fish

By Walker Smith

Many of today’s anglers are infatuated with fishing quickly and covering water. While this method will absolutely lead to some great days on the water, sometimes conditions call for us to take a deep breath, slow down and present our baits in a methodical fashion. Although the Carolina rig has been around for years, we seem to overlook this technique when fishing gets tough. Learning about and correctly fishing the C-rig, however, can totally change the way you fish and exponentially increase both the size and quantity of your catch.

In part-one of this Carolina rig series, we talked about the individual components that either “make” or “break” the C-rig. Without quality gear, it is nearly impossible to have an enjoyable experience with this technique. While the aforementioned gear is certainly important to successful Carolina rigging, there is an even larger element to this technique that is so important we had to set it apart from the rest—line selection.

In cold water conditions, we exclusively use a 5-foot leader when fishing the Carolina rig. As the water cools, bass are much less likely to aggressively chase prey, making a natural, slow presentation essential. A long, 5-foot leader allows for just that—a slow, gliding action that presents your offering in a non-threatening fashion. Although a long leader is fairly standard for cold water C-rigging, it is important to understand the different applications for each type of line.

Monofilament

Years ago as I was just beginning to experiment with the double-splash rig, I made a fatal error in my line selection when I used monofilament for my main line. When you’re setting the hook from long distances, nothing is worse than using monofilament. With the stretch that mono possesses, it allows for too much play between you and the fish which results in more missed opportunities.

While monofilament isn’t ideal for main line use on a Carolina rig, don’t write it off completely because it definitely has its place in the C-rig arsenal. Whenever you find yourself around submerged vegetation in grass lakes such as Guntersville and Lake Seminole, a monofilament leader is indispensable.


Monofilament is more buoyant in the water, and when paired with a heavily salt-impregnated lure, such as a Zoom Brush Hog, it allows the bait to glide and sink much slower as you move it. It may sound like a small, subtle difference, but the added buoyancy gives the bass a much better look at your bait. If your bait is dredging the bottom of a grassy area, you will constantly pick vegetation off, resulting in lost fishing time. Monofilament allows the bait to sink much slower, almost float off of the bottom, aiding in a natural presentation in areas with thick vegetation.

Braid

Braided line can be a Carolina rigger’s best friend in many situations. It’s not effective for leader line, but it is outstanding when used for main line in deep, lightly stained water. Many anglers tend to shy away from braid when throwing the rig due to its high visibility, but we have had great results with it. When using a 5-foot leader, it is important to realize that the bait will be a long way from your weighted main line. This distance allows the fish to focus on the leader-end of the rig, instead of the main line. For this reason, we aren’t afraid to use braided main line in fairly clear water conditions.


Braid is also outstanding for getting a solid hookset on deep water bass. A long, wintertime leader puts a lot of distance between you and your bait, making it difficult to transfer the full power of your hookset to the fish. Jason believes that braided line allows the angler to “close the distance gap” on fish with ease, as its lack of stretch allows for optimum energy transfer.

There is one caveat to be mindful of, however, when using braided main line on a Carolina rig. When fishing around gnarly structure such as rocks and shell beds, A heavy weight can cause the line to fray on the sharp edges of structure. To combat this issue, use the lightest weight that you can get away with. Heavier weights will drag your line across the crud, resulting in premature line wear.

Fluorocarbon

When it comes to Carolina rigging, it is nearly impossible to go wrong with fluorocarbon line. Whether you’re targeting fish in ultra-clear water or in stained water, fluoro is up to the task.

When faced with gin-clear water clarity in highland reservoirs, we always use fluorocarbon main line on our rigs. Although there is a large distance between the main line and the bait on wintertime C-rigs, clear water bass can become unusually spooky, especially in cold water. Fluorocarbon main line allows the angler to present the bait naturally while also aiding in long, deep hooksets due to its limited stretch. Fluorocarbon and braided line both share a similar disdain of sharp structure, so it is also important to avoid a weight that will dredge your line through any line-cutting structure.


Fluorocarbon is an ideal selection for leader line when the fish are relating closely to the bottom. Because it sinks, fluoro keeps your bait glued to the bottom when lethargic wintertime bass are positioned on deep rocks to obtain heat in cold water conditions. When rigged up with fluorocarbon for both main line and leader line, anglers have the ability to naturally present their bait while maintaining the power necessary to hook and land big wintertime lunkers.

It may sound like we threw a lot of information your way, but the best way to learn and understand the fish catching abilities of the Carolina rig is to get out on the water, have fun and experiment. As with any unfamiliar technique, we suggest hitting the water with only a Carolina rig rod. This will force you to throw it throughout the day while familiarizing yourself with its intricacies while also learning to detect deep water bites. If you get on a hot bite with another lure, try pulling out the Carolina rig to build your confidence with the rig.

To help keep things simple while learning the C-rig this winter, here is a succinct outline of proper line selection:

Monofilament:  Use for leader line when fishing submerged vegetation or when the bass are slightly suspended off of the bottom.

Braid: Not for leader use. Use for main line when targeting bass in stained or lightly stained deep water.

Fluorocarbon: Use for main line when fishing ultra-clear water. Also great for leader line when bass are positioned tightly to the bottom or to add a clear leader to braid or otherwise more visible line in clear water. 


























































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Carolina Rig Tips for Cold Water Bass | Part I

Posted by Walker Smith on Mon, Nov 19, 2012 @ 01:40 PM
  
  
  
  
  
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Options for Carolina Rigs

As the water continues to cool, these tips will help you catch more fish.

By Walker Smith

For many of our readers, fall is nothing but a distant memory. The trees have shed their foliage and the pleasant, cool nights have quickly turned to bone-chilling mornings with no hope of fishing. As the water temperatures continue to drop and the bass’ metabolism begins to slow, fishing can get downright tough this time of year. It happens to us, too, as we often refer to it as our yearly “depression”.

While many outdoorsmen tend to store their bass boats in favor of tree stands and rutting bucks this time of year, we have salvaged many poor fishing days with the “old faithful” of fishing techniques—the Carolina rig. Although the C-rig has been around for decades, it is one of the most overlooked and misunderstood weapons of the bass fishing world. In part one of this two-part series, we discuss the importance of using quality components with this time-tested technique.

Don’t go cheap

Although many of us choose to make fishing an expensive sport, it really doesn’t have to be. While there are certainly various techniques and presentations in which concessions in quality can be made if necessary, Carolina rigging is definitely not one of them.


Perhaps the most important part of the Carolina rig is the swivel. On that very piece of equipment, the total success of the rig hinges. Poor quality barrel swivels will easily get nicked and cut when dragging the C-rig through harsh terrain such as rocks, shell beds and pea gravel. When these low-end swivels get beat up, they will cut your line like a razorblade and bind, resulting in an improper presentation. To avoid this menacing problem and land more fish, using bigger stainless steel swivels will provide the backbone of your Carolina rig with increased durability and dependability. Although a little more expensive, upgrading swivels can cure some of the heartache from lost Carolina rig fish.

A quality tungsten weight is also essential to getting the most out of your Carolina rig. Many anglers are still unsure when it comes to the benefits of tungsten, but the difference in sensitivity between tungsten and lead is unreal. A tungsten weight on a Carolina rig is about as close as you can get to crawling on your hands and knees on the bottom of the lake. For the anglers who don’t have access to high-end electronics, a tungsten-weighted Carolina rig is all that’s necessary to dissect the bottom composition of your favorite spots. Although they are more expensive than traditional lead weights, the benefits are undeniable which them worth the extra money.  


Lastly, you can’t be cheap when it comes to the quality of the hook on a Carolina rig. During the hookset, there is a lot of slack between you and the fish, which makes a razor-sharp hook an absolute necessity. The good news is, hooks aren’t too expensive, and you won’t need a box full of an enormous assortment of hooks in order to increase your success. All that’s needed is 3/0, 4/0 or 5/0 Offset EWG worm hooks. While the versatility of the Carolina rig allows anglers the ability to experiment with several different presentations and pieces of terminal tackle.

Beads

While autumn is largely known for its beautiful colors, crisp mornings and explosive bass fishing, its weather is can be extremely volatile at times. Whether it’s cold fronts, rain storms or premature winter precipitation, fall can be a tricky time of year to consistently catch bass.

Often times, this unstable weather brings about muddy water in fisheries throughout many parts of the country. Although muddy water isn’t widely considered conducive to Carolina rigging, a few small modifications can make all of the difference in the world.


The bead on a Carolina rig is meant to perform two essential tasks—to make noise, while most importantly protecting the knot. If you were to throw a Carolina rig without a bead, the weight would slam against the knot, drastically reducing your knot strength, therefore increasing your chances of losing fish. While many anglers prefer smaller beads in order to offer a more natural presentation to the bass, we tend to prefer larger beads. Larger beads shield the entire knot, giving that crucial connection between your leader and main line a better chance at standing up to more abuse. These beads don’t need to be expensive, either— most of the time your local hobby store sells them for next-to-nothing.

An added benefit of using beads on a Carolina rig is their noise making ability. As you drag the rig across rough surfaces, the bead protects the knot while emitting an awesome “clicking” sound that emulates small prey to bass. It is important to note that different types of beads have different sounds. Although there is no specific science as to when bass prefer different types of clicking sounds, we are big proponents of constant experimentation. If you’re not getting bites with a plastic bead, sometimes a metal bead will do the trick. After experimenting long enough with it, you will be able to notice small nuances of your local fish that will allow for quick and efficient bead changes.

Throughout the late fall and early winter, we have had a lot of success using two beads on our Carolina rigs. As the water gets muddier from nasty fall storms, the visibility of bass is often cut in half. With limited visibility making it harder for bass to get a good bead on your bait, the extra noise of two beads will set your C-rig far apart from others. It would sound a lot better if we had the two beads strategically placed throughout to rig to imitate some sort of specific forage, but we don’t. Stack the two beads right on top of each other for more noise throughout your retrieve. Terry has won a lot of money throughout his life using this technique.

Weights

So we’ve already talked about the importance of tungsten on a Carolina rig, but what now? Truth be told, the shape of the weight doesn’t really make much difference to the bass. Instead, it makes our lives easier and increases our efficiency when throwing the double splash rig all day long.


One of our favorite ways to fish a Carolina rig thick cover looks pretty ridiculous. In fact, if you saw it, you would probably think we were crazy. Around gnarly, rock-covered areas, turning a traditional tungsten bullet weight upside-down—with the nose facing the bait—can drastically cut down on your amount of frustration throughout your day on the water.

When the bullet weight is positioned on the Carolina rig as it would look on a Texas rig, it makes your C-rig much more prone to hang-ups in rocky cover. It is important to remember that the weight is constantly making contact with the bottom, which will cause the nose of the bullet weight to frequently lodge into rocks. If you simply turn that weight the other way around, the wide mouth of weight’s base will kick up off the rock crevices rather than sliding in between them as easily. It doesn’t look pretty, but it can allow for a few less snags.

Unless you’re targeting fish in less than 6-feet of water this late fall, your Carolina rig needs to have a 1/2-ounce weight at the very minimum. The appeal of the Carolina rig is to allow for constant contact with the bottom, and lighter weights don’t allow for the proper presentation. A heavier, 1/2-ounce weight allows the angler to throw it a lot further and detect bites better.

If you’re fishing on a windy day, or are a newcomer to the Carolina rig, throwing a 1-ounce weight can do wonders. The heavy weight decreases the amount of “wind bow” in your line, allowing much more direct access to the business end of your rig. While some anglers will have extremely specific weights for certain water depths, we prefer to keep it simple. Remember—keep a 1/2-ounce tungsten weight on your rig, and if you aren’t feeling the bottom enough, simply upsize to a 1-ounce weight.

It’s no secret that Carolina rigs can be time consuming to re-tie after numerous hang-ups throughout the day, but using the correct components will help you better utilize your fishing time and catch more fish. Stay tuned for part-two of this series, as we discuss the application of different line types and leader lengths to further your success with the C-rig.



















































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How to Use Sonar to Find Hard Bottoms

Posted by Jason Sealock on Thu, Nov 15, 2012 @ 03:00 PM
  
  
  
  
  
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hard bottom road bed screen shot explained

A couple quick tweaks and knowing what you're seeing on your fish finder will yield better results

By Jason Sealock

We're making an effort to help folks get their money's worth on their fish finders. Knowing how to use sonar or side imaging can make you not only a more efficient angler but a more diverse angler. When you know how to use a fish finder to find not just hard bottoms but also forage and ultimately schools of fish you can spend your time honing your presentation and technique and less time searching aimlessly for bass, not know which lures and presentations will trigger a strike on that day.

Most anglers who fish from a boat have some sort of sonar, so we'll start there. On a typical sonar, the thicker the return on the bottom, the more dense the bottom is. Take a Lowrance HDS 10 for example. When you see a hard bottom like gravel, chunk rock or shell beds, that bottom will be thick and yellow. Whereas when you pass over a softer muddier bottom, the bottom will seem more translucent or darker red or blue.

If you're not seeing the contrasts like you think you should, you probably just need to adjust your sensitivity up or down. On my unit, I run my sensitivity up in the 70s, but I turn my noise rejection to low and my surface clarity to medium. For most of my use with sonar, I don't really ever try to see the fish in the top 1 or 2 feet of my water column. I'm looking for the right looking bottom with forage or fish nearby.

One of my favorite hard bottom characteristics to find is an flooded roadbed. Now often the road isn't well defined after years of erosion and soil placement on the road. But with your sonar setup to detect those contrasts in bottom, you can still see the hard bottom structure even if it has been silted over from floods and such. Usually the roadbed will be associated with some sort of rise on your screen as well and some of the best ones I've found even have chunk rip rap along them.


In the fall and again in the prespawn and post spawn periods, roadbeds can be bass and bait magnets. So I always like to find one if I'm looking for bass in an area. But a roadbed isn't the only hard bottom that can be good. Shell beds have gained popularity with offshore fishermen over the years, although I find it humorous how many folks think they found a shell bed just because their jig is dragging through some rough gravel or chunk rock. There is a distinguishable "grabbiness" to a bed of shells and you'll often pull them up either clamped on your line or snagged on a crankbait treble hook.

Some believe the bass are there for the shells. They are there for the clean hard bottom that attracts baitfish more readily. When current is pushed over them, it makes a buffet table for the bass.  

Finding a hard bottom might take time scanning. I often pass over hard bottoms while idling around in creeks and bays on a major reservoir. I will the expand my search outward looking for key spots on a hard bottom area. Maybe there is a small pile of rocks, or a creek channel swing or cover on one part of the hard bottom that will make it the key spot in the area. When I find one hard bottom area, I will split my screen on my Lowrance HDS Gen 2 and search with sonar, down and side scan screens. Often I can use the side scan to tell me at what angle the road winds and then use the sonar to see the sharpest edges along the road or other objects, like brush, culverts, foundations and more.

As you can see from these screen shots, hard bottoms will stand out on your fish finder once you know how to use sonar and side scan together. A few tweaks to sensitivity, noise rejection, and surface clutter can give you a good read of what's below. The shallower you are the more you will turn your sensitivity down on side and down scan. The deeper you are looking on your fish finder, the more sensitivity you must have.


Notice on this screen shot, we passed over a subtle roadbed. To the side of it was a small stake bed. The baitfish were positioned between the stake bed and the road. The fish however if you look closely were in the stake bed. We cranked a square bill over the top of the stakes and road a few times and as luck would have it, we caught a crappie. The more you make mental notes, then stop and fish what you see the more you will learn about how to use sonar and side scanning technologies and put together better fish catches.





























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Why Your Fishing Lure's Profile is Wrong

Posted by Jason Sealock on Wed, Nov 14, 2012 @ 08:00 AM
  
  
  
  
  
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Bass on buzzbaits with no skirt

Fishing skirtless has its advantages and changing the profile on spinnerbaits, buzzbaits and chatterbaits can mean more bites

By Jason Sealock

Bass will eat something if you put it in front of them. At least that's the trap we find ourselves falling for in our game planning for our day on the water. How do we know what to fish from day to day, season to season? It's experience, trial and error, seasonal situations and more that lead us to the bass. And even then it can be a chore to find fish. A couple things anglers tend to forget are profile and pressure.

The pressure fish see from anglers, boat traffic, weather conditions and other variables changes their behavior as each season progresses. The more worms and crankbaits they see pass in front of their nose, the more they resist their impulses and ignore them. The profile of a lure is the easiest thing for bass to condition to. And it can be the easiest thing for an angler to change to get more bites.

Think about this scenario. The bass grouped up in an area. You catch them on a jig but they won't touch a plastic worm. Then you go to another area where they are grouped up but you catch them on the plastic worm and they won't touch your jig. Seems hard to explain other than the fish got conditioned in each area. Maybe fishing pressure did it. Maybe the type of forage in the area did. Maybe the conditions did but profile matters, and in certain situations, one profile is wrong.


We've delved into the topic of lure profile before, but you can take the standard profile of certain lures and change it with easy modifications and catch fish others miss. Spinnerbaits, vibrating jigs, and buzzbaits all have one thing in common—a silicone or rubber skirt. The skirt gives the lures bulky pulsating profiles.

In recent years, we've seen anglers like Bryan Thrift pull the skirts off these type baits and catch a lot of bass from areas other anglers have recently fished. He's known to put a bait like a Zoom Horny Toad on a buzzbait to catch bass. I watched him throwing it on Pickwick and also in the Forrest Wood Cup on the Three Rivers in Pittsburgh to catch some key fish.

We've experimented with the profile changes and have had a lot success changing out spinnerbait skirts for grubs and swimbaits, Chatterbaits with minnow type bodies and buzzbaits with grubs and soft plastic toads. The change in profiles gives the bait a different action and appearance in the water. Makes them easier to cast to tight targets or skip under cover.


One tip: use Super Glue or Loc Tite to secure your soft plastics to the head of vibrating jigs, spinnerbaits and buzzbaits. You can fish all day this way without having to constantly fix your baits on the heads.

In smaller bodies of water when you often downsize your tackle, taking the skirt of a small spinnerbait or chatterbait and threading a Zoom Fluke Jr. on it can be a deadly presentation and surprisingly get you a lot of bites in tough conditions. Likewise with a small buzzbait.

You can change the profile of skirted baits to get more bites but as we said, they can be easier to fish too. A chatterbait with a swimbait on its body skips well. You can fire it under low hanging limbs or under and around docks. A Horny Toad on a buzzbait helps keep the buzzbait up and it seems to glide over grass a little better. You can make a spinnerbait look more like a fish head spin with a minnow type body on the head in clear water.

Simple changes can often yield big results. The fish see a lot and making them comfortable enough to eat around your lures makes them more likely to bite. The natural profile of the baits gives them more appeal to pressured and weary bass. Downsize and go natural and use the vibration and flash to draw them in and the natural profile to make them commit.































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Four Tips on How to Fish a Shaky Head

Posted by Walker Smith on Mon, Nov 12, 2012 @ 08:00 AM
  
  
  
  
  
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big bass in tough conditions bite shaky heads



These 4 presentations will help you get the most out of your shaky head fishing

By Walker Smith

The shaky head is a rare beast—most anglers either absolutely love it or despise it. While its existence in bass fishing has been obscured by its perceived inability to catch big fish, anglers around the world have been consistently winning tournaments with it for years. For those days when the bass prefer a small appetizer instead of a full-course meal, knowing how-to fish a shaky head well can improve that day's fishing.

Over the years, we've experimented with several different shaky head presentations. Although it’s difficult to fish a shaky head wrong, a few intricacies will improve your ability to catch more fish during those tough days on the water.

Drag it

The name “shaky head” fools many anglers. Although the name implies that you should shake your arm out of socket, don’t fall into the "one-retrieve" trap. Dragging a shaky head along the bottom often yields better results.

It’s no secret that bass fishing in the fall can lead to some of the most memorable moments in an angler’s life. As bass, both spotted and largemouth, group up on primary and secondary points in search of big balls of bait, it can be difficult to find an area where you can’t catch fish. This time of year can be a double-edged sword, however, as autumn produces some nasty cold fronts, often making fishing extremely difficult.

During these post-frontal days, dragging a shaky head often proves best. Once bass move up on secondary points, they usually won’t stray far, if at all, when then front hits. Although they won’t always eat crankbaits and big jigs, they are rarely timid when it comes to crushing a shaky head.  Dragging a shaky head allows anglers to cover more water while also feeling for specific bottom compositions. Instead of dead-sticking a worm in these areas, briskly drag a shaky head to quickly and efficiently locate fish.

If you don’t get a bite in the first ten casts, simply leave and continue the search elsewhere. When implementing the dragging technique, you can hit dozens of areas while making mental notes and waypoints on your GPS device, allowing you the opportunity to hone-in on the most productive areas. This also makes dragging a shaky head an outstanding technique to use when practicing for that big weekend tournament.

A Zoom Trick Worm on a 1/8 or 3/16 ounce head is hard to beat most of the time

Hop it    

Although it sounds as if we’re splitting hairs with this, there is a huge difference in shaking a shaky head and hopping a shaky head. Differentiating your presentation from what the bass see every day usually leads to more bites and catching those bigger, more educated and conditioned fish.

Whenever a full moon is present, fishing during the day can be tougher. As the fish feed for longer throughout the night, they become less apt to feed aggressively during the day. When the bass are a bit sluggish during these times, hopping a small finesse worm on a shaky head can trigger reaction bites that bulkier, more imposing baits cannot.

In addition to the lethargic bass activity during the day of a full moon, crawfish activity increases. As crawfish emerge from their dark dwellings, they will hop around rocks in search of food. As they dash and dart, they emit a very distinctive “clicking” sound that is unmistakable to a big bass. Hopping a shaky head around hard cover emulates this sound, giving anglers an opportunity to fool otherwise wary bass.

When implementing this presentation, it isn’t necessary to rip the shaky head. Beginning with your rod tip at a 3 o’clock angle, twitch upward to a 1 o’clock position to trigger reaction strikes. Crawfish aren’t Olympic high jumpers, so hopping the bait too aggressively can appear unnatural to surrounding bass.

Anglers must watch their line with this presentation, as there isn’t a quicker way to lose a fish than twitching your rod tip upwards when a bass already has your shaky head in its mouth.  To combat this, be sure to let your bait fall on a semi-slack line while watching for any jump in the line. If you notice any movement whatsoever on a slack line, it is important to set the hook immediately.


Shake it

We know it sounds fairly obvious, but shaking a shaky head along the bottom of your favorite fishery is an outstanding way to catch a lot of fish. Knowing when and where to do so will yield the best results. Let’s draw a quick parallel to human behavior for a better understanding of this presentation:

Growing up, we all had those kids in our classes that would do anything to bother their fellow classmates. The absolute worst is when that classmate would put their index finger right in front of your face while doing the “I’m not touching you” routine. Eventually, most of us would get frustrated and swat their hand away. Shaking a shaky head triggers the same hand-swatting impulse in a bass. If you shake and wiggle your bait right in front of a bass’ face long enough, it’s going to get mad and eat it.

For this reason, we’ve found that shaking a shaky head is most effective when you know bass are in the immediate vicinity. Whether you’ve found them on your Lowrance or you’re getting a bunch of short strikes with other baits, shaking that shaky head right in front of their nose is going to make them mad enough to eat it—even if they’re not hungry.

When bass are in large concentrations on ledges, in ditches or off the end of a main lake point, this presentation will catch them. When you feel bass are roaming up and down a stretch, shaking a worm in place will give the bass time to wander in and find your offering before you move it out of their feeding zone. If you’re having trouble getting bites, don’t be afraid to switch your color or weight size—sometimes the small things make a huge difference. Just remember to use small, subtle twitches of your rod tip while letting the bait do the rest of the work, as over-doing it can spook larger fish.


Swim it

This is a presentation in which I've had recent success. Just as you would reel a Biffle Bug across chunk rock and other hard bottom compositions, swimming a shaky head can be a deadly approach around active fish—especially spotted bass.

On cloudy, overcast days, bass do not position very tightly to structure. Instead of shading themselves from the sun, they will venture from surrounding cover in order to search for prey. As the bass begin to move more, it allows anglers to cover water with a plethora of moving baits. While bass see hundreds of crankbaits, jerkbaits and other moving baits throughout the week, how many times do you think they’ve seen a swimming shaky head? Again, it’s all about being different.

In order for the bass to get a good bead on your shaky head with this technique, a soft plastic with superior water displacement, like a Zoom Ultravibe Speed Worm, works well for me. For years, anglers have been using these kinds of soft plastic baits to fool big bass in shallow water, but they also work wonders in deep water as well.

Maintain bottom contact when swimming a shaky head. If you are unable to feel the bottom, simply changing to a heavier shaky head or a slower retrieve should help. Keeping your rod tip down and to the side will aid in the detection of bites, while also keeping you in position for a strong, sweeping hookset. While it will take a little practice to get a good feel for the bite with this presentation, it is important to stay vigilant and observant. During the hookset, make sure to reel until you feel the fish and sweep your rod to the side, just like a crankbait hookset. If possible, avoid any slack in your line.

Shaky head fishing can be one of the most versatile techniques in an angler’s arsenal. Thinking outside the box and trying different things can lead to some really fun fishing throughout the entire year. Whether you’re dragging, hopping, shaking or swimming a shaky head, it is an extremely effective technique for anglers of all skill levels.

To learn more about how to fish a shaky head, check out these popular links:

Improving Your Shaky Head Fishing

Shaky Head Fishing on Transition Banks

Eco Pro Tungsten Money Maker Review

Profile Your Fishing Lures

Why Braid Will Make You a Better Finesse Angler







































































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Three Tips For Fixing The Sponsor/Angler Relationship

Posted by Jason Sealock on Fri, Nov 09, 2012 @ 08:00 AM
  
  
  
  
  
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Pros must do more than fish for sponsorships

By Ronell Smith, RonellSmith.com

We’ve all heard the quote “There are two things you never want to see made: sausage and legislation.” As a country kid who grew up seeing his father make sausage from freshly slaughtered pigs and who spent some time covering politics as a newspaper reporter, I can attest to the validity of the statement.

Lately, however, I’ve been wondering if another process doesn’t need to be added to that list: pro staff/sponsor interaction. Anglers, for their part, feel squeezed from all sides, what with high entry fees, tough-to-come-by sponsor dollars and the ever-increasing cost of travel. Sponsors, too, are in a vice, struggling under the weight of sluggish sales, frequent top-down cuts to overall spending and marketing budgets that grow about as swiftly as the economy of Greece.

The pressure can make for an uneasy relationship, at best. Pros are often being asked to do more for less money, and at a time when they cannot afford to lose a sponsor; Manufacturers expect more, pay less and are quick to pull a deal off the table at the slightest sign of a balk on the behalf on an angler.

As I have said before, manufacturers (and tournament organizations) have the upper hand.

“What (pros) want and what they bring to the table is out of whack,” said the vice president of a Midwestern tackle company. “I have pros who haven’t won a tournament since...they were a co-angler asking me for more money. But if I ask him ‘Hey, I need you to work two shows for me in January and do a couple of appearances during the season,’ they look at me like I have a horn growing out of my forehead. Everything they do...I don’t care how small it is, they want me to pay them an ‘appearance fee’ if it’s not written into the contract. You have to get nasty with them sometimes...saying ‘If you don’t sign this contract, who does it hurt (more)? You? or me?”

The conversation above might seem like an anomaly to some, but it’s one of the variety I have at least twice a month. Admittedly, I see and hear things a little different from most media members, mainly because I cover a side of the business that is largely ignored. That doesn’t change the fact that the sponsor/pro staff relationship is, in many ways and for many companies, broken.

My three-step plan for fixing the fractured relationship includes...

1.    Anglers have to drop the attitudes. No one wants to do more for less, but when you are negotiating from a position of weakness, your options are bleak. The only alternative is to chase after numerous small contracts, which can often result in being even more frustrated. If you signed on the dotted line, the expectation is that you fulfill your responsibilities, first and foremost.

If you desire to see your contract renewed, your job should be to go above and beyond, which means having the initiative to ask sponsors if there are additional duties you can perform, other areas of the company where you could be of use. A chief complaint I hear from anglers is “companies knock (your contract) back” after a bad year or two, so why not make yourself indispensable (at least as much as possible) by creating opportunities beyond on-the-water performance?

2.    Anglers must understand that the game has changed. Long gone are the days when sponsors looked after a pro, even when his best years were behind him. No news there, right? What is news for some, however, is that even pros who perform on the water and off, through events and such, are on a much shorter leash than ever before.

As I have said numerous times, the name of the game is selling products, extending the reach of your sponsor’s brands, which is only significantly impacted if (a) you win a tournament and (b) you are already a household name. See the problem there: You cannot guarantee a win, and last I checked there is really only one household name (KVD) that moves products. That means companies are always on the hunt for the hot stick, not necessarily the best overall stick.

Instead of trying to be the best or the hottest stick, work to be the most marketable stick, which is greatly aided by your becoming the best salesman possible. Don’t believe me? Take a second and look at the list of Elite Series or FLW Tour pros who have not won a major event in years, if ever, but who continue to get new sponsors and hold onto existing ones. What’s the commonality? They can sell.

3.    Companies need to be honest. I’ll admit that I’m a little bit “biased” when it comes to the whole angler/sponsor relationship. While I have an affinity for many of the anglers on tour, my business most often puts me in touch with sponsors, so I hear their side of things more frequently. One thing I do challenge sponsors with is the need for more transparency. They must, somehow, find a way to share with their pro staffs just where the relationship is at a given time.

I’ll use a recent example to make my point. While talking to a pro staff manager of a well-known company, the topic of contracts came up, and I asked about a popular pro.

“He hasn’t really done it for us like we thought he would. He’s done well...but when you look at what we are paying him...I cannot justify renewing (his contract.)”

Since this pro’s contract was not up for another year, I asked if the pro staff manager had shared his feelings with the pro.

“Things will run their course, Ronell. He knows what we are paying him. He knows he isn’t performing. When the time comes, I’ll make a decision based on the facts.”

Only it’s not so simple. See, the pros contract covers far more than tournament wins. And though he admittedly wasn’t getting it done on the water, he likely did think he was making up for it in other areas, such as product design, product testing and media exposure. That’s not how sponsor sees it.

The items above are just three of my ideas for fixing what I think is a broken system. I’m sure there are numerous others. I’d love to see your thoughts. Agree? Disagree?











































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Five for 5 | Five Quality Pairs of Bass Fishing Sunglasses

Posted by Walker Smith on Wed, Nov 07, 2012 @ 08:00 AM
  
  
  
  
  
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Bass Fishing Sunglasses

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How to Sun Bake Your Crankbaits for Improved Color

Posted by Jason Sealock on Tue, Nov 06, 2012 @ 07:00 AM
  
  
  
  
  
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Sun paint crankbaits
The Square Bill below started out the same color as the Square Bill on top!


By Jason Sealock

I fish a lot with a lot of anglers. I've seen a plethora of custom-painted crankbaits hidden in dark tackle boxes and trays or secret compartments in competitive fishing boats. We're all looking for a little edge on the fish and more importantly the other anglers pursuing the same fish.

I myself have a bunch of custom painted crankbaits, topwaters, and jerkbaits. Partly because I want a unique bait. The other part is because I have a well-documented tackle addiction, to the point of being considered for the show "Hoarders." I love to see my favorite baits with a shiny new coat.

I recently hopped in the truck with a fishing buddy, Chad Branham who fishes for Murray State and is an avid bass angler and tackle junky like me. A crankbait in his cup holder caught my eye. I could see it was a Strike King KVD Square Bill. But it had a paint job I didn't recognize. I studied it for a time. I finally had to ask," Who painted this?"

"I did," Branham said. "Well sort of."

In fact the bait was painted. Originally it was painted in the Strike King factory, the classic chartreuse and black color. But after a couple months of careful planning, he ended up with a lightly muted chartreuse shad colored crankbait. I've seen a lot of crankbaits and for some reason this one really called out to me.  It was white on the side, chartreuse on the bottom, a lighter grayish black on the top with the red throat.

So what did he do to get this paint job in a couple months? He threw the crankbait up on the dash of his truck and let it sit. About once a week he would flip it and several other chartreuse crankbaits over, so he would achieve a fairly balanced change to his bait.

I've seen guys throw plastics together to make some better looking plastics. I've even heard of guys mixing plastics with crankbaits, although you can warp or induce some unsightly mold marks on a crankbait. But the sun trick has been used by a lot of guys to make their crankbaits a little more fish friendly.

"I learned it fishing on the BFL trail," Branham said. "One of the guys I roomed with showed me some of the baits he 'sunned' and I was pretty blow away by a couple of them and how good they looked. So I started taking baits and putting them on my dash. My truck is perfect because my Ford actually has a tray on the dash. The baits sit right in it and don't move around too much. "

Not all crankbaits "bleed" their color in the sun we've found either. So you'll just have to experiment. But what you'll end up with is a crankbait that's more unique than when you first got it. And sometimes that can make a difference, especially on pressured fish or under different water clarities and conditions. Maybe a chartreuse crankbait appears too vividly in your fishery but a muted white and light chartreuse bait would look perfect to the bass. It's all about the flash and flicker effect when talking about crankbaits, so we think it's worth the time to bake a few baits.

Right now we've got six chartreuse crankbaits baking every day in a shallow box on the porch. Here are a few suggestions we found on sun baking your crankbaits:

1. Cut a small box about 1 inch deep to put the crankbaits in so they won't be shaded at any angle.
2. Find the place at your house that gets maximum sunlight.
3. Remove the hooks from your crankbaits.
4. After several days, rotate the crankbaits to the other side to keep the fading consistent.
5. Be patient. It's not going to happen in a week. It's going to take several weeks to make an impact but you should end up with a pretty unique crankbait.
6. You can take the box with you and let it bake in the truck, on a boat deck, etc.
These two crankbaits were bought at the same time. The bottom one was left in the sun for 2 months, while the other was kept in a tackle box in a boat compartment. This is just one example of how the sun can help your crankbaits become real fish catchers.

Editors Note: Be sure to follow manufacturer warnings on too much heat around plastic baits. Several baits don't deal well with heat. I like to put my crankbaits out in an open box on the porch rather than in a truck that is like a pressure cooker. You just want to sun bleach them, not cook them so to speak. We've not had a bait yet have problems but others have reported baits that have expanded and cracked due to heat.





































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Fall Fishing is More than Just the Shad

Posted by Jason Sealock on Mon, Nov 05, 2012 @ 07:00 AM
  
  
  
  
  
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fall bass dont just eat shad


By Jason Sealock

I tend to believe bass, while not nearly as complex in feeding habits as us, probably go through a period where they are thinking, "enough with the shad already." How about a nice crawfish etouffee or a bluegill sandwich? Seems a snack of difference often satisfies us more than a snack of substance. Makes me wonder if that's what drives a bass to hit something other than a minnow type forage with an overabundance of said forage especially when fall fishing.

But one thing for sure, they will eat something that doesn't look like a minnow, shad or other baitfish right now. Some will chalk it up to full moon and crawfish activity or maybe an abundance of alternate food sources or alternate predators that may drive bass out of areas that have baitfish.

The why and where

We recently spent some time fishing with a lot of different pros on several different fisheries and picking their brain about fall patterns and winter patterns and finding bait to find bass. This is a time of year when bass feed heavily as they fatten up for a long winter and slower metabolism that not only causes them to eat less, but shuts down the frequency in which they eat. So right now they are eating everything in sight.

That's a key thought in using other non-baitfish type lures. Bass are eating whatever is put in front of them. So you can target them in feeding zones and put something in front of them they are not seeing over and over again.

Jonathan Newton has been fishing the TVA Lakes in Alabama since he was old enough to hold a rod. He's logged thousands of hours on Pickwick, Wilson, Wheeler and Guntersville. He's won a major event on Kentucky Lake so he's intimately familiar with the baitfish migrations on the lakes and the feeding habits of the bass around them.

But I find it interesting on a recent day fishing with Newton on Pickwick Lake, that he reached down on his deck and picked up … a shaky head. Before I lose you, stick with me for a minute and humor Newton and his theories on why it gets under fished this time of year and why it's such a producer for him when most other anglers are throwing flashy, shad and minnow imitating lures.

"How many baitfish do you think the bass have seen this year?" Newton said. "How many lures have they seen this year?"

Two very good questions and one anglers should contemplate when fishing in the fall. The forage has been spawning all spring and summer and now there is an abundance of baitfish that you don't have earlier in the year when colder temperatures make it harder for them to survive. Then from March to hunting season, the bass have been bombarded with everything under the sun, not to mention the meteoric rise of the castable umbrella rigs pushed through the winter interrupting the normal vacation the bass get from fishing pressure.

"The one thing I've always believed about a shaky head, is the bass just don't seem to get accustomed to it," Newton said. "It's diminutive, looks  natural, looks like a safe snack for a bass. He's look up at all these shad from his laydown, then a natural looking worm drops in his lap. He doesn't have to chase it or run it down. He just sucks it in and starts looking for his next treat."

Truer words have never been spoken. Bass are opportunists. Sure they'll go crazy chasing shad around, but they won't say no when an easy meal drops in their lap.

Newton likes the natural presentations of a shaky head and a jig this time of year to give the bass something different but also something that looks very natural so that it solves both the over abundance of bait dilemma and the fishing pressure dilemma. And his approach is fairly straight forward.

"I'm targeting those feeding zones that have identifiable targets like shallow wood or maybe current seams in the tailwaters," Newton said. "Places where the bass still ambush prey that I can easily target and show them something natural."
Top to Bottom: Right: Zoom Trick Worm, Zoom Mag Finesse Worm, Zipper Hand Pour, Zipper Hand Pour, Big Bite Baits Coontail | Right: Do-it Molds Football Shaky, Gamakatsu Skip Gap Shaky, Do-it Ball Head Shaky, Cumberland Pro Shaky, Gamakatsu Alien Head Shaky


Newton fishes his shaky head  on braid on a spinning rod with a fluorocarbon leader he ties with a double-uni knot. And the combo gives him good strength and leverage over some of the bigger bass he has caught fishing wood in the fall. The bass are there and it seems like sometimes he'll fish a jig on the shallow wood without many bites then pick up a shaky head and catch bass on his first cast, and often big ones. It's like they've been pressured and conditioned and the shaky head is just something they don't condition to easily.

He fishes an 1/8-ounce Giggy Head with a Zoom Trick Worm in green pumpkin. If the water has a little color, hell add a touch of chartreuse to the tail. He fishes the worm slowly, shaking it often to entice bites around cover.

On a recent cold morning we fished the edges of current in the tailraces of Pickwick dam, we threw crankbaits, topwaters, spinnerbaits, jerkbaits and more at the bass, and didn't catch many fish that morning. But when the action slowed, you could pick up a shaky head and catch several more bass. It was actually somewhat surprising given the vast amounts of baitfish everywhere.

But you could drop a shaky head and the Zoom Trick worm into a slack spot out of the current and shake it around and one would snatch it up off the bottom.

Jig for natural bass

The jig has also been a great bait this fall and many falls. We caught a lot of bass off docks this fall and isolated brush, wood and rip rap areas with a jig. Again the bass are plying around in these areas looking for easy meals and a jig ticking along the rocks or wood makes for a quick and inviting snack for a bass weary of shad and shad imitating lures.

Newton likes a homemade 3/8-ounce jig with a Zoom Super Chunk trailer. He doesn't get overly fancy sticking with staple colors like brown, green pumpkin and black and blue.

We like casting jigs as well as flipping jigs around cover and rock. Green pumpkin with subtle accents like a few strands of blue, chartreuse, orange or even purple are hard to beat. A Zoom Super Chunk is also our go to trailer when the water cools. It seems like the cooler the water, the more a chunk type trailer works well rather than a swimming clawed trailer. It's a lot more dragging and crawling in the late fall than swimming like summer and early fall.

Newton fishes his jigs on 15-pound fluorocarbon sometimes going down to 12-pound in clear water where there isn't as much cover. He uses a medium heavy rod a high-speed baitcasting reel.

Whether he's targeting bluffs, shallow wood, current breaks or other likely feeding zones in the fall and early winter, Newton always has a jig and a shaky head on the deck to tempt the bass with something else. He catches a lot of bass on those other baits, but on tough days when the bass are heavily pressured, these natural presentations yield a lot of positive results.






















































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Close The Deal On Fishing Sponsorships

Posted by Jason Sealock on Fri, Nov 02, 2012 @ 07:55 AM
  
  
  
  
  
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handshake agreement

By Ronell Smith, The Tackle Insider

The news, what little of it there is, doesn’t appear to be good. You’ve talked to the vice president of marketing two times in person, visited several times via phone with the company’s marketing director/pro staff manager, coming away from each interaction with the sense that getting a pro staff contract was a mere formality.

They seemed happy with your knowledge of the product line, your passion for the brand, your willingness to do the little things like work shows, conduct local in-store demos and be a willing ambassador for the company. The deal was sealed, or so you thought.

Now, weeks after the last meeting, you have yet to hear anything, and to make matters worse, the web is lit up with news of other anglers who’ve recently signed sponsorship deals. You are left wondering “What went wrong? What could I have done different?”

Take a deep breath. It’s not entirely you. Assuming your intuition is correct, and you did all you knew to do, answering all of their questions, going above and beyond to allay any fears they had and making them feel confident you are the right person for the job, there is likely only one thing left for you to do: Make them aware that you are the only person for the job.

A remnant of the jobless economic “recovery” is the notion, held by many hiring managers, that there is an endless pool of qualified candidates chomping at the bit to get hired, so those charged with hiring are content to sit on their hands lest the person being interviewed convinces them that they are the perfect hire. So, today, it’s not enough to be the best candidate. You must become the only candidate for the job.

Chances are, during the interview process, you detailed how you’ve performed similar tasks for other sponsors; how each benefitted from the unique skills you bring; the job you’d like to perform for the company; and what your overall goals are. That’s a good start.

Now, for the finisher, you need to convince the person doing the hiring that you not only have done a similar job, but that you have done this job. Realizing that every hiring manager thinks his opening requires a special person with a one-of-a-kind skill set, you must make the case that you’ll walk in the door ready to do this job to his liking. (For more on the topic, read this Wall Street Journal piece.) Anything short of that, and he’ll sit on the fence until the right person applies the technique I outline below.

Use these tips to get him off the fence:

1.    Request another chat. Even if you were told “You’ll hear from me soon regarding a decision, one way or another,” make every effort to get one last phone call or visit. To seem less pushy, sell it as an occasion to share with him some details that totally slipped your mind during the last visit. If that doesn’t sit well with you, come right out with “I sense you are on the fence about bringing me aboard. I’ve done some homework and I’d like to share what I think is a plan to take your company to the next level.” How can anyone say no to that?

2.    Make a compelling case. In previous interviews, you made the mistake of talking about what you had done in the past. You likely talked too long and too fast and said very little that the vice president really needed to hear. This time, you’ll have a three-minute “elevator pitch” prepared, wherein you’ll outline, with in-depth detail, everything you’ll do, how you’ll do it and what the results will be. (You’ll need to have some inside information to make this work, but make whatever calls you need to make.) The goal here is to put you in the job right before his eyes, allowing him to see you in the role.

3.    Get an answer. If you nailed No.2, the answer shouldn’t be long in coming. Either you convinced him or you didn’t, but whatever the case, you need an answer and you need it now. With that in mind, go all in: “You’ve heard everything I have to say. You’ve “seen” me perform the job. Is there anything that would prevent you from signing me today?” If you leave without an answer, you effectively have your answer.

I have used this exact technique several times in the past. It works. The answer you get might not be the one you expect. But it will get you an answer.

Ronell Smith, the Tackle Insider, has an extensive history in the fishing tackle industry and has relationships on all sides of the industry to be able to speak to all facets of manufacturing, buying, selling, promoting and growing fishing brands and products. To learn more, visit ronellsmith.com or follow him on Facebook and Twitter.



























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How to Fish a Wake Bait Like a Pro

Posted by Jason Sealock on Thu, Nov 01, 2012 @ 08:31 AM
  
  
  
  
  
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wake bait fishing with Kevin Vandam

An underutilized fishing technique for catching big bass in clear water or shallow cover

By Jason Sealock

Bass fishing changes us as much as it makes us complacent. We go from one hot technique or lure to the next but in doing so we can also find we neglect a lot of tackle when we have success with other. Maybe we had a hot bite last fall on a lipless crankbait in the backs of some creeks, so we fire out onto the lake armed with our favorite vibrating rattler only to find out this isn't last fall.

To that end we try to gain fresh perspectives from proven anglers for no other reason than to give us all some crafty ideas to fool bass, who, let's face it, have seen their fair share of fishing lures all spring, summer and fall. They are a bit smarter and maybe a little more weary. It can be the time of year when being aggressive or subtle can change the outcome of a fishing day. But for the most part it's a time to get out of the rut of your same old fall routines.

One technique that we see a lot of pros implement in the fall but we don't see as many recreational anglers try involves v-waking a topwater minnow, swimbait or crankbait along the surface of the water. Anglers have fished wake baits for years. The Mann's Baby 1-Minus has been a dominate wake bait for decades as has the Bomber Long A. But nowadays there are some new twists on the wake bait technique that give anglers a lot more options on profile, cadence and presentation.


The allure of the "V"

Behind the success of wake bait fishing, especially in the fall is the V-shaped wake that a plug creates when reeled along the surface. The buoyancy of a bait really determines how fast you can move the bait and still create the signature V that is critical to having success in wake bait fishing.

Different anglers may debate the many nuances of the trademark V made by a wake bait along the surface, but for us it's a simple fact that many times, a baitfish in distress is as high in the water as he can be swimming as fast as he can, creating a turbulence behind him, much like a tugboat pushing a barge down the lake. The turbulence and the V of the pursued bait triggers bass. It's an impulse thing.

A bass feeding on bait often looks up especially in the fall of the year. That one bait fleeing off by itself leaving that V wake behind it gives the bass something to hone in on from great distances. This makes this a staple technique in clear water because the bass gets a good bead on the bait from a great distance, and the truth is the bass rarely misses the wake bait when he rolls on it. The V is a homing beacon for the bass if you will—an illuminated sign that says "Free Shad Pie This Way!" While shad pie doesn't translate to you and I like chocolate cake does, it apparently brings the bass a swimming.

Left Column: Mann's Baby 1 Minus, Xcalibur Wake Bait, IMA Roumba, Spro BBZ-1 Shad Floater, Lucky Craft Real California Right Column: Buckeye Wake Up, Cordell Red Fin, Cordell Jointed Red Fin, Koppers Live Target Jointed Bluegill Wake Bait, Strike King Wake Shad





















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