Posted by Shaye Baker on Mon, Aug 29, 2011 @ 06:00 AM
Dissecting a dock for both spotted and largemouth bass with Gerald Swindle
By Shaye Baker
Alabama native Gerald Swindle has proven himself as one of the most animated and talented pro bass fishing superstars to ever tour the Bassmaster Elite Series. Growing up along the heavily docked Coosa River he became a revered dock fishing angler. Though he is no one trick pony, one thing is for certain: if there is a dock bite on competition water, look out.
Docks are a great, year-round fish attractant that many anglers don’t take advantage of.
“A lot of people get caught up in thinking that docks are a seasonal pattern,” Swindle said. “Dock fishing is not as much seasonal as it is daily, controlled by the weather.”
Bass are always around or under docks. If the sun is shining bright it will have the fish pushed under the dock and make them easier to catch, but they “house” under docks year round.
Perhaps the most puzzling piece to putting together a dock pattern is knowing which docks to fish. For Swindle, it’s a process of elimination.
In practice, he’ll get on a line of docks and fish down through them until he gets bites fishing every variation – main lake docks, docks in pockets, docks in creeks, fixed docks, floating docks and docks with boats tied up.
“Most of the time in practice, all I’ll establish is what type docks they’re using,” he said. “Once I establish that, I’ll ride and look for the same type docks and mark them on my GPS. It’s weird, but a lot of stuff I fish in a tournament, I have never made a cast on before.”
So the question turns from which docks to fish to should you fish the same docks more than once.
“Not in the same day,” Swindle said. “If it’s a two or three day event I will return and make that same pass.”
Most dock fish are resident fish and, although the same dock will attract another bass, it usually doesn’t happen within a couple hours. A lot of docks have the potential to hold bass over and over and over. As soon as you remove that one it won’t be long and another one will fill its spot.
The trick is knowing what to look for without being able to see it. The anatomy of a dock can include anything from drop offs to rock piles and brush to bare shady bottom. What to look for depends on what you’re trying to catch.
“If we have a lake that is mixed between spots and largemouths, you can pattern the type of bass you are trying to catch and not just the docks.”
The docks that primarily hold more spots are the ones that have 10 to 12 feet of water with some sort of structure beneath them. Structure is a point or break beneath the dock.
“I don’t like a lot of brush,” said Swindle. “A lot of times I’m just looking for fish that are in the shadow of the dock because they are so much easier to catch.”
Although bass live on the docks with brush, in a tournament situation, it’s easier for him to fish docks with just shade. He can figure out within one or two casts where the fish are and then repeat that cast on the next dock. This way, if they’re there, he can get them to bite and bite fast as opposed to fishing on both sides of brush, through the brush, and then risking losing the fish in brush if it bites.
When approaching a dock with spotted bass lurking below Swindle makes repetitive casts.
“If I feel like I’m making a good cast and I’m able to fish the majority of the dock by skipping under it and fishing the bait back out I’ll repeat that cast.”
Swindle will “fish the bait more” for spots. He keeps the bait in contact with the bottom hunting the break or ledge, works the bait slower, and fishes the bait all the way to the end of the dock.
A largemouth is generally more aggressive, and if you make the right cast you are usually going to catch him. Largemouths on docks are more of a target deal. He’ll come in from the side and work around the dock making three or four different casts and then move on. The flatter bottom contours are preferred when targeting largemouth bass, with ideally 4 to 5 feet of water beneath them.
Both species are prone to exhibit more aggression in current. Though there aren’t a lot of lakes that generate noticeable current on tour.
“If there is any current on that particular body of water you can almost bet the docks with current on them will be better than the others,” Swindle said.
Read More
Posted by Jason Sealock on Fri, Aug 26, 2011 @ 08:43 AM
Everyone who bass fishes loves to catch fish. So for us this year, it's been about finding the biggest schools of bass we can with our electronics (more about that in future articles). However, a good portion of the schools of bass have been in water deeper than 20 feet. The question then comes, how do you bass fish the water carefully and seine the bass from a location effectively when they are that deep.
There are a variety of applications that work but we found that one has worked better than most and surprisingly it has produced some fish weighing more than 6 pounds as well. Drop shotting with light line and wispy rods may not seem like a way to power through an area, but it works surprisingly well as a way to cover a small area when you know bass are present.
The drop shot has been a go to application ever since it hit the scene out west decades ago. Borrowed from our friends in the orient, the drop shot technique became a staple in Japan as a way to coax highly pressured bass in crystal clear water fisheries. The technique continues to be refined more than 20 years later.
For most folks the drop shot has become something "they have to do" to get a bite on a clear water fishery, but we're finding it's equally effective in darker waters. Many riverine fisheries have sediment that is stirred by rain and current and it can give the fisheries a "color" to them most months of the year. The water isn't muddy but the visibility isn't much beyond a couple feet either.
Yet on various fisheries around the country, we've had 50 to 100 bass days on drop shots by fishing them just as we would other lures even though the water wasn't crystal clear. The key is putting the bait in the right place, choosing a worm that works for that water clarity, and patience for the bite.
The biggest key to catching them on a drop shot is finding the fish. It can be a good search tool, but honestly your electronics do a better job at that. Once you locate a good structure or some form of cover or a school of bass that shows up on your electronics relating to either/or, then start by making a cast to the area and feeding your line until it's on the bottom.
Choosing a weight for the depth is critical. A 1/4 ounce weight works well even in depths 20 feet and deeper on calmer days. However as the wind or current picks up, it may be necessary to go a little heavier with your weights. Generally speaking you want the weight on the bottom the entire time. There are many times where a drop shot excels at catching suspended fish, but for this piece, let's stick with bottom loving bass.
Once your drop shot is on the bottom. Start by weighing your drop shot. What this means is pull ever so slowly until you feel the weight of the drop shot dragging. Then stop and let a semi slack bow to form in your line. As you do this the worm is seductively falling back to the bottom. Now pick it up again until you just feel the tension of the weight.
With practice, you'll be able to raise and lower your worm and make it dance slowly and seductively in place without ever moving the weight. Once you have a good feel for the drop shot, slowly drag the weight along the bottom until you feel something a little more substantial. Maybe it's a bigger rock, a stump, a piece of brush or some other obstruction that would give a bass an ambush point.
Then begin the dancing of the worm in one spot trying not to move the weight. What you've done is taken a big area and focused on fishing an ambush point in the area. Your dance should be slow and light. No need to violently shake your rod tip. That might work on occasion but I've caught more fish on a drop shot just holding the worm still and letting the waves and currents move it than I have actually shaking my rod a bunch.
For some reason the more you can make the worm just sort of hover and undulate the more strikes you get. The thing folks have to remember is the bass aren't just sitting in one spot all day. They ease around slowly and it might take them a few seconds of studying the worm. The more you can just let it sit there, the more that bass is getting curious. Then when you make a move he reacts out of impulse and grabs it.
This is where the patience comes in with drop shotting. You move it slolwly, find a rock or stump or something and then just try to coax a bass into taking the worm. Always think a bass is watching your worm and you're trying to make him react to it just taunting him.
The bite most of the time on a drop shot will feel like one of three things. You'll either feel a light peck or series of pecks. Don't set the hook there. Or you'll feel like someone cut the weight off your line and the whole drop shot just gets a lot lighter. That's a fish swimming up with it. Don't set the hook. Or you'll feel pressure. This is where you set the hook.
If you feel the first two. Slowly reel the slack out of your line to get a tight connection. If you feel just a little more weight than what you've been measuring with your drop shot, then sweep your rod upward in a smooth controlled sweep as you continue to reel faster. This works most often because we almost always nose hook our worms for this application.
Nose hooking is simply taking a worm and a drop shot hook and starting about 1/4-inch down on the worm and running the hook point in and forward to the nose of the worm. With a drop shot hook tied correctly, which is now a lot easier thanks to hooks like the VMC Spin Shot, the hook lays out to the side and the worm lays perfectly horizontal in the water. So in essence the tip of the hook is covered in plastic keeping it from snagging. As you catch a few fish, you'll want to make sure the nose of your worm is still covering the hook tightly. We often bite the ends of our worms off and keep moving it down to keep a good solid cover on our hook point. But with this rig a reel set is all you need to hook a fish well.
For the worms, we've experimented with a bunch and have found for darker water, color matters more it seems on certain days than the size or shape of your worm. We've caught them on 10 inch worms and we've caught them on 4-inch worms. But day in and day out we reach for Zoom Trick Worms, Zoom Finesse Worms, Roboworm 6-inch worms, and we've had good luck with the new drop shot worms from Trigger X and Z-Man.
The most important thing to remember is to not just go with the colors other folks tell you are good. We often will go from a light pink worm to a dark grape worm and keep changing until we find one that seems to work better in that deeper water. Some days when it's sunny it seems like a lighter translucent color works good while on those darker overcast days a more solid color seems to work better.
If the area you fish is fairly free of dense cover you can get away with 6-pound line, a good spinning reel with smooth drag and a rod with a light tip but good strong backbone to pull a hook into a fish and be able to control a big fish on the fight. The key is to not get in a big hurry when fighting them. Just ease into them and then keep tension and let them run. I'm a fan of back reeling on a big fish which is why we always use spinning rods and reels with light line.
There is a lot more to drop shotting than most people give it credit for. It's been our No. 1 producer on the deep schools this summer and we've kept it under wraps until now because we've had so much fun catching 100 bass a day on this rig on Kentucky Lake. A bass weighing 6.6 pounds was the biggest we've taken on the technique in the last month.
It's definitely a technique you need to add to your arsenal especially when the fish move deeper than 15 feet.
We'll have a feature on fishing the drop shot for suspended fish in a couple of weeks as that's likely to play a big role next year in the tournament scene. And we're also compiling video footage for an on the water demonstration of the techniques effectiveness as a follow up. But for now, give the drop shot a try for your deeper fish and let us know how you do.
Here's a quick look at our tackle we've been using for our own drop-shot fishing.
Abu Garcia Revo Spinning Reel
Shimano Stradic Ci4 Spinning Reel
St. Croix Legend Extreme Spinning Rod
Abu Garcia Veritas Spinning Rod
St. Croix Mojo Bass Spinning Rod
6-pound Trilene 100-Percent Fluorocarbon
8-pound Seaguar Invis-X fluorocarbon
No. 2 and No. 1 VMC Spin Shot hooks
Eco Pro 1/4-ounce Pro Drop Shot Weights
Zoom Trick Worms
Zoom Finesse Worms
Roboworm 6-inch Straight tail worms
Trigger X Probe Worm
Berkley Havoc Bottom Hopper
Read More
Posted by Jason Sealock on Thu, Aug 25, 2011 @ 02:01 PM
Editor's Note: This new department will focus on how to fish for bass in various types of cover.
Last night we pulled into a calm pocket to shoot a few photos of some bass we fished out deep for an upcoming article on drop shotting. Wind and waves make it hard to shoot good photography when bass fishing. However, while shooting photos in this shallow calm pocket we noticed that there was a ton of baitfish in and around a common piece of cover on the lake that bass love -- stake beds.
About the Cover
Crappie guides and avid crappie angler place stake beds or cribs as some folks call them in shallow water so the crappie will have something to relate to when they come shallow to spawn and make them a little easier to target. In the spring and fall, these man-made pieces of cover can be dynamite holding spots for shallow feeding bass.
Typically the stake beds consist of a pallet with several planks of wood or pvc pipes standing vertically off the pallet. When placed in the water it makes a vertical piece of cover that attracts various types of forage and in turn larger gamefish.
The square cut wood often found on these structures will collect with moss and a soften as they get water logged. That can make them extremely snagging to artificial bass lures.
What to Throw
Single hook lures like jigs, spinnerbaits, chatterbaits and even buzzbaits can be good along with texas-rigged plastics.
What Not to Throw
Treble hook reaction baits like jerkbaits, topwaters and crankbaits.
How to Fish It
Depending on the water clarity, you can fish it like a piece of flipping and pitching cover or you can fish it like standing timber or pencil reeds with reaction baits. If the water is muddy and shallow and it's in the fall, the bass often use these stake beds as feeding zones ambushing prey. This is when a spinnerbait or chatterbait pitched in and around the beds can be very deadly. The key is fishing the lanes.
On this afternoon, as I approached the first stake bed, I noticed baitfish skittering and dodging swirls in the water, a tell tale sign of bass being present. I picked up a white and chartreuse Z-Man Chatterbait and flung it to one side of the stake bed. No takers. Then I bombed a cast down the other side. Still no takers. So I moved in closer and began making a series of pitches through "lanes" in the standing wood.
As you circle around the stake bed, lanes will open up where you can see a clear path through the stake bed with one pitch. Just reel it through the whole bed. First pitch I made through the stake bed, the Chatterbait disappeared. Second cast another bass. Rounded to the backside of it and found another lane and landed another bass. After two stops on the same stake bed, I landed six bass on a Chatterbait and one pitching a Berkley Havoc Pit Boss.
On the flipping and pitching side, two approaches work well. One is to pitch to the outside edges and then work your way to the middle. The other approach is to make your first pitch to the most likely spot which is generally the densest part of the stake bed. The key is to think about your exit strategy. Whenever you pitch the bait, make sure you have a way to get it back when a fish bites. Often you can slowly and quietly move to the other side of the stake bed and hit it from another angle.
Stake beds are like stumps but can support many more bass than a single stump. The bass won't always be in this type of cover, but usually when you find some bass in stake beds you can fish bass in that pattern all over a lake and do well. We've taken tournament winning big bass from this cover so it's worth your fishing time.
Read More
Posted by Shaye Baker on Tue, Aug 23, 2011 @ 08:07 AM
Hunting, stalking and catching wolf-pack bass in the summer
By Shaye Baker
How would you like to load the boat with 3- to 6-pound largemouth the next time your bass fishing, in less than 2 feet of water, all crushing a prop bait on the surface? Yeah, you, me and every other fisherman that has ever fished for bass. Unfortunately, cliché as it is, saying it is a lot easier than doing it.
By far the predominate pattern of the 2011 Forrest Wood Cup on Lake Ouachita was a throwback from last season’s FLW Tour event on the same reservoir. Chasing down “wolf packs” of bass with topwaters was the obvious focus of nearly every angler in the field, and EverStart pro Randall Tharp did it better than 57 of his colleagues.
Tharp locked down the runner-up spot by taking advantage of the bountiful bass that roam the crystal clear shoreline of Lake Ouachita. Though Scott Martin won the Cup fishing deep, there were a few key elements to Tharp’s pattern that made him the best of the rest in the shallows – location, approach and presentation.
“No place have I ever fished where I figured roaming fish out so well,” Tharp said.
Finding the Den
The first part of catching anything is knowing where to look. For Tharp last week, location meant four things: bream beds, shad, timber and funnels or saddles.
“I would look for areas of the lake that were nothing but tapering bank for 2 or 3 miles,” Tharp said when asked what made his three or four locations special. “Then there would be a saddle or funnel.”
This saddle is a place where the main lake funnels between an island and the mainland. The saddle is the shallow spot between the two points. Tharp could barely get his boat through these saddles, at times having to use his push pole.
“I was sitting in one of these saddles one day, and the water beneath me turned black with bass,” he said.
In awe, Tharp watched as 20 to 25 bass 3 to 5 pounds rushed over the saddle and into the depression behind it.
“I never caught a fish out of that school, but that showed me how many are out there.”
He explained that though bream beds were present along the main shoreline, the bass wouldn’t stop on them. Instead they would make their way to these openings and then use them to corral the bait. The fish would follow shad over the saddles and into these areas where they then disperse on the bream beds. The bream beds that set up the best were the ones right inside the saddles.
Here the pack hunts as a unit, eerily reminiscent of a group of wolves circling their prey and then collapsing from all sides. Tharp commented on this moment of attack.
“I saw them knock bluegill all the way on the bank several times,” he said. “If you could get the bait in there while they were doing that, they would eat it. If you missed it by 10 seconds, man, they were done.”
Even though the bream beds were his main focus, shad were an integral element in the composition of his honey holes. Not only did the shad bring the wolf packs in but they also drew them up on occasion, each day resulting in one weigh-in fish.
“I never went into an area targeting schoolers,” Tharp said. “I would go in to fish the bream beds but if the fish came up and started schooling I would try to take advantage of that.”
The locations frequented by Tharp also had standing timber. Unfortunately that only cuts the 40,000 acres that make up Lake Ouachita in half, leaving a lot of similar water. The timber is important because that’s where they live when they’re not feeding. But he never caught a fish targeting it.. In fact he would intentionally split the trees with his bait as evenly as possible to give him the best chance of landing a fish regardless of the direction from which the strike came.
The wolf packs are roamers, and that’s all there is in the lake according to Tharp. He didn’t slow down to target stumps or laydowns along the banks. When bass are feeding, they relate to bait and nothing else. If a bite came in the timber, it wasn’t because the bass was using it as an ambush point, rather that’s where the shad were at the time, so too was the bass.
Stalking the Pack
Tharp’s approach on how to target roamers is another aspect he doesn’t take lightly. The water is so clear in many of these areas, the bass are basically looking through air. Like a stealthy sniper, he hunts. He wore a blue shirt on days 1 and 2 to blend in with the sky. If he saw a fish he would crouch down low in the boat.
Like a refined art, Tharp makes himself as invisible as possible when hunting these packs. He doesn’t bump around in the boat. He uses his Power-poles to position the boat to where he can make repeated casts at the same beds. When the water was more than 8 feet deep, he would perch one foot on a stump and work a bream bed over to keep front bumping the trolling motor.
As meticulous as he may be though, some fish just won’t eat. The catch is knowing which ones are worth the time.
“I saw two 6-pounders on the final day, the biggest fish I saw the whole time, but they wouldn’t bite,” Tharp said.
The clear water unfortunately reveals what many anglers would rather not see – suspended, non-active bass.
“If they were 3 to 5 feet down in the water column then I couldn’t call them up,” he said. “But if they were in 2 feet or less, they’d eat.”
Although the term Wolf-Pack howls aggression, it can be a little misleading. The bass that make up these bait busting gangs are extremely docile, skittish and picky when they aren’t actively feeding. In the words of Tharp, “when they’re eating, they’re stupid. But when they’re not, they are pretty darn smart.”
Making the Kill
The Brian’s Prop Bee III was the golden ticket that carried Tharp through to the end.
“I did try a lot of different things in practice, but that topwater would get the better fish. The noise of that prop bait just triggers them to bite it.”
Tharp admitted that he threw a lot of other stuff in practice and even tried a wacky worm but just didn’t get enough bites to justify slowing down. Instead he would make long casts and try to come by a fish before either party caught a glimpse of the other.
Braid is key when stalking wolf packs with topwaters. Of the nine other pros in the top 10, he believes he was the only one to throw his topwater exclusively on braid, with the exception of a monofilament leader. Thirty-pound test Power Pro and a Gama 17-pound co-polymer monofilament green leader is his choice for the wolf packs.
“I was able to throw the bait farther and work the bait better on the end of a long cast,” he said. “I caught a 5-pounder on the final day and was able to horse him in through 20 stumps on either side.”
There is the school of thought that bass will tear off topwaters thrown on braid more often than monofilament.
“The braid may have cost me a fish or two but I definitely think it helped me catch a lot more,” he said.
Tharp would go through a couple of the Bees until he found one with the perfect pitch. “It’s like a buzzbait after you throw it a while,” Tharp explained. “It starts to get a high pitched squeak, and if you take it off and tie on another, then you notice that it doesn’t sound the same.”
Once he finds the bait that would talk the talk, he makes it walk the walk.
“I saw a lot of fish before I would catch them, and I’d get down,” Tharp said. “I would lay the cast 5 or 10 feet ahead of the bass so I could lead them in.”
He’d then wait until the bass looked at the bait. Then pop it. Timing was everything. If you pop it too close or too far away, the bass will just turn away. You can read the fish and tell if they are interested. If the first pop doesn’t get them, then the second usually will.
All that said, fishing for wolf-pack bass can be hit or miss. Anybody can catch them when they’re erupting on a bed of bream. But if you want to go out and tame the wolves like Tharp did on Ouachita, then these tips should help. If possible fish areas with bream beds, shad, standing timber and saddles. Pay close attention to your approach, making yourself seen and heard as little as possible. Pair that with a perfect presentation, and you’ll catch more of the big bank-running bass.
Read More
Posted by Jason Sealock on Thu, Aug 18, 2011 @ 02:48 PM
We were out on the lake yesterday evening fishing for bass with topwaters before dark. The bass fishing was good but while we were out and about, we heard a loud BOOM in the background. We turned to see a big house boat beached on a bank shooting what appeared to be a cannon up into the air. The concussion was as loud as we've ever heard although it didn't bother the bass or our fishing.
Our first thought, however, was this can't be legal because the concussion was jarring even across a very large bay.
About 10 minutes later I see an animal swimming towards the boat from that side of the bay. At first I thought it might have been a beaver or a muskrat or something that got spooked by the cannon. As it got a little closer I could see that defining "S" pattern of a snake swimming. But I still couldn't believe it because it was so large.
As it got about 60 yards out I told my partner to get up as he was down tying baits on in the bottom of the boat. I knew we needed to move because the snake was coming right to the boat as he probably viewed it as a place to get out of the water after his long swim. As he got closer we idled around him and got the video camera.
My first thought was it was a big rattle snake because of the distinct diamond pattern. Then I thought he might just be a diamond watersnake which are common in Kentucky. As we idled around closer to him he stopped and coiled up and then we saw it. He popped his rattle up like a periscope behind him.
It was hard to believe how big around the snake was but still how long it was. He really just wanted to get off one noisy bank and on to one that was hopefully less intrusive. That's the largest snake we've seen on the water and unfortunately the most poisonous we've seen too. It sure makes you pucker up a little when it gets dark.
If you don't like snakes, you probably don't want to watch this video. It will certainly remind you to check your surroundings when out bass fishing in those low light hours.
Read More
Posted by Jason Sealock on Sun, Aug 14, 2011 @ 06:18 PM
In front of a capacity crowd in the Hot Springs Convention Center, Scott Martin won his first Forrest Wood Cup bass fishing championship in a shootout finale with his final-day limit of bass weighing 14 pounds, 5 ounces. He pocketed an amazing $600,000 for his off-the-beaten path bass fishing this week. His closest competitor was Randall Tharp who also had a great final day of fishing for bass, although we know he will feel the sting of a lost big bass for some time.
"This feels incredible," Martin said. "I really wanted to win this one for my mother and grandmother as my grandmother is from here and my mom used to guide on the lake years ago. I was 4 ounces away from winning this the year Luke Clausen won, and it sort of flip flopped this year and it just feels great."
Martin was off the beaten path fishing deep brush piles all week. While much of the top 10 was just running pockets and fishing wolf packs of bream bed raiding bass with topwaters, Martin was fishing deep cover in about a 200 yard stretch in the main lake in 22-25 feet of water.
He found his fish in pre-pracice shortly after the Pickwick Lake FLW Tour event. He made up his mind that the fish would probably be deep even though there was a chance the fish could be shallow chasing bream like they were in 2007 when Suggs won.
Martin spent two full days just graphing brush in deep water. As he was leaving one point where he had just graphed some cover he jumped up on pad to run out and his graph lit up with baitfish. He spun the boat around and started graphing and marked a bunch of fish under the baitfish. He immediately caught a few nice fish on a swimbait. He returned the second day to see if it was a fluke and cut the hook off his swimbait and leashed three big fish around before the let go and left the area. It turned out to be the winning area.
A variety of lures accounted for his catch this week. He started drop-shotting a 4 1/2-inch finesse worm in red bug and watermelon candy colors. He fished them on 5/16 dropshot weights and Trokar dropshot hooks. Then he started catching some good fish on Gary Yamamoto and Basstrix swimbaits. Today when the skies got clear and the heat got up he decided to go back to the brush. He moved into his area where he'd been catching them and started throwing 10-inch ribbon tail worms on 3/8-ounce Eagle Claw tungsten weights and Trokar 5/0 hooks. Six out of his first 10 casts he got hung up. As he went up there to get his bait unhung, his graph lit up with brush and fish.
Martin took a frustrating situation and made the most of it. He decided to run through his area and drop marker buoys on all the brush piles in his productive area. He had been fishing fish around baitfish but he decided to pick apart the cover. With five marker buoys on five brush piles he was able to move way off the cover and pick apart each pile with his big worm. He caught five bass doing that but one of his better fish was a funny story.
While the talk of the week was the weather and the shallow topwater bite, Martin didn't catch a single topwater bass until this afternoon when he picked up a River2Sea Rover he dug out of his box this morning just to have in case. One hook was rusted and the other hook was missing a treble. But he hadn't thrown a topwater all week so he didn't intend on even picking one up.
As it turns out he needed to cull one fish late in the day, so he decided to abandon his deep fish for a bit and just throw the topwater some. He went to the first pocket close to his area, fired the topwater about 10 casts and hooks and lands a 3-pounder. He culled the fish and went back to deep fishing.
"That was so funny," Martin said. "I decided like 5 minutes before blast off I might need one since every other boat had one. So I pulled an old bait out of my box and didn't even check its hooks. I made 10 casts and caught and landed a 3 1/2 pounder and then put it back down. That was the extent of my topwater fishing all week."
Randall Tharp was obviously disappointed but he fished an amazing tournament. Arguably doing the best job catching those roaming wolfpacks of bass of anyone in the field, amassing a four-day total of 56 pounds, 7 ounces and taking home $100,000.
"I fished my wolf packs of bass that were roaming the shallows all day today," Tharp said. "My first fish right off the bat was a 5-pounder. Then I had a 4-pounder and a 3-pounder. Then I lost a big bass. I had him hooked for about 10 feet and he came undone. As an angler, you just sort of know when your chances disappear. Every guy out here has lost fish this week, and I had a shot at this thing. I had good momentum going and then I lost that fish and I knew it was gone. You have to catch those bites on the final day to make up ground and it just wasn't my time. I didn't do anything wrong. It's just topwater fishing. You don't get to land them all."
Tharp caught 90 percent of his bass on a Brian's Prop B III all week. That was a key bait 4 years ago on Ouachita and it will certainly be a key bait on this lake for a long time to come. He fished the prop bait on 30-pound braid with a 17-pound mono leader. The key was being able to throw the bait an incredibly long way and staying way back from the fish, but today one key bass was up close and personal.
"I had a 4 pounder about 10 feet from the boat that I saw. I ducked way down in the boat, and laid a cast in there nice and soft. You can usually tell right away if they'll eat it. I twitched it once and he turned away and I thought it was over. I twitched it again and he whirled around and stared it down. Third twitch and he jumped all over it. I was pretty pumped after that and that 5. The 5-pounder sounded like a 5-gallon bucket of concrete got dropped in the water. I fished a really clean tournament this week considering every bite was on a topwater."
Mark Rose finished third with 50 pounds, 15 ounces, winning $60,000 in the process. He started with a flurry this morning boating the day's first limit quickly this morning on a carolina rig and a drop shot with 4 1/2-inch finesse worms. He fished the side of a long point with deep water on it. It was a place he found in practice but he hadn't been able to find a keeper on it all week until this morning and it was every cast for an hour this morning. Shad pulled out there on that point and really ganged the bass up today. He caught a key fish later in the day on a Strike King Buzzbait that was a 3-pounder.
The rest of the top 10 anglers were as follows:
4th place Luke Clausen with 48-10 for four days, $55,000
5th place Andy Morgan with 47-05 for four days, $50,000
6th place Todd Auten with 46-2 for four days, $45,000
7th place Cody Meyer with 44-7 for four days, $40,000
8th place Andy Montgomery with 42-11 for four days, $35,000
9th place David Dudley with 42-7 for four days, $30,000
10th place Jason Christie with 42-3 for four days, $25,000
Read More
Posted by Jason Sealock on Sun, Aug 14, 2011 @ 08:23 AM
We finally got a look at what the pros have been fishing for bass this week on Lake Ouachita to catch the roaming wolf pack and bluegill-bed-robbing bass on the clearwater highland impoundment. Topwaters including poppers, walkers and prop baits and even a few buzzbaits have been the most common theme. But several guys are bass fishing with swimbaits and finesse worms as well.
The Brian's B Prop Bait has been a hot ticket this week as well as the Lucky Craft Lucky "J", and various poppers. Lots of baits with tail feathers (see our recent article on dressing your own rear trebles) on the decks of the boats this morning.
Here are a few more photos of the tackle this week. Check out our Wired2Fish Facebook Fan page to see a bunch more photos from this week's event, including more from this morning.
Read More
Posted by Jason Sealock on Sat, Aug 13, 2011 @ 11:21 AM
Anglers were greeted with spitting rain and overcast dark skies this morning on day three of the Forrest Wood Cup on Lake Ouachita near Hot Springs, Ark. Heavy storms rolled through the area last night and the morning takeoff was cool, calm and dark with more rain expected.
Anglers had a lot of topwaters and finesse gear on the decks. The story of this tournament has been the shallow bass and the "wolf packs" of better quality bass. Ouachita has been known for it's wolf packing bass that like to herd bluegills off their beds. Anglers have been taking advantage of that either by targetting specific areas or by running as much water as possible hoping to intersect with a few.
The key is that the anglers have to stay way away from the fish to catch one before spooking the others. So you generally only get one maybe two shots at the wolf pack before the scatter and disperse. The reason so many fish are getting lost is because a long cast on a topwater and shallow water means the fish are going to go airborne quickly and try to throw the bait. Coupled with the fact a lot of fish have been making half-hearted swipes at the bait and barely getting skin hooked on the outside of the mouth. When you add it all up it makes for some exhilirating and equally frustrating fishing for anglers.
Today is going to be a test of areas versus patterns and making the most of the opportunity to make the top-10 cut. Most of the anglers said today, since the weights are so close, they just want to be in the hunt for the $600,000 title of Forrest Wood Cup Champion tomorrow. You can't really lay off any fish when the weights are so close and guys have been proving that 19 to 20-pound limits are still possible here.
It's going to be an exciting weigh-in and we can't wait to see all this topwater action on television later this summer. We're heading to the Expo now to shoot some video of new boats and products and we'll be back with you around weigh-in time or as we hear any updates from the water.
Be sure to check out our Facebook Fan Page for a bunch of photos and updates from the event.
Read More
Posted by Jason Sealock on Fri, Aug 12, 2011 @ 02:04 PM
Photo courtesy of FLW OutdoorsThe weather was the story for a lot of anglers on day one. And it's probably going to be the story on day two. It turned hot, humid and sunny in a matter of minutes today and that's probably going to cause a lot of changes on the leader board the day of the cut.
Cloudy, rainy, overcast and cooler temps by more than 20 degrees the first day helped the "bank beaters." And it hurt a lot of the deep water fishing. Today could see a reversal of fortunes this afternoon with the hot humid conditions. But from early reports the fishing got a lot tougher today and the rain that was forecasted got pushed back until this evening. Time will tell.
Here are some more of the angler thoughts on what was going on after one day of fishing. We talked to a lot of guys who had good practices and had opportunities to do well but got stung on the first day. We're always anxious to see the adjustments guys make in the second day of a four-day competition. That's what fishing is about, finding the fish and then adapting to the changing conditions quickly.
Andy Morgan - "I had my opportunities today and I won't make excuses but tomorrow I'm going to start from scratch and do some different stuff in different areas and see if I can make the most of it. "
David Dudley - "I'm extremely frustrated. I had my opportunities to have a great day and I didn't execute. I'm still very confident because it's only the first day but it's frustrating."
Dave Lefebre - "I'm around big fish, and I know you heard all the guys talking about losing fish, but it's the weather that messed it up. It's been hot and sunny for a month here ... now the clouds and rain moved in and the fish just couldn't see the bait as well and were missing it. I was 0-9 first thing this morning and that's when the big fish have been biting. In practice I had some fish slam the baits. Today I didn't have any of those slamming bites. They just sucked and swirled on it."
Terry Bolton - "I watched about a 3-pounder kill a bluegill up on the bank and fired my bait up there and he crushed it and then got off. Next thing I know the bass is up on the bank again. I fire up there and lose him again. I tried shallow and deep both and just was in one place when I should have been in the other. I could see fish and not make them bite.
"It was a very frustrating day after what I found in prepractice and the last day of official practice. I'll tell you what I'm only doing one of those things tomorrow. Me and Andy [Morgan] got to talking and we think they've been looking up so long at the sun that they aren't acclimated to the dark skies yet chasing baitfish during the day. We think if the sun would come out it might actually help the bite."
Rob Kilby - "The weather really hurt me today. It just killed the deep bite. What it did though is make it great for those bank beaters. They could get up there and roam around and just go down the banks and catch those fish that moved up shallower."
Read More
Posted by Jason Sealock on Fri, Aug 12, 2011 @ 08:49 AM
The second morning of the 2011 Forrest Wood Cup greeted anglers with cool comfortable conditions and a lot of excitement in the air. The anglers were noticeably anxious to get to their spots this morning and start trying to boat a bunch of the bass that were lost. The decks of the boats were covered in topwaters, jerkbaits, finesse worms, senkos as well as the deep stuff like drop shots, big worms, jigs and more.
The forecast for Friday is calling for afternoon showers, some severe. So anglers should have a cooler than average morning, then sunshine for a while before the storms move into the area. Some guys to watch today will be Scott Martin of course, but also Randall Tharp who is supremely confident he can catch a big limit still.
We also like Ehrler today. He's paired up for the first time with his regular practice partner Brandon Hunter. That can be a stress reliever when someone you know and trust is sharing the boat with you.
Our prediction is they will actually catch the bass a little better today than yesterday because we feel with two days for the bass getting aclimated to the new climate, they will be a little more settled down and take the baits better. It's anyone's guess as to who will be leading after this evening's weigh-in.
We have a lot of pro comments from day one still yet to publish but we'd thought we'd share some photos from this morning. There are more published on our Facebook Wired2Fish Fan Page also.
More photos from the event are loaded on our fanpage at Facebook.com/Wired2fish.Read More
Posted by Jason Sealock on Wed, Aug 10, 2011 @ 10:00 AM
If someone hands me a chocolate chip cookie and tells me it's a chocolate chip cookie, but it doesn't look anything like a chocolate chip cookie, I'm going to be leary about eating it. I'm going to inspect it. I'm going to sniff it, feel it, just try to figure out if it's really something I want to eat. If it doesn't smell like chocolate chip, doesn't look like it and doesn't feel like one, I'm going to pass.
Now you take the same scenario with a cookie that looks like a super chocolate chip cookie, and it's a different story. Big chocolate chips, melting inside the warm cookie, and I'm all over it like ... well a fat kid on a big thundering chocolate chip cookie.
So is it so hard to believe a bass isn't reacting to a bait when we jerk it, twitch it, pop it, pull it, or drop it around its face if it doesn't have that extra little kick that tells the fish this is something alive he wants to eat? Sometimes we're just looking for one advantage, something the fish react to that trips their trigger and makes them become totally enamored with eating our offering.
We spend a lot of time customizing lures here at Wired2Fish. Trimming skirts on jigs, dipping tails of plastics in die, adding chartruese or red markings on crankbaits, and of course adding tail feathers or teaser tinsle to a treble hook to give a bait an extra kick or flash to make it look alive and edible to a fish.
We've had a lot of success lately on some baits which we've added a quick and easy dressing to their treble hooks. This is just a simple customization that can really add some kick to your favorite reaction baits.
You basically need the following items:
A favorite treble hook
A skirt collar for making jig or spinnerbait skirts
A material like Flashabou, feathers, deerhair or something for dressing
A pair of scissors
Step 1:
Take your strands of material or feather and line them up and pinch them between your finger and your thumb. You don't need a thick dressing here as you're going to double it on itself. So if you want a 3 inch dressing you need 6-inches of material. It doesn't have to be thick because after you double it over it will be twice as thick.
Step 2:
Trim the material to make a tight straight edge that you can feed through the eye of your favorite treble hook. We've been using both Gamakatsu and Mustad trebles a lot lately. The amount of strands will vary with how large your hookeye is. Too much and you can't pass it through. Some materials you can wet to make them pass through easier.
Step 3:
Pass the material through the hookeye until the hook is right in the middle of your strands of material.
Step 4:
Fold the material down on either side of the hookeye down the shank of the hooks.
Step 5:
Take your skirt collar, we recommend the natural colored ones, and force the collar over the eye of the hook and down the shank to hold the material in place.
Now you have a treble hook with dressing on it in a matter of about a minute or less. It's not made to last forever, but honestly, hooks dull over time. The more fish you catch, the more you'll need to change the hooks. This has been working well for us and the material and hooks are holding up to sometimes as many as 50 fish a day.
You can find materials at places like Jann's NetCraft, Lure Parts, Barlow's Tackle, and Bass Pro Shops as well as many more we're sure. It's not expensive and you can dress a lot of hooks with just a little material.
What do you think? Something we've proven works well recently while fishing for bass with topwaters, and it's quick and easy to customize a treble hook fishing lure.
Read More
Posted by Jason Sealock on Wed, Aug 10, 2011 @ 12:01 AM
We've been fishing bass a lot lately as per usual here at Wired2Fish, but the hotter it gets, the more we are fishing real early and real late in the day. That's been leading us to low light and no light periods of the day or night as the case might be some fishing trips. Night fishing can seem like a daunting way to chase bass, but it's really not that big a deal. Your plans for night fishing for bass should be very similar to your day plans, except for one general rule: the bass lose a lot of their apprehension to shallow areas when the sun goes down. This will help you learn how-to night fish for bass.
One of our most productive ways to catch fish the past few weeks in the low light to night time periods has been a single Colorado blade short-arm spinnerbait. There a bunch of good ones on the market. We've stuck mainly with the Cumberland Pro Lures Short Arm, Stan Sloan's Zorro Aggrivator short arm and Accent short arm spinnerbaits. We've also dabbled a bit with the Canadian-produced KoManChi spinnerbaits.
Another key ingredient to good nighttime spinnerbait fishing is a good trailer. For the longest time, all I ever used was Uncle Josh Pork frogs, and I still use them a lot. But I also use a plastic trailer when it gets real hot like it is now. The Pork is great about holding a scent but we'll get to that more in a minute. For plastic trailers a big grub is good but I've been having a lot of success with a Zoom G-Tail worm. I bite all but about last 3-4 inches of the tail off and use it as a trailer. It works great. I like an all black trailer.
Tackle selection depends largely on the type of water. If it's not heavily laden with cover, you can get away with 12-pound fluorescent mono. We've been throwing a lot of 15-pound Original Stren fluorescent blue monofilament on our 6-foot, 8-inch St. Croix Mojo bass rods with a 5.4:1 Lew's Speed Spool or 5.4:1 Revo Winch. We like a slower gear ratio reel to maintain good bottom bumping contact.
The areas we are targeting range from shallow flats, ledges with shallow water on top, brush piles, stump beds, rip rap points and 45-degree banks. It seems like if you can keep the spinnerbait ticking the cover and bumping some ambush point, the fish are taking the spinnerbait pretty savagely. The steeper the banks the more we walk the spinnerbait down the slope with a lift and drop retrieve.
The key also seems to be going to the right spot at the right time. One thing we've learned recently is the fish are really finding those feeding zones in the last hour of daylight and then they are getting in more traditional places after the sun is completely down and darkness sets in. They will be there first break of dawn and then move back on those feeding/ambush zones as the sun starts coming up.
That may be confusing at first, but basically it means find areas like points, stumps, or other cover where a bass can roam and feed quickly before the light is gone or before it gets up to bright. Then as it transitions from one to the other, move to broader staging areas like ledges, flats in the mouths of bays, humps, etc.
The retrieve can vary but for me two retrieves work better than most. One is a pull and pump and the other is just a straight slow crank. The pull and pump is a side to side pull of the rod to slowly thump the blade along the bottom and then as I move my rod from right back to left to do another pull, I reel my slack quickly, always keeping a semi-taut to taut line.
On a straight retrieve, I will hold the rod fairly loose so that I'm in tune with the thump of that single blade. If I feel the thump turn to mush or jar suddenly, I get good tension on the line with the reel and lean into the fish hard.
Folks think you have to do something you never do during the day at night. The key is to be around cover or be in shallower feeding areas. You might catch some fish way out deep, but your more likely to find fish up on the banks, on shallow flats and ledges or humps at night where they don't have the sun and boat pressure to drive them off those shallower areas.
A full moon can often make the fish bite a little better at night, and crawfish often molt on full moons in the summer months at night, which can also make a jig bite pretty good around the full moon.
Keep your bait moving in a straight line as much as possible. Predator fish have to use all their senses to help hone in on a target at night. The more you make it duck and dart, the harder it is for the fish to find and react to your lures.
Adding scent and sound can again improve your odds. Adding rattles on the arms or hooks of spinnerbaits can be a good idea. That extra sound again helps a bass hone in on your offering. Scent can do a lot at night when their sense of vision is greatly diminished. Pork really holds added scent well.
Colors at night are more important than you think. Generally speaking you want a dark solid color. The bait should create a silhouette to the fish. If your bait is more transparent, especially on brighter nights or around lighted areas like boat docks, it might not cast a full silhouette in the dark like a solid black or black and red lure might.
I've caught a bunch of bass just picking a bay and running the banks and fishing everything in between, but it seems like if you get on some of the shallower off the beaten path stuff out away from the banks it can be even better. Humps, bars in the mouths of bays, long extending secondary points and more can produce a lot of fish and often better fish. And for some reason stumps and brushpiles really seem to produce at night.
We've found that magic hour that used to be our least productive time of the evening night has turned out much better in recent outings. We've been moving around and hitting several quick shallow spots where we think a fish might move up and feed. If the wind is blowing in on a point or a grassy area, we'll breeze through as many as those productive spots as we can in that hour as the sun sets. It's produced a lot of bass for us lately, some more than 5 pounds.
So don't go off the beaten path just because it's dark. In fact, go to those shallower areas where you wanted the bass to be during the day, and fish around cover where possible. Think about the areas fish would ambush and chase prey for a quick meal before dark and hit as many of those spots quickly.
Several non-fishing items will make your night fishing with a spinnerbait more fun and less hassle. Here's a quick run down of some essential add-ons and why you want them:
1) Bug spray - I've been using a lot of Off! and Reef Safe Back Country Expedition to keep unwanted bugs away.
2) Headlamp - I keep a headlamp strapped to my head before and after dark. It just makes tying baits, getting a good bead on the bank, warning oncoming boats and more very simple.
3) Blacklight - again being able to watch your line to know when it's on the bottom, see a quick thump you didn't feel and see the bank without shining a light and possibly spooking fish can help land a lot more bass. I've been using the Lightning Bug from Zorro Bait Company.
4) Spotlight - GPS is a great tool for staying in the channel as you run from spot to spot. But it won't show you other boats, buoys, obstructions like flocks of geese and other things that can be a nightmare to hit in the dark.
5) Landing Net - A good landing net will really make fishing more enjoyable. If you think a mean bass is hard to land during the day, try doing it without any lights. They can be hard to track and the net just makes getting them in the boat a lot easier.
Take these tips with you on your next bass fishing evening adventure and it may extend a good day of fishing into an awesome night of bass fishing after dark!
Read More
Posted by Jason Sealock on Tue, Aug 09, 2011 @ 12:05 AM
We are about to turn our trucks and planes to the west and start heading towards Hot Springs, Ark., for the Forrest Wood Cup. This year's event proves to be a hot, deep, grueling contest for the competitors fishing the clearwater fishery in the heart of the summer in central Arkansas.
We've analyzed the tactics we think will be a factor here and who we think will use those tactics to punch their ticket to the final day showdown. Deep water, suspending bass, grass beds, humps and some early topwater action could all factor into the mix this week on the fishery. Night tournaments on the lake have been yielding 20-plus-pound stringers. So there are quality fish in the lake right now, but they are tough to catch in the heat of the day.
Todd
Terry Bolton – Bolton is a sentimental favorite … I'm picking him because he’s cursed if Sealock picks him.
Brent Ehrler – He’s done it before and it's certain he will do it again. This could be the year he adds No. 2 to his resume.
Stetson Blaylock – Blaylock is an overlooked local that has had some success on Ouachita in the past. If there is one local we like in this one, it's Blaylock.
Andy Morgan – This is a wildcard pick. It could be a deep grass pitching bite. It could be a shallow grass pitching bite. And it could be some finesse. Something Morgan added to his game a few years ago that could play big here.
Scott Martin – fished consistent all year and has had some good success in Forrest Wood Cups in the summer months.
Terry
David Dudley - He finds them everywhere and has been to the winner's circle. He is on a high from Angler of the Year, so watch out. The year Suggs won he was on the winning fish, but they vanished on the final day. He will be dangerous here again.
Brent Ehrler - He can fish East to West Coasts, and he too has been in the winner's circle in the Forrest Wood Cup and on this lake. He's always a threat to win.
Dave Lefebre - He's a "fish rat" and knows how to adjust. Should be very tough on this lake with the grass and the finesse.
Mike Reynolds - This one is a bit of a sentimental pick, but he fishes well in big-time events. Look for him to get rid of the T-shirt after this tournament.
Mark Rose - Knows the water. He's great on deep structure. If there are places without grass holding bass, he's likely to find them.
Jason
Rob Kilby - A local stick that is quietly going to catch them on his home pond. He knows the topwater game and the deep timber game and can catch them in the grass.
Ron Shuffield - Another nearby local, Shuffield seems to do well in those offshore tournaments and hot summer events. He's great with a Zara Spook and around grass with heavy tackle.
Clark Wendlandt - He did well the last time the Forrest Wood Cup was on Ouachita and it's setting up to fish a little better than it did last time.
Bryan Thrift - Thrift fished well here 4 years ago and he just has a nose for finding the bass to put him in the mix in the final round.
Brett Hite - one of the best drop shot anglers in the tournament, and that's one technique we feel could really play well here. There is always a west coast angler in the mix in FWC finales and he's our western horse in this race.
Read More
Posted by Jason Sealock on Mon, Aug 08, 2011 @ 01:29 PM
Mizmo Bait Company wasn't at the ICAST show this year but we ran into Troy Cox and Pam Cox Bolton at the show. They were telling us about their new tubes for bass anglers and we just received some samples from them of two new categories of tubes that we think anglers are going to like.
The first tubes we looked at were the the new Tri-Lam tubes. These lures feature triple laminated coloring in each tube. They look great and mimic prey a lot better than a solid color as most avid anglers know most things in the water have dark backs and light bellies with a middle tone in the middle. Whether you're talking bluegill or crawfish, these tubes are going to really mimic the prey with a profile that is already proven to be very natural to predator bass.
The second tube they are releasing is the Ish Tube. Bass anglers will remember that a similar tube was manufactured by Tru-Tungsten when they were still in business. This is an oversized bait that is made not only for big bass fishing, but also as an aggitator for bedding bass and bass on specific targets. We've often used big oversized tubes to rile up bass on beds then pitch a smaller more easily edible bait back into the bed to get them to trigger.
These new Ish Tubes from Mizmo are 7 inches but extremely soft and with better colors than the orginals. They will be fish catchers for sure. It's recommend that you use an extremely large EWG hook like a 8/0 or bigger. We also like that they are not covered in salt. Salt has a way of gunking up your Plano boxes, making packages hard to reseal and it washes off in the first cast. We wish more retailers would take the salt out of their packages.
The Tri-Lam tubes retail for $4.99 a pack of six, while the Ish Tubes retail for $5.60 for a pack of two.
Visit Mizmo.com for more information or visit Tacklewarehouse.com to buy the tubes.
Read More
Posted by Jason Sealock on Mon, Aug 08, 2011 @ 08:00 AM
American Fishing Wire / Hi-Seas announced their new co-polymer monofilament line, Grand Slam® Select. The new 100% copolymer line combines strength with manageability. Produced from the highest quality copolymer, this advanced line is said to be soft and handle well on both baitcasting and spinning gear alike. The line is offered in fluorescent clear blue color so anglers can see their line during low-light conditions. Once submerged, the fluorescent clear blue color is said to appear as clear, and makes this a perfect “line-watching” line. It is also easy to tie to any bait or terminal tackle using a Palomar knot.
“It works exceptionally well on spinning reels because it’s so manageable and so soft," said legendary angler Bill Dance. "It takes perfect inset on a spinning reel.”
“Grand Slam Select is a professional grade copolymer line that is unmatched from our other lines thus far," said Steven Miller, Sales Director of HI-SEAS. "Its abrasion resistance is unmatched, knot strength is incredible, and it has low memory."
The new Grand Slam Select will range in test from 4-pound to 30-pound in filler, 1- and 2-pound spools. MSRP ranges from $6.99 to $9.99
Look for these new lines in retailers this fall.
Read More
Posted by Wade Bourne on Mon, Aug 08, 2011 @ 12:01 AM
It was a cool way to spend a hot day.
Last week I drove to north Georgia to check an item off my bucket list. I’ve always wanted to catch a true redeye bass (Micropterus coosae), which is a small member of the black bass family that lives in a few streams in Georgia and Alabama. My host/guide was Barry Jennings of Cohutta, Ga., an avid stream angler and a tall-tale teller of the first order.
Barry and I floated and wade-fished on the Conasauga River, which runs out of the Cherokee National Forest in southeast Tennessee and then winds across north Georgia, eventually emptying into the Coosa River system in Alabama.
I was on assignment for Bassmaster Magazine, and the article will appear sometime next summer. I can’t provide too many details before the story comes out, but suffice to say I succeeded in my redeye quest in spades! And, Barry and I fished in a clear mountain stream that was surrounded by scenery as pretty as it gets.
The air temperature was stifling – pushing 100 degrees, but the water was almost chilly. Whenever we got hot, we’d simply wade out a little deeper and let the water refrigerate us. How refreshing!
Fishing comes in many forms: big water, little water; quiet water, running water; freshwater, saltwater. Anglers fish for giants and for diminutive species like the redeye bass, all of which produce their own challenges and rewards. The redeye rarely grows beyond 10 inches in length, but it’s a dainty, spunky fish that requires some deft and effort to locate and catch. Plus, add in ultralight tackle, 4 lb. line and 1/32 oz. tube jigs, and you’ve got a recipe for fun.
So, file this away, and be watching for the full account of my story upcoming in Bassmaster. Meanwhile, if you have an inkling to do so, head to the Conasauga River, wade in and enjoy. And if things get a little too warm, take time out to take a dip! Like I said, it’s a cool way to spend a hot day.
Wade Bourne
Read More
Posted by Jason Sealock on Fri, Aug 05, 2011 @ 04:01 PM
We finally got to take a closer look at the new products from Zappu out of Japan. We saw some samples at ICAST but they were hard to get good photos so we waited until we got some good samples to tell you about them. They added several new products to help anglers add a little "flash" to their existing baits.
The new Twin Blade is an add on for swim jigs, spinnerbaits, jigs, chatterbaits and more. It adds two small willow blades for flash to your existing wire baits. They could be interesting on some baits used as drop baits too.
Along those same lines they also introduced the Shooting Star and Tinsel Hook. The Tinsel hook is a feathered type tinsel covered spinnerbait and jig trailer hook. And the Shooting Star is the same tinsel on a peg that can be stuck in the end of stick baits or swimbaits to add a little flash to the wiggle.
These products should be available at TackleWarehouse and other retailers this fall.
Read More
Posted by Jason Sealock on Wed, Aug 03, 2011 @ 01:28 PM
Yesterday morning before work, my partner and I decided to go fish a few hours just to see if there was A) an early morning bite in some shallower spots than we've been finding the bass lately and B) if we could find a school of keepers to maybe fish the Tuesday nighter.
Low and behold we found both. Early in the morning we hit a couple fish weighing more than 4 pounds, with one weighing 5-4. So we were pretty pumped. Then we went Structure Scanning with my Lowrance HDS 10 unit. And as luck would have it we found a deep school of bass and caught a bunch to 3 pounds. So we decided to throw our hat in the ring and fish the Tuesday night jackpot.
Got home and got the boat batteries charged and remember, my livewell control knob broke off a couple weeks ago. Turns out at the time it broke off I found out the control cable was seized up tight. I could barely switch it from Recirc, Empty or Auto with a pait of pliers pulling the lever directly. It was locked up.
I assumed the cable must have got bent or something when I installed my new HDS units or the new Sirius Satellite Weather module. It all runs through the same conduit. But I went ahead and removed the back panel and spare prop and sprayed some Royal Purple Maxfilm on the rocker arm, cable and sheeth at the source of the valve. This stuff is like WD-40 on steroids!
All of it is located in the bilge area and it can get quite nasty with mildew and other unspeakable organisms in there. It's something you should clean out at least once a year with diluted bleach.
Well yesterday we decided to just see if we could put the livewell into auto mode and just keep pumping water into it all tournament. I grabbed the cable with the pliers and it moved easily and effortlessly. I ran up to my local Ranger Dealer, Jet-A-Marina, and they swapped the livewell knob assembly out with my broke one under warranty. In five minutes, I had the old knob off and the new knob on and the livewell control works as good as it did when I bought the boat.
Maxfilm is like magic on rusted, locked, or gummed up parts. It took my livewell controls that were all but trashed and locked up and turned them into perfectly working equipment again. I'm sold on the stuff now.
If your livewell control is giving you fits and feels like it's going to break because it's so hard to turn, don't fret. Clean out your bilge area, find the livewell control valve, cable and sheeth and give them a liberal spray of Royal Puple Maxfilm and let it soak in and sit. Chances are you'll get it working again with a lot less hassle than I had.
Read More
Posted by Jason Sealock on Wed, Aug 03, 2011 @ 09:41 AM
Kayak fishing is one of the fast growing segments in sport fishing and with good reason. The new kayaks are angler friendly, and with a kayak you can access water easily that used to be unaccesible to anglers. I grew up fishing in the Ozark mountain streams and wish I had then what is available with today's kayaks.
We got to check out the new Hobie Cat Mirage Revolution 11 and Quest 11 kayaks at the ICAST show in Las Vegas a few weeks ago. The Mirage Revolution 11 took home the Best of Show award in the Boat Category. The new shorter Mirage Revolution 11 and Quest 11 offer anglers both pedal and paddle options in shorter more nimble sizes for slicing through the water and easily navigating tight quarters.
Both boats have sharp turning radiuses which make them fast and nimble and they track straight. The really thought about what an angler needs for fishing out of a kayak with big storage compartments, rod holders, an add-on livewell that fits in a trunk area in the rear.
You can add a Trax 2 Cart to roll your kayak over rough terrain to get into hard to reach places. They also offer horizontal rod holders keeping your rods snag free and secure for fishing around docks and brushy areas. They are setup to handle sonars, stake out poles, lifejackets and more accessories, making them a very functional fishing vessle.
The Mirage Revolution 11 weighs 47 pounds and can float 300 pounds. It's 11-feet 6-inches long and 29-inches wide. It retails for $1,749
The Quest 11 is 11-feet, 1-inch long and also 29-inches wide. It weighs 47 pounds and will float 300 pounds. It retails for $949 with a few less add-on features.
To learn more about Hobie Cat, visit HobieCat.com.Read More
Posted by Jason Sealock on Tue, Aug 02, 2011 @ 07:00 AM
Trophy bass enthusiasts will be glad to hear that the very hard to find, very sought after, albeit very expensive hand-crafted trophy-hunter swimbaits from RomanMade will soon be available in the states. These handmade beauties are designed for bass in the 30-inch and bigger range. In fact it was reported to us that World Record holder Manubu Kurita has hooked a bass he estimated to be 28 pounds on the Mother swimbait on Lake Biwa and lost her in the fight.
RomanMade spends 12 hours to make just one trophy lure by hand by studying bass, forage and more in Japan, then applying the principles they learn in the movement, water displacement and reactions of the baits. All of their baits are hand crafted by Mr. Takeyama and feature interesting details, unique patterns and incredible actions.
They have several swimbaits in their line as well as a soft plastic, called the Prologue. The soft bait is not a stick bait and it’s not really a worm. It can be Texas rigged or rigged wacky style. However there are some very interesting applications.
Read More
Posted by Jason Sealock on Mon, Aug 01, 2011 @ 01:38 PM
Three top pros talk how and when they fish bigger than average worms for bass
The big worm is not a new bait for bass fishing, but it seems like there have been new twists, shapes, colors and places that big worms are getting applied across the country. Recently, some major tournaments have been won fishing big worms. And they’re not always on fisheries you’d expect. But that might be why more people don’t throw it in more places and more applications.
We paneled three of the sports best worm anglers to understand the nuances that go into their decision making, application and technique with big worms. Stacey King has been on a terror this year, finishing second in two FLW Tour events this year plus winning the PAA tournament on his home waters of Table Rock Lake, with some really big worms.
Mike McClelland is an old dragger, who grew up throwing big worms in the summer through standing timber and deep cover and has applied it all over the country with great success. He also, subsequently finished second in that Table Rock PAA tournament, with a big worm, and his tip on slowing down and letting the worm sit, lead to King’s big limit the final day.
Terry Bolton is known for his prowess on river ledges and summer bass, and his go to bait is a big worm. In fact he calls it his “comfort bait”, but he also blames its effectiveness on not being open minded enough when it wasn’t catching the right quality to change.
There are a bunch of great worm fishermen, skilled at making fishing bite these oversized offerings, but we wanted to get a sample from guys who are known for their big worm prowess and have had good success on it in recent years.
What’s Big
So what constitutes a “big” worm? Does it have to be over a certain length? Or does it just mean bigger than normal.
“I don’t throw worms much bigger than 10 1/2 inches,” Bolton said. “It’s big enough to catch a big one and it can catch a lot of keepers too.”
Mclelland too likes the 10 1/2-inch variety of the Zoom Ol’ Monster but is also looking forward to the 12-inch version because he has definitely been on fisheries where a 12-inch or bigger worm would have caught them.
“I know a lot of guys throw 9 1/2 and 10 1/2 inch worms, and I do too, but 12 inches and bigger are what I really consider big worms,” said Stacey King. “I’ve been throwing the 12-inch Bass Pro Shops Squirmin Worm for years and actually started throwing the Go2Baits 13- and 14-inch worms this year and have caught a lot of bass on them. Not to mention they helped me win the PAA event on Table Rock.”
Big is relative to the fishery. If you’re on a lake that has a population of quality fish, then a big worm can really dial in the big bites.
When to Go Big
About the time the bass get done with the spawn, the big worm starts to have an impact, and all three anglers believe there is a little lull period before it gets really prime time for big worm fishing when the fish start grouping up and feeling recovered after the spawn.
“Where I fish, it usually starts the third or fourth week of May or maybe the first of June,” said Bolton. “There is a period when they first start moving out and they don’t feel real good after the spawn, and the worm bite is hit or miss. Then it seems like overnight, it will just turn on and that’s when it’s the best of the season.”
King and McClelland both agreed and all three will start fishing the big worm post spawn but will continue throwing it all the way into the fall. About the time the shad start migrating to the creeks, the big worm bite will start to give way to other more productive techniques. But any time the water is warm or hot a worm can really get the fish to cooperate and that small narrow profile even at 10 or 12 inches can seem like a big but easy to eat meal.
“I know it’s going to happen every year because I’ve done it year after year,” King said.
Where to Probe
In talking with the three pros, we noticed a lot of trends among good worm anglers, and then some facets of it they diverged in their philosophies. On where to fish the worm, they all seemed to agree that a big worm is good anywhere there is a population of 3-pound bass or bigger. You’ll catch a lot of 1 and 2 pound bass on a big worm, but it’s still a big fish bait. If your fishery has a lot of small forage and lot of 1 and 2 pound bass, there may be other better techniques.
But all will fish them on points, humps, ledges, standing timber, grass or any place where they think schools of bass will gang up and any place they think a big bass would lurk.
“One thing I’ve learned over the years of fishing offshore is the fish are where we find them, and usually not where we want them to be,” King said.
King uses his worm as a search bait. He likes to make very long casts and sometimes he’ll swim it slowly along the bottom. Other times, he’ll just drag it, and still at other times he’ll employ a lift and drop technique, especially around standing timber or grass. But usually when he’s searching for active bass, he’ll fish the worm pretty fast.
McClelland on the other hand likes to use a big worm for a targeted approach.
“I’m a little more target specific offshore with a Texas-rigged big worm,” McClelland said. “I think I can cover water better with a football jig, but I can fish a big worm better on a specific target offshore. “
He spends a lot of time on his Lowrance HDS units with Structure Scan and finds rock piles, boulders, standing timber and other sweet spots on offshore structure, and then he uses the worm to pick them apart.
Bolton fishes from points to ledges and every where in between, regardless of cover.
All agree that the big worm is a great bait in any water clarity other than ultra clear water. King and McClelland really opened a lot of angler’s eyes with their performance on Table Rock Lake, an ultra clear fishery not known as a big worm lake. But this year’s massive floods added some much needed stain to the water that made it more conducive to big worm fishing.
How to Entice Bites
Triggering fish to bite is where the men are separated from the boys in terms of the catching and not catching bass. All three anglers have more than one retrieve they will regularly use to tempt fish. It’s still a trial and error but they do have differing opinions on how to fish the worm.
Stacey King came up watching Tommy Martin and those Texas guys around Toledo Bend fishing big worms and learned to fish the worms, in what he calls the “right way.”
“I always fish a worm with my rod tip up with semi-slack line,” King said. “I see my co-anglers fish with their rod tip pointed at the water. What happens is when a fish bites, you can’t give that fish any slack and he feels your tension when he hits the worm. With my rod tip up and semi slack line, I see the line jump, and I lower my rod tip to give them the worm for a second before I crack them pretty hard.”
Bolton learned to fish a worm much the same, but how the worm moved was the most critical part he learned.
“When I was coming up fishing in the 80s and 90s, there was an angler Britt Cone on Kentucky Lake who was winning every tournament on the lake for a stretch with a big worm,” Bolton said. “Cone would lift and drop the worm a lot and really get the fish to react to the worm. No matter how I fish it now, it’s all about contacting the bottom. Some guys fish it so fast they never make that bottom contact. I call it picking it up and setting it down.”
“I think people have a tendency to overfish a big worm,” McClelland said. “The closer and more you keep it to the bottom, the better. There are 3-6 inches of the tail that are dancing around even when it’s sitting on the bottom without you moving it. It creates a lot of action on its own in the current.”
Both King and Bolton are of the notion that a lift and drop can trigger fish with a lighter weight on controlled slack line. And both McClelland and Bolton believe a heavier weight and just dragging it as slow as possible, or “counting rocks” as they like to call it, with a heavier weight is also effective.
Around grass they all three like to either use a light weight to pull around the edges of the grass and up over the grass because bass have a tendency to suspend in the grass in summer months. Or they will go to the other extreme and use a heavier weight to punch into the grass or to fish the deeper edge outs of the grass. A heavier weight will cause the worm to grab and pull the grass so shorter pitches with a heavy weight and longer casts with a much lighter weight.
Tackling Big Worm Tackle
This is where the path seems to split for the anglers a bit. The two philosophies in tackle really differ at the discussion of line size.
On the one side you have King and McClelland who rarely go below 17-pound fluorocarbon and often use 20-pound. They want big line because they plan to be fighting big fish around cover, rocks and more and want the fluorocarbon so there is no stretch when you set the hook.
McClelland likes 20-pound Sunline Shooter as his fluorocarbon of choice. He will sometimes go down to 16-pound Shooter if he’s fishing deeper than 20 feet because he feels a smaller diameter keeps him in better bottom contact in deeper water. King likes 17 pound fluoro and will go up to 25 pound fluoro around grass and cover and sometimes even braid in heavy vegetation.
Bolton however almost always stays with 12-pound fluorocarbon.
“I throw 12-pound Sufix Fluorocarbon line 95 percent of the time,” Bolton said. “I’m big on line diameter. I like a worm to go back to the bottom straight as it can, and I don’t want that drag of bigger diameter line. I even go down to 10 in deeper water. I think you get more strikes. You’ve got to be more careful about retying, playing the fish, etc. It doesn’t make as big a difference when you drag a worm as it does when you’re hopping it or lifting it.”
| King's Tackle |
7-foot Heavy-action Bass Pro Shops Carbon Lite Rod
6.4:1 BPS Johnny Morris Signature Series Reel
17 to 20-pound Fluorocarbon line
5/0 Round bend Gamakatsu or EWG on bigger worms
1/2-ounce weight with Parasite Clip keeper
Bass Pro 12-inch Squirmin Worm, Berkley Power Worm, Go2Baits 13-inch Paddle Tail |
| McClelland's Tackle |
7-foot, 4-inch Heavy Action Micro Guide Falcon rod
7:1 Quantum Smoke or Quantum Burner reel
16 to 20-pound Sunline Fluorocarbon
5/0 offset round-bend Gamakatsu hook
3/8-1/2-ounce Jewel Rock weight Texas or Carolina rig
10-inch Zoom Ol' Monster |
Read More