W2F Blog

Lane Wins Bassmaster Classic

Jason Sealock — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 21:42:00 GMT

Photo by Dustin King

Chris Lane won the Bassmaster Classic on the Red River

Chris Lane of Guntersville, Ala. won his first Bassmaster Classic in just his second appearance, thanks to a three-day weight of 51 pounds, 6 ounces. Lane bested Greg Vinson by 3 pounds, 7 ounces. Lane incorporated a strategy he put together on the off day between practice and the start of the tournament and seemed maybe the most confident that he was on the right strategy to win this event, given the conditions that put the fish in somewhat of a foul mood.

The big divide among the pro competitors this week was whether to stay and fish in one area, or to move and fish new water each day knowing that fish would be picked off as the tournament progressed. Lane was in the minority fishing multiple new areas each day and sometimes going with the unpopular strategy is what it takes to win.

Lane's strategy revolved primarily around focusing on hitting a few places each day and going for just big bites and then moving to another fresh area for more big bites. Obviously you can't predict where the big bites are going to come but he felt like fishing pressure was going to be a critical component this week, and if he could avoid the fishing pressure as much as possible, he could ultimately win by just having the mindset to go and get one or two bites in an area and then moving on to fresh water.

We talked with Lane on Thursday at media day. He was the first angler we interviewed. He was the first one we thought was going to be a player in this event. He was first in the tournament because of what he told us in that meeting. Here is what he said:

"The guy that will be champion here will be the one who figures out when to stay and when to go. Not the guy who sits in one area and fishes just to cull ounces. Culling ounces here won't win you the Classic. You need that 4-pound bite. You can't kick just field goals to win the Super Bowl. You've got to get touchdowns. You can't just fish for a limit. You've got to fish for that one good bite and then go fish for another good bite."

Today on stage was the culmination of that winning strategy.

"There is only one thing I'm going to go to do when I get that trophy and you'll see it when I get it in my hands," Lane said. He set the trophy down, kneeled in front and prayed and pointed to heaven. "The man upstairs, if you'll listen to him, good things will happen. There is nothing more important than my wife and kids, and it's been a dream to put them in that boat.

"Me and Bobby have been dreaming about this ever since we started watching these shows after the Dukes of Hazard and finishing our homework. It's something we've been working towards since childhood and now it's real."

Here's what the rest of the field had to say.

B.A.S.S. Communications

Greg Vinson (2nd, 47-15)

"I've been locking down on a long run down to Pool 4. I was making a big run but it really paid off for me with that little area I was fishing. Today I caught those fish and saddle up to run and had a tear coming down my cheek behind my mask as I was running because it hit me finally what this all means. So I'm just excited. "

B.A.S.S. Communications

Alton Jones (4th, 45-14)

"I fished all week with a Yum Vibra King Tube and a Yum Dinger 6-inch watermelon with purple gold flake. If you're fishing on the Red River and you're not using a Yum Dinger, you're missing a lot of bites.

"All you can hope for is to be in contention for the win on the final day. I came close. But I've had a blessed week. BASS's moto is every catch is big. And that's true. I'm just so excited to have this opportunity. Everyone thinks I'm some great fisherman but the Lord provides for me. That's all. It's all my Lord and Savior."

B.A.S.S. Communications

Ott Defoe (5th, 44-14)

"I was fishing two primary areas. One was in McDade and the other area was a smaller one I don't know the name of. The McDade fish were prespawn the first day, and I was catching them on a No. 5 Shad Rap when it was windy. It was custom painted in a rootbeer color. The second day when it cleared and got calm, I was fishing a Rapala X-Rap in a Tennessee Shad color. I was fishing it around on the edges of the coontail and little breaks off those coontail flats. The other fish came flipping a 1/4-ounce Reins tungsten weight and a Berkley Havoc Pit Boss and a 5/0 VMC flipping hook.

"The weights are pretty close to what I expected them to be. I never got a big bite yesterday. That surprised me a little bit. I never caught a fish over 3 pounds yesterday. I worked mats in 8 inches to 2 feet of water. I caught two 3 pounders and 5 pounder the first day in the McDade area, and then I had a 6 and a few 3-pounders today in there. I don't know there was many more big fish in there.

"It was an incredible experience. This is my first Classic, and I've been dreaming about it since I was 10 years old. You think about it and dream about it a lot but walking out on that stage here with that big bag of bass was an incredible experience. "

We'll have a lot more from the competitors as well as more about Lane's pattern and baits and more later tonight and tomorrow.

Bassmaster Classic Outdoors Expo Photo Gallery

Jason Sealock — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 19:38:00 GMT

Todd, Dustin and Terry spent a good bit of time in the Expo the last couple of days, here's just some of what they saw over there that they liked! Going to the Classic Expo and looking at new tackle and equipment always gets us excited about going fishing.

Bassmaster Classic Final Launch Photo Gallery

Jason Sealock — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 15:28:00 GMT

We ran out to the launch this morning one more time to see the top 25 anglers off for one more day of fishing in the 2012 Bassmaster Classic on the Red River. Here a few more photos from the launch this morning.

Bassmaster Classic Day Two Weigh-in Photo Gallery

Jason Sealock — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 05:27:00 GMT

A few photos from the day two weigh-in at the Bassmaster Classic in Shreveport, La.

Bassmaster Classic Day Two Launch Photo Gallery

Jason Sealock — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 16:22:00 GMT

Day two of the Bassmaster Classic bass fishing championship greeted anglers with a lot colder temperatures, frost but no wind and a lot of sunshine. This will be the day that makes or breaks the Classic for a lot of anglers in our opinion. Here are several photos from Todd Hammill from this morning's brisk launch

Bassmaster Classic Day One Weigh-in Photo Gallery

Jason Sealock — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 05:51:00 GMT

Just a few random shots from today's Bassmaster Classic bass fishing championship weigh-in we thought we would share from a bit different perspective.

Photos by Dustin King

Bassmaster Classic Day One Launch Photo Gallery

Jason Sealock — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 16:16:00 GMT

We ran out to the launch this morning to see the competitors off for day one of the Bassmaster Classic in Shreveport, La. The Red River has been giving up some nice fish already this morning. It should be a fun weigh-in.

Here a few photos from this morning's launch for those that couldn't be there.

2012 Bassmaster Classic Practice Launch Photos

Jason Sealock — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 16:30:00 GMT

Kevin VanDam was making some last minute bait preparations before heading out for the final day of practice for the 2012 Bassmaster Classic. Click on the image for a larger size desktop background for you.

Here are a few more photos from today's practice launch on the Red River in Shreveport. Mouse over the photos to get a description of each photo.

Respect Builds Bass Fishing Bonds

Jason Sealock — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 14:00:00 GMT

Article and Photos by Shaye Baker

Few people outside the fishing world can understand the relationship that you have to have in order to fish with someone. And I don't mean just going out to the lake for a Sunday afternoon to burn a few hours. I’m talking about trust. Full disclosure. The kind of relationship where you know you can tell or show each other anything and also know it won’t come back to haunt you.

It's often associated with a father-son or brotherly relationship because that’s where it usually starts. Years of trust are poured into a partnership before either partner really knows what’s happening. And by the time it comes down to needing to trust someone out on the water, it’s just second nature. Relationships like this don’t come about very often outside of the family. But if they do form, water can be thicker than blood. A friendship forged through fishing is one of the most powerful there is.

Very few of these relationships start in the heat of battle. Few begin on the first day of a major tour event between two anglers standing in the front of their respective boats competing for $100,000. Usually that’s when the gloves come off – when it's kill or be killed and win at all costs. Tournament fishing has become a cut throat sport. Pure love for the game isn't felt by all of the upper level touring anglers. It has become a means to an end. And screwing over the guy fishing 100 feet from you is a common practice.

So both Randall Tharp and Brandon McMillan had reservations when they met on their best stretch of Lake Okeechobee vegetation a little over a year ago. It was the first day of the Wal-Mart FLW Tour event in February. The two met a few years back, but didn't really know one another at all. And through no other means than assumption, they both knew they were about to be screwed over.

But it didn't play out that way. Tharp and McMillan met halfway down the hundred yard stretch they were both fishing, and then they politely went around each other, made their way to opposite ends and turned around and made their way back again. This continued throughout day one. Each time, the both knew this would be the pass where something went awry. But it didn’t. And with each pass a bond began to form. After a whole day of fishing like this, McMillan knew he didn't have to worry about Tharp and Tharp needn't worry about him.

The two met on the same stretch on day two. Day three and day four started the same way as well. Neither angler ever crowded the other or intentionally tried to catch one that the other missed. On day two, it even went as far as McMillan loaning Tharp a flipping stick after he broke one of his own. That rod helped Tharp catch 32 pounds that day. Each did their own thing, to which McMillan credits their success.

“I had already made up my mind before we fished past each other on day one, that if he was going to be a jerk, I was going to be a jerk,” McMillan said. “That’s just the way things go now a days. You don’t really expect a lot of respect or loyalty out there. But he never gave me a problem, so I never gave him one. After day one, I never thought twice about it. It could have gone a lot different if we’d both tried to mess each other over, and neither one of us would have done as well as we did.”

Trust starts with respect. Both anglers showed a boat load of that by treating one another the way they did and ultimately the duo finished the event in first and second with McMillan pulling off the win. Knowing that very few fishermen would have handled the experience the way Tharp did really impressed McMillan.

“That showed me a lot about the type of person he is. He wanted to beat me but he wanted to beat me heads up,” McMillan said.

Tharp saw the situation the same way. He just knew that McMillan would burn him if he got the chance and yet he never did. And as Tharp watched McMillan win the event, a great respect developed within Tharp not only of McMillan’s skills on the water but also for the man he is and the ethics by which he fishes.

“I’ve left Okeechobee a lot of years mad or unhappy with the way I fished, but last year I left the lake satisfied,” Tharp said. “I was happy finishing second, and happy that Brandon won. I’m never happy about finishing second. It’s hard to explain, but I was just really happy for Brandon.”

Tharp, like many anglers, has been burnt before by people he thought he could trust. People who swear not to go back to his hard-found honey hole and still do. Fishing is competition. And competition, unfortunately, brings out the worst in some people. Naturally he’s developed a thick skin to envelope what he does on the water. Trust isn’t something that comes easy for Tharp.

“I think there are a lot of guys out there that share information, and I’m sure there are a lot of guys that trust somebody. I usually have a real problem with that, and Brandon is one of the first ones I have ever trusted,” Tharp said. “It’s really weird, but I knew from that point on when we fished against each other last year, that I could trust him about anything. I feel like in what we do, that kind of trust is a very rare thing.”

The trust spawned a friendship which developed into a partnership out on the water this past winter. Tharp and wife Sara relocated to Okeechobee like they did last year to winter there and fish the lake for a few months in preparation for the EverStart and FLW Tour events. Within the first couple days, they had already been out to dinner with McMillan and his new bride Brianna. While the ladies chatted about whatever ladies chat about, the boys talked fishing. They started fun fishing together shortly after that and entered into a local team tournament to feed that competitive urge.

Once word got out that the two big sticks would be fishing together they were deemed the “Dream Team” by the other anglers planning to participate. Everyone gave the duo a hard time stating they might as well not even waste their time and money, Tharp and McMillan were sure to win. The truth is the Dream Team might as well have not even weighed in. Their measly 19 pounds garnered a lot more ridicule than winnings and two of the most competitive fishermen on the lake replaced a victory dinner with a plate full of crow.

But the “dream team” didn’t give up. They set the record straight with their next tournament outing bringing in a whopping 34.64 and winning the event with big smiles on their faces. Brandon’s father Jimmy and little brother Dillon looked on with pride as they finished in third with more than 30 pounds themselves. The day couldn’t have gone better.

Then tragedy struck. Brandon’s father Jimmy was murdered a week later. Instantly Brandon’s life was turned upside down. In an instant nothing made sense anymore, and fishing was the last thing that Brandon wanted to do.

“That was our thing,” McMillan said of fishing with his father. “We’ve always fished Okeechobee together. That was our place.”

Understandably, McMillan didn’t want to go back out on the water. There would be no way to make a single cast without thinking of his dad. No way to fish a spot without seeing his face. If he caught a big bag, he wouldn’t be able to pick up the phone and call his dad up to tell him about it. There was just no point.

Though his family encouraged him to get back out on the water, he just couldn’t. He knew that would be what his father wanted, but it was just too much. Ultimately it was Tharp who convinced him to get back to fishing.

“After all that happened, I didn’t want to fish at all,” McMillan said. “I could care less about fishing the EverStart or the Tour, but my family kept saying ‘You have to do it for your dad.’ I didn’t know what to do so I asked Randall, what he thought I should do. And he told me if I couldn’t put my whole heart into fishing and get my head right, then I shouldn’t do it. And that’s the main reason I fished them. That and the fact that I wanted to beat him. My whole goal in life now is to beat Randall.”

Well McMillan didn’t beat Randall in the EverStart or Tour Open this year but he did bring home solid ninth- and fifth-place finishes, honoring and bring pride to his father’s name. Tharp finished an impressive second place at the EverStart and dominated the Tour Open, winning by more than 23 pounds. Odd happenstances in both events just added to the chemistry brewing between the two. The first day of the EverStart found Tharp and McMillan tied with exactly 19-12 and day one of the Tour Open had them atop the leaderboard 2 ounces apart with 33-7 and 33-9.

McMillan’s wife Brianna confessed to FLW Outdoors’ host, Jason Harper that she feared the two had entered into some sort of “bromance.” I asked McMillan if he wanted to defend himself so in my best effort not to misquote him I’ll write out his exact words:

“Somewhere in the story can you please put that Randall and Brandon are happily married, I don’t want people getting the wrong idea.”

After pausing just a second, he realized what he said didn’t sound like what he meant and added, “You know what I mean," with a laugh. “We are happily married to our wives. You writers will misconstrue anything.”

We get the point, and all of America has been put on notice about the Batman and Robin, Starsky and Hutch, Ponch and Jon, or whatever dynamic duo fits the mold for these now famous Florida-fishing anglers, friends, and brothers in the sport.

Taming Fishing Tackle

Jason Sealock — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 15:30:00 GMT

The rod jiggled. Then three rods jiggled. Then six rods jiggled. Then all shook violently, baits and weights flopping to and fro as lures struggled in a knotted mess like calves with bolos wrapped around their ankles. Don’t you just love when your baits get tangled up and tie all your rods in a knot? Your drop shot weight has taken a correspondence class in basket weaving apparently and has now woven him in to nooks and crannies in your favorite reel that it won’t even budge.

Meanwhile your Alabama rig makes five hooks on five swimbaits seem like 25 hooks on a gill net. There are hooks through other hooks through swivels through clasps. It’s bundled up so tight a pair of snips sounds like a better alternative than spending the next hour breaking your lures out of their harnessed imprisonment.

Pro anglers Chad Brauer and Dave Wolak have an ongoing joke when they see anglers with their rods strapped to the passenger seat ramp in the back of the boat and the baits hanging 5 to 12 inches off the end of their rod. They will pass by the boat and motion to the other one with a circular helicopter motion. They call it the “butterfly effect.” By the time the boat runs down the lake at 60 mph, and stops on the first spot, that loose lure has found a way to tie every one of that angler’s rods in a knot.

Tangled rods are frustrating. No denying it. Sometimes you just have to cut your way out of the mess. Drop shots and the new castable umbrella rigs have become particularly annoying when stored or riding on the deck of a boat, not to mention storing open rigs in a tackle box. But we found a little trick to tame these tangle-prone rigs.

The secret: a Velcro strip.

Velcro comes in a lot of different shapes and sizes but the kind we’re talking about has the hard prickly stuff on one side and the soft sticky stuff on the other. It can be wrapped around itself and locks itself in place with … itself (sorry for the Austin Power’s moment). You can buy the strips in rolls and these things are dynamite for a variety of uses with fishing tackle
.
We’ve used them recently to store all the different umbrella rigs we’ve been testing them. Rather than bend wires in and out and cause stress points in the wire, we simply wrap the rigs with Velcro and throw them in a big Plano waterproof box. When we unwrap them, the wires spring right into place, and the rig is ready to go.

With a drop shot, we’ll fasten it to the rod first and then begin wrapping it. Before we secure the last wrap around, we’ll slide the line and weight underneath and then finish the wrap. The weight is held against the rod and it keeps that tag-end ball-and-chain effect from tangling other rods. It’s quick and easy and holds the drop shot in place well on a split grip rod.

We’ve used them to secure cables around a trolling motor . It’s a quick and easy way to hold cables in place, makes a great temporary fix for transducer swaps, Hydrowave swaps, etc. The Velcro strips seem to hold up to water, although I have seen some cheap ones finally lose their stickiness over time.

There are probably a lot more uses for Velcro strips for managing tackle and removing some of the frustration. What tricks have you found to organize a fishing mess with Velcro?

North Carolina Angler Catches Record Spotted Bass

Jason Sealock — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 16:41:00 GMT

Reports came to us Saturday about a record spotted bass that had been caught on Lake Norman in North Carolina over the weekend. We had a bit of time tracking down the angler and we finally got to talk with Terry Trivette about his new record catch.

Trivette of Pinnacle, N.C. caught a 6.97-pound spotted bass while fishing on Lake Norman, Saturday, Feb. 11. He and his partner were competing in their Troll-Eze Bass Club tournament on Lake Norman. Trivette fishes at minimum once a week, but they usually fish Lake Norman in the winter and will cherry pick different tournaments on the lake like the Ryan Newman tournament throughout the year.

They started out the morning throwing the now famous Alabama Rigs. Their first fish was a good one and came on an Alabama Rig. About mid day, however, they pulled up on a point and started casting crankbaits. He was casting a Rapala DT 6 in Hot Mustard when the fish bit. He had already made about 10 casts, and on this cast, he fired it up right to the bank. Two to three handle turns into his retrieve, the fish bit and he set the hook, seeing her roll up in the shallow water. He knew it was a big fish immediately. The fish took him from the passenger side of the boat to the back deck, around to the front deck and then back down the drivers side. He was constantly thumbing the fish let it have line when it would surge under the boat. His partner held the net sitting in the driver's seat and blocked Trivettes view of the fish. About that time, Trivette felt the weight release on his line but he couldn't see if the fish had gotten off or if it was netted. His partner spun around and set the fish in the boat and the crankbait just fell out of the fish's mouth.

They went on to win their club tournament and not surprisingly the big fish pot. He knew he had a special fish and weighed it on a couple different scales on the lake before heading to The General Store in Denver, N.C. to have it weighed on certified scales. Then he called Bass Pro Shops to see if they wanted the fish.

They were not able to take the fish until Tuesday, so Trivette had to keep the spotted bass alive for more than 3 days. He constantly took 3 gallons of water out of his livewell and replaced it with 3 gallons of water from his pond. He did that for several days to make sure the spot lived. He had hoped to deliver the fish on Monday and when he found out Bass Pro Shops in Concord Mills couldn't take her until Tuesday, he figured she might be dead when he opened the livewell Tuesday morning. Trivette runs a landscaping business and works full-time at Cook Medical. Two jobs hardly leaves any time for fishing moreless caring for a fish night and day.

"I babied that fish like a newborn, but I think spotted bass are a lot tougher fish," Trivette said. "I don't know if I could have kept a largemouth alive that long. I just kept recirculating new water into the well and adding Rejuvinade as I did to keep the fish healthy. When I reached in to get her out Tuesday at Bass Pro Shops, she was as strong as the day I caught her."

The fish has to be quarantined for 30 days before it can be mixed in with the other fish at the Bass Pro Shops tank, but he called yesterday to check on the bass, and it was doing fine and had eaten six to eight 5-inch trout already.

If the fish is accepted as the North Carolina state record spotted bass, it will beat the previous record of 6.5 pounds caught by Eric Weir on Lake Norman in 2003. Weir's fish fell for a Zoom Finesse worm in chartreuse and pumpkin.

Several photos have circulated of the spotted bass and that's Trivette's partner in those photos. These photos are of Trivette himself with his trophy catch. What a fish and she's alive to be shared with NC anglers for some time to come.

Trivette caught the bass on an American Rodsmiths David Fritts Cranking rod and a Quantum Energy baitcaster with 10-pound green Sufix Deep Cranking line.

Fishing the J-Rig for Vertical Cover

Jason Sealock — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 19:15:00 GMT

Janet Parker with a nice J-Rigged bass - photos by Todd Hammill

Necessity, they say is the mother of all invention, or in the case of fishing, maybe the mother of all ingenuity in rigging. Competing in bass fishing tournaments can be a pressure cooker. It forces folks to speed up, fish too fast, race from spot to spot, and often over think what needs to be done to get pressured bass to bite.

Randall Tharp made everyone look silly in the recent FLW Tour Open on Lake Okeechobee when he won the event by more than 23 pounds just hunkering down and flipping small areas on the massive grass laden fishery. His sit and soak yielded impressive catches in cold-front riddled event.

Janet Parker has been making a name for herself on the Bassmaster Open trail. She’s really focused again this year on earning that elusive Elite Series berth. She recently shared one of her “ace-in-the-hole” techniques and more importantly her J-Rig way of rigging a wacky style soft bait to methodically pick apart an area.

The J-rig is an extension of a wacky rigged soft stickbait like a Yamamoto Senko that makes it weedless and extremely effective for fishing a bit deeper than other anglers.

“I fished as a co-angler on the FLW Series and FLW Tour for a number of years and really learned a lot about how pros fish wacky-rigged soft plastics,” Parker said. “They would fish them deeper by inserting nail worms into the bait. But it limited the action of the bait so much. I thought if I could weigh the hook I could keep the action of the bait but fish it deeper.”

What she finally settled on after a bit of trial and error on the tournament trail was a 2/0 Owner Mosquito hook that she wrapped with about 1-inch of golfer’s lead Gamma tape. Since that time there has been an influx of wacky jigheads but she still sticks with the tape for a number of reasons.

“The tape has been perfect for several reasons,” Parker said. “I can quickly alter the rate of fall by adding or taking away some tape. So I can modify it on the fly. Those new jigheads you can change the head. You have to have a bunch of different sizes. And they are so expensive. So this is a much cheaper alternative. You can get 3 yards for something like $3.”

Parker employs a very vertical approach to how she fishes her J-Rig. She will skip it up to or around vertical structures like bridge pilings, retaining walls, dock posts, moorings, grass line edges and more. From there she feeds line off onto the top of the water as the bait falls and starts studying her line. She uses 20 pound braid always because she likes the added power she has to set a hook and it’s so easy to watch her line lying on top of the water.

It’s a lot like fly fishing. She’s watching the line floating on the surface. If the line jumps or just starts going under a lot faster, she knows she has a fish. But if she casts it out and it sinks to the bottom without a bite, she’ll reel up the slack, then lift the bait slightly and let it fall again. If nothing bites again, then she reels up again and shoots for her next target. The only exception to this is when fishing around grass.

For submerged grass she’ll cast up to the edge of the grass line and work the bait out with lifts and drops if nothing bites on the initial cast. She’s looking for those fish suspending off the grass lines or hanging on isolated clumps. IF it’s bank grass, she’ll cast up to the bank and flutter it across the top of the grass. Sometimes they will pounce it like a frog, but usually the bass follow it to the edge and when she kills it and lets it sink, they jump all over it.

Parker favors the rig around boats docks. She’ll use a skipping cast to get it as far back under the cover as possible and let it sink. Sometimes she’ll make 30-40 casts on a single dock to make sure she covers all the ambush points.

“It’s really effective for fish busting on the surface,” she said. “If I see one bust, especially in shallower water, I will throw over to it with the J-Rig and 8 out of 10 times, the fish will eat it.”

Another key situation for her J-Rig is long distance casting to bedding bass. She follows the theory that a bass that is not on the defensive is a lot easier to catch. So she will line up the beds and make blind casts to the beds from as far as possible. The bass are not as spooky and skittish and the subtleness of the bait really makes them attack.

“I like to scale down to a 5-inch Yamamoto Thin Senko on bedding bass,” Parker said. “The bait is so subtle and because I’m so far away, the just run off the bed and grab it before it sinks all the way down. It’s so effective on deeper beds to. I don’t have to see the fish. The rig makes them show themselves. I’ve not found any other bedding bait that they will chase out and grab before it gets into the bed like this bait and rig.”

The gear for fishing the J-Rig is pretty simple. She uses a Dobyns Champion Elite Series 743 spinning rod and spinning reel. She likes 20-pound braid with a 4- to 6-foot fluorocarbon leader. She’ll use 8 or 10-pound fluorocarbon if where she is fishing is free of grass or abrasive cover. If it’s cover that could shred the line, she’ll go up to 14 to 15-pound leaders.

The fish are reacting to the presentation; even though most anglers would consider it finesse fishing. They are not looking at the line or studying the bait. They are seeing something that looks alive slowly sinking and reacting to it. Parker has found the fish really eat it, even on the beds.

She also uses it as a follow up bait. If a fish comes up and busts on a topwater lure, she’ll reach down and grab the J-Rig and catches those missed topwater fish more often than not. For that reason, she always has a J-rigged and ready.

Her favorite lures are Senkos, Thin Senkos and finesse worms.

“I rig it like you’re hanging the worm vertically on the short part of a ‘J’ with the hook point buried in the plastic,” she said. “This looks like it wouldn’t work, but that Owner hook is so sharp it just cuts through all the plastic and you stick them every time. It’s really weedless and falls right every time.”

Clear fisheries are the best for this technique as the bass need to be able to see it. Lightly stained fisheries will work but you’ve got to put it right on the fish’s nose. The best days for Parker have been on those flat slick calm blue bird days when fishing can be tough on clear fisheries.

She would have blanked at Table Rock last year in the Opens until she picked up the J-Rig and took off down some docks and scraped out a fish in the waning hour of the tournament. She also caught several key fish at the Arkansas River in Muskogee, Okla.

It doesn’t work all the time, but when the conditions set up for it, she thinks she can compete with anyone.

“I’m really looking forward to the Open on Table Rock this year,” she said. “Those fish will be on the beds and roaming and if we get some calm days, I’ll really catch them. I had some quality fish found on Table Rock last year before the floods hit. So I’m excited to get back there and throw the J-Rig.”

Tips for Reading and Fishing Hot Water Winter Fisheries

Jason Sealock — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 18:01:00 GMT

Warm water discharges. Power-plant lakes. Hot ponds. Whatever you term these fisheries, finding a lake that has warmer than average water in the late winter and early spring can produce some of the best bass fishing all season. There is no mistaking it, bass on those hot ponds live a different life than bass in your average fishery with water temperatures often mimicking cold winter air temps.

These lakes that feature water that has passed through a cooling system for a power plant add warmer than average water back to the lake. Now this may not sound appealing in August in the blazing heat of summer, but January, February and March offer prime-time hot-pond bass fishing.

Obviously as is the case with anything in bass fishing, it's not enough to simply know where a hot pond is and start chucking and winding all around it. There is more of a method to the madness than most realize. It's not just throw it up as close to where the water is coming out, in fact that can be some of the least productive water at times. But there are several nuances to fishing warm water discharges to make your approach to bass fishing more effective here.

Obvious factors like size of the fishery, current, consistency of water discharge, available cover, available forage and more can help you predict where the bass are staging, feeding and migrating throughout the fishery. We can provide several scenarios and examples that will help illustrate these points better.

Todd Hammill and Scott Glorvigen frequent a hot pond in Minnesota. The pond itself is just off the Mississippi River and is only around 11 acres in size. The hot water discharge area on this bay off the river is lined with reeds, cattails and other vegetation. Of course in the winter months, the vegetation is dead or dormant but offers great canopies for the bass to tuck under out of the current and still take advantage of the warmer water.

The area produced one of their largest bass of 2011 weighing more than 6-pounds.What they found is that because of fishing pressure, as it can be some of the only open water in Northern Minnesota, they've had to really delve into the cover itself and fish those bass out of thick cover. Often there are fish caught on current edges as well. But day in and day out, they like to nose up into the cover.

Conversely I spent many years fishing a hot water lake in Northern Arkansas. What made this fishery unique is it's one of the furthest north lakes that is stocked with Florida strain bass. Ever had to knock the ice out of your guides while sight fishing for cruising Florida-strain largemouths getting ready to go on the beds? I have. This lake was unique in that it was a bit larger and the lower ends of the lake near the dam actually could have pretty cold water in it while the upper ends of the lake could be balmy at 70 degrees.

The lake has quite a bit of standing timber, a few points and pockets and some rock. However we often found the best fishing to be in the mid-lake area. You could catch bass up at the discharge, but more often than not our best fishing was thinking a few months ahead of normal Arkansas fishing and concentrating on the warmer mid-lake temperatures that put the fish in a comfort zone to feed and think about the impending spawn.

To this day, my largest five-bass limit came fishing that power plant lake in early March. I found a school of very large bass suspending off a main lake corner. I could see them on the graph and tried for a while with various different baits. In the end, it turned out to be a weightless Senko, allowed to sink as deep as 18 feet that yielded all my big bass that day. A drop shot also caught a lot of fish, but those bigger fish just related better to the slow fall of the Senko.

It was finding that temperature zone within the lake that was concentrating the bass. The air temp was holding right around freezing, yet the water temp was between 60-65 degrees. The big bass on a hot-water fishery will often congregate in one section of the lake and that can be the biggest part of the puzzle is just sampling the different sections of the lake until you find that temperature range the bass are really relating to.

The consistency of water discharging from the cooling towers at the power plant fed fisheries can have a key role. I know at the hot lake in Arkansas, the power generation shut down for several weeks there and there was a huge fish kill. The bass were not accustomed to surviving in water temperatures below 40 degrees and the lack of generation stunned and ultimately killed a lot of them. That was more than 10 years ago now and the regularity of water generation has kept the bass fat and feeding. Power plants often have outages that will also mean there is no flow or warm water coming in so be prepared to adjust your tactics accordingly.

There are hot lakes like Newton Lake in Southern Illinois that offer size, and various structure and cover to fish. Terry Brown has found patterns you don't often think would work in January and February on other fisheries, work on these hot water fisheries. Deep cranking might be a May or June pattern on your average lakes in the Midwest, but at Newton, it can be the deal in February. Flipping and pitching is often thought of as a good way to fish in the winter, but keep in mind the days start getting longer every day after the first of the year and if the water is already a comfortable temperature, the increasing activity levels, longer days can accelerate the fishing and effective patterns.

Don't overlook that fact that fish can still have winter patterns on a hot lake. We've said how it can often fish like different times of the year. But a hot pond can also fish like other lakes. The further you migrate from the warm water source, the more those fish will fall into typical winter patterns. I've seen days where jerkbait fishing in the coldest water on the lake was better than jig or crankbait fishing in the warmest water.

I’ve also seen where being as close to the current and letting lures tumble down through and around the eddies of the strongest current coming into the lake from the power plant, have yielded some big catches. Current positions fish in predictable ambush points. It disorients baitfish. Knowing all of this should factor into fishing the discharges.

Lake Dardanelle, in Russellville, Ark., is also the home of Arkansas Nuclear One, a nuclear power plant with a cooling tower and warm water discharge. Before the days of 9/11 and homeland security, we would fish there as kids right up by the discharge gates, catching stripers and whatever else was in there feeding on disoriented shad. My father worked at ANO and would take me up there and fish on the weekends.

As I got old enough to go on my own, I learned the nuances of the current and caught many 20-pound limits working current seams and eddies with crankbaits, jerkbaits, spinnerbaits and other lures. Learning where the big rocks were that broke that current took time and cost me some baits, but it also made my fishing very efficient. I knew where those bass like to hide and how they would make mad dashes and rolls against the bank rip rap to snag a seemingly disoriented shad. Some days a lipless crankbait would wreck them. Some days a slightly weighted soft jerkbait did.

The thing to remember is to not just assume the bass are lined up in the warm water waiting for lures to fall from the sky. You still have to put in the time to learn current breaks, water temperature ranges, generation schedules, forage activity, fishing pressure, season of the fish and more. But learning these things can also make it a lot easier bass fishing than you experience on other highly pressured fisheries with much colder water.

Wired2Fish Wallpapers for Mobile Devices

Jason Sealock — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 18:01:00 GMT

Several folks showed us how they had the Wired2Fish logo on their cell phones, tablets, computer backgrounds and more. So we figured maybe we'd give you all a few to show off to your friends how much you love fishing. It's not our brand. It's your brand. It's the brand for everyone who loves fishing and is proud to tell folks they love fishing. It's a pride thing. A passion thing. So fly your flag with pride!

We made them in several different colors and sizes to fit various screen sizes.

Thanks for making us part of your daily fishing routine! Right click on these images and click Save As to save them to your desktop. You can email them to yourself and open the emails on your mobile device. On your iphone just press and hold the image until it gives you the option to save it. Then go into the image and click on it and choose set as wallpaper or background.

Five for 5 | Tips to Improve Fishing Odds in the Backseat

Jason Sealock — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 06:01:00 GMT

By Terry Brown

The Bass University is a concentrated high level training class and one that the novice and seasoned veteran will take away knowledge to make them better anglers. I recently had the opportunity to emcee one in Chicago, my second, and again was not disappointed.

The information the group of pros that included Ott DeFoe, Pete Gluszek, Mike Iaconelli, Randy Howell, Fred Roumbanis and Kevin Short provided was top notch. Each angler talked about their individual area of expertise and didn't leave anything out -- no secrets, no hidden agendas and no BS. Just straight talk about their experiences and what works for them. I really like the openness of this school, and everyone I spoke to in attendance felt it was well worth the time.

I really liked that it ran in conjunction with the Chicago Outdoor Sportsmen Show. It was two full days of fishing talk, training and interaction.

To be honest I have been to more classes and seminars than Carter has liver pills and some of them are actually pretty bad. Not BU. It is a first class operation and first class information and I even took notes. I hope to bring more from the class in later articles, but one I felt needed passed on first was Ott DeFoe's co-angler advice.

As you know Ott fished the FLW Tour prior to coming to the Elite Series and has experienced the back seat himself. He had some great tips for the backseater that may be common sense to some but others may not have thought about thoroughly.

Here is his breakdown of things a co-angler can do to improve the odds in the back of the boat:

1. Watch the guy in the front of the boat like a hawk. Look for tendancies on his approach and casts. Does he always cover one side of the target? Does he hit all sides of it? Could there be other submerged objects around his target? What type of bait is he using? Knowing the routine of the front seater can be an advantage to the back seater. Keep your eyes peeled for shad activity or bluegills popping pads. That can key you into color or type of bait and may clue you in to what the bass may be looking for. It the pro is fishing a jig on a point pick up a crankbait or a topwater.

2. Look for new angles. Determine what angle the cast is made by the pro and look for other angles that may work. Mix up your casts. Sometimes wait for the boat to move a bit before you cast. That could create a new cast angle that he may have missed. Also be aware from where the fish came in the water column. For example, if he is fishing a hollow bodied frog over slop, use a spoon with pork trailer or a plastic frog like a Horny Toad. Small subtleties in bait selection can be huge. If he is throwing something quiet, throw something that makes noise and vice versa.

3. Change retrieve types and speeds. What part of the water column is he fishing? He may be ptiching to a target and fishing the bottom. Choose a different retrieve and speed in your cast. Mix it up and don't be afraid to do something diffferent like shaking a spinnerbait or swimming a jig. Observation of the front seater again plays a significant role. Don't do exactly what he does, especially on tough bite days.

4. Use different baits. Do not throw the same bait as the pro. Again, mix it up. If he is power fishing a jig, go subtle with a Senko or cast a squarebill in and around the cover. Let the fish tell you what they want. Mix up your colors too. A small color change can be huge.

5. Watch where and how the fish bite. Watch the small things. Is it a subtle bite or are the fish agressive and reacting to the bait. Don't be afraid to crash your bait into the object you are fishing and don't be afraid to get hung up. Use baits that are weedless when possible to avoid confrontation, but hit the spots he missed. Hitting the same hole in the grass or the same side of the brushpile usually doesn't pay dividends. Don't be afraid to experiment and watch for what he misses.

The bottom line for the backseater is dedicated observation and mixing it up. Small changes can make for big results.

One final thought: If you are wondering if Bass University is worth the investment, the answer is a resounding yes. A weekend in a classroom can pay big dividends on the water.

Being First: A Fishing Strategy for Staying Ahead of the Competition

Jason Sealock — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 06:01:00 GMT

The water curved around the log, creating a rim of glistening current as it rebounded off the solid structure. To the other side a glassy window showed a few boulders and some grass under the surface of the slack. The jig landed reticently in the still waters as the angler closed the bail quietly on the spinning reel. The current grabbed his line as he raised the rod tip to escape its tow. Slowly scratching the surface of the pebbles, the jig inched closer to the log.

The invisible line suddenly became visible as it popped off the surface like a small damsel fly startled by an approaching predator. The line snapped tight and began redirecting into the current. The rod loaded under the catapulting upward snap and a big smallmouth leapt out of the water froth with anger that his prey was fighting back.

Wading creeks as a kid was always somewhat akin to living the life that Hemmingway described in his short stories. There was a beauty and a romance to the trickery, conflict, struggle and reward of each cast and catch. But the real allure for me was “being first” to that untapped hole in the river. I’m not talking about a specific fishing hole but the next “piece” of the fishing puzzle that no one else had found that day, that week, that month, that season … yet.

I learned at an early age that knowing a good spot was not nearly as effective as knowing when a spot was good. Moreover knowing a new spot had just become a prime ambush place for foraging fish was even the better. I would often wade and canoe streams with other anglers and it was always an adventure to be the one who figured out the next rock, the next log, the next pattern to run down the length of that day’s trip on the river that made the fishing such an enjoyable experience.

That one small piece of fishing wisdom has carried with me 25 plus years and led me to many great catches on many different fisheries. There are always popular ways to catch fish on any given fishery at any given season of the year. In the winter, everyone might be chasing bass with jerkbaits and small jigs. In the spring, the soft stickbaits and sight fishing might be the hot ticket. Later that summer, soaking worms and burning crankbaits might be the magic pill to load a boatload of bass.

But following the masses and listening to dock talk, can also cause more anglers than not to miss the boat entirely so to speak on some of the best fishing on the lake.

It seems to me bass are always about to be in transition. About the time winter really sets in, the days start getting longer and those occasional warm sunny days and warmer rains suddenly make the shallows a little bit warmer. I can’t tell you how many big bags I’ve had finding those warm runoff creeks in the early prespawn period. The same thing happens in the late summer. Everyone is out deep fishing, and you slide up to some flooded grass or shallow stump-laden flat and find it teaming with feeding bass that moved shallow to enjoy the ample forage and higher oxygen levels.

In the fall everyone is probing the backs of the creeks when fish are suspending off channel swings getting away from the flats of forage.

No one can tell you when to go do this because that is the nature of “being first” in fishing. You’ll switch gears and move to the next place the bass are transitioning to and hit them with a new approach totally different from what had been catching the fish. Some seasoned anglers would say it's instinct, to go with your gut when you get those feelings. That’s just a slang way of saying tap into your years of experience when you found the fish on a pattern no one else was looking for yet.

A recent example came last week, and got the juices flowing for that same discovery enlightenment I felt as a teenager, chasing bass in those small creeks back home with my school chums.

Everyone knows how powerful The Alabama Rig and subsequent knockoffs have been at catching bass through the fall and winter. Most folks fail to realize its success has been because the fish have suspended from October to February thanks to one of the most unseasonably warm winters on record. In essence, we’ve had four or five months of fall in a large part of the country.

Everyone and their brothers are throwing castable umbrella rigs of some sort on every point, hump, ditch, steep bank, bay and ledge they can find – us included. We make no declarations of allegiance for or against the new castable umbrella rig craze in bass fishing started by Andy Poss of The Alabama Rig. We’ve caught piles of bass between 5 and 8 pounds since October on the rigs. No doubt they work.

But what we’re even more elated about is the fact they have left a bunch of bass unmolested in a bunch of places. We’ve thrown the umbrella rigs as much because folks bragging about big strings as we have because of our own successes. That can lead you down the wrong path because you quit trying to be first with your fishing.

The lake had some current in it last week, and the water clarity was stirred up and muddier than usual although I wouldn’t call it muddy by normal standards. I threw The Alabama Rig and the Yumbrella a bit that day, and honestly the fish had moved on me were not biting either one where I fished. I changed up swimbait configurations and still didn’t have a bump. Obviously I must not be around the fish right?

As I approached a secondary point, I remembered having caught some bass in the early prespawn time frame a couple years ago on a crankbait, a Bandit 300 to be exact. The point had some current wrapping around it, so I picked up the crankbait and fired a cast or two across the point from a couple different angles. On the third cast my rod bounded back and forth and I leaned back into something heavy. The fish came up and rolled and it was a nice largemouth.

After a short fight and a couple of surprising jumps in the 51 degree water, I landed the fish. I was beaming like that 15-year-old holding a big smallie from the Kings River with soaking shorts and sloppy sneakers. The fish was 5 pounds, 2 ounces and was fat and unscarred in any fashion, just a beautiful prespawn bass that had moved up in the warmer waters.

What had I found I thought? Was it a fluke? I picked the rigs back up and worked the area thoroughly, but never had another bite. So I headed up lake looking for some more productive areas. The lake water temperature had been 44 degrees a week before and not it was reading 51 on my Lowrance HDS 8 on the front deck. I hit the next rocky bank working my rigs slowly and methodically around any rocks, stumps, brush I could feel. No bites and no takers.

As I approached the next point, I reached for the Bandit 300 again. Two casts in with the crankbait and the rod loaded again. I reared back on the rod and fought another great keeper bass into the boat weighing a little more than 4 pounds.

“I’m an idiot,” I thought to myself. The fish were up there feeding on those points, right on the bank and apparently didn’t like five big swimbaits crashing in on the party. But shoot a diminutive crankbait into the crevices of the rock and pull it out slowly, and it was easy to catch the bass. It felt just like those stream bass of my youth. Those things would bite like they’d never seen an artificial before, and I’m convinced to this day a good many of them had not until falling for mine.

I only had about a half hour to run a couple more points and was astonished to find that I had caught more than 18 pounds on a crankbait only running the pattern for about an hour total. These fish hadn’t been touched yet and I got there first. I’m sure other anglers had probably fished these areas, but not the way I was and not with what I was.

It was a good reminder that following the crowd might catch some fish, but beating the crowd to the party can lead anglers to some of the best fishing days of their life. Staying ahead of the pressure, and looking forward to the next transition for the fish. Understanding your weather variables and how that could change where the fish are feeding and holding as one season transitions to another puts a lot of fish in the boat for a lot of great anglers.

How to Study Maps for Better Fishing

Jason Sealock — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 18:35:00 GMT

If you’re just getting started in bass fishing or any type of fishing, new bodies of water can seem like vast oceans and knowing where to start can be a daunting task. Even if you’re a seasoned veteran on a certain fishery, trust us and the other successful pro anglers when we say there is something to be learned every year on your favorite fishery.

We caught up with Terry Bolton and talked with him about how he looks at each lake before he gets there, specifically his map study before each trip and then how he applies that pre-trip map study to his search for bass on the water. His tips will certainly help anglers of all skill sets break down water quickly and efficiently and make the most of the limited time we all have to fish.

“I still use paper maps all the time,” said Bolton, a long time offshore angler on the highly pressured waters of the Tennessee River. “Even when I fish at home (Kentucky Lake), I carry a full set of lake maps, topo maps, navigational charts and more. I want to be able to find something off the beaten path or something maybe not marked on today’s advanced GPS chips.”

Bolton starts each tournament long before he gets to the tournament, looking at maps, getting online and using resources online to look at major sections of the lake. Tools like Google Maps and new sites like Angling-Technologies.com can give you a birdseye view of the lake before you ever get close to the water. You can figure out which creeks have flatter banks, steeper points, docks, timber and more with these online tools.

But the search begins for Bolton by examining three characteristics and then formulating his map study plan based on those. The three things to consider before an angler starts map study are season, type of fishery, and weather influences.

The season can be easy to think you know but as you move from one part of the country to fish in another, it gets a lot trickier.

“I’ve studied maps and gone to fisheries thinking it was fall, and then I show up and start fishing and find out the fish are still in a late summer pattern and I have to scrap a lot of what I found on the map,” Bolton said. “So you have to remain flexible even though you think you have a good plan going in. The seasonal patterns can have you pulling the maps back out and changing your plan on the fly.”

Knowing the season of the fishery provides anglers broad ideas of places to start searching for bass but that’s only if you take into account the type of fishery you are on. Fisheries differ by types – highland reservoir, river or natural lake. But it can be more specific than that even like tidal river, lowland rivers or river impoundment. It can also be specific by location. Tennessee River impoundments will fish a lot different than Arkansas River impoundments or Rio Grande impoundments.

Analyzing the season and type of fishery and relying on years of experience can help get you looking at the right areas on your map. As seasons change, anglers have to follow the bass to their proven feeding areas. But weather influences can change the seasonal and fishery approach, namely precipitation.

When the monsoons come, the effective fishing can change sometimes overnight and often in just a matter of days. Likewise, cold fronts, can move the bass back to previous locations until the weather stabilizes. But the influences of the weather changes must be accounted for when looking at new fisheries or even fisheries anglers feel very comfortable fishing. Flooded areas can put bass where they normally won't go, and cold fronts can move bass out of areas they were in last week.

After considering season, fishery type and weather patterns, then it’s time to sit down with your maps and start dissecting the fishery. Bolton breaks up his map study broadly by season, which he divides into six seasons because bass have very predictable migrations in the spring. His six seasonal breakouts include winter, prespawn, spawn, post spawn, summer and winter.

Start general

The following generalizations are how Bolton starts each season’s map study:

Winter – "I start looking for creek channel junctions and more vertical structure. I will also look for the last deep water in the backs of creeks or the last defined channel swings in those major bays and creek arms. Creeks, especially where they split in those major bays can be really key in the winter doldrums."

Prespawn – "I look for those channel swings and more 45-degree banks. I also start looking for north banks, points and pockets that are protected from cold north winds and get a lot of warm south winds and maximum sun exposure on them. I will look for bays and creek arms that offer me a lot of options in those protected north banks."

Spawn – "I want to find those small north shore pockets toward the main lake and the mouths of big bays first. Then as spawn progresses, I keep working back to the backs of the big bays for more spawning flats, flatter pockets with cover and more areas conducive to sun, current and wind protection."

Post spawn – "I look for those long structures that connect to the actual banks in the bays and creek arms. Flatter points, long bars in the mouth of the bays that extend way out and give the fish a place to move from shallow to deep as they progress into the summer and rising water temperatures."

Summer – "I look for main-lake structure not connected to the land. Things like main lake humps, river ledges, creek intersections and more. As summer progresses and gets into late July or August, fish will move shallower for better oxygen content. They won’t be on predictable corners and points like they were in early summer. The fish start to relate more to isolated cover and less to the contours of the structure."

Fall – "I’m always looking for flats this time of year. Flat pockets, big flats in the mouth of bays, long flat points again. Places where fish can forage and move in and out to feed on the congregating schools of bait."

Managing the mass

Bolton will study the map and try to break the lake down into manageable sections.

“When we practice for a tournament, we only have three days to break it all down and find enough fish to last for four days of fishing,” he said. “You can’t physically see everything in that amount of time, so a map is invaluable in finding good areas ahead of time that you can focus on dissecting in practice.

"Now I’ve had plans get thrown out in the first half a day in practice. So you have to still be flexible. I carry my maps with me. If I scrap a pattern, I might just start fishing around on what looks good until I catch a good fish or two. Then I pull my maps back out and find more places that look like what is working in practice.”

Bolton stressed the importance of fishing and not living and dying by your map study. A map is a tool that can get you in the right area, but fishing the areas is the only way to know if what you found on the map is worth it. So you have to be open minded and fish the conditions, what looks good and feels right based on your experiences on the water.

If you’re just starting out, don’t try to fish 25 miles of offshore structure. Pick a 4 or 5 mile stretch or area and stay there all day, marking and study your map, graphing with your electronics, trying multiple patterns and baits. There is no shortcut to the actual fishing and finding them. But the maps can cut out a lot of the guesswork.

“I tell guys in seminars all the time to by 5 or 6 marker buoys,” Bolton said. “Then as you follow along on your map or GPS and mark stuff, throw your buoys out and get good line ups on everything. It takes practice to learn to throw the buoy away from where you want to fish but keep a good line up. You’re not going to find a super spot just looking at a map. You’ve got to spend time graphing, fishing, lining it up and figuring out how it lays.”

Bolton also cautioned that not all maps are good on every fishery. That’s why he tries to get several maps, or uses several online services to get as many different views of a fishery. He also keeps all his old chips. Sometimes those chips change over years. Sometimes a more broad picture of the contours is better for finding areas than really detailed contours. He found some of his best stuff just looking at the general flow of a river and then idiling around on key areas to look for off the beaten path spots that fish might use because of pressure, current changes, etc.

“I’m old school, so I’m a big proponent of map study,” Bolton said. “I was joking with some college anglers recently about how hard a time they would have trying to find spots with a map and triangulating with trees on a bank now that they’ve come up fishing with all the modern electronics, GPS, side scan, map chips, etc. Take all that away and a bunch of folks could never get back on the fish.”

Keep notes of what you find that was right and wrong about your fishing and the map study. Keeping track of what you find that works and doesn't work will help you establish tendencies and seasonal locations of the fish. It''s not enough to know where a good spot is. You have to know when it's a good spot and where the next closest spot might be if the fish get pressured away from it or other spots like it for when that spot doesn't produce.

Good studying!

Pickwick Bass Fishing Showing Out ... Again

Jason Sealock — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 15:12:00 GMT

Pickwick has been showing out this week. In a fishery not really known for a surplus of double-digit bass like those in Texas, Florida and California, two fish over 10 pounds have now shown themselves thanks to umbrella rigs on the AL-TN-MS fishery.

Bassmaster Open pro and Alabama fishing guide Jimmy Mason fished with his long time friend and fishing buddy, Lance Walker, who most of you know now caught what was arguably the new Tennessee State Record Largemouth bass and released it to avoid killing the trophy fish just a few days ago.

The duo set out for a fun day of fishing on Wednesday on Pickwick to take advangtage of what Mason termed "a perfect storm" on Pickwick Lake right now.

"The lake is setup perfect for catching big fish," Mason said. "They are pulling 160,000 cfs which is producing a lot of current. The lake is 51-52 degree water temperatures. And there is a good stain to the lake. It's not muddy but I call it that perfect stain to get those fish actively moving into shallower water."

There always seems to be something about the big ones biting when the conditions seem to take a big change. You always hear of big bass being caught on those nasty days. This seems to be the same case.

Walker and Mason fished for about 8 hours and managed about 20 keepers, all on a Yumbrella rig with Yum Money minnows. There best five would have weighed nearly 28 pounds, but it was one fish that set the tone for the day. Early into the morning, Mason had a savage strike on the rig. He set the hook and after a short but powerful fight, Walker helped him land a 10.7 pound largemouth.

"That's the third biggest bass I've caught in my life, and the biggest I've ever caught in Alabama waters," Mason said. "Those days when you catch one of your biggest is just a special day. I sat on the couch last night watching TV and all I could think about was that bass and how hard it hit and fought in that current. I've fished all over the country for most of my adult life and it's just an amazing feeling when you catch a double digit fish like that. I had a 13 pounder on Toledo Bend and an 11.18-pound bass on Lake Toho in Florida. But this one is special because it was at home.

"I love throwing the Yumbrella and Alabama Rigs for bass. It's been a fun way to fish for bass. I lost some confidence in it last summer because there comes a time when they won't bite this as good as say a crankbait. Last summer I'd be catching them every cast on a crankbait, pick up the rig and throw it 20 times and not catch a fish. Then pick up the crankbait and go to catching them every cast again."

Mason describes this being the perfect storm for the Alabama Rig and other Umbrella rigs because we've in essence had 4 months of fall. The fish have continued to suspend and behave like they do in the fall all through the winter because it has been so mild. But there will come a time when the umbrella rigs lose some of their luster.

But he knows for the next few weeks there are going to be some big bass caught on it around the south and midwest part of the country.

"My biggest concern I guess with the umbrella rigs is that people take care of their fisheries," Mason said. "I've never seen a bait that attracts such big fish like this does and folks are going to catch some remarkable bass. I just hope folks coming and fun fishing on the lake and enjoying what the rigs can do don't take advantage of the fishery and throw all the giant bass they catch in coolers. Nothing wrong with eating some fish, but if we could just save the truly trophy fish to be caught again and protect how awesome a fishery like Pickwick has become."

Here is the fishing tackle Mason used to fish with the Yumbrella while bass fishing this fall and winter on lakes like Pickwick, Guntersville, Neely Henry and more:

Dobyns 764C, 7-foot,6-inch medium-heavy power rod

Lews Tournament Pro 6.4:1 reel

Vicious 65-pound Braid

YUMbrella rig (Tennessee Shad)

YUM Money Minnows (3 1/2-inch Foxy Shad on 4 with 5-inch Foxy Shad in middle)
Buckeye J-Will Swimbait heads (1/4 & 1/2 ounce)

Five for 5 | Florida Best Bets for Bass Fishing around the Spawn

Jason Sealock — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 16:00:00 GMT

By Shaye Baker

Growing up I remember watching intently as images of feeding and spawning Florida strain bass projected from old VHS tapes and onto the walls of my imagination. Shot in aquatic wonderlands throughout the sunshine state, I began to dream about one day venturing south and sampling the large, aggressive black bass beauties for myself.

While I was daydreaming, Terry Scroggins was living life to the fullest, swinging giants into the boat on an arsenal of baits of which I had yet to be introduced. Since the dawn of the information age, the evolutionary rate of bass fishing has hit an all-time high. Many baits have been ushered out and replaced with 2.0 versions, whereas others have for years and will likely permanently reside in the tackle boxes of every angler who wishes to land a lunker from one of the great Florida fisheries. For Scroggins, his top 5 lures include innovative new comers and relics alike. And they are hard to beat.

Topwater Twin Prop

Getting its start in the 1940s, the Smithwick Devil’s Horse earned its spot as a true classic that never went out of style. Scroggins uses this double-propped bait to aggravate spawn and post-spawn fish by working it through shallow spawning flats that are littered with vegetation.

“When I am sight fishing, I always have a Devil’s Horse in my hand, casting it around while I am looking for beds,” Scroggins said. “Even if the fish doesn’t get the bait, it will usually swipe at it and show itself. When this happens you can usually follow up with a YUM Dinger and catch it.”
The color of choice for Scroggins is 310B. It has a black back, chrome sides and an orange belly.

“For some reason, Florida bass love orange,” Scroggins said. “Anything that’s got some orange on the belly seems to generate a few more bites. I try to stay away from muddy water when I throw the Devil’s Horse and whenever I am fishing in Florida for that matter. I either fish the darker, clean water or I fish in clear water.”

Punch Baits

Flipping and pitching thick vegetation is one of the most tried and true methods for catching these temperamental giants. Many Florida bass live in the thicker vegetation year round, but if a cold front pushes through, nearly every fish in the lake will bury themselves in the thickest entanglement they can find. When this happens, you have to dig them out.

“I designed the Big Show Craw to flip heavy, dense cover,” Scroggins said. “I designed it small to get through the cover easy but also to mimic the bait. If you look under these grass mats, all the bait is small. The grass shrimp, little crawfish and bream are all small, so the small profile bait does a good job of matching the hatch.”

When the water is black or tannic, Scroggins goes with Cooter Brown which has a brown back and orange belly. In clearer water situations, he’ll pitch the craw in black blue shadow.

Soft Stickbaits

Since its conception, the soft plastic stickbait has become a mainstay in finicky Florida fisheries. A finesse tactic that is used to tempt the most non-aggressive fish without spooking them in the least. With apparently no action from a distance, the bait must be placed on the nose of a fish where it then reveals its tantalizing undulating action, often too much for the big girls to pass up.

“It’s a great bait to fish around the grass and a great sight fishing bait,” Scroggins said. “I also use it as a follow-up bait when I miss fish on other baits like the Devil’s Horse.”

Pitching the YUM Dinger into beds either weightless or as a light Texas rig is deadly for bedding bass. However, blind casting it down grass and reed lines is another technique that garners a lot of bites. Fishing the bait slow is crucial when you aren’t looking at the fish as is giving the line plenty of slack line to fall straight and work its magic.

Lipless Baits

Pre-spawn and post-spawn bass setup along shell beds in Florida and are often stacked in a few areas. Finding them can prove difficult, however, and that is what makes a search bait like a lipless crankbait such a key player in Scroggins tackle box.

“You can cover a lot of water with a lipless crankbait,” said Scroggins. “I like to yo-yo the Xcalibur One Knocker around these shell beds. It’s a great way to pick off these bass as they are coming and going from the spawn.”
Foxy Momma and Blue Chrome Orange are the two color patterns in the Xr50 and Xr75 that Scroggins relies on the most. If he gets into really dark water that still has a clean look to it, he’ll go with a Lemon Lime for added flash.

Carolina Rig

A Carolina rig has been used to haul bass in around the country and is likewise a stellar performer in Florida fisheries. Rigged with an ounce weight and a 4-foot leader, Scroggins uses the subtle approach to trigger strikes from bass along the shell beds that wouldn’t respond to the lipless crankbait. Trailing the rig with a YUM Houdini Worm or YUM Wooly Hawgtail proves most affective for Scroggins.

“If the water is real clean, I’ll go with a green pumpkin,” said Scroggins. “If it’s real dark, I’ll go with a junebug or redbug color. I keep my colors fairly simple down here. Over the years, I’ve learned what works in different situations, and I try to stick with what works.”

Knowing what, when and where baits work best is a great jumpstart to breaking down any fishery and can go a long way to help make the most of that long awaited voyage down south. Perhaps these tips from a legendary local will also help those fishing the grassy tannic-colored waters south of the panhandle to refine their approach. Either way, be sure to keep these 5 baits in mind the next time you’re out on the water and let us know how they treat you.

Possible Tennessee State Record Largemouth Caught

Jason Sealock — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 04:50:00 GMT

We got wind of a story about a big bass caught on Pickwick Lake. Turns out it was caught by our friend Lance Walker, CEO of Browning Eyewear. And it may have been the Tennessee state record largemouth to boot.

Walker has been travelling the country this winter attending various trade shows and boat shows for Browning Eyewear. He finally got a few days at home and called his friend Ray Rittenhour to go chase crappie with him on Pickwick Lake.

Recent rains have had the Tennessee River a mess and the rising of muddy water on Pickwick Lake really hurt the crappie fishing. With a few hours left in the day, they decided to give up on the crappie fishing bust and see if they could just catch a few bass to salvage the day. The rain, mud and rising water limited their options but they figured if they fished some shallow river bars, they might at least catch a couple bass.

Their first fish was a bar fish (striper) and at that point they figured the bass fishing might be a bust too. Walker was fishing with a Yumbrella umbrella rig but because he was fishing Tennessee waters he only had 3 wires on it. On the two outside wires he had 3 1/2-inch Yum Money Minnows and on the middle one he had a 5 1/2 Yum Money Minnow. The two small ones were on 1/4-ounce Buckeye J-Will heads and the middle one on a 1/2-ounce Buckeye J-Will head. He used a 7-foot, 6-inch heavy action Duckett Micro Magic rod with 65-pound Bass Pro Shops braid and a 6:4.1 Johnny Morris Signature BPS reel.

A few casts later, Walker hooked up with what he guessed was another bar fish or a big catfish. It was making runs, swathing back and forth through the water, but then he noticed his line surging to the surface and he went down to his knees hoping it might be a big bass.

It came to the surface, about 25 yards out from the boat, and rolled and Walker saw lateral lines. The fish made several big runs and Walker thumbed his spool to keep the powerful fish from tearing loose. He finally got the fish up to the boat and they new it was at least a 10-pound class fish, as Walker has modestly caught several double digit bass from Pickwick Lake.

"As soon as Ray grabbed her by the lip with two hands and pulled her in the boat, I knew I had a fish bigger than the 13.3 I caught from Alabama waters on Pickwick three years ago," Walker said. "I got the livewell filled up and put her in there and then took about 10 minutes to 'freak out.'"

Afterward, Walker started calling folks to get the Tennessee State records and find a TWRA official to help weigh his catch. His wife and son met him at the Pickwick State Park where the Park Rangers were waiting to meet him and get good photos of the fish. They finally found a set of reliable scales to weigh the fish. It weighed 14.58, slightly better than the 14 pound, 8 ounce state record caught in 1954. So they knew they were close if not over.

They got a TWRA biologist on the line and he informed them that to certify the catch as a state record they would need blood samples, certified scales, 2 witnesses, dorsal fin clippings, and more to document the catch. In short, the felt the fish would have to die to provide the evidence of the catch being a state record.

The pair deliberated at length on what to do. Go down in the record books and kill the fish, or set it free for someone else to catch down the road some time. It was not an easy decision to make with such a beautiful, healthy, impressive largemouth bass. They measured the bass at 27 1/8 inches and a girth of 24 inches. The formula puts the bass at somewhere between 14.5 to 15.7 pounds.

They made their decision ...

... and took the fish back to the lake and waited for her to shake her head and give a big powerful kick before letting her loose into the wild once again. It's not easy to know you probably have a state record and choose to let it loose, knowing full well you won't get credit for such a magnificent catch.

The potential state-record largemouth bass is swimming in Pickwick Lake. We believe it is. And even if it isn't now, in a month or two, it probably will be. Way to go Lance! We hope to be as Wired2Fish as you one day! What a bass!

Wired2Fish Photos of Kentucky Lake Bridge Collapse

Jason Sealock — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 16:26:00 GMT

We ran out to the site of the Eggner Ferry bridge collapse this morning so we could see first hand the damage and "what happened" in last nights boat crash with the tow boat the Delta Mariner knocking out a section of the bridge around 8pm Jan 26.

Here a few different angles of the wreckage. The boat is stuck under the bridge still because so much of the bridge is wrapped around the front of the bridge. We certainly don't want to point the finger or assign blame in a case we have no knowledge of the actual events. However the pictures seem to show exactly what happened here and we're reminded of those "low clearance" signs you see on over passes on county highways.

Click on the photos to see larger images. Mouse over the photos to get descriptions.

Visit Fish | Bass Fishing on H. Neely Henry Lake

Jason Sealock — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 06:01:00 GMT

Editors Note: We’re starting a new department called Visit Fish that will highlight some of our favorite bass, walleye, panfish and other destinations. These will be based on our personal experiences and those experiences of trusted anglers (i.e. “sticks on those fisheries”). It will also be based on the area being fisherman friendly with good lodging, restaurants and visitors bureaus that cater to the angling public.

Many anglers call Alabama the first home and several of us that have never lived their but have fished its many great fisheries call it our second home. There are a few states in the union that offer such a diverse variety of fisheries and high quality fishing for multiple species of bass and other game fish. Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia and Minnesota to name a few hold very special places in our heart because they offer great largemouth, smallmouth, spotted bass and other game fish fishing in many diverse fisheries.

Last year we got to experience a couple of new Alabama fisheries for the first time and since have learned a great deal about them from fishing and other great anglers that have been fishing them most of their lives. We’ll highlight several Alabama fisheries in Visit Fish but we’re going to start with one that is not likely a top pick for a lot of anglers, but it might be after delving into what makes it such a unique fishery.

H. Neely Henry Lake was impounded when the Neely Henry Dam project completed in the 1960s. It was first of the Alabama Power Company’s many dam projects on the Coosa River in the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s.
The dam was named for a high-ranking executive in Alabama Power and thusly so was the fishery it created along the Coosa River.

The fishery is roughly 77 miles long with 332 miles of shoreline (a key number as we’ll later see) but it’s only 11,900 acres. Which means it’s a very long, windy and narrow fishery relatively speaking with some windy creeks stemming from the inundation of the river and surrounding hollows.

Fast forward to today and fishermen have a truly unique angling gem. The star of this show is definitely the native Coosa River spots, a breed of spotted or Kentucky bass that some call the meanest bass that swim natively in North America. There are plenty of big largemouths in the lake as well but the Coosa’s are the unique breed that out-of-towners are usually seeking to catch.

“It’s really a fun lake to fish,” said professional angler and long-time Alabama guide Jimmy Mason of Florence, Ala. “It’s the lake I don’t get to fish as some of the others, but I love to come over here and fish because it’s like a throwback to how fishing used to be before we all had these technically advanced fish finders and big boats. You can honestly just drive the lake and pull in and fish what looks right.”

Mason isn’t exaggerating. He won a tournament a couple of years ago with 24 pounds and was catching 25 keepers a day during practice and en route to his win. He’s caught 5 ½-pound Coosa spotted bass on buzzbaits and largemouth weighing 7 pounds. And 8 pound largemouths are not unheard of although a 6-pound bass will usually get you big bass in most tournaments.

What is unique about the fishery is not its size or shape, but rather how it fishes.

“You can literally fish shallow 12 months out of the year here,” Mason said. “Obviously it can get harder in the winter and summer but I’ve had some amazing Coosa spot fishing in January and February fishing current related places in relatively shallow water. I will sometimes idle around looking for fish out deep, but most of the time I just hop around until I find those active shallow fish.”

The lake offers three key ingredients to good shallow fishing on any lake or river – docks, water willows and other shallow vegetation and current. What makes the fishing so good is not just the presence of all three but the fact that all three show up in a wide variety of situations and thus you can run different patterns on seemingly like stuff.

For example, in the spring the bass might be relating to the shallower docks in the flatter pockets and creeks off the main river. In the winter, the Coosa’s might be relating to current breaks and eddies off main river obstructions. In the fall you might be able to run seawalls with topwaters and buzzbaits and catch a mix of nice bass. There is where the fun lies for anglers.

“I’ve been fishing it since I was old enough to hold a pole,” said Dustin King, a life-long resident of the fishery, having lived most of his life in the major Canoe Creek arm of the lake. “I’ve had some amazing days on the lake. Even in the heat of the summer, I’ve caught big bass weighing more than 7 pounds fishing stuff I hit a lot. It’s a lake where you might fish a spot all morning without a bite and then they kick the current on and you have one of the best days you’ve ever had.”

Both anglers employ a variety of tactics throughout the year as is the case on any fishery. But a few common themes we found on the lake were crankbaits, jigs, plastics and topwaters.

When the fish are relating to current on the main part of the river, a crankbait can be hard to beat.

“This time of year a Bomber Flat A can be really hard to beat,” Mason said. “I get one custom painted in a pumpkinseed pattern that is just a killer on the lake. But you can figure out the type of banks, cover or eddies the fish are relating to and just run the whole lake looking for similar stuff. It’s such a patternable lake.”

Square billed crankbaits were the hot ticket when we were there this past fall. Fishing them along rip rap, current breaks, seawalls and even main lake docks yielded some nice Coosa spots and largemouths as well. They can also be real good in the early prespawn all the way up to the spawn also.

In the colder months, finding Coosa’s relating to current and gently letting a finesse jig like a Booyah Boo Bug tumble with the current into the eddy often yields big Coosa spotted bass for Mason. The other time he likes to catch big Coosa’s is in the fall with a buzzbait or topwater.

“There is nothing like the way a Coosa spotted bass savagely attacks a topwater plug,” Mason said.

This past summer, King was asked to take a magazine crew out fish in the doldrums of August fishing. The crew literally couldn’t find a guide to take them out because fishing had been so miserable. So King took the crew to a few of his favorite crankbait holes, and as luck would have it, the current kicked on and they whacked the bass with a Jackall Muscle Deep 15+ crankbait. In fact King caught his personal best on the lake, a bass nearly touching 8-pounds on the scale in the blazing summer heat.

Two of Mason’s favorite patterns for bass on the lake is flipping boat docks, which he said can be dynamite year round and is just a matter of figuring out what type of docks the fish happen to relate to. You have docks that hang out over deep water in the main river and you have docks that are in the skinny mud flats in the backs of the bays. He loves to flip a green pumpkin Yum F2 tube or his Booyah Boo Bug around the docks.

His other favorite pattern, and something we plan to come back to Neely to do this spring is swimming a jig around water willows or “Coosa grass” as the locals like to call it. The lake sets up perfect for some arm breaking bass fishing with a swimming jig.

Gadsden is a great place to find hotels, restaurants around the lake that are fisherman and boat friendly. If you want to plan a trip to Neely Henry, we suggest you check out Alabama Mountain Lakes Tourist Association at NorthAlabama.org. They are a travel and tourism group that really caters to anglers and the assets they have in the way of bass fisheries in North Alabama. They can get you hooked up with some out of the way places to stay, good places to eat along the river and more.

For guided trips, check out Jimmy Mason’s guide service at JimmyMasonBassPro.com.

5 Assumptions Anglers Make to Hurt Their Fishing

Jason Sealock — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 15:00:00 GMT

“You’re just in a rut,” a friend said.

The situation: I had lost several big fish or not caught a fish weighing more than 5 pounds in several weeks of fishing, while other folks sharing my boat had boated several big bass. When fishing “turns for the worst”, anglers have a tendency to over-analyze the situation. Truth was, I probably was just in a rut, or maybe it was just fishing. But it got me to thinking about ruts. So I started asking guys some of what they often heard or witnessed in other anglers or themselves that had their fishing a little off to say the least.

So we came up with five common assumptions that fishermen make that can lead them to a ditch of despair when it comes to lack of fishing productivity. Ruts can cause an angler to make the cardinal sin of “just going through the motions” and not focusing on triggering fish to feed or to react on every cast. Here are five pitfalls to avoid in your own fishing. Make a conscious effort to avoid that “rut” thinking and you’ll be more productive on every trip.

All fish “sit” in one spot

Of course not every bass in the lake is sitting up next to a single piece of cover waiting on some prey or imitation to happen by. Bass are constantly moving. Studies have indicated that during the warmer months smallmouth bass especially can roam miles each day foraging. The pitfall to avoid here is not covering the water thoroughly with fan casts and varieties of lures.

Think of it like this. You make a cast on a ledge. The bass is making routine passes up and down the ledge. You have to crawl the jig or worm back or grind the crankbait back just as the bass is making a pass up the ledge perpendicular to your cast. The odds are on most casts, the lure isn’t in front of the bass because he’s moving one direction or the other. So you’ve got to make repeated casts in an area until you can find that intersection point, with a presentation that will trigger that fish to react. That’s how a lot of folks find those “sweet spots” or “spots on the spot” that you hear anglers talking about.

All fish are feeding all the time

We have a tendency as anglers to hit spots we’ve had success fishing in the past. And because we caught them there before, we assume they will be chomping the next time we pull up on it. The fact is fish are very much like people. They don’t always eat. In fact they eat in windows and often as groups at times of the year when they are grouped up. But for a large majority of the day and night, they aren’t hungry or eating.

They are however opportunists, much like us. They may not be feeding, but they can be triggered to eat. Sure you might not be hungry, but then your buddy sits down next to you eating a warm chocolate chip cookie. Your other buddy gets up off the couch and gets him one. Before you know it, everyone in the room is eating one. There are cookies everywhere, and finally you can’t stand it and get up and get one for yourself. You trip a bass’s trigger, agitate him long enough or finally just make him mad and he’ll attack. And he’ll often get his buddies fired up to eat something in the process.

Fish that bite will bite again a day later

“Man I shook of 20 down this stretch in practice. They must have left.”

Ever heard that scenario? Last spring I learned a hard lesson preparing for a tournament. My partner and I were hopping from area to area trying to find concentrations of fish in shallow cover. We were hooking an occasional good fish and shaking off a bunch more in several different areas. Come tournament day we hit several of our best areas without a bite. We thought maybe the fish had moved on to get closer to spawn. Maybe they were already caught.

We started to fish similar areas that we didn’t hit in practice and we started jacking the fish again. We had a good showing and got a good check but we knew we could have done a lot better. We both agreed we had conditioned the fish in our areas. By simply letting them gnaw on a bait and then take it away from them, we educated them on our baits.

Kevin VanDam and Brent Ehrler are two of the best anglers on the two major tours and both have told me in interviews for articles that they both want to figure the fish out in practice. They want to find a few biting fish in practice in an area that has the right ingredients to expand. Then learn how to catch them best during the tournament. They don’t want to tempt and tease the bass too much and make the leery of their offerings when the tournament rolls around.

This spot always produces

Like we said earlier; we have a real natural tendency as anglers to fish our memories. Man this spot yielded a 7-pounder last year. This spot got me 20 pounds and a check. The truth is fishing spots are situational just like the fish. We spend our lives as anglers trying to understand the fish. We really should spend our time understanding the forage and how the fish ambush them. The fact is when the bait leaves certain areas, the fish won’t hang out too long waiting for them to come back. They’re eventually going to figure out the bait isn’t coming back.

Spots are seasonal. In colder months, the forage wants to be deep, the will be stunned and most vulnerable to suspending fish often. In those comfortable climates like spring and fall, the forage likes to be shallow and bring the predators shallow with them. Sometimes the bait will be relating to current breaks, certain types of cover and the bass follow seasonal migrations. So just knowing a good spot is not enough. You have to know a good spot and when the spot is good to really add it your plan of attack.

Slower is better

We all heard the same advice from our fathers and grandfathers. Fish slowly and when you think you’re fishing slowly enough, slow down some more. And that can be an effective presentation. But it’s not the only presentation. And when it comes to triggering fishing, slower is actually not as productive as quick fast movements. Darting, diving, and deflecting lures often get bass to make impulsive judgments more than a bait the bass can slowly study and determine might not be the real thing.

Some of the most consistent anglers fish fast and move a bait faster than a lot of anglers ever consider fishing a lure. Some of the best strikes you can have are when you’re ripping a crankbait, burning a spinnerbait, waking a swimbait or pulsing a swim jig.

Don’t get stuck fishing your lures the same way every time. Sure slower can be better at times, especially when the water is very cold. But that doesn’t mean a stop and go, radical jerk and pause or quick movements in small spaces can’t draw a reaction from big fish.

Fishing is not an exact science. But variety is definitely a key and is what keeps us wired2fish. We love to explore the puzzle and figure the pieces out. Some days we seem to predict the fish’s movements and other days we’re the blind squirrel looking for a single nut. So avoid fishing in a rut and just going through the motions. Often just getting aggressive about approach can turn your fishing from misfortune into jackpot.

Three New Bass Fishing Shapes from Berkley Havoc

Jason Sealock — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 20:50:00 GMT

The professional anglers and designers at Berkley have been busy working on some new shapes for the Havoc line for 2012. We just caught a glimpse of the new Hawk Hawg, Smash Tube and Juice Worm from Berkley and wanted to pass these along to anglers that may be stocking up with bass fishing tackle for 2012. You might want to leave some room for these new baits.

The Berkley Havoc Smash Tube

This new concept on a tube was designed by Michael Iaconelli. The common problem folks have with tubes is unless you rig them on an insert jig head, the hollow, thick-walled body can be hard to rig weedless and still get good hook penetration. With the new Smash Tube, an angler gets a flattened tube that will rig more like a worm than a tube and give much better hook penetration. Plus they are double laminated so that the interior is one color while the exterior is another and the tentacles are custom cut to be a bit thicker for more water displacement.

The tubes come in a 6 colors, 6 tubes to a pack for around $3.49. To see more about the bait, the other color options and a quick video of the bait in a test tank, visit this link on Berkley-Fishing.com.

The Berkley Havoc Juice Worm

Boyd Duckett won an Elite-50 Major on Lake Dardanelle back in 2007 and won of his staple baits was a 7-inch power worm. He's always been a good worm angler but wanted a worm that had a great tail action at ultra slow speeds and one that wouldn't try to turn over and you pulled it through and over various types of cover.

The new Havoc Juice Worm will come in both 6 and 8-inch sizes and be offered in 20 colors to start. The worms will come 12 to a pack for $3.49. To read more about these worms visit this link at Berkley-Fishing.com.

The Hawk Hawg

Designed by Bobby Lane, this bait will appeal to the creature bait crowd. Lane spent his whole life perfecting his bass fishing skills on grassy lakes in central Florida and has made a name for himself in the Bassmaster Elite Series ranks with his ability to catch bass on plastics in the grass.

This bait features flappers, soft thin tails and bird-like wings that will give the bait a lot of action at both high speed lift and drops and slow drags or pitches into cover.

The bait measures 5-inches, comes in 15 proven colors and will come 8 to a pack for around $3.49. To learn more, visit Berkley-Fishing.com.

Fishing Feature | Blade Bait Basics

Jason Sealock — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 16:00:00 GMT

A cold water killer in bass fishing is often overlooked

The temps are finally dropping to their normal levels in much of the country after several days and nights of below freezing temperatures through the Midwest and south. No doubt that the mild temperatures probably had the bass, crappie and other gamefish relating to areas and fishing presentations a little atypical for January in much of the country. Now that winter is settling in, a few techniques will really start to produce.

One technique we really like in the late fall, winter and early spring is working 45 degree banks and offshore high spots with a blade bait. This time of year the shad on many Midwestern and southern reservoirs are stunned by the colder temperatures. As the waters dip into the mid 40s, the shad struggle to survive and as the temperatures continue to drop, they begin to die – often in massive quantities.

We really like to capitalize on that stunned shad situation. The bass, and other game fish as well, know they can get a pretty easy meal without having to expend much energy, something they relish in the colder months. They can just ease around and pick off struggling baitfish from the pack.

Many anglers opt for a jigging spoon first during this seasonal event, but a blade bait often yields better catches as we feel it’s easier to cover a more horizontal swath of water. So if you know the fish are suspending or relating next to steep breaks but you’re not sure where along the breaks they are, you can simply cast and work the blade back to cover the water more effectively.

Where a jigging spoon is extremely effective at covering the water in one narrow band vertically, a blade bait is effective at both vertical and horizontal. The lead in the nose of the bait and thin metal body get it down quickly but also give it a very subtle but noticeable vibration. A blade fishes many different ways effectively as a result. That is why we feel it’s such an effective tool when the water cools.

As far as tackle goes, we keep it pretty simple. You can fish these on spinning rigs with light line, but we’ve found because they cast so well because of their very narrow and front heavy design, we’re able to stick with our baitcasting gear and 10 to 12-pound fluorocarbon line as the water is typically lightly stained to clear when we fish these baits. A good 6 ½-foot medium-heavy power rod with a moderate tip works well to cast the lure a long ways and detect the changes in vibration.

We also like a pretty fast gear ratio on our reels, which is another reason we opt for a baitcasting gear. We can use our 7:1 gear ratios to our advantage. Anytime you have a bait that you lift and drop, you impart a lot of slack into the mix and you need to be able to get the slack out quickly to hit those light-biting fish. The higher gear ratio makes controlling the fall on a semi-slack line a lot easier. A 1/2-ounce bait is a great one to start with. I occasionally go up to 3/4-ounce if I’m fishing in deeper water.

On the hooks we often swap the stock hooks that come on blade baits. Baits like the Silver Buddy, Buckeye Jiggin Blade, Poor Boys Blade Bait, and others often come with standard bronze hooks. These hooks are fine for smaller fish, but knowing that we’ve taken 6 and 7 pounders on blade baits in the winter, we always upgrade the hooks. I really like the Mustad KVD Elite Triple Grip hooks and of course a standard round bend Gamakatsu hook is tough to beat. I do make one modification to my hooks.

Because where I fish is often littered with stumps, I will snip the down facing front treble off. Now if you just like to cast and wind the blade bait back in, you might not even need to do that. But what I’ve found is if you yo-yo the bait, as I often do, the bait drops nose first and then you jerk it up into the cover. So the bait raises its nose and exposes the belly hook to the cover. So I like to cut that front barb off. It doesn’t seem to affect my hook-up ratio with the fish, and I seem to get snagged a lot less.

If your bait does hit a piece of wood, then the phrase “knock on wood” is never more appropriate in fishing. Because the bait is designed with a weight in its nose, you can use that weight to often free the lure. When a hook is snagged, simply get close enough to the snag where you can pop several inches of slack line. With a series of 3 to 4-inch pops of the rod on semi slack line you can feel the bait knock against the cover. This repetitive knocking will often wiggle the lure free of the snag and save you a few bucks in the process.

There are a variety of presentations and retrieves that work with the blade bait, but a lift and flutter retrieve can be the best one to start with. As you continue to fish, you should continue to refine your retrieve to how the fish are reacting. You might start with a 2-foot upward snap of the rod but later find out short light hops of 6 inches work better. One typical rule of the thumb is the colder the water, the smaller and slower your hops should be.

Keeping control of your line is the most important part to yo-yoing a blade bait. You want the bait to have freedom to fall, but you also need to follow the slack so that if it stops falling early, you can stick a hook in the bass. So you raise your rod up to about 10 o’clock position, then as it falls you drop the rod tip so there is a slight bow the whole time in the line but it’s not laying slack on the surface of the water, reeling in slack to maintain a consistent bow. If the line suddenly stops falling before you think it should or you see it snap tight, it’s time to set the hook.

I am looking for certain types of banks and sharper offshore breaks this time of year with the blade bait. I like those banks that feature larger than average rock, stair stepping steep breaks or just a nice 45-degree bank where I can sit in 20 or 30 feet of water, yet still reach the bank. Some days I’ve found bass in less than a foot of water when it’s less than 45-degree water temps. So I like to try to get as shallow as I can on a cast, keeping in mind that you’ve got to move the bait immediately or it can snag. Then as I work it out on a steady retrieve, I will start my yo-yo retrieve when I feel there is enough water to start letting it drop safely.

On the yo-yo retrieve you also are keeping semi-taut line and anticipating when it hits bottom because you never really want it to stay there. You want it to just touch bottom and then you’ll raise your rod again and let it fall. So as you lower your rod, you’re taking up line watching to keep that small bow in the line to let the bait fall naturally. Then as it just goes slack, you raise it again. How hard and fast you raise the rod is really a matter of the mood of the fish. Sometimes you’ll snap it up. Other times you’ll barely pull it up, feeling that light thump as you do.

A vertical approach can be good too. Where a jigging spoon flutters and dances as it falls. A blade bait does its vibration as it rises and falls. Sometimes it can trigger fish that shied away from the spoon, and it can give you another vertical option in deep cold water. Try to avoid light pops on slack line as the bait will have a tendency to turn on its side and grab you’re line. You’ll know when it’s grabbed the line because it will suddenly feel heavier and have a lot more resistance in the water.

The bites are often not felt but perceived and the line is the best indicator so make sure you can see it and watch it. A blade bait is a great bait because it’s equally effective on smallmouth, largemouth and spotted bass. It will also catch other gamefish as well like walleye, sauger, crappie, stripers and more. So it can be fun fishing in the winter because you can catch other big fish that you weren’t expecting.