Spooning. No, I’m not talking about cuddling……
With your loved one. I’m talking about a fishing technique that is generally used during the colder winter months in deeper water but it can be equally effective anytime of the year and at any depth.
Lets start with the facts. During the colder winter months when the water temperature drops to about below 45 degrees, the semi annual shad die off occurs. It also occurs during the hot summer month’s when the water temp gets too warm for these little baitfish, at least these die offs happen out here in California. During these times spooning is a very effective way to catch the bass. I have also got on awesome catfish and Crappie bites with this technique as well. Basically, anything that eats shad will eat a spoon so be prepared to catch a whole bunch of different species of fish.
As far as tackle goes, I prefer a 6’6 medium action rod, a baitcaster reel spooled up with 8 pound Maxima. Some people prefer heavier line but I like the lighter stuff so I get a more natural fall from my spoon, besides that 8 pound Maxima is some very strong, abrasion resistant line.
There are many different spoons that work well for spooning. You do however want to select a jigging spoon not a top water or swimming spoon like a Johnson’s Silver Minnow. Some old reliable spoons are the Hopkins Shorties and Kastmasters in Silver or Gold or even the colored versions in ¼ to ½ ounce sizes. A word of caution, you will get line twist while spooning. One way to cut back considerably on the twist is to place a barrel swivel about 3-4 feet up your line from the spoon.
One word of caution. ALWAYS check the hooks! I have found that most of the hooks that come stock on spoons are not the greatest. At the very least sharpen them. I personally like to change mine out with custom dressed Diacchi Bleeding Series treble hooks. They add a flash of red , the “breathing” action from the customization and are incredibly sharp.
Now how do I use this rig? Spooning is most commonly performed vertically. You lower your bait straight down until it reaches the desired depth, most of the time the bottom, click the spool release closed and then you yo-yo it up and down. Always let the spoon fall on slack line but stay not too much slack, a controlled fall, because more often than not the fish will hit the spoon as it falls so if you see your line jump of if it does not take up the slack you already have out or if it takes more slack than you have let out, reel up until you feel pressure and set the hook.
Another way to use a jigging spoon is to cast it out, let it flutter to the bottom and hop it back to the boat, or shore line if bank fishing. I’ll let you in on one of my secrets for horizontal spooning. 2 words, Silver Buddy. One major drawback to doing this method is you can loose a whole boat load of spoons in a hurry hanging them up on the bottom.
A lot of times the fish will hit it on the fall and you wont realize you were even bit until you go to make another upward pull. When you pull upward, if you feel the fish, jerk it even harder to set the hook. You have to set the hook rather quickly when spooning because the bass will not hold onto basically a hunk of metal for to long before attempting to spit it out, This is where sharp will help out.
The speed and amount of the upward thrust depends on the fish and how far off the bottom they are feeding. Some times they want the yo-yo to go as high as you can raise the rod, some times just a few inches. The same applies to the speed at which you pull up the rod tip. Either rip the rod upwards or slowly pull it up or anywhere in between. Let the fish tell you how they want it.
Now the where. I would have to say one of the biggest secrets to successful spooning is to locate the balls of baitfish on your sonar unit. If you see streaks going through these balls that shows actively feeding fish and actively feeding fish is always a good thing. If you have a high enough resolution sonar with a quick enough refresh rate you can actually see your spoon yo-yoing up and down and watch the fish approach and attack it. While looking at the ball of bait fish look for marks below the ball very close to the bottom, those are usually fish waiting for the shad to die off, easy pickings. You may have to turn up the sensitivity on your sonar or zoom in on the bottom to reveal these fish because they are usually very close to the bottom and with the factory settings of most units they will just show up as tiny little humps on the bottom. Not all bait balls will have fish under them but if you follow it long enough the fish will show up. “Build it and they will come” ha!
A prime spot example would be where the bait are above some sort of structure, noticeable contour change, a bend in a creek channel, a rock pile, tree or that long tapering point. Bass tend to hold on structure so if the bait are around it the odds are very good that the bass will be there and they will feel.
However the above is not written in stone. I remember back prior to owning a boat I would pretty much blindly spoon during the winter months in my float tube. Of course I would dress for the occasion. Long Johns, a couple pairs of socks followed by neoprene waders as well as the old fashioned vinyl ones. Anyhow, I would go out and find structure with a jig and after locating it I would triangulate the spot with permanent landmarks and spoon away quite effectively I might add.
Next time your out give this technique a try. It just might surprise you.
Until Next Time, Good Luck and Tight Lines To Ya!
Fishing jigs
This post is about one of my favorite bass fishing techniques, Jig fishing. This is one of my confidence technique’s. I know every time I throw a jig I’m going to catch bass, and chances are, big ones at that.
I’ll start out talking about the different types and styles of jigs. First I’ll cover the lead head.
You’ve got weedless ones. All this means is they have a little fiber brush guard sticking up in front of the hook therefore when you pull the jig say through a tree the guard will deflect off the branch and usually not get hung up. I always modify the fiber guard to allow for easier hook sets. The way I modify mine is I first off I’ll trim them down so the tips are inline with the hook. Then I fan out the guard and thin it out some. I want to leave enough fibers to keep the jig weedless but not so it will interfere with the hookup.Of course one without the brush guard wouldn’t be considered weedless. These jigs are designer for more open water applications.
Next you’ve got the “Stand Up” jig heads. These generally have a flat bottom which is to say, if you drop the jig it should land on the flat side causing the hook to stand upright. Then you have the casting jigs which have a tapered style head. You have the basic round head. Then you have my favorite type, the football head. These are designed so when your jig bumps against a rock or some kind of structure they roll upward resembling a crawfish in a defensive position when you slowly raise your rod tip slightly.
Of course being out here in California I have to mention the finesse jigs. These little buggers can be down right deadly. About the only requirement a jig has to be considered a finesse jug is they have to be smaller than the standard bass jig. Most finesse jigs then to be made with round living rubber instead of the standard flat rubber or silicone. The original CA finesse jigs were the Skinny Bear jigs. I’m not sure if they still make them but I know I still have a box full of them and use them when the conditions call for them.
As far as colors of the jig heads, most people will say that it does not matter if their painted or not and for the most part its probably true, however, me personally, if I’m not fishing with a painted jig head I lack the confidence in it so therefore chances are I will not take the time to present it right. That’s why I prefer the painted ones, chances are its all in my head but I want my whole jig to look good.
The hook in the head is a very important part. Make sure your hook is sharp. I like the Bass Pro Shops football heads with the Gamakatsu hooks. These hooks are very strong and come stickey sharp right out of the package. If your jig hooks are dull make sure to sharpen them! Trust me, it will make a huge difference when you attempt to set the hook into the hard boney jaw of Mr. Bass.
Now I’ll cover the different styles of skirts and trailers. On the skirts there of course are the good old fashioned rubber ones, the silicone ones, living rubber and the spider type rubber. For the trailers there are of course the soft plastic ones as well as the pork frogs.
One of my favorite jigs is a modified spider grub on a 1/4 or 3/8 ounce weedless football head. In my opinion this is a one very deadly combination. I like to take a Yamamoto Skirt in one color and put a twin tail grub behind it in a different color. I feel that this different color combo tends to appear more natural in the water. There is no perfect color, black. blue, purple, watermelon, brown and of course pumpkin are always good choices to consider.
As far as a rattle goes, this is yet another issue that is up for debate. Some say yes, some say no. As for me, I say sometimes. If I’m fishing in clear water there really is no need for one however in dirty water where visibility is not very good then I say yes. I like the small glass rattle inserts that you push into the body. The sound is kind of muffled yet it is audible so the bass can gear the sound, locate the lure, take a look at it and eat it..
Scent. I say yes! I even use crawfish scent on my jigs. Is it really needed? Again, some say no but I don’t care. I do know that the scent does mask the human odor. Does the bass know exactly what human odor is? I really don’t think so but I do feel that it is not a natural smell to them. A smell that is not naturally in their environment, so it might make them leery of your offering. I also believe that with scent the bass will hold onto your jig longer giving you more time to set the hook.
One way I like to fish jigs in “Open” water is to toss them out to that “Secret” rock pile or that bend in the old river channel and slowly crawl them back and shake them along the way. Every now and then hop them but for the most part, it’s a slow crawl and shake, like a crawfish crawling along the bottom. The shaking is when I come in contact with some structure, remember I mentioned that I like using the football head style jig heads.
Another way I enjoy using them is around trees or brush. Here you want to resemble a crawfish crawling around in a tree or trying to root in the mud down around the base of the tree.
So far all I have been discussing concerning jigs has been directed at imitating crawfish. There is however another use for jigs and that’s imitating baitfish and swimming the jig. When imitating bait fish I’ll use a white jig head, white or a silver/white combination to imitate shad and a chartruse/white combination to resemble perch or sunfish and the same color trailers except I prefer the single tail grub versus the twin tail that I use when imitating crayfish. The technique here is you want to toss your jig out and swim it back, pause and go, etc, until you figure out just how the bass want it.
I have found that most jig bites tend to be very light, most time all you feel is pressure, sometimes the bass will swim out of the structure towards you and all of the sudden you have allot of slack in the line. Then there are times when all you’ll see is your line jump and start to move off. Don’t be asleep at the reel! Take up the slack and set the hook hard enough to cross his eyes.
Give jigs a try. I’m pretty sure you’ll be happy with the results.
Until Next Time, Good Luck and Tight Lines To Ya!
Bass Fishing 101 Part 1
In this post I figure I’d share some tips for the novice fisher-person, basic Bass Fishing 101, hence the title. In Part 1 I’ll share just the basic information concerning the different styles and rigging techniques and in Part 2 I will go into more detail concerning them.
First off let’s start with the knots I like to use. Along time ago as I was watching a popular fishing show the host did a scientific test on which knot was the best by using a machine that measured break strength of some knots. Consistently the Palomar knot out performed all others. The line never broke at the knot so this told me that the knot did not weaken the line at all. The biggest trick was to wet the line before pulling it tight to reduce abrasion.
Since that day the Palomar knot is the knot I use about 90% of the time. It’s very easy to tie, even in the dark. One tip, its easier to run the line through the hook eye, point side first then run it back through instead of attempting to push the line doubled up through the eye. This is the knot to use on a drop shot rig, just leave a long, 8-24 inch “Tag” end to attach the weight. I’ll cover the details a little later.
Another good knot is the Trilene knot, also known in some circles as a modified clinch knot This is the knot that my dad taught me when I was very young, he however just called “The Fishing Knot”
There are several other good knots one can use but the 2 I mentioned above are the ones I personally use. Quick, easy and efficient.
Line: There are a lot of good lines out there, I personally like Maxima. Not just because they are a sponsor of mine but their line has never failed me. As far as how heavy line? My rule is to always use the lightest line you can get away with. About the only time that rule does not apply is when fishing top water lures. When fishing top water lures I use a heavy line because the line floats better and helps keep the nose of your lure up.
Now I’ll discuss some different terms of techniques as well as some information on each.
Plastics. Talk about a whole big can of worms. You’ve got worms, these come in a very wide range of sizes and styles. You’ve got little finesse type lures, reapers, gobies and allot of others. Next there are Lizards, Crawfish imitations, Creature Type baits, Senko type do nothing baits, Sluggo’s, Tubes…………….. I could go on and on, the list is so vast.
For fishing plastic’s you’ve got your several different styles of fishing. There is the Carolina Rig, Split Shot Rig, Texas Rig, Drop Shot Rig, Darter Head, Slider Head and Shakey Heads. Where terms like Dragging, Long Lining, Shaking, Doodling and Dead Sticking are used commonly
1. Carolina Rig:
This is a rig generally used to cover allot of water semi quickly. It consists of. A “Barrel” type weight, one that line can slide freely through, a swivel, a glass or plastic bead, a 12-48 leader and of course the hook.
There is no right size weight to use. You want to be able to get the bait down to the bottom and be able to stay in contact with your offering as well as the bottom. To rig it, insert the line from your rod into and through the weight. Place your glass or plastic bead on the line, the bead is mainly used to protect your knot from the sinker banging on it. It also provides sound, especially effective in off colored water. Tie your swivel on, then your leader, the length of the leader depends on how far you want your bait to be off the bottom. Tie on your hook, the size depends on the size of your lure. Finally, rig up your bait weedless.
2. Split Shot Rig: This rig is pretty much used the same as the Carolina rig only slower. Its just a modified finesse version of the Carolina rig on light line. The difference being, no swivel, no bead, no extra leader and you use a different weight. To rig this one simply tie on your hook and pinch a round split shot, 8-24 inches up your line, of course don’t forget to add your lure, rigged weedless.
3. Texas Rig: This is one of the most common techniques for fishing plastic worms when the fish are feeding off the bottom. Get yourself a bullet style sinker and hook. Slide the sinker on your line with the “pointy” side facing upwards and tie your hook on. If you add a bead between the weight and hook you convert the basic Texas rig to a Doodling rig. You can also “Peg” the weight to keep it from sliding. This “pegging of the weight” technique is used when your fishing in weeds or sticks and you don’t want the weight and worm to separate.
4. Drop Shot Rig: This rig is effective when bass are feeding up off the bottom. To rig this one tie your hook on with the Palomer knot and leave a 6-18 inch tag end. After tying the knot on take the tag end and run it through the eye of the hook, point side up and pull it tight. What this does is causes your hook to stand out straight allowing your bait to sit level. I like to tie a snap swivel on then attach a “Bell Style” also known as a casting sinker, weight to the snap. This helps to avoid line twist. Then attach your bait to the nook. Either nose hook it with the hook exposed or rig it weedless, whichever way the situation dictates.
5. Darter, Slider and Shakey Heads: These techniques are deadly on suspended fish. All these rigs consist of are just a lead head on a hook. The way they are rigged is just insert the hook into the worm and in most cases you leave the hook exposed but rig it weedless if the situation dictates.
From plastics we now go to reaction baits. The name Reaction Baits cover a whole plethora of baits. They are basically any bait where your looking for a reaction type bite.
The bass sees it and then he reacts to, be it out of hunger, anger or just plain orneriness. Here you’ve got, Surface baits, Rip baits, Jerk baits, Crank baits, Spinner baits, Chatter baits and Swim baits, which I discussed earlier. As you can see the list is quite large and I’m sure I left quite a few off of my list. Terms like, Walk the Dog, Popping, Waking, Burning, Jerking, Twitching, Cranking, And Slow Rolling are common with these techniques.
Then you’ve got jigs. These are one of my favorite techniques for catching quality bass. I will be dedicating a whole article to these in the future. Basically they are a lead head with a skirt and a trailer. They are generally thought to resemble a crayfish, which just in case you didn’t know, is a fresh water lobster. I don’t know about you but I sure have a tough time passing up lobster and the bass seem to share my weakness.
There are also drop style baits. In this category you have Spoons and Ice Jigs. The Drop Shot and Shakey Head techniques also fit into here. These techniques excel during the colder months but are also effective when the bass are suspending or sitting on structure to deep to get a crank bait down to.
Well readers, that should give you some information to absorb. Like I said, I’ll go into more details on these techniques in part 2.
Until Next Time, Good Luck and Tight Lines To Ya!
Dick Trask, the inventor of the split shot rig
I recently saw a story in Bass West magazine as well as a reposting on a West Coast Bass Fishing Forum where they did a write up on the Inventor of the Split Shot Dick Trask. For those of you who don’t know who he was let me fill you in a little.
He was the original inventor of the split shot rig, not just in my opinion but in others as well. He was one of the original pioneers of finesse fishing out here in the clear water lakes of California which has evolved into a world wide style of fishing.
He would show up at west coast tournaments and just put a whipping on just about all of us. This man knew his stuff, either that or he was the luckiest person alive. But when he would beat everyone time and time again there had to be allot more than luck involved. Of course the rumors went around that he was cheating but I never for a second believed them. I didn’t know him personally at the time, just knew him as that ornery old guy in the ugly red Monarch that always seemed to kick everyone’s butts.
I have always referred to Lake Isabella as my home lake mainly because I have been fishing there just about every weekend since mid 1979. At times I would see that Ugly red Monarch on the water there but did not pay it much attention.
Fast forward to 1996. This was the first I met Mr. Trask in person. The way we met was I was sitting on one of the spots at Lake Isabella that I had been fishing for years and along comes this grimy looking old buzzard in a brand new Hawk bass boat with this little dog, which by the way, looked like an over sized rat to me. Anyhow, he pulls up close to me and says, “HEY, WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN MY SPOT!” I glared at him and said, “Dude, I’ve been fishing this spot forever, its NOT your spot!” Then he gave me that crooked little smile and we both started laughing. We introduced ourselves to each other and thus began out friendship. It didn’t take me very long to figure out that even though he had a rough exterior and came across brash he was a very nice guy, a little on the Ornery side, well maybe more than a little but hey, I’ve been known to be the same as well. Maybe that’s why we got along so well.
I remember looking at him and saying, “Your Dick Trask? The Dick Trask that used to have that ugly red boat?” “Yeah, little red” he replied, “And she served me well” I commented on how he had lost allot of weight and didn’t look like the same person. I also called his dog a big rat and he agreed. One thing for sure, he did love that rat.
From that day on we would see each other on the water frequently and share tips and stories. I came to really like and respect him. Not only was he one heck of an angler he was also one heck of a great guy. I remember sitting on this one spot along the flume and I was just wacking em. Up pulls Dick and asks how am I doing? I tell him great. He then asks if I mind if he joins me, one thing about him, he would never just pull up and start to fish a spot you were in, he would ALWAYS ask. I said to him, there are plenty of fish here, your more than welcome. The bass I was catching were all in about the 2-3 pound range with the largest so far going about 5 pounds. On his second cast he sets the hook and says, This is a good one! I’m thinking OK, another 5 pounder. Then the fish surfaces to shake its head and it was well beyond 5 pounds. I sat there and watched him fight this bass and when he finally boated it the bass was at least 10 pounds. After admiring her he placed her back into the water and we watched her swim away. I then saw his bait floating on the water, which he retrieved, took a lighter and patched it back up put it back on his hook and make another cast. It was then and there that I discovered the Mr. Twister Phenom worm and he shared with me a few of his secrets to making them “perfect”
The funny part about that day was I had several packs of the exact worm in my boat that I had picked up at a store out of town. They had them in a clearance bin for .50 cents a pack so I had picked up all they had, just because I liked the way they looked. I just had never even opened any of the package’s. I told Dick about this and he asked if he could buy some off of me, I told him hell no, then I tossed him a couple packages. He gave me that crooked little smile of his, said thanks and we went back to fishing. By the way, that 10 pounder was the biggest fish of the day but I did manage to catch one that went just a tad over 8 pounds.
He taught me allot about fine tuning my split shot fishing as well as introduced me to darter head fishing. I had heard of this technique in the past but never seen it in action and let me tell you what, it is definitely a deadly tactic under certain circumstances. He also told me about the old but still effective techniques of slider fishing, which I still use to this day with great success. I was also just amazed that how no matter how bad the wind got, those of you who have fished Isabella know just how bad it can get, but he would be able to make his Hawk just sit in one place without moving.
We talked about Aaron Martens and how much liked him, his respect for him as a fisherman and how that “kid” could really be someone in the world of bass fishing. I said he already is big and Dick said, No, somebody REALLY BIG. To bad Dick didn’t get to see Aaron take BASS Angler of the Year in 2005. I know that would have made him very happy and proud.
There were many times that we would sit in the parking lot after a day of fishing, wiping down our boats and sharing stories for hours of how the day went out on the water and just talking in general. I remember many times we would sit in the parking lot and laugh at people launching their boats, at times it was quite humorous. I remember one time in particular we were sting there and this black 900 series BMW with dark tinted windows crested the hill at the ramp and behind it there was a huge, at least 25 foot, ocean going boat. This alone was quite the site to see. It looked like a monkey on a football. So this BMW proceeds to back this boat down the launch ramp. He gets the boat part way into the water and then the passenger door opens and out steps this tall slender blonde that was very “Cosmetically Enhanced”. Dick and I just looked at each other and started laughing and proceeded to joke about this site. I cant say what we were saying here but I can say that if the boat were to sink she would not need a PFD, Personal Floatation Device.
Anyhow, the blonde is signaling the driver to keep backing up to float the boat but the boat would not float off the trailer. In order to finally get it to float they had to back the BMW into the water past the rear doors all the way to the front door. Then the driver got out, with the car still in the water, and pulled the boat back and tied it off. He then proceeded to hop back into the car and drive it up into the parking lot. He then opened his door as well as the rear door and out poured quite a bit of water. We about fell over from laughing so hard. It didn’t even seem to phase the driver of the car, in our opinion’s, more money that brains.
I could go on for hours telling stories of Dick but this will be the last one. I remember going to his house in Bodfish and him showing me a video of him and Jimmy Huston, yes the Jimmy Huston, fishing together on Lake Isabella. He told me that Jimmy had made a show of it and it was on TV quite awhile back. I’ll tell ya what, I was impressed!
I remember the day I heard that Dick had passed on. I stopped by the local tackle shop, Village Tackle in Lake Isabella to talk to the store owner Dave. As I entered the store out comes this over grown rat that sure did look familure. I mentioned to him that his dog looked allot like Dicks dog and he replied that it was Dicks dog. I asked if he was watching him for Dick and then he told me the sad news. I was shocked! I had just seen him out on the lake 2 weeks earlier where we had talked and shared a few laughs. That day I didn’t do real well out on the water because I was dealing with the fact that I had lost someone that I had allot of respect for both as a fisherman as well as a friend.
I got hold of his wife after he passed and she was unable to find the video so I could make a copy of it. I have since contacted Jimmy Huston to see if he has it in his archives anywhere but have yet to hear yes or no.
I know even now, every time I go to the lake sometimes I forget for a second that he has passed on and I kinda expect to be sitting out on the lake and hearing, “HEY, WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN MY SPOT!” and looking over my shoulder to see his crooked smile and that over grown rat.
I for one sure do miss the man as well as others I’m sure. I don’t remember who said it but when they said Dick would give you the shirt off of his back if he felt you needed it more than he did, was 100% correct. I hope you all enjoyed reading my experiences with Dick half as much as I enjoyed remembering them.
Until Next Time, Good Luck To Ya And Tight Lines
Float Tubing, Back to Nature
Ahhhh, float tubing. Nothing more relaxing than a day spent on the water in the ole belly boat pursuing the elusive green beast we call the largemouth bass. Let me take you back. I have been float tubing for bass for about the past 15-20 years and I still to this day 
enjoy catching them from my tube despite the fact that I have a Fully rigged, Tournament ready Champion Bass Boat. There are days that I will take along my tube and leave the boat at home or put the tube in the boat, take it out on the water with me, get back into the sticks, beach my boat and get in the water in my tube.
Then there have been times that I get to the lake with boat on tow and the wind is blowing 800mph, maybe I’m exaggerating a little here but the wind is blowing very hard and there are white caps everywhere with waves 3 foot high and the thought of fighting the wind all day long don’t seem very appealing My local lake sits in a canyon so it is very prone to extreme winds. Its times like these I’m glad that I packed the float tube in the bed of the Chevy. I can drive to one of the lakes marinas, which are protected from the wind and put the tube in and fish the docks.
My first tube was a Jobe. Friends told me I was crazy for spending over $100.00 on it back then but too this day I still have it and it is still fully functional, unlike my friends that have gone through at least a half dozen different tubes since then. Yes I have had to replace the inner tube more than once and she has acquired some “battle scars” over the years but other than that she has served me well. I have since upgraded to a Caddis Pro Line, which by the way is like fishing out of a Lazy Boy, with a functional backrest and more storage pockets than one could ever need. I still have the ole reliable Jobe that I use for a spare or if someone wants to go out with me for a day of tubing. To this day I have caught my largest bass ever, 15.7 out of my tube, the ole Jobe, back in the early 80’s, which I told you about in another post.
Now days they have all kinds of different tube configurations. You’ve got your round tubes, which I prefer because if the inner tube gets old and dry rots all you have to do is go to your local tire shop and buy a truck inner tube. Then you have your U-Boat type for easy entrance and exit. The down side in my opinion is if the inner tube dry rots they can be expensive to replace. Next there are the kick boats, basically a seat that sits on a frame which sits on couple pontoon tubes. These are nice because in most of them you don’t get wet at all and they are very stable to fish out of.
You can modify any of the above mentioned items with all kinds of options. My Caddis tube for example has Velcro rod tie down straps so you can fish with one rod and secure another. You can purchase PVC type rod holders to strap on the tube or you can make your own with some PVC and web straps. Companies how have portable fish finders that run on several D cell batteries and strap directly to your tube. I have seen people that have mounted trolling motors to their tubes and let me tell you what, those thing moved very quickly. Seeing a float tube get up on plane is quite impressive. Just watch out for the prop because it has the possibility to bite you pretty good.
I’ve also seen people that have made portable sun shades as well by building a frame and attaching cloth. Kind of like a miniature bimini top.
If your tube didn’t come with enough storage space you can easily add extra storage by taking a basic clear Plano storage box. Heating up a wide blade knife, inserting 4 evenly spaced slits into the bottom. Then take some webbing straps, run it through the bottom and wrap it around your tube.
You can also make a live well out of a mesh laundry bag with the draw string type top and some Styrofoam or a small inner tube and some zip ties, which you would attach to your tube via a short piece of rope and let it float behind you.
Just about all of the above mentioned items, including the actual tubes can be purchased at Bass Pro Shops, just click the link on the right side of my page. If you want to do some home made mods just go to your local hardware store and build away. Once again, its up to you, the sky is the limit.
Until Next Time, Good Luck and Tight Lines To Ya!
My 130 pound bass
I mentioned this in my Who Is BassnMan post when I said I’d tell yall about it later and now I am. I know what your thinking, “NO WAY, BassnMan has lost his mind” but read on, I promise you all of what your about to read is true.
The year was 1997, Jeff Gordon won his first Daytona 500, Dion Hibdon won the Bassmaster Classic and we lost a very special lady when Princess Diana died in a car accident. That was the year my life would change forever. Yes, just like today I fished just about every weekend. Whether it was a tournament or pleasure fishing you could find me on the water somewhere. As a matter of fact, 1997 and 1998 were very profitable tournament seasons for me.
However, I was at a point in my life that I was growing tired of all the games I encountered during relationships. Yes, getting a date was never an issue but finding someone that could understand my passion for fishing or my ornery streak seemed like an impossibility and odds of finding someone that I was truly compatible with seemed like just a dream. I was happy where I was at in my life and I would rather be single and happy than in a commited relationship and unhappy. It was at that point that a friend told me about this new way of meeting women called on line dating so I decided to give it a try and see if I could find someone that I was actually compatible with.
It was about the middle of September 1997 that I signed up for a free trial membership at Matchmaker.com. As I filled out my profile I was honest about everything I wrote because I wanted any potential dates know exactly who I was and I hoped that everyone else was as honest as I was. Over the next 25 days I met quite a few different ladies that either I contacted or they contacted me through the web site. Some were great, some not so much so but none of which I really clicked with so I figured I’d just let my free subscription expire and not pay to continue my membership.
With 2 days left a lady contacted me and there was something about the way she wrote that caught my attention. She also made mention that she liked some of my ornery answers in my profile. I told her that my subscription was about to expire and that I would not be renewing my membership and gave her my email address if she wanted to contact me again.
As it turned out we continued to write each other and I found out something very interesting. Her name was Cindy BASS! Hmm, imagine that? What are the odds? Could this be the reason I felt attracter to her, she did have the right name. We continued to email each other for the next few weeks and the attraction continued to grow. Then we started talking on the phone and would spend hours on the phone. Oh, by the way, anyone that knows me knows how much I hate to be on the phone but our conversations never seemed that long and we both had something to say the whole time. To this point we had never seen each other, no pictures, nothing.
Finally in late November we figured it was about time we met in person. Seeing how we lived about 3 hours away from each other we figured we would meet half way. This was also a strategic decision on my part because I didn’t want her to know where I lived just in case I was not physically attracted to her. Yes, I know, that was VERY shallow if me. I was attracted to her personality so looks shouldn’t have mattered but hey, even the BassnMan is human. There has to be a physical attraction, right?
I arrived at the pre-determined destination, it was a Denny’s restaurant, first and waited. As I sat there a car pulled into the parking lot that matched the general description of her car. It parked and this rather large unattractive lady got out of the drivers side, my heart dropped. I thought about ducking down and driving away. You can imagine my relief when an equally unattractive man got out of the passenger side of the car.
Five minutes later another car pulled into the parking lot that matched the description of her car. Out of this car a very attractive lady hops out with a big smile on her face and I’m thinking, “No Way, that couldn’t be her!” Guess what? Yes, not only am I lucky when it comes to fishing but this time I was lucky in love as well. How’s that country song go, “You Had Me From Hello”
We celebrated our 10th year together last October and this May we will celebrate our official 5th year anniversary of marriage. Yes I waited quite awhile before popping the question. I can honestly say that the last 10 years my live have been the best 10 years of my life. My Cindy is all a man could ask for and more. We get along great and she supports me in everything I do. She is one Bass that I will not practice Catch And Release with. She’s a keeper!
That’s the story of my 130 pound bass. It brought back allot of good memories as I wrote it. I hope you enjoyed reading it.
Until Next Time, Good Luck and Tight Lines To Ya!
Do I really need a $50,000.00 Bass Boat ?
One word, NO.
If you can afford them it sure is nice. Or if you can pick up a sponsor that give’s you one to promote their brand then that’s even better! However, for your average working Joe, weekend angler, either of these can be tough.Don’t fret, its not the end of the world. There are several different options you have.
First off, if you finance a new boat there are finance companies that will give you a loan that have options to extend the payments over 10 plus years. This has good and bad benefits. Good in the sense that the payments can be low but bad because if you sit down and actually figure out just how much you will be paying over the term of the loan it just might shock you.
Paying with cash is always great, I don’t know about you but I don’t have that kind of cash laying around. Yes, its always nice to have a brand new, state of the art bass boat with all of the latest electronics. One that when other anglers see you on the water they drool.
Trust me when I say, it wont make you a better fisherman and let me share another secret with you, the bass don’t care if your in a brand new, high speed, fully equipped fiberglass boat or if your floating along, sitting on a lawn chair attached to railroad ties.
There are also the slightly used bass boats on the market. Boat companies usually give new boats every year to their sponsored pros. Then they sell the boats that were used for one season at a very discounted price. Not free mind you, but at least a few thousand less than a new one off the show room floor.
These boats usually appear to be a pretty good deal. They are well maintained both mechanically and appearance wise.
One thing to remember about these boats. Some of the time these boats are used very hard for that season. They can be abused and rode hard, even though they might not look it while they are sitting in the parking lot. In my opinion when someone gets something for free they don’t take care and caution when using it because they didn’t have to pay for it with their own cash.
Then there are times when these boats are well used and in great shape, so as you can see, it can be kind of a crap shoot at times.
Another option, if you fish in boater/non boater type tournament format you can usually find someone that is selling their used boat to buy a new one. This route is a great one to take because most of these type tournament organizations are a bunch of guys that know each other and you can talk to other members about how they feel the guy selling the boat takes care of it.
Another plus to going this route is you have a chance of drawing the boater before he decides to sell it and you can see how he treats his boat, how it runs, etc. You can also become friends with these guys and get an even better price when they sale.
Then you have the aluminum boat’s, these are a good deal. They are not as smooth as a fiberglass boat but they will do just about anything a glass boat can and if you accidentally bounce it off a rock or tree you don’t ruin the gel coat and take on water in the bilge, unless of course you hit it hard enough to punch a hole.
You can always pick up a basic aluminum boat or even a john boat and modify it for bass fishing or any type fishing you prefer. Put a casting deck oh it, mount an ice chest in the middle. This can double as a live well and a place to keep your drinks cold.
You can get yourself a 20 horse motor or even a trolling motor, or just use some oars. If you get the trolling motor this would mean you would need a 12 volt battery and with that you could hook up a depth/fish sonar unit.
For a few hundred dollars you could make the ultimate bass John boat. I would not advise taking these smaller vessels out in “Open” water because it could be dangerous if the wind picked up. They are however great for fishing around structure, boat docks and smaller pond type lakes because you can unload and load them just about anywhere.
As a matter of fact, back when I fished tournaments as a non boater we had a member that had converted a 14 foot John boat into a 2 person bass boat. It just barely made the minimum legal boat length limit. His boat was usually left out of the draw because of its size unless we had an equal amount of boaters and non boaters. Lucky for me I never drew Brian. I’m a pretty big guy 6′3 275 pounds so it would have been tough fishing out of his boat all day.
You can always get yourself a Float Tube or the Pontoon type kick Boat. These can be rigged into fish catching machines as well and you get right into the action. I’ll share a story and some tips about float tuning in the future so stay tuned.
Bottom line, how much money do you want to spend or how handy are you at building things. The sky is the limit and the choice is yours.
Like I said before, the fish don’t care what your fishing out of, just your lure presentation.
Until Next Time, Good Luck and Tight Lines To Ya!
Winter Time Blues Part 3
Ok, the weekend weather has been rotten for quite sometime now but during the work week the weather is beautiful. What’s the weekend fisherman to do? I am fortunate in the sense that my job understands the fact that I need to go fishing to keep my sanity, the wife understands this about me as well. I usually try and save my vacation time for early spring when the bite really opens up but to avoid “Cabin Fever” from time to time I will request leave to go fishing.
At my job I am the early person so that means that I get off work pretty early in the afternoon so the day before I go fishing I take care of getting everything prepared. Seeing how I have done my preventive maintenance on the boat the list is not all that big. First off I plug in the battery charger to ensure that the batteries are fully charged. Then I’ll load the fishing equipment in the boat. After the batteries are charged I’ll hook up the boat and take it and fill it up with gas as well as the truck. I kinda have this omen about me that I don’t like to touch the gas pump the day I go fishing because I don’t want to get gas on my hands, even though I would wash them after fueling, I try my best to avoid getting fuel the day of the trip. I then park my rig, truck with the boat still connected, in my RV access so I don’t have to hookup in the dark the following morning, just something I like to do.
Now the difficult part, trying to sleep. I don’t know about you all but even though I have been fishing several thousand times I still get excited like a 12 year old kid each time I’m going fishing. I lay there and I think, did I pack the right tackle, where on the lake and what should I try first? Did I remember to pack enough water and sports drinks to avoid getting dehydrated. I picture myself catching fish and of course I make sure that if I do bring along any bananas to be sure to eat them in the truck and not to bring them into the boat, HA!
Morning rolls around and after pouring coffee into the thermos its off I go to pick up my fishing buddy. Then onward we proceed to the lake. Along the way we talk about different strategies and scenarios that we want to try all in preparation of the days trip. We finally arrive at the lake. Launch the boat, Gentlemen, Start Your Engines! and off we to the first spot. LET THE GAMES BEGIN! As your traveling across the water at a high rate of speed you realize that it is allot colder than you anticipated and you wish you would have taken the time to put that beanie and ear muffs on. At least I was smart enough to put gloves on so I’m doing OK.
As you pull upon your first spot you motor down and turn on the electronics to take a quick peak on what’s going on below you. Thanks to today’s technology I have way points marked in my GPS so I can easily locate that rock pile or creek channel with the bend in it. Of course you have to do your home work to locate and mark these spots before hand, either that or have a buddy share the coordinates with you. What your looking for is structure and baitfish. If you can find baitfish on structure you just might have hit the mother load. When you locate this pay attention to the depth, this can assist you in developing a pattern to locate active fish. When you locate this put the trolling motor in the water and commence fishing.
Some of my choices for this time of the year are a drop shot rig, a Hopkins spoon and Ice Jigs for vertical presentations. A slider head or darter head worm, a Texas rigged work or a split shot rig work for more of a horizontal presentation as well as a very deep diving crankbait like a Norman DD22. If I had to pick only one lure this time of the year it would have to be the ever faithful Spider Jig fished on a football head. I like to make my own combinations of skirt and tails here. Yamamoto’s are my favorite and you cant go wrong with a pumpkin type color. I also like to use a “Sluggo” Type lure as well as the Yamamoto Senko’s for a slow rate of fall, all of which are available to Bass Pro Shops.
One thing I do especially this time of the year is use as light of a weight as you can get away with. Yes, when your fishing deeper water you need a little heavier weight to remain in contact with your lure but bass tend to be sluggish this time of the year and they want something slow and easy for them to eat. Most of them are not willing to chase down prey, to exert the energy. I always keep a swim bait tied on as well as a surface lure.
As far as the bites this time of the year goes, at times you will feel the “Tick”, very rarely you will get the “Whack” most of your bites will be soft subtle bites, almost like your pulling it through weeds or something at times you wont even feel that. The following tip is very important at all times of the year but especially this time of the year. Watch your line! If it jumps, twitches, starts to move off or basically do anything you didn’t make it do, reel up the slack until you feel pressure and set the hook. Remember, your lure is NOT alive and it is not capable of doing anything it is not made to do, be if from you, wind or current or Mr. Bass. One of the greatest fishermen I have ever had the pleasure of meeting, Mr. Don Ivino said, “Swings are Free”
Remember, this time of the year you really need to slow down your presentation and most of the time downsize it. There have been times when I have put on a 15 inch plastic worm, also known as a snake, and caught some very large bass but there have also been many times this time of the year I have used 3 inch finesse baits and caught some giant bass as well but it has almost always been a very slow presentation.
Don’t forget to throw that swim bait around some at lakes where they stock trout because you can have one heck of a day throwing this beast around, either slow rolling it deep, “Waking” it just under the surface or even dead sticking a floating one. I have had times when I cast out these “Mondo” baits, then spend a few minutes picking out the backlash I got in my reel from the bait and the lure sat there motionless for about 5 -7 minutes. Then I finally reeled up all the slack, made the bait move ever so slightly and have had bass just blast the snot out of it.
And of course if you lucky enough to come across a school of actively feeding fish busting the surface toss that surface lure out at them. Just because its cold outside does not mean you cant catch fish. Always remember, on any given day on any given lake in the country or world for that matter, there will ALWAYS be actively feeding fish somewhere, its just a matter of finding them and provoking them into biting your offering.
Until Next Time, Good Luck and Tight Lines To Ya!
Winter Time Blues Part 2
Old man winter is still here, the temperatures are still low and the wind is blowing so I guess I wont be hooking up the boat today. I talked about rod and reel maintenance earlier now lets talk about some lure “Tweaks” that at least in my opinion have helped me get more bites. Always remember, if you have confidence in what your doing on the water you will take the time to present your offering correctly and it will produce fish. If you don’t believe your going to catch fish then you wont take the time to present your bait right and more often than not you go home empty handed.
Some of my favorite lure modifications are as follows. Replacing the hooks on your crank baits with sharp red hooks. Red hooks resemble a blood trail, like a bleeding fish and if you understand bass they will always pick the easiest, injured prey first. Me personally, I just replace the front hook because I want to present the image that my poor little fish is bleeding from the gills and is just asking to be attacked. I also replace the rear hooks with some good quality super sharp hooks, just not in red. I personally like the X-Point and Diachhi hooks, super sharp right out of the package and great quality, available at Bass Pro Shops. Gamakatsu also makes a good hook also available at Bass Pro Shops. These hooks are a little on the pricey side but well worth the money. If you cant afford these expensive ones get yourself a file and sharpen your hooks to a sticky sharp. It will make a difference in your hook up ratio.
On a side note, I also like to use red hooks when fishing soft plastics. I have been doing this long before it was “The In Thing” and I had many people laugh at me. Let me explain. At the time I was dating this lady who had a son and he got hold of my tackle and proceeded to paint some of my worm hooks red with finger nail polish. At first I was a little upset at him and then he asked me to promise him I would try them at my upcoming tournament, I reluctantly said yes. I got teased for about the first 2 hours of the tournament by my boater, I didn’t own a boat at the time. He stopped teasing me about 3 hours in because I had my limit and was culling fish and he was still working on getting his second fish. It was my turn to laugh at him when I collected my money for winning the tournament.
Anyways, back to the hooks. Another trick is to take the hooks and bend the point shank slightly, where it is a little off center from the center shaft, remember the Excaliber rotating Trebel Hooks? I take pliers and grab the hook at the bottom of the bend and just kind of lean the tip to the left a little. Do this to all 3 points. What this does is makes it where the hooks get contact with the bass’s jaws a little better, the down side, it makes it a lot more difficult to fish around structure because they do get hung up more. Another up side is when the bass is jumping they can’t use the center shaft as leverage to get the hook loose. In my opinion the good points out weigh the bad.
Another lure modification worth doing is painting your own lures. Yes, you can spend high dollar and get lure with great finishes right out of the box but you can also get some lures out of the bargin Box and you local sporting goods counter and transform them into fish catching monsters.
Raid your wife’s fingernail polish, yeah I know, WHAT?? My wife has or should I say had this fingernail polish with fine hologram glitter in it. I looked closely at it one day as I was “reading the paper” in the rest room and noticed that it had glitter with allot of colors you would see on the expensive lures so I confiscated it and tried it out. On a side note, if your not experienced in applying this stuff make sure you try it out on something first because it can be a bear getting it off of a plastic or wood lure once you put it on. Go as thin as possible because you don’t want to put to much on one side and throw the lure’s balance off, making it run sideways in the water. Most of the time you want your lure to run true, I’ll go into when you don’t want it to in another article.
Take the red fingernail polish and paint little red gills on your lure, where the gills would normally be, again, be careful not to glob it on. My wife didn’t have black so I had to buy some but I use black to paint that little round dot that shad have on their sides on my shad colored lures.
Dress your treble hooks. Make them look like little tails. You can buy them pre made or you can make them for considerably less. Make sure you start out with good quality hooks. Hold off on bending the points like I described above, this will make the wrapping process so much easier. Trust me, I speak from experience here. Get some mylar strips cut very thin and wrap them with red thread just under the hook eye and put a dab of clear finger nail polish to hold the end down. You would be amazed how this looks in the water.
Do all of these things help? As long as you believe they will work then they will work. Just remember, there is no magic bullet, there is no such thing. All those late night info-mercials are a joke. Let me rephrase that, there is a magic lure, It’s the one you truly believe will catch fish. The one you have confidence in. The one that you know in your mind will catch em because you will take the time and effort to figure out just how to present it to get them to bite that day.
Until Next Time, Good Luck and Tight Lines To Ya!
Winter Time Blues Part 1
Ah winter, snow on the ground and a chill in the air. As a “Weekend Warrior” bass fishermen I tend to have a love hate relationship with this time of the year. Yes the fishing can be great this time of the year but with the “Moody” weather that usually happens this time of the year it makes it difficult. It seems that during the work week the weather is nice but when the weekend rolls around and the winter storms roll in. I personally consider taking leave during the week but I would rather save the leave for the upcoming late winter/early spring bite.This discussion I’ll talk about what I do if I don’t take leave during the week. In winter time blues part 2 I’ll share some tackle modification tips and in part 3 I’ll share some tactics I use when I decide to pull the trigger and go ahead and take leave this time of the year.
So, here it is Saturday, the clouds are rolling in, the weatherman says the snow level will be down to 3000 feet and in order to get to my local lake I have to go over the mountains where the elevation tops out at 5553 feet so I’m pretty much stuck at home just wishing I was fishing so what’s a fisherman to do?
Now would be a great time to service your fishing tackle, service your reels, change out your line and make some modifications to my fishing tackle.
First and foremost MAKE SURE you have or get schematics for your reels before disassembling them. 
It’s a bad thing to take apart your reels and not remember where all the parts go. Anyhow, clean out all the old grease, I use cotton tipped swabs myself for this. I then use them dipped in rubbing alcohol to completely clean out the grease and oil. Make sure you use a good quality lube and oil to service your reels, this will make a world of difference when you use it next. Me personally, I prefer Garcia lube and Remington Rem-Oil gun oil. Yes, there are allot of other excellent choices but these are the ones I personally prefer. Clean the reel externally, just to make it look nice and spool up with new line. The last thing you want to happen is to hook into the fish of a life time and loose it because your old line broke.
On your rods, clean the handle, it you have cork grips DO NOT use rubbing alcohol, this will ruin the cork. Simple Green works very well, just don’t saturate it! If the cork is heavily soiled you can use some extra fine sand paper and sand lightly, don’t remove to much cork. Wipe out the line guides, here again I use cotton tipped swabs dipped in Simple Green. Finally, wipe down the blank, again, I use Simple Greed and a micro fiber cloth to clean off the accumulated residue from the previous fishing season.If your lucky enough to have a garage where you can park your boat, trust me, I am jealous of you. I am fortunate enough to have RV access on the side of my house where the wind does not normally blow. I’m hoping soon to install a car port type cover. Until then I have to cover and uncover my boat whenever I need to access it. Even during the winter you cam perform maintenance on it. One very important things to do is if you don’t take your boat out very often this time of year you need to make sure you flush the system with the “Rabbit Ears” and garden hose at least once a month. This keeps your impeller from getting to dry and brittle therefore it does not flow water like it used to and in turn it does not cool your motor like it used to so its pretty important to avoid very expensive damage.
As for the impeller, changing it out at least once every 2 years is very good practice and cheap insurance. You can either do it yourself which is not all that difficult as long as you have a Mercury manual and the right tools or take it to your mechanic. Usually they will charge considerably less during the winter because they want the business. During the hotter months they can raise the rates because they know allot of people will be needing their services, basic supply and demand laws here.
While your in there make sure to change out your lower end oil as well as clean out any fishing line on the shaft. Look for any signs of water in the oil, this means that the seal is damaged and needs replacing.
Check the 2 stroke oil level in the oil reservoir, if you have a 2 stroke motor. Remove the propeller on your trolling motor and check for line. If you have trailer breaks check the fluid level of the master cylinder. Another big thing to remember is to make sure your bearing buddies have plenty of grease. That’s the last thing you want to happen, hook up the boat, get going down the road and having a wheel bearing go out because its dry. Make sure your tires are properly inflated to the correct pressure. This helps them wear evenly as well as improves your gas mileage.
I hope this helps alleviate some boredom we all experience when we cant get out and do some fishing. Be sure to check back soon for part 2 and 3 of Winter Time Blues.
Until Next Time, Good Luck and Tight Lines To Ya!
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