Monthly Archives: January 2014

Bass Fishing Lake Chickamauga

Chickamauga Bass with Jeremy York

Chickamauga has been the best bass lake in the Southeast, if not in the whole country, the past few months. Many eight pound plus bass have been landed and in most tournaments you didn’t even need to weigh in if you had five bass weighing less than 25 pounds.

The bad news is the patterns producing those incredible stringers working the first three months in 2013 year are over by the end of March. The good news is those bass are still there, hungry in May and can be caught on a variety of new patterns.

Chickamauga is a TVA Lake just outside Chattanooga on the Tennessee River. It runs 59 miles from the dam up to the Watts Barr Dam, with many big feeder creeks. Although it is not in Georgia or Alabama, many fishermen in our state are less than three hours away and make the trip often. If you are not one of them you are missing out on some incredible bass fishing.

Jeremy York owns Angler’s Warehouse near Athens, Georgia. Two years ago one of his pro staff invited him to sample the great bass fishing that was just being discovered on Chickamauga. He went up and caught some big bass and fell in love with the lake. He now makes the three hour drive several times a week in the winter and does some guiding on the lake, about 25 trips so far this year.

Jeremy is a tournament fisherman and fishes the pro trails as well as local and regional tournaments. In the BFL on Chickamauga in March, 2013 he weighed in five bass weighing 30.25 pounds – and came in third! In another tournament he had five weighing 27 pounds and came in 14 place.

In five guide trips in March 2013 he and his clients had their five best weighing 26, 39, 36, 30 and 32 pounds. That is better than a six pound average for four of the five trips.

In five trips this year he and his clients have landed an eight pound plus fish in each. One of his best trips was with a father and son. Within a few minutes of starting the father landed an 8.75 pound largemouth, he landed a 6.5 pounder and then the son landed an 8.68 pound fish, all within the first hour.

Jeremy found a pattern that works great from the beginning of January through March. When the water temperature hits 48 degrees the bass really turn on and 48 to 52 is the ideal water temperature. It starts slowly as soon as the water reaches 45 degrees. The pattern holds until the water gets to about 58 degrees, usually around the first of April, and the bass head toward the bedding areas.

Although this pattern is over this year, it is worth remembering for next year. Jeremy came up with the idea for the Extreme Bait Ball Rig that is sold by Picasso. It is an Alabama rig with teasers on the arms, so it looks even more like a school of baitfish. That is what he caught the big bass on from January through March.

He rigs it with one eighth ounce Buckeye Jewell heads on the hook arms and rigs them and the teaser attachments with either a 3.5 or 4.5 inch Shadalicious blue gizzard or Texas shad swimbaits. For bigger bass he runs the 4.5 inch bait on the hooks with smaller ones on the teasers, or runs the bigger size on all.

The ideal rig for throwing this heavy bait is an I Rod Bama Rig Special Genesis II rod with a Revo SX reel spooled with 80 pound Power Pro braid. He tried several reels and all wore out in a few trips except the Revo.

There are three things to remember when throwing this rig. Lob it, don’t make a usual cast. Keep reeling when you feel something until the bass almost jerks the rod out of your hand. You will hit stumps with it and if you set the hook you are unlikely to get the rig back. And finally, when you do hang up, keep your line tight as you go to it, go past the hangup and pop it loose with small pops of the rod tip.

Jeremy took me to Chickamauga the second week of April and warned me the great bite was probably over. Although he got a nice 4.5 pounder first thing that morning on the rig, fishing was slow. We went into the spawning pockets and they were full of bass just starting to fan beds. The fish were very spooky and we could not get them to hit, but we saw many in the six pound plus size starting to bed.

Adding to our problems that day the water rose almost two feet while we were there. The lake is scheduled to be at full pool by April 15th each year and it was four feet low when we got there. But it was filling fast.

When the water temperature is right Jeremy fishes transition areas like stump flats near the mouths of spawning areas. There needs to be deep water nearby with a shelf or flat with stumps on it. A ditch or cut running across the flat is key. The bass feed on those types of places during the winter and pre spawn.

Other good types of cover are banks where big rocks transition to chunk rock to sand, often found at the mouths of feeder creeks and coves. Big largemouth and smallmouth both like this kind of area and will hit the rig fished there. On one trip this year he got a six pound smallmouth and a six pound largemouth.

On the stump flats keep your boat out in deeper water near the cut or ditch and cast up to four or five feet of water. Work your rig back steadily, keeping it above the stumps but near the bottom. On the transition banks stay out a long cast from the bank and cast near it, fishing the rig back to cover water two to six feet deep.

File this information away for next year. But now for the good news. Those big bass are still in the lake and you can catch them right now. Fishing will be good from now through May and you can use a variety of baits to catch them.
Right now (in late April) about half the bass, especially the bigger fish, are on the beds or have been in the last few days. You can sight fish for them or drag a Carolina rigged lizard through the bedding areas. If sight fishing, look for stumps, the favorite place for a bass to bed on Chickamauga.

Jeremy likes a Big Bite Baits Fighting Frog on a light Texas rig, a white swim bait with a weighed keel hook or a whacky rigged Senko rigged weightless for sight fishing. He will cast well past the bed and pull the bait to it, letting it drop into the sweet spot. Let it sit and shake it and the bass will usually eat it if they are hard on the bed.

Good areas for sight fishing are in Soddy Creek, which usually has the clearest water on the lake, and other creeks on the lower half of the lake. The pockets up the river are full of spawning bass, too, but they are harder to see since the water is usually more stained there.

Another good area is Dallas Bay around Chester Frost Park. Jeremy says there have probably been 100 eight pound plus bass released there in tournaments this year and they will not leave the bay since the spawn is approaching. They will stay in the bay, feed until spawning and then gradually work back out to the river, feeding on post spawn areas.

The stump flats on both sides of the ramp are good spawning areas to check since they are littered with stumps. Be careful, the flats run way out. Try to follow the ditches and cuts going back into them since the bass will follow them. Often the biggest bass will be bedding on stumps closest to the deeper water in the cuts.

Bass move into the spawning areas in waves and about half of them are there now the last week of April. More will move in during the next few weeks, depending on water temperature and moon phase. They will stay on the bed for about a week then move off and spend about a week recovering. They won’t feed much during that week but will start feeding heavily after that so there will be a lot of hungry fish all during the month of May.

To catch post spawn fish Jeremy will try a variety of baits. A Spook or similar walking bait worked over the stump flats will draw explosive strikes. Keep your boat in the cuts and cast ahead of you down the cut and fan cast the flats on both sides. Cover a lot of water, fishing fast until you find feeding fish.

A swim jig worked over the same areas will also catch fish, especially if the fish are not real aggressive. Swim it in the same places you worked your topwater. You can also work a spinnebait over those areas or try to bump the stumps with a square bill crankbait.

Toward the end of May there will still be a few bedding bass but the bream spawn comes into play. Bass will feed on the bream that are bedding in the same areas as the bass use, so fish a swim jig around the bedding bream to catch those bass feeding on bream.

Another big key in May is the shad spawn. Chickamauga has two kinds of shad, both threadfin and gizzard shad, and golden shiners, all favorite foods of bass. The shad will spawn on gravel and shell bed flats and rocky banks this month and the bass often go wild feeding on them. Jeremy says the shell beds on flats near the river channel are a huge key to the shad spawn so seek them out.

Look for the schools of shad running the banks early in the morning or working the flats. Jeremy likes to see smaller areas of shad spawning. If there are shad spawning on 100 yards of bank there might be 20 bass feeding on them and they will be real scattered out. If there are shad on only about 20 feet of bank, those same 20 bass will be concentrated and easier to catch.

A spinnerbait, rattle bait or swim jig all work well on the shad spawn. Work them over the flats, running them right on the bottom. On the banks, cast right to the bank, even up on the rocks and pulling your bait into the water. The bass will be facing the bank so you want to cast as shallow as possible.

The shad usually spawn early, the first couple of hours of light on sunny days, but will stay shallow much longer on cloudy days. If it is sunny and the shallow activity stops, back off and fish a little deeper to catch the bass following the shad out a little ways off the bank where they hold until the next morning.

Why is Chickamauga so hot with big bass right now? Jeremy says the stocking of Florida and Northern strain largemouth as produced a cross, an F1 hybrid that grows very fast and is very aggressive. Tennessee DNR reports show they stocked both Florida and Northern strain largemouth as well as F1 hybrids in 2002. Those fish have reached trophy size and their offspring are reaching bragging size every year.

Jeremy thinks the next two years are going to be fantastic, with some huge bass caught in Chickamauga each year. All those eight to ten pound bass will mostly still be around for a couple of years and could be two to three pounds heavier. And all those five and six pounders will also be two to three pounds heavier.

For the future, there are a lot of four and five pound bass coming along, too. There is a 15 inch size limit on largemouth and an 18 inch size limit on smallmouth on Chickamauga and those limits have contributed to the larger fish in the lake. That size restriction also insures a good supply of quality fish for the future. So the fishing should stay really good for the foreseeable future. You definitely want to head to Chickamauga and get in on catching them.

A three day non resident Tennessee fishing license is $16 and can be bought on line before your trip. A ten day license is $25 and an annual license, good until February each year, is $80. You might want an annual license since you are sure to fall in love with fishing Chickamauga.

2015 Bassmasters Classic Returning to Lake Hartwell

Jan. 16, 2014

Bassmaster Classic To Return In 2015 To South Carolina

GREENVILLE, S.C. — The Bassmaster Classic is going “Upcountry” in 2015.

Greenville and Lake Hartwell, located in the upstate region of South Carolina popularly known as The Upcountry, have been selected as the sites for the 2015 Bassmaster Classic.

B.A.S.S. and South Carolina officials, including Gov. Nikki R. Haley, made the announcement today in Greenville.

Feb. 20-22 will be the competition dates for the field of anglers who qualify for the world championship through various Bassmaster competitions throughout 2014.

A new, multi-million-dollar launch facility, Green Pond, has been constructed near Anderson, S.C., for the anglers’ daily takeoffs. They’ll bring their catches to Greenville for weigh-ins at the Bon Secours Wellness Arena, recognized by the entertainment industry as one of the Top 50 venues in the world. The Bassmaster Classic Expo, the consumer show held concurrently with the competition days, will be at the 280,000-square-foot TD Convention Center in Greenville.

“We are thrilled that the Bassmaster Classic has chosen to return to South Carolina and selected Greenville for their 2015 location,” said Haley. “It’s truly a great a day in South Carolina, and now millions of people will get to see why our beautiful state continues to attract topnotch sporting events.”

“B.A.S.S. is delighted to be returning to Lake Hartwell and Greenville,” said Bruce Akin, CEO of B.A.S.S. “We will be working closely with our South Carolina partners over the next year to be sure Classic 2015 will be the first-class sporting event B.A.S.S. members and fishing fans worldwide have come to expect.”

B.A.S.S last brought the Classic to Greenville and Lake Hartwell in February 2008. The lake produced what was then the third-largest winning weight for a Classic: 49 pounds, 7 ounces. Bassmaster Elite Series pro Alton Jones of Texas was the author of that mark. Jones bested the 44-5 posted by Cliff Pace, then a 25-year-old, up-and-coming Elite pro from Mississippi. Pace went on to become a Classic champ himself in 2013.

Besides Gov. Haley, South Carolina officials on hand for Thursday’s announcement were representatives from South Carolina Parks, Recreation and Tourism (SCPRT); VisitGreenvilleSC; VisitAnderson; the City of Greenville, Greenville County; and Anderson County.

“We are thrilled that the Bassmaster Classic has chosen to return in 2015. The world championship of bass fishing recognizes the great combination of Lake Hartwell and facilities in Anderson and Greenville,” said Chris Stone, president of VisitGreenvilleSC.

Stone noted that in 2008, more than 75,000 people attended the Classic in Greenville over three days.

“We look forward to an even larger event in 2015, which will have tremendous impact on the local economy, with a projected impact of more than $17 million in revenue to the Upstate,” Stone said.

Said Duane Parrish, SCPRT director: “SCPRT is very proud that Greenville has been chosen as the host site for the Bassmaster Classic in 2015. This accomplishment is a testament to the hard work and efforts of VisitGreenvilleSC and VisitAnderson working together with the City of Greenville, Greenville County and Anderson County to once again host this premiere event, and is further proof of South Carolina’s growing reputation as a top destination for sports tourism.”

As one of the largest lakes in the Southeast, Hartwell attracts millions of visitors every year, according to the US Army Corps of Engineers, which manages the lake. Bordering Georgia and South Carolina on the Savannah, Tugaloo and Seneca rivers, the impoundment stretches 49 miles up the Tugaloo and 45 miles up the Seneca at normal pool elevation. Hartwell comprises nearly 56,000 acres of water with a shoreline of 962 miles, making it an ideal challenge for Classic anglers. Largemouth bass are abundant; the lake also holds spotted bass.

“There couldn’t be a better location than Lake Hartwell for the 2015 Bassmaster Classic,” said Jennifer Norman, executive director of VisitAnderson. “With Green Pond, our new $2.6 million mega-ramp facility, our convenient location and our amazing bass fishing, the Bassmaster Classic will showcase all that our lake has to offer.”

For more information about the Classic 2015 location, go to http://www.visitgreenvillesc.com; http://www.scprt.com; http://www.visitgreenvillesc.com; and http://visitanderson.com.

About B.A.S.S.
For more than 45 years, B.A.S.S. has served as the authority on bass fishing. The organization advances the sport through advocacy, outreach and an expansive tournament structure while connecting directly with the passionate community of bass anglers through its Bassmaster media vehicles.

The Bassmaster brand and its multimedia platforms are guided by a mission to serve all fishing fans. Through its industry-leading publications — Bassmaster Magazine and B.A.S.S. Times — comprehensive website Bassmaster.com and ESPN2 and Outdoor Channel television programming, Bassmaster provides rich, leading-edge content true to the lifestyle.

The Bassmaster Tournament Trail includes the Bassmaster Elite Series, Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Open Series, Carhartt Bassmaster College Series, B.A.S.S. Nation events and the ultimate celebration of competitive fishing, the Bassmaster Classic.

B.A.S.S. offers an array of services to its more than 500,000 members and remains focused on issues related to conservation and water access. The organization is headquartered in Birmingham, Ala.

Is Ice Fishing Good On Devils Lake?

Nice Devils Lake Perch

Nice Devils Lake Perch

Ice Destination: Devils Lake
from The Fishing Wire

Plentiful walleyes and pike and some of the biggest perch anywhere combine for huge fun at Devils Lake. Veteran guide Jason Feldner explains how to find the best ice action.

Looking at the genuine jumbo perch in my hand, all I could do was grin. In truth, we had caught several perch that were equally large. Still, there’s something about each ridiculously huge yellow perch that simply brings a smile. Of course, it didn’t hurt that we had also caught a huge number of fish – nor that we were about to go catch a mess of Devils Lake walleyes.

Devils Lake, which spreads across more than 220,000 acres in North Dakota’s prairie country, is legendary among ice anglers for its giant yellow perch. Arguably, no major lake provides a better opportunity to catch 2-pound-plus perch through the ice. Devils is not an all-or-nothing destination, though. Extremely fertile and offering diverse and plentiful habitat for the fish, this lake also supports tremendous populations of perch, walleyes and northern pike, so fast action is common for anglers who understand how to find the fish.

Devils Lake also offers a long — very long — ice season. Jason Feldner of Perch-Eyes Guide Service pulled his first limit of walleyes through the ice before Thanksgiving this year, and he wasn’t being overly eager. He was set up on more than 7 inches of good ice.

And the ice won’t go away until well into spring – long after anglers have been forced to abandon hard-water efforts through much of ice country. Feldner said he normally ice-fishes about a week and a half into April.

Devils Lake is massive and exceptionally complex, with waters spreading over dozens of bays, potholes and backwaters, and wrapping around endless-seeming points and islands. Fed by a vast watershed and lacking any real outlet, Devils Lake changes in size from season-to-season, so sometimes-isolated backwaters can get recaptured by the rest of the lake.

The lake’s most western primary basin is mostly shallow with plentiful flooded timber. Central and eastern sections of the lake offer far more deep water. Extreme fertility causes the fish to grow quickly and get chunky throughout Devils Lake.

Because of the lake’s size, complexity and the fish’s fondness for structure, Feldner considers a good lake map critical. He believes Lakemaster offers the most useful Devils Lake map because it has 1-foot contours, which paint a detailed picture of bottom breaks. He also considers electronics crucial for finding fish and gauging their behavior as he plays with different lure presentations.

Devils Lake Approach

Feldner commonly employs a split-day strategy, targeting walleyes or pike first thing in the morning and/or late in the afternoon and focusing on yellow perch through the middle of the day. That typically involves a location change or two. Perch schools avoid the structure and the shallow areas that hold the most walleyes and pike.

Feldner usually begins his ice season focusing on the shallower western part of the lake, and the “deep” perch areas that he fishes in the middle of the day might only be 15 or 20 feet deep. As winter progresses, he typically works his way east and into deeper water. Through mid-winter, he commonly targets perch in 30 to 50 feet of water. Late in the season the fish start moving shallower again, so he starts spending more time in the western part of the lake.

Feldner does virtually all of his targeted walleye fishing from just before first light until an hour or so after daybreak and during the last couple of hours of daylight. In the evening he might fish another half an hour or so after dark, but he noted that there is not normally much of a night bite.

He points toward humps as good walleye-holding structure and stresses the importance of setting up right on the top of the structure. He likes a noisy, aggressive bait for Devils Lake walleyes and normally fishes with a Lindy Darter or a Rattl’N Flyer Spoon tipped with a minnow head. His favorite Darter colors are Natural Perch and Red Glow. For Rattl’N Flyer Spoons, he likes Techni-Glo Firetiger and Perch.

When Feldner moves into perch mode, he often begins near the outside edge of a point or rock hump, focusing on the transition area where the rock gives way to mud.

“Perch are usually just off the structure. They really like that mud bottom,” he said. “Sometimes you have to drill a lot of holes to find them.”

He also focuses on old, submerged wood cover when looking for jumbo perch. The submerged trees attract shrimp, and the shrimp attract the perch.

“It can be aggravating trying to fish around the trees, and you will get hung up, but they can hold a lot of perch,” he said.

Feldner usually begins aggressive, using a small Rattl’N Flyer Spoon or 360 Jig and kicking the bottom in hopes of attracting fish. He tips both lures with a minnow head. If the fish come in but won’t quite commit to the aggressive baits, he downsizes to a Lindy Toad tipped with larvae or waxworm.

He keeps the baits very close to the bottom and watches his electronics to gauge the mood of the fish. He likes to keep a bait moving virtually all the time, but often uses very slight motions.

Devils Lake also supports a good northern pike population. Feldner mostly targets pike with tip-ups, fishing close to the shore and spreading his holes between 2 and 8 feet of water.

Want to Go?

Perch-Eyes Guide Service offers fully outfitted fishing and lodging packages and separate daily fishing trips. Visit percheyes.com to learn more and to check out regularly updated Devils Lake fishing reports, or give Jason Feldner a call at 701-351-1294.

Remembering Tommy Shaw

In 2008 I was saddened to hear of the death of Tommy Shaw. He was the owner of Little River Marina on Clark’s Hill and a legendary fisherman in that area. He built his marina on the shores of Little River in 1953, the year the lake was opened to the public, and ran it into the 1980s.

Tommy spent so much time fishing the lake he knew it better than anyone else. I got to fish with him one time for a Georgia Outdoor News article and he amazed me with his ability to find humps and other underwater structure. Now anyone with a good depth finder and lots of time can locate similar structure but he did it the old fashioned way, by fishing.

He loved to catch white bass and took to hybrids and stripers when they were introduced into the lake like an ant takes to sugar. He trolled for them as well as looking for them schooling on the surface. There is no telling how many he and his wife caught over the years.

I fished with him on a cold January day and he told me he was going to show me a secret. He said people though bass were all deep and inactive that time of year but he took me way back in a pocket and caught a nice bass on a Zoom Fluke in two feet of water.

After that he took me out on the main lake and caught a five pound bass on a Little George and took me to a spot where I got a four pounder. To me that was great fishing in the dead of winter but he said it was a normal day for him.

Tommy called in reports to Atlanta radio stations and had weekly fishing reports in the August Chronicle, a paper I grew up reading. As a kid in the late 1950s and early 60s I would read his reports and want to go fishing so bad it hurt. I am sure many fishermen got turned on to Clark’s Hill through Tommy’s writing and reports.

Clark’s Hill will be a little less interesting and a little less fun fishing with him gone.

Can I Go Ice Fishing On Lake Of The Woods?

Ice Destination: Lake of the Woods
from The Fishing Wire

This legendary lake that straddles the U.S./Canada border serves up outstanding ice fishing through a long season that is already underway

One Question Quiz:

Lake of the Woods ice fishing walleye

Lake of the Woods ice fishing walleye


Lake of the Woods is well known for:

Giant walleyes
Fast action from a mix of saugers and walleyes
Great daytime bite all winter long
All of the above

You probably guessed it, but the answer definitely is “d) All of the above.” And in truth, those answers represent only a few of the reasons why Lake of the Woods stands out as one of the world’s most renowned ice-fishing destinations. Straddling the U.S./Canada border, with the U.S. portion in Minnesota, this massive lake freezes early and stays that way for a long time, and the walleye ice season remains open longer than on other Minnesota lakes.

Lake of the Woods also has liberal limits, with an eight fish combined walleye/sauger limit (only four may be walleyes; size restrictions apply). With the sauger population currently in excellent condition based on anglers’ observations and sampling studies conducted by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, the opportunity exists to harvest a nice bag of fish most days. The walleye population is likewise in excellent condition, with a large average size and more than a few genuine giants in the mix.

Plentiful resorts line the Minnesota section Lake of the Woods, and the gateway town of Baudette is a definite fishing community. In fact, it’s sometimes called the Walleye Capital of the World. From a practical standpoint that means that everything you might want for fishing – from bait to supplies to fishing reports to rental ice houses – is readily available. Making a good thing even better is that despite Lake of the Woods’ tremendous size, much of the best fishing is very handy to the areas where the lake is most accessible, and good fishing areas tend to be easy to find.

“The resort industry makes it easy for an angler who may not ice-fish quite as often to get out there and enjoy success in an ice house that has been placed in a productive area,” said Nick Painovich, who operates Zippel Bay Resort with his wife Deanna.

Zippel Bay maintains a plowed road from the resort to the lake’s basin, where they have an extensive village of ice houses near the outlet of Zippel Bay. The resort’s entire road system is flagged and even marked with street signs, and stays sufficiently well maintained for you to drive out to an ice house in a 2-wheel-drive vehicle.

Of course, opportunities are not limited to resort guests fishing from rental houses. Extensive productive flats are accessible to anglers pulling portable shelters with snowmobiles, and Lake of the Woods is hugely popular with ice anglers who prefer to pick their spots and drill their own holes and remain more mobile with their approach.

Finding Fish

Catch walleye thru the ice on Lake of the Woods

Catch walleye thru the ice on Lake of the Woods


Painovich noted that through the first part of the season, much of the best fishing occurs fairly close to the shore. Early and late in the day during the first part of the season, he suggests concentrating on water in the 12- to 16-foot range. Through the middle of the day, the best action is usually in the 20- to 22-foot range. In fact, the resort offers shallow/deep packages that allow guests to split time between two locations and concentrate their efforts in those areas that are most likely to produce at different times of the day.

“For the average guy who might not want to move around during the day, the 18- to 22-foot range is good,” Painovich said.

Shallow, deep or in between, most fishing is over broad flats with a bottom that consists of sand or rubble, and the fish schools tend to roam, not necessarily holding on defined breaks or rockpiles.

Mixed catches of walleyes and saugers predominate through the first part of the season, with the biggest walleyes and the very best walleye bite often occurring shallow around first and last light.

Through the middle of winter the fish move deeper, and the best mid-day catches will occur in 30 feet or more of water. About 80 percent of the fish caught out deep will be saugers, according to Painovich. The walleyes still will feed shallower early and late – just not quite as shallow.

Late in the ice season, the walleyes and saugers typically begin moving shallower again, and the pike bite often gets really good. Large pike staging to move into Zippel Bay to spawn begin working their way up flats during March and provide excellent opportunities, especially for anglers fishing with tip-ups.

Best Baits

Because the water in Lake of the Woods is fairly dark, baits that make noise tend to work well. Painovich pointed toward a Lindy Rattl’N Flyer Spoon, Darter and the new 360 Jig as excellent choices. He recommended a two-rod strategy, with an aggressive, noisy bait on one line and something small, quiet and natural – possibly a live minnow on dead-sticked Frostee Jig or Slick Jig – on the other.

“Even when they won’t hit that noisy Darter, it helps bring them close to investigate and they’ll end up taking the other bait,” Painovich said.

In terms of live bait, he recommends using emerald shiners when they are available, and pointed toward fathead minnows as a good second choice. Zippel Bay also sells frozen minnows for tipping spoons or jigs to add scent and flavor.

The biggest size Darter works well for anglers who opt to target pike with a rod in hand, however many Lake of the Woods fishermen do the bulk of their targeted pike fishing with tip-ups.

Igloo, Too

If you do fish Lake of the Woods this winter, leave time to stop by the Zippel Bay Igloo. Located just outside the Zippel Bay among the resort’s ice house village, the Igloo is an on-the-water snack bar and watering hole that offers everything from satellite TV to rental ice holes beneath tables, so you can continue to fish while you eat a snack and watch a ballgame.

Want to Go?

To learn more about Lake of the Woods ice fishing opportunities and to plan your winter adventure, visit www.zippelbay.com or give them a call at 800-222-2537.

How To Catch Winter Clarks Hill Crappie

Many crappie fishermen are getting tackle ready, planning and looking forward to March when the slabs start to move into the shallows to spawn, but they are making a mistake. If you aren’t fishing for crappie in February you are missing out on some of the best fishing of the year, especially for big fish.

Clark’s Hill is our biggest lake and offers great crappie fishing. There are many creeks and smaller rivers entering the lake that run in different directions, so you can find a place to fish that does not get the brunt of the winter wind. And you can find just about any water clarity you want to fish.

two big crappie

two big crappie

Rod Wall grew up and still lives near the lake in 96 South Carolina. He has a place on the South Carolina Little River arm of the lake and builds docks and seawalls on Lake Greenwood and Clark’s Hill. All his life he has been fishing Clark’s Hill for crappie.

About six years ago Rod started fishing crappie tournaments. He set small goals, first trying to catch a limit in each tournament, then to place and now to win. He does well on the Crappiemasters, Crappie USA and Georgia Slabmasters trails. He guides for crappie on both Lake Greenwood and Clark’s Hill.

Rod has done well enough on the trails to be sponsored by B ‘n M crappie rods, Vicious Line, and Hummingbird Electronics. He likes Southern Pro jigs and Midsouth Tackle jigs and trailers for his fishing and carries about 400 color combinations of jig heads and trailers with him in his boat.

Rod’s usual partner in tournaments is his 15 year old son Braxton and he has learned well. He has won two youth national championships, the 2010 Crappie USA Pickwick tournament and the 2011 Crappiemasters Alabama River tournament.

Nice winter crappie

Nice winter crappie

“You can catch some of the biggest crappie of the year right now,” Rod told me. The fish are moving into the creeks toward spawning areas and are feeding actively. There are several ways to catch them that work from right now through March.

To prove his point, he took me fishing in mid-January and we landed about ten crappie. The biggest seven went from 1.40 to 1.91 pounds – on his tournament scales. Those are big crappie. But he catches even bigger. His best seven fish

Winter crappie

Winter crappie

tournament limit weighed 17.5 pounds and he has landed three pound crappie on Clarks Hill this time of year.

Rod likes to longline, also called pulling or trolling, for crappie. His Lund boat is set up with Driftmaster rod holders allowing him to fish 14 B n M rods out the back. This setup lets him cover a lot of water quickly, finding the schools of fish and catching them.

To start the day Rod will look for stained water since he says crappie hit better on a reaction bite when the fish can’t get as good a look at the bait. He will watch his depthfinder for baitfish and schools of crappie to determine the depth he wants to run his jigs and use either four or six pound test Vicious line and vary the weight of jig heads to keep them at that depth.

“One of the biggest mistakes a beginner crappie troller makes is to not know the depth he is fishing,” Rod says. The best way to learn is to put out some one sixteenths ounce jigs and troll them over a flat of a consistent depth. Vary the speed of your boat until the jigs start to bump the bottom. If it is 12 feet deep that will tell you that size jig will run at that depth at the set speed.

Speed and line size is as critical as the size of the jig. The length behind the boat you troll is also important. Rod has made a chart so he knows exactly how fast to troll a jig size and line size combination to fish a set depth.

Normal trolling speed is from .6 to 1.2 MPH. A good GPS will tell you exactly how fast you are trolling and Rod keeps a constant eye on his speed. His boat is rigged with a Minkota remote control trolling motor and he can work it from the back of the boat near the rods to keep his boat on an exact course and speed.

Crappie relate to the channels as they move toward the spawning areas so he starts near the channel, fishing points and flats along them. We caught most of our fish in January off the end of a big flat that ran out to the Little River channel and dropped off on one end into a small feeder creek. They were stacked up on the drop.

Another mistake beginners make is to try to start with too many rods. Although Rod uses 14 B ‘N Rod rigs, you should start with just six to eight rods until you learn to control them and not get tangled.

It is also important to keep your rod tips down at the surface of the water, especially if there is any wind. Wind will catch the line and make it change depths and speeds, making control difficult if the rod tip is up off the water.

On his boat Rod will have four eight foot B ‘n N rods across the back beside the motor. Three more rod holders on each side have a 12, then 14 and finally a 16 foot rod. This allows you to cover 32 feet plus the width of the boat on each troll, a swath almost 40 feet wide.

In more clear water or if you want to run your jigs deeper, use four pound test line. In stained water or if you want to keep your jigs higher you can use six pound test line. First thing in the morning Rod will try several different colors but will switch most of his jigs to the color the crappie prefer.

Rod warns that the color choice can change rapidly during the day so if the fish slow down hitting one color try others. Also vary your speed if the bite slows on one that has been working. Watch your depthfinder so you stay at the depth the fish are holding and keep your bait there by changing jig size or line size for the speed you need to go.

A loop knot used to attach your jig head to the line definitely gives it more action and Rod always ties them on that way. With the light line a good know is critical. You need to tie one that will not cut the light line.

Some of Rod’s favorite places to fish on Clark’s Hill are the South Carolina Little River arm above the Highway 378 Bridge, Soap Creek above the Highway 220 Bridge, Haw and Wells Creeks on the Savannah River arm and Germany, Rousseau and Kemp Creeks on the Georgia Little River arm. He also fishes up Big Hart Creek and Little River around Kemp Creek.

Start toward the backs of these creeks in the mornings in February and pull out toward the mouth until you find the fish. On Clark’s Hill you can find space away from other boats giving you room to troll and make the wide turns necessary to be successful. Once you find an area holding crappie, either when you start catching them or seeing a lot of bait and crappie on your depthfinder, stay in that area.

Rod likes curly tail jigs and will tip them with a live minnow to see if that helps. He often puts jigs out on one side with minnows and jigs without minnows on the other side of the boat to see what the fish prefer. If they are hitting the jigs without minnows there is no need to use them.

Crappie often are just barely hooked on the jig so you should not set the hook or fight them too fast. Just pick up the rod and start reeling. Keep the fish in the lane that rod is in so they don’t tangle other lines and let them run when they want to. You have to keep the boat moving so reel very slowly.
You will need a long handle net for bigger fish. Rod says you should never get the fish closer to the boat than the length of line equal to the rod length. When the fish is about a rod lengths line away, slowly lift your rod tip to bring it to the net.

No matter how tempting it is to try to land a big striper, hybrid or largemouth when you hook one, they will make a mess of all your lines. In tournaments Rod will instantly break them off. The day we fished he hooked a nice striper and tried to land it. It tangled 12 of our 14 lines. If you want to try to land a big fish be prepared to untangle lines. Jut be sure it is not a really big crappie before you break it off!

Another trick when trying to find out exactly what the fish want is to run a zigzag pattern with your boat. That will speed up jigs on one side and slow them down on the other. This not only changes speed, it will change depth, so you can find out what they want.

On sunny days Rod will use translucent jigs and more colorful jigs on cloudy days. A little breeze often helps but stronger wind makes boat control difficult. To control his speed when trolling with the wind Rod keeps a drift sock in his boat and puts it out to slow him down. He will also put his motor in gear and he says that will slow your speed up to a tenth of a mile and hour by itself.

Some current definitely positions the fish deeper on cover so it makes trolling more difficult. No mater what, make sure your jigs stay clean. Any small piece of grass or other trash on the jig will guarantee the fish won’t hit it.

Don’t hesitate to change speed, color and depth when you are not catching anything. As Rod says, if you aren’t catching any fish it certainly doesn’t hurt to change.

The trolling season for crappie extends a long time. Warming water even for a few days can turn the fish on and anytime the water is over 50 degrees the fishing is good. There are both black and white crappie in Clark’s Hill and the blacks move in earlier, followed a couple of weeks later by the whites, so that extends the good fishing time.

Rod says black crappie will spawn at 60 degree water temperature and whites a couple of weeks later, so keep up with the water temperature. Fish move in waves of schools so you can keep up with them and catch them over a longer time than you might expect.

Smaller fish are often more aggressive and hit more shallow, so drop your jigs a little deeper if you are catching small fish but seeing others a little deeper. But be sure to always keep your jigs above the fish. Rod says crappie will sometimes come up six feet to hit a jig but will never go down to take one.

There are other ways to catch crappie this time of year. Rod has rod holders on the front of his boat for pushing bush piles and standing timber. This method involves putting the rods out in front of the boat, moving up close to the brush or tree, and letting the jigs or minnows drop straight down.

Depth is critical when pushing, too, so try different depths until you find what they want. Standing trees in the mouths of spawning creeks and pockets often hold large numbers of crappie and you can catch a lot while pushing them.

Clark’s Hill used to be known for its crappie fishing during the spawn in the button or buck bushes but the lake has been low for so long that has not happened in years. Fish will spawn just about anywhere along the bank and even out in deeper water on brush and standing timber.

The lake was 16 feet low the day we fished, just before all the rain in the middle of the month. The lake had come up about a foot since Christmas and should still be rising. The rain will give more color to the creeks and that should improve the trolling.

Rod’s depthfinder has a barometer indicator on it and he likes to see a rising or falling barometric pressure. He says a steady barometer is not good but movement in either direction will help make the bite better. An approaching front, with changing pressure, definitely helps.

If you want to catch some big crappie, head to Clark’s Hill this month. Try Rod’s methods or fish the way you like best. There are other good creeks on the lake, too so don’t get stuck on one pattern on place.

To book a guide trip with Rod on Greenwood or Clark’s Hill call him at 864-993-8868 or visit his web sites at http://slabmasterguideservice.com for more information and to book a trip.

Fishing In Lower Alabama

Fishing’s Good in L.A.

Today, our friend David Rainer for the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources takes us fishing in L.A. (That’s Lower Alabama) where the late fall and early winter produces great fishing opportunities.
from The Fishing Wire

When the first real cold front of the fall sweeps through Alabama, my attention starts to focus on the many hunting opportunities that our great state offers. However, that doesn’t mean I disregard a fishing invitation when it comes my way this time of year.

In fact, fall and winter fishing in L.A. (Lower Alabama), can be some of the best of the year along the Gulf Coast.

When my buddy, Jay Gunn, sent a text and asked if I wanted to go fishing in Magnolia River recently, I sent a one-word text back – “certainly.”

Gunn guides on the Eastern Shore of Mobile Bay, mostly in the Gulf Shores-Fort Morgan area. He wanted to check out Magnolia River and Fish River to see what we could find in terms of speckled trout, redfish and white trout.

After fishing Magnolia for a while with little luck, we made the short run down Weeks Bay to Fish River, where the river channel is deeper.

“I always start shallow and work my way deep,” Gunn said. “Most of the time, it seems the shallow fish are the most aggressive. In the fall and winter, when it warms, that’s when the specks seem not to bite as well for whatever reason. When it gets cold again, they seem to bite again. You would think it would be just the opposite. You would think their metabolism would pick up when it’s warm and they would feed more.

“Normally the fish follow the shrimp around, but this has been a year when there weren’t a lot of shrimp in the rivers. Actually, there haven’t been a lot of shrimp in the bays, either.”

I talked to shrimper Doug Plash in October about shrimp, and he said the shrimp numbers were so low he couldn’t cover his fuel costs at the time.

Speculation about the poor shrimp crop centers around the unusually wet spring and summer, which kept the salinity in Mobile Bay and the estuaries low, which kills the larval shrimp.

“During the late summer and fall, the fish were a lot more scattered than in the past because of the poor shrimp crop,” Gunn said. “Now the fish have to feed on menhaden and threadfin shad, which most people call alewives. Those fish seem to move a lot more than the shrimp do, so that’s why the fish seem to be more scattered.”

While Gunn had already secured plenty of live bait fish with his cast net, we decided to try plastic minnow imitations in Fish River.

Fishing the river ledge, I cast the ¼-ounce jig up on the shelf and hopped it a couple of times. I thought for a flash that I had hooked one of the numerous snags on the ledge, until the snag started moving at a rapid pace.

When I set the hook, the drag started to whine on the spinning reel spooled with 10-pound fluorocarbon line.

“Aha, they’re still here,” Gunn said within seconds of the hookset.

I wasn’t sure what “they” meant, but the fish was certainly powerful and wasn’t about to be horsed to the boat. A few minutes later, that familiar bright bronze flash appeared as the fish neared the surface. I reached up and loosened the drag a bit more to ensure this brute of a redfish didn’t have a chance to break the line when he made his numerous runs.

Slowly, the fish began to tire and eventually ended up in the net.

“Boy, these redfish in Fish River sure are pretty,” Gunn said. “They just shine.”

Pretty bull redfish

Pretty bull redfish

The bright bronze color of this bull redfish is evident as Capt. Jay Gunn shows off this Fish River catch (Above) before he slips the fish back into the water , where it quickly disappeared into the depths of the river channel. The second bull red of the day, which was almost identical to the first, (below) came on the same minnow-imitation lure bounced along the river ledge.

After measuring the fish at 38 inches and taking photos, Gunn slipped the big red back into the water, and it quickly swam back to another ambush point.

“It happens about every five to eight years,” Gunn said of the influx of bull redfish into Fish River. “For some reason a bunch of bull reds show up in Fish River and Magnolia River. I guess they follow the menhaden up there. They get up there until we have a real cold front. A few stragglers will stay there all winter. Sometimes a lucky dog will catch one of them. If he’s real lucky, he’ll catch two.”

Not more than 15 minutes after the bull red disappeared into the tannin-colored water of Fish River, another fateful cast was made. This time, there was no doubt a big fish had slammed the bait. Another fight was on with similar results. Thank goodness for quality drag systems on small spinning reels.

“The thing about fishing this time of year is you’ve gotta be patient,” Gunn said. “The fish may not bite at daylight. A lot of times they don’t bite until on up in the day. Winter tides are such that low tides are early in the morning, say 3 a.m. to 10 a.m. When the tide starts moving, they bite a lot better.”

Although we fished Magnolia and Fish rivers, Gunn spends a lot of his winter fishing time in the Intracoastal Waterway and Little Lagoon.

“The water temperature stays a little steadier in the canal and lagoon,” he said. “The salinity stays pretty steady, too. There’s not a lot of freshwater influx. The fishing is just steady and dependable. In the canal, you may end up with a variety of fish – redfish, speckled trout, white trout, puppy drum and sheepshead.”

During the fall and winter, the Mobile-Tensaw Delta is known for its fishing for inshore saltwater species like specks and redfish. Traditionally, the Delta fishing is prime because of the migration of white shrimp out of the multiple rivers at the head of Mobile Bay.

Capt. Bobby Abruscato has made a living fishing around Dauphin Island and Bayou La Batre, but six years ago he started exploring the Mobile-Tensaw Delta. Now, he seldom leaves that area during the fall and winter because of the abundance of speckled trout.

“Earlier in the fall, when the water temperature was still above 62 degrees, I was fishing the shallow flats around Del Van Bay, Grand Bay and the Spanish, Raft and Appalachee rivers,” Abruscato said. “Those rivers are shaped all the same. There’s a shallow dropoff on one side of the channel, and there’s a steep dropoff on the other side of the channel. I was catching trout mainly with shrimp-imitations under corks.

“Then when we had these cooler snaps, I started catching them on the edges of where it drops down into the main river channel. Lately, since we had that last cold front, I’m catching them all on jigs in the river channels. They do that every year when it cools off like this.”

Abruscato also noticed a lack of shrimp during his fishing trips, and he said shrimpers have told him it was the slowest year they could remember in Mobile Bay.

“When the shrimp move out of the Delta, you’ll get the birds following the shrimp,” he said. “The trout will push the shrimp to the surface where the birds can reach them. This year the bird activity has been almost nil.”

But the fish, especially speckled trout, are still there. Although Abruscato said the fishing isn’t as good as it was last year, he’s been catching a limit of 10 specks per person consistently.

“And in the last two weeks, the quality of the fish has gone up,” he said. “We may only have five throwbacks all day. We’re catching quite a few fish from 18 to 23 inches.

“We’re catching some slot (16 to 26 inches) reds, but no bull reds. Everybody’s got trout on the brain right now. I’ve got trips later this month where customers want to catch redfish, so I’m going to have to find some. I’m sure some are up there. They always are.”

A January Bass Tournament At Jackson Lake

On a cold January Sunday in 2008 15 members and guests of the Flint River Bass Club fished our first tournament of the year at Jackson. There were 28 keeper bass weighed in, 18 spots and 10 largemouth, that weighed 59.16 pounds. Two fishermen had five-fish limits and four did not catch a keeper. Six of the bass weighed three pounds or more.

I made one lucky cast and landed an 8.80 pound bass for big fish and had one other for a total of two bass weighing 12.18 pounds for first. Tommy Reeves has five at 9.07 for second, Bobby Ferris was third with five weighing 6.80 and Rick Webster placed fourth with four weighing 5.90 pounds.

I had a frustrating day up until the big one hit, missing three bites on a slow fishing day. I had one keeper with about 45 minutes left to fish when my partner and I decided to go to one last place. I was throwing a Strike King Series 5 crank bait around a sandy pocket and talking about how we used to catch big bass in the winter but it had not happened in a long time when the big one hit. That is the biggest bass I have caught in a very long time.

Fish hit a variety of crank baits, lizards, and jig and pigs in the stained water that started out at 47 degrees but warmed to 52. My first fish hit a jig and pig under a dock just after noon. Jordan McDonald, my partner, had two on a Texas rigged lizard, one in the morning and one about an hour before quitting time.

Bassmasters Classic Expectations For Chris Lane

Chris Lane of Guntersville, Ala.

Chris Lane of Guntersville, Ala.

Great Bassmasters Classic Expectations For (And By) Chris Lane

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Chris Lane’s dream of winning the 2014 GEICO Bassmaster Classic is different than the dreams of the other 55 anglers in the game.

Sure, every qualifier hopes to win the world championship of professional bass fishing. A win molds a pro career and changes your life, and not just because of the $300,000 first prize.

As the 2012 Classic champ, Lane knows that to be true. Yet this time around would be different. In 2014 — his fourth Classic — he’s not only a competitor, he’s the hometown entry.

Florida-born, Lane now lives on Lake Guntersville, the famed Alabama fishery where the Classic field will compete Feb. 21-23, with weigh-ins in Birmingham at the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex.

Friends, neighbors and fans in his adopted hometown of Guntersville are looking to Lane to take a second Classic title — this time for them. Fans everywhere assume he has a home-water advantage and expect more of him.

“There’s added pressure when it comes to fulfilling the expectations people have of you because you’re fishing at home,” Lane said. “I think my biggest challenge will be time management, using my time each evening preparing for the next day’s competition. It’s hard to put everything else aside when you’re at home.”

Recognizing what’s ahead of him, Lane set to work as soon as he nailed a Classic qualification by winning the final Bassmaster Elite Series event of the 2013 season. His mission: Sew up a gaping hole in his lake knowledge.

“In the five years I’ve lived here, I haven’t fished the lake much from December to March because I’ve had other things scheduled,” he said. “I knew I needed to learn a lot to give myself a chance to do well.”

A Lake Guntersville crash course was made easier because he could go to school at home.

“I could just takeoff from my own dock, get back for lunch with my kids and be home every night,” he said. “I was able to put in a lot of time on the water right up until cutoff on Dec. 31.”

Lake Guntersville has been off limits to Classic anglers since that date. Lane drives over the lake bridge to take his kids to school, but those teasing glimpses are as close as he can get to the water until the official practice period begins in February.

Then, he said, get ready for a slugfest.

“The lake has a lot of big fish,” Lane said. “The 30-plus-pound bags are here.”

By February, the lake’s bass will have been feeding to get in shape for the spawn, and they’ll be as fat as they’ll get all year, Lane said. That means a limit of five big bass a day will be needed to top the leaderboard, he said, and the game could easily change from one day to the next.

“Anyone could come from behind with a huge sack and take over,” Lane said. “This will be a Classic that’s a nail-biter to the very end.”

He predicts the winning weight will be about 83 pounds. That would easily break the Classic record of 69 pounds, 11 ounces set in 2011 on the Louisiana Delta.

Lane made his predictions with a disclaimer: “Weather permitting. Water clarity will be a big factor in the weights.”

Only one angler has won a Classic in his home state. Interestingly, the state was Alabama, and Boyd Duckett triumphed in the 2007 Classic on Lay Lake, 120 miles from his Demopolis home. But no angler has won a Classic in his home town.

Lane wants to be that angler: “It was so sweet to win a first Classic. Winning this one would be just as sweet, being at home.”

2014 Bassmaster Classic Title Sponsor: GEICO

2014 Bassmaster Classic Official Sponsors: Toyota, Bass Pro Shops, Berkley, Evan Williams Bourbon, Humminbird, Mercury, Minn Kota, Nitro Boats, Skeeter Boats, Triton Boats, Yamaha

2014 Bassmaster Classic EXPO Presenting Sponsor: Dick’s Sporting Goods

2014 Bassmaster Classic Official Apparel Sponsor: Carhartt

About B.A.S.S.
For more than 45 years, B.A.S.S. has served as the authority on bass fishing. The organization advances the sport through advocacy, outreach and an expansive tournament structure while connecting directly with the passionate community of bass anglers through its Bassmaster media vehicles.

The Bassmaster brand and its multimedia platforms are guided by a mission to serve all fishing fans. Through its industry-leading publications — Bassmaster Magazine and B.A.S.S. Times — comprehensive website Bassmaster.com and ESPN2 and Outdoor Channel television programming, Bassmaster provides rich, leading-edge content true to the lifestyle.

The Bassmaster Tournament Trail includes the Bassmaster Elite Series, Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Open Series, Carhartt Bassmaster College Series, B.A.S.S. Nation events and the ultimate celebration of competitive fishing, the Bassmaster Classic.

B.A.S.S. offers an array of services to its more than 500,000 members and remains focused on issues related to conservation and water access. The organization is headquartered in Birmingham, Ala.

How Fast Do Bass Grow?

Tagging Studies Help Biologists Study Bass Age, Growth and Health

Today’s feature comes to us from the Florida Wildlife Research Institute in St. Petersburg, Florida.
from The Fishing Wire

Tagging studies help biologists learn about largemouth bass populations and associated fishing activity throughout Florida.

Yellow tag in bass

Yellow tag in bass

Yellow dart tag shown on the back of this trophy-sized largemouth bass.

Reward tag studies are one method biologists with the Fish and Wildlife Research Institute (FWRI) use to learn about Florida’s freshwater fish populations. These studies also engage anglers in the scientific process, helping connect researchers and managers to the stakeholders they serve and validate the science on which management decisions are based.

Most tagging studies consist of a few basic components. Scientists first collect and tag fish in a particular lake or region. They then release the tagged fish back into the population. Each tag has a phone number on it, allowing anglers who catch a tagged fish to report information about their catch to biologists. Each tag also has a monetary reward associated with it to encourage angler reporting.

Biologists primarily use tagging studies to estimate annual catch and harvest rates for fish populations to help managers set regulations that sustain healthy bass populations. FWRI biologists are conducting three largemouth bass tagging studies that range in scope from a trophy-sized bass study encompassing the entire state to a study targeting bass in a single lake.


Statewide trophy-sized bass study

This study includes locations throughout the state and is designed to evaluate the influence of the TrophyCatch program. The FWC launched TrophyCatch in 2012 to reduce harvest of largemouth bass 8 pounds and larger, boosting anglers’ opportunities to experience the thrill of catching a trophy-sized largemouth in Florida. Anglers are offered incentives for releasing these trophy-sized fish. The tagging project began one year prior to the launch of TrophyCatch. Biologists collected bass 8 pounds and larger by electrofishing and tagged them before release. They used data collected during that period to establish a baseline for catch and harvest rates. Biologists estimate that anglers caught approximately 21 percent of the tagged bass, and harvested 4 percent during the baseline year. They also found that bass weighing more than 10 pounds were harvested at a higher rate, primarily for taxidermy, than smaller bass. Biologists will continue this study for the next five years to monitor how TrophyCatch incentives influence angler behavior by comparing catch and harvest rates during this period to those observed prior to the program.

Northwest regional tagging study

FWRI biologists are conducting a reward-based tagging study in Northwest Florida, west of the Suwannee River. In late 2012, they tagged bass 12 inches and longer in 16 lakes across the 12-county study area. Biologists are monitoring tag returns for one year to measure catch and harvest rates. The data they provide to managers will be discussed with anglers to help determine the most suitable regulations for creating and sustaining quality bass fisheries in this region.

Lake Eustis tagging study

Lake Eustis is part of Central Florida’s Harris Chain of Lakes, a popular bass-fishing destination. The primary objective of this study is to complete a full stock assessment of the largemouth bass population in a moderately to heavily fished lake. Biologists will use data from tag reports to estimate the percentage of bass caught and harvested each year. They will combine this information with other data and provide it to managers, who can then determine if the current length and bag limits are appropriate or need to be adjusted. As a secondary objective, biologists are using what they learn from the tag returns, along with data from creel surveys and other information, to determine the best way to estimate the total number of bass in a large lake.

Tagged bass is released

Tagged bass is released

An FWRI biologist releases a tagged bass.

What to do if you catch a tagged largemouth bass

FWRI biologists use the same yellow plastic dart tags for all bass tagging projects. These thin, 3.5-inch-long tags are attached to the bass on the left side near the dorsal fin. If you catch a tagged bass, clip the tag close to the fish’s back and save the tag. Anglers are not obligated to release tagged bass but must comply with harvest regulations. When you report the tag, an FWRI staff member will ask a few brief questions about your catch and help you claim the monetary reward. Anglers, remember to check each bass you catch, sometimes algae covers the tag making it somewhat difficult to see, so look closely. Tagging studies give you the opportunity to participate in valuable research that helps managers sustain Florida’s largemouth bass fisheries.