Consider Rivers from North to South: The First Choice for Early Spring Fishing

If You Are A Walleye Fisherman, Consider Rivers from North to South: The First Choice for Early Spring Fishing

The great thing about fishing is that it can be done anywhere with water, from farm ponds to oceans and everything in between, including flowing rivers and streams. Fishing for many species in the current offers a great chance to catch more predictable fish as they use the current to find forage.

For those in the northern region, it also offers the first chance to launch the boat in open water, and for those further south, it’s a great opportunity to catch grouped-up springtime fish. That’s why a Wisconsin guide primarily targeting walleye in the early spring, Troy Peterson, and a bass fishing champion from Alabama, Dustin Connell, can find common ground in their love for springtime river fishing.

A First Chance at Open Water

After a long and cold winter, things are warming up slightly in the North Woods. Many of the lakes still have a covering of ice, but the rivers are free and clear, meaning it’s time to launch the boat for the first time of the year. This is the scenario Troy Peterson finds himself in currently, and he’s ready to target walleye on the Fox and Wolf rivers.

“We have two main river systems here, the Fox River near Green Bay, which is a destination for trophy walleye, and the Wolf, which is more for your ‘eater’ size walleye, and we fish them both this time of year,” he said. “The best days are sunny days when those fish move up super shallow. We throw a lot of hair jigs tipped with plastic or fathead minnow, blade baits, and Rippin’ Rap-style baits and try to make a lot of noise.”

After a long winter, many of these walleyes are hungry and can be fairly predictable in their locations, but Peterson also utilizes his electronics to find them.

“That shallow water warms up quicker, and on sunny days, they are up shallow. During low light conditions, we’re looking for transitions and targeting the deep holes adjacent to shallow sand flats. I’m talking a foot or two of water at times,” he said. “A lot of those places will be on the bends of the river, inside bends where the current wraps around and creates a little bit of an eddy and some slack water. We also use side imaging quite a bit because there are so many places these fish can be, and you won’t be able to see them without electronics because of how shallow they can be at times.”

Once he locates a good fish population, Peterson finds that they are typically ready to bite, but he adds that presentation is key for targeting these fish.

“Usually, if you throw something in their face, they are going to have no problem eating it,” he said. “The issue with fishing in the river is the heavy current, which can put a big bow in your line, and you can’t present a bait properly. That’s why your line diameter is so important.”

His line of choice is a 12 lb Seaguar PEX8 braid, a micro-thin JDM braided line, and he goes against the trend of braid to a fluorocarbon leader and uses a straight braided line. “It’s so thin that you can get away without a leader and tie directly to your bait, and they can’t see it,” he said. “The ultra-thin diameter of that line is great for cutting the current and allows you to make extremely long casts, whether vertically jigging or just casting hair jigs or blade baits. That gives you a better connection for a proper presentation, which is critical.”

Connell’s Simple Approach to Rivers in the Spring

Two-time Major League Fishing REDCREST Champion Dustin Connell has racked up wins on various fisheries, but at heart, he’s a ‘river rat’ from his bass fishing upbringing. His 2024 REDCREST triumph was on the current-influenced Lay Lake in Alabama, and he’s fished the famed Coosa River his entire life. This has taught him plenty about catching bass in moving water, and he says the spring months are an outlier compared to the rest of the year.

“The biggest thing with river fishing is understanding how the current is running, but spring is the only time when you want to get out of the current,” he said. “You can still catch them in current seams and pockets, but around the spawn is the only time they are not right in the current. It doesn’t matter how nice the water looks; they are probably not in it like any other time of the year. But, when they are done spawning, they’ll be right back in it again.”

With this in mind, Connell approaches a river system more like he does a lake. “It’s a three-pronged approach for me that’s pretty simple,” he said. “I like a ½ ounce jig, a big spinnerbait, and something on the bottom like a drop-shot or shaky head. That will work for you in the spring anywhere on the Tennessee River lakes, the Coosa River chain, the Alabama River, or anywhere you are fishing with current during the spring.”

A tried-and-true jig is a simple bait Connell uses for its versatility on river systems. “I can fish current seams with it, I can fish rock piles, and I can pitch to laydowns with that same jig,” he said. “The spinnerbait is another important tool because it works well in dirtier water, which happens all the time on river systems with spring rains. For both the jig and spinnerbait, I fish them on 17 lb Seaguar InvizX fluorocarbon; it’s so strong and casts great with either bait, much better than it will with 20 lb test.”
Finally, Connell says you can’t fish a river system in the spring without something fished along the bottom. His top picks are two finesse rigs, a shaky head, and a drop shot.

“All winter long, the bass are out suspended and chasing bait, and it’s like they say, ‘I need to sit down now,’ and start relating to the bottom more,” Connell theorized. “A perfect bait for targeting stump flats, gravel bottom, seawalls, or even bedding fish is with a finesse worm and a shaky head. I will use that and a drop-shot to slow down and pick apart that cover and throw both on a 21 lb Seaguar PEX8 braid with a 12 lb Seaguar Tatsu fluorocarbon leader; it’s the perfect setup of a thin line that casts great with plenty of strength.”

Fishing a river system is a great way to cash in on some great early spring fishing, whether for walleyes in Wisconsin or bass in Alabama and throughout the Southeast. Moving water of all forms is ideal for all predatory species, and right now is a perfect time to fish them.

Seaguar PEX8 is a micro-thin braid in high-visibility Passion Pink imported from Japan. It is available in 200 meter (219-yard) spools in sizes ranging from 12 to 33 lb tests. (Please check line diameter closely.)

Seaguar InvizX Fluorocarbon mainline is available from 4 to 25 lb tests on 200-, 600-, and 1000-yard spools.

Seaguar Tatsu Fluorocarbon mainline is available from 4 to 25 lb tests on 200- and 1,000-yard spools.

Seaguar Gold Label Fluorocarbon leader is available in 25- and 50-yard spools in 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 & 12 lb tests for freshwater use, complementing the 15, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, and 80 lb test leaders available for saltwater.

More Seaguar on the Water >>

A Fun Trip To Blairsville and Lake Nottely For Fishing Food and More

My trip to Blairsville and Lake Nottely two weeks ago was to go out with guide Will Harkins and get information for my June Georgia Outdoor News Map of the Month article. Although Will is in college he is a great fisherman and knows Nottely and Chatuge well, guiding on both.

I stayed in a nice fifth wheel camping trailer through brooksiderv.com in a retirement camper community. It was cheaper than area motels and more comfortable and quieter than a motel would have been. It was only a few miles from Nottely and Blairsville.

About a mile from the camper and Nottely Dam is Papaw’s Bac-yard BBQ where I got some of the best brisket I have ever eaten, delicious and tender enough to cut with a fork. He has a wide variety of sauces and his Brunswick Stew was very good, too.

Next door at the Amish Store some interesting jelly is available. Frog jelly is fig, raspberry, orange and ginger. Toe Jam is tangerine, orange and elderberry. Traffic jam is mostly strawberry for some reason. There are also many other things, from furniture to funny signs, for sale too.

The first night I drove into Blairsville and ate at Mike’s Seafood. The scallops were delicious, cooked just right, and the bite of grilled tuna I tried was excellent. I always like walking into a place like Mike’s and see you order at the fresh seafood counter.

I planned on eating there on Saturday night before I left. Although Google Maps said they got less busy after 8:00 PM, an hour before the close, at 8:00 that night the wait to order was 90 minutes!!

Sicily’s Pizza & Subs Pasta was just down the street and there was no wait. The pizza I got was great but it was not the scallops I wanted!

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Two trips to West Point last weekend produced very different results, one amazing and one not too bad.

On Friday I met Payton Caldwell to catch crappie. In the early 2000s GON did an article on shooting docks at West Point with Peyton’s grandfather, Joel Chambers. https://gon.com/fishing/run-run-and-gun-for-west-points-deep-shade-crappie He and GON editor Brad Bailey landed an incredible 273 crappie that day, a magazine article record that I think stands until now.

We got into his boat at 7:00 AM. When I had to leave at 2:00 PM we had landed an unbelievable 351 crappie. Paton went back out and fished until dark and his final total for one day was 485 crappie in the boat! All came “shooting” docks, sling-shotting a light jig far back under docks.

It took me about two hours to re-learn an old skill, I had not fished that way in at least 20 years. But it was fun. Payton said he thought I caught about 100 of the 351 on his clicker but I think it was more like 60 – 70.

Payton’s skill meant he caught way more than I caught. He probably outfished me 20 to one the first two hours when I could not get my jig in the right places. It was fun either way. Later in the day he was outfishing me “only” four or five to one.

The details of how to find the right docks and what to use will be in the June issue of Georgia Outdoor News.

St Croix Are the Self-Proclaimed Best Rods On Earth and They Are American-Made For All Anglers

Gear, The Lead

American-Made For All Anglers

A message to all anglers from St. Croix Rod

Park Falls, WI – St. Croix Rod has been proudly handcrafting the Best Rods on Earth – from start to finish – in Park Falls, Wisconsin for 77 years. Here, at least 32 sets of hands combine the best raw materials, components, and technologies, transforming them into premium fishing tools that give anglers the upper hand in any situation. True, we use advanced machines, computers and tooling – and that equipment has continually evolved over the past seven decades – but it’s always been guided and executed by skilled and passionate craftsmen, the vast majority of whom are anglers, just like you.

Historical Image — American-Made For All Anglers 1

Best Rods on Earth

Best Rods on Earth is not simply a marketing slogan, nor is it intended to be boastful. It’s a guiding statement that represents who we always want to be; a daily affirmation that reminds, encourages and empowers every St. Croix team member to be angler-driven in their work. Simply stated, the pride and satisfaction our anglers experience with a St. Croix rod is our only pride and satisfaction as a company. Our promise is kept when we deliver rods that elevate on-the-water experiences, and back them up with what we believe to be the best service and warranty in the industry.

physyxusa — American-Made For All Anglers 2

Vertical American and North American Manufacturing

Within the realm of fishing, vertical suggests a presentation that covers any part of the water column directly beneath the angler. In the context of manufacturing, vertical means owning or exercising increased control over all elements within the value chain. Vertically integrated manufacturing provides significant benefits when it comes to product manufacturing, assembly, and supply, including reduced lead times, increased quality, and cost control, to name a few – all of which benefit our anglers.

factory8 — American-Made For All Anglers 3

St. Croix Rod is a vertically integrated American company and aspires every day to become even more so. Exercising our own control over every aspect of design and manufacturing is what allows us to deliver you – our anglers – with complete control on the water.

To this end, we own and operate our two factories in Park Falls, Wisconsin and Fresnillo, Mexico without reliance upon anyone else’s rod blank designs, manufacturing, or employees. We are free to innovate, and that continual innovation is evidenced in the new rods we deliver each year possessing unique combinations of technologies, materials, performance, and value that improve the angling experience.

Eyecon — American-Made For All Anglers 4

Our vertical control also extends to service. We employ a team of 11 Angler Guides who come to work in the Guide Center every day in our Park Falls factory. These are the real people you speak with when you call or email our Guide Center with general questions about rod selection, service, warranty, fishing presentations, or any other needs. Angler satisfaction is their full-time job and only objective.

A Family of Anglers

Today’s anglers have more choices than ever. In a marketplace full of brands, it can be challenging for anglers to learn or understand “who” or “what” a brand really is. That’s why we’re putting out this message; we want anglers to better understand who and what we are. Above all, know that St. Croix is a family of anglers.

PHYSYX ACTION — American-Made For All Anglers 6

If you fish our rods, thank you; you will always be the most important part of the St. Croix Family. If have yet to experience one of the over 800 distinct fishing rods we design and handcraft, we encourage you to visit one of our retailers to learn more about which premium, high-performance St. Croix rods are best for you and your fishing. Triumph is the world’s best-selling North-American-made freshwater and saltwater rod series, starting at just $105. Our diverse U.S.-built portfolio of rods begins with Premier – the best-selling American-made rod series – and also includes Victory, Avid Series, and all of our Legend Series rods. We also offer one of the most significant and diverse catalog of saltwater rods by any manufacturer, foreign or domestic.

The St. Croix Family also extends to encompass our employees, dealers, ambassadors, rod testers, and our ownership. All play key roles in putting anglers first with the highest levels of performance, quality, service, and value.

SCHLUTERS — American-Made For All Anglers 7

Who exactly owns St. Croix you might ask? St. Croix has been owned by the Schluter family for the last 48 years; Gordan Schluter, and today, Gordon’s adult children, Dave, Jeff, Paul, and Pam. Couple this family ownership with premium quality and performance plus a 77-year heritage of American manufacturing, and you can begin to understand and appreciate how truly unique St. Croix is in the fishing marketplace.

Ultimately though, it’s all about the rods, and there’s never been a better time to improve your fishing experiences with premium St. Croix quality, performance, value, and service.

Whether a father-and-son Canadian fly-out, an inshore adventure, catching bluegills in a farm pond, or competing in the Bassmaster Classic, rest assured your handcrafted St. Croix fishing rods have been proudly conceived and delivered – start to finish in North America – to maximize your success and satisfaction on the water.

SALT OLDGLORY — American-Made For All Anglers 8

Planning a trip to the Northwoods of Wisconsin? We’d love to host you for a guided Factory Tour so you can experience, firsthand, the technology, passionate care, and precision craftsmanship required to produce the Best Rods on Earth. Call 715-997-3950 or email [email protected].

About St. Croix Rod

Headquartered in Park Falls, Wisconsin, St. Croix has been proudly producing the “Best Rods on Earth” for over 75 years. Combining state-of-the-art manufacturing processes with skilled craftsmanship, St. Croix is the only major American producer to still build rods entirely from design through manufacturing. The family-owned company owns and operates duplicate manufacturing facilities in Park Falls and Fresnillo, Mexico. With popular trademarked series such as Legend®, Avid®, Premier®, Imperial®, Triumph®, Mojo, and BASS X, St. Croix is revered by all types of anglers from around the world. The St. Croix Family of Brands includes St. Croix Rod, SEVIIN Reels, St. Croix Fly, and Rod Geeks.

A Fun Trip To North Georgia Fishing, Eating Good Food and Scenery Bringing Back Great Memories

Want a nice get-away to the mountains for some scenery, cool air and fishing? I just got back from a few days around Blairsville and Lake Nottely. On the trip I ate some good food, looked at scenic views and fished for bass. And I was constantly having flashback memories of my youth.

All the years I was in elementary school, grades one through eight back then, my family went on summer vacation for a week in the mountains. We would load up the 54 Bel Air – and later the 1962 Bel Air – and head north from Dearing. All the roads were two lane back then and it was a slow, enjoyable trip.

Each night we would stay in a cheap roadside motel, four of us in one room, and eat at a local diner. Daddy insisted on country food just like we ate at home no matter how much I wanted a hamburger or hotdog. At lunch we would stop at a picnic table, often right beside the road but sometimes at a scenic overlook, and mama would make sandwiches.

My most vivid memory of lunches is not about the food. We always had Cokes in small bottles back then. I picked up mine for a swig and didn’t notice the yellow jacket on the mouth of the bottle. It took exception to being pressed against my lip and, after the burning sting eased a bit, I swelled up for two days!

The roadside attractions back then were not politically correct. At many you could buy a nickel Coke or candy bar and give it to a chained bear cub to drink and eat. I never wondered what happened to those cubs when they got too big, the owners probably ate them.

I learned about scams on one of those trips. A sign said give the owner a nickel and he would open the lid of a box cage and let you see the baby rattler and copperhead inside.

Sure enough, there was a baby shake rattle toy and a penny inside.

I loved the mountain streams and lakes but we never stayed in one place long enough for me to fish. But the year I was eight we changed our plans and I could not wait for my dream trip.

My family and another family, close friends, rented a cabin at Vogel State Park for a week. It was right beside a small stream that had trout in it, and only a couple hundred yards from the lake.

The other couple had a baby girl and she had colic. Her loud crying kept me up all night and almost ruined the trip. That is when I decided I never wanted kids of my own!

One morning before daylight I put on my overalls, slipped out of the cabin without waking anyone, picked up my cane pole and can of worms and headed to the lake. Where the stream entered it several row boats for rent were chained up. One was half full of water with its back end in the lake.

I sat on the edge of that boat for a couple hours as it got light, catching small bream, yellow perch and trout with live earthworms. I put my fish in the end of the boat that was full of water and it was supposed to work like a livewell.

Mama came hustling down the path to the cabin calling my name. When they woke and I was not there they panicked and went looking for me. Mama found me after she asked two teenage girls out walking if they had seen a kid.

Apparently they answered that yes, Huckleberry Finn was fishing down by the lake the lake! I guess that fit me with my bare feet, overalls and straw hat!

Many things have changed, you will not see chained bear cubs or baby rattlers. But a trip is still fun and fishing is good on Nottely and other area lakes.

My trip was to go out with guide Will Harkins and get information for my June Georgia Outdoor News article. Although Will is in college he is a great fisherman and knows Nottely and Chatuge well.

I planned on eating there on Saturday night before I left. Although Google Maps said they got less busy after 8:00 PM, an hour before the close, at 8:00 that night the wait to order was 90 minutes!!

Sicily’s Pizza & Subs Pasta was just down the street and there was no wait. The pizza I got was great but it was not the scallops I wanted!

Young Coho Salmon Offer Fantastic Early Spring Fishing In the Great Lakes

Fisheries

Big Fun in Small Packages

By The Fishing Wire

By Jim Edlund

Muskegon, MI – There’s an electricity in the air this time of year along the Great Lakes as anglers turn out for an annual bite that’s tough to pass up. As soon as the launches open, you’ll see all manner of small boats (and pier fisherman, too), forming lines to chase near-shore coho salmon.

Although these fish leave something to be desired in size – with most fish between a pound and 3 pounds – their table fare is excellent, with many anglers preferring the young, bright red flesh for everything from grilling and baking, to pan frying and filling up smoker racks – to the larger species that occupy the Great Lakes.

One angler who loves the annual rite is charter captain and Great Lakes Angler editor, Mike Schoonveld, of northern Indiana, who started fishing them this spring in March.

“What happens is the cohos that were two years old last fall migrate to the south end of Lake Michigan, because that’s where the water temperature stays in their comfort range the longest. Once they get down here, there’s no place to go. Then, in the spring, when the water starts to warm up, the fish that are in the southern basin of the lake storm the beaches in Indiana, southern Michigan, and the south side of Chicago, because those are the parts of the lake that warm up the quickest,” noted Schoonveld.

“Basically, what you’ve got are two-and-a-half year-old cohos in the lake crammed within a few hundred yards of the shoreline and streams,” added Schoonveld.

Where Schoonveld fishes off the Indiana coast, limits are five cohos per person, but he says you can also catch the errant brown trout, lake trout, steelhead, or Chinook salmon. And the chance of a mixed bag only increases as spring progresses. Average cohos right now are 16 or 17 inches to 22 inches – “basically eater-walleye size.”

The bite is ongoing and will last until the water temperatures reach the mid 50s, around May 1^stduring a typical, warm spring. The bite can last through the middle of May if temperatures stay cooler.

Even when it does warms up, Schoonveld says you don’t have to abandon the fight, just move a few miles offshore where the fish migrate to colder water. But then you lose the advantage of fishing near the shoreline and have to be cautious on what days you go out if fishing from a smaller boat.

And when the fish leave the Indiana coast, they tend to follow the shorelines up the Lake Michigan coast. There are typically fish off the north coast of Chicago by May 1^st, as well as up around Kenosha and Racine, Wisconsin. The same thing happens over on the Michigan side with fish moving from St. Joseph towards Grand Haven.

Small Boat and Tackle Friendly Bite

One of the coolest things about the annual coho bite is that it’s accessible to anglers with smaller, multi-species boats, as well as pier anglers. You don’t need a large charter boat to access these fish, with a lot less worry about the weather given proximity to shore. And you won’t see a lot of large boats out on the bite either; most are still iced up where they’re moored for winter.

Plus, you don’t need downriggers to fish springtime cohos. The fish are high in the water column and susceptible to shallow-diving crankbaits fished on standard gear.

“For whatever reason, they love orange,” says Schoonveld. “There are literally millions of cohos so you can catch them on pretty much anything, but you’ll probably catch them faster if you’re using orange-colored lures – and most bite in the top several feet of water. There’s no reason to use riggers to get your baits down 15, 20, 30 feet or whatever. Most anglers are running bigger planer boards or walleye-sized line planers.”

Of all the crankbaits Schoonveld runs, his favorite is the Storm Rattlin’ Thin Fin, but says Flickr Shads and Rapalas are fish-catchers, too.

In terms of gear, when fishing occasionally with buddies, Schoonveld runs 12 pound hi-vis monofilament on his trolling rods, but if he’s making daily trips, he’ll size up to 20-pound, which stands up better to the use and abuse.

Schoonveld says orange is the color de jour for spring coho salmon.

“I like the anti-freeze colored lines so I know exactly where all of my baits are when running planar boards. And I use 20-pound fluorocarbon leader to attach to my crankbaits.”

With three lines allowed per angler and up to four anglers total in his 21-foot boat, Schoonveld has become accustomed to running up to 12 lines – typically three planar boards off port; three off starboard; plus Dipsy Diver’s and downriggers in the rear, just because he has them.

“But 85% of the fish will come on the planar board lines. I don’t use weights or anything, just whatever the lure will dive. And maybe 10% of the fish will come on the Dipsy Divers and you’ll catch one or two fish on the downriggers. The ‘riggers are permanently mounted on my boat, so I figure why not use them.”

As far as rods, he’s using the same kind of gear walleye trollers use – in his case, 8’6” medium light trolling rods for the planar boards. He does go heavier and to nine feet with the Dipsy rods and the same thing for his downriggers.

“We’re not really expecting huge fish, so I stick to light walleye gear for the cohos. Later in the season, we’ll start catching bigger fish regularly, so I’ll move up to medium or medium-heavy rods.”

DRESS FOR COLD DESPITE WARM LAND TEMPS

While the tendency is to dress for fishing according to land temperatures – which might even be in the 70s as spring progresses – Schoonveld advises anglers not to forget that we’re in a time of year when Lake Michigan water temperatures are in the 30s to low 40s.

“Even if it’s 50 to 60 degrees on shore, it’s more like late-season ice fishing out on Lake Michigan. You’ve got wind, rain, sleet, snow, and squalls will blow through. It can get chilly if you’re not dressed for the part.”

To combat the weather and stay comfortable on his daily coho forays, Schoonveld has been wearing the aptly-named Whitewater Great Lakes Pro Insulated Jacket and Bib, and has been impressed.

“The past few weeks have been pretty cold and I’ve worn the Whitewater suit and it’s performed. From shedding water, spray, and easy clean up from blood and scales, it’s been great. And comfortable. It bends at the knees and elbows and all the places you move when getting in and moving around a boat setting up a rods and fishing.”

He also says that the suit is warm in and of itself, not requiring the layers he’s normally worn underneath other winter parka and bibs he’s used in the past.

“Besides warmth, you also need to make sure you take the precautions necessary for this time of year,” added Schoonveld. “I wear an inflatable PFD underneath my Great Lakes Pro jacket, and I file a flight plan.”

TABLE FARE

When asked if he has a favorite way to prepare cohos, Schoonveld says he has “dozens of favorite recipes.”

“There’s really no bad way to prepare them. The easiest is to fillet them, leave on the skin, add a little bit of seasoning and salt and lay them on a high grill for six or seven minutes. That’s absolutely perfect. But I’ve had them fried, which my kids used to like, and lately I like to smear them with a Panda Express Thai Chili sauce and grill them like that. My wife likes them grilled with ranch dressing. And you can smoke them. Bake them. Whatever. I’ll also make salmon cakes, fry them up, and eat them on a sandwich with a slice of cheese and some tartar sauce. In fact, that’s what I just had for lunch. But like I said, there’s no wrong way to cook coho. They are probably the best eating of all of our Great Lakes salmon.”

About Whitewater

Whitewater performance fishing apparel gives anglers distinct advantages whenever Mother Nature’s unpredictability conspires to ruin angling adventures. Whether faced with wind, rain, snow, sun, or extreme temperatures, Whitewater apparel equips anglers with the ability and confidence to overcome the elements, so they apply their focus and energies on fighting fish, not the conditions. Whitewater is a brand by Nexus Outdoors, headquartered in Muskegon, Michigan, USA. Learn more and order at whitewaterfish.com.

Male Bass Guarding Fry and An Irritating Club Tournament

Two years ago 12 members of the Spalding County Sportsman Club fished our April tournament at Clarks Hill. We fished 16.5 hours in two days to land 102 bass weighing about 180 pounds. There were 17 five bass limits and one fisherman went home early and didn’t weigh in.

My 10 weighing 28.86 pounds won and Niles Murray had ten at 20.60 pound for second. Glenn Anderson weighed in eight keepers at 17.46 pounds for third and had a 5.20 pounder for big fish. Raymond English was third with ten weighing 16.71 pounds for fourth.

I fished Thursday and Friday trying to find a pattern and it seemed fairly easy to catch keeper bass, but they were all males weighing less than two pounds. I am pretty sure they were guarding fry. I saw several balls of tiny bass up in shallow water. A local fisherman told me for my GON fishing report he thought a great majority of bass at Clarks Hill spawned the week before we fished.

In the spring when the length of daylight and water temperatures get right, male bass go up in shallow water and fan out a bed. They use their tails to “fan” the water, pushing silt off hard gravel or sand to make a good place for eggs.

Females move in and pick the best-looking bed and drop their eggs. They may release eggs in several beds before going back out to deeper water and basically sitting still for several days to recover.

The poor male stays around the bed chasing off bream and other predators that would eat the eggs. They will hit just about any bait that comes near them during this time.

For about a week after the eggs hatch the male stay around the young fry, protection them. But then he will get so hungry he will start eating his own young. Those males are very easy to catch during this process.

I was lucky enough to find four rocky points where bigger bass were feeding on the shad spawn and caught five weighing 13.56 pounds on Saturday. I was able to rotate around the points all day. When fish stopped hitting on one I would go to the next one. Although other fishermen pulled up on them and fished a short time, none stayed on them for a long time.

Sunday I was blocked from fishing three of those points, one by a pontoon anchored on it two others by fellow club fishermen that followed me to them that morning. But I was lucky enough to land five weighing 15.30 on the one point I could fish to insure the win.

Georgia Has A New Record Fish In A Tie

ATKINSON COUNTY ANGLER REELS IN A TIE STATE RECORD FISH

PEARSON, Ga. (April 17, 2025) – Georgia has a new freshwater fish state record tie! Wesley Daniels of Pearson, GA landed a tie to the current Spotted Sunfish state record of 0 lb, 12 oz on April 15 from the Suwannee River. This 8 ¾ inch catch ties the previous state record of 0 lb, 12 oz caught in 2024, according to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources’ Wildlife Resources Division (WRD).

“I was fishing for catfish, so the unusual thing was that he was caught on a piece of shrimp, and I thought it was a big catfish at first,” said Daniels. “When I pulled him into the boat, me and my friend just looked at each other because we had never seen a stumpknocker that big!”

Spotted sunfish (Lepomis punctatus) are a member of the Sunfish family and are nicknamed “stumpknocker” because they orient strongly to stumps where they find food. They are dark olive or brown on top, with light green or olive sides, covered with small black spots and dusky orange fins. Most are less than half a pound by weight. They are found in the Ocmulgee, Oconee, Altamaha, Ogeechee, Ochlockonee, Suwannee, St. Mary’s, Satilla and Savannah River basins. They prefer heavily vegetated, slow-moving lowland streams and warm shallow ponds. When angling for them, WRD recommends using worms, crickets, small spinners, flies and popping bugs.

“We are excited to have our first freshwater fish state record for 2025, and I don’t know about you – but that certainly fires me up to get out and get on the water,” says Scott Robinson, WRD Chief of Fisheries. “Who will catch the next state record? It could be you! Be sure to take advantage of the outstanding variety of angling opportunities all over our state and you just might catch one of your own. Let’s Go Fish Georgia!”

Georgia anglers support fisheries conservation! Did you know that your license purchase allows WRD to continue to do important research, maintain and operate public fishing areas and more? Purchase a Georgia license at GoOutdoorsGeorgia.com.

For fishing tips, be sure to check out the weekly Fishing Blog post at GeorgiaWildlife.blog/category/fishing/.

Information about state-record fish, including an application and rules, can be found at GeorgiaWildlife.com/fishing/recordprogram/rules.

Fishing and Planting Gardens when Corn Brought Me Luck

Did you plant to get your garden planted next Friday? When I was growing up Good Friday was the traditional date to get warm weather vegetables like tomatoes, peppers, okra and corn in the ground. Based on history, a freeze was unlikely to kill the young plants after Good Friday each year.

Sometimes it doesn’t work out. About 15 years ago I left Griffin in late April to fish a Top Six tournament at Lake Seminole. On the way down near Bainbridge I passed hundreds of acres of newly planted commercial tomato fields.

It got so cold the weekend that I went into town and bought the last electric space heater at Walmart. My small motor home had propane heat but I did not want to use it, and it was way too cold without any heat. There was frost on the boat Friday and Saturday mornings.

By Tuesday afternoon on the way home the temperature was in the low 80s. But those hundreds of acres of small tomato plants had wilted and dead plants. The farmers lost every plant in the ground. But if they had waited to plant they might have missed the peak of the sale season.

Farming is a big gamble.

At home we always had a huge garden and ate home canned and frozen vegetables all winter. Every night during the summer was dedicated to snapping beans and shelling peas and butter beans. The next day mama spent all day putting them up.

Our big corn patch usually was ready for pulling in mid-June. We would go down to the patch at daylight the day daddy chose to pick and a few hours later the bed of the truck would be full to the top of the cab with ears of corn.

Back at the house we got a huge pot of water boiling under the carport on daddy’s fish cooker. We had a production line, one would shuck the corn, the next cut the end and any bad places from worms off and silk it. Then a third person would drop it in the cooker in batches and time it.

After about three minutes the basket was pulled out and carried inside where mama had a sink of ice water waiting. After cooling for a few minutes, we either rolled each ear in tinfoil and froze it or cut it on a board made for creaming corn and put it into containers to freeze.

One June I was staying at my camper at the lake for a week and the fish had been biting pretty good. Daddy came by late in the afternoon and told me to come on, we would pick corn the next day. As much as I hated leaving the lake I followed him home.

The next day was a typical madhouse of activity from daylight until about 2:00 when we finished processing several hundred ears. Although I was tired I got in my van and headed to the lake where my boat floated in the water in front of my camper. For the next five hours, until dark, I had one of those days we all dream of having.

It seemed every point I fished with a Texas rigged Jelly Worm had a quality bass on it. I caught about two dozen largemouth, with four weighing six pounds or more on my DeLiar scales. There were several more in the three to four pound range.

I have never had such good fishing since then. And every time I eat corn I think about that afternoon and my seeming reward for hard work.

I really miss the great food those gardens produced and wish I could still do the work required to have it!

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A Stormy April Tournament At Lake Oconee

Surprise, Surprise. Two years ago on a Saturday it poured down rain all day for our Flint River Bass Club April tournament at Oconee the week before a Sportsman Club tournament on Oconee. Four of us braved the cold wind and water falling from the sky to land 13 bass weighing about 21 pounds. There were two five bass limits and no one zeroed.

My five weighing 8.45 pounds won and Brent Drake had five at 8.16 for second with a 2.24 pound bass for big fish. Zane Fleck came in third with two at 2.75 and JR Proctor was fourth with one weighing 1.47 pounds.

We took off in the rain and I managed to get to my favorite point but there was a boat fishing it. A Po Boys tournament took off at Long Shoals just before we did and an ABA took off from Sugar Creek a little before we did, so the lake was crowded.

After about 30 minutes and two missed bites on my crankbait lightning started flashing and I got back in the same ditch I hid in two weeks ago. This was worse, with a flash, crack, boom with no time between them. Luckily it lasted only 20 minutes and was gone for the rest of the day, all I had to put up with was cold wind and rain.

I didn’t get a bite until noon when I caught a bare keeper on a Carolina rig. I was fishing back in a creek where I was protected from the wind somewhat. As I fished down one side I could not help but watch a guy fish down the other side.

He was by himself and intense, leaning forward and concentrating hard on every cast. He hit every post on the front of every dock down that side as I watched. I did not see him catch a fish.

When we got near the back he cranked up and left. I started to go somewhere else but I was mostly out of the wind and had a fish so I kept fishing the bank he had just fished.

I went behind the docks and landed four keepers right against the seawalls on a whacky rigged Senko. I am glad the other guy concentrated on the outside posts!!

Alabama’s Dustin Connell Claims Third Championship Title At Bass Pro Shops REDCREST 2025

D.C. For Three! Alabama’s Dustin Connell Claims Third Championship Title At Bass Pro Shops REDCREST 2025 Presented By MillerTech Energy At Lake Guntersville

By The Fishing Wire

Clanton, Alabama pro goes back-to-back, wins second consecutive REDCREST title with 27 bass weighing 87 pounds, 11 ounces to earn another $300,000 payday

Huntsville, AL – The 2025 iteration of Bass Pro Shops REDCREST Presented by MillerTech on Lake Guntersville marked the third time Major League Fishing’s championship event has been held in the bass-fishing mecca of Alabama.

For the third time, pro Dustin Connell of Clanton, Alabama, is keeping the trophy in his home state.

Connell ran away from the field on Championship Sunday, both figuratively and literally. After making a roughly 70-mile trek away from the history- and largemouth-rich waters of lower Lake Guntersville to the tailrace below the Nickajack Dam, Connell stacked up 87 pounds, 11 ounces on 27 scorable bass. The best single-day total of any angler at the event (despite a 65-minute delay due to weather), that was enough to hold off a late charge from Wesley Strader by 8-5.

Connell earned $300,000 for the win and further cemented himself as the best big-event performer going. The only angler to win REDCREST multiple times, he’s claimed the title in back-to-back years and three times total – he previously won on Lake Eufaula in 2021 and Lay Lake in 2024. He’s now just the third angler ever with three tour championship titles. Only Bass Fishing Hall of Famers Kevin VanDam and Rick Clunn have won more with four apiece.

This also marked his seventh total win on the Bass Pro Tour. Shortly after it became official, an emotional Connell said that, in some ways, it’s the most special one yet.

“I think just me winning the tournament doing my own deal, winning it with my style of fishing that I love, and then coming off of a couple tough tournaments and just a lot of adversity, I was very, very, very shook up,” Connell said.

Ironically, to keep his REDCREST track record perfect in his home state, Connell ventured all the way to Tennessee. Connell grew up fishing current on the Coosa River, and he said he’s been thinking for months about venturing to the Nickajack Dam so he could fish in his comfort zone.

That flew in the face of conventional Guntersville wisdom, which Connell admits gave him pause.

“I had this in my mind literally six months ago,” he said. “I was like, I want to go up that river, I want to go up that river. But Guntersville is such a badass lake, and on the way, I just didn’t think that I could compete up there. I was like, I feel dumb even going up here.”

So, Connell started Day 1 trying to target spawning largemouth at the lower end of the fishery. Pre-tournament chatter suggested that would be the dominant pattern, but Connell caught just one scorable bass during the opening period of the event. He ran to Nickajack in Period 2, but strong winds made for a long trip. He only added one more fish during that period, and at the end of it, he sat in 47^th place out of 50 anglers.

“I just wasn’t catching them,” Connell said. “The wind was blowing again, and there was pollen everywhere. It just was not the deal.

“I get to the dam, and I caught 20-something pounds at the dam late in the day. So, I said, screw this; I’m fishing the whole tournament up there, good, bad or ugly.”

Connell, who caught all three species of bass (largemouth, smallmouth and spotted) in the tailrace, steadily climbed SCORETRACKER® throughout Day 2. Still, he needed a last-minute flurry to earn a spot in the Top 20 and advance to the Knockout Round. He caught four bass totaling 12-6 in the last 13 minutes before lines out to jump from the wrong side of the elimination line into 17th.

Connell attributed that rally to a bait change. After spending most of the day throwing a 2.5-inch CrushCity The Mayorswimbait, he switched to a CrushCity Mooch Minnow. Even without the aid of forward-facing sonar (he didn’t catch a bass all week that he first saw on his screen), he was able to shake it in the current breaks along the dam’s concrete walls and trigger bites.

“The sun was out, and they kind of quit biting,” Connell said. “I was initially catching them on a Mayor, and I was winding it down the walls. … Well, late in the day, I picked that rod up with a Mooch Minnow on there. And I made like three casts with it, and I caught two back-to-back. And I figured out the bait that they were really wanting, and the action of it.”

It’s not just the REDCREST champion that will be familiar to MLF fans but the baits that won him the trophy. While Connell said he caught a few fish on both a CrushCity Janitor worm and a Rapala Mavrik jerkbait, the two tools that did most of his damage were a Mooch Minnow and a CrushCity Freeloader – the same baits he used most often in his win on Lay Lake last year. He rigged the Freeloader on a scrounger head and threw it on baitcast gear with 17-pound Seaguar Invizx fluorocarbon. The Mooch Minnow he affixed to a 3/16-ounce VMC Redline tungsten jighead.

Even after his strong finish to the Qualifying Round, Connell wasn’t sure he’d found the winning pattern. However, during Saturday’s Knockout Round, he noticed how well the bass were biting during early-morning, low-light conditions. Knowing the forecast for Sunday called for storms all day, he started to get excited.

“Yesterday morning, I was like, dude, this tournament just got real interesting,” he said. “I was like, there is a chance this could go down.”

Thunderstorms delayed takeoff, giving Connell less time to catch up after his long run, and made for a rough ride. But once he arrived, it didn’t take long to see that his hopes were well-founded. The storms both ignited a feeding frenzy below the dam and killed the sight-fishing pattern much of the Top 10 had relied on to get to the Championship Round.

Connell arrived at his starting spot around 9:35 a.m., 45 minutes after lines in. On his second cast, he landed his first scorable bass. By 9:50, he’d caught three more and brought his total to 14-15, taking a lead he would never relinquish. In all, Connell caught 31-0 in the span of 36 minutes before the period break.

While Connell consistently added to his total, Strader – who also made a long run up the river, albeit not all the way to the dam – stayed on his heels. It seemed like every time Connell had pulled away, Strader would cut his lead to 10 pounds or so. Connell didn’t catch a scorable bass during the final 47 minutes before lines out, and Strader trimmed his deficit from more than 20 pounds at the start of Period 3 to less than 9. However, he could never quite get over the hump.

Connell called the final period “the most stressful period of bass fishing I’ve had in my life.”

“I know how big it is of an event, and I knew it was mine to lose,” he said. “I was like, dude, if I could just add on a few more fish – don’t light it on fire, just catch some. And I did my job.”

Key for Connell was the caliber of fish he found during the Championship Round. Strader actually caught two more scorable bass on the day, but Connell boated six weighing 4 pounds or more, including three over 5. His average scorable bass weighed about 3.25 pounds compared to 2.72 for the rest of the field – more than half a pound per fish.

“I knew there were some big ones up there,” Connell said. “But I did not expect to catch the quality I caught today. I mean, it was unreal.”

Connell didn’t have an explanation for why he’s become so dominant on the biggest stage. He said he prepares for REDCREST like any other event. But he did note that, once he makes it to the Championship Round, he’s not easy to beat. Indeed, nearly half the time he’s made the Top 10, he’s wound up in the winner’s circle (seven out of 16).
Connell attributed that to his fish-to-win approach. He’s always looking for the winning bite rather than settling for a pattern that can earn him a check.

“When I make the Championship Round, I’m normally really dialed in,” he explained. “That’s the thing about me. If I don’t feel like I’m on a winning pattern, I typically don’t do well at all, because I’m always trying to win.”

Even though he’s been there plenty of times before, Connell called this win extra special. In the moments after lines out, he sat on his front deck, and tears began to flow. He said he was “more shook up with this one” than any of his previous wins.

Connell admitted the start to his 2025 season on the Bass Pro Tour hadn’t been up to his standards. He finished 55^th at the Harris Chain of Lakes and 36^th at Lake Murray, and that wore on him. To not only bounce back but do so with his wife, Victoria, and nearly-one-year-old son, Trent, on hand to celebrate with him for the first time after one of his victories made this one particularly sweet. A dozen or so family members joined him on stage as he lifted the trophy.

“Lately, it ain’t been easy on me,” Connell said. “The last three tournaments, two tournaments I’ve had have been absolutely brutal. I go to Lake Murray, and it’s just a brutal tournament. Florida was brutal. And you’ve got all these people just hating on you and saying, ‘Oh, you can’t catch them without this and that,’ and it just weighs on you.

“I try to surround myself with positive people, and my family, my wife, my little boy – he was here last year, but he wasn’t where I could hold him. And to win this tournament with him and my family here, oh my gosh. I can’t believe it.”

The top 10 pros at REDCREST 2025 Presented by MillerTech Energy at Lake Guntersville finished:

1st:        Dustin Connell, Clanton, Ala., 27 bass, 87-11, $300,000
2nd:       Wesley Strader, Spring City, Tenn., 29 bass, 79-6, $50,000
3rd:       Zack Birge, Blanchard, Okla., 17 bass, 44-12, $40,000
4th:        Paul Marks Jr., Cumming, Ga., 15 bass, 43-5, $28,000
5th:        Jake Lawrence, Paris, Tenn., 15 bass, 38-10, $25,000
6th:        Chris Lane, Guntersville, Ala., 16 bass, 38-10, $20,000
7th:        Brent Ehrler, Redlands, Calif., 14 bass, 37-12, $18,000
8th:        David Dudley, Lynchburg, Va., 10 bass, 33-8, $16,000
9th:        Ron Nelson, Berrien Springs, Mich., six bass, 15-2, $14,500
10th:     Bobby Lane, Lakeland, Fla., three bass, 8-5, $12,500

A complete list of results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

Overall, there were 152 scorable bass weighing 427 pounds, 1 ounce caught by the final 10 pros on Sunday. Throughout the entire four-day event, the 50 competitors in REDCREST 2025 caught a total of 1,614 scorable bass weighing 4,456 pounds, 4 ounces.

Pro Brent Ehrler earned Sunday’s $1,000 Berkley Big Bass Award with a 5-pound, 6-ounce largemouth bass that he caught in Period 1. Berkley awards $1,000 to the angler who weighs the heaviest bass each day.

Bass Pro Shops REDCREST 2025 Presented by MillerTech Energy at Lake Guntersville was hosted by the Huntsville/Madison County Convention & Visitors Bureau, the Alabama Mountain Lakes Tourist Association, and the Madison County Commission and showcased the top 50 MLF anglers from 2024 – including the top 40 anglers from the Bass Pro Tour – competing for the prestigious REDCREST Championship and a total prize pool for more than ¾ of a million dollars.

Television coverage of MLF’s Bass Pro Shops REDCREST 2025 Presented by MillerTech Energy at Lake Guntersville will premiere as a two-hour episode starting at 7 a.m. ET, on Saturday, July 5 on Discovery, with the Championship Round premiering on Saturday, July 19. New MLF episodes premiere each Saturday morning on Discovery, with re-airings on Outdoor Channel and Vice TV.

Proud sponsors of the MLF Bass Pro Tour and REDCREST 2025 include: 7Brew Coffee, Abu Garcia, Athletic Brewing, Bass Force, B&W Trailer Hitches, Bass Pro Shops, Berkley, BUBBA, E3 Sports Apparel, Fishing Clash, Grizzly, Lowrance, Mercury, MillerTech Energy, Mossy Oak Fishing, NITRO, O’Reilly Auto Parts, Power-Pole, Ranger Boats, Rapala, Star brite, Suzuki Marine and Toyota.

For complete details and updated information on Major League Fishing and the Bass Pro Tour, visit MajorLeagueFishing.com. For regular updates, photos, tournament news and more, follow MLF’s social media outlets at Facebook, X, Instagram and YouTube.

About Major League Fishing (MLF)

Major League Fishing (MLF) is the world’s largest tournament-fishing organization, producing more than 250 events annually at some of the most prestigious fisheries in the world, while broadcasting to America’s living rooms on CBS, Discovery Channel, Outdoor Channel, CBS Sports Network, World Fishing Network and on demand on MyOutdoorTV (MOTV). Headquartered in Benton, Kentucky, the MLF roster of bass anglers includes the world’s top pros and more than 30,000 competitors in all 50 states and 20 countries. Since its founding in 2011, MLF has advanced the sport of competitive fishing through its premier television broadcasts and livestreams and is dedicated to improving the quality of life for bass through research, education, fisheries enhancement and fish care.

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