Monthly Archives: June 2013

How To Catch Spring Bass In Small Ponds

Bass Caught at High Falls

Big lakes often get all the publicity in the spring, but to get a jump on them and catch more fish, try a smaller pond. Bass start feeding in ponds early in the spring and you can often catch more bass in them than on a big lake. And your chances for a wall-hanger are much better.

Ponds warm faster in the early spring than bigger bodies of water for several reasons. Their size protects them from wind stirring them up like it does the bigger lakes, and shoreline trees often give even more protection. Less mixing of the water from wind allows the surface of the pond to warm and stay warm faster.

Shallows in ponds often have dark bottoms from sediment and this absorbs sunlight and warms the shallows faster. On big lakes waves usually washed away the darker sediment leaving sand and gravel that does not absorb heat as well.

Most ponds have more shallow water relative to size than the bigger lakes, so they have more area to warm more quickly. And vegetation growing in the shallows help absorb heat, adding to the warming. All these factors mean ponds warm more quickly than bigger lakes.

Bass respond to warming water in ways to make any fisherman smile. As soon as the water starts a warming trend and gets above about 50 degrees the bass will go to shallow water and feed. This movement makes them much easier to catch on a variety of baits and they are feeding heavily.

To catch these early spring active bass target water less then six feet deep. Don’t hesitate to cast right to the bank in less than a foot of water. Bass will get in water that barely covers their backs this time of year. That is where the water is most warm and they are most likely to find food.

Fish all shallow water in a pond. On the first warm days in early spring the bass might move into contact with the bank near deeper water at the dam. After two or three days of warm sun they will be in shallows far from the deeper water, often in the very far upper end of the pond.

Any kind of shallow cover will hold bass. Target early growing vegetation, old weeds that have not rotted away, brush, trees in the water, overhanging bushes and rocks. Bass tend to hold tight against cover but are willing to ambush any bait fairly close to them. Your cast should be past the cover, bring your bait back by it, when possible.

A spinnerbait is hard to beat in the early spring. Use a fairly small bait like a three-sixteenths ounce bait with a willowleaf blade and a smaller Colorado blade. Colors depend on water clarity but a standard that works well is a chartreuse skirt with one gold blade and one silver blade. Adding a curly tail trailer gives it more action and allows you to fish the bait more slowly, too.

The reason a spinnerbait is so good is you can fish it at any speed and fish water from the surface to the bottom. On warmer days buzz the bait just under the surface, reeling it fast over any cover you see. For a change-up stop the bait and let it fall by a stump or other wood cover, then start reeling it fast again, if a bass has not already inhaled it.

Slow down and reel the bait a foot or so under the surface, with pauses and twitches to make the skirt flare and the blades flutter. Fish from right on the bank all the way out to six feet deep. If fishing from the bank, make parallel casts to the bank, fan casting from right against the edge to angles that put the bait in deeper water.

Very early in the spring, when the water first starts to warm, try slow rolling the spinnerbait, crawling it along the bottom. You want to fish the bait as slowly as you can to keep the blades turning. Let the bait bump anything on the bottom but keep it moving slowly and steadily.

A soft jerk bait like the Zoom Fluke will get bit when other baits are passed up in small ponds in the early spring. Rig the bait weightless and cast it to the edge of the water. Work it back with soft twitches, making it look like an injured minnow that is struggling to swim. Bass find such an easy meal hard to pass up.

A light colored bait like albino or natural blue is easier to see in the water and you can tell when a bass takes it. Watch your bait and line and set the hook when anything unusual happens, like a line twitch or if your bait suddenly disappears.

A jig and pig is an excellent bait early in the spring, too. As soon as the water starts to warm crayfish come out of their tunnels where they spent the winter and bass love them. Clay and rock banks are best for imitating crayfish, but a jig and pig will work anywhere.

In clear water use browns and greens, like a brown jig with a green pumpkin trailer. For stained water tie on a black and blue jig with a blue trailer. Use a realistic crawfish looking trailer or a simple twin tail curly tail trailer. The curly tail trailer has more action and makes the bait fall slower, too.

Use a fairly light jig, three-sixteenths to one quarter ounce, and stick to smaller size trailers and skirts, too. Cast the bait right to the bank and crawl it along the bottom with small hops. If you have ever watched a crawfish feeding it will crawl along then suddenly jump several inches, especially when startled. Make your bait look like a crawfish feeding.

Cover clay and rock areas with many casts, but also cast to any wood cover you find. Try to skip the bait under overhanging bushes right to the bank, let it sit a few seconds then slowly work it out. Keep your line tight and be ready to set the hook at any mushy feeling or thump on your line.

Small crankbaits are good in ponds in early spring, too. Use a shallow running bait that will dig down to six feet deep, like the two inch Spro Little John, and try colors that imitate a bluegill, like the Sunny Bream. Bass feed heavily on bluegill in ponds and they are common in almost all ponds.

Make fairly long cast in clear water and fish the bait so it bumps the bottom from right on the bank out to six feet deep. Try different speeds, from a fast retrieve for active fish to a slow crawl that looks like a meal too easy to pass up. When you hit bottom pause and let the bait float up a little, then dig it down again.

Its hard to beat a small pond for bass this time of year. Give them a try to catch more and bigger bass.

How Can I Catch Fall Bass On Plastic Baits?

Nice spot and largemouth from Wedowee

Use plastic baits for fall bass!

Hunting in October? Hunting for bass, maybe. October is one of the best months to catch a lot of bass, and an excellent time to land one worth bragging about. Cool waters and pleasant weather make bass feed and makes it an enjoyable time to be on the water.

Bass move to the shallows to feed in October and offer you a good chance to find them in easy to locate cover. It is more fun to cast to shallow cover and, if you use the right baits, you can have some amazing catches. Water is usually clear this time of year, making it easy for bass to find your baits but also making it more important to offer them something natural that looks like food since they can get a better look at your bait.

Bass will seek rocks, brush piles, docks and blowdowns in October where they can hide and find the food they like. They feed on baitfish and crawfish, storing up fat for the cold weather to come. Baits that imitate their favorite food improve your odds of catching them.

Soft plastics are a perfect choice for those conditions. You can choose a color that works best in the water you are fishing and a size that the bass will eat. But walk into any bait and tackle store and the choices you have can be overwhelming.

A soft plastic jerk bait like a Zoom Fluke is hard to beat right now. They come in colors that look like the baitfish in your lake and you can fish them in a wide variety of ways. And, like other soft plastics, they are fairly weedless, making it easy to fish them around cover without constantly getting hung up.

The most common way to fish a soft jerk bait is weightless, with a hook Texas rigged in them. Since the baits are fairly bulky a wide gap 4/0 hook is best. You can leave the hook exposed on the tip if fishing rocks or bury it lightly in the back of the bait to come through wood. Tie the hook directly to the line or use a swivel a foot or so ahead of it to add a little weight and reduce line twist.

Cast the bait out and let it sink a foot or so deep, then work it over cover with twitches of your rod tip. Since you can see the bait you can find out how to make it dart from side to side, walking the dog with it, and letting it sink slowly between twitches, imitating a injured or dying baitfish. And it is exciting to see the bass come up and eat it.

Also try the bait on a jig head or with a bullet weight ahead of it. This makes the bait sink to the bottom where you can hop it slowly or crawl it along. Many kinds of baitfish feed on the bottom with their tail up so a jig head makes the bait show this action to the bass. A bullet weight will make the bait lay flatter on the bottom so hopping it will look like a baitfish struggling to swim up and bass love an easy meal.

Fish weighless soft jerkbaits over brush piles and around dock posts where bass hide waiting on a meal. Start with a very slow action, jerking the bait then letting it sink a foot or so. If the bass don’t like this, speed up your retrieve until you find the speed the bass want. Under some conditions you want to fish the bait as fast as you can reel and jerk it, especially on windblown rocky banks.

Work the jig head or bullet weigh rig on rocks and hard bottom banks and points. Bass often eat crayfish on this kind of cover but will not pass up and easy baitfish meal. Go with as light a jig head or weigh as you can fish under the conditions.

A Texas rigged four or five inch finesse type worm is also a good soft plastic to use now. Texas rig a French Fry or straight worm with a 2/0 hook behind a 3/16s ounce sinker and cast it to wood or rock cover. The small bait looks like young baitfish or crayfish that feed on the bottom so choose a dark color like Junebug or green pumpkin.

For some reason there are days, especially in clear water, when the bass want a small bait. And don’t think only small bass will eat a small worm. Big bass will inhale a finesse type worm if they think it is an easy meal.

Try sliding the worm along gravel or other hard bottoms like a crayfish crawling along, then hop it to make it look like the crawfish was startled and tried to get away. The straight worm may not look like much to you, but bass sometimes find them irresistible. Square ends or pointed ends seem not to matter but try both kinds to let the bass choose.

These baits also work well around brush and blowdowns. Very weedless, you can work them through the thickest cover without getting hung up. Crawl them over limbs and branches then let them fall back into the thickest cover. Jiggle the bait on the bottom then pull it over the next limb. It takes some practice to know when a bass is holding the bait rather than a limb, but if you feel mushy resistance set the hook and reel hard to get the fish out of the cover.

Carolina rig a small worm behind a heavy sinker for fishing in the wind or when you want to move the bait faster. For fishing wood cover a short leader a foot or so long is best but you can use longer leaders when fishing more open bottoms. The lead will stir up the bottom and make noise, attracting the bass, and the following soft plastic worm looks like an easy meal.

Putting the small worm on a jig head and fishing it on light line is a great choice in clear water. This type of finesse fishing often results in bites when all else fails, and you can leave the hook exposed for easier hookups or bury it in the worm for fishing cover. Throw the jig head worm around any kind of cover that holds bass and you will get bit.

On the opposite end of the size spectrum, try a big worm like a Zoom Old Monster. A 10 or 11 inch worm will look like a filling meal to a bass, and many baitfish have grown big during the summer so there is a lot of food that is fairly big this time of year. Texas rig the big worm on a light bullet sinker for fishing brush and blowdowns or go heavier to get down into them on windy days.

Many big worms had ribbon tails that swim with movement, looking like fins of baitfish. As you bring the worm over a limb and let it fall it looks like food trying to get into thick cover. Swimming it along rocks and other hard bottoms looks like a cruising baitfish. Try a steady swimming action right on the bottom or hop it and let it fall back.

For faster fishing try a Carolina rigged monster worm. Shorter leaders up to 18 inches long make it easier to cast. You can fish the bait faster, covering more water to find feeding fish. And separating the worm and the lead sometimes makes the bass more willing to hit it.

Some colors that work well look nothing like a baitfish to us, but bass seem to like them. Reds and purples with green or blue flakes to give flash can be the best colors to use this time of year. The clear water lets the flakes flash and attract bass. Adding a little chartreuse to the tail will also look like the tips of baitfish tails and fins as they reflect sunlight.

A jig is just a jig until you add a soft plastic trailer, making a jig and pig that is a great big bass bait. And few baits look as much like a crawfish as a jig and pig, and big bass love crayfish. You can fish a jig and pig around any kind of cover and catch all sizes of bass, but you improve your odds of hooking the biggest bass in the area.

Trailers for jigs come in a huge variety of shapes and sizes. From straight tail chunks to those with swimming tails, all work well. You can even get trailers that look exactly like a crawfish. And baits like the Big Bite Flying Squirrel have tails that float up from the jig, imitating the pinchers of a crawfish waving in the water in the defensive posture bass often see from a crawfish just before they eat it.

Rig the trailer on either a plain jig head or one dressed with a skirt and hop it along the bottom. Let the bait sit between hops. Crawfish often move in spurts then pause before moving again. When you hit any kind of cover, from wood to rocks, let the bait sit and temp any bass hiding there.

Put the Flying Squirrel on a straight jig head and hop it along the bottom. When you pause it between hops the tails will float up and wave in the water, and action bass love. Pick a dark color with lighter patches on the tails or dye the tips of the tails with a bright color that will attract attention.

You can use any color trailer on a jig but browns in clear water and either black or blue in stained water are the usual choices. Match the plastic trailer to the color of the jig or contrast with it, putting a brown or blue trailer on a black jig or black trailer on a brown jig. The colors seem to be more important to the fisherman than the bass.

Choose a soft plastic bait in the fall and you will be fishing a bait that the bass will love. Rig one kind and fish it all day, or have a variety of different shapes and sizes of baits on several rods to find out which one the bass prefer on the day you are fishing. Without soft plastics in the fall you are limiting your options and lowering your chances of catching bass.

A Zoom Fluke is very versatile bait that is hard to beat in the fall. They come in just about any color you want to fish and in several sizes to match the size of the baitfish bass are eating. And they are fun to fish since you can work them just under the surface and see bass come up and inhale them.

When a bass takes a Fluke don’t set the hook immediately. It is hard not to jerk back when you see the fish hit, but pause and drop your rod tip, then set the hook. The pause makes sure the bait is in the fishes mouth deep enough so you will get a good hookset.

Fish the Fluke on 10 to 12 pound test fluorocarbon line. The invisible line improves your chances of getting bit and the lack of stretch helps setting the hook.

How To Catch Shallow Water Walleye In the Spring

This walleye came from shallow water in the spring

What Are Shallow Water Walleyes and How Can I Catch Them?

By Bob Jensen
from The Fishing Wire

Big walleyes like this one prowl the shallows for some time after the spawn–a live minnow on a jig often fools them.

The standup jig has special appeal when tipped with a live minnow.

Plastic tails can also be effective, particularly in late spring as water warms a bit.

Walleyes sometimes prowl water as shallow as a foot deep, particularly in low light periods.

Walleyes are often thought of as a fish that inhabits the depths, and there are times when most of them will be found in deep water. However, there are other times, more than you may think, when you can catch walleyes shallow, often eight feet or less. Here are some ideas for taking walleyes in shallow water.

Walleyes spawn so shallow sometimes their dorsal fin will be above the surface of the water. After the spawn they move into the mid-depths to recover from the rigors of spawning, or maybe they stay in the shallows and just don’t eat much. But a few days after spawning has ended, walleyes will get active in the shallows. This is when they get easy to catch.

Look for shallow walleyes wherever the shiners or other baitfish are spawning. Shorelines with small rocks, areas with vegetation starting to come up, points related to shorelines, these areas will all hold shallow walleyes early in the summer, and there are lots of ways to catch ’em when they’re in these locations.

Crankbaits, slip-bobber rigs and live bait rigs will all catch shallow walleyes. But the folks who catch walleyes most regularly are probably throwing a jig tipped with either a minnow or plastic.

When the walleyes have just recovered from the spawn, they’ll be most susceptible to a jig and minnow combination. In some bodies of water the walleyes will eat a jig tipped with a fathead minnow: Elsewhere a shiner on the back of a jig will be far more productive. I almost always have both shiners and fatheads in the boat. Shiners can be tough to keep lively, so I put them in a Frabill 1404 aerated container. This unit keeps shiners in a fish-catching attitude.

I’m hooking the minnow to an eighth ounce stand-up Fire-Ball jig almost all of the time. The stand-up design of this jig enables me to pause my retrieve, but the jig stands up, remaining in full view of the fish. A round head jig lies flat on the bottom at rest, making it harder for the fish to see.

As the water warms, the walleyes become more susceptible to a jig/plastic presentation. Where a couple of days earlier we were crawling the jig/minnow along the bottom, with the plastic we’ll be snapping it pretty aggressively. Walleyes in warmer water will eagerly whack a jig/plastic combo that is moving quickly along the bottom. Many of the strikes will come as the jig is gliding back to the bottom after it has been snapped. A Rock-It jig tipped with something like an Impulse Paddle Minnow is tough to beat. Fish the jig/plastic with eight or ten pound test Bionic Walleye Braid. The braid works better with the snapping retrieve. Fish the jig/minnow on six, seven, or eight pound test Bionic Walleye monofilament.

Walleyes can be found in shallow water year ’round in most lakes, rivers, and reservoirs wherever walleyes swim, particularly after dark, but look for them in the shallows especially in late spring and early summer. Make long casts, keep a low profile, and be quiet. If you do these things, you’ll find yourself catching walleyes shallower than you might have imagined.

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How To Catch Spring Transiton Weather Largemouth Bass

I caught this bass after a bad cold front

What are transition weather largemouth?

You just knew it. All week at work you have enjoyed calm, sunny, warm days and could not wait till the weekend to hit the water and catch some bass. But Saturday morning dawns lion-like, with high winds, dropping temperatures and rain. By noon the ragged clouds fly across the sky and you need a snowmobile suit to stay warm. Welcome to March fishing in the south!

Longer days make bass start moving toward spawning areas from their deep winter holes in March. They move to main lake structure and cover near the mouths of spawning pockets and hold there until conditions are right to move in. They like cover near deep water so they can drop back when the temperature drops but move back up quickly when it starts to warm again.

Weather like cold fronts, wind and rain affect them, but longer days and the overall warming trend controls where the bass will be. They will move and be harder to catch under bad conditions but they won’t be far away, and when conditions get good they can be found and caught much easier.

When searching for transition largemouth, look north. Small creeks, coves and pockets on the north bank of the lake get sun all day long and tend to warm faster. Those are the areas bass will move to first in March. The more protected the cove the faster the water will warm, and shallow water warms faster. Watching your temperature gauge for a slight increase in water temperature can point out a good area to check carefully.

Hard bottoms attract bass. If you can find a clay, shell or rock point near the mouth of a spawning area that drops off into deep water, bass should be on it. If it runs out to the channel it is even better. Bass will move up and down on this point, taking advantage of any food they find, while waiting to move into the shallows.

Cover will sweeten any good area. Stumps, brush, big rocks and blowdowns all hold bass this time of year, and they will hit a bait presented to them. Under some conditions bass will hold tight to cover but they will roam and feed, moving from one piece of cover to the next, under favorable conditions.

If you are lucky enough to hit the water when the weather is good, tie on a bait you can cover a lot of water with, put your trolling motor on high and make lots of casts. That would include the end of a warming trend and also early in the next front, when wind moves water and bass feed.

Under good conditions many baits will work well. One of the best is a lipless vibrating bait like a Rat-L-Trap or Strike King Red Eye Shad. They can be fished fast, they make a lot of noise and flash in the water and can be run at different depths and speeds. Crankbaits and spinnerbaits are also good under these conditions.

Under less favorable conditions, like the bright, high pressure day after a cold front comes through, tie on a bait you can use to pick apart the cover and fish slowly and carefully. The bass will be less likely to chase your bait.

A jig and pig is one of the best baits for tough conditions, especially for bigger bass. You can fish it slowly in thick cover like blowdowns and bass have a hard time resisting it. A jig head worm and a Carolina rigged worm also work well under tough conditions and downsizing to finesse size worms will draw bites from bass that ignore bigger baits. Both can rake points to find deeper cover where bass hold.

Wind can be your friend. As long as you can control your boat and fish, you can catch bass on wind-blown points and banks. Wave action stirs up the water and confuses baitfish, making them easier targets. It also moves schools of baitfish if strong enough to create a current, and moves food like algae that baitfish follow if just a gentle breeze. Either way, windblown points and banks attract bass.

Find a hard bottom point at the mouth of a cove and make long cast across it with a lipless crankbait. Try to keep your bait near the bottom, ticking it every few feet. If there is a lot of wood cover you need to switch to a spinnerbait or crankbait with a lip that will bounce off it better. Work either bait with the wind in a natural way.

Watch for a mud line made by the waves hitting the bank then washing across the mouth of the cove. Bass will hold in the mud line and use it for cover, then jump on any food that comes by. Run your bait parallel to the mud line a foot from it or cast into it and bring your bait from muddy water to clear water.

Work fast and hit as many similar places as you can. Slow down when you catch a bass, chances are there is a school using the area. When you move, try to duplicate conditions where you caught bass earlier, fishing similar points and cover.

After the cold front bright blue-bird skies make fishing tough for a day or two. Bass will move deeper and hold tighter to cover. The lack of wind on the water surface means they can see your bait better and are less likely to hit. So, go with natural looking, smaller baits, fish them deeper around heavy cover and fish slowly.

If you caught fish shallow on a point a few days ago, the bass will still be there. Look for them in water several feet deeper. This is when a Carolina rig or jig head worm shines. Put a natural colored four inch worm on either bait and fish it slowly. Probe for cover and slow down even more when you hit brush, rocks or stumps.

This is also an excellent time to find a blowdown where deep water hits the bank near the point and fish it out with a jig and pig. Use a natural colored bait in clear water and a bright color in stained water and try to work it along every limb. Work the trunk of the tree harder. The heaviest cover is where a big limb comes off the trunk and that is where the biggest bass will take up residence. Don’t overlook the very end of the tip of the tree, in the deepest water, too.

Under these conditions pay very careful attention to your bait. Strikes will usually be very light whether you are fishing a jig and pig or worm. Often a bass will suck the bait in and not move, so set the hook if you feel any mushy resistance. Don’t wait for the tap that tells you the bass has spit your bait out.

Muddy water offers a whole new twist to catching bass. If the water is clear enough to see your bait a foot or so down bass can see it even better. But early spring conditions often present you with water so muddy a chanteuse crankbait disappears as soon as it goes below the surface.

Extremely muddy water may affect fishermen more than the fish. After all, they have to eat. So adapt. Fish a very bright, loud bait. A chartreuse Red Eye Shad slow rolled along the bottom can be found by a hungry bass. Bigger baits are usually better, too. Go with a half to three quarters ounce bait under muddy conditions.

When the weather turns, don’t give up. Adapt to the weather and changes in it and you will catch bass. You may be uncomfortable, but landing bass after bass will warm you up better than any coat!

What Is Snap Jigging Early Summer Walleyes?

Walleye caught snap jigging

How To Snap Jig for Early Summer Walleyes

By Nathan Shore
from The Fishing Wire

Snap jigging for walleye is a key technique in late spring and early summer. If you want to catch limits of big walleyes right now, take this guide’s advice and start snapping them up.

Hopping a jig along bottom in the shallows is a favorite tactic of many walleye guides in early spring.

The jig slips into a world of minnows. It rises and drifts, pops and slides. Clearly different, somehow the same, it looks right at home but stands out. It’s getting away, and now it’s not.

“Snap jigging means different things to different people,” says Jeff Sundin, guide with the Early Bird Fishing Guide Service out of Deer River, Minn. “Some call it snap jigging, others ‘rip jigging.’ There’s hopping, popping-it’s never exactly all the same. Put 12 snap jiggers in the room and you’ll get 12 different versions.”

Snap jigging is the act of “popping” a jig so it rapidly darts upward in the water column, then slowly descends back toward the bottom. The fast, escaping baitfish action gets the fish’s attention because an easy meal is getting away, and the fish often strike on the drop. Usually the physical movement is a quick wrist move like snapping a yo-yo back up to your hand, but intensity if modified depending on various factors, including the mood of the fish. During the early season, Sundin likes a softer, shorter snap that doesn’t pull the bait too far from the fish.

Sundin plies his dialed-down version of snap jigging when walleyes are shallow. Classic snap jigging requires heavy stuff, moving quickly and covering water at a fast clip. Sundin, though, isn’t as aggressive as some guys during the early season. He uses a 6 ½-foot, medium-light power spinning rod and 4- to 6-pound line, and tries to keep the boat at or below 1 mph. He also restrains his actual jigging, moving the jig only 5 to 6 inches at a time.

The fish are sometimes in 2 to 4 feet of water, so small, lightweight jigs, often tipped with a minnow, do the job.

Sundin pitches the jig a “comfortable, short distance” when walleyes are in 5 feet of water or less. As the jig sinks, he starts with the rod tip pointing up at 11 o’clock. As it touches bottom, he drops the rod tip to create slack then snaps it back up.

“As soon as I feel the weight of the jig, I stop,” he said. “I’m only popping it 5 to 6 inches off bottom then letting it drift on a semi-tight line with the boat moving slowly. Then, I drop the tip, push slack into the line, and snap it again. When we’re fishing a sand flat, dragging bottom rarely triggers a strike. The guy who gets snagged up the most is the guy catching the fewest fish. The jig may hit bottom, but there’s no requirement to hit bottom. We’re trying to snap it while it’s hovering just off bottom.”

Early walleyes are shallow walleyes. Until surface temperatures hit the mid 60s, walleyes will be where the bait is. After a long, hard winter, baitfish want to be in the warmest available water, which tends to be close to the bank.

Add baitfish spawns into the equation and there’s another reason for shallow walleyes. Shiners and perch are the most important forage in Sundin’s neck of the woods.

“Shiners spawn in spring and they go right up into 2 feet of water,” Sundin said. “When walleyes key on shiners in lakes with big, shallow flats, they move up into water less than 4-feet deep. They’re so shallow you can actually see them.”

The Watsit Jig is among several that work well for the tactic known as “snap-jigging”.
Jig weight is based on where the fish are. At the earliest stages of summer, Sundin is still using 1/8-ounce jigs. He starts out in spring with a 1/16-ounce Lindy Jig tipped with a shiner, rainbow, or fathead in that order of preference. When the water hits the mid 50s and perch are spawning in depths of 4 to 6 feet, he moves up to a 1/8-ounce jig.

“That’s the weight we snap jig with at least 65 percent of the time,” he said. “But when walleyes move out to depths of 10 to 12 feet a little later, we use ¼-ounce heads. If it’s windy, we might go as heavy as 3/8-ounce. At 12 feet you need lighter line to rifle casts farther from the boat so it swings back into that close, comfortable range best for controlling the jig. We keep tipping with minnows, bringing the hook out in the center of the skull. When rigged perfectly, the mouth of the minnow is against the round ball of the jig.”

On wind-swept, sandy lakes with a lot of sand grass and few taller weedlines, Sundin finds walleyes doubling back into the shallows a lot in summer, especially shallow rocks in 4 to 7 feet of water. When this occurs, he often throws a Watsit Jig minus the bait.

“I really like the Watsit more and more the later it gets,” he said. “We snap it in a similar fashion, but we’re trying to imitate crayfish a little more on those shallow rocks. The Watsit has a way of darting forward then falling back in a semi-circle. If you put anything on it, it won’t perform as well. That circling action triggers walleyes without any other incentive required.”

Snap jigging is effective any time walleyes are in relatively shallow water regardless of time of year. Most of the time the only reason the fish are in less than 8 feet of water is because that’s where the food is, so they’re susceptible to a jig popped up right in front of their faces.

Snap, drift, pop. Sounds like a breakfast cereal. But in practice, Sundin’s version of snap jigging is more like Muhammad Ali. It floats like a butterfly, stings like a bee.

Why Should I Fast Troll Shadraps for Walleye?

Walleye Caught Trolling Shadrap

By Greg Huff
from The Fishing Wire

Goose the throttle on your next fishing trip, and you’ll be lapping other anglers as you boat walleye after walleye.

A number 5 Shad Rap is among the favorite lures for the fast troll that James Holst perfers for putting “eater” walleyes in the boat.

“This is a pattern I’ve used for many years to put numbers of eating-size fish in the boat,” says Rapala Pro-Staffer James Holst. “So make sure you try speeding up. For us, it’s just magic.”

Holst, host of In-Depth Outdoors TV on Fox Sports North, is filming a show on Lake Pepin, a wide spot on the Mississippi River south of the Twin Cities, on the Minnesota-Wisconsin border. It’s a sunny, cool late-May afternoon, and he and fellow Rapala pro-staffer Joel Nelson are loading their Skeeter MX 2025’s livewell with eater ‘eyes.

“I don’t have an answer for why these fish respond well to trolling fast, but they do,” Holst says. “We’re spending almost all of our time trolling from two and three-quarters to three miles-an-hour.”

“That’s pretty fast, by most freshwater trolling standards,” Nelson says.

“And we only get faster as that water temperature rises,” Holst notes.

Today, water temps are in the mid-60s. Because that’s still relatively cool for walleyes, Holst says, “the common thought would be you’re going to want to slow down.” But conventional wisdom is often wrong.

“We troll at two miles-per-hour and all we catch is white bass and sheephead,” Holst explains. “We throw a little speed at these fish, and all we catch is walleyes.”

Lots of walleyes.

Holst trolls at up to 3 miles per hour, considered fast in the world of walleye fishing.
“You’re typically going to be able to catch a lot of fish very quickly,” Holst says.

Trophy fish are less frequent with this pattern, “but don’t be surprised if it’s a 25-, 26-inch walleye,” Holst tells Nelson, whose rod is bent in half as he reels in what both anglers suspect is a big sheephead.

But it’s not. It’s a 26-inch walleye, which Holst nets for Nelson.

“Nice work, net man,” Nelson says, before admiring the fat fish and then releasing it.

“You don’t need to keep any big fish, because by the end of the day, we’re going to have all the 16-, 18-, 19-inch fish we’re going to possibly want,” Holst explains to the camera.

“Whether you’re throwing it or trolling it, this bait is as close as you’ll get to finding a sure thing in a tackle box,” he says.

Orange craw has been the best color today. That’s one of three colors Holst calls The Trinity for post-spawn ‘eyes. Perch and firetiger are the others.

“Those three colors really stand heads and tails above everything else as producers, year after year, on this particular body of water,” Holst says.

Line

Because they’re trolling shallow near shoreline cover, Holst and Nelson are pulling six-pound diameter, 20-pound test, Sufix 832 braid.

“We’ve got sticks and stumps, rocks and bumps, and all kinds of things that we’re just bashing these crankbaits into, so that braid is great because it’s very durable,” Holst explains.

And it provides solid hooksets.

“That fish grabs that crankbait, there’s not a lot of stretch in the line, and bang, that’s a really positive hookset,” Holst says.

His Sufix 832’s test strength and diameter is a “critical piece” to Holst’s speed-trolling pattern.

“I can get a lot more dive depth out of these crankbaits if I went with a two- or a three-pound diameter line, obviously, but I don’t want to do that because we’re fishing in such shallow water,” he explains. “I want to get the baits away from the boat.”

Pulling your baits too close to the boat can spook fish.

Rods

To counteract the braid’s lack of stretch, Holst and Nelson are fishing with 10-foot, six-inch St. Croix Eyecon and seven-foot, six-inch St. Croix Tidemaster rods. Both feature soft tips, which “keeps you from ripping those hooks free once you’ve got them hooked up,” Holst explains.

Where and when

Though most walleyes caught trolling fast are 15 to 18 inches, occasionally a whopper crashes the party.
Lake Pepin is a “troller’s dream body of water” on which to speed-troll Shad Raps, Holst says, because it features few sharp breaks and a bottom composed primarily of sand and mud.

“So it’s a really easy area to troll in one direction for a long time,” he explains. “The depths don’t change a lot and it makes this body of water perfectly applicable for trolling techniques, because … the fish are going to be very spread out due to the lack of structure.”

The pattern is not specific to Lake Pepin, however, and will work throughout the Upper Midwest.

“I’ve used this on Mille Lacs Lake, Lake of the Woods, just about everywhere you go this time of the year, after the spawn when the water temperatures start to warm up,” Holst says. “You get to that mid-65-degree water temperature, and fish – walleyes particularly – are very susceptible to a No. 5 Shad Rap trolling presentation.”

The pattern will remain effective through mid-June, when water levels generally drop and pull fish off shoreline breaks. If water levels remain high, however, the bite will persist.

As water temperatures rise through June, Holst will increase his trolling speed. By the time the pattern slows, he’ll be pulling his Shad Raps at 3.5 to 3.75 miles-per-hour.

“You’re covering water so fast that it’s incredibly efficient,” Holst says. “You’re covering so much ground at that speed putting baits in front of so many fish, you’re bound to load the boat.”

“So definitely give that some consideration,” Holst concludes. “If you want practice reeling in fish, this is the bite. You’re going to be busy.”

Greg Huff is an outdoors writer and video producer based in Minneapolis, MN. He has written for and produced videos for In-Depth Outdoors, Bassmaster.com, Fishhound.com and North American Fisherman’s FishingClub.com.

A Fishing and Hunting Trip with President Obama

At a recent political action committee meeting at the White House, gun control was discussed. It seems President Obama decided that, for some reason, sportsmen did not trust him and did not believe his gun control agenda was common sense as he called it. So he decided to do something to show sportsmen he was really one of them.

Since the picture of him skeet shooting didn’t go over too well, he wanted to go with someone that knew at least something about hunting and fishing, so he came to Georgia for a combination bass fishing and turkey hunting expedition. For some strange reason I was chosen to take him on these trips.

We decided to go fishing first. The president arrived with his Secret Service armed guards and followed me to Jackson Lake, where a PT boat was waiting to guard the president while we fished. The two of us got into my bass boat, along with five armed guards and two photographers, after I convinced him we could not fish from the PT boat.

When I handed him one of my St. Croix rods and Ambassadeur reels he asked “Which end of this do I put the bullets in?” I finally convinced him we were fishing, not hunting, and didn’t need bullets.

We started fishing a point. The president handed the rod and reel to a Secret Service agent to cast for him since he had never gone fishing before. When a fish was hooked the agent handed the rod to him so the press boat following us could get pictures of him catching a fish.

After landing the 10 inch largemouth bass the president said he wanted to have his trophy mounted. I told him it was a small bass, not big enough to keep legally, but he said he was the president and state laws did not apply to him.

That was enough fishing since he had his pictures so we left to go turkey hunting. I said it was too late in the day but he said it didn’t matter, things had been set up and he had a very busy schedule. So we went to my farm to “hunt.”

When I started to get my shotgun, five Glock pistols were pointed at me. I never touched the gun after being told no one was allowed to have a gun around the president. He opened the back hatch of one of the big black Suburbans – there were 15 of them with us, all full of armed Secret Service guards, following his limo, and pulled out a bolt action 7mm rifle. I tried to explain turkey hunting was done with a shotgun, usually a pump, but he said that would look bad since they looked too much like an assault weapon.

Although I knew we would not see any turkey this time of day, we went to a blind anyway. I had to keep pushing the barrel of the gun he carried away because it kept pointing at me or one of the ten agents with us. I tried to explain a gun should never be pointed at anyone but he said it was no problem since the gun was loaded with blanks. I tried to explain all guns should always be treated as loaded guns but he said he knew better.

As soon as I started calling for turkey the president stood up and shouted “pull.” A Secret Service agent threw a big white domestic turkey into the air and the president blasted away. It was a good thing the rifle really was loaded with blanks or he would have hit the agent.

The agent pulled out his 40 caliber semiautomatic Glock, with a 17 round clip, and shot the poor confused turkey. I told the president the kinds of guns and clips his guards carried were the kinds of things he wanted to ban, but he said those laws were just for common people like me, not for powerful people like him and their guards.

As the president posed for pictures, I again tried to tell him sportsmen would know it was not a wild turkey. He said it didn’t matter, no one would really know the difference, and they would photoshop it anyway.

As we headed back to town all of a sudden the convoy stopped. A young hen turkey was feeding in the edge of a field right by the road. Secret Service agents jumped out of his vehicle and shot it with their Glocks. I tried to stop them, pointing out it was illegal to shoot from a public road and the turkey was a hen, but was again told the president and his guards didn’t have to obey any laws.

The two turkeys were placed in the back of one of the big gas guzzling SUVs and the president said he was taking them back with him for his chef to clean and cook. I said they were pretty shot up, but was told the chef was paid well over $100,000 a year with a staff of dozens each paid almost as much, and they had better be able to make it taste good.

As Air Force One took off, leaving a trail of exhaust fumes, I could not help thinking this trip would not really work out as the president planned!

Fishing the Mayfly Hatch for Quality Bass in Early Summer

Four bass from Lake Guntersville

by: Captain Jake Davis

One of the most overlooked patterns by Bass Anglers in early summer is the “Mayfly Hatch” On lakes and rivers across Alabama in the Mid South, such as Wheeler, Wilson, Guntersville, Lake Lanier and Nickajack Lake the peak of the hatches occur during the months of June and July.

Anglers that have not taken advantage of the hatch are missing out on some of the summer’s best action. How do you know when? Well, if you drive near a lake or stream in June or July and you need to wash the truck after doing so…the hatch has started. On the water, look for overhanging tree and boat houses to become covered with millions of tiny mayflies.

May Fly’s

They seem to appear from out of the blue and literally every species of fish benefits from this annual buffet. Triggered by the warmer weather, rising surface temperatures around 72-75 degrees, the larva wiggle from the substrate and emerge, leaving a floating husk on the lake surface. The adult takes to the air for a short life span which last only a day or two. Once in flight the adults mate and eggs are dropped into the water where they may lay dormant until the following year.

Every species of fish will come to the table and partake of these abundant morsels that fall from the overhanging trees, brushes and docks. This is a dock and brush flippers dream…the mayflies bring smaller pan fish such as bluegill and crappie; right behind them will be bass following the food source!

Area trout fishermen have long taken advantage for this pattern with fly rods catching everything from trout to walleye. Meanwhile, some bass anglers have learned to take advantage of the summer seasonal patterns where currents wash flies or larva against banks or submerged sandbars, it is here where hefty largemouth or illusive smallmouth can be found.

Bass anglers should target areas such as steep banks with over hanging trees or docks…docks with a night light source can be extremely productive. Flipping and creature bait such as a D-bomb from Missile Baits or a ½ ounce Jig from Tightline Jigs is a fast way to load the boat with hefty bass. Crank Baits such as a SPRO Little John which dives 2-5 feet on deep channel bends use a SPRO Little John DD to get under the schools of smaller fish. Punisher and Assassinator Compact Spinner Bait can be extremely effective as well. Let’s not forget about the early morning top water bite. This is one of the most vicious hits know to anglers, navigate a 3/8 Assassinator Buzz Bait or SPRO Dawg 100 around over hanging trees or docks and hold on.

Lures for May Fly Hatch

Anglers can eliminate unproductive areas by employing their electronics such as Humminbird Side Imaging and Down Imaging. Cruse by docks and overhanging trees scanning under them and watching for large concentrations of bream and crappie located on the outside edges of the structure.

In the weeks ahead look for some great action around boat houses and steep banks on the main lake shoreline offer the best bets for success. Early morning and late afternoon seem to see increased mayfly activity.

If you’ve never witnessed a feeding frenzy beneath the spell of a mayfly hatch then grab a youngster and head out. It’s a great way to introduce someone to the sport while keeping even the veteran anglers amused as well. After all, catching fish stills brings out the kind in all of us and there’s no better way or time than during the summer season and mayfly madness.

What Are Some Dumb Things Fishermen Do?

Niles Murray and Flint River Shoal Bass

At the Spalding County Sportsman Club meeting last Tuesday everyone got a good laugh at a story told on one of our members. The local realtor, who’s name will be withheld to protect the guilty, was fishing with another member practicing for a tournament. He had a brain freeze that all fishermen have at times.

It seems Niles was quickly tying on a hook to match what Raymond had caught a fish on. He put the hook in his mouth and tied his line, then somehow forgot the hook in his mouth when he got ready to fish, and hooked himself!

No permanent damage was done, it was more embarrassing than anything else. But we all do things like that. I have certainly done my share. Most caused no damage but I will try to not do some things again.

Spinnerbaits cost several dollars each and sink in the water. One day I was in a hurry to tie one on and cut off the plug I had been using. I grabbed a spinner bait, took the end of the line and tied it on and dropped it over the side just as I realized I had picked up the end of a piece of loose line that was not attached to anything. The spinner bait sank carrying the three foot piece of line with it.

Another time I was tying on a Carolina rig. With those rigs you slip a heavy sinker on your main line, put on a bead or two, then tie on a swivel. You tie a leader to the swivel and tie your hook to the end of it.

I slid the sinker and beads on and started to tie on the swivel. The end of the line slipped from my hand and the main line swung the sinker and beads over the side of the boat. The sinker headed to the bottom. I thought the beads floated but they joined the sinker on the bottom. So I started over.

It is not unusual to hook something you don’t want on your line and often that something is in the boat with you. I have had more than one partner yell at me as I started my cast and my lure or hook went too far toward them. More than once it got real close, sticking in them.

The bad thing, for me, doing that is when you follow through with your cast, not realizing your hook is in your partner, it makes you get a bad backlash!

Losing a sinker or spinner bait is bad enough, but a rod and reel is another worse story. I like to change rods as I fish and usually lay the one I was using across the deck of the boat with the lure dangling over the water, planning on picking it up again after a few casts with the different outfit. That is ok when the lure dangles over the water.

But with a Carolina rig the lead is over the water and the worm is in the water. One day while fishing a tournament at West Point I left a Carolina rig over the side of the boat. I heard a splash and looked down to seem my rod and reel headed toward the bottom in 30 feet of water.

My partner said he saw a small spotted bass come up right beside the boat, grab the worm and take off, pulling my rod and reel in. We tried to drag the outfit up for about an hour with no luck. And that was my favorite Carolina rig rod and reel.!

Another morning at West Point it was very foggy. I was fishing a rocky point and heard a splash right beside the boat. I thought fish were schooling and kept fishing.

A little later I wanted to throw a buzz bait and looked for that outfit. It was gone. I guess I bumped it with my foot and kicked it overboard. Just shows I should not have so many outfits on the deck of my boat while fishing.

The worst scare I got was at Lake Martin. I was by myself practicing and had run up the river. When I stopped in 15 feet of water off the bank I put the trolling motor down and picked up a rod. The line on the rod I picked up hooked the handle of another outfit and flipped it over the side.

I tried to grab it before it sank and fell out of the boat. Luckily I was wearing jeans, tennis shoes and a light shirt. When I came up I looked around to see if anyone was laughing at me. Then I looked around hoping someone was laughing so they could come help me. I could not get back in the boat.

After struggling for several minutes I managed to get to the back of the boat and use the motor to climb back in the boat. As I lay on the deck panting I remembered the prescription bifocal sunglass I had been wearing. Had is the operative word. So I lost a $200 rod and reel outfit and a $300 pair of sunglasses.

If I had just thought before grabbing for the rod I could have thrown out a marker and tied on a Little George and drug up the rod. But by the time my swim was over the boat had drifted and I never was able to get it back.

When fishing, expect to do some dumb things but try to think and not make them even worse!

Are Very Expensive Fishing Rods Worth the Cost

Smallmouth Caught On A GLoomis Rod

from The Fishing Wire
By Frank Sargeant, Editor

A G. Loomis GLX 853C-JWR baitcasting rod is priced at $455.

Yep, yikes!

Not many of us would dare to buy a rod at that price, never mind telling our wives what we paid for it.

It’s a bit like owning a Ming vase when you have cats in the house -fishing rods, particularly ultra-light, high-tech graphite rods, are highly frangible, and we tend to use them around truck doors and boat hatches. To say nothing of prying reluctant largemouths out of hundred-pound wads of hydrilla.

On braid, yet.

But Loomis offers “insurance”.

“We call it our ‘expediter’ program,” says Bruce Holt, communications director for the West Coast Company, who recently spent a few days here testing his gear on Pickwick smallmouths in the company of Captain Steve Hacker. “If you break one of our GLX or higher series rods, in any way, we’ll replace it for a hundred bucks.”

Loomis GLX line is expensive, but an “insurance policy” assures anglers that a broken rod is not the end of their investment.
That’s added to the lifetime full-price warranty against defects in workmanship and materials, notes Holt, so in all there’s a whole lot less risk in buying one of these top-line rods than it might first appear.

And, for those who have the expendable income and the compulsion to own the best there is for their leisure pursuits, it would be hard to argue that the upper-level G. Loomis rods are not about as good as it gets.

“Most of the cost of a rod is in the graphite and the guides,” notes Holt. “The lighter and stiffer the fibers that go into the blank, the lighter the rod is going to be at a given power and action, and the better it’s going to feel in your hand after six or eight hours of casting. The GLX material has a very high “modulus”, that is resistance to bending, and that makes it possible for us to build rods that are amazingly light and fast.”

Holt said the GLX series also uses Fuji Titanium SIC guides, much tougher and more resistant to bending than steel, which feature a ceramic liner that’s much smoother, lower in friction and more durable than conventional guide liners. The guides are positioned on the blank via computer programs that designate the best locations as the blank tapers, preventing line slap on the blank, and the rods also use several more guides than lower cost sticks-there are 11 plus the tip-top on the 7-foot, 1-inch 853C, compared to as few as seven on low to mid-range rods of the same length.

“We couldn’t find exactly what we wanted so we had this mount built for us,” says Holt. “It’s extremely light but very strong and dependable.”

The mount is “skeletonized” to reduce weight, and also features a larger area of exposed blank directly below the reel, where the index finger naturally rests, to increase sensitivity when fishing jigs and soft plastics where the bite is often light.

The cork handle is also top of the line.

“Quality cork is a lot more expensive than the black foam handles on mid-range rods, but it’s lighter, it’s smoother on the hand and most anglers like the feel of it better-it’s firm and yet it’s got enough ‘give’ so that you can keep a good grip even when it’s wet,” says Holt. “It also looks good, year after year, if you just scrub it now and then with a light detergent and water.”

The 853C is designated a medium-heavy power rod with an extra-fast action-this means lots of power in the butt, melded to a stiff and very quick tip section that allows quick, powerful hooksets. The rod is designed for lures of 3/16 to 5/8 ounce, and for lines of 12 to 16 pounds.

G. Loomis makes a full stable of GLX bassing rods in both casting and spinning versions. The company also markets several lower-priced models.

“The maximum line test is something that anglers should keep an eye on,” says Holt. “We test rods to destruction to determine how much they can lift, so that’s sort of a safety device-if you put line no heavier than 16-pound-test on a rod rated for that line and put slow, steady pressure on it, it will either lift 16 pounds of fish and weeds, or the line will break first. Beyond that, if you overline it with heavy braid, for example, it may break.”

The exceptionally light weight of Loomis sticks makes them incredibly easy on the arms and wrists, a big plus for anglers who fish daylight till dark. Matched with a lightweight reel like a Shimano Chronarch or similar, these rigs seem like old friends the moment you pick them up the first time.

And odds are, they will become that for the fortunate few who can afford them.

“These are legacy rods,” says Bruce Holt. “You can fish them for a lifetime, and then hand them down to your kids and they can fish them for another lifetime.”

Provided they avoid car doors and hatch lids, of course.

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