Its scary how fast my attitude can change at a club tournament. Many times I have gone from disgusted to happy in a few minutes when I suddenly caught several bass or caught a big one. And it goes the other way, too when I lose a big fish or miss several bites on a tough day.
Last Saturday I went from disgusted to happy at the Potato Creek Bassmasters June tournament on Oconee. After fishing hard all day I had three small keepers to weigh in. I just knew everybody else would have a limit of big bass based on reports I had been getting. The weekend before it took 19 pounds to win a local tournament.
At 6:00 Robert and I ran down to a grassy point where I can usually catch a keeper at first light this time of year on a spinnerbait or buzzbait. After 30 minutes of casting the sun came up and neither of us had a bite.
I was hardheaded and kept fishing the grass, concentrating on shady banks. At about 7:00 I decided to fish out deeper on a rocky point. I told Robert I saw what looked like big fish moving on the bottom about 15 feet deep.
I cast a jig to them and felt a thump, but before I could set the hook my rod almost got jerked out of my hand. Almost as soon as I started fighting the fish I told Robert it was probably a catfish based on the way it rolled when it pulled.
Sure enough I got a six or seven pound blue cat to the boat. It was hooked in the tail, I guess that is why it took off when it bumped my jig. I used my pliers to pull the hook out without landing the fish.
Going into the next cove Robert got a keeper largemouth on a whacky rigged worm behind my buzzbait. That made me put it down and go to a slower moving bait.
In the back of the cove I caught a 13.5 inch largemouth on my jig. That set the pattern for the day. Largemouth must be 14 inches long to be kept at Oconee. A few minutes later as I reeled in my jig for another cast a thump made me set the hook and I landed a barely keeper largemouth on the jig. One for me at 8:00!
For the next three hours we tried a lot of different things, from rocks to docks. At about 10:00 I made a blind cast out on a shallow point as we rounded it to fish the next dock and saw my line moving out. When I set the hook I landed a 14.5 inch keeper, my biggest of the day.
Talk about a blind hog finding an acorn. There was no cover to hold a bass out there, but I believe in keeping my bait in the water at all times I can. That accidental keeper shows why.
After another hour of fruitless casting I decided to go back to the grassy point and try it. As I told Robert, they had to be hungry since they didn’t eat earlier.
After 15 minutes of casting my jig to the grass I had about given up. As happens all too often, not paying attention cost me. I cast my jig to the grass and before I could engage the reel a bass took off back into the grass. I hooked it a little and felt a strong pull before it came off.
That got my attention and in the next hour or so I caught at least a dozen bass from the grass on my jig. Unfortunately, although I measured several of them that looked like keepers only one was over the 14-inch line.
Robert had quit fishing since his back hurt and was sitting down in the boat with 30 minutes left to fish. I told him there was a deep brush pile on the way in I wanted to fish. My first cast to it produced another 13.5-inch bass on my jig.
That made Robert get up and fish, and sure enough his first cast with a Carolina rig produced a two pound keeper, our biggest of the day!
That was it. I was pretty disgusted.
At weigh 17 members of the club brought in 32 keeper bass weighing about 55 pounds. There was one five bass limit and two members didn’t have as keeper.
Lee Hancock blew us all away with a five bass limit weighing 11.75 pounds for first and his 3.60 pound largemouth was big fish. Doug Acree had three at 5.45 pound for second, third was Jason Turner with three weighing 5.19 pounds and my three at 4.13 pounds was fourth!
I really needed that last bass Robert caught! But fourth place cheered me up a lot!
What Are Some Tips, Techniques, And Tackle For Post-Spawn Bass
By The Fishing Wire
The post-spawn largemouth bass transition period is one of the best times to be on the water, but the party doesn’t last long
What’s so great about the post-spawn? It’s a recuperation period. Bass are hungry and rapidly becoming more aggressive. But it’s also a relocation period, which means the locations where post-spawn bass may be found can change from day to day. Thankfully, while post-spawn bass locations are variable, they are also highly predictable.
Post-Spawn Behavior Think of post-spawn largie behavior like this: All post-spawn bass are eager to feed, but there are two primary things going on. Most male bass engage in a distinct fry-guarding ritual for about a week or ten days immediately following the hatch. Meanwhile, the females are immediately out, abandoning their spawning sites – and their baby daddies – headed back towards deeper water. Once the neurotic males abandon their posts (often after snapping and devouring a good percentage of their own offspring), they may follow the same basic routes offshore as the females. The whole post-spawn transition usually lasts around a month.
Post-Spawn Locations Post-spawn bass routes often mirror pre-spawn routes. Their first stop is usually the first major drop off, which varies by location, but is often an emerging weed line or a secondary point leading to deeper water. Regardless of the actual depth, which may be anywhere from 7 or 8 feet to 15 or 20, structure is key. It doesn’t matter what it is, but something will attract and hold the bass (and forage) while they feed and adjust to the shallow-to-deep transition. In reservoirs that have creek channels, the locations where those channels intersect with structure can be golden. From these first, primary recuperation stops, post-spawn bass will continue to migrate to places like shallow humps, weed beds, and primary lake points. Some will spend the rest of the year there, and others will depart and disperse throughout the system.
Tips, Techniques, And Tackle For Post-Spawn Bass 1
Post-Spawn Presentations Once anglers understand a bit about the ways post-spawn largemouths behave and have a good idea where to find them, the next step is dialing in the specific presentations to which they’re vulnerable.
Fry-guarding males stationed near cover or structure on the first break off the spawning flats can be very easy to catch, despite the fact that they’re not programmed to eat during this brief period. Capitalize on their plight by offering baits that threaten the offspring they’re programmed to defend. Soft plastic jerkbaits and stickbaits are a favorite here, but topwaters, and moving baits like crankbaits, swimbaits, underspin swimbaits, and spinnerbaits all resemble threatening school-raiders and will elicit strikes.
Tips, Techniques, And Tackle For Post-Spawn Bass 2
For true post-spawn bass transitioning to deep water, specific presentations should be dictated by the structure, cover, and depth at which the bass are holding, as well as available forage. This may be crayfish, bluegills, frogs, shad… you name it… but it’s worth noting that a shad spawn can sometimes coincide with the largemouth’s post-spawn period. When this brief but significant event happens, bass key in, actively hunting and targeting weak or dying individuals within the swarms. When present, a shad spawn will dictate post-spawn bass locations and it should also dictate an angler’s presentations. Top post-spawn transition baits include hard and soft jerkbaits, topwater lures, frogs, jigs, shakeyhead jigs, wobblehead jigs, Texas and Carolina rigs, swimbaits, and Damiki rigs/jighead minnows.
Post-Spawn Tackle Recommendations Given the wide variety of effective post-spawn presentations, suffice it to say that almost any spinning or casting setup has its place. That said optimizing rods, reels, and lines for specific presentations always yields more success. Here are some solid recommendations.
Tips, Techniques, And Tackle For Post-Spawn Bass 3
Hard and Soft Jerkbaits – A 6’6” to 7’ medium power, fast or extra-fast action spinning or casting rod is ideal, with a 68MXF being the sweet spot. 10-20 lb. fluorocarbon line is preferred because it sinks and has minimal stretch. Pair jerkbait casting rods with a slow- or medium-speed casting reel like the SEVIIN GFC166, GFC173, GSC166, or GSC 173.
Tips, Techniques, And Tackle For Post-Spawn Bass 4
Crankbaits – Crankbait rods should have a softer, moderate action to absorb the shock of a bass slashing at a moving bait and to keep the treble hooks in place during the fight. Rod length starts at 6’6” when accurate casts to specific target windows are required and can go up to 8’ when long casts are needed in order to get deep-diving crankbaits down to depth. In most cases, a 72MM, 72HM, or 72MHMF are ideal. 12 to 20-lb. fluorocarbon line is preferred. Reels should prioritize power over speed. A SEVIIN GFC166 or GSC166 is an ideal choice.
Tips, Techniques, And Tackle For Post-Spawn Bass 5
Topwaters – Tackle choices will vary due to the variety of lure styles and retrieves. Moving baits like buzzbaits and propbaits deserve a softer moderate or moderate-fast action like a 70MHMF. Popping baits, frogs, and walk-the-dog-style baits need a faster tip to animate the lure. Choose medium to heavy power depending on the cover you’re fishing. Thicker vegetation and areas with wood, dock pilings or other trouble call for a heavy stick like a 74HF. A rod like a 70MF or 71MHF is ideal for areas with less cover. Medium-speed casting reels like the SEVIIN GFC173 and GSC173 work great for most topwaters, but many anglers prefer a faster 8.1:1 (GFC181 or GSC181) for frogging and other presentations that require picking line up quickly.
Tips, Techniques, And Tackle For Post-Spawn Bass 6
Spinnerbaits – Similar to crankbaits and chatterbaits, a spinnerbait is a reaction bait, meaning bass strike it while it is moving. This requires a softer rod to convert strikes and land fish. A medium-heavy power, moderate-fast action rod like you would use for a buzzbait or surface prop-bait is also perfect for spinnerbaits. A rod like this can also fish most common crankbaits, lipless crankbaits, and chatterbaits effectively. A 70MHMF is a perfect choice. Most anglers present spinnerbaits on 12-20 lb. fluorocarbon line and use a 6.1:1 or 7.3:1 casting reel.
Tips, Techniques, And Tackle For Post-Spawn Bass 7
Stickbaits – Whether rigged Texas-style or wacky, stickbaits can be deadly on post-spawn bass. Spinning tackle gets the nod in this finesse presentation. The most popular stickbait rods range from 6’8” to 7’6” in medium-light to medium-heavy power, depending on nearby structure. Fast or extra-fast tips are helpful in detecting strikes on falling baits. Solid candidates are a 68MXF, 70MF, 70MHF, 610MLXF, or 73MLXF, with a 73MXF perhaps being the best all-arounder. 10-lb. braided line in a high-vis color also aids in detecting strikes but be sure to use an 8 to 15-lb. fluoro leader. A smooth and powerful 2500 or 3000 size SEVIIN GF, GS, or GX spinning reel is a perfect match.
Tips, Techniques, And Tackle For Post-Spawn Bass 8
Swimbaits & Swimjigs – Paddletail soft-plastic swimbaits in the 3-4-in. range rigged on ¼ to ½-oz. jigheads or underspin jigheads catch bass everywhere. They’re a go-to choice for targeting post-spawn bass above weed beds, through sparse grass, along thick weed edges, around docks, on points, or in open water. They are versatile in that they can be counted down and fished at a variety of depths, and retrieves can be varied as well. Almost any casting or spinning rod can fish one of these baits. Moderate-fast or fast actions are ideal when paired with medium or medium-heavy power. A 71MHF is a great choice. Once again, 10 to 20-lb. fluorocarbon line is preferred. A medium-speed SEVIIN GFC173 or GSC173 reel gets the nod for casting rods, while a 3000-size GF, GS, or GX pairs great for swimbait fishing with spinning rods. Duplicate these setups for swimjigs.
Tips, Techniques, And Tackle For Post-Spawn Bass 9
Bottom-Contact Baits – Jigs, shakeyhead jigs, wobblehead jigs, Texas rigs, and Carolina rigs all play for post-spawn bass. Highly sensitive, powerful rods are the rule, with 7’ to 7’5” medium-heavy to heavy, extra-fast action casting models serving anglers best. One exception is the Carolina rig, which are often fished in thicker vegetation. Rods for this technique still need loads of power but require a more moderate action. Shakeyhead jigs are another exception. More of a finesse technique, shakeyheads are often fished on spinning tackle – specifically a longer, medium-to-medium-heavy power rod like a 73MXF or 73MHF. Most of these bottom contact presentations are best fished on braided lines in the 15-40-lb. range. Preferred casting reels have a fast 8.1:1 retrieve to pick up line quickly before hooksets (GFC181 or GSC181). Shakeyhead spinning presentations call for a large-capacity 3000 size GF, GS, or GX spinning reel loaded with 20 to 30-lb braid and a 15-lb. fluoro leader.
Tips, Techniques, And Tackle For Post-Spawn Bass 10
Damiki Rigs / Jigging Minnows – Primarily a forward-facing sonar technique, Damiki rigs/jigging minnows are a finesse technique best presented on medium-light to medium power, extra-fast spinning rods between 6’3” and 7’ in length. Your stickbait setup can be used to fish these lures. 63MLXF, 63MXF, 66MLF, 610MLXF, and 70MFspinning rods are popular choices. Use the extra capacity of a 3000-size spinning reel to manage the lighter lines used for these techniques. The SEVIIN GX3000 is ideal. You can use straight 6-to-10-lb. fluorocarbon line or very light 10-lb. braided line, but if you go the braid route, be sure to use an extra-long 8-to-10-lb. fluoro leader.
About SEVIIN Reels
Wherever and however you fish, the reel in your hand should help create better experiences. Born from St. Croix Rod’s seven decades of design and manufacturing expertise, industry-leading customer service, and unbroken private ownership by the Schluter family dating back to 1977, SEVIIN reels are meticulously engineered and purpose-built to help anglers conquer every species on every piece of water on the planet. SEVIIN focuses on reels and reels only, designing and marketing products that improve the angling experience, regardless of the rods anglers choose. Seven seas, seven continents, seven days a week, SEVIIN reels are fueled by a collective love of fishing surpassed only by our passionate desire to deliver the most reliable reels on the water. Learn more at seviinreels.com. The St. Croix Family of Brands includes St. Croix Rod, SEVIIN Reels, St. Croix Fly, and Rod Geeks.
Some of my earliest memories are of following mama and grandma to local ponds. They would have their long cane pole and a five-gallon lard can. I followed with my much shorter cane pole. The can was their tackle box with small split shot, hooks, corks and extra line.
It also contained the bait. We always had a tin can of worms dug from behind the chicken house where the water trough drained, keeping the ground wet and rich from droppings in the water trough. Those red wigglers were a favorite bait and we could get a can full in a few minutes.
There was also always a can with a piece of cheese cloth tied across the top. The can was half full of corn meal and flour siftings. It had been moistened and left open for flies to lay their eggs. Within a few days “meal worms,” really fly maggots, started hatching.
The cheese cloth cover kept the flies in the can when they molted from the maggots. Young maggots were white and worked best, but bream and catfish loved to eat even the old dark brown ones. And they did not smell bad or make as much of a mess as did the earthworms when impaled on a #6 bream hook.
There were four ponds within walking distance of the house where we had permission to fish. Mama or grandma would bait their hook then sit on the lard can. I would try to sit still and fish but usually wanted to move around the pond, dabbling my bait into the “pasture is always greener” spots.
We caught small bluegill and cats and kept everything we landed to eat. As mama said, “it’s big enough to make the grease stink.” And she loved the crunchy tips of fried bluegill fins, no matter how small.
By the time I was 13 years old I was allowed to ride my bicycle to local ponds by myself or with Harold or Hal. We fished every pond we could get to during the summer vacation, wading and casting our Zebco 33s for bass and bream.
I had a huge Old Pal tacklebox and one year all I asked for at Christmas was a basket for my bicycle big enough for it. I could carry all the tackle I owned and some bait as well in the big basket I got. And my rod fit across the handlebars of my bike.
We spent several days every week fishing during the summer. I still went with mama and grandma, and often mama would load us up in the truck and take us to ponds too far for walking or bike riding. I have many wonderful memories of those trips, spending hours sitting with them and talking and catching fish.
One trip when I was about 12 changed my life. We were fishing the pool below the spillway at Usury’s pond and my cork went under. When I raised my pole a little ten-inch-long bass exploded out of the water and jumped three or four times. I was hooked for life; it was much more fun than the circling pull of a bluegill or the dogged runs of catfish.
I still love the sight of a jumping bass at the end of my line. It is a thrill that speeds up my heart, partly because I fear it throwing the hook!
Last weekend at Bartletts Ferry in the Flint River Tournament I was casting a spinnerbait and got a thump. When I set the hook the fish took off fast, sizzling my line through the water. I was sure it was a hybrid until a solid five pound largemouth cleared the water!
In the tournament only four of us showed up for the Flint River Bass Club June tournament. In eight hours we landed ten keeper bass weighing about 14 pounds. There was one five bass limit and one zero.
Zane Fleck won five at 5.98 pounds and got big fish with a 2.31 pound largemouth. I was second with two at 3.78 pounds and JR Proctor had three weighing 3.73 pounds for third.
That five pounder I hooked? I got it to the boat and as I reached down for the net, my line went slack!
Once the bass spawn, some bass move to deeper water, but plenty stick around in the shallows. This is when the shallows are alive with bass guarding fry and spawning activity for bluegill, shad, and herring—all of which keep the bass in shallow water.
Professional bass anglers and Segar Pro Staff, Luke Clausen and Drew Gill, know this and stay in skinny water for much of the post-spawn with various approaches.
Clausen’s Mix of the Old and New School
Like most professional anglers, Luke Clausen’s bass boat and office on the water is decked out with plenty of big electronic screens and the most up-to-date technology. He uses it plenty, but the Bassmaster Classic and Forrest Wood Cup champion often relies on the old-fashioned way during the post-spawn: using his eyes and paying attention to clues from his surroundings.
After the bass spawn, one of his main focuses is the spawns of some of their favorite meals. The bluegill, shad, and herring spawns are critical to his approach. His electronics help, but years of experience and some hints from the environment guide his approach.
“Tools like side scan are good for locating bluegill beds, and you can use your forward-facing sonar to find baitfish and bass guarding fry this time of year, but so much of it is just done by watching and using your eyes,” he said. “Your electronics help a bunch with deeper bluegill beds, but the shallower ones are best just looking around on flat places, around vegetation, or the back of a pocket. They rarely spawn on something that’s not very flat, and it needs to be somewhat protected.”
He’ll mix various techniques to catch these bass feasting on spawning bluegill, from a wacky rig to topwater lures like frogs, walking baits, prop baits, and poppers.
“I like a popper for the sound and the ability to stop it in place, and a small walking bait is a great choice,” he said. “I fish it on 30 lb Seaguar Smackdown in the Stealth Gray color, and that thin line is great for accurate casts with those light baits. The worst thing you can do with a topwater is to pull a topwater bait away from a fish, so I keep the bait in place when one rolls on it, and you’ll hook a lot of those fish because there’s no stretch in the line.”
Clausen goes white-colored baits like a spinnerbait, buzzbait, or swim jig when targeting bass feeding on spawning shad. “The shad spawn is always going to happen first thing in the morning, and they’ll always spawn around hard places, either rocks, docks, or somewhere with a hard surface,” he said. “It’s hard to beat fast-moving baits like swim jigs and buzzbaits, and I fish all of those on 50 lb Seaguar Smackdown, which is still very thin to get long casts to reach any surface activity you see. I like 15 lb Seaguar Red Label for my spinnerbaits because it has a little less stretch, which is important for short-range hooksets.”
Gill’s New Age Approach
Bass Pro Tour angler Drew Gill is one of the poster boys of the new generation of professional bass anglers, getting the most out of his electronics to find bass. While many consider forward-facing sonar an offshore approach dominated by finesse techniques, he finds it successful in shallow water with a wide range of baits. It’s something that he employs all spring, especially in the post-spawn.
“After the bass spawn, you have the bluegill bed thing and throwing topwaters around shallow cover,” said Gill. “It’s a tandem thing, and forward-facing sonar plays a role in both. It helps you locate the bluegill beds, showing the harder bottom areas they use to spawn. It’s also great for finding shallow targets that provide shade to cast a topwater lure to.”
Once he finds bedding bluegill, Gill will use standard finesse techniques but likes to use heavier weights. “I’m going to use a plastic worm in some form or fashion, but want something fast and snappy, so I use heavier weights than I normally use,” he said. “I want something a little more intrusive, whether a Texas rig, drop-shot, shaky head, or some other way to rig the worm. The heavier weights allow me to get that bass to react when fishing around bluegill beds.”
Even though Gill primarily uses spinning gear and finesse tactics, he likes to beef up his fluorocarbon leader material to 15 or 17-lb Seaguar Tatsu.
“This time of year, fishing this way, your average size of bass goes way up,” he said. “I like to use heavier lines to manhandle the fish because you tend to catch some really big post-spawn fish doing this.”
Gill also likes to stay back on bluegill beds he finds with his electronics, sticking to 50 to 80 feet away and making casts to what he sees. “Fishing at a distance is critical in shallow water because the bass are very mobile this time of year as they roam chasing bluegill and tend to be very aware of their surroundings,” he said.
Aside from soft plastics, Gill also likes to mix in moving baits like topwater lures. “It’s a one-two punch for me, and I also like to use a lure that will call them up to the surface, either a walking topwater or some sort of bait that will draw them like a glide bait,” he said. “These baits are great when searching and looking across shallow flats. For topwater walking baits, I like 20 lb Seaguar Smackdown in Stealth Gray with a very short leader of 15 or 17-pound Seaguar Tatsu to keep the braid from wrapping around the treble hooks. It seems light, but I like how the bait reacts to each movement, and heavier braids tend to overpower a bait.”
Bass fishing in shallow water is an excellent approach almost any time of the year, but around the spawn and for a few weeks afterward, it can be the way to find big and hungry bass.
Seaguar Smackdown braid is available in high visibility Flash Green and low visibility Stealth Gray. It is available in 150- and 300-yard spools in sizes ranging from 10 to 65 lb tests
Seaguar Tatsu Fluorocarbon mainline is available in 200- and 1,000-yard spools from 4 to 25 lb tests
Seaguar Red Label Fluorocarbon mainline is available in 200- and 1,000-yard spools from 4 to 20 lb tests.
Seeing a ferocious strike from a huge largemouth bass as it blows up on a topwater lure at sunrise or sunset is absolutely thrilling. To witness the power and aggressiveness on full display sends a collective shiver down the spine of any passionate angler; it’s also one of the most consistent ways to catch big bass throughout the hot summer months.
When it comes to topwater bass fishing, there are several categories of lures, which are effective in certain situations. Among the favorites are poppers, walkers and prop baits, as well as frogs. For this, we’ll just consider the first three since frogs fall in a category all their own.
Largemouth bass are ambush predators and are willing to strike nearly anything that comes into range. They can sense a lure visually, by sound or by picking up vibrations through their lateral line as it swims across heavy cover. That’s one reason poppers, like the familiar Rebel Pop-R and prop baits including the Smithwick Devil’s Horse are especially effective in off-color water, since they can draw in fish from the sound alone. Whether it’s the gulping bubble of a popper or the buzz of a prop bait, bass sure love ‘em. Walkers, like the old standby Heddon Zara Spook, tend to work better in clearer water, where the fish can track the lure visually. It takes some practice but the walk-the-dog technique of zig-zagging a stickbait past heavy cover will draw ferocious strikes.
On the bite, bass create suction by forcing water through its mouth and out past its gills. If the fish misses the lure on the first strike, allow it to sit twitching—the fish will often circle back to consume what it believes is a crippled prey.
Topwater bass fishing can mean hundreds of casts though, and hand fatigue can become an issue. There are also those little cuts, nicks and scrapes we get from a long day on the water, from fins, gill plates, hooks, braided line and more. Fish Monkey’s Free Style fishing glove is a perfect match for topwater fishing. It offers a number of key features, including a second-skin fit with ultralight, moisture-wicking fabrics offeringUPF 50-plus sun protection as well as light padding and protection in all the right places. This means you can lip a big bass or take a wrap with heavy braid without worry of the line cutting into your hand. The Free Style is also designed to allow the user to remove any fingertips they wish without having the glove fray or split. This is key for tying knots or manipulating snap swivels without having to remove the glove. And because of the additional padding and grip in the palms, making hundreds of casts a day is much less fatiguing.
The Stubby is another great choice. It’s designed for those who prefer shorter cuffs and fingers. It’s not short on features though, with PVC Monkey Grip in the palms that works as well when wet as it does dry, plus UPF 50-plus sun protection. That ultralight fabric and second-skin fit means you’ll forget you’re even wearing gloves after about five casts.
A third choice is the Pro 365 Guide Glove. It’s designed with professional guides in mind, with a slightly longer cuff and fingers than the Stubby, but with all those same great features, fit and sun protection. Want even more coverage? Check out the Half Finger or even the Full Finger Guide Gloves.
Although topwater bass fishing can mean a ton of casting, those explosive strikes from giant largemouths make it all worthwhile.
I grew up reading the big three outdoor magazines of the time: Outdoor Life, Sports Afield and Field and Stream. At one time I had every copy of all three from 1964 until about 2000. Those magazines made me want to catch salmon in an Alaska stream and shoot doves in Argentina.
Sometimes an article applied directly to this country Georgia boy. I distinctly remember a tip that redwing blackbirds often lit in bushes hanging over the water and watched a bass under them, expecting the bass to injure a minnow the bird could than eat.
A few days later while fishing Harrison’s Pond with my trusty Mitchell 300 and a Devil’s Horse, I saw a redwing blackbird sitting on a small bush growing from the top of a stump about 40 feet off the bank. It took me a couple of cast to place the Devil’s Horse perfectly and bring it by the stump, but I got an explosive strike from a nice two-pound bass.
More recently I had gotten my fishing stuff ready for a Jackson night tournament and was killing time waiting to leave. I read an online report on an Arkansas lake. It said the bass were hitting a jig and pig at night.
I went out and tied one on for the tournament. At midnight I had not caught a fish and had just two hours left to fish. Remembering the article and jig, I picked it up and started casting it to a rocky point. I landed five bass on it in the next hour and won the tournament.
The big three magazines were national and covered everything about the outdoors. Then around my senior year in high school, 1968, I heard about a new group that published a magazine. But it was different. The Bass Anglers Sportsman Society (BASS) was nothing but black bass fishing.
Youth nowadays have almost unlimited information available to them and many of them take advantage of it. Some college bass fishermen have more bass fishing knowledge than I have accumulated in 65 years of bass fishing. They constantly study and read about bass fishing.
I share recaps of my tournament here and hope they help fishermen catch fish. Sometimes another fisherman sharing what they catch fish on and how they are caught is a big help. For the same reason I post a variety of fishing reports on my web site. You never know where or when a tip may help you in the future.
I hope somehow my reports help you catch a bass!
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I wish I had read something or heard something to help me at West Point last weekend! That lake has been my bane this year in tournaments, finishing near the bottom in Potato Creek and a Sportsman Club tournaments in February.
Last Sunday 12 members and guests fished from 6:30 AM to 3:00 PM to land 40 bass weighing about 40 pounds at West Point. There were four five-bass limits and one person didn’t weigh in a fish.
Raymond English won with five weighing 10.31 pounds and got big fish with a 2.59 pounder. Second went to Billy Roberts with five at 6.33 pounds, third was Lee Hancock with five at 5.30 pounds and Jay Gerson was fourth with five weighing 4.97 pounds. My four weighing 4.69 pounds was fifth, one place out of the money again!
Before the tournament Lee said a big tournament there the day before produced a winning weight of 18 pounds. He asked “How do they do that?” I told him I thought they ran way up the river and threw topwater frogs around grass and other shallow cover, working hard all day for five bites from quality largemouth. I also said I could not fish like that anymore, my old body won’t let me.
Instead I tend to fish memories, trying to catch fish in the same places and the same ways I caught them the same time of year in the past. Sometimes it kinda works.
After a club member helped me launch my boat and I sat waiting on blastoff Sunday morning, the fairly strong wind make me change my plans. I knew the wind would be blowing right into three rocky points down the lake where I caught fish two weeks ago, usually a good thing. I decided to start there rather than a place upstream I originally planned to go.
Wind was blowing into the points and a crow walking the edge of the water, looking for shad I thought, made me think I had made a good decision. I quickly missed a bite on topwater and picked up a Carolina rig and landed a 11.9-inch spot. Not a keeper.
And it was the only bite I got until I ran back up the lake to where I planned to start at 9:00. I finally caught three fish on a shaky head worm on rocky points and one on a whacky rigged worm under a dock.
I hooked exactly five bass all day! I just could not catch that fifth keeper.
And it continued last year and again this year, although i did get big fish this year with a pretty 6.8 pounder!!
I seem to have a special jinx on Lake Hartwell. Last weekend, for the fourth Potato Creek Bassmasters tournament in a row, I came in one place out of winning some money. Every year I seem to come up just a little short. Last weekend was especially close.
In 17 hours of casting last Friday and Saturday 11 members of the club landed 91 keeper bass weighing about 142 pounds. There were 16 five bass limits in the two days and no one zeroed.
Glen Anderson won with ten bass weighing 21.37 pounds and Mitchell Cardell was second with ten at 18,64 pounds. Third place went to Kwong Yu with eight bass weighing 17.12 pounds and his 5.31 pounder was big fish. Raymond English came in fourth with ten at 16.27 pounds.
I caught ten weighing 16.13 pounds for fifth. The club pays the top four places.
I camped at Hartwell State Park at exit 1 off I-85 in South Carolina, only 11.8 miles from the tournament ramp. It was very peaceful and quiet until Saturday when some folks came to the site beside me. They had two dogs that barked constantly.
In practice I tried to find some kind of pattern but caught only a few small fish. And in the tournament, I never got on any kind of pattern. On Friday I caught one on an underspin off a bridge piling, two on a Carolina rig on a gravel bank, and two on a whacky rigged worm on docks.
On Saturday I saw some fish schooling on top and missed two on topwater but landed one on a Sebile swim bait. Later I got two on a Carolina Rig on a rocky point, one on a shaky head on a rock pile and one on the whacky rig. Both days I landed my fifth keeper with less than 30 minutes to fish.
My biggest fish was a pretty spot but it weighed only about 2.5 pounds. Both days my smallest fish were skinny spots that weighed less than a pound. I just could not get a bigger bass to help out my weight.
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.
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!!
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 47th 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 55th at the Harris Chain of Lakes and 36th 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
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.
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.
