Forestville, WI (February 9, 2022) – What defines a professional angler? Ask someone off the street and they’ll likely describe fancy boats, bright lights and big fish. Ask those who stand atop the leaderboard, however, and they’ll tell a different story – one of hard work, determination, and the efforts of many other industry pros who have helped them succeed.
“You can’t get to the top without others to lift you up,” says, Patrick Neu, president of the 1,400-member non-profit National Professional Anglers Association (NPAA). “Nobody reaches the pinnacle of professionalism in this industry without a lot of help. That’s exactly why the NPAA is inviting fishing industry workers of every type to join our ranks. Our purpose is to grow and protect sportfishing while providing our members the tools and association benefits needed to increase their professionalism and meet individualized goals.”
To be sure, professionalism in the fishing industry is wide ranging, a point not lost on the organization and its members. “Being a fishing industry ‘pro’ is a pretty loose term,” says NPAA member Chad Pipkens, a ten-year full-time veteran of the Bassmaster Elite Series and five-time Bassmaster Classic qualifier from Dewitt, Michigan, who spent several years prior honing his skills on a variety of smaller trails before acquiring the knowledge, money and flexibility of time needed to compete at the highest levels.
“Professional doctors diagnose and treat patients, teachers instruct students, pro golfers receive PGA cards, and electricians need a license to perform electrical work,” Pipkens says. “These are all well-defined fields of specialization. By comparison, the fishing world encompasses many different job opportunities. Sure, tournament anglers, captains and guides are fishing professionals, but so are the highly skilled mechanics that work on your engine as well as the folks who run the marina, design lures, sell fishing tackle, manage anglers and staff the tournament trails.
“To me,” Pipkens continued, “anyone making meaningful money or striving to earn a living in this industry should qualify as a pro. If you don’t want to be on the water day in and day out, but you still want to be in the industry, you can find the contacts amongst our membership to maybe make that happen.”
“Anyone making meaningful money or striving to earn a living in this industry should qualify as a pro.”
According to Pipkens, the NPAA does a great job of teaching aspiring pros how to run a fishing-related business through their seminars, annual conference and approachable members who have already achieved success. “NPAA membership can shorten your learning curve and raise your professionalism at any level,” he points out. “It’s a great organization for learning the ins and outs of running your own business; whether that’s tech stuff, accounting, how to network or get paid by more than one employer, it certainly can help shorten your learning curve.”
As a pro angler, Pipkens says his life is organized chaos; getting the boat ready, crisscrossing the country, and being on the road for five weeks at a time while never losing his family focus. He often practices on the water from sunrise to sunset. Despite the pressure to win, tournaments are actually the fun part of his routine. “Balancing all the rest,” he says, “is what really makes you a professional.”
For tournament pros, guides and charter captains in particular, there is a ton of preparation that takes place behind the scenes, notes John Campbell, an NPAA founding member and full-time guide. A Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame member inducted in 2018, Campbell managed to win both the Pro Walleye Trail Detroit River and FLW Lake Ouachita championships. He also qualified for a major walleye championship every single year from 1989 to 2011 while on the pro tour. That’s 22 consecutive years, if you’re counting.
Like Pickens, Campbell agrees publicly visible aspects of being a tournament angler or guide help solidify your status as a professional, but the business end of things is vitally important. “Sure, you’ve got to pre-fish, choose your lures, maintain your gear, set up the boat and put in plenty of time on the road,” he notes, “but you also have to learn to book charters, carefully plan out your competition schedule, promote your sponsors and tend to family matters. Earning money and winning tournaments is vital, but also important is finding ways to help grow the sport through sharing knowledge and getting more kids involved.”
As a professional guide, Campbell is in the business of educating anglers. “To me, helping others learn the game is the sign of a true pro,” he states, adding that this is exactly the kind of people you’ll network and rub elbows with in the NPAA. “This organization supported over 100 Future Angler clinics in 2021 alone. With support from the Future Angler Foundation, it’s member volunteers also distributed over 4,000 NPAA Future Pro T-shirts and 3,000 rod/reel combos to kids at NPAA Future Angler education events. That, I believe, is professionalism at its finest.”
For information on joining the NPAA and exploring the many benefits membership provides, visit npaa.net.
These two last-hour fish at Eufaula on the second day helped me to a fifth-place finish out of 25 people.
I usually enjoy the four seasons. Changing weather often makes fishing better and it is less boring. But going through all four seasons and worse last week at Lake Eufaula was a bit much.
I went down to Lake Point State Park last Tuesday and set up my slide in pickup camper. The weather was very warm when I went to bed and I knew storms were possible.
At 5:00 AM someone pounded on my camper and woke me. I thought they said the power was out, but my fan was still running so I turned over to go back to sleep. Then a car horn started blowing, making me look at my phone – there was a Tornado Warning for the campground on it I had not heard!
I joined all the other campers in the cement block bath house for the next hour!
The rest of Wednesday was decent, with some light showers but little wind. I was able to get out on the lake and look around some. I joined the 196 other bass boats on the water, a Fishers of Men National Championship tournament was scheduled for Thursday through Saturday. It was a big deal, first and second places in the tournament would win fully rigged bass boats worth either $80,000 or $60,000, depending on place.
Thursday was a nice spring like day, warm weather and sun. I again looked around, watching the many boats with teams fishing the first day of the tournament. Most were easing around the shoreline, casting various baits to grassbeds.
When I went to my favorite small creek I was happy to see just two boats in it fishing, but while I idled around about six other boats ran in, fished a few minutes, then left. I knew by the start of our tournament Saturday the poor fish would be beat to death, seeing every lure carried by Berry’s Sporting Goods and then some.
Friday the wind was up a little and the misty rain made me sit at my camper and watch the tournament fishermen go round and round in the creek out from the campground. Weather guessers were saying 20+ MPH winds for Saturday. Most lakes are dangerous with those kinds of winds, and Eufuala is one of the worse.
Fishers of Men announced they were canceling the third day of their tournament due to dangerous conditions. And the Bass Fisherman’s League canceled their big tournament on Oconee for the same reason.
Potato Creek did not cancel, but when Tom Tanner and I idled to the ramp for our set 7:00 blast off, we were told the executive committee delayed our start by 30 minutes. So for 30 minutes Tom and I sat in our boats as the cold wind got about five miles per hour stronger and the temperature dropped another two degrees while everybody else sat in their warm trucks in the parking lot.
These two four pounders helped me win and get big fish at Lake Sinclair at the last minute!
Last Sunday, March 6, nine members of the Flint River Bass Club fished our March tournament at Lake Sinclair. The weather was beautiful for our casting from 7:00 AM to 3:00 PM but the bass didn’t seem to care. We weighed in 29 keeper bass weighing about 47 pounds and had three five-bass limits. No one zeroed.
My four at 10.63 won and I had as 4.19 pound largemouth for big fish. Chuck Croft placed second with five at 9.15 pounds, Don Gober had five at 9.02 pounds for third and Alex Gober, his grandson fishing with him, had five at 4.86 pounds for fourth.
Will Mclean fished with me and we headed to some grass beds near the dam where Ricky Layton, showing me around the same time of year two years ago for a GON article, caught five weighing 28 pounds. But after three hours and several different places, we both had two bites.
A good keeper bass hit my crankbait on a seawall and jumped and threw it. Then Will hooked and lost what looked like a keeper on a Texas rigged Senko. A little later Will caught a bass that just barely touched the 12-inch line, then I caught a similar one.
Club rules say a bass must be 12 inches long with its mouth closed on a keeper board to be weighed. I could make mine touch the 12-inch line, barely, but worried about it. Sometimes in the excitement of catching one I do not measure it correctly.
Around 10:30 I cast my bladed jig to a grassbed on a point and hooked a keeper out in front of it. At 11:30 Will cast to the middle of a shallow cove, said “I got one” and a huge fish swirled on top. He got it to the boat and I netted it, but it was a big blue catfish. Will’s new scales said it weighed ten pounds but it looked much bigger.
At 2:00, with about 45 minutes left to fish I was pretty disgusted. We went into one of my favorite small creeks. As we fished down a bank with a big grassbed on it, I told Will I had never caught a fish past the last small dock on it, it was very shallow. But Niles Murray caught a keeper back in it when we fished together a few years ago.
I cast my bladed jig back in it and my line started going sideways. When I set the hook the 4.19 pounder jumped, it was only a foot deep and it had nowhere to go but up! When I got it to the boat I let it go around the trolling motor but managed to pull the motor and bass up and Will got it in the net by lying down on the deck and reaching forward. That fish was just meant to get caught.
I caught another keeper on a shaky head on the next dock, then started around the other arm of the cove. Again I told Will I had never caught a bass way back in it, and he reminded me of what had just happened.
As luck would have it, way back in it I pitched my shaky head to a seawall about a foot of water and felt a tap and my line started moving out. When I set the hook a 4.13 pound largemouth fought hard but I managed to keep it away from the trolling motor and Will netted it.
We went back to the dock where I caught my keeper and Will got a 3.16 pounder off the seawall beside it, again about a foot deep. That was it, we had to go in.
I don’t know if it was time of day, location or what but I wish it had started earlier, or we had more time to fish before the time ended. This time of year fishing is often better late in the day after the sun warms the water some. It was 62 degrees in that creek at 2:00 and I am sure those fish were thinking about bedding.
While waiting for Will to back the trailer in, I checked my smallest fish and decide it had shrunk, so I just weighed in four.
Last Saturday 25 members of the Potato Creek Bassmasters fished our January tournament at Lake Sinclair. After eight hours of casting from 7:30 AM to 8:30 PM, we brought 73 12-inch keeper bass weighing about 112 pounds to the scales. There were eight limits and six zeros.
Robert Howell won with five weighting 9.04 pounds and Raymond English placed second with five at 8.67 pounds. Michael Cox came in third with five weighing 7.88 pounds and my four weighing 7.55 pounds was fourth. Stevie Wright had big fish with a 4.37 pound largemouth.
The water in Little River was very muddy but the Oconee River and creeks downstream of the mouth of Little River were a decent color. I just knew I could catch some fish on a crankbait in the 52-degree water in the clearer areas, but at 1:00 my two bites were a two-pound channel cat on a crankbait and a bream on a spoon, jigging it in brush 18 feet deep.
At 1:00 I met a boat going down the bank and they fished my favorite dock before I could get to it, then left. I started to leave, too, but noticed they threw just to the front post, not the back post. That dock has some rock behind it and is usually good for a keeper. I cast my shaky head behind the dock and sure enough it started moving out. But when I set the hook my line broke! That really disgusted me but I kept casting and managed to catch two keeper bass and a five pound flathead cat on a crankbait and two more keeper bass on my shaky head the last two hours of the tournament.
I was shocked but pleased to place but kept thinking if I had just landed that bass behind the dock and it weighed two pounds, I would have won! And if frogs had wings, they would not bump their butt every time they hopped!
Lake Burton and tidal Savannah River are about as different kinds of water you can fish in Georgia, but both hold bass. My retirement job took me to both in the past week.
Lake Burton is a beautiful 2775-acre Georgia Power Lake on the Tallulah River in north Georgia between Clayton and Cleveland. Its 62 miles of shoreline are lined with huge houses with big docks, and its steep banks are covered with rock. Views of mountains surrounding it are very pretty.
Crystal clear mountain water is the norm there unless heavy rains stain up some of the creeks. Moccasin Creek State Park is also the home of a fish hatchery where trout are raised, and many are released into the lake, both intentionally and accidentally.
Although it is a good trout fishery, its big spotted and largemouth bass are the main attraction there. It also produces many chain pickerel and crappie.
I fished on a cold cloudy Tuesday with Jeremy Eaton, a local tournament angler, and the fishing was tough. The January snows up in that area had melted and made the lake go up about five feet while dropping the water temperature more than five degrees. That combination gave the fish lockjaw.
I enjoyed the trip and could imagine easing around the backs of coves looking for big largemouth on the bed, especially around the full moon on April 16. And spotted bass will be bedding then, too, and easy to catch out on rocky points and humps. Jeremy marked ten good places to catch bass in April for my Georgia Outdoor News (subscription required) Map of the Month article.
The houses are amazing. Jeremy pointed out a huge house up on a high point at the mouth of Timpson Creek and said Nick Saban built it. He built it to see if he liked having a house on Lake Burton and he did, but rumor has it this one was too small, so he built a bigger one. Its only 9542 square feet with 7 full and two half-baths and the tax office appraised it at 2.6 million. And it is not the biggest on the lake, by far!
Go up to Lake Burton for a nice vacation and take your boat. Enjoy the lake and mountain scenery and catch some trout for dinner, and some big bass to stretch your string.
I fished the lower Savannah River last Sunday with Billy Robertson, a local club fisherman. The views were very different. No mountains in the background, just flatlands that extended forever. And cypress trees and live oaks with Spanish moss beards replaced the barren hardwoods of Lake Burton.
I am not used to fishing current, so when we fished on the river Billy kept the boat pointing upstream and ran his trolling motor on high to keep the boat slowly moving downstream I was surprised. I had to cast fast to hit eddies behind trees in the water and small pockets along the bank.
Back in the creeks where we spent most of our time the current was still strong from the outgoing tide. Although we were miles upstream, above the I-95 bridge most of the day, the tide still affected the river.
We did catch fish. Billy quickly hooked a four-pounder, and our best five of them weighed about 20 pounds. But they were bowfin, fun to catch but we were after bass.
We did catch about a dozen keeper bass that day by casting worms and small jigs to eddies in the creeks but they were small. Most were 12 to 14 inches long but they fought good in the current.
There are bigger bass in the river. A local tournament took off from the ramp we used and it took five weighing 14 pounds to win, 11 for second and 10 for third. Big fish was a four-pounder. But the rest of the folks had five weighing six or seven pounds, just like our catch.
A highlight of the trip was dinner at Loves Seafood and Steaks. Although very expensive, the gumbo was some of the best I have had and the fried scallops were tender and delicious.
Fishing the river is a fun change of pace for us lake fishermen. There are several ramps just north of Savannah in both Georgia and South Carolina. But one warning, if you get off the river itself and go back in creeks on the South Carolina side, you need a nonresident fishing license.
Details of my trip and how to catch bass on the Savannah River will be in the April issue of Georgia Outdoor News.
Go north or south for a fun change of pace for fishing this spring.
Fourteen members and guests fished our February tournament at West Point last Sunday. After fishing from 7:30 AM to 3:30 PM we brought 42 keeper bass weighing about 68 pounds to the scales. There was one zero and four people had five bass limits.
Lee Hancock won with five weighing 11.33 pounds and had a 4.46 pound largemouth for big fish. My five weighing 8.32 pounds was second and Jay Gerson had five weighing a close 8.23 pounds for third. Doug Acree came in fourth with five weighing 6.65 pound and my partner Will Mclean was fifth with four at 6.56 pounds.
I started out pretty good. Will and I stopped on a steep bank with blowdowns on it where I caught a good keeper last Saturday and started casting to the trees in the water. I looked down at my Panoptix and saw what looked like several fish on a small brush top ahead of the boat in 2 feet of water.
I cast a Carolina rigged Baby Brush Hog and watched the weight sink with the bait following it. When the lead hit bottom one of the fish went to the bait. When I tightened up my line a little I felt weight, set the hook and landed a two pound largemouth, my biggest fish of the day. I would not have made that cast and caught that fish without the Garmin Panoptix.
At our next stop on a long shallow point where I caught my biggest fish last Saturday a good keeper spot hit the same crankbait and I landed it. For the next few hours the only thing we caught was a largemouth that was not big enough to meet the 14 inch size limit.
At 11:00 I caught a barely legal 12-inch spot on my Carolina rig on one side of a rocky point then Will got his first keeper on a spinnerbait on the other side of the point. On our next stop Will got another keeper on his spinnerbait. Then he caught two more on his spinnerbait in the next two stops, giving him four to my three at 1:00! Made me wonder what I was doing wrong!
I caught one more keeper, this one on a shaky head worm, on our next stop. At 2:45 with just 45 minutes left to fish we went into a small creek with three rocky areas on one bank. I told Will we would finish up here since we were across from the ramp.
As we fished the first rocky spot a bass boat with two fishermen idled past me and started fishing a short distance ahead of me on the next rocky area. That made me mad but I learned long ago to just accept inconsiderate people and do something else.
Will and I ran to the bank where I caught my first keeper but Kwong was fishing it, so we stopped on a rocky point behind him. My first cast with a shaky head produced my fifth keeper. A short way down the bank I saw a brush pile in front of a dock, cast my shaky head to it and landed my sixth keeper, culling my smallest bass.
Time ran out before Will caught his fifth keeper. I really wish he had caught the little one I culled, but that would have given him a limit when I had only two. That might have messed up my mind even more!
Last Sunday 11 members of the Spalding County Sportsman Club fished our January tournament at Lake Sinclair. After eight hours we brought 21 keeper bass to the scales weighing about 27 pounds. There was one five-bass limit and two people didn’t have a keeper.
Jay Gerson had the limit and it weighed 7.11 pounds for first place and his 2.94 pound largemouth was big fish. Raymond English had four weighing 4.77 pounds for second and third was Robert Proctor with three weighing 3.28 pounds. Kwong Yu’s two weighing 2.86 pounds was fourth, beating my one at 2.52 pounds that gave me fifth place.
After catching four keepers the week before in the Potato Creek tournament I had some hope, but those four were on no pattern, just one here and there. Will Mcclean fished with me, joining this club as well as the Flint River club, and we started trying to hook a fish after a very cold run first thing that morning.
At 10:00 neither of use had a bite after fishing four or five different kinds of places trying to find some kind of pattern. We then made a cold ride to near the dam where I had caught my fish the week before.
After about 30 minutes the keeper I weighed in hit my spinnerbait near a grassbed in front of some rocks. I told Will I felt like you needed to catch at least three bass to establish any kind of pattern, but that one was all we had to go on.
For the rest of the day we fished similar places, making hundreds of casts around grass beds near rocks, but neither of us ever had another bite!
PARK FALLS, Wisc. – Any discussion of pre-spawn bass is bound to include the topic of crankbaits. Why? Put simply, of all the baits in the boat, cranks offer distinct advantages over most other lure types, especially in the springtime.
“Bass feed up in the early season before they spawn,” says Addison, Alabama MLF tournament competitor and St. Croix pro, Jesse Wiggins. “As water temps start to rise and baitfish get livelier, bass get used to chasing them.” That makes active presentations like crankbaits a favored springtime option in any angler’s arsenal.
Jesse’s brother, Jordan (aka Jordy) Wiggins, resides just 30-miles east of Jesse’s stomping grounds. The other half of the Wiggins Dynasty, Jordy – a BFL and Toyota Trail angler, St. Croix pro and 2021 Bassmaster Classic qualifier – agrees with his sibling rival’s assessment on spring bait choice. “I like cranks in the spring because they cover water and fish dingy water better than about anything else,” he says. Given spring conditions often involve rainy days and resulting runoff that creates the cloudy water Jordy refers to, cranks become a critical pre-spawn consideration.
Yet there’s more to spring cranking than ripping down the bank with big-billed wobble baits. The brothers Wiggins have some differing thoughts when it comes to the best approaches and effective details that contribute to a great springtime day in the boat. Much of the method to their madness is dictated by water bodies, clarity as already mentioned, but also cover and structure. They agree, however, that no matter the variables, anytime you’re throwing a crankbait come spring, you’re increasing your odds of contacting active fish.
The Approach
To be clear, the Wiggins boys don’t just huck hard baits with trebles because it’s an effective tournament tactic; they also do it because it’s fun. True, both anglers’ tournament successes have been heavily crankbait-centric; it’s a technique their dad – tournament angler, Craig Wiggins – taught them in their earliest days of fishing. “I just like actively cranking and feeling what the bait is doing the whole time,” says Jesse. “You feel exactly what that bottom or piece of structure is, and there’s no mistaking when the fish actually eats the bait. It’s a great way to get bit.” Jordy confirms, “If it’s spring, you’ll usually catch my brother Jesse throwing a square-bill whether close to shore or fishing off the bank a ways.”
Jordy continues, “I like to look for rocks and clay. As that water warms up faster, the crawfish are up in that clay especially.” Fishing near the bank then, becomes a matter of looking upslope and identifying likely lakeshore where clay and rock areas extend well underwater. “Bluff and sandy points aren’t as much in play for the lakes I fish,” Jordy adds. “It’s just not as productive as that clay is. The fish are where the forage are.”
Jesse takes a slightly different approach, biding his time away from the bank, at least at first. “I like outside channel swings,” he says. “Fish stop and concentrate here before they move up onto adjacent flats to spawn. If you think about it, it’s just another bank – but this one starts its break in a few feet of water and continues down to the bottom of the channel. I use the chart on my electronics and imagine a wall where that channel is. I fish down that wall on the deep side earlier in the spring, then focus on adjacent flats with stump fields as we get closer and closer to spawn.”
Both brothers feel strongly that there’s less chance to get bit in clean water; “clean” in terms of both turbidity and the amount of cover and structure present. “I need that lure to be banging into something. You simply have to come into contact with cover,” says Jesse. Jordan supports that statement, saying, “It just has to be hitting stumps, hard clay, rocks, laydowns, really anything.”
That contact and deflection off of cover is what makes squarebill crankbaits such an obvious choice in the spring, whether operating out from the bank, or nearly on it. “Squarebills just deflect so well,” says Jesse. “They’re pretty forgiving, and seem to ride through the thick stuff better, which is exactly when I expect to get hit.”
Jordy prefers running up and down the bank until he’s contacting the kinds of cover and structure he’s looking for or targeting main-lake points. “I’ll fish down the bank on that point, or across it, but some days I get more fish setting up on the point with a deeper diving bait,” Jordan says. “I’ll cast in deeper water out from the point, dragging it back up shallower and attacking the cover fish are in from different directions. Sometimes, the only way to extract more than one or two fish from a spot is to hit the same fish from a bunch of different angles.”
The Details
Both Wiggins brothers love squarebills during spring, with Jesse favoring a Jackyll Bling 55 for its distinctive deflective properties. “I just think it comes through cover better, and that’s all kinds of cover. Some baits work well in wood, but wedge in rocks, where this one seems to do well in a variety of cover types and has an erratic action that triggers strikes. Jordy throws the kitchen sink at spring fish, favoring a host of baits depending on the water body and depths he’s targeting. For deeper situations, a Rapala DT14, DT10, or Norman Little N gets the nod, where shallower waters call for a Strike King KVD Squarebill 1.5 in the bank-raider situations Jordy likes to target.
Color is a popular topic for any hardbait discussion, and the Wiggins both feel fish are highly selective based on the specific water body and its clarity. Crawfish in any hue is a big spring pattern which both brothers lean on heavily. “Fish definitely show a preference, and when they’re up shallow, it’s a lot of oranges and reds,” Jesse says. “Anything crawfish-looking and I’m throwing it.” But that changes as the water clears up, with Jesse opting for more natural colors at that point. “With clearer water I’m trying to imitate a shad,” says Jesse. “I just don’t go as bright or flashy and tend to stick to more whites and grays.”
Jordan notes a few exceptions, like Guntersville, where red craw patterns are in play even in clear water. “You get fish in grass systems and clear water and think that those bright colors may not work as well, but down there and a few other places they’re still the ticket,” says Jordy. “That tells you how important it is anywhere that bass are eating crawfish.” Whether fishing in heavy cover, or just near the bottom of the bank, both anglers agree that craw-patterned cranks are about as perfect as it gets come spring.
Jordy likes working the bank heavily, covering water as a matter of principle. “I like my trolling motor on 5 or 6, meaning I’m working harder to throw more baits to more water, while reeling faster to cover it,” he says. Older than Jesse by 18 months, Jordan utilizes a few extra weeks’ worth of wisdom to slow down once he does find pods of fish. Jesse likes covering water, too, albeit somewhat more methodically, and usually farther from the bank. “Those channel walls hold fish, and in deeper water you can usually see them well on the electronics. It’s just up to me to make the right choices that will get them to bite,” says Jesse.
Rigging Up Rods
With both brothers living so near one another, fishing the same lakes, and growing up fishing quite a bit in the same boat, it should come as no surprise that they rig up nearly the same. Each prefers baitcasting reels in the mid-to-upper speed ranges – somewhere between 6:1:1 and 6:8:1 – mostly on account of the speed required to keep up with a moving boat looking to cover water. Jesse feels he can more easily figure out a cadence with a faster reel, rather than fighting to keep the bait moving while on the hunt. “Sometimes, a small pause or faster pattern of reeling is what they want, and with a quicker retrieve I can still fish it slow, but I also have the option for quick burst,” he says.
The Wiggins boys are carbon copies when it comes to line choice also, opting to wind Seaguar AbrasX fluorocarbon in 12-pound test. Jordan offers, “I run fluoro because of less stretch and more sensitivity like other guys, but I also like how it keeps my baits at the deeper end of the dive chart.” Jesse adds that it’s important to re-tie often. “Because we’re throwing in cover and know to get bit we have to hit something most of the time, I’m a big fan of constantly retying knots. That, and pre-spawn fish get spunky as water temps climb, so you’re always rubbing rocks, stumps, and sticks when fighting fish. It’s a good habit to get into.” Both brothers tie fluorocarbon directly to the split ring of the crankbait. “I’ve gotten so quick at clipping line and retying that I think it’s as fast or faster than a snap,” Jesse says.
Of course, rod choice is important for a technique such as cranking, with Jesse outlining the basics. “All I’m looking for is sensitivity with forgiveness – the sensitivity to be able to feel what the bait is doing and what it’s coming into contact with down there and the forgiveness that’s needed to cushion the strike and keep the hooks in the fish’s mouth during the fight.” A demanding tournament angler like Jesse Wiggins knows what feels right, and in most cases that’s St. Croix’s 6’10” Legend Glass moderate action casting rod in medium-heavy power (LGC610MHM). While he appreciates the 7’2” and 7’4” Legend Glass models in certain situations, he prefers the nimbler 6’10” rod when beating the banks while traveling close and parallel to shore. “I’m casting under limbs and at targets with my rod right up against the bank,” says Jesse. “For back arm casts, and small flips, I can be more efficient and ultimately more productive with that slightly shorter rod.”
Brother Jordan prefers to wield the big stick, opting for the 7’4” (LGC74MHM) Legend Glass casting rod, noting the increased casting distance he can attain when out in the open. He concedes that the 6’10” (LGC610MHM) is about perfect for squarebills and other near-bank baits, while agreeing with Jesse on the power and action aspects of each of the Legend Glass rods. “I just love the extra power when fighting fish to lift them above stumps and laydowns,” says Jordy. “It’s tough to find that perfect balance of strength and sensitivity, feel and forgiveness, and these linear S-glass crankin’ rods deliver like no others.”
Honorable mention goes to the corresponding models in St. Croix’s Mojo Bass Glass series, as both brothers sing their praises. “You need a rod that won’t pull hooks, and all of the St. Croix Legend Glass and Mojo Bass Glass bass rods bow to the fish a bit with a parabolic, moderate action,” says Jordy. “Without that forgiveness you lose opportunities. Fish coming unbuttoned near the boat just can’t happen in a tournament situation, and we lose very few crankbait fish with these glass rods. Even skin-hooked fish we’ve got a good chance of landing with these rods.”
Jesse continues, “Once you use one of these rods – either the top-of-the-line Legend Glass or the more affordable but incredibly capable Mojo Bass Glass rods – you finally understand what a good crankbait rod is. Medium-heavy power to extract fish from cover, and truly moderate actions that don’t let fish throw hooks. Linear S-glass and continuous tapers from IPC construction deliver that ever-important feel that crankbait anglers need, too, while forming glass rods that feel surprisingly light, crisp and balanced in the hand. It’s so important with these smaller squarebills and tight-wobbling baits that you feel exactly what’s going on,” Jesse continues. “Not only to feel cover and strikes, but to make sure the bait is free and clear of debris, too. If that lure hangs on one tiny leaf, it’s not doing its job and that costs you bites that can be critical to winning a tournament. You just don’t get that sensitivity with other duller-feeling glass rods.”
Agree to Disagree
With both anglers putting down roots and spreading canopy over similar areas and disciplines, it might come as a surprise that they differ on certain important stuff. They actually disagree on the number-one presentation in the springtime. While both love crankin’ and say it’s a top-three springtime pattern, Jesse is all in on crankbaits, but Jordy is obsessed with chatterbaits. “If we’re in a boat together come spring, I’m almost always throwing a crank, and he’s probably throwing a chatterbait,” says Jesse. “That makes us fish well together when we do get out, each giving the fish a slightly different look.”
Jordy’s chatterbait fascination is the result of the distinctive lakes he fishes. “If I’m in eelgrass especially, I prefer a chatterbait over anything else,” he says. “Crankbaits can be good if you dial in the depth of dive perfectly, but I have more options to fish chatterbaits at varying depths in these waters, and they fish great in other systems too,” Jordy adds. Even Jesse concedes that chatterbaits and vegetation go together. “I throw them in some of the systems where weeds are the primary cover we’re fishing, for sure,” he says. It’s a keen observation for a technique that often involves letting that bait drop into grass before ripping it out, knowing that a strike can happen at any time.
Jordy says St. Croix makes his ideal chatterbait rod in both the Mojo Bass Glass (MGC72HM) and Legend Glass (LGC72HM) Series, the 7’2” heavy power, moderate action Rip-N-Chatter models. “That thing is a home run for throwing chatterbaits in grass,” says Jordy. “It’s got the heavy power I need to rip bladed jigs through the grass, but when a fish eats – just like with the crankbait models – that rod bows to it. I can put great hooks in fish without pulling them, yet still have the power to force them out of the grass. That’s hard to do in a single rod blank, but St. Croix got it done for me and every other chatterbait angler with these rods.”
Wrap-Up
For the Wiggins Dynasty, brotherly love often comes in the form of busting big bass on banks, together with crankbaits and chatterbaits, squarebills up against shore, or deeper diving cranks that hit those channel-swing walls. Remember, as springtime water temperatures climb, so does a fish’s ability and willingness to chase. That makes active presentations like crankbaits, chatterbaits and spinnerbaits key weapons in a bass angler’s arsenal. As fish draw nearer and nearer to the spawn, anglers find themselves adjacent to stump flats and spawning shelves, slinging squarebills and the like to hungry pre-spawn bass looking to eat as many crawfish as it takes to fill the tanks.
Specialized equipment is the salve for a technique-specific bite like crankin’, where a rod and its rigging need to master certain specialized tasks. The forgiveness of a moderate action will keep help keep fish hooked and is a good start, provided you can get them to strike. That requires sensitivity, not to feel the strike itself, but to provide the angler with feedback on how the bait is running and what it’s coming in contact with. Without the sensitivity portion of the equation, it’s impossible to feel if your lure is fouled, or more importantly, if you’re even contacting the cover necessary to trigger the bite to begin with.
Pairing a lightweight blank with heavyweight glass performance solves the equation. Strength meets sensitivity; forgiveness is served, but with responsiveness and power. Fast reels, fluorocarbon, and color-specific cranks that feature crawfish anything are the other constants that will help earn success. So, take this information and hit the lake this spring, cover some water and find ‘em.
Last Sunday six members of the Flint River Bass Club braved the cold windy weather to fish our February tournament at Lake Lanier. After casting from 7:30 AM to 3:30 PM, we brought in five spotted bass that met the 14-inch size limit. There were no limits and two members did not weigh a fish.
I won and had big fish with one bass weighing 4.04 pounds. Alex Gober had two weighing 3.68 for second, my partner Will Mclean had one weighing 2.78 for third and fourth was Don Gober with one weighing 1.88 pounds.
Someday I will figure out the spots on Lake Lanier but it seems like not any time soon. Like last year I went up three days before the tournament and camped at Don Carter State Park, a great campground. At least it did not snow Saturday night like it did last year!
Last year I caught one bass in three days practice and zeroed the tournament as did everyone else except Brent Drake. He won with one keeper. This year I did not hook a fish in three days practice. I mostly rode with my electronics looking for bass and bait.
Saturday afternoon I found some concentrations of bait – 80 feet deep! Most of the local fishermen that know Lanier well say you have to be fishing around bait to catch winter spots, but I just cannot make myself fish that deep!
There are always some fish shallow and I told Will I felt like shallow fish were more likely to be eating. So we were going to fish relatively shallow. We went to a steep rocky bank and I kept the boat out in 25 feet of water. We cast up to a couple feet deep and worked out bait out to about 20 feet deep.
That seemed a good idea, Will caught his fish, his first tournament fish and also first spotted bass, on his fourth cast with a Texas rigged Senko. I got three bites on a jig but missed all three, I think my frozen hands kept me from feeling the bites like I should, and Will missed two bites on that bank.
We tried a variety of similar places and I missed two more bites, and stupidly broke my line setting the hook on one fish. Usually I retie often, especially when fishing a jig on rocks, but my cold hands kept me from doing that. Will also missed a couple more bites.
I had just about given up at 3:05, with just 20 minutes left to fish, when I felt a thump on my jig and landed my keeper. We had gone back to where Will caught his bass and mine hit in almost the exact same place. We should have stayed there all day!
I love my job! The past week gave me a chance to fish Weiss Lake, the Mobile Delta and Lake Allatoona. Its tough work, but I’m glad I get to do it.
Last Friday I drove up to Weiss and met Cal Culpepper and his dad Saturday morning to get information for a Map of the Month article that will be in the November of both Georgia and Alabama Outdoor News. Cal is a high school senior and on the Harris County High School fishing team, and a very good fisherman. Weiss is on the state’s borders and if popular with bass fishermen in both states.
We had a good day, catching largemouth and spotted bass. The best five we landed weighed about 13 pounds. All were in shallow water around grass, docks and wood cover and hit chatterbaits, topwater and shaky head worms.
On Sunday I drove to Mobile to meet Captain Dan Kolenich, a guide there on the bay, to get information for a saltwater fishing article. I don’t fish saltwater much so I was looking forward to the trip, hoping to catch my first redfish. I knew I would eat some great seafood and I definitely accomplished that goal.
Unfortunately, Monday morning the wind was strong and it was raining. I talked with Captain Dan and we decided to try to go out Tuesday morning when the weather guessers said conditions would be better.
Since I had the rest of the day with nothing to do I went to Battleship Park. This military park has a variety of exhibits, including aircraft, a World War 2 submarine you can tour, and the battleship Alabama docked so you can tour it, too. I spent almost six hours there.
Walking through the submarine I could not imagine being on a crew. The tiny, cramped work and eating areas were bad enough but the racks, or bunks, hung along the walls one over the other, would never have allowed me to get a good night’s sleep. And I could just imagine the smell during missions.
The aircraft fascinated me since I always wanted to fly a fighter for the Air Force. One especially interesting display showed one of the fighters the “Tuskeegee Airmen” flew in World War 2 and a video had very good special effects. It took me several minutes to realize I was not watching actual videos of the dog fights.
Tuesday morning was clear but still very windy. We tried to fish but the wind made it very difficult so I did not catch a redfish. Maybe next time.
On Thursday Wyatt Robinson and his dad met me at my house and we drove through the horrible traffic to Lake Allatoona so I could show them what little I know about that lake. Wyatt is A senior at CrossPointe Christian Academy and on the fishing team. He is a very good young fisherman.
I had a lot of fun and we caught several keeper bass and even more short ones under the 12-inch limit, on topwater plugs and shaky head worms. But the catch of the day was a four-pound channel cat that thought my jig head worm was lunch. Turned out he became dinner. Although that trip was not really part of my job it was fun, except for the traffic going and coming back, and I was impressed, as I often am, with a young fisherman’s ability and knowledge. It is kinda scary that high school fishermen often know more than I do about bass fishing.
