Category Archives: Bass Fishing

Bass Fishing Information

Smallmouth Stories from St Croix Rods

Smallmouth Stories

October 14, 2024

You never know when or where you’ll connect with the fish of a lifetime

PARK FALLS, Wis. (October 9, 2024) – Sometimes referred to as “a foot deep and a mile wide,” the sprawling Susquehanna River rises in Central New York’s Otsego Lake and drains over 27,000 square miles in three states before dumping into the Upper Chesapeake Bay. Bisecting the entire state of Pennsylvania and containing a rich forage base, the Susky is full of spunky smallmouth bass… for anglers who can get to them.

Shallow and rocky, the Susquehanna is the domain of the jetboat; ideal craft for skimming over and around treacherous rocks and ledges that would destroy an ordinary bass boat. Susquehanna fishing guide, Joe Raymond, bought his first in his twenties and now runs a 300-HP Rock Proof River Rocket. He’s been guiding anglers on the Susquehanna for over 15 years. In that time, he watched his clients catch a lot of big bass. A couple of weeks ago, Raymond caught one of his own.

Along with tournament partner and fellow guide, Tom Mills, the St. Croix Rod and Z-Man ambassador recently accounted the entire story to Susquehanna Fishing Tackle owners, brothers Mike and George Acord, on their Tackle Shop Live podcast.

“For George and me, we looked at this picture and were absolutely shellshocked,” Mike told viewers in his intro. That speaks volumes, given the Acord brothers’ some-50 years of experience fishing on the Susquehanna River, not to mention the hundreds of big smallmouth photos they see from their customers each and every year.

Raymond described the series of events leading up to the historic catch.

“Tom (Mills) and I had talked about fishing a Williamsport Bassmasters Charity Tournament for Toys for Tots,” Raymond said. “We’d only fished up there a couple times and it had been a few years. We remembered both times being a dinkfest, but we decided to do it and have some fun while supporting a worthy cause. There was a big thunderstorm the night before. My roof was leaking and I didn’t sleep at all. We didn’t have much of a gameplan and just headed upriver in the dark to a spot we’d had some success at before. There was already a boat there so we just kept going.”

Raymond says they finally pulled into a spot and started fishing. “The plan was for me to fish for a limit and Tom to target a lunker,” he recalls. “I was throwing a 3” Z-Man MinnowZ swimbait on a weedless jighead and I kept losing fish. Nothing big, but it was aggravating,” he says. When Raymond opted to switch to an open jig, a new sort of misery crept in. “I started to catch a few small ones, but I was getting snagged on almost every cast. I told Tom I was done and we had to move.”

The pair bounced around to a few spots in the largely unfamiliar water without a lot of success. “There was an area up there in one of those pools we had passed… it looked so good,” Raymond says. “We agreed it had to have fish, but we’d never caught anything there during our two prior trips to this part of the river. We decided to try it anyway.” 

The pair arrived at the back end of the pool and Raymond started fishing his 3” MinnowZ on a 7’ medium-power St. Croix Legend X spinning rod paired to a 3000 Vanford reel with10-lb. smackdown braid and a 10-lb. Tatsu fluoro leader. The curse continued. “I broke off again… like right away… and had to tie on a whole new leader,” Raymond says. “Tom was throwing a Ned rig in a current seam and he had broken off too.”

Raymond was sick of snagging up, so he tied a fresh EZ Money-colored Z-Man paddletail with a weedless jighead onto the fresh leader.

“There was a log on the bottom in the back of this pool in about four feet of water. I made a cast to it and flipped the bail closed after giving the bait a couple seconds to get down,” Raymond says. “I reeled tight and felt weight and immediately thought I was snagged again… then I felt movement. I hit this thing and it came screaming up and did a backflip in front of the boat. The fish looked huge, but I was still trying to process what had happened and how big the bass actually was. It only took a couple more seconds before I realized what I was fighting.”

“When a guy like Joe Raymond tells you to get the net because he just hooked the biggest smallmouth of his life, you move quickly,” Mills says. “The fish was just digging behind the boat puking up crayfish like crazy. The water was so clear it was like watching the scene in an aquarium.”

“The fish fought so hard,” Raymond says. “I was thinking, is this real life?”  Then the St. Croix took a deeper bend and the fish took off downstream.

Raymond snapped out of his daydream and took the MinnKota off of Spotlock to follow the big brown bass that was now peeling line and headed for some rapids. “We caught up and netted it,” Raymond says. “Both of us were staring into the net and going crazy like a couple little kids.”

Raymond weighed and measured the fish quickly before snapping a couple of photos. She stretched the tape to 24 inches and bottomed out at 7.19 pounds. Later, the fish would weigh 7.08 at the tournament weigh in.

“I just kinda lost it,” Raymond says. “Like any guide – or any serious fisherman – I obsess over big fish. I’ve celebrated with so many of my clients after helping them catch personal-best bass over the years. This fish is the first over six pounds I’ve ever caught on the Susquehanna, and only the second over seven anyone I know has ever heard of from the river. It wasn’t a super-fat fish, just thick all the way through and super healthy. I actually know the guy who caught the other documented 7-1 back in 1981. His name is Russell Fuller. I heard the story over and over when I was young and was always suspect until I got the chance to meet him and speak with him later in life. He brought the mount into the restaurant a few years ago and I was blown away when I saw it. He caught his in the spring, basically right behind the house where I now live in Duncannon. It was a 23” pre-spawn fish, so it was quite a bit fatter. Mine wasn’t as deep but was an inch longer.”

Raymond has a few key tips for all smallmouth anglers.

“You never know when or where you’ll connect with the fish of a lifetime,” he says. I certainly never expected to run into this fish in the spot we were fishing. I was lucky that I had just re-tied my leader. We’ve all gotten lazy about knots and leaders and it always bites you. I learned this early as a guide. If you cinch down a knot and it doesn’t feel right, or your leader knot gets hung up in your guides, or you feel some nicks in your leader, take the time to re-tie and avoid disappointment.”

Raymond is also a firm believer in using the best gear you can afford. “I’m not rod heavy; I’m rod particular,” he says. “Unlike a lot of bass fishermen who have a dedicated rod for every specific presentation they make, I’m the guy who has a handful of different rods that I like and trust with a few powers and actions that suit the lines and lures I most often fish. There are a ton of great rods on the market today. For me, it’s hard to beat the quality and performance of St. Croix and specifically their Legend X series. These rods are made in the USA, light, load up great, and are extremely sensitive. It’s the same with the lures I most often use. Z-Man ElaZtec plastics mimic everything in this river a smallmouth eats and the material is incredibly soft with unmatched durability. For me, that means my clients can catch a bunch of fish on a single bait before I have to replace it. The Z-Man MinnowZ swimbait is the best bait ever for guiding. They can be rigged in a bunch of different ways to match the conditions and have a shimmy almost like a spybait on a slow steady retrieve. You will catch fish hopping them on the bottom and burning them through the water, too.”

Finally, Raymond encourages anglers to handle all fish with care and to release the ones with the genetics that make better fishing possible for everyone. “I think most bass anglers are in the same camp about caring for big bass and releasing them healthy, but we still have some archaic regulations and procedures in some states, especially when it comes to recognizing record fish,” he says. “In a lot of states, you just can’t get a record fish certified without killing it. No record or recognition is worth killing a huge, old fish. The very same day I caught my fish here in Pennsylvania, a guy fishing a tournament in New York caught a nine-pounder, which would have smashed the state record. He called the DEC and was told to put the fish on ice until someone could come out and certify the fish the next day. He would have had to kill it to get it certified. That’s a huge problem. To his credit, the angler – Dante Piraino – knew better and had no part of that plan. After it was weighed and revived, he adamantly directed tournament officials to put that fish right back into the St. Lawrence River with all the rest of them. States need more protocols and procedures that make it easy for people to certify fish like this without killing the fish. These are genetic freaks and all of us need to let them continue to do their thing.”

Contact Joe Raymond or book a trip with him through his website, susquehannasmallmouthguides.com. Follow him on Instagram and Facebook.

For up-to-date information on fishing in the Susquehanna River, or for tackle recommendations, contact Susquehanna Fishing Tackle at 800-814-7433 or via their website, sfttackle.com.

Would You Rather Be Lucky Than Good When Fishing?

“I’d rather be lucky that good.” Kenneth Hattaway, one of my mentors in the bass clubs back in the 1970s and 80s, used to say that a lot.  He was one of the best club fishermen in the area back then and did well in bigger tournaments, too. In many ways he was both good and lucky.

    Over the years I have come to believe what he meant was you can be good consistently, but when you are lucky you do even better.  Anyone can win a tournament with the right luck, but it won’ be consistent over time.

    All the pro fishermen on the Bassmaster Elite Series are good. I have fished with more than a dozen of them and they have all the details and mechanics of fishing down pat. They can skip a jig under a dock into places most of us never reach. They can read electronics like a printed report. And they keep all their equipment in top condition.

    But to win an Elite tournament when competing against 87 other fishermen just as good as you are takes some added luck. 

Boyd Duckett sitting on the porch of his cabin after the first day of a tournament, seeing fish schooling and going there the next day and winning is mostly luck.    

Leaving your bait in the water while eating a sandwich for lunch, and your boat drifting over an unknown rockpile and getting a bite, then winning the tournament on those rocks is a lot of luck. My partner in a BASS Regional in Kentucky did that.

When I do well it is a lot of luck.  To do well one day of a two-day tournament is luck, to do well each day takes some skill. There have been multiple times I have done well one of two of the days in our state top six, but I have done well both days only five times, making the state team each time.

Sunday I got lucky enough to stop first thing on a bank with a little current moving, and caught six bass in the first two hours. The next six hours produced only two more fish.  Stopping on that particular bank was as more luck than skill, and the current died before 8:00 AM.

In the Flint River Bass Club tournament Sunday at Sinclair, eight of us fished from 6:00 AM to 2:00 PM to land 18 12-inch keeper bass weighing about 28 pounds. There were two five-bass limits and three people did not have a bass.

My five weighing 10.42 pounds was first. Niles Murray had three at 6.45 pounds for second and his 3.34 pound largemouth was big fish.  Doug Acree had five weighing 6.22 pounds for third and Lee Hancock came in fourth with three at 2.83 pounds.

My first stop was on a deep bank with docks and grassbeds and I started casting a buzzbait.  When I came to a shallow seawall a cast with a weightless Trick worm produced my first keeper, one that was very skinny and barely 12 inches long. 

A few minutes later I skipped a wacky rigged Senko under a dock and landed my biggest bass, a 2.94 pounder.  Then another good keeper hit my buzzbait between docks.  Another dock produced my fourth keeper on the Senko at 7:00.  I was pleased with the fast start.

A few docks later I caught another good keeper, filling my limit, then, right at 8:00 caught my sixth keeper, culling the small bass. I was happy with my catch and started trying to find something else that would work.

At noon I had not had another bite, then I caught my seventh keeper on the Senko on a dock and my eighth, my second biggest of the day, on the Senko on a shady seawall.

Other than hooking a 20-pound blue cat on a shaky head near a dock at 1:00 PM, I did not get another bite until weigh-in.

I wish I could be that lucky every trip.

Jeff Nail’s Lake Lanier Bass Fishing Report

Also See:

Lake Hartwell Fishing Report from Captain Mack

Lake Lanier Fishing Report from Captain Mack

Lake Guntersville Weekly Fishing Report from Captain Mike Gerry

Lake Country Fishing – fishing reports on Lakes Sinclair and Oconee, and more. (subscription required)

Texas Parks and Wildlife Weekly Freshwater Fishing Reports

Texas Parks and Wildlife Weekly Saltwater Reports

Jeff Nail’s Lake Lanier Bass Fishing Report

Lake Lanier Weekly Fishing Report
June 7, 2024

Water Level: The lake level stands at .64 feet ABOVE full pool.

Water Temp: Temps are hovering in the upper 70s on my Garmin

Water Clarity: Nothing significant to report on the clarity of the lake, it’s typical clarity for June.     

I have been on Lanier for 4 of the past 7 days. The fishing was very good for numbers with some good fish mixed in to keep things interesting.

There really has not been a lot of changes in what I have been doing since my last report.  Top water is still the most productive pattern day in and day out.  I expect this to continue until the water temps creep up into the low to mid 80s range.  When that happens, the thermocline will become more prevalent, surface O2 levels will decrease and Anglers will have to get more creative with presentations. 

For now, it’s time to enjoy the famed topwater bite that Lanier is known for.  My focus is humps and point in 25’-35’ FOW.  Chrome if it is sunny, bone or more subdued colors when it is cloudy. 

This is also the time of the year where it is a good idea to have several different styles of top water baits available.  Anglers may need to vary their retrieves and bait profile to figure out what the fish want on any given day. 

Lastly, I want to hit on our old buddy the shaky head.  While Top water rules the roost for most days, the shaky head can still be a trip savior.  Anglers often don’t think of the SH as a June bait, but it can be extremely effective on days when the fish just don’t want to play ball or when Anglers are just looking to give fish a different look.  I throw it in the same areas as I do top water, I am just slowing way down.  A 3/16oz Davis HBT head with a Trixster Tamale is my go to set up. 

The daily videos I publish cover these techniques in greater detail and all other techniques that were effective over this past week. In these videos, I cover the conditions, part of the lake, and how I caught fish (or did not) for most days that I am on the water.  All subscribers will have access to all historical videos as well (261 previous videos). You can sign up and view videos at https://jeffnail.uscreen.io

Lake Lanier Fishing JournalDaily updates on bass fishing at Lake Lanier. Created by Jeff Nail Fishing and Guide Service.jeffnail.uscreen.io

For the new few weeks, I have the following dates available: June 15-18 and 21. July:  I am pretty open for all days after the 8th.  If you are interested in a trip, please reach out and I will get you on the calendar. 

Jeff
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Jeffnailfishing.net

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How Blueback Herring Have Affected Post Spawn Bass

Bass were feeding on herring or gizzard shad spawning on a rocky point. I caught every fish I weighed in except one by 8:30 each morning.  Several hit a spinnerbait, the others hit an underspin lure.

    For years at Clarks Hill after the spawn bass hung around back in coves and pockets feeding where they had bedded.  I remember daddy and two other men going around the back of a creek with Hula Popper and hooking big bass one morning.

    They would not let us kids back there with them, we were too noisy!  Four of us were in a bigger ski boat that we had pulled their jon boat to the creek from the boat ramp.  We were near the mouth of the cove, trying to paddle it and fish.

    I tried to make a long cast to a button bush in the water with my Devil’s Horse topwater plug but it went way off target. As I reeled it in as fast as I could turn the handle on my Mitchell 300 Spinning reel, a huge bass attacked the plug.

    Somehow we managed to land that seven pound largemouth. It was by far the biggest bass I had ever caught when I was 15 years old.  For days we talked about that bass being crazy chasing down that lure skipping across the top of the water. Everybody knew you fished slowly for bass!

    Now we know you can not reel a lure faster than a bass can chase it down, and often very fast moving lures will attract bites when nothing else will.  Buzzbaits were invented for that kind of fishing. I just wish I had been smart enough to figure that out back then and invent them!

    I caught many bass at Clarks Hill in the 1970s and early 1980s fishing back in coves and creeks in April. Then the blueback herring population exploded in the lake and changed everything.

    Bass love the herring.  They are big with an average size of about seven inches so they are a big meal to fill a bass fast. And they are very rich in oils and protein, perfect for bass recovering from the spawn.

    Herring are an open water fish, living on the main lake where it is deep.  When the herring spawn they go to shallow gravel and rock areas on the main lake and are easy for bass to catch and eat.

    It seems all the bass have learned that and almost[RG1]  all of them will head to open water as soon as they spawn in April to eat herring.  It has changed the way I fish on herring lakes like Clarks Hill. 

 [RG1]

Amazing How Fast Bass Fishing Can Change In A Few Spring Days

Call it a tale of two Sinclairs.  Or a tale of three lakes in only three days. Last weekend showed how fast bass fishing can change this time of year.  

    Last Friday I met Ricky Layton to get information for my GON April Map of the Month article.  The weather guessers were right for a change when they predicted high winds, bluebird skies and cold weather. That combination is usually the kiss of death for fishing in the spring.

    Ricky said we would meet at Bass’s Boat House, an old marina where the clubs used to put in back in the 1970s. It was near the dam and the water might be slightly clearer in that area, and we would be more protected from the wind. All this spring the flooding rains have made our lakes fill up with very muddy water.

    We waited until 9:00 AM to go out since it was cold.  The first two hours seemed to show the weather and muddy water was working against us. Ricky took me to some places he had caught good fish the weekend before, but the water was even muddier than it had been and we got no bites.

    At 11:00 Ricky was starting to look at the article pattern and caught an eight-pound largemouth on a bladed jig. The fish was up shallow near a grass bed, the pattern for April.  That is a big fish for Sinclair, it has been a long time since I have seen one that big there, although there have been several that were close the past few years.

    About noon we started fishing and marking places for the article, working bass bedding and shad spawning areas.  Ricky caught a five-pound largemouth out of a grass bed on what will be hole #2.  A few minutes later he caught one weighing about six pounds there.

    The next place we fished Ricky caught another fish right at six pounds, on the same pattern, halfway back in a creek with grass beds up shallow on the bank.  One of the last places we fished he landed his smallest fish of the day, one that weighted about 3.5 pounds.  In all that time I landed one weighing about 2.5 pounds, but my excuse is I was too busy netting his fish and taking pictures and notes to fish.

    Ricky ended up with five bass weighing a conservative 28 pounds.  That is the kind of catch you dream about and expect on Guntersville, not Sinclair, especially under bad weather conditions.  The water temperature was 58 to 59 degrees where we fished, making those big largemouth were looking for bedding areas.

     On Saturday Ricky took his son fishing at Sinclair.  Although colder, the weather was better, but the fishing was not.  He said they did land a seven-pound fish out of hole #10 but their best five weighed “only” about 14 pounds, not great compared to the day before.

    I could not wait to get on the water Sunday morning in the Flint River Bass Club March tournament at Sinclair.  I should have known better.

    After fishing from 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM, 13 members landed 20 bass weighing about 36 pounds.  There was one five bass limit and five people didn’t catch a 12-inch keeper.

    Travis Weatherly won with five weighing 9.02 pounds and his 4.99 pound largemouth was big fish.  My three weighing 7.47 placed second and I had a 4.57 pounder for my biggest fish. Niles Murray placed third with three weighing 5.75 pounds and Brent Drake came in fourth with three weighing 4.20 pounds.

    The cold air made me shiver on my run to my first stop. Luckily there was enough wind to keep the fog down, it was wispy and hanging just off the water. But there was enough to make it scary trying to watch for all the floating wood.

    I stopped off a grass bed that was perfect for the pattern Ricky caught his big fish on Friday, but my heart sank when my temperature gauge hit 49 degrees.  A nine or ten degree drop just had to affect the bass. It surely did affect my optimism!

    I fished three places in three hours without a bite.  Around 11:00 the weak sun was warming the water a little, raising the temperature to about 51 degrees in the cove where Ricky caught a six pounder.  I cast a Chatterbait across in front of a grass bed, something thumped it and I set the hook.

    My rod bowed up and the fish headed for deep water. I just knew I had a six pounder on, but suddenly my line went slack. The fish just pulled off without me ever seeing it.

    At noon I was in the area where Ricky caught two fish, hole #2. I was very down, fishing half the day without a keeper. The water had warmed to 52 so I had some hope. I cast my Chatterbait into some grass and hooked the four pounder I weighed in. That improved my attitude a lot.

    After another hour of fishing without a bite, I caught a two pounder in front of some grass, then at 2:00 PM landed my third keeper, a one pounder, from another grass bed.  That was it. I fished hard for the rest of the day without another bite.

With So Many Choices How Do I Choose My Line for Fishing

What’s My Line For Fishing?

By Bob Jensen

It’s this time of year when people who fish gather in a variety of locations.  It might be at a sportshow, maybe a fishing seminar, sometimes at a bait shop.  The talk will start with current subjects like the Super Bowl, college basketball, families, or almost anything else.  Eventually the conversation will turn to fishing.  In late winter and early spring, fishing equipment will be a popular topic.  One area that gets lots of attention is fishing line.  

The line that we fish with is so important.  Your line is the only connection between you and the fish. In today’s fishing world there are three primary types of line, and they all have their own personalities and features.

Monofilament has been the go-to line since most of us have been fishing, but braided and fluorocarbon lines possess desirable qualities and have become popular in recent years.  In a very unscientific poll, it appears that most anglers still mostly use monofilament.  Monofilament handles well on a reel, it has some stretch which provides forgiveness when fighting a fish, is usually less expensive, and has the trust of most anglers. 

Braided lines are often favored when we’re after largemouth bass in heavy cover.  Braid is resistant to nicks from the vegetation, and with its no-stretch feature, an angler can get quicker control of a bass in heavy cover.  50 and 65 pound test braids are what many bass-chasers use when fishing in shallow vegetation.  

Braid is also favored by walleye anglers who are trolling crankbaits in deeper water.  Braid is smaller in diameter than mono or fluoro in similar weights.  Smaller diameter has less water resistance, so a crankbait trolled on braid will run deeper than a crankbait trolled with the mono or fluoro of equal pound test.

Fluorocarbon is tough stuff, very sensitive, and nearly invisible under water.  It also sinks faster than mono, so it can be an advantage when fishing deep water.  If you go with fluoro, practice your knot tying.  The knot that you use with mono might fail with fluorocarbon.

More and more anglers are using a combination set-up when it comes to line.  They’re using braid as the primary line with a fluorocarbon leader between the braid and the bait.  The braid is super-sensitive and doesn’t stretch, but some anglers are concerned that the fish can see the braid easier and it might spook them into not eating the bait.  Whether or not braid spooks the fish is another story, but to eliminate the possibility of the braid alerting the fish, these anglers tie a two to three foot length of fluorocarbon to the braid, then tie their bait to the fluorocarbon.  Because of fluorocarbon’s hard-to-see quality, the odds of scaring the fish are significantly reduced.  With the braid/fluoro arrangement we get superior sensitivity and hooksets as well as minimal visibility to the fish.  The braid/fluoro set-up is best when a slow moving technique like jigging or drop-shotting is being employed.  

I often have the same thoughts about modern fishing lines that I have for modern boats, motors, electronics, rods and reels:  How can they get any better?  But they always do.  I wonder what the next improvement in fishing lines will be?

2024 Bassmasters Classic To Be Held On March 22 – 24 On Grand Lake O the Cherokees

The 2024 Bass Masters Classic will be held on Grand Lake O the Cherokees, Tulsa, OK onMarch 22–24. This is the biggest tournament of the year on the pro circuit. 

I was quoted in Sports Illustrated a few years ago saying, “The Super Bowl is the Bassmasters Classic of football,” a twist on the usual comment.  I had no idea a writer for that magazine was sitting near me on the bus going to practice day on the lake for the pros.

    One thing some don’t understand about the fan support of pro fishermen. We are different from other pro sports.  We may watch our favorite pro catch bass on TV today then go out and try to catch them ourselves tomorrow, using the same baits and equipment the pro used.

    Other pro sports fans are viewers only.  They may have played the sport years ago in high school or even college, but almost none will be competing on the field tomorrow.  Bass fishermen keep competing all their lives.

    I have been lucky enough to spend time in the boat with many of the pros, including five of the 53 competing in this year’s Classic.  After hours of watching how they fish and questioning them on what they are doing and why they chose to do that, it always amazes me that they fish just like the rest of us. They just catch more and bigger fish.

    The Bassmasters Classic is a big event. I will not be able to attend this year but a trip to Birmingham next weekend to attend the huge outdoor show, meet the pros and watch weigh-ins would be a great way to spend some winter days.  Then you can come home and go fishing with the baits and equipment you bought at a discount at the show, fishing just like them.

    —

St. Croix Bassmaster Opens Presented by SEVIIN Reels Kicks off Division 2 Competition on Lake Ouachita

Bass Fishing: Pick A Pattern

Below are the pretournament predictions, and here is what happened:

Bassmaster Open Winner

  • By The Fishing Wire

St. Croix Bassmaster Opens Presented by SEVIIN Reels Kicks off Division 2 Competition on Lake Ouachita

Hot Springs, AR — At over 40,000 acres, Ouachita is Arkansas’ biggest lake and one of the most popular fisheries in the state. It has been more than 20 years since B.A.S.S. visited the lake for a major tournament, but today through Saturday, high-stakes bass fishing is back, with Visit Hot Springs hosting the St. Croix Bassmaster Open at Lake Ouachita presented by SEVIIN. It’s the second Opens event of the 2024 season, and the first of three in Division 2 competition.

Tournament days are scheduled for Feb. 15-17, with daily takeoffs set for 6:45 a.m. CT from the Brady Mountain Rec A ramp. Anglers will return for weigh-in each day at 2:45 p.m. The full field of pros and co-anglers will fish the first two days before the field is cut to the Top 10 pros on the final day. The winner will punch a ticket to the 2025 Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Classic presented by Jockey Outdoors, provided they have fished every event in Division II. EQ Anglers (those signed up for all nine Opens) will earn points towards the Tackle Warehouse Bassmaster Elite Qualifiers race.

With surface water temperatures barely rising above 50 degrees in most parts of the sprawling lake, Ouachita remains very much in a late-winter pattern. Rain leading up to and throughout practice has impacted water clarity, impacting how and where anglers will chase bites from the lake’s abundant smallmouth, spotted, and largemouth bass. Ouachita has both Northern- and Florida-strain largemouth, the latter of which can reach double-digit weights feeding on the lake’s shad, crayfish, and other ample forage. Expect anglers to use live sonar to focus on suspended bass keying on shad in open water areas, jigs and crankbaits on main lake points, and vertical presentations in Ouachita’s copious amounts of standing timber. Grass flats will also come into play, as long as competitors can find the ones that have pockets of clear water.

Bass Fishing

Maple Grove, Minnesota angler and St. Croix and SEVIIN Reels pro, Chad Grigsby, is a familiar face and talent in bass circles. He’s been fishing full-time on the national level for over 20 years – 18 on the FLW/MLF tour and two seasons in the Bassmaster Elites.

Grigsby says he has two goals fishing the Opens this season. “I’m fishing all nine events in hopes I can finish in the top nine in points and re-qualify for the Elites,” he says. “The other goal would be to win one of the nine events to get into the Bassmaster Classic.”

Going into this week’s competition, Grigsby says his goal is much simpler. “It’s the same mindset I have going into any tournament,” he says. “Ultimately, I just want to catch five bass to weigh every day. But I want to do it by putting myself in a place where I can get as many bites as possible.”

The pre-spawn period on Lake Ouachita is a pretty good place to do that. “It’s consistent fishing here,” says Grigsby, who has fished multiple tournaments on the lake in the past. “There’s really no fish headed to the banks yet, so it’s not like Florida where a cold front rolls through and messes things up. I think the rain is over, so it looks like we’ll have stable weather throughout the competition. Everyone is out live-scoping deep, but there’s bait and fish everywhere. I caught a couple 4.5’s in practice shallow, but they didn’t look as healthy as those deeper fish.”

While multiple options abound, expect the jig to play throughout competition for Grigsby. “I’ve got a lot of confidence fishing a jig and it’s been as good for me as anything else throughout practice,” he says. “I’ve been throwing jigs on a bit shorter St. Croix Legend X 7’ medium-heavy rod (XLC70MHF) with 14-pound line and a SEVIIN GS 7.3:1 reel,” he adds. “What I’m seeing them eat is really small.”

bass fishing

EQ Points Standings

Alabama’s Tucker Smith leads the Bassmaster Opens EQ race after the first event at Lake Okeechobee with 199 points. Florida pro Randall Tharp is second with 198 points, followed by Paul Marks in third with 197, Matt Adams in fourth with 196 and Austin Cranford in fifth with 195 points. Easton Fothergill is sixth with 194 points, Sam George is seventh with 193 points, Beau Browning is eighth with 192 points and Brandon McMillan is ninth with 191 points.

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Follow the Action

The final day of competition on Ouachita will be broadcast live on FS1 Saturday morning beginning at 7:30 a.m. ET, with streaming available on Bassmaster.com, as well as FS2 and the FOX Sports digital platforms.
 

2024 St. Croix Bassmaster Opens Presented by SEVIIN Reels Schedule

Division 1
February 1-3, Lake Okeechobee, Clewiston, Florida
March 7-9, Santee Cooper Lakes, Clarendon County, South Carolina
October 10-12, Lake Hartwell, Anderson, South Carolina

Division 2
February 15-17, Lake Ouachita, Hot Springs, Arkansas
May 2-4, Logan Martin Lake, Lincoln, Alabama
June 20-22, Lake Eufaula, Eufaula, Oklahoma

Division 3
July 11-13, Lake St. Clair, Macomb County, Michigan
August 22-24, Leech Lake, Walker, Minnesota
September 12-14, Mississippi River, La Crosse, Wisconsin

St. Croix & SEVIIN Rewards Programs
 
The St. Croix Rewards Program remains unchanged this year, but an identical SEVIIN Rewards Program has been added.
 
Each program pays $1,000 to any registered pro angler (boater) who wins an Open tournament fishing St. Croix rods or SEVIIN reels, or $500 to the highest-finishing registered top-10 pro angler (boater) fishing St. Croix rods or SEVIIN Reels.
 
Similarly, each program awards $500 to any registered co-angler who wins an Open tournament fishing St. Croix rods or SEVIIN reels, or $250 to the highest-finishing registered top-10 co-angler fishing St. Croix rods or SEVIIN reels.
 
Since these are two separate contingency programs, a registered angler fishing both St. Croix and SEVIIN who wins or finishes highest in the top 10 would receive both rewards – up to $2,000 for a boater and up to $1,000 for a co-angler.
 
Anglers must pre-register to be eligible to win these contingency programs. Registration takes place at the St. Croix / SEVIIN tent prior to the start of competition at each tournament.

About St. Croix Rod

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

About SEVIIN Reels

Wherever and however you fish, the reel in your hand should help create better experiences. Born from St. Croix’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 crafting 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 a passion to deliver the most reliable reels on the water.

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What Do Bass Do In Muddy Water and How Can I Catch Them?

A trip to Neely Henry four years ago got me thinking about muddy water.

I met Peyton Nance, an Auburn University bass team member and reserve defensive tackle on the football team.  We managed to get the boat in and to the dock in the ripping current.  The water level had dropped four feet overnight. Peyton explained they were trying to get it down to hold all the flooding water coming downstream.

    We looked at and tried to fish ten spots that are good in March, but the current made river places impossible to fish and back-outs very muddy. I did manage to land a three-pound largemouth on a Chatterbait, my only bite. Peyton lost a five-pound spot right beside the boat when it pulled off his crankbait.

Muddy water makes bass fishing tough.  Bass tend to get very tight to cover and not move much. It is like us in a heavy fog, we like to stay in familiar places and not run around and get lost!

My Garmin Panoptix has confirmed this. In clear water I see bass holding near but not down in brush and just over rocks and stumps. In muddy water they are down in the brush and right against rocks and stumps.

    Bass still have to eat, though. They can be caught, especially if the water has been muddy for a couple of days and they have gotten used to it and have gotten hungry.

    A bright lure that sends out sounds in the water is usually best. I will be fishing a bright chartreuse spinnerbait with chartreuse blades and skirt. A rattling chartreuse crankbait will also be used as will a black and blue Chatterbait, the bait I caught the three-pounder on at Neely Henry in the mud. 

Even my jig and pig, a black and blue one with bright blue trailer, will have rattles in it.  And I will fish all of then slowly and tight to cover.

Small Game Hunting In Winter and a Club Tournament

 The stark bare gray limbs of hardwoods right now offer the best of times and the worst of times for squirrel hunting.  Tree rats are easy to spot a long way off, but they can see you the same distance, too.  It is easier to find them but harder to get close enough for a shot.

    The population is lower than at the start of season back in August. Human hunters and natural predators have taken some of the squirrels that survived last winter.  But both have killed many more of the dumb young ones born during the spring and summer.  They are much easier targets.

    Still hunting is tougher this time of year.  Squirrels aren’t coming to an oak or hickory that is full of nuts to feed.  They are scrounging around, looking for nuts they buried earlier when they were falling, and looking for anything else edible in the winter woods.  You can’t sit under a good tree waiting on them to come to you.

    After a rain you can find them eating mushrooms in pine thickets, but that food is scattered, like everything else.  And the green needles on pines make it hard to spot a squirrel when they scurry up a tree and hide from you.

    Creeping up on a feeding squirrel is possible, but deer hunters would be impressed with the abilities of a squirrel to spot you and flee.  Any movement in their world draws instant attention and they will either flatten against a limb or tree trunk, making them very hard to see, or head for a hollow tree where they are totally protected.

One of the best tactics for me was to take off running through the woods when I spotted a squirrel in a bare tree. That usually made them freeze in place, trying to hide rather than running to a hollow.  With no leaves on the tree I could usually find the hiding critter.

A little breeze helped in several ways.  It would move bushes and limbs enough to confuse squirrels’ senses, making it easier to creep up on them. But when searching for them up in a tree a little breeze would often fluff their tail a little and the hair moving or sticking out from the tree trunk would make them easier to find.

Another trick was to scan for their ears sticking up.  Not much natural up in a tree looks like squirrel ears.  It helped that I had a good scope on my .22 to scan limbs and trunks, looking for any telltale sign.  I always carried it rather than my .410 in the winter, expecting to get shots at squirrels sitting still rather than running through the limbs when the .410 helped.

I also learned to throw a stick to the far side of a tree where a squirrel hid.  The noise and movement of it hitting a bush would make the bushy tail move to my side of the tree.  I could see him from the movement, and could usually get a good shot.

Every squirrel killed when I was growing up was eaten. I was pretty good as skinning and gutting them and mama could cook up fried squirrel with gravy, squirrel and dumplings, BBQed squirrel and squirrel stew that was delicious.  The younger squirrels were best for frying, but even tough old boar squirrels were good and tender when cooked right.

This is a great time to take a kid out and teach them gun safety and hunting skills.  Deer season is over and the woods are quiet and bare, offering fun and good food!

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Last Sunday 12 members and one guest of the Spalding County Sportsman Club fished our January tournament at Jackson.  After eight hours of trying, we brought 31 bass longer than 12 inches to the scales.  Only four of them were largemouth. There was one five fish limit and no one zeroed.

Wayne Teal won with the only limit and it weighed 7.72 pounds.  Second was Zane Fleck with four weighing 5.72 pounds, Billy Roberts placed third with four weighing 4.98 and Niles Murray had four weighing 4.83 pounds for fourth.  Randall Sharpton’s 3.21 pound largemouth was big fish.

I should have gone squirrel hunting!  I guess I used up all my luck at Sinclair, it was one of those days when everything was just wrong for me.  I fished hard but ended up with one keeper largemouth weighing a whopping 1.27 pounds for tenth place.

Glenn Anderson fished with me and caught a keeper spot on a crankbait the first place we stopped.  After fishing two or three more spots, I got a bite on a shaky head worm. The fish swam toward the boat and when I set the hook I pulled a keeper largemouth to the top and watched it come off the hook.

The next place we stopped I got five bites, four on a shaky head worm and one on a jig, in five casts and missed all five!  Then Glenn threw a drop shot worm to the rocks where I got the bites and landed his second keeper.

Soon after Glenn landed his third keeper, I felt a fish pick up my shaky head in a brush pile but felt the thump of it spitting out the worm just as I set the hook.  I missed several more bites during the day, finally catching my keeper with an hour left to fish. I was in such a hurry to get it in the boat I hit Glenn in the face with it as he grabbed the net!

To add insult to injury, there was a Robby’s tournament out of Berry’s Boat House the same day. It took five bass weighing 17 or 18 pounds to win it!

When I hear results like that the same day I struggle to catch a keeper, I wonder why I even bother fishing.

Till next time – Gone fishing!