Category Archives: Bass Fishing

Bass Fishing Information

Is September the Meanest Month for Bass Fishing?

    Last Sunday five members and guests of the Flint River Bass Club fished our September tournament at Lake Oconee.  After eight hours of casting, from 7:00 AM – 3:00 PM, we weighed in eight bass weighing about 15 pounds. There were no limits and one fisherman didn’t have a keeper.

    Alex Gober won with three bass weighing 4.93 pounds. Brent Drake placed second with two at 4.31 pounds and had big fish with a 2.92 pound largemouth.  Don Gober had two keepers weighing 3.62 pounds for third and my one bass weighing 1.80 pounds was fourth.

    Oddly enough, a Facebook memory showed up Sunday showing one year ago I placed fourth in the Flint River tournament at Oconee with one bass weighing about 1.80 pounds. The more things change the more they stay the same, I guess.

I always say September is the meanest month for bass fishing.  The water is as hot as it gets and the oxygen content is as low as it gets all year.  The fish have been beat up since early spring, seeing artificial baits just about every day. So they are as smart and wary as they can be.

I used to say by September bass in local lakes know the name and price of every lure Berry’s Sporting Goods sells and can probably tell you where to find them on the shelf in the store!

I had a good feeling I could catch a bass out of grass beds on topwater first thing that morning, and I guess I was right.  A few minutes after starting I caught a 13.5 inch largemouth on a floating worm. Unfortunately, the size limit at Oconee is 14 inches so it did no good.

    After more than an hour of trying that pattern with no more bites, I saw a lone dock back in a cove. Often a single piece of cover like and isolated dock is a good bet for a bite.

I got no bites around the dock but while scanning around it with my forward facing sonar I spotted a small brush top off to the side of the dock. It looked like a fish was holding beside it. I cast a small jig to the brush and it never hit bottom.

I set the hook as my line moved out and landed my one keeper.  Without the Garmin Panoptix I would never have known that brush and fish was there.

Later in the day, as seems usual lately, as I idled over a point I spotted some brush and rocks out in 15 feet of water on my sonar. I took the boat out of gear and cast a shaky head behind the boat as it stopped. When it hit bottom my line jumped and started moving toward deep water.

Unfortunately, that direction was across the back of my boat. I set the hook and a strong fish pulled back, and I could not control it. It cut my line on my prop!

I fished grass, blowdowns, docks, rock piles and boulders the rest of the day and caught a few short bass, but no keepers. 

The last one hit with less than five minutes to fish. I cast my weightless worm to the edge of a grassbed, saw the grass a foot to the left wave as a fish came out of it and hit my worm.

Just like the first one that morning, it was 13.5 inches long! But thats not why i fish!

From Hook To Release: How Gear Can Make A Difference For Fish Survival

  • If you want to do catch and release, remember From Hook To Release: How Gear Can Make A Difference For Fish Survival
  • from The Fishing Wire

By Greyson Webb

Your odds of success on the water can hinge on the gear you use, and the same principle applies when it comes to releasing fish. From not meeting size requirements to being caught out of season, there are many reasons why you might land a fish that you’ll need to release. 

While released fish can go on to survive and be caught again, there are a variety of stressors a fish can experience throughout their landing and handling that can result in injury or death. Simply letting a fish go does not guarantee its survival, and the use of proper gear is a best fishing practice that can be adopted to help minimize stressors and improve a fish’s chance of recovery and survival. 

What makes certain tools more effective in minimizing stress and injury than others? This article explores how the tools used throughout the catch and release process can boost the survival rates of released fish to keep populations healthy for the environment and anglers alike. 

Non-Offset, Non-Stainless Steel Circle Hooks 

It all starts with the hook—the first point of contact between angler and fish. The right hook will minimize hooking injury, reduce stress, and improve the ease of hook removal—all factors that influence a fish’s chance of survival. This is where the circle hook can make a difference. Circle hooks are designed to catch a fish in the jaw, which is the safest area if release is needed. Less likely to be swallowed or snag vulnerable areas like the gills or eyes, circle hooks decrease the odds of a potentially fatal hooking. 

Not all circle hooks are the same, though. Non-offset circle hooks and non-stainless steel circle hooks go the extra mile in improving a fish’s chance of survival after release. Non-offset hooks are easier to remove than offset hooks, meaning less time out of the water for the fish, less bleeding caused by removal and less stress overall. In the case a hook cannot be removed, a non-stainless steel circle hook provides the benefit of degrading and shedding up to three times faster than a hook made of stainless steel or other non-corrodible metals. 

Pro tip: If you’re wondering whether a hook is stainless or non-stainless steel, “Tournament Approved” labeling usually indicates non-stainless steel. For a quick test, you can also use a magnet to check the material. Simply place a magnet on a hook: if it sticks, the hook is stainless steel; if it doesn’t, you’ve got yourself a non-stainless steel circle hook. 

Knotless, Rubberized Landing Nets 

While not necessary for landing every fish, landing nets are a functional tool that help shorten fight time, reduce stress on the line and rod, and prevent potential poking or piercing by hooks, teeth, or spines as you land your fish. However, landing nets with coarse mesh can inadvertently damage a fish’s delicate fins, scales, or protective slime layer—increasing their vulnerability to infections or injuries. Made from a smoother and friction-reducing material, knotless, rubberized landing nets help in preventing these potential traumas. With the protective slime layer preserved and more scales and fins intact, a fish landed with a knotless, rubberized net is a fish that has a better chance of survival after release. 

If you prefer to use your hands to land a fish, using wet hands or rubber gloves provides similar relief to that of a knotless, rubberized landing net. 

Dehooking Tools 

The clock starts ticking the moment a fish is brought out of the water—its chances of survival dropping the longer it stays out of its natural environment. This is when a dehooking tool can help fish and anglers alike. Designed to rapidly remove hooks while causing minimal injury to the fish, time is not wasted struggling with a tough hook and the risk of injury during hook removal—for both the fish and the angler—is greatly reduced. It’s a win-win. 

That said, there are situations where it is better to leave the hook in place. If a fish is deeply hooked in the gut or throat, attempting to remove the hook can often do more harm than good. In these cases, it is best to simply cut the leader close to the hook and leave it in the fish—particularly if it is a non-stainless steel hook, which has a greater chance of being shed. Research indicates this is less damaging and gives the fish the best chance for survival. 

Descending Devices 

If you land a fish and notice it has bulging eyes, bubbling scales, difficulty swimming below the surface, or organs protruding from the mouth or anus, it is likely suffering from barotrauma. Similar to the bends experienced by divers, barotrauma is an injury that can occur when a fish is brought from the high-pressure environment of deep waters to the low-pressure environment of the surface. This change in pressure can cause the gases in a fish’s swim bladder to expand, damaging organs and making it difficult for the fish to return to its original depth. Barotrauma is particularly common in deep-dwelling species, such as some snappers and groupers. Untreated, a fish experiencing barotrauma becomes vulnerable to predators, the elements, and the injuries of barotrauma itself. Fortunately, the right tool can help reverse this condition. 

Descending devices are tools that use added weights to lower fish back to their depth of capture. As the fish is pulled down the water column by a descending device, the swim bladder recompresses, and the fish is given a better chance at survival. Descending devices all work to return a fish to their original depth, but they come in different forms: inverted hooks, weighted crates, and lip clamps. 

An inverted hook is a barbless hook with an added weight that is inserted either through the original hook hole or through the soft tissue on the fish’s lower jaw. Rigged to a rod and reel, the inverted hook guides the fish back to its proper depth. Once there, a gentle tug on the rod will release the fish if it hasn’t already slid free. 

Similar to an inverted hook, the lip clamp is a descending device that uses an attached weight to pull a fish back to depth by attaching to a fish’s lower jaw. However, instead of piercing the jaw, the clamp securely grips it. A lip clamp can be pressure triggered or spring triggered for release. A pressure triggered lip clamp includes a pressure-sensor mechanism designed to automatically release fish once the desired depth is reached. A spring triggered lip clamp requires you to manually open the lip clamp by pulling up on the rod once the fish reaches the desired depth. 

A weighted crate, often referred to as a fish elevator, is a crate with an open top—such as a milk crate—that has a rope attached to the closed bottom along with weights. To use one, place the fish in the crate, quickly flip it upside down into the water, and let the attached weights sink the contraption. Acting as a bottomless cage, the weighted crate will bring fish back to depth, where they recompress and can swim away on their own. 

A good rule of thumb when using any descending device is to use one pound of added weight for every five pounds of fish. 

Given their benefits, many of these tools—such as descending devices, dehooking tools, and non-offset, non-stainless steel hooks—are required to be readily available or in use when fishing for or possessing snapper grouper species in federal waters off the coasts of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Eastern Florida. Interested in learning more about the practices and requirements that give snapper grouper species a better chance at survival after release in the South Atlantic? Check out the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council’s Best Fishing Practices campaign for more information and ways to get involved. 

Why I Fish

A Yamaha Outboards ad on the Elite Series online  coverage over the weekend got me thinking about why I fish.  Then an article in Wired2fish online magazine added to my thoughts. 

The Yamaha ad has a bunch of professional fishermen saying something along the lines of “if you want to relax don’t fish with me.”  And the article gave reasons why so many tournament anglers “burn out” after a short time.

I have been tournament fishing since my first one with the Spalding County Sportsman Club in April 1974 – more than 48 years.  For most of them I fished at least two tournaments a month, and for the past six I have fished at least three club tournaments a month.

Until a few years ago I fished many more days for fun and relaxation than I did tournaments.  A few years ago I fished 443 days in a row without missing one, fulfilling a childhood dream of fishing every day for a  year.

Many hours were spent sitting on my pond dock catching bluegill and bullheads.  I would sit on the docks at Raysville Boat Club catching small bluegill for bait to run on jugs and trotlines that night. And I spent hours dabbling jigs around button bushes for crappie.

    Maybe that is why I never burned out, all fishing was fun. Although I took trying to win every tournament very seriously, I did not “have” to win to pay my next entry fee or tournament expenses. Tournament fishing was fun even if not really relaxing.

    For the past few years I pretty much go fishing only to practice for a tournament or fish one.  And most of my practice is riding around watching my electronics, trying to find school of fish and hidden structure and cover. 

    I can still make a lot of casts and work hard to catch a fish in tournaments.  Sometimes it gets frustrating that my old body won’t let me fish as hard as I want to.  But I try not to think of it as a “grind” as many tournament anglers, especially young ones, complain about nowadays.

    I will keep fishing as long as my body will let me. But I will never let it become a “grind” trying to catch a fish. If it is not fun it is not worth the effort.

Too Hot To Fish At Clarks Hill In August

    August is not a great month for bass fishing, but if you know what you are doing you can catch them. It is hot and uncomfortable for the fishermen and the bass are on very specific patterns.  If you don’t fish a lake a lot and keep up with the fish, it is hard to do well.

The Flint River Bass Club has scheduled a two-day tournament at Clarks Hill each August for the past seven or eight years, and we just don’t learn from our mistakes.  For a couple of years we caught some nice bass fishing a top water frog over the hydrilla that was widespread on the lake.

A few years ago the Corps of Engineers started a program to eradicate the hydrilla.  Coots were eating it and bald eagles ate the coots. The problem was the hydrilla had some kind of bacteria in it that was concentrated by the coots. Eagles eating them died from it. Over a ten-year period, 78 eagles were found on the lake that died from the bacteria.

After two years of spraying and putting 80,000 grass carp in the lake, the hydrilla is pretty much gone.  I am not sure what will happen to the carp, they probably will starve since their food source is gone. It is not unusual to see a 30-inch-long grass carp cruising the shallows looking for something to eat.

Without the hydrilla to keep bass shallow in the hot water, they hold in deep water and eat blueback herring. Folks over there put out cane piles, bundles of cane that stands up off the bottom.  If you can find a cane pile you often can catch bass by working a topwater plug over it.

Last year only two of us showed up for the Flint River tournament, this year three.  And two years ago nobody showed up. Last year Chuck and I fished until noon on Saturday, agreeing to go home rather than fish the second day.

This year three of us fished from 6:00 AM to 2:00 PM Saturday then agreed we had enough of the hot sun and did not fish on Sunday.  John Smith had three keepers weighing 3.39 pounds and won. My two weighing 3.02 pounds was second and my 1.76 pound largemouth was big fish. That was it!

The same time we fished there was a local Saturday Morning Open Tournament (SMOT). It produced a winning weight of five bass weighing about 13.5 pounds and second place was five at 13.2 pounds.

D.J. Hadden won the SMOT.  I did an article with him there a few years ago and another one with his son a year later.  Both showed me how they pull up on a hump or point with a brush pile on it, line up their cast and work a topwater walking bait over it.  You must know where the brush piles are and which ones are holding bass to fish effectively.  I am sure that is how the tournament was won.

I went over to my place at Raysville Boat Club Wednesday and got on the water for a few hours Thursday. The heat ran me back to my air conditioning after about four hours of looking around. 

I thought there might be some bass hanging around the bream beds in shallow water and caught one small bass. I saw plenty of bream, just no bass.  I also found a lot of fish holding on drops and old brush piles in 18 to 20 feet of water but could not get them to hit.

Friday was even hotter and I spent only three hours marking some deep brush to fish before heading in.

Saturday morning I headed to a nearby bridge and fished a topwater plug around it, catching both my keepers and a throwback before 8:00.  After that I never landed another bass no matter what I tried so I was not unhappy when we decided to not fish the second day

I spent Sunday napping at Clarks Hill with the air conditioner running!   

Fishing Is Inconsistent At Lake Guntersville

    Lake Guntersville is special. On the Tennessee River in north Alabama, it is a grass filled bass factory. The Bass Anglers Sportsman Society ranks it in the top ten bass lakes in the nation most years.

    When big tournaments are held there it is common for five bass limits weighing more than 20 pounds to come to the scales, and catches of five weighing 30 pounds are weighed in most years.

    But there are two sides to this story. Bass clubs in Alabama send in tournament results and the state compiles it in their BAIT report. That report shows Guntersville has a lower percent of anglers catching a keeper bass in tournaments than all but three other Alabama lakes.

    Fishing can be great there but the whole lake looks “fishy.”  When you stop on a point or in a cove and see hydrilla, water willow and eel grass everywhere it is hard to decide where to cast. It looks like a bass could be anywhere, or everywhere.

    The Sportsman Club fished there last weekend and our results are more like the BAIT results than the results of pro tournaments or tournaments fished by local fishermen that know the lake well.

    After fishing from 6:30 AM to 2:30 PM Saturday and 6:30 AM to 1:30 PM Sunday in very hot weather, we brought 21 keeper bass weighing about 45 pounds to the scales.  Nobody weighed in a five fish limit and three of the nine fishermen didn’t have a keeper.

    Guntersville has largemouth, smallmouth and spotted bass. The length limit on smallmouth and largemouth is 15 inches and in our tournament a spot had to be 12 inches long.  About 14 of our bass were largemouth, six were spots and one a smallmouth.

    Raymond English had bad/good luck and won and had big fish. His boat motor would not go into gear so he had to fish around the ramp both days, but caught six keepers, four largemouth and two spots, weighing 15.14 pounds for first and his 5.40 pound largemouth was big fish.

    My six, three largemouth, two spots and one mean mouth, weighing 8.80 pounds was second, Zane Fleck had three largemouth weighing 7.97  pounds for third and Billy Roberts had three largemouth weighing 6.13 pounds for fourth.

    I went up on Wednesday and camped at Guntersville State Park, a beautiful facility with good shower houses.  As usual I was shocked at the number of huge motor homes and fifth wheel trailers that came into the campground, were set up and the folks went inside. 

I seldom saw anyone else outside except midmorning when some came out to cook breakfast and then came back out late in the afternoon to cook dinner.  I guess it was just too hot to leave the air conditioning in their home away from home, but I don’t understand driving to campground on a beautiful lake and staying inside almost the whole time.

I spent Thursday and Friday riding around looking for deep fish on ledges on my electronics. Guntersville is famous for its deep ledges as well as its grass beds. I found many schools of fish but could not get them to bite. One local guide told me they were inactive and would not feed unless current was moving from power generation, and there was no current the whole time I was there.

Saturday morning I started on a grassbed a guide had suggested, and caught two short bass and one barely 15 inch long keeper.  At about noon I was fishing down a bluff bank, mainly keeping my boat in the shade, and caught a keeper spot. Then a little later on another bluff bank a good keeper largemouth it my small jig in a treetop. Those three put me in third the first day.

Sunday the grassbed produced only one short fish so I headed to my shady bank early.  I caught an unusual looking fish, it looked olive green, not green like a largemouth and not brown like a smallmouth.  I looked it up and it was a cross between a spot and a smallmouth, called a “meanmouth.”  It had a patch of “teeth” on its tongue like a spot and, according to what I found on the internet on my phone and a text to a local guide, it was considered a spot for size limits so I could weigh it in.

I stayed on that shady bank the rest of the day and lost a keeper spot and caught two short spots. Then, with ten minutes left to fish, I caught a keeper spot.  At 1:17 I thought to myself I could make two more cast before running in. That cast produced a hit on my small jig and I landed a barely keeper largemouth, giving me second place. 

I didn’t have time left to make my last cast!

Tanner Hadden Wins Phoenix Bass Fishing League Regional

Georgia’s Hadden Wins Phoenix Bass Fishing League Regional on Watts Bar Lake Presented by recteq
Boater winner Tanner Hadden of Appling, Georgia, and Strike-King co-angler winner Corey Smith of Hazard, Kentucky.
Kentucky’s Smith Tops Strike King Co-Angler Division

SPRING CITY, Tenn. (Oct. 21, 2024) – Boater Tanner Hadden of Appling, Georgia, caught a three-day total of 15 bass weighing 47 pounds even to win the MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League (BFL) Presented by T-H Marine Regional on Watts Bar Lake Presented by recteq . The tournament, which was hosted by the Rhea County Department of Tourism – Fish Spring City, concluded Saturday. For his win, Hadden earned a prize package valued at $65,805, including a new Phoenix 819 Pro bass boat with a 200-horsepower Mercury or Suzuki outboard, $10,000 and the lucrative $7,000 Phoenix MLF Contingency Bonus.

The Watts Bar event served as Regional championship for BFL Region 5. Originally scheduled for Clarks Hill Lake in Appling, Georgia, the event moved due to the impacts of the recent hurricanes. The field included the top 45 boaters and co-anglers based on point standings, plus each of the tournament winners, from the 2024 Choo Choo, Music City, Piedmont and Volunteer divisions. The top six boaters and co-anglers have qualified for the 2025 BFL All-American, which will be held on Lake Hamilton in Hot Springs, Arkansas, May 29-31.

Hadden is a senior business management major at the University of South Carolina-Union. He actually signed up to fish the entire Choo Choo Division for the first time this year just for a shot at making this Regional, since it was originally scheduled for nearby Clarks Hill. Obviously, the storms changed the plans, but that didn’t slow down Hadden.

“It all worked out in the end,” he said.

Getting the W started with adapting to conditions.

“From all the flooding, a lot of the lake was blown out,” he said about Watts Bar. “There were only a few areas of the lake that were clean. One of them was by the boat ramp, so I pretty much figured I’d stick around in that area.”

In addition to the muddy water, anglers had to deal with a cold front – a tough combo anywhere, anytime of year. The cold, muddy conditions pushed the fish off the bank. Hadden relocated them about 50 feet out suspended on the edge of some grass over about 15 feet of water. Schools of bait were suspended in these areas, too.

“I fished two half-mile banks for three days pretty much,” he said. “That was it. And they were in the same pocket. I pretty much fished one creek arm all week.”

Hadden used Garmin LiveScope to find and target his fish with a white jerkbait and a Greenfish Tackle Bad Little Dude (BLD) Jig.

The mornings were slow all week. In fact, most days the fish didn’t turn on until after 11. On day two, it was closer to 1 p.m. The most interesting part was how defined the bite window was each day. Hadden saw fish on his sonar all day long, but they just wouldn’t bite until after the sun got up and something triggered them to get active. Each day, he experienced a similar flurry of activity.

“At 11 the first day I went through one stretch and caught three 4-pounders within like 30 minutes to an hour,” he said. “And then the second day, I struggled until 1. They didn’t start biting until 1 because it got colder the second day. At 1 o’clock, I caught two 3 1/2-pounders back to back off that same stretch.

“The third day it was like 11 o’clock when I got on one stretch and just started catching them. I caught pretty much everything I caught in like 15 minutes. It was a timing deal.”

Hadden’s limits included a mix of species. Day one, he weighed four largemouths and a 4 1/4-pound smallmouth as part of his 18-pound, 11-ounce limit. Day two, his three biggest keepers were three different species – largemouth, smallmouth and spotted bass. Hadden weighed 14-11. The final day, he weighed in a 13-10 limit of five largies to move into first place for the win and his shot at the 2025 All-American.

The top six boaters who qualified for the 2025 All-American finished:

1st:        Tanner Hadden, Appling, Ga., 15 bass, 47-0, $65,805 (includes $7,000 Phoenix MLF Contingency Bonus)
2nd:       Dustin Dyer, Johnson City, Tenn., 15 bass, 45-3, $9,805
3rd:       Jeremy York, Conyers, Ga., 14 bass, 45-1, $5,829
4th:        Nathan Reynolds, Nashville, Tenn., 15 bass ,45-0, $3,642
5th:        Dillon Falardeau, Hixson, Tenn., 12 bass, 44-14, $1,761
6th:        Parker Batts, Dandridge, Tenn., 13 bass ,44-8, $1,585

The rest of the top 12 finished:

7th:        Jonathan Dagley, Wartburg, Tenn., 15 bass, 43-5, $1,409
8th:        Vince Botts, Bluff City, Tenn., 15 bass, 43-0, $1,233
9th:        Josh Womack, Gallatin, Tenn., 15 bass, 42-10, $1,057
10th:     Jake Gardner, Lenoir City, Tenn., 15 bass, 42-8, $969
11th:     Hunter Bouldin, McMinnville, Tenn., 15 bass, 42-6, $881
12th:     Riley Faulkner, Jacksboro, Tenn., 14 bass, 37-14, $881

Complete results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

The top-finishing boater from each division (not including the winner) earned a $1,000 bonus for placing highest in the event. Those anglers included:

Music City:       Nathan Reynolds, Nashville, Tenn., 4th Place, $1,000
Choo Choo:      Jeremy York, Conyers, Ga., 3rd Place, $1,000
Piedmont:        John Wiese, Charlotte, N.C., 24th Place, $1,000
Volunteer:       Dustin Dyer, Johnson City, Tenn., 2nd Place $1,000

Matt VanMeter of Grant, Alabama, won the Berkley Big Bass boater award and earned the $1,000 prize.

Corey Smith of Hazard, Kentucky, won the Strike King co-angler division Saturday after bringing a three-day total of 13 bass weighing 39 pounds, 1 ounce, to the scale. His $50,000 prize package included a new Phoenix 819 Pro bass boat with a 200-horsepower Mercury or Suzuki outboard.

The top six Strike King co-anglers who qualified for the 2025 All-American finished:

1st:        Corey Smith, Hazard, Ky., 13 bass, 39-1, $50,000
2nd:       Ernest Stephens, Orrum, N.C., 12 bass, 38-13, $4,946
3rd:       Dewayne Drummonds, Gray, Ky., 11 bass, 30-2, $2,719
4th:        Luke Shrader, Monticello, Ky., 11 bass, 30-0, $1,984
5th:        Brad Sampson, Knoxville, Tenn., 11 bass, 29-8, $889
6th:        Cy Matlock, Crump, Tenn., nine bass, 27-11, $1,300

The rest of the top 12 finished:

7th:        Wayne Crouch, Jamestown, Tenn., 10 bass, 26-14, $811
8th:        Konnor Sweet, Abingdon, Va., 11 bass, 26-13, $622
9th:        Kenny Botts, Alvaton, Ky., 10 bass, 23-15, $533
10th:     Darren Kelly, Wartburg, Tenn., six bass, 23-11, $489
11th:     Justin Stephenson, Jasper, Ala., eight bass, 23-10, $945
12th:     Joshua Green, Cartersville, Ga., seven bass, 19-14, $445

The top-finishing co-angler from each division (not including the winner) earned a $500 bonus for placing highest in the event. Those anglers included:

Music City:       Luke Shrader, Monticello, Ky., 4th Place, $500
Choo Choo:      Cy Matlock, Crump, Tenn., 6th Place, $500
Piedmont:        Corey Smith, Hazard, Ky., 2nd Place, $500
Volunteer:       Dewayne Drummonds, Gray, Ky., 3rd Place $500

Justin Stephenson of Jasper, Alabama, won the Berkley Big Bass co-angler award and earned the $500 bonus.

The 2024 Phoenix BFL Presented by T-H Marine is a 24-division circuit devoted to weekend anglers, with 128 events throughout the season, five qualifying tournaments in each division. Proud sponsors of the 2024 MLF Phoenix Bass Fishing League Presented by T-H Marine include: 7 Brew Coffee, Abu Garcia, B&W Trailer Hitches, Berkley, BUBBA, E3, Epic Baits, Fishing Clash, General Tire, GSM Outdoors, Lew’s, Mercury, Mossy Oak, Onyx, Phoenix, Polaris, Power-Pole, PowerStop Brakes, REDCON1, Strike King, Suzuki, Tackle Warehouse, T-H Marine, Toyota, WIX Filters and YETI.

For complete details and updated tournament information, visit MajorLeagueFishing.com. For regular Bass Fishing League updates, photos, tournament news and more, follow MLF5’s social media outlets at Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.

About Major League Fishing
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 17 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.
 

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
770-715-9933
jeffnailfishing@gmail.com
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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]