Category Archives: Bass Fishing

Bass Fishing Information

Catching Bass At NIght At Jackson Lake

Last summer on a Saturday night 12 members of the Spalding County Sportsman Club fished our August tournament at Jackson Lake. It was miserably hot when we started at 7:00 PM and still hot at 3:00 AM when we weighed in. A little breeze started at about 1:00 AM and finally dried all the sweat, but it was too little, too late.

After the eight hours of fishing we brought in 16 bass weighing about 24 pounds. There was one five bass limit and five people didn’t have a keeper. Only two of the bass weighed in were largemouth, all the rest were spotted bass.

Javin English won with a limit weighing 6.20 pounds. My one bass weighing 4.44 pounds was good for second and big fish. Third went to Chris Davies with two bass weighing 4.32 pounds and Niles Murray was fourth with two keepers at 2.52 pounds.

Lightning and pure luck helped me catch my one bass. I started fishing near the boat ramp and as it got dark started to run up the lake to fish some other spots. But lightning flashing off in the west made me stay near the ramp and the van. A phone call home to Linda confirmed it was storming here, so I stayed where I was. I wanted to be able to get off the lake fast since storms usually move west to east, from Griffin right to Jackson.

At about 10:30 the storms had not gotten any closer and I moved across the cove to fish another point. At 11:00 I went back to where I usually fish and another club member was fishing there, so I worked on around the point. That is where I caught the one fish I hooked all night, at 11:55 PM. I surely am glad it was the right one to hook!

That followed a pattern I have settled on the past few years. For years I would get upset and let it bother me, and affect my fishing, if a boat was fishing where I wanted to fish. But about three years ago I headed to a point on Lake Eufaula where I had caught several keepers the day before. I wanted to start there on day two of our tournament but a boat ahead of me stopped on it.

I went across the creek and started down the bank, and landed three good keepers on a spinnerbait. The boat on the point never got a bite. Then and there I decided to just go to another place and now worry about it, and that has worked well for me several times.

It was strange, the storms never moved toward us, and it never rained on us at all.

How Are Determination and Confidence Keys To Winning Tournaments?

Determination, Confidence Keys to Palaniuk’s Elite Tournament Win
from The Fishing Wire

Brandon Palaniuk with largemouth

Brandon Palaniuk with largemouth

Brandon Palaniuk won big at the Bassmaster Elite on the St. Lawrence River by making round-trip runs of over 200 miles daily to connect with Lake Ontario’s big smallmouths. He’s also pretty good at catching largemouths, as shown here.

Palaniuk caught most of his fish at Chaumont Bay, which he located by map and internet study before the tournament.

Palaniuk said confidence and determination were as important in the win as his choice of lures and tackle.

The St. Lawrence win put Palaniuk in the Bassmaster Classic, where he’ll be chasing fat Guntersville largemouths.

Finding the right area

Finding the right area

Yamaha Pro Brandon Palaniuk knows that in professional bass tournament fishing, confidence and determination can often be as important as lure choice and technique when the final weights are tabulated. He demonstrated just how important by winning the recent Bassmaster Elite tournament on New York’s St. Lawrence River.

“It’s hard to define how important personal determination can be in achieving a certain goal,” explained Palaniuk, “but I know that in this win it was absolutely crucial to me. I don’t want to say that being determined means you have to gamble and take chances, but rather, the stronger your determination, the stronger you focus on achieving that goal, and sometimes that actually makes achieving it a little easier.

“One of my goals is never to miss the Bassmaster Classic,® but heading into the St. Lawrence River event I knew the only way I had to make the Classic was to win one of the two remaining tournaments. Because I’d made some bad decisions and poor execution during this season, I was so far behind I could never qualify on points.

“In my mind, I had no options, except to win, so that became my immediate goal. I was determined to achieve it. Once I put myself into that mindset, preparing for the tournament was actually a little easier. I began to study the St. Lawrence and Lake Ontario very carefully, and perhaps a little differently than the other competitors.”

Fish like this one helped him win

Fish like this one helped him win

The Yamaha Pro had never been to Lake Ontario before, so he studied past tournament results on the Internet and poured over maps of the 193-mile long lake, where one location continually stood out to him, historically as well as geographically. That area was Chaumont Bay, some 40 miles out into Lake Ontario, or just over 105 miles from the tournament launch area in Waddington, New York. Numerous previous events had been won there.

“I felt I had nothing to lose by going that far,” continued Palaniuk. “A lot of the anglers did not think it would be possible to run that far, more than 200 miles round trip, for four consecutive days because of the weather, so all of them stayed in the St. Lawrence.”

On the first practice day, Palaniuk trailered to Chaumont Bay and caught between 23 and 25 pounds of bass in shallow water, fishing a topwater lure and a jerkbait. He was so excited he spent the night in his truck right there at the boat ramp and used his second practice day fishing deeper water, 20 to 35 feet deep. He wanted a backup plan, and again he boated nearly 25 pounds of fish.

“I can’t tell you how good I felt after those two days and after I successfully made the long run the next day from the tournament launch ramp to map my route,” he added. “Even though I’d had eight-foot waves on the lake that day, I had made it safely down and back, and I really didn’t think I’d be facing anything worse. I think my determination made facing those waves easier, because in my mind I did not have any other options.

“I also knew I had found the quality of bass I needed to win, and that they were willing to bite.”

The Yamaha Pro brought 23 pounds, 9 ounces to the scales the first day of competition and took the lead. He’d caught the fish in just 90 minutes, and that’s when he realized the full potential of the area he’d chosen. The second day, with calm conditions, he added 21-15 and increased his lead; again, his confidence soared. The final two days he brought in catches of 20-9 and 23-5, giving him a four-day total of 88 pounds, 12 ounces. His winning margin was more than seven pounds.

“I think, if I could pass on any lessons from this experience to other anglers, it would be that prior preparation can be critical, especially when you’re choosing your fishing areas. Studying maps and previous tournament results can be invaluable and give you a solid starting point as well as help your confidence.

“At the same time, you can’t really be afraid of failure. In my case, in making the 200-mile round trip each day, I knew I had the equipment that could make that run, and after I completed the run that last practice day, I was absolutely sure I could make it every day.”

Fishing A West Point Tournament and Blowing Up My Motor

Bass like these helped me place third

Bass like these helped me place third

The Flint River Bass Club held its September tournament at West Point on a Sunday a few years ago. After fishing from 7:00 AM to 3:00 PM the nine members of the club brought in 24 keeper bass weighing about 34 pounds. There were two limits and one person didn’t have a keeper. There were 14 spotted bass and ten largemouth brought to the scales.

Bobby Ferris won with a five fish limit weighing 9.16 pounds. He also had big fish with a 2.91 pound largemouth. Lee Hancock came in second with the other limit weighing 7.46 pounds. My four weighing 5.90 pounds was third and Kwong Yu had three weighing 4.06 pounds for fourth.

My day started out pretty good. I left the Glass Bridge ramp and wanted to stop on a nearby shoal but there was a boat sitting there, so I ran on up to the Highway 109 Bridge. On my second cast to the riprap I hooked and landed a two pound largemouth. Putting one in the live well that quickly made me feel good.

After about an hour fishing around the bridge and catching a few short spotted bass I cranked up and ran to a point about half way to the railroad bridge. As I came off plane my 225 Yamaha made a strange rattling noise and shut off. When I tried to crank it there was a bad noise.

There I was, several miles from the ramp with about seven hours left to fish. I decided to fish my way back, working banks and points on the way. Since I was fishing by myself I didn’t mess up anybody else’s day.

I caught a few small spots then, near the highway bridge I got a keeper spot in the back of a pocket on a jig head worm. I would not have fished there if my motor had not died. At the bridge I caught a third keeper, another small spot, off a bridge piling on a small jig and pig.

By now it was noon and I had a long way to go, so I put the trolling motor on high and headed across the shallow flats in front of Pyne park. As I cruised along a school of fish came up and I grabbed my topwater popper and landed a two pound spotted bass. Another place I would not have been if my motor was running.

After catching a few more short spotted bass I got back to the ramp before the deadline.

How Can A Gamble Pay Off In A Tournament?

Rapala Pros Gamble and Win in New York Bassmaster Tournament

Taking chances paid off last week for three Rapala bass pros who finished in the top 10 in a Bassmaster tournament on New York’s St. Lawrence River.

They weren’t taking chances, however, on what to fish with, but rather where and how to fish. And their gambles paid off – Brandon Palaniuk won the tournament, Ott DeFoe placed third and Bernie Schultz placed sixth.

Palaniuk’s big run pays off

Palaniuk won the tournament

Palaniuk won the tournament

Rapala pro Brandon Palaniuk won the Bassmaster Elite Series event and $100,000 with a 220-mile daily roundtrip to Lake Ontario via the St. Lawrence River.

Because Palaniuk needed a tournament win to qualify for next February’s Bassmaster Classic – the so-called “Super Bowl of bass fishing” – he took a chance on a 220-mile round-trip run through waves as big as six feet to Lake Ontario. Depending on weather and waves, the gambit would afford him only 30 minutes to two hours of fishing time, and would not guarantee that he’d be able to get back to weigh-ins in time to score his catch.

“I was making such a huge gamble,” Palaniuk told Bassmaster tournament emcee Dave Mercer on the weigh-in stage Sunday. “I had all the confidence in the world that I was going to win that gamble, but it’s still a gamble – there’s so many things that can go wrong.”

But the gamble paid off. Palaniuk sacked consecutive bags of 23.9 pounds, 21.5, 20.9 and 23.5 to win the tournament and the $100,000 prize.

“I literally had nothing to lose,” Palaniuk told Bassmaster TV’s Mark Zona and Tommy Sanders in an interview webcast after the tournament on bassmaster.com. That’s because decent – or even good – finishes in the season’s last two tournaments would not earn him enough Angler of the Year (AOY) points to qualify for the Classic. Only a tournament win would qualify him. Bassmaster’s “win and you’re-in” provision awards a Classic berth to any angler that wins a Bassmaster Elite Series event.

Of the 99 other pros fishing the tournament, few others ran to Lake Ontario. And none ran as far as Palaniuk. One top contender proclaimed such a run not worth the risk.

“A lot of these guys were afraid to make that gamble out on the lake because of [AOY] points,” Palaniuk explained.

For those competitors, a conservative game plan would likely result in a good enough finish and enough points to maintain their places above the cutline for Classic qualification. Palaniuk, however, was below the cut.

“I literally had to win,” he said. “It made it a lot easier to gamble, I guess.”

After finding big fish in the Monday-Wednesday practice period before the Thursday-Sunday tournament, Palaniuk believed he had the winning strategy – provided weather and water conditions would allow a long, risky run four days in a row.

“I had such a good practice day on Tuesday that I knew I was going, no matter what,” Palaniuk said on the weigh-in stage after being crowned champion. “I felt like that was my only shot to win.”

You can follow Brandon Palaniuk on Facebook and Twitter.

Schultz gambles on shallow bite, when most others are fishing deep

Bernie Schultz took a gamble and it paid off

Bernie Schultz took a gamble and it paid off

Bernie Schultz used a Rapala Skitter Walk to earn 6th place in the St. Lawrence River event

Florida pro Bernie Schultz took a chance on a shallow bite, when most other top contenders were fishing deep with drop-shot rigs. The gamble paid off with a sixth-place finish, his best since Bassmaster launched the Elite Series tournament format in 2006.

“A lot of big fish were caught deep on drop shotting,” Schultz acknowledged last week in an exclusive interview. “I don’t mind drop shotting, but if they’re going to eat a reaction lure, you can bet that’s what I’m going to be doing… I guarantee I had more fun than [the drop shotters] did, because topwater is a blast.”

Schultz’s main pattern was fan-casting a Rapala Skitter Walk topwater bait over the tops of shoals and humps within a mile-long stretch of the St. Lawrence near the mouth of Lake Ontario.

“And that was fun!” Schultz gushed. “I had some big fish blow up on it… They weren’t really in a feeding mode – a lot of them would strike the bait in aggravation. But I did get a lot of those bites.”

And although he knew other anglers were mining the depth for leading limits, Schultz liked what he saw up shallow. “It was just ideal habitat,” he recalled. “And you could see the fish swimming around, on a calm day. There were ‘sweet spots’ in that mile-long stretch that I focused on.”

Some of his spots were as shallow as three feet, but he spent most of his time targeting shoals that topped out at six to 10 feet.

“Then they would drop off right into almost infinity,” Schultz said, only half kidding. “That river is deep. There was 50 feet of water right next to ten foot of water. There were breaklines related to really healthy… shallow habitat, so the fish had a chance to move up and feed or suspend off the drop in a matter of just 10 yards.”

When bass weren’t up and active on top of a shoal, “where the wind would let me work a topwater,” Schultz explained, he would throw a Rapala X-Rap along the shoal edge.

“It seemed like whatever the prevailing wind was at the time, the fish would act accordingly,” he said. “And generally, the windier [it was], they moved off to the deeper water.”

You can follow Bernie Schultz on Facebook and read his columns at Bassmaster.com.

Ott DeFoe changed his fishing place the last day

Ott DeFoe changed his fishing place the last day

DeFoe scuttles safe game plan, takes risk on long ride

Ott DeFoe used VMC Dropshot hooks in his finesse rig during the St. Lawrence event.

After a conservative game plan in the main river channel qualified Ott DeFoe for championship Sunday, he gambled on the tournament’s final day, making a long run to fish the Duck Island area in Lake Ontario. Not only had he not fished there in any of the first three tournament days, he had not practiced there either.

“I did something today that’s not really my style,” DeFoe said on the weigh-in stage. “Today I went for a boat ride… I said I’m in ninth place, I want to go up, I’m going to go for a ride.’ That’s generally not my style. I’m not that kind of a risk taker… Apparently it was a good decision today.”

DeFoe caught all the fished he weighed in the tournament on a VMC drop-shot hook.

The “neat thing” about the St. Lawrence River/Lake Ontario fishery, DeFoe said, is that “you can go out there and catch 18 pounds in five feet of water or you could do it 30 feet of water.”

Although good populations of smallmouth swim in the waters in and around DeFoe’s Knoxville, TN, home, he acknowledged that Yankee smallies and Southern smallies are practically a different breed.

“They are a different animal, there’s no question,” he said in an interview with the podcast Fantasy Fishing Insider. “The smallmouth where I live, you want a cloudy, rainy, nasty kind of day and that’s when they really bite. But up there – and it seems backwards – if you get a flat, slick, calm day, bright sunny skies… the fishing is just phenomenal.”

Northern smallmouth “really used to confuse me a lot,” DeFoe said Sunday on the Bassmaster weigh-in stage. “I don’t know if I’ve really got them figured out, but I sure am having a lot of fun with them.”

You can follow Ott DeFoe on Facebook and Twitter.

Fishing Lake Hartwell and Lake Wedowee

Josh Fowler with Hartwell largemouth and redeye bass

Josh Fowler with Hartwell largemouth and redeye bass

A few years ago on a Thursday I went to Hartwell to fish with Josh Fowler to get information for a Georgia Outdoor News article. This big lake on the Georgia/South Carolina line is at the headwaters of the Savannah River and is a deep upland lake. The water is clear on the lower lake and it has largemouth, spotted bass and red eye bass.

Topwater is usually the way to go in the clear water at Hartwell and blueback herring in the lake, the preferred food of bass there, will make them come up from deep water to hit on top. Josh and I fished many points and humps with brush on them and we caught a few small bass but saw other, bigger bass following our lures in the clear water but not hitting them.

There was no wind Thursday and the clear water allows the bass to see your lure too well. Bigger bass are wise to the “catch” in some of their food when they spot dangling hooks! Wind breaking up the surface really helps.

Josh tried a drop shot rig, saying it was a sure fire way to catch a spotted bass. We had landed largemouth and redeye and wanted a spot for comparison pictures. As fishing luck goes, he caught several largemouth but no spots. We never landed a spot.

The Georgia Bass Federation Nation held its Top Six at Hartwell in November then next April the Georgia Bass Chapter Federation was be there for its Top Six. A new mega ramp was put in near the dam in Gum Branch to attract tournaments so both groups are going to Hartwell. Griffin club fishermen fished both tournamnets. I did ok in both, placing 7th in the Federation Nation tournament in November and 17th in the other federation in April.

The Friday after the trip to Hartwell I went to Lake Wedowee for an Alabama Outdoor News article. It is about 30 miles west of the Georgia/Alabama state line. This pretty lake on the Little Tallapoosa and Tallapoosa Rivers is similar to Hartwell in the steep banks and clear water of an upland type lake. It too has spotted and largemouth bass, but no red eye bass or blueback herring.

Bass there were hitting on top, chasing shad most of the day. I was fishing with Bryan Morris and his family owns a marina on the lake. He caught the biggest bass of the day, a solid 2 pound largemouth, on top at 11:00 in the bright sun. We also landed several other smaller bass on top.

Fishing was tough there just like Hartwell. And we didn’t land a single spotted bass, all were largemouth. That is very unusual on that lake. We agreed the bright sun and lack of wind caused the spots and bigger largemouth to stay deeper than we were fishing.

Several people from Griffin bought lots and built houses on Wedowee when it was first dammed. It is not a long trip but you do need an Alabama fishing license there since it is totally in Alabama. A Georgia license is good on Hartwell since it is on the line.

Either of these lakes would be a good choice for a fall trip for bass – if you can stay out of the deer stand long enough to go fishing!

Bass Baits To Use On The Red River for the FLW Cup

Texans’ Top Red River Lures For The FLW Cup

By Abe Smith
from The Fishing Wire

Matt Reed is a bass pro on the Red River

Matt Reed is a bass pro on the Red River

Matt Reed says shad and bluegill imitations are likely to score on the Red in summer–crawfish patterns are less effective in the hotter months.

ARE THESE PREDICTIONS PROVING TO BE RIGHT????
Ronnie

The 2013 Forrest Wood Cup blasts off Aug. 15 on the Red River out of Shreveport, La. While the Red River is a popular bass tournament destination, most of those events are held in early spring when temperatures range from the 30s to 60s instead of 90s and 100s. Does this mean the anglers will be throwing different lures and fishing different areas than during those late-winter/springtime tournaments?

We asked three professional anglers from Texas who have a lot of experience on the Red River what they thought about the winning tactics and the challenges the FLW competitors will face. Here’s what B.A.S.S. anglers Alton Jones and Matt Reed, and B.A.S.S./FLW angler Zell Rowland (who will be fishing the Cup) had to say about winning on the Red in the summertime.

BACKWATER BAITS

In previous tournaments, backwaters always came into play as perfect areas for flipping jigs, pitching Dingers or creature baits and casting spinnerbaits, however, in spring, water quality is good and bass are positioning in those backwaters for the spawn.

During the doldrums of summer, though, water quality and temperatures can be questionable in some backwater spots. According to the pros, the presence of some current in those backwaters will be one of the keys to victory.

Zell Rowland knows the Red River well.

Zell Rowland knows the Red River well.

Zell Rowland is one of the contenders for the FLW cup, which gets underway Aug 15 on the Red River out of Shreveport, La.
“If we don’t have rain north of the river to get it to rise before the Cup we won’t have much current, and that will take a chunk of the river out of play simply because water levels will prohibit access or the water will be stagnant,” said Rowland.

Rowland visited the river in July with the heat index at 105 degrees and river running slow. He found that he couldn’t get into some of the backwaters he’s fished in the past because of silting with mud and sand. Water levels and the always-changing topography of the river make it difficult to fish on history.

In the backwaters available to FLW Cup anglers, Rowland said the presence of vegetation also plays a big part in success. Aquatic vegetation improves the water quality and holds better bass than those sloughs and pockets that only have wood cover.

“The Booyah Pad Crasher and Poppin’ Pad Crasher will be good for those areas with vegetation,” he said. “For flipping, I’ll be throwing a YUM Wooly Bug or Mighty Craw.”

Reed agrees with Rowland on his choice of flippin’ baits and said that smaller plastics are best. He said that lure color is as important as bait style on the Red in summer.

“Shad and smaller bluegills are the main forage during summer,” said Reed. “The fish don’t seem to have much to do with crawfish this time of year. Chartreuse patterns have always done best.”

MAIN RIVER CRANKS

Alton Jones, with two Classics on the Red River, knows it well–but he won’t be fishing in the FLW championship. He says small oxbows could be key with enough water to allow access.

B.A.S.S. Elite pro Alton Jones has plenty of experience on the Red River, including two Bassmaster Classics, but never in August. He says it’s the presence of current on the main river that makes it more productive.

“The tournament could be won in either a backwater or on the main river,” he said. “The main channel is 20 to 30 feet deep in some places and dredged for barge traffic, but in the backwaters, 8-feet is as deep and you’ll find. Either way, it will be won shallow – less than 5-feet of water.”

On the main river, Jones says that the XCalibur Xcs100 or Bomber 2A are top picks. If an angler wins the Cup on the main river, Jones says that running those crankbaits along a milk run of wing dams will likely be the pattern. Reed likes to work Red River wing dams with cranks that run a little deeper, something like the Bomber 4A or a Fat Free Shad BD5F, which dives to about 9 feet compared to Jones’ Xcs100 that dives to just 3 feet.

The FLW anglers can fish three pools of the Red River, but running to the third pool will leave only about 3 hours of fishing time. All of these pools feature main-river wing dams, wood cover and rocks, and if the water level or stagnancy eliminates many of the backwaters, each of these pools will get “small” due to the number of anglers pounding them.

Reed scored a top-10 finish in a tournament on the Red back in the late 1990s by cranking rocks on the main river. He once made a big, slow run to a distant backwater he thought would put him away from the crowd, and the pocket had everything a bass fisherman would want – vegetation, wood and a little current flow.

“It took me a while to get there,” he said, “and when I finally got there I found 15 other boats already in this little area about the as wide as three boats. We destroyed each other.”

PREDICTIONS

The three Texans agree that bigger bass will come from the backwaters on a hollow body frog or by flippin’ small plastics, but a more-consistent bite will be cranking the main river. If an angler can locate the right backwater without many other anglers horning in on it, he stands a good shot of taking the Cup.

“Those ‘Hidey Holes’ can really pay off for you,” Jones said. “One of my best days on the Red was the final day of the 2009 Bassmaster Classic when I brought in 21 pounds. That was from a secret backwater area that was hard to find and hard to access, and I had it all to myself.

“I also had one of my worst days ever on the Red River when I tried to get into a backwater and couldn’t. I got stuck for two hours on a sand bar.”

Fishing Lake Lanier with Rob Jordan

Rob got these two nice spots when I fished with him.

Rob got these two nice spots when I fished with him.

I had an interesting trip to Lake Lanier a week ago Friday. I met Rob Jordan, a young fisherman that guides on the lake, to get information for a September Georgia Outdoor News Map of the Month article. He showed me some great spots to fish and we caught several nice spotted bass on topwater, crankbaits and drop shot.

Rob paints lures, too. His custom painted baits look great and that is what we caught fish on. It takes real skill with an airbrush to make a plug come alive like he does. He had a great teacher, his cousin Jim Murray, Jr., a professional bass fisherman from south Georgia that also has a custom lure painting business.

Lanier can be a tough lake to fish. The big spots there live out in open, deep water. It is not unusual to be sitting in 80 feet of water in your boat and casting to a hump 30 feet deep. But that is where you catch the big ones. They are fat and healthy from eating blueback herring.

Rob said he had about 1400 brush piles marked on his GPS. Many fishermen put out the brush piles on humps and points 20 to 30 feet deep to draw the spotted bass in. That is where they feed, and locating them is the best way to catch fish.

We put in at Van Pugh park near the dam and fished in a big circle up to Brown’s Bridge then back down the other side of the lake, marking spots and catching bass. Rob assures me September is a good month to fish the lake. I hope so. The Flint River Bass Club has a tournament scheduled there early in September.

You can see and order his baits at extremelurecreations.com and contact Rob for a guide trip at 770-873-7135.

I get to fish with some really good bass fishermen doing magazine articles. In the past few years I have fished with five of the 41 pros that were in the 2012 Bassmasters Classic, and have fished with some of the top pros in the FLW tournaments, too. And I go out with many local fishermen that do well in smaller tournaments.

I love tournament fishing and am always amazed at how many more bass, and bigger bass, they can catch than I can. And they fish the same way I do, with the same baits. It is either magic or they have some sixth sense for finding and catching bigger bass. What ever it is I wish I had it!

Someday maybe I will learn how to catch bigger bass while fishing with the pros.

FLW Cup On the Red River Starts This Week

Jacob Wheeler, winner of the 2012 FLW Cup

Jacob Wheeler, winner of the 2012 FLW Cup

Forrest Wood Cup Kicks off on Red River This Week
from The Fishing Wire

World’s best anglers eye prestigious title, $500,000 top prize

SHREVEPORT, La. – The Forrest Wood Cup, the world championship of bass fishing, will visit the Red River and Shreveport/Bossier City, La., Aug. 15-18 to crown bass fishing’s top angler of 2013. Hosted by the Shreveport/Bossier Sports Commission and LouisianaTravel.com, the tournament will feature 46 of the world’s best bass pros and co-anglers casting for the sport’s biggest award – $500,000 cash in the pro division and $50,000 cash in the co-angler division.

“Any time that you can win a half a million dollars for catching 20 bass, it’s pretty exciting,” said Walmart pro Mark Rose of West Memphis, Ark., who will be competing in his eighth Forrest Wood Cup. “It’s even more exciting knowing that it’s going to be a real tough tournament. If a guy can get two or three big bites over the course of those four days, that can make all of the difference in the world. Anything can happen.”

Walmart team pro Mark Rose of West Memphis, Ark., shows off his catch.Rose said that this tournament will be very different than the last time the FLW Tour visited the Red River, when John Cox of Debary, Fla., used an aluminum boat to access a backwater area via a seemingly impassible culvert.

“The last time that we visited the Red River, we were just coming off of a shad spawn and the fish were keying on those shad in the backwaters and the oxbows,” Rose said. “Now they’ll be more into their summertime patterns. The bass will be seeking out any shade that they can find. You’re going to see a lot of flipping in the hyacinth, lily pads and all of the wood cover that is available.”

Rose said that most of the tournament anglers would either be flipping, throwing topwater baits or shallow-water cranking. Anglers will have no shortage of areas to fish. Although they will launch each day out of Pool 5, Pools 4 and 3 are also viable options for many competitors.

“I think that 50 percent of the field will stay in Pool 5,” Rose continued. “Quite a few will lock down to Pool 4, and a few guys that are living on the edge will lock down to Pool 3. This tournament can be won on any of the three pools, though. We’re going to see a lot of nice 7- to 9-pound averages, but the winner will be the guy that can get over the hump a few days and get into the 13- or 14-pound class.”

Rose predicts that the winning angler will need to bring 50 pounds to the scales throughout the four tournament days to claim the title of Forrest Wood Cup Champion. The defending champion, 22-year-old Jacob Wheeler of Indianapolis, Ind., agrees with him and says that the Red River will produce despite the heat in the dog days of summer.

“I think that the winner is going to bring in a monster 16- or 17-pound bag on the first day and then back it up with solid 10- to 12-pound limits to win the tournament,” Wheeler said. “It really is like a chess match out there. There are so many different decisions and scenarios with the different pools and locks. I think somebody is going to have to utilize multiple pools in order to win the tournament.”

Wheeler became the youngest Forrest Wood Cup champion in history when he won last year at Lake Lanier in Duluth, Ga. Wheeler said that he is excited for another opportunity to make fishing history.

“The most exciting thing for me is having an opportunity to be the first angler to ever win two (championships),” Wheeler said. “Winning last year was just unbelievable and changed my life. To be the first angler to ever win twice would be a dream come true.

“Shreveport is really an optimal tournament site and will be a perfect host for the Forrest Wood Cup,” Wheeler went on to say. “The facilities are amazing. The Red River South Marina is great. There is plenty of parking for all of the anglers and fans. I can’t wait to get down there. It’s going to make for an amazing show and an awesome Forrest Wood Cup.”

Anglers will take off from Red River South Marina located at 250 Red River South Marina Road in Bossier City, La., at 7 a.m. each morning. Weigh-ins will be held at the CenturyLink Center located at 2000 CenturyLink Center Drive in Bossier City, La., beginning at 5 p.m. daily.

Fans will be treated to the FLW Expo at the Shreveport Convention Center located at 400 Caddo St. in Shreveport, La., on Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m.-4:30 p.m. prior to the weigh-ins. The Expo includes Ranger boat simulators, the opportunity to interact with professional anglers, enjoy interactive games, activities and giveaways provided by sponsors, and fans can learn more about the sport of fishing and other outdoor activities. All activities are free and open to the public. On Saturday and Sunday, 500 free rods and reels will be given away each day to the first 500 children 14 years and under who are accompanied by an adult. The rod and reel giveaways are courtesy of 1130 AM The Tiger. Also on Sunday, one lucky fishing fan will win a Ranger Z520C with a Mercury outboard. The Ranger boat giveaway is courtesy of KSLA News 12 and is free to enter, but the winner must be present at the conclusion of Sunday’s final weigh-in to win.

Coverage of the Forrest Wood Cup, which is presented by Walmart, will be broadcast in high-definition (HD) on NBC when “FLW” airs Sept. 29 from 2:30-3:30 p.m. ET. The Emmy-nominated “FLW” television show is hosted by Jason Harper and is broadcast to more than 564 million households worldwide, making it the most widely distributed weekly outdoors-sports television show in the world.

For complete details and updated information visit FLWOutdoors.com. For regular updates, photos, tournament news and more, follow us on Facebook at Facebook.com/FLWFishing and on Twitter at Twitter.com/FLWFishing.

About FLW

FLW is the industry’s premier tournament-fishing organization, providing anglers of all skill levels the opportunity to compete for millions in prize money nationwide in 2013 over the course of 220 tournaments across five tournament circuits, four of which provide an avenue to the sport’s richest payday and most coveted championship trophy – the Forrest Wood Cup. FLW tournament fishing can be seen on the Emmy-nominated “FLW” television show and is broadcast to more than 564 million households worldwide, making it the most widely distributed weekly outdoors-sports television show in the world. FLW is committed to providing a lifestyle experience that is the “Best in Fishing, On and Off the Water.” For more information about FLW visit FLWOutdoors.com and look for FLW on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and YouTube.

Fishing Lay Lake with Chris Jackson

Gotta love those white Costa Del Mar sunglasses!

Gotta love those white Costa Del Mar sunglasses!

One morning last week I got up at 3:00 AM and drove four hours to Lay Lake to meet Chris Jackson to get information for an Alabama Outdoor News article. Chris guides on all the Tennessee River and Coosa River chain lakes and knows them well. He is also a professional bass fisherman and does well in many tournaments.

We started out fishing shallow grass beds with swim jigs and swim baits. Chris quickly caught a largemouth that weighed close to four pounds, even though it was very skinny. That made me think we were going to have a great day, but catching fish was tough after that.

We fished a lot of patterns, working grass beds early with swim baits and swim jigs, then flipping grass beds with a jig and pig or punch bait. We also tried jig head worms and big crankbaits in deeper water. After the sun got bright Chris fished a floating frog on scum mats and missed one good fish on that pattern.

I got a keeper largemouth on a jig and pig out of some grass and Chris got a spot a little bigger on a jig head worm. After checking out ten spots that will be good in September, when the article will come out, Chris caught a nice spot on a crankbait just before we headed in.

Although the sun was miserable hot and there was almost no breeze, it was a fun day. I love fishing shallow grass. There is something much better about pitching a bait to grass than throwing a big crankbait or heavy worm rig into deep structure and cover. And Lay is a beautiful Coosa River lake.

Lay Lake is a little south and east of Birmingham. All those Coosa River lakes are known for their big spotted bass and those fish are just mean, They fight extremely hard for their size. Chris said he thought just putting your boat in the water made them mad.

Chris has an interesting web site at ChrisJacksonfishing.com. There are some good articles on fishing and pictures that make you want to try those lakes. You can also contact him for a guide trip on any of the lakes he fishes. It would be well worth the money to see his methods and the places he goes to find bass.

Chris and I talked a lot about fishing information on the internet and using social media to contact fishermen. He is active on facebook and other social media – check him out through his web site.

How Should I Fish A Jig In the Summer?

Catch smallmouth like this on jigs in the summer

Catch smallmouth like this on jigs in the summer

Summer Jig Fishing Not the Same as in Winter

from The Fishing Wire

Summer or winter, pro-angler Bill Lowen prefers a jig for deep water fishing.

Jigs have long been acknowledged as some of the most effective lures for winter bass fishing, but Yamaha Pro Bill Lowen considers them just as effective during the hot summer months, too. The only thing Lowen changes is how he presents the lure.

“I believe the presentation you use is actually more important than your jig choice,” explains Lowen, “and the reason is because in winter you’re going after lethargic, inactive bass, while in summer those same bass are far more active and willing to chase a jig. In winter, you’re usually hoping for a feeding-type response, but now in July and August, you can also generate totally different reflex-type strikes.”

Thus, while his primary jig presentation in winter is slowly dragging the lure along the bottom, Lowen’s summer presentation also includes a lot of hopping and even a technique known as “stroking.”

Use a jig and trailer like this in the summer

Use a jig and trailer like this in the summer

A football jig with a creature trailer does the job for most of his tournaments, says Lowen.

“Stroking is a faster, stronger hopping presentation in which you literally rip the jig off the bottom with a hard upward sweep of your rod,” the Yamaha Pro explains. “The sudden change of direction and speed in the jig’s movement just triggers an instinctive strike. I may drag the jig on the bottom for a few feet, stroke it once and let it fall, then immediately rip it off the bottom again. I can do this three or four times during a single cast, too. It really depends on how the bass do react to it.

“During the summer, at least 75% of my jig bites come from hopping or stroking the lure like this.”

Lowen’s summer jig is the same as his winter one, a ½ or ¾-ounce football head style, and his preferred depth of 15 to 20 feet is also the same for both seasons. He also looks for breaklines where shallow water drops quickly to this depth.

“The major change for me in summer jig fishing is that I really want to have current consistently washing into that structure,” continues Lowen. “In the winter, I don’t want any current whatsoever, but it’s important this time of year. That water will be slightly cooler, it will have more oxygen, and it will be moving both forage and nutrients downstream with it.

Largemouth will hit a jig in the summer too

Largemouth will hit a jig in the summer too

Both largemouths and smallmouths like the “stroking” action that hops a jig off bottom in summer.

“The most productive places are often the outsides of channel bends, and frequently, these will also contain some type of logs and brush that current has washed in. In other lakes, rocks or shell beds may be present. If you can find anything different like this on that structure, that’s nearly always the spot that attracts bass.”

To find current, Lowen frequently motors to the upper end of a lake where more river-like conditions usually exist, or far up large tributary streams. Normally, however, he does not fish the actual tailrace waters immediately below dams, primarily because he doesn’t have to.

“Sometimes, if a lot of water is being released from an upstream dam, all you need to do is get behind an island or main lake point that breaks the main water flow and re-directs it, and you’ll be able to catch bass,” the Yamaha Pro adds.

“It’s always better to cast upstream and let the current wash your jig down naturally. As you guide the lure with your rod tip, you can add the hopping and stroking action you need. Current usually positions bass behind rocks, logs, and other obstructions, so it’s not difficult to determine just exactly where to guide your jig.

“The fun part of all this during the summer is that every place where the current does wash into the structure you can find one smaller spot along it that will be better than the rest. It might be an area just one or two feet long within the entire bend of the channel, or perhaps just a single stump along that bend, but whatever it is, more bass will be on that small spot than anywhere else.”