Category Archives: How To Fish

What Is A Burbot and How and Where Can I Catch One

IDAHO’S STRANGEST FISH –  The Burdot

– Connor Liess, Idaho Fish & Game Public Information Specialist

from The Fishing Wire

Riddle me this: What lives in the Kootenai River, has the body of a cod, the meat of a lobster and the soul patch of Frank Zappa? No, that’s not a trick question. There really is a species of freshwater cod that calls the Kootenai River home, but that almost came to an end just 20 years ago. Herein lies the tale of one of Idaho’s strangest fish – the burbot.

What’s the deal with burbot?

Burbot – also known as bubbot, cusk, freshwater cod, ling, lingcod and eelpout – are the only freshwater cod species in North America, and they have a special place in Idaho’s heart. With a face that only a mother could love, these long-bodied, cold-water fish are not your run-of-the-mill sport fish. Burbot have flat heads and long bodies that sprout long pectoral fins just behind their gills. Their back-half is eel-like, with stumpy rounded fins. Burbot have brownish-yellow mottled skin, earning them the nickname “Kootenai leopards” among anglers.

As the name implies, these “leopard-like” fish are predatory and feed during the night. They hang out during the day in deep, slow-moving pools, then seek out food such as crayfish or small fish in shallow water. With the help of inward slanting teeth and a funky little chin whisker called a barbel, burbot have no trouble scoping out and hanging on to prey.

Burbot march to the beat of their own drum in more ways than one, but when it comes to reproduction, things get even weirder. Unlike most freshwater fish that spawn in spring or early summer, burbot prefer to do their business in winter. Some Kootenai River burbot will even migrate from watersheds up in Canada, roughly 75 miles away. Spawning can occur from December to late March, with most spawning happening mid-February through mid-March. Females will lay anywhere between 60,000 to 3 million eggs, each being the size a grain of sand. Burbot will often live to 8 to 10 years old, and even longer in other parts of the world.

Unbeknownst to many Idaho anglers, burbot are a healthy sport fish living right here in our backyard, but it didn’t always use to be that way.

Bouncing back

Just 20 years ago, anglers would be hard-pressed to hook a burbot in Idaho’s Kootenai River. It was estimated that only 50 fish remained in 2004. Thanks to an international, multi-state effort including Idaho Fish and Game, the Kootenai Tribe of Idaho and fisheries biologists from Canada and Montana, Kootenai River’s burbot population recovered.

Research began in the 1990’s, with burbot fishing closed down in 1992 because of a decline in numbers. Biologists started using hoop nets – a non-invasive fish trap – to capture, tag and study these fish. Researchers also tagged burbot with PIT tags to track migration.

In 2004, the Kootenai Tribe of Idaho began operating a burbot hatchery in hopes of increasing the population. The Kootenai Tribe took Canadian-spawned burbot eggs back to the hatchery and hatched the tiny eggs from there. Once they reached adolescence, the young fish were released into the Kootenai River.

From the decades’ long research, two important takeaways were found: Burbot weren’t very successful at spawning naturally, and hatchery-raised burbot were surviving but still relied on the hatchery to produce more fish for the population to continue growing.

In 2019, the burbot population finally hit its restoration goal. Partners from the original recovery project are still monitoring burbot populations in the Kootenai River fishery.

You had me at lobster cod

Hit up your buddy to take the rods out on the Kootenai River and its tributaries in mid-winter and you might get a solid “no” before you can even finish your sentence. But tickle their fancy with a prized fresh-water cod that tastes like lobster and it might change their tune.

Anglers will most likely find burbot between mid-February and mid-March when spawning is at its peak, but because burbot fly by night usually, it can be a little challenging to locate them. But before you cast off these unicorn fish as a myth, here are a few fishing tips to help you track down a “Kootenai leopard”:

  • Fish shallow flats (5-15 feet deep) at dusk or during the night.
  • Try river junctions where smaller streams flow into the mainstem of the river.
  • If fishing during the day, try dropping a line in 40-plus foot deep holes. Burbot like to rest in these deep pockets during the day.
  • Anglers can also try ice fishing for burbot on Bonner Lake.
  • Worms and shrimp work well for bait.
  • Use weights to get the line down deep towards the bottom.

Fishing for burbot can be a great way to kick off any angler’s new year. Be sure to dress warm and bring extra layers in case that North Idaho weather takes a turn. Whether you land one of these leopard-like cod or simply use it as a way to get outdoors this winter, burbot fishing is not only a chance to put a delicious, native fish on the supper table, but a true reminder of the persistence and revitalization of one of our state’s fish species.

To learn more about burbot, check out this month’s issue of Wildlife Express. In it you will find all kinds of fun facts, puzzles and more!

Green Bay Whitefish with the Right Baits

Stirring Up Green Bay Whitefish

Heading out on Green Bay soon? Anchor a Slider Rig with a No. 3 Rapala Jigging Rap, dress your “cheater hook” with half a Mustache Worm and hang on, says in-demand Door County guide and ICE FORCE Pro JJ Malvitz.

“The whitefish bite has been amazing,” he says. “And the cool thing about whitefish is that they’re really easy to catch and you can catch a lot of them.”

There’s more to whitefish angling than just quantity though, Malvitz notes – the fish provide a quality fight as well, especially in the deep water in which they’re often found in Green Bay this time of year.

“You’re catching them in super-deep water – 50 to 100 feet – so you get a lot of time on the rod to really play them out,” Malvitz says. “Any time you can prolong a fish on the end of your line, it maximizes the fun factor. It provides a lot of action, so it’s really good for kids and people who have not ice-fished much before.”

Also, whitefish are delicious.

“They are great table fare,” Malvitz says. He likes them deep-fried, pan-fried and says “you can’t beat smoked whitefish.”

A good keeper whitefish is anything 16 inches long or better, Malvitz says – “you can really get a really good filet off of them.” A whitefish big enough to brag about a bit will be 21-plus inches, about 4 to 5 pounds. “That’s a really good one,” he says. Most you’ll catch on Green Bay will weigh around 1 ½ to 2 pounds. The bigger ones taste better smoked, he says. Wisconsin’s daily limit is 10 whitefish.

“We just started in the first weekend in January to be able to get on this bite safely – to get to that offshore structure where we catch whitefish,” Malvitz says. “We’ve been catching limits from the get-go.”

Slider Rig
Finding whitefish can often be the hardest part of catching them. Once you find a group of fish, though, getting them to bite a Slider Rig is usually pretty easy.

“It’s really kind of a neat little rig,” Malvitz says. “It’s a lot of fun.”

Malvitz’ Slider Rigs comprise a main line of 6-pound-test Sufix 832 Advanced Superline, a six-foot tip line of 6-pound-test Sufix Invisiline 100% Fluorocarbon, a 12- to 16-inch leader of the same Sufix fluoro and four pieces of tackle:

• A heavy, bottom-pounding anchor bait like a No. 3 Jigging Rap or 1/8th oz. VMC Rattle Spoon. Black-gold, silver-black and Firetiger color patterns have all been “producing pretty good,” Malvitz says.

• A small VMC swivel

• A No. 6 VMC Octopus hook

• A brown Trigger X Mustache Worm with one of the arms pulled off. (The brown color is named “Natural”

Here’s how the rig all comes together:

• Use a double-uni knot to connect the main line and the six-foot section of fluoro

• Thread the Octopus hook onto the fluoro, point up, then tie the swivel to the end of the fluoro. Some people call this section of the rig the “cheater hook or slider hook” Malvitz says. (Note: Don’t tie on the hook – after threading it on the line, just let it slide around, free)

• To the other end of the swivel, tie the leader.

• Tie the Jigging Rap or Rattle Spoon at the end of the leader

• Nose-hook the center bulb of the half Mustache Worm on the cheater hook

Fish the rig by dropping it to the bottom, banging the anchor bait around a bit and then lifting it all up. Repeat until you get bit. “Sometimes they’ll pin the Jigging Rap on the bottom and we’ll catch ’em on that, but 75 to 90 percent of our fish come on that top, slider hook,” Malvitz says.

More times than not, you won’t feel your bites. “It’s not a detection bite like when you’re walleye or bluegill fishing, where you’ll feel the fish smoke your lure,” Malvitz explains. “You’ll be lifting upward and all of a sudden, the weight of the fish is just there.”

Steep and Deep
As safe ice allows, Malvitz targets steep drops from 15 to 25 feet of water to 40 to 90 feet. “You want steep breaks with an edge that has some structure. The fish will hold on those breaks. They’ll be running all over those edges.”

Because whitefish are in the salmon and trout family, productive areas will have current as well. “They really relate to current,” Malvitz says. You’ll know you found adequate current when your line very obviously drifts to the edge of your hole.

Unlike some other freshwater fish, whitefish can survive trips to the surface from very deep water, Malvitz says. “They have the ability to ‘burp’ themselves,” he explains. “Sometimes, when you’re reeling up, you’ll have this surge of bubbles come up through your hole. That’s the fish purging its air bladder. They don’t puke up their air bladder like perch out of deep water.”

See Rapala® Jigging Rap

See Trigger X® Mustache Worm

Bass Are Cold Blooded So Slow Down for Winter Bass

Slow Down for Winter Bass

By Billy Decoteau

from The Fishing Wire

Bass are cold-blooded creatures, meaning as the water temperature drops lower and lower, bass move slower and slower. Add in some ice chilling water temperatures and lethargic becomes the norm in the underwater world of Micropterus salmoides. (The scientific name for largemouth bass.)

Speaking of scientific, this is the perfect opportunity to employ Z-MAN’s cutting edge ElaZtech soft plastic technology. At no time does ‘Do-Nothing Dead-Sticking’ mean more. When nose hooked on a drop-shot rig, the 4-inch Finesse ShadZ coupled with its exceptional inherent buoyancy mimics the lifelike movement of lethargic baitfish in frigid water. This is also the time when vertical presentations out perform horizontal presentations.

Making the perfect vertical presentation requires anglers to first locate wintering areas with their electronic sonars. Chasing winter bass requires anglers to spend time idling slowly as they monitor their screen, logging waypoints, then dissecting these waypoints even slower with their trolling motors, inserting additional waypoints and pinpointing high percentage spots. High percentage areas may be in the form of vertical cover such as brush piles, rocks, large boulders and ledges or as pictured above structural contour changes. Add in deep vegetation and baitfish… and, you may have found a real winter honey-hole!

Utilize your trolling motor to position yourself above the baitfish/bass. This is when a trolling motor mounted sonar pays off big time. Allow your drop-shot rig to fall straight down to the bottom, as you monitor it falling on your sonar screen. If bass move towards your bait, this signals an active or aggressive school. If your bait misses the target you may need to attach a heavier drop-shot weight or adjust your boat position.

Remember both the water and air temperatures are cold. Pre-rigging several drop-shot rods and jighead rods prior to hitting the water makes life a whole lot easier when snags or bass break-off and re-tying becomes a cold on-the-water chore.

3″ Scented LeechZ™

Keep it simple and subtle when choosing baits for winter bass. More often than not when it comes to action ‘Less is Best’. The following Z-MAN 3″ to 4″ baits are excellent Winter Bass choices for Drop-Shot Rigs.

One important factor to increasing your drop-shot bites when fishing cold water is to keep your baits on or close to the bottom A short six-inch or less drop-shot leader allows your Z-MAN bait to float just off the bottom.

The same subtle action applies when choosing jig-head baits for winter bass. When it comes to the dead-sticking technique, Z-MAN ElaZtech plastics out perform all other plastic baits in my experience. Z-MAN ElaZtech’s inherent buoyancy allows your bait to imitate the movement of lethargic forage in cold water. The following Z-MAN 2.75″ and 4″ baits are excellent winter bass choices for jighead rigs.

2.75″ TRD TubeZ™

The above Z-MAN JigheadZ models allow for several versatile rigging options. For sliding or gliding applications as well as penetrating deep weedlines and vegetation, the pointed large wide-eye head of the Trout Eye jighead falls faster and characterizes a dying shad. Z-MAN’s Finesse ShroomZ matches perfectly as designed with all four of the above baits. While, both the Finesse ShroomZ and Shaky HeadZ may be inserted into the TRD TubeZ, rigging any of the baits by sliding them on the 4/0 Mustad Ultra Point Hook is the perfect Shaky Head combination.

The same vertical boat position over the bass/baitfish applies when descending a jighead presentation. Let your bait fall to the bottom and allow it to lay motionless for as long as you can stand it. Then apply a smooth upward jigging or stroking action allowing your bait to fall back to the bottom, then lay motionless before reeling in and making another cast. Change up your retrieve and cadence until you trigger strikes.

As the aggressive JigheadZ Bait hopping presentation becomes non-productive its time to return to finesse dead-stick and drop-shot techniques. I have caught bass in 34 degree water drop-shotting, when other sections of the lake were iced over! The key to success is downsizing both your line and baits as the water temperature drops. Bass become more lethargic as water temperatures decrease. This is the time for smaller do-nothing baits to entice big cold-water bass.

30 DAYS STRAIGHT FISHING ON THE ICE

30 DAYS STRAIGHT FISHING ON THE ICE WITH NICK LINDNER AND NORTHLAND

from The Fishing Wire

BEMIDJI, Minn.  – Doubt if any hardwater enthusiasts are sympathetic that Nick Lindner “has to” ice fish for 30 days straight. Torture? Not so much. Fortunately, Nick is documenting the month-long pursuit on video. And now at the halfway point, Nick offers a highlight reel of several of his top tips to improve your fishing this winter. (I once fished 424 days in a row!)

In this video, Nick talks about how a simple glow-stick color change on his Glo-Shot Fired-Belly Spoon triggered the walleyes. He also demonstrates key custom rigging for catching more low-light crappies. You’ll appreciate how Nick breaks down deadsticking to the deep details. And lastly, Nick gives up his number one combination for jumbo perch.

Enjoy the video.

The Glo-Shot® Fire-Belly Spoon relies on its proven exposed light-stick that beams impressively for up to 8 hours. Available in red, green and chartreuse, the replaceable and interchangeable light-sticks give you the flexibility of color choice depending on light levels and water clarity. From a scientific position, florescent green light travels the furthest underwater, making it a great choice for summoning fish from distances. In exceptionally clear water, however, it might be too bright, making chartreuse, and even more so red, better choices. Overall, red is a universal producer, and proves to be the most intense at short range. Red has a storied history of producing beneath the ice.

The body of the Glo-Shot Fire-Belly Spoon is forged from lead-free Z-alloy (Zinc), which cuts through the water column at break wind speed, quickly getting to hot marks on your flasher. Z-alloy yields weight without bulk, too, producing speed minus the intimidating sizes of most heavy spoons.

The Glo-Shot Fire-Belly Spoon is offered in 14 fish-catching colors inside and outside of the UV color spectrum. Speaking of UV, the specialty pigment refracts more natural light than traditional paint. The result is a lure that maintains its color deeper, in lower light, and in stained water.

The spectrum of 14 color patterns include the same colors tested year-in and year-out in the most popular waters throughout the U.S. and Canada, making the Glo-Shot Fire-Belly Spoon an instant classic. Add the fact that anglers can purchase individual glo-sticks to mix and match colors, and you have an endlessly customizable bait to address any situation on the water.

With an MSRP of $7.99, the Glo-Shot Fire-Belly Spoon comes ready to fish with one bait, three glow-sticks and changing tool per card. Select from 14 colors and 4 sizes 1/8 (#10 hook), 3/16 (#8 hook), ¼ (#8 hook), 3/8 (#6 hook) to accommodate multiple depths and species including walleyes, pike, crappies, bass and trout.

WALLEYES UNDER THE ICE

FIRST BREAK WALLEYES UNDER THE ICE

By Joel Nelson for Northland Tackle

from The Fishing Wire

First Break Walleyes Under the Ice

It’s been a few years, but I’ve always been a big fan of full-moon fall trolling on the big lakes. What thermocline may have kept bait and ‘eyes out deeper all summer, gave way to incredible shallow water fishing come late October and November. What surprised me however, was just how many anglers had that full-moon fever bite going, and never re-connected with it come first ice. Those same fish didn’t make vast moves or change their feeding patterns too much. They were just under a few inches of ice now.

It’s that same mentality you need to take with you to the lake come first ice walleyes, especially from a location perspective. You’ll have plenty of time to pound off-shore reefs, deep mud, gravel bars, and rock piles. Early ice is the time for fishing right off of shore, just below or on the “first break.” By that, I mean simply that you should look for the first appreciable steep drop from shore, which could bottom out anywhere from 5 to 15 FOW. First ice walleyes love to cruise the bottom of these edges in search of food, and when you’ve got some weed cover, substrate change, or other features to target, the spot is all that much better.

Large, main-lake points are favorites no matter where you go, to focus feeding attention of hungry ‘eyes. They’re also angler magnets, so if you’re fishing pressured bodies of water, understand that you don’t always need to be on a prominent piece of structure to get it done. More and more, I’m looking for small areas of interest. A living-room sized patch of rock that doesn’t show up on the contour map, a quality weed-bed that’s more dense than the surrounding area, or even some hard-pan sand vs. nearby mud or muck. Often, that’s all it takes to gather some near-shore walleyes once the lakes freeze over.

Where most anglers miss out on the shallow water walleye bite, is that they fish it the way they would mid-winter walleyes in deeper parts of the lake. They ice troll across the shallow flats, scaring the very fish they seek. With fall trolling, we learned that there were nights where hundreds of feet of line behind the boat was what it took to get bit. The same walleyes that don’t love hanging tight in your main-motor wash, don’t appreciate lots of hole drilling and overhead traffic.

First Break Walleyes

For that reason, it’s best to have a few dead-set approaches. While there are a few ways to skin that walleye, the two I employ are tip-ups and deadstick rods. Tip-ups for early ice eyes are a mainstay and have been around for forever, so there’s not much new under the sun here. Select some quality fluorocarbon line in or around 10lb test, select a good light wire live-bait hook, and rig up a small sucker or preferably shiner pegged with a sinker above the hook a few inches. Put that sinker closer to the bait if a lively sucker, or further for less lively minnow species. Set your tip-up on a very “light-trip” setting, preferably not under the notch unless needed for wind’s-sake. Then you wait.

Tip-ups are great, but do have their problems. Namely, fighting a fish hand-over-hand, especially if it’s a trophy. Dead-stick rods on simple rod-holders have been a great solution to that problem and more, while offering several advantages over the standard tip-up scenario. Why a specialized rod for this type of fishing? Mostly because a dead-stick is unlike any other ice rod. The action is extremely slow for half or better of the length of the rod, offering bite-detection and minnow-monitoring convenience. Then, a hard-wall on the blank that goes straight to very stiff backbone – perfect for setting the hook.

While dead-stick rods may tangle, any issues are usually seen quickly and above ice, rather than the below-water snarls that can happen on a tip-up without you knowing about it. More importantly, a quality dead-stick will telegraph every movement of the minnow, all while offering you immediate clues both during and after the bite. Set the rod in the holder, and watch your bait or several baits go to work.

Sometimes the fish will grab the bait and sit right below the hole, which is easily seen on a deadstick as it very slowly loads. That’s far less visible and harder to manage a hookset when that happens on a tip-up. I highly recommend bait-feeder reel designs for these rods, as with the flip of a switch, free-spool is offered to running walleyes. These quick runs are easy to detect for either tip-ups or dead-sticks, but the hookset and fight are usually superior on a dead-stick-setup.

First Break Walleyes

Usually, I’ll either jig on the deeper side of the break and watch a deadstick rod right on it, or many times, simply put out the max number of lines I’m allowed in dead-sticks and wait. As with most things walleye, the bite is best early and late, but cloudy days can make for spurts of great fishing throughout. It’s a really fun way to fish if you’ve got a group of friends, as you can cover a long section of break, all while enjoying each other’s company until a rod goes off.

Just make sure to tend the set, just as you would a tip-up. Extreme cold weather doesn’t bode well for this type of fishing, but the good news is that first ice is typically pretty mild after that first blast of cold that locks everything up. Check your baits, make sure the hole isn’t icing up too badly, and more than anything, resist the urge to drill too many holes and stomp around throughout the day. These fish are sensitive to noise, as you may only be targeting them in 5-8FOW.

Especially when your panfish lakes aren’t locked up well, or you’ve got good walkable ice near-shore but not the whole way out, this is the way to go. Setup a few hours before dark, stake out your spot, and wait until some rods start bending or flags start flying.

Fishing Lake Weiss in August

Lake Weiss again proved a good fisherman can catch fish under terrible conditions for others. In the Potato Creek Bassmsters August tournament at Lake Weiss, 16 members fished for 16 hours to land 45 keepers weighing about 81 pounds. There were two five-bass limits and six fishermen zeroed for both days.

Raymond English had a great catch Saturday, bringing in a limit weighing 13.68 pounds and big fish of 4.52 pounds. He added four more at 6.26 pounds for first place of 9 bass weighing 19.94 pounds and the 4.52 pounder was big fish. 

Sam Smith had a limit on Sunday and weighed in 8 bass weighing 16.24 pounds for second place. He had a 4.49 pounder to anchor his stringer. Third was Kwong Yu with five keepers weighing 11.87 pounds and Lee Hancock came in fourth with six bass weighing 10.84 pounds.  Niles Murray came on strong on Sunday and had five weighing 9.50 pounds for fifth.

I left for Lake Weiss last Tuesday with such anticipation.

Five fishing days and two keeper bass later, I am disappointed, to say the least. I tried everything I could think of for three days of practice. Fished up above causeway Wednesday looking for anything shallow – docks, grass, rocks, not a bite. Rode ledges and found all kinds of cover and fish but could not get them to hit.

Thursday went down below the causeway and did the same thing. Schools of fish in brush on ledges but nothing would hit crankbaits, worms or drop shot.

I went back up Thursday and got a three-pound spot on a buzzbait at 10:00 AM on a shady bank, so I decide to gamble on that pattern and run shady banks in that area all day in the tournament.

Saturday I caught nine short fish, lost two keepers at the boat and landed a 3.10 spot. It hit a whacky rig on a seawall at about 11:00 AM when I got tired of watching the buzzbait not get hit.

Sunday I missed one on a buzz bait early then got one 11 inch spot on a whacky rig. Never hooked a keeper in seven hours of casting!

The one spot got me 9th out of 16 people so it was tough for a lot of us.

Weiss is a beautiful lake with miles of shoreline grassbeds, seawalls and docks to fish.  The Coosa River channel winds through flats and is joined by numerous creeks to form ledges that drop from shallow to deep.  I found dozens with five to ten feet of water on top dropping to 25 to 30 feet deep in the channel.

Many of those drops had brush on them, both natural stuff that washed down the river and hung up or brush piles put out by fishermen. Time after time I watched fish follow my bait around those brush piles but not hit it.

Weiss is known as “The Crappie Capitol of the World” and is full of big ones. They have to be 10 inches long to keep, so that insures a good population of quality fish.  I am sure many of those fish I saw were crappie and you could catch a lot of good eating fish on live minnows fishing them.

WINTER BASS FISHING TIPS FOR THE MID-SOUTH

How to catch bass this winter in mid-south states

Winter Bass Fishing Tips for the Mid-South

Randy Zellers

Arkansas Game and Fish Commission

from The Fishing Wire

As water temperatures in lakes throughout Arkansas and the rest of the South finally start to dip into the 50s, many anglers will hang up their rods and reels after a prolonged warm season that offered many extra days of comfortable fishing. However, for those willing to bundle up and brave a few chilly hours, fishing can still offer some great action if you change your mindset and tactics.

Fish are cold-blooded creatures, meaning they have metabolisms that rise and fall with the temperature of their surroundings. During spring and summer, warm water means higher metabolic rates and more of a need to feed. As the water temperature cools, so does the activity level of bass, crappie and other sport fish, but that doesn’t mean they can go without food entirely. This is the time of year when quality is much more important to fish than quantity. In terms of food, that means getting the most energy for the least amount of energy spent chasing down prey.

Be Patient With Jerks


Cold fronts not only slow the metabolism of larger fish, they outright stun some of the smaller baitfish species, such as threadfin shad and gizzard shad. While some shad will die immediately, most will struggle for a few days before finally succumbing to the temperature if they can’t find some thermal refuge. This means there will be plenty of free and easy food for predator fish to take advantage of just before winter sets in for good. Largemouth bass, spotted bass and smallmouth bass all are gluttons for this shad buffet, but it presents a problem for anglers who try to “match the hatch” so to speak. The day of the cold front, getting a fish to fall for your lure over the real thing can be difficult, but after a day or so a suspending jerkbait can be the ticket. Cast the lure out, crank it down a few turns of the reel handle, then let it pause. Give it a few seconds at rest, then crank a few more reel turns before you pause again. Some people prefer to snap or sweep the rod tip to move the lure and reel up the slack to ensure they give the lure time to rest, while others prefer to crank the handle quickly, saving the wear and tear on their wrists. Either approach can work, but the time you pause can be the key to getting more strikes. Some days, a quick jerk-jerk-pause cadence will elicit a strike, while other days may require a long pause of up to 10 seconds or more to get the fish to finally react.

Lovin’ Spoonful


Another great presentation that fools fish into believing it’s a stunned shad is the jigging spoon, also called a slab spoon. This unassuming chunk of lead with a treble hook tied to the end doesn’t look like much, but when worked properly across the bottom its fluttering fall can offer just the right amount of flash and vibration to trigger a strike from a lethargic bass sitting with its belly on the bottom. Just look for areas without a lot of jagged rocks or woody cover as the open hook of a spoon can lodge into these surfaces and cause more frustration than fun. Cast the lure, let it fall to the bottom, then pop it up with a quick snap of the rod tip. Reel up the slack and stay in touch with the lure as it flutters back to the bottom. The technique looks like a shad that is dying and struggling to get away from predators. Even lethargic fish will find it hard to pass on the easy meal and the sudden snap of the fleeing fish will trigger their predatory instinct to react. Usually the hit will come as the lure is dropping, so keep an eye on your line for it to jump or stop instead of continuing its descent. Don’t be surprised if you catch fish other than bass with this technique, either. Walleye, catfish and even large crappie will take advantage of the easy meal imitated by this lure.

Alabama Bound


Big rewards is what the Alabama rig is all about, both for the fish and the angler. Constructed of wire and jigheads with small swimbaits attached, Alabama rigs mimic a small school of baitfish swimming along over likely cover. In winter, this offers bass a chance at grabbing a few small fish in one swipe. While smaller fish do hit the Alabama rig, it’s known for producing big fish who are looking for a big mouthful. Just be ready for a workout, as casting and retrieving an Alabama rig all day can definitely wear on the shoulders. Use a heavy action rod and lob the lure more than trying to whip it back and cast long distances. Braided line that’s around 80-pound-test breaking strength also can help avoid some tears if your Alabama rig snags up on unseen cover. A slow hard pull can often straighten the hook on the swimbait that’s snagged, allowing you to retrieve the rest of the rig and save a few dollars. Just be sure to loosen the drag on your reel enough to allow a fish to get a good bite on the lure instead of yanking it away when setting the hook. Fish often will set the hook on themselves as this is one of the few winter presentations that will elicit a bone-jarring strike.

Deadly Ned-ly


For decades, many bass anglers believed soft plastics were no good once the water temperature dipped below 60 degrees. Jigs tipped with pork chunks were the only smart option for a slow, bottom-crawling bait. But times and tactics have done a complete turnaround since those days. Small, straight worms like the Zoom finesse worm, Gary Yammamoto’s Senko or the ZMan TRD have proven that it doesn’t take a lot of wavy tentacles to catch a bass’s attention. Sometimes the best action is hardly any action at all. During winter one of the best finesse presentations is the simple Ned rig. Sliding a 2- to 3-inch morsel of a soft-plastic stick bait slowly over the bottom can entice a bite when reaction strikes from the above-mentioned tricks fail to produce. The key to fishing the Ned rig is the size of the jighead. Go as light as possible, and use spinning equipment to keep things small. You don’t want the jighead to crawl around on the bottom but to glide slowly just over it. A 1/16-oz. head with a no. 2 or no. 4 hook is a great option to start learning the technique, and the use of Zman’s special Ned rig soft-plastics will help float the bait. Often you won’t feel a hit, so it’s important to keep a sharp eye on your line for any twitch or odd reaction.

Be sure to check out the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission’s Weekly Fishing Report for up-to-date information on the hot bite across Arkansas. Guides, bait shops and anglers around The Natural State pitch in to make the report as helpful as possible for anglers looking to learn more about fishing year round.

Maximizing The Chilly Weather Bass Bite

Top Tips For Maximizing The Chilly Weather Bass Bite

Bassmaster Pro Ott DeFoe Shares His Autumn Insights

By David A. Brown

from The Fishing Wire

Fall is transition time for largemouth bass; it’s a time when the fish have fully departed their warm season haunts, but they’re not quite ready to drop into their winter retreats. No, the calendar’s tail end is all about stuffing bellies and packing on the weight that’ll sustain the fish through winter’s leanness.

The bass are on the move and it can definitely be a here-today-gone-tomorrow deal; but the bass’ seasonal instincts also heighten the likelihood of banner days. Few times of the year will see gatherings like the fall gorge fest and savvy anglers can enjoy the kind of action that’ll have you pining for your next outing.

“Once you get to November and beyond, the later fall period brings the opportunity of finding big schools of fish,” said Bassmaster Elite Series pro Ott DeFoe. “They’re starting to get grouped up into their wintering places, but they’re still feeding pretty good. You have the potential to catch a lot of fish when you find the right deal.

“The good thing about fall is that the bite could be in really shallow water or it could be in deep water. It’s not like summer where you only find big groups of fish deep; they can be grouped up shallow too.

So, how does the accomplished angler from Knoxville, Tennessee make the most of this opportunity? Truth be told, the exact game plan varies day to day; nevertheless, DeFoe suggests following these four guidelines for maximum seasonal success. Baitfish are generally migrating to the backs of creek and coves, but the schools are constantly moving. Covering water is the key, but DeFoe has a couple of strategies for narrowing the search.

  • Fish the windy side of the lake, as the wind pushes baitfish into predictable areas.
  • Watch for wading birds grouping on the bank, or hovering and diving over open water. Both point to baitfish concentrations.

KNOW THE NEIGHBORHOOD. A big part of the hunt for fall bass and the bait schools they follow comes down to recognizing the productive areas. Bluff walls that typically occur on the deeper side of a creek can be one of the most consistent fall producers, as the vertical structure provides a holding spot where bass can quickly adjust their depth to find the right water temperature by ascending or descending in the water column.

This is the sure bet; the place that typically produces some level of activity throughout the day. DeFoe values the bluffs, but he points out another consideration with day-making potential.

“In a creek arm with a steep side and a flat side, I look at both as having their own set of options,” he said. “The bluff is the safeguard. In the fall, I can go to a bluff and catch some fish and I may find a group of them. I can throw a shallow to medium diving crankbait or a jig and run across places throughout the day and put together a decent (5-fish) limit.

“On the other hand, I may fish flats half the day without catching a fish; but once I find them, I’m liable to catch 15 pounds in 15 minutes. So, it’s a matter of which do you want to focus on: Do you want to focus on the bluffs where you can pick up a fish here and there, or do you want to focus on the big groups of fish that have the bait pushed up there on the flats and are actively feeding?”

WATCH THE WEATHER. Speaking of weather, DeFoe knows that cold fronts bring major impacts that demand consideration. Before and during the front’s passage, fishing can be off the charts, as falling barometric pressure, cloudy skies and blustery winds can whip up one ferocious feeding frenzy. On the flip side, post-frontal conditions can be a real head-scratcher.

Here, the high pressure, cloudless skies, intense sunlight and lack of wind create an eerily still scenario in which bass tuck tight to shady cover and hunker down until conditions stabilize. This is generally considered “lock jaw” time, but bass still have to eat — they simply adjust their methods.

STAY CAST-READY. In closing, DeFoe points out that fall weather can take its toll on an angler’s performance. Certainly, chilly temperatures will tap away at one’s endurance, while the bright sun of post-frontal conditions unleashes solar harshness on one’s skin.

To keep himself in good physical and mental form, DeFoe won’t launch without his BUFF Multifunctional Headwear — possibly a Merino Wool or Polar model, as conditions dictate — and an appropriate pair of BUFF gloves.

“I like not only the sun protection and wind protection I get, but also the warmth around my neck,” DeFoe said. “Also, BUFF’s Merino Wool hats and the different models of gloves complement the Multifunctional Headwear. Having items that make you more comfortable on the water will relate to more casts per day and more fish in the boat.”

Getting A Lucky Feeling In A November Club Tournament at Lanier

On a Sunday in November 12 members and guests fished our November tournament at Lanier.  After eight hours of casting, we weighed in 31 keeper bass longer than the 14-inch size limit there.  There were two five fish limits and one zero.  There was only one largemouth, all the rest were spots.

    I won with five weighing 12.65 and had a 4.01-pound spot for big fish.  Zane Fleck had five at 10.26 pounds for second, third was Billy Roberts with four fish weighing 7.65 pounds and Kwong Yu placed fourth with three at 7.15 pounds.

    I guessed right.  While we were getting boats ready that morning I talked with fellow club member Russell
Prevatt.  He had been out with Lanier guide Jimbo that week and they had caught some good fish in 40 feet of water jigging spoons.  Other guides on Lanier had been posting pictures of all the three and four-pound spots they were catching from 35 to 50 feet deep on spoons.

    From all that I knew most of the big fish were deep. But I told Russell I was going to stick with what I feel most comfortable doing. If I got a limit, which I felt was very unlikely, I would try to catch fish deep. I planned to start with a spinnerbait then a jig and pig on rocky points, the way I won the Flint River tournament two weeks ago there.

    We took off at 7:00 and I ran out of the creek. As I went by the point I started on in the Flint River tournament I considered stopping there. I have caught a lot of spots there up to four pounds. But I had a feeling I should run to another point to start, mostly because I knew the wind would be blowing right on it.

    After making the short run I picked up a spinnerbait and started casting, quickly hooking a good spot. After putting it in my livewell I looked at my watch, it was 7:05!  I put my second keeper in the livewell at 7:10 and my third one that I estimated weighed about 3.5 pounds in it at 7:25.

    I felt pretty good about my catch. By now the sun was bright so I went back around the point to the shady side and fished it with spinnerbait and crankbait without a bite.  Back on the sunny side I picked up a swim bait and caught my fourth keeper at 8:00.

    I started to go look for deeper fish to try to fill my limit but decided to fish around the point more slowly with a jig and pig.  With the brighter light I could see rocks under the water. At 9:00 I cast my jig and pig to the same boulder where I had caught the 3.81-pound spot that was big fish in the Flint River tournament, got a bite on the same jig and pig as I caught it on, and landed the 4.01 pound spot.

    I had six hours left so I started looking for deeper fish, playing with my electronics, fine tuning them and looking for baitfish and bass in 40 to 50 feet of water. I fished several places that looked good but had no bites.

    With one hour left to fish I ran around to the point I almost started on and quickly caught a keeper on the jig and pig, but it was not big enough to cull anything in the live well.  That was it, I got no more bites before having to go in for weigh-in.

    I had a feeling that morning about what to do.  I get that rarely, but I think really good fishermen get it often.  I call it a sixth sense for fishing and I think pros and other really good fishermen have it often. That is what makes them so good. 
    I wish I had it more often!

Early Scouting for Bass

Early Scouting Prepares Bass Anglers For Cold Front Fallout

By David A. Brown

from The Fishing wire

“You gotta have a dream, if you don’t have a dream, how you gonna have a dream come true?”

That memorable tune from South Pacific finds Tonkinese mother Bloody Mary counseling Lieutenant Joe Cable on the pursuit of true happiness with her daughter Liat. But you have to wonder how the lyrics might’ve varied had the scene taken place around some western hemisphere bass factory like Lake Ouachita, Guntersville or Toledo Bend, instead of overlooking Bali Ha’i.

Maybe something like:

“You gotta have a stump, if you don’t have a stump, how you gonna catch a bass post-front?”

Broadway aside, there’s undeniable logic in knowing the likely spots where bass will seek refuge in the harsh conditions on the backside of a cold front. Raymarine pro Stephen Browning knows well this game and, in his estimation, fishing after a cold front is generally the toughest scenario a bass angler will face.

Browning confronts this daunting scenario with a well-conceived game plan based on forethought and strategy. But first, let’s look at how the scene unfolds.

As a weather system approaches the area, winds increase, skies turn cloudy, rain becomes more likely and the falling barometer spurs intense feeding. As the front moves through, the action continues and fish act like they want to eat the motor off the transom.

Then the front passes and things get weird. Wind goes flat, temperature drops, high pressure pushes every streak of cloud from the sky and the dreaded “bluebird” conditions can have you wondering if someone stole all the fish overnight.

Actually, the fish didn’t go anywhere; they’ve just tucked in close to the nearest cover. Remember, the only way bass can shield their eyes from intense post-front sunlight is to utilize shadows. Similarly, the solid cover they seek radiates absorbed heat — a biggie for shivering fish.

(For clarity, some bass winter on deep offshore spots, but, as Browning notes, a good number remain in mid-depth ranges and even push surprisingly shallow to feed.)

KNOW WHERE TO GO

Browning’s adept at locating bass when starting from scratch, but he also knows that bites can be hard to coax in post-frontal conditions, so less time looking means more time earning those bites. Therefore, he likes to attack these tough times with a hit list.

“What really helps me more than anything for post-front fishing is relying on my Raymarine DownVision, SideVision and RealVision 3D sonar to identifying isolated pieces of cover,” Browning said. “That may be a stump, the tip of a laydown, a small brush pile, different size rock and subsurface transition areas. All those things are where I start looking to target where those fish should move to.

“The cold front is going to put those fish directly onto those targets. I think that is the key — identifying the target and making presentations to that specific target. If you have stable weather, you can catch them in a lot of different places this time of year, but once that cold front hits, I think there going to jump in there beside that stump; they’re going hang out in that little cluster of rocks; they’re going to bury up in that tree top. That’s where your electronics can really save the day.”

WHAT TO THROW

When the front is approaching or passing, Browning gets much of his work done with Live Target mid-range crankbaits, or the Golden Shiner lipless crankbait. Remember, this is the period when bass have the feed bag on, so covering water with reaction baits is the way to go. Spinnerbaits and Z-Man ChatterBaits also fit this plan.

Now, when the front passes and the fish put on their pouty face, Browning says it’s time to slow down, refer to the waypoints he’s marked on his Raymarine Axiom and turn to the targeted presentation plan.

“On these days, I’m throwing two different baits: I’m throwing a 1/2- to 3/4-ounce Jewel football jig and I’m throwing a ball head shaky head jig with a 4- to 7-inch finesse worm,” Browning said. “I would rather catch a fish on a football jig because I feel that fish is going to be a little better quality.

“But if I really think I’m around fish, but they’re not taking the (larger) jig, that’s when I fall back on the shaky head. It doesn’t put out a lot of vibration; it is a super finesse style of fishing, even during the winter time.”

As for football jig trailer selection, Browning offers this advice: “I use a Z-Man Turbo CrawZ during times when I think the fish are feeding actively. When the front comes through and the fish are less active, I’ll use the more subtle Z-Man Bat WingZ, which is the standard split tail trailer. I’ll trim my jig skirt up really tight and try to make it a really compact profile.”

Emergent stumps are easy to spot, but Stephen Browning relies on his Raymarine unit to show him the deeper structures that will harbor post-frontal bass.

MIND THE DETAILS

Yeah, we have a general outline of what to expect on every page of the calendar, but nature bristles with variables; many of which can determine how greatly a weather system impacts a bass fishery. Among them:

Seasonal Severity: Simple math. If you have a full bag of M&Ms and I take a quarter of them, you still have plenty. But if your candy bag is only half full and I take 25 percent, you’re not going to be happy with me.

Apply this to a cold front and it’s easy to see that a mild fall/winter can absorb event a stout cold front if air and water temperatures have remained moderate. It’s those years when fall sees early and significant temperature declines that see subsequent cold fronts seriously denting the bass fishing scene.

Frontal Intensity: Expounding on the previous thought, a front’s impact is largely measured by how much the temperature drops. There’s no one-size-fits-all cold front formula. Some are mere irritations, others straight-up game changers. Also, the amount of rain a front brings can become a temporary factor, as runoff will stain the areas with concentrated inflows.

After Hours: Daytime temperatures certainly matter, but overnight lows can be the real bite killers. Consider that the pace at which a morning’s action unfolds directly correlates to the temperature deficit the sun must overcome. Other words, if the pre-front water was, say, 55 degrees and it dropped to 50 between sundown and sunup; it wouldn’t take too long for the the next day to reach a temperature at which the fish might cooperate. However, when the night of a cold front’s passage delivers a double-digit decline, you can take your time at the launch ramp — it’s gonna be a slow start.

Ultimately, each year and each cold front shapes up a little differently. There’s only so much predictability you can count on; and often, you simply have to hit the water and make a firsthand evaluation.

Of course that’s always easier when you have a place to start — and maybe find your dream come true.

also: Why Does A Cold Front Affect Bass?

Cold Front Bass Fishing Tactics