Some Tips for Catching Early Summer Smallmouth

Tips for Early-Summer Smallmouth Success
Experts share techniques for big brown bass bites
from St Croix Rods

Smallmouth caught on St. Croix rod

PARK FALLS, Wisc. (May 16, 2022) – Increasingly, today’s bass anglers love to tell you which species they prefer, brown or green. But it’s the former that continues to spawn a cult-like following. Even a self-described largemouth nut or honest walleye angler will admit to enjoying a smallmouth outing now and again. And for good reason; smallmouth bass fight hard and are widely distributed. But don’t be fooled by the big bags of brown bass from famous fisheries that continuously fill our media screens and social media feeds; smallies aren’t always such an easy target – especially the larger individuals over four pounds.

Just in time for some of the best smallmouth fishing of the year, allow us to put forth some serious smallmouth strategy, elicited from a couple of the best brown-bass anglers from throughout the bronze belt. Their home waters and tournament experiences have taught them to look for and recognize changing smallmouth patterns, quickly adapt to current conditions, and develop repeatable, winning techniques that work in a variety of settings – not just unpressured northern waters.

Bob’s Bites

Bassmaster Elite Series angler, Bob Downey, is no stranger to the podium and has some serious tournament finishes to prove it. Hailing from Hudson, Wisconsin, the St. Croix pro is part river guy, part lake guy, and 100% smallmouth guy at heart. He lists the Mississippi River as his favorite place to fish but has more “home water” in both Minnesota and Wisconsin than most could imagine.

When targeting smallies in natural lakes, Downey says he looks for large, shallow flats with a good mix of cover and a varied bottom composition. Cover specifically meaning boulders or patches of grass, and bottom composition variety in the form of sand-to-gravel or sand-to-rock transitions. “It’s usually a shallow-water game,” says Downey, who supplies prowess to the power-fishing game while focusing on water less than ten feet deep. “I’d rather fish a flat that has lots of bottom transitions with contour changes, patches, and clumps of scattered cover versus a plain sand flat with not much going on. I’m looking for variety. Fish spend time here post-spawn, and I feel I can power-fish my way to finding them, even if I need to slow down a little to get them to eat.”

Of course, that can be the challenge given weather patterns and fish that don’t always cooperate, which is why Downey keeps it simple for post-spawn smallies. “I’ll throw a black marabou hair jig first and foremost, and always keep a ned rig handy too,” he says. “In early summer, smallies tend to be concentrated. They won’t be everywhere, but when you find them you’ll generally find a good bunch. Covering lots of water until you locate them is key, and my favorite way to do that is with a black marabou hair jig.”
Search with a hair jig? Downey dives deeper. “I put the trolling motor on a medium to high speed and start covering shallower flats with deep water nearby. If you catch a smallmouth or start to see them with your eyes or side-imaging, put on the breaks and start picking that area apart,” he advises. “During post-spawn they’ll roam those same spawning flats before migrating to their summer areas.” Downey offers simple advice on working a hair jig to perfection, which may surprise some anglers who preach complex retrieves and subtle jigging strokes with this bait that seems to “breathe” underwater. “Don’t overthink the hair jig,” he says. “Simply cast it out and reel it back in at a steady pace. Much like you’d fish a spinnerbait or small swimbait. The bait should just glide through the middle of the water column. You don’t need to impart any action yourself, although you certainly can… or fish it on the bottom… but I find more success with just a straight retrieve.” Downey describes the hair jig as a deadly little bait that excels in all phases of early summer on those hot, calm days where the fish are post-spawn. “There have been days where that’s the only bait I need in the spring or early summer,” he reports. “It couldn’t be any easier or more effective.”
Downey offers a few tips to help cast hair jigs farther. “Add a small chunk of an old plastic worm to the shank of the hook up under the hair. These jigs are generally 1/16-to-1/8 ounce, so a little added plastic will help with casting distance,” says Downey. “Use thin, six-to-eight-pound braided line on your spinning reel with a shorter three-foot fluorocarbon leader so the leader knot doesn’t have to pass through as many – or any – guides during casting.” Downey is a fan of the FG knot for connecting braid to fluoro, noting, “I know it can be a difficult knot to learn, but it’s superior to any other when throwing a hair jig.”

Downey selects the 7’6” MLXF (ES76MLXF) Legend Elite or 7’10” MLXF Legend Tournament Bass (LBTS710MLXF) rods from St. Croix to do damage marabou-style, and the 7’0’MF Legend Elite (ES70MF) for ned rigging.

“The length and action of a rod may be the most important component of throwing a hair jig,” he says. “It’s difficult to cast a light jig with a short, stiff rod. You need at least a 7’ medium or medium-light power and a fast or extra-fast tip. I prefer a 7’6″ to 7’10” rod in MLXF. It makes a difference. The medium-light power gives me a soft rod that absorbs the strike and the big head shakes during the fight, and ultimately allows me to land big smallmouth on a tiny bait. The extra length and extra-fast tip gives me the sharp ‘whip’ needed to snap that little jig way out away from the boat. There are some techniques in bass fishing where you could use a wide array of rods and get away with it, but the hair jig is not one of them.”
When asked what’s around the corner as early bites give way to mid and late summer, Downey says the fish start to split up, both shallow and deep. “Shallow areas can and will play all summer long depending on the weather conditions; sunny, flat, calm, hot days are best,” says Downey. “Shallow fish are super fun, but they can be less dependable at times. They move around a lot and are here today, gone tomorrow.” While that may make them his preferred fish to take a crack at for fun, it’s harder to cash tournament checks just throwing shallow.

That’s where deep-water strategies come in. “Fish that set up on deep structure tend to be a little more reliable,” advises Downey, who likes to target deep fish with a variety of presentations depending on the conditions. “I’ll chase deep smallies with ned rigs, drop shots, finesse jigs and reaction baits depending on the weather. There’s just so many ways you can catch them when they’re out deeper. Crankbaits, swimbaits, spybaits… that’s what makes summer so much fun when chasing smallmouth. And no matter what I’m doing, St. Croix makes an ideal rod for the presentation.”

Travis’ Take

Travis Manson is a familiar name to smallmouth anglers throughout the US. Both his guide service and popular YouTube channel are named “Smallmouth Crush” for good reason. A native of Northeastern Wisconsin, Manson honed his craft and love of smallmouth in the Northwoods but spread wings out east where he currently fishes more than 200 days a year on Lake Ontario, the St. Lawrence River, and even the Upper Chesapeake Bay. His experience on such varied smallmouth waters has accelerated his understanding of patterns and behaviors, ultimately helping his clients catch more fish along the way.
Although the smallmouth spawn can extend well into June – even early July – in some Great Lakes fisheries, early summer means post-spawn behavior in most of the areas Manson plies. “I’m generally targeting areas close to spawning bays and grounds, looking shallow but anticipating a deeper summer setup,” he reports. “Not every fish is going to be deep the rest of the year, as there’s always resident shallow-water fish.” Given the choice, he advises fishing a mixture of both, but starting shallow first. “I start in three feet of water down to 15, focusing heavily on that eight-to-12-foot zone, which I find key.”

Like any talented smallmouth angler, Manson makes moves based on the conditions of the day. “On high-sun and calm days I’m looking for cruisers,” says Manson. “I climb to the highest point of the boat, put the trolling motor on high and tend to throw reaction baits to cover water and visually locate them. It’s really about casting to an individual.” That can mean looking for individual boulders or structure too, not just fish. “If a fish isn’t on a good boulder, I’ll mark it and come back during different parts of the year,” he says. “Anything from something the size of a bowling ball all the way up to a truck-sized boulder, I’m marking it ‘rock’ on the graph and visiting it often.”
When he’s throwing at rocks or really any shallow structure, Manson prefers finesse swimbaits and other plastics. “I’m using swim-head designs with a screwlock, which helps me get more use out of my plastics. I can have some good days up shallow, meaning 30 or 40 fish an outing, so keeping those plastics from being thrown can be really useful when guiding,” says Manson. “For the most part I’m using three- and four-inch baits in natural colors to mimic live minnows, like whites, ghost, or smoke colors. On some systems where there’s perch, I’ll mix in those colors and chartreuse as well.”

Other finesse plastics like tubes or creature baits get the nod in systems dominated by gobies. “There, I’ll focus on bottom baits in green pumpkin, straight black, or classic goby colors, paired with a mushroom-head-type jig,” says Manson. “Even a Senko can be deadly here, just pitching visually towards cover or even active fish.” Manson uses swimbaits and finesse plastics in concert, as a one-two punch, often seeing the fish approach or hit the swimbait. “I get some follows at times where fish pull off near the boat and then just hover by bottom. I’ll swing the boat around, get in position, then throw that finesse bait back to them in those cases.”

Manson is a huge fan of St. Croix’s Victory Series in general for smallmouth, specifically, the Victory Crosshair rod (VTS710MLXF) for swimbaits. “It’s a great hair jig rod,” says Manson, “but it’s incredible for long-cast techniques on all light jig heads in general. While it’s nice to have the distance, with the way a fish bites swimbaits, it’s really critical to have that long rod and extra-fast action.” Manson appreciates the extra length on the Victory Crosshair rod for another reason, too. “These fish are so good at getting off,” he says. “A longer rod aids your ability to do battle and keep them buttoned up.”

For presenting soft-plastic finesse baits, Manson emphasizes the importance of sensitivity. “I won’t fish anything here but St. Croix Legend Xtreme rods in 6’10” (XFS610MLXF) or 7’3” (XFS73MLXF), both in medium light power and extra fast actions,” he says. “Finesse means feel, and feel is the everything of these rods. I can get the distance on many long rods, but to feel bites versus rocks or baitfish, these are the sticks.” Manson uses his Legend Xtremes specifically for working baits across bottom, where contact is key. “I feel where to throw the bait and prefer medium-light powers to run lighter jigs with so much control. I’ve got all the power I need for hook-setting and fighting, while still maintaining control of a small jig, which is tough for most rods.”

Come mid-summer, Manson shifts his focus to offshore structure like ledges, humps, and especially long points that extend into deep water. “That’s where you find the big schools,” says Manson, who spends a good amount of time watching side-imaging, but more importantly, standard 2D sonar to find these big pods of active, deep-water smallmouth. “These fish show up and stay for weeks at a time, and often do so year after year. Still, smallies are notorious for being here today and gone tomorrow, which is why I confirm everything on sonar before setting up to fish.”
There’s no denying that the late-spring and early-summer timeframes deliver some of the best opportunities of the season to score big smallmouth catches, especially if you follow the recommendations of our experts.

Their advice is as solid as the chunky bronzebacks they’re sticking on a regular basis.

AFTCO Solpro Fishing Gloves Review

AFTCO gloves
Cutouts allow good contact with rod for feel

For years I searched for gloves I could wear while fishing.  I have dozens of pairs on which I spent way too much money and wore once.  None allowed me to feel the bites, cast both bait caster and spinning reel, protect me from sun in summer and stay warm in winter.

    At the Georgia Outdoor Writers Association meeting this past spring our “goody” bag included a pair of AFTCO Solpro fishing gloves. I thought the size was marked wrong, the XXL looked way too small for my hands.  But I struggled and got them on, and they “fit like a glove!”

    They are snug on my hands, but that helps feel the rod and reel while fishing.  The fingertips are cut out as are the palms, giving me good skin contact with line, rod and reel.  And they have protected my hands from sunburn this spring and my hands have not gotten hot while wearing them, either.

    I did not think they would be very warm in the winter and I am not sure they will be. But when I pick up a cold can of Diet Rite Cola I feel the cold on my palm and fingertips but not where the glove material is between my hand and the can.  I hope that means they will be warm.

    The tight gloves are hard to get on and I have to be careful to get my fingers headed in the right direction, but it gets easier each time I put them on.  I put them on each morning when the sun starts to get warm. 

With them and a gaiter, a simple tube of sun block stretchable cloth that goes over my head and covers my ears, neck and most of my face, I am well protected without putting on sunscreen except on the tip of my nose.  The gaiter was given to me when I attended a Bassmasters Classic as a media observer a few years ago.

Just my luck, when I went to the company site apparently the Solpro gloves are no longer available. That is probably why they were given to us, they are discontinued. It looks like they have been replaced with a “Solago” named glove.  It looks the same in pictures.

The Solago sun gloves sell for $29.00.  I am ordering a spare pair, but was disappointed when shipping cost $9.99, over a third of the cost of the gloves!  They did offer a free gaiter with my first order, though. 

And after I got home from my trip, Linda asked if I thought to check Amazon. I had not, they were the same price but shipping was free if you are a Prime member. I could have saved $10 if I had not been in such a hurry!

BASS Founder Ray Scott Dead At 88 Years Old

RAY SCOTT DEAD AT 88

from The Fishing Wire

Ray Scott Dead at 88

Ray Scott, the man who founded Fishing Tackle Retailer (FTR) and the Bass Anglers Sportsman Society (BASS) and forged the modern sportfishing industry died in Montgomery, Alabama, Sunday night of natural causes. He was 88 years old.

Born in Montgomery in 1933, Scott’s legend is well known among bass anglers. He was an insurance salesman who dreamed of taking bass fishing to a wider audience. In 1967, while waiting out some bad weather on a fishing trip, Scott sat in his motel room and had an epiphany. He would create a bass tournament format that would be fair, honest, and compelling. He dreamed of a time when professional bass fishing would appear on television alongside traditional spectator sports.

“It all just came to me,” Scott said. “I knew it would work.”

In June of 1967, he organized and conducted the All-American bass fishing tournament on Beaver Lake in Arkansas — the first modern bass competition and the template for all that have followed. Six months later, he started BASS, one of the largest fishing membership organizations in history. In 1968, he published the first issue of Bassmaster Magazine. In 1984, he launched “The Bassmasters” television program. About that same time, Scott started Fishing Tackle Retailer magazine as a division of BASS. It was his foray into the larger tackle industry and created a platform through which he could speak to retailers and industry professionals across the country and across all angling demographics.

“He created an entire industry,” said FTR co-publisher Brian Thurston. “Ray was probably the most influential individual sportfishing has ever seen and one of the best promoters of all time.”

It would be almost impossible to overstate the importance of Scott in the bass fishing world specifically and in the sportfishing world generally.

While growing BASS — which peaked at about 750,000 members and still boasts over half a million — Scott impacted virtually every other aspect of modern sportfishing, from water quality to safety to catch-and-release. He was a visionary, a trailblazer, an evangelist, an igniter, a showman, a salesman, a marketer, an entrepreneur, a publisher, a conservationist, and a leader. Most of those who work in the bass fishing industry and many in the sportfishing industry owe their careers to him.

Scott sold BASS and FTR to a group of investors in 1986, but he stayed involved as an executive and as the face of BASS. In the 1990s, he created Ray Scott Outdoors, a communications and marketing firm for fishing industry products and companies. Throughout the ’90s, he was a fixture at industry trade and consumer shows.

But fishing was not Scott’s only interest or passion, he also founded the Whitetail Institute of North America, advancing nutrition and habitat efforts for America’s favorite big game animal. And Scott was involved in politics, supporting the presidential bids of George H.W. Bush in 1980, 1988, and 1992. For several decades, Scott dedicated much of his time and resources to supporting his church — Pintlala Baptist Church in Pintlala, Alabama.

He is survived by his wife, Susan, and four children. Funeral services have yet to be announced.

Flint River Bass Club May West Point Bass Tournament

Last Saturday nine members of the Flint River Bass Club fished our May tournament at West Point. We cast from 6:30 AM to 2:30 PM to land 21 keeper bass weighing about 30 pounds.  Three people had five bass limits and two members did not catch a fish.

Niles Murray won with five bass weighing 8.05 pounds and had a 2.99 pound largemouth for big fish.  Lee Hancock came in second with five weighing 6.19 pounds, my five at 5.88 pounds was third and Doug Acree placed fourth with four at 5.46 pounds.

I have a favorite shallow gravel point in the spring at West Point near the dam. Shad spawn on it and I have caught many fish on it in April and May in past tournaments.

In one tournament about ten years ago I got seven hits on my first seven casts with a topwater popper. I landed five, putting my limit in the live well in less than ten minutes.  They were 14-inch spots and I ended up culling all of them later but that was a fast, fun ten minutes!

Shad were spawning there Saturday morning and I caught two keeper spots and two hybrids in the few minutes before the sunlight hit the water.  Then it got tough.  I had only one bite, a small keeper fish that jumped and threw my buzzbait at about 9:00 AM. 

The wind got strong and it was surprisingly cold.   I headed up the lake to fish a protected creek at 11:00 AM and noticed a small secondary point that I like to fish in a cove. And it looked protected from the wind.

I pulled in there and caught three keepers, filling my limit in the next 30 minutes.  Although I fished hard I got only one more bite, a keeper that culled my smallest spot, at 2:00, just 30 minutes before weigh-in.

Two of my bass and both hybrids came on a topwater popper, two on a Carolina rig and one on a shaky head worm.

How To Catch Walleye In the Weeds

WALLEYES IN THE WEEDS

from The Fishing Wire

Walleyes in the Weeds

Fishing aquatic vegetation is second nature to bass anglers, but the green stuff is just as crucial for walleye fishing. They use weedlines as travel routes and know that grass holds plenty of forage, making them the perfect place to search for their next meal.

A trio of Wisconsin guides, Josh Teigen, Troy Peterson, and Jeff Evans, search out weeds in the late spring and early summer months. They have different approaches to fishing them, but they all work and help them and their clients catch some of their biggest walleyes of the year.

Slip Bobbers on Weedlines

Iron River, Wisconsin’s, Jeff Evans guides clients on various lakes for walleye from the May opener through the entire fishing season. Many tactics work when targeting grass on inland lakes for Evans, but he says a slip bobber rig with a minnow or leech is hard to beat.

“After the walleye spawn, they recover in deep water and then head to the weeds,” says Evans. “As the new weed beds emerge, the walleye will follow the green, new growth and you can find these areas on your side imaging. They’ll follow the edge as new grass grows and later in the year it might be in 15 to 20-feet of water on clear lakes, but only 8 to 12-feet of water on more stained lakes.”

According to Evans, the bite typically lasts until the 4th of July, when many walleye switch gears to mud basins, reefs and points. “Some years, the bite can go all summer long and into the fall months,” he says. “My theory is that it has to do with water temperatures. If it gets into the 70s too early, they’ll get out deeper quicker, but they stick around if it’s a gradual rise.”

Evans likes to rig up his clients with a 7-foot medium-light spinning rod and a quality reel spooled with 30 lb Seaguar Smackdown Flash Green braid with a leader of 10 lb Gold Label fluorocarbon. On the business end, it’s generally a slip bobber set to the desired depth with a slip knot and a ¼-ounce egg sinker. He then rigs a barrel swivel with an 18-inch leader of Gold Label with either a #1 Octopus hook or 1/16-ounce jighead used to rig the leech or minnow.

“The medium-light rod is helpful because people tend to overset the hook with a slip bobber when they see it go down and you want a little flex,” he said. “I like the bobber set so that it barely floats in the water to detect light bites. Smackdown has been the perfect braided line because it holds the slip knot very well, where with some braids, it will slip. Gold Label has been excellent because it’s limp, strong, and invisible to walleye that are notoriously line shy.”

Teigen’s Ripping Approach

Josh Tiegen fishes many of the same waters as Evans, from inland lakes on the Eau Claire and Pike Lake chains to Chequamegon Bay on Lake Superior to the Hayward area lakes. He uses the same approach everywhere he goes for walleye in the weeds: rip the bait free from grass.

“I always tell my clients that if you are not getting grass on your bait once in a while, you are fishing it too fast or not around enough grass,” he says. “If you are getting grass on your bait every time, it’s moving too slowly. Ideally, it should be one out of every five casts that you come back with grass, the key is just to be ticking it and if you rip it free when you feel the grass, that’s where many of the bites occur.”

Teigen chooses hard jerkbaits, soft jerkbaits, and a spoon as his top weapons for walleye around vegetation.

“A 5-inch Kalin’s Jerk Minnow on a ¼-ounce darter head jig is great for fishing the weeds and the darter head does a good job coming through it,” says Teigen. “I also like a 3/8-ounce gold Acme Kastmaster spoon for fishing the edges and a Livingston Jerkmaster jerkbait for fishing along the edge or over top of the grass.”

For the Jerk Minnow and Kastmaster, he opts for a 7-foot medium-light spinning reel with a fast speed spinning reel, and for the jerkbait, he goes up to a medium-action rod. For all three, he fishes them with 20 lb Seaguar Smackdown Flash Green braid with a leader of 12 lb Gold Label.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=MnrgG6boLpk%3Ffeature%3Doembed%26wmode%3Dopaque

“The high visibility green color is the way to go because we are ripping these baits free from the grass and you’ll see your line jump even when you don’t feel the bite with your rod,” he says. “Using braid is important because you need to make hard pops with the rod to free the bait from grass and you need the zero stretch. I’ll use a 3 to 4-foot leader of Gold Label and as spooky as these walleye can be, the invisibility of the line makes a big difference in getting more bites.”

Fishing for walleye this way is one of Teigen’s favorites, starting at the end of May and into the summer months; plus, it’s a way to fool some of the biggest walleye in the lake.

“Many walleye guys troll and it’s too hard for them to fish around grass effectively because you are always hanging up, so not as many people are fishing for them this way,” he says. “Plus, it seems like my biggest walleyes of the year always come from the weeds. I’ve seen that the bigger ones gravitate there instead of the rock and mud.”

Dippin’ for Walleye

Early in the year, guide and tournament angler, Troy Peterson, breaks out specialized gear for a unique way to target walleye, dipping emerging grass with leeches and nightcrawlers on a 1/16 or 3/32-ounce jighead. He likes the leeches for the movement they create on the jighead and nightcrawlers for the added scent, but they are both solid choices.

“It’s all about finding the greenest weeds you can find, whether they are cane beds or rice paddies that have been brown all winter and are just starting to turn green as they grow again,” says Peterson. “The new sprouts have fresh oxygen and gather minnows and the walleye are there for them in really shallow water, mostly 3 to 5-feet of water. It starts in mid-May and usually goes until the first week of June. Then when the carp start spawning and causing a commotion and stirring bottom in June, it’s the same bite in the same places as the walleye are there to feed on stirred up crustaceans.”

Stealth is key with this approach and Peterson uses his bow-mount trolling motor to slowly move along the grass line, dipping his bait into the holes and edges of the new grass. The rod of choice used by “dippers” is generally over 10-feet long, with custom 12 and 14-foot medium-light spinning rods a common choice.

“Some even use cane poles because there is no casting; you simply drop the bait in and let it fall to the bottom before moving to the next one,” he says. “It’s a highly visual technique and you wait until your line starts to move when one gets it. We use 10 lb Seaguar Smackdown Flash Green braid with a leader of 6 or 8 lb Gold Label fluorocarbon because they both have tiny diameters and the bright green braid helps you detect bites.”

Peterson uses this approach throughout the Winnebago Chain of Lakes and says it’s usually the way to win all of the early season walleye derbies there. “It’s a big fish technique, but the trick is to stay stealthy,” he says. “That’s why we use the long rods to stay away from the fish. It’s better than using a slip bobber because that can spook fish this shallow.”

You can fish for walleyes in vegetation with many approaches, but it’s apparent that it’s the place to be early in the year as new growth is just starting after a long cold winter. These three methods for targeting them have all proven to be excellent for early season walleye in the weeds.

Seaguar Smackdown braid is available in high visibility Flash Green and low visibility Stealth Gray. It is available in 150-yards spools in sizes ranging from 10 to 65 lb test.

Coming Soon — 300 yard spools of Smackdown braid

Seaguar Gold Label fluorocarbon leader is available in twenty five-yard spools in 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 & 12 lb test for fresh water use, complementing the 15, 20, 25, 30, 40 , 50 , 60 and 80 lb. test leaders available for saltwater. Coming Soon — 50 yard spools of Gold Label

April Flint River Bass Club Lake Oconee Tournament

At Oconee last Sunday six members and guests fished the Flint River April tournament. After casting from 7:00 AM to 3:00 PM, we brought 13 largemouth meeting the 14-inch length requirement to the scales. The total weight was about 26 pounds.  One person had a limit and there were two zeros.

     Niles Murray won with the limit weighing 9.61 pounds and my four weighing 6.32 pounds was second. Brent Drake placed third with two at 5.52 pounds and his 3.55 pounder was big fish. Don Gober had two weighing 3.75 pounds for fourth.

    Niles had fished a bigger tournament at Oconee on Saturday, the region 72 American Bass Anglers trail, with more than 40 boats in it. It took 18 pounds to win it and about 13 to get a check. Niles had 11 pounds.

    That trail is extremely tough, fishing Oconee and Sinclair for their tournaments. And several of the fishermen are really good on both lakes and some of them are able to fish them almost every day.  Its hard to compete against folks like that.

    A young man named Grant Kelly won that tournament. I did a magazine article with Grant when he was a college student in Milledgeville and followed up a few years later as he started his professional career. He is an excellent young fisherman, winning many local tournaments. I expect to see his name in the tournament results for many years as he works up the professional ladder of bass tournaments.

    In our tournament I started out good, catching a decent keeper on a spinnerbait the first place I stopped. Then I landed two more casting a shaky head worm to docks before 11:00.

I thought with three in the livewell half-way through the tournament I could land a five-bass limit, but at 2:00 I landed my fourth one. It was a two-pound bass that was feeding in the shade from a tree that was on the water between docks. It was in only about a foot of water. I never got the fifth one. I did catch six or seven fish under the 14-inch limit.

    Fishing should get better and better for the next few weeks.

How and Where to Catch Midwest Walleyes

The walleye may be the Midwest’s  most popular, albeit often hard-to-catch, game fish. It is known for not only having great-tasting fillets, but also for growing big and providing anglers a fishing challenge.

Despite its reputation for being hard to catch, at certain times of the year walleyes can be taken by both boat and bank anglers with average skills.

Joe Rydell, a fisheries biologist for the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission’s northwest district, said we are in the midst of one time to target walleyes. In April, Nebraska’s walleyes are spawning, or getting ready to, so the population becomes concentrated in shallow water.If you do not have success now, however, try it a little later.

“The best month to catch them in is probably going to be toward the end of May and into June, when these fish are coming off of spawning. They’ve had ample time to rest and, at that time of year, they’re really concentrating on feeding,” Rydell said.Especially for anglers seeking big walleyes, fall also can be good fishing for the species.As with most fish and game, knowing what those toothy walleyes want lends clues to when and where you will find them.

“They’re a predator fish. So, first of all, before you figure out what kind of habitat you’re going to search, you’ve got to figure out what they’re going to be eating in that water body,” Rydell said. “They’ll be hanging around that food source. In some lakes, that may entail a good rock bottom, or rock structures. In other lakes that are more vegetated, they may be along the weedline. In lakes that have a combination of both, it could be some woody debris or rock structures that are intermixed among those weed beds. At certain times of the year, even though they’re big fish, they may be concentrating on a bug hatch.

”Daryl Bauer, Game and Parks fisheries outreach manager, said a variety of artificial and live baits are effective.“Casting jigs and crankbaits, still-fishing or drifting live bait rigs, and trolling crankbaits or live-bait rigs can all be successful techniques for catching walleyes from Nebraska waters,” Bauer said. “However, I would tell you that more walleyes have been caught from Nebraska waters drifting or trolling a bottom-bouncer and live-bait rig of some type, usually a spinner and nightcrawler, than any other presentation.

”Anglers should consider the species’ name when choosing a time of day to fish. The walleye is so named for its pearlescent eye that features a reflective layer of pigment to seek prey in low light or murky water conditions.“Fishing more of the crepuscular period, your sunrise and sunset, are better times to catch them,” Rydell said. “Maybe even fishing in the dark a little bit.”Bauer said the time of day should dictate your approach.

“Walleye anglers spend so much time trying to finesse walleyes, often small walleyes, into nibbling on some live-bait presentation because they are fishing for relatively inactive fish during bright midday conditions,” he said. “If you fish during low-light periods, early and late in the day, after dark, cloudy, gloomy days, or when the wind blows, you will find an entirely different fish — a fish that is the apex, top-of-the-food-chain predator that they really are. They have a mouth full of sharp teeth for a reason, and during prime times they are mobile, agile and hostile.”In Nebraska, serious walleye anglers often look to the west and central parts of the state.

“The best habitats for walleyes are large bodies of water, large rivers, large natural lakes and large reservoirs,” Bauer said. “In Nebraska, that means our large reservoirs, primarily irrigation reservoirs in the central and western parts of the state, are our best walleye habitats. Walleyes are a cool-water fish, a predator, primarily an open-water predator. They thrive in those larger water bodies that have an abundance of open-water baitfish.”

Rydell said surveys show Winters Creek Lake on the North Platte National Wildlife Refuge near Scottsbluff to have the highest density of walleyes in Game and Parks’ northwestern district with a substantial population of fish between 17-19 inches. Nearby Lake Minatare is down a little from previous years, but still has a sizable population of 17- to 20-inch fish.Those seeking big walleyes in the west, Rydell said, should look to Whitney Reservoir in Dawes County and Merritt Reservoir near Valentine.Box Butte Reservoir, another Dawes County destination, is also on Rydell’s list of solid opportunities.“Box Butte is kind of coming on with a nice walleye population,” he said. “We have a year-class that, last year, was about 13½ inches that should be about 15 this year. With pike numbers down in that lake, and that year class coming on, it will be one that should produce some nice walleye fishing in the future.

”Nebraska’s walleye population gets considerable help from the Game and Parks’ fisheries staff, who collect eggs and milt from walleyes early in the year at Merritt Reservoir, Sherman Reservoir and sometimes Lake McConaughy. Fertilized eggs are taken to Nebraska State Fish Hatcheries, usually Calamus and North Platte, for hatching and rearing. It’s a much more effective approach to growing walleye populations than what happens naturally.

How long the fish stay in the hatchery depends on the habitat and other factors of their destination. They can be released as 4-day-old fry, fingerlings, or sometimes 8-inch advanced fingerlings.“Depending on the water body, all of those walleye stocking strategies have proven successful in Nebraska waters,” Bauer said. “In some waters fry stocking is successful and very inexpensive. In other waters fingerling stockings are most successful. The advanced fingerling stockings are most intensive and most expensive but have been relatively successful in smaller water bodies that are too small to be ideal walleye habitats. In those smaller water bodies the advanced fingerling stockings offer anglers an opportunity to catch a walleye or two from those waters once in a while.

The minimum requirement for walleyes in Nebraska’s lakes is 15 inches and only one over 22 may be kept. Special regulations exist at Merritt, Sherman, Calamus, Elwood, Harlan County and Branched Oak.A walleye of 28 inches or 8 pounds qualifies for a Nebraska Master Angler award. The state’s walleye record is a 16-pound, 2-ounce specimen caught at Lake McConaughy by Herbert Cutshall of Ogallala in 1971. Records indicate he caught it on a Storm ThinFin crankbait.Whatever the approach, as long as anglers are mindful of regulations and recommendations regarding the coronavirus issue, it may be time to target Nebraska’s big tasty, toothy predator fish of the dark.

From the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission

Biden’s Ridiculous Hype On Ghost Guns and Other Lies

Mail order guns. Zip guns. Saturday night specials.  Automatic (semiautomatic) weapons.  Assault weapons.  Those are just a few of the buzzwords used by gun banners to scare folks over my lifetime, demanding they be banned to stop crime. Now the buzzword is “ghost gun.”

    I watched Biden talk about guns and his planned bans last week with disgust but not surprise.  From the stupid claim that the 2nd Amendment has something to do with deer hunting to the flat out lie that gun manufacturers are the only ones protected from libility lawsuits, he was either totally ill-informed or intentionally making “stuff” up.
    A few years ago gun banners started suing gun manufacturers and businesses selling guns when a gun was used in a crime, trying to sue them out of business. If you believe in that tactic you believe if someone buys a gallon of gasoline and burns their house down, the gas station selling it and the corporation producing it should be sued.

    It got so bad a bipartisan congress passed a law against frivolous lawsuits suing gun manufactures when their product was misused. That makes them equal to and have exactly the same liability as every other manufacturer in the US.

    Liability laws apply to defects in products, not when they work but are misused.  If a gun malfunctions due to a defect and hurts someone, the manufacturer can be sued.  Now the tactic is to sue gun businesses for advertising, saying they are promoting a dangerous item to unstable people.

    That worked, Remington Arms is bankrupt due to this underhanded tactic. Unfortunately, Remington’s insurance companies settled out of court although the suers had no proof and it never got a hearing.

    Supposedly, some ghost guns are guns put together by individuals from parts and do not have a serial number.  It is nothing but a ploy to draw attention from and not face the real problem.  As long as you blame an inanimate object for a problem, you are deflecting and fooling folks, not doing anything to help.

    It is ironic the day after Biden hyped his gun ban agenda, a regular handgun was used in a mass shooting on the subway in New York City. They media did try to hype the pistol as a dangerous either 380 or 9mm handgun and claimed it had an “extended” magazine.” 

No ghost gun used. 

The term “ghost gun” can apparently mean any gun without a serial number.  Guns manufactured since 1968 had been required to have one.  If I want a ghost gun I am going to file the serial number off one of my numerous guns, not go to the trouble of putting together a kit.

Maybe the Biden administration should ban files?

Focusing on a hunk of metal and plastic, rather than the criminal misusing a tool, is idiotic. Currently a felon caught with a gun is often let go, usually within a few days at most, and they are free to steal a gun and file the number off or make their own from a kit. Which do you think they would find easier? 

The criminal shooting homeless in New York and Chicago recently was three-time felon.  Less than two years before his shooting spree, he was arrested for another felony but released after serving only five months of a one-year sentence after his last arrest because a liberal prosecutor would not charge him with a felony but reduced his charge. 

That is the problem, not guns.

Facts Fiction and Fools On Gun Control

It never fails. Laws that restrict law-abiding citizens and that are ignored by criminals are relaxed and the gun banners go wild.  As soon as the Georgia legislature started considering “Constitutional Carry,” allowing us law-abiding citizens to carry our guns without getting permission from the government, the horror stories started.

    I got a special kick out of a Griffin Daily News editorial last week where the writer claimed, “studies show relaxing gun laws increase crime.” He then went on and on with his opinion. When working on my Masters and Doctorate degrees I was repeatedly told if I used the phrase “studies show” without documenting those studies, I would get an “F.”

    I actually looked us some “studies” of making gun laws less strict and making laws follow the US Constitution and the 2nd Amendment more closely.  Gary Kleck is a criminologists and Professor Emeritus of Criminology at Florida State University.  A quick search of his name came up with at least 10 documented, statistically sound studies on how guns reduce crime. (https://criminology.fsu.edu/faculty-and-staff/gary-kleck

Gary Kleck | College of Criminology & Criminal JusticeProfessor Kleck’s recent research has found that employing more police officers or increasing police productivity in the form of more arrests per officer has no measurable effect on the public’s level of fear of crime. Other recent research found that support for harsher punishment of criminals is not affected by a person’s exposure to crime as a crime victim, living in a high-crime area …criminology.fsu.edu

)

I also found this surprising comment in the British Journal of Criminology from Marvin Wolfgang, the “most influential criminologists in the English-Speaking World:” I am as strong a gun-control advocate as can be found. The Kleck study impresses me for the caution exercised and the elaborate nuances they examine methodologically.  “I do not like their conclusions that having a gun can be useful, but I can not fault their methodology.”

John R. Lott has a BA, MA and PhD from UCLA in economics.  He has been a professor of law and economics at the Yale Law School, UCLA, Texas A&M, Rice University, and others.  In his two books, “More Guns, Less Crime and “The Bias Against Guns,” he presented research that showed allowing adults to carry concealed weapons significantly reduces crime.

Some with an antigun agenda have nitpicked these studies, trying to find exceptions that prove it wrong, but the ones I read just offered opinions, not proven research. Of course I have a pro-gun bias.

I have owed guns since getting a BB gun when I had my tonsils out at six years old, and two years later got my first real firearm, a dreaded “semiautomatic rifle” with one of those “high capacity magazines” that held 17 rounds of bullets that had aa range of one mile.  That .22 has killed a lot of birds and squirrels but has never been used in a crime.

Criminals ignore laws.  Read the Griffin Daily News crime reports that often included “charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.”  Relaxing the permit requirement to carry a gun affects law-abiding citizens like me, not felons and other criminals.

Expect more “the sky is falling and we all will be shot” whines in response to this law. Just know they are emotions, not facts.

Mississippi Kites and Swallow Tail Kites

At the Sportsman Club meeting last Tuesday Raymond English said he thought I was talking about a Mississippi Kite when I wrote about seeing a Swallow-tailed Kite.  He told me he saw the Mississippi Kite one time and he had to get more information about it.  So I did too!

    I am not sure I have ever seen one, but maybe. Griffin is right on the edge of their territory and they are rare here. They look similar to sparrowhawks that are common here and I may have confused them. Sparrowhawks are actually American Kestrels, a type of falcon rather than a hawk.

The Mississippi Kite is a little bigger, with body length about 14 inches and wingspan of about 30 compared to a sparrowhawk with body 12 inches and wingspan about 24 inches. Sparrowhawks have more brown while Mississippi Kites are more gray, but young kites have more brown with bars so they look very much like sparrowhawks.

    Mississippi kites do not have a forked tail that makes the Swallow-tailed kite stand out. But one interesting fact – Mississippi Kites often build their nests near wasps nest – maybe wasps help protect the young birds!

Right now males of all species are in full mating colors so they really stand out. Male bluebirds in my back yard are very colorful but will fade some in the coming weeks as they mate and nest.

I will be on the lookout for them and other interesting birds this spring, while fishing and other times. It is much easier to look up new bird sightings now we have the internet.  It is fast and easy compared to the old book field guides I used for years.