All-New Legend Tournament Bass Series from St. Croix

Fish a Legend

St. Croix set to drop all-new Legend Tournament Bass Series at the 2022 Bassmaster Classic

PARK FALLS, Wisc. (February 28, 2022) – Having the blues is never a good thing, unless, of course, you’re a bass angler with a deck full of St. Croix Legend Tournament Bass rods. Introduced some 17 years ago and consistently refined and expanded over the past decade, this coveted collection of technique-specific casting and spinning rods quickly grew to become a favorite of performance-minded bass anglers seeking an elite combination of St. Croix materials and technologies.

The Rebirth of a Legend Building on its expanding and proprietary expertise with hybrid blank engineering and construction, St. Croix Rod announces its latest expression of angler-centric design, an all-new series of Legend Tournament Bass rods that are lighter, stronger, and poised to elevate the bass-fishing experience with improved balance, performance, and capability in any technique or presentation.

Scheduled to be unveiled at stcroixrods.com and in the St. Croix booth (#2231) at the 2022 Bassmaster Classic Expo in Greenville, South Carolina, March 4, these 24 all-new Legend Tournament Bass casting and spinning rods will feature next-generation hybrid SCIV+ carbon fiber blanks.

Select reaction bait models will feature all-new iACT Glass hybrid blanks.

In addition to their unique combination of proprietary materials, all-new Legend Tournament Bass rods will also incorporate all of St. Croix’s top technologies. Handcrafted in Park Falls, Wisconsin, USA, new Legend Tournament Bass rods will come with a 15-year transferrable warranty backed by St. Croix Superstar Service and will retail between $290 and $345.

Get the Blues Learn complete details on the all-new technique-specific made-in-the-USA Legend Tournament Bass Series in the coming weeks. Plan to make them your own at stcroixrods.com and at St. Croix dealers worldwide on March 25.

I love my St Croix Avid Rods!

Lake Burton and Tidal Savannah River Offer Georgians Two Very Different Bass Fisheries

Lake Burton and tidal Savannah River are about as different kinds of water you can fish in Georgia, but both hold bass. My retirement job took me to both in the past week.

Lake Burton is a beautiful 2775-acre Georgia Power Lake on the Tallulah River in north Georgia between Clayton and Cleveland. Its 62 miles of shoreline are lined with huge houses with big docks, and its steep banks are covered with rock. Views of mountains surrounding it are very pretty.

Crystal clear mountain water is the norm there unless heavy rains stain up some of the creeks. Moccasin Creek State Park is also the home of a fish hatchery where trout are raised, and many are released into the lake, both intentionally and accidentally.

Although it is a good trout fishery, its big spotted and largemouth bass are the main attraction there. It also produces many chain pickerel and crappie.

I fished on a cold cloudy Tuesday with Jeremy Eaton, a local tournament angler, and the fishing was tough. The January snows up in that area had melted and made the lake go up about five feet while dropping the water temperature more than five degrees. That combination gave the fish lockjaw.

I enjoyed the trip and could imagine easing around the backs of coves looking for big largemouth on the bed, especially around the full moon on April 16. And spotted bass will be bedding then, too, and easy to catch out on rocky points and humps. Jeremy marked ten good places to catch bass in April for my Georgia Outdoor News (subscription required) Map of the Month article.

The houses are amazing. Jeremy pointed out a huge house up on a high point at the mouth of Timpson Creek and said Nick Saban built it. He built it to see if he liked having a house on Lake Burton and he did, but rumor has it this one was too small, so he built a bigger one. Its only 9542 square feet with 7 full and two half-baths and the tax office appraised it at 2.6 million. And it is not the biggest on the lake, by far!

Go up to Lake Burton for a nice vacation and take your boat. Enjoy the lake and mountain scenery and catch some trout for dinner, and some big bass to stretch your string.

I fished the lower Savannah River last Sunday with Billy Robertson, a local club fisherman. The views were very different. No mountains in the background, just flatlands that extended forever. And cypress trees and live oaks with Spanish moss beards replaced the barren hardwoods of Lake Burton.

I am not used to fishing current, so when we fished on the river Billy kept the boat pointing upstream and ran his trolling motor on high to keep the boat slowly moving downstream I was surprised. I had to cast fast to hit eddies behind trees in the water and small pockets along the bank.

Back in the creeks where we spent most of our time the current was still strong from the outgoing tide. Although we were miles upstream, above the I-95 bridge most of the day, the tide still affected the river.

We did catch fish. Billy quickly hooked a four-pounder, and our best five of them weighed about 20 pounds. But they were bowfin, fun to catch but we were after bass.

We did catch about a dozen keeper bass that day by casting worms and small jigs to eddies in the creeks but they were small. Most were 12 to 14 inches long but they fought good in the current.

There are bigger bass in the river. A local tournament took off from the ramp we used and it took five weighing 14 pounds to win, 11 for second and 10 for third. Big fish was a four-pounder. But the rest of the folks had five weighing six or seven pounds, just like our catch.

A highlight of the trip was dinner at Loves Seafood and Steaks. Although very expensive, the gumbo was some of the best I have had and the fried scallops were tender and delicious.

Fishing the river is a fun change of pace for us lake fishermen. There are several ramps just north of Savannah in both Georgia and South Carolina. But one warning, if you get off the river itself and go back in creeks on the South Carolina side, you need a nonresident fishing license.

Details of my trip and how to catch bass on the Savannah River will be in the April issue of Georgia Outdoor News.

Go north or south for a fun change of pace for fishing this spring.

Late Ice Season Can Produce Some Unexpected Catches

UNEXPECTED CATCHES ON LATE ICE

from The Fishing Wire

The ice fishing season is winding down. In some parts of ice fishing territory, the season has closed for a couple species of fish. However, there are still lots of fish to chase in the remaining weeks of ice fishing. Perch, crappies, and other panfish are fair game in most places, and so are some species of fish of which we might not think. Some of those types of fish that aren’t frequently targeted can provide lots of excitement in the next few weeks. They can also provide some outstanding table fare. Following are ideas for getting in on that action.

On an ice fishing trip with some friends in the late 70’s I was introduced to a fish that has become a much more popular fish for a good number of ice anglers. We were on Mille Lacs Lake in central Minnesota. Walleye season was still open, so we were after walleyes. This was before sonar use had been popularized for ice fishing. Finding fish was kind of a hit and miss thing. One of the anglers in our group took us to a spot on the west side of the lake where he caught walleyes in the summer. We drilled holes in the ice and started fishing. Walleye action was steady. I caught a couple and had become somewhat proficient in grabbing them behind the head as they came through the hole. Action slowed a bit, then I hooked another. When the fish’s head got into the hole, I casually grabbed it as I had the others. I lifted it from the hole. The fish felt slipperier than the previous walleyes, and when it wrapped itself around my arm, I knew that something was different. I wouldn’t say that I went into a full-blown panic, but I was certainly more excitable than I had been with the walleyes.

My friends told me that the fish that I had caught was an eelpout. I had never heard of an eelpout and had never seen in real-life a fish that looked like an eelpout. They told me that eelpout were not the most desirable fish in the lake. Nonetheless, it was a fun fight. In recent years, eelpout, also known as burbot, lingcod, and a variety of other names, have become very desirable to many anglers. They fight well, can be willing biters, and are outstanding on the table. Ice fishing expert John Crane uses Leech Flutter Spoons and Pinhead Mino spoons tipped with one minnow sometimes and loaded with several smaller minnows other times. He and many other pout chasers like their spoons to be in glow colors. If you’ve never fished for eelpout through the ice, find a way to give it a shot.

Another fish that’s gained popularity in ice fishing are whitefish. Again, I was introduced to whitefish accidentally. It was early March, and we were fishing for perch. We were spread out east to west across a not-so-well-known perch spot that an angler in our group had come across. Action was okay. We were getting ready to go exploring for another area when the eastern-most angler hooked a fish that felt larger than the perch that we had been catching. It was a whitefish. A minute later, an angler fishing twenty yards west hooked up. Another whitefish. They were going through the area, from east to west. Pretty soon everyone was catching. Then, action slowed for the angler on the east while those on the west continued to catch. Then the action stopped. The school had moved through. Had we known then what we know now, we would have moved around to relocate the school. Flashy spoons are good when the fish are active, Drop Jigs tipped with plastic or live bait will produce when the whitefish aren’t as active. Whitefish are also outstanding on the table.

On late ice, in addition to eelpout and whitefish, I or friends that I’m fishing with have caught lots of largemouth and smallmouth bass and some channel catfish through the ice. Even though some species of fish are off-limits now, there are still plenty of fish willing to bend an ice rod. The days are getting longer, the weather warmer, and the bite can be good. Make sure that the ice is safe, and if it is, get on it and see what you can catch.

– By Bob Jensen of fishingthemidwest.com.

St Croix Rods Offer New Designs and Materials

Gun Manufacturers Getting Sued for Advertising

“Available 0 – 60 Approx. 3 seconds. GM Estimates” On-line ad for the new electric GMC Hummer.

As soon as someone is injured or killed in wreck caused by a speeding Hummer, I expect GMC to have to pay millions to the survivors, based on a recent court settlement by Remington Arms.

In that court case that sets a precedent, the judge allowed plaintiffs to sue based on advertising by Remington. The case said Remington attracted an unhinged individual that bought one of their guns and shot students at a school.

I have several Remington guns, including a 12-gauge semiautomatic I have shot doves with since I was 14 years old. I also have a .223 semiautomatic, a so-called “assault style weapon,” set up for deer hunting. Those guns are only as dangerous as the person using them.

Holding a business responsible for actions of fools that buy their products is ridiculous, no matter how much you hate that business. Dick Poleman in his weekend Griffin Daily News editorial crowed “Sandy Hook Parents Beat the Gun Merchants.” No doubt he feels all manufacturers should be “beat“ by the same standards. NOT. Well, maybe he does since his editorials indicate he hates capitalism.

So many gun hating groups tried to sue gun manufacturers out of business a few years ago Congress had to protect them from such suits. Those lawsuits tried to hold gun manufacturers liable for the way their products were used. And many of the groups admitted their goal was to end gun manufacturing in the US.

Now they have another tactic, go after them for advertising. Any fair person would ask if all manufacturers will be held to the same standards. Or was this just one liberal judge making a legal decision based on his prejudices against guns.

Remington settled for many millions of dollars to end this suit. Of course, the lawyers will probably get at least half, encouraging them to file more such suits. I wish Remington had kept fighting. Our legal system is stupid when it means it cost a business more to fight for what is right rather than giving lawyers a pile of money.

What business will be sued next for their advertising? Someone burns down a building using charcoal lighter fluid that advertise “fast lighting?” A shoe company after someone steps off building wearing their shoes that “make it feel like you are walking on air?”

This is similar to holding tobacco companies liable for people smoking and drug companies for people getting addicted to drugs. Seems like there is no personal responsibility for anything in our modern society.

How sad. And how dangerous.

What Do You Do When You Catch A Huge Striped Bass In a Black Bass Tournament?

MASSIVE LANDLOCKED STRIPER CAUGHT

from The Fishing Wire

HOT SPRINGS – Stephen Tyson Jr.’s early competitive fishing Saturday in the Phoenix Bass Fishing League tournament on Lake Hamilton was interrupted by an extended fight with a fish he didn’t count on: a massive striped bass.

When Tyson finally got the striper boated and photos taken before releasing it back into Hamilton’s waters, the big black bass he’d found during practice and in the first minutes in the same area were gone. He had three fish, two short of the five-fish limit, but was just shy of 4 pounds. Other anglers were already in some of the spots he’d targeted to try later where he’d earlier found some big fish in practice, some 6-8 pounds. But he had quite a story to tell and the photos to prove it even if the one-day black bass tourney didn’t quite go his way.

“I caught a 50-something-pound flathead in the Ouachita (River) at Camden. I remember holding that fish, and this one seemed heavier,” he said.

Lake Hamilton is one of the few lakes the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission stocks with stripers. Neighboring lakes Ouachita and Catherine also are stocked with stripers, as are Norfork Lake and Beaver Lake in the northern reaches of the state.

“It gave me a fight,” he said, describing how, once he put the drag on and started reeling in the striper, it began swimming in constant circles around the boat. “I was in a tournament and in (black) bass fishing mode and I had found some nice bass. I saw this big fish (on his Garmin LiveScope) and my first thought it was a bass and I saw it come off the bottom and eat my bait.”

He soon realized it wasn’t a black bass. Tyson was using a jerkbait that dives about 14 feet and caught the fish in 7 feet of water. He was using 10-pound test line. His co-angler in his boat for the tournament had mentioned previously landing a 40-pound striper and thought this one was much larger. “‘This one is way bigger than that! That’s got to be a world record!’” Tyson recalls his co-angler, Philip James, yelling as Tyson got ahold of the striper’s mouth and flipped it into the boat so he could take some photos. “I had a cranking rod by Halo and at one point it was bent back to the reel, and I was surprised it didn’t break off, but somehow the fish didn’t snap the line. It’s not the equipment you usually catch a fish that size on.”

Alas, no one will know how close it came to Arkansas’s state record striped bass of 64 pounds, 8 ounces, caught in the Beaver Lake tailwater by Jeff Fletcher of Golden, Missouri, in 2000.

“When I released it, it really sank it, ‘You let that one go.’ The one thing I regret is not getting it weighed,” Tyson said. “But at that moment, it was literally the first 5-10 minutes of the tournament. I’m not going to stop fishing for bass. Starting out that fast, I knew I had a chance at at least 20 pounds. But then catching a striper that size, oh my god. It’s a fish of a lifetime.”

Tyson said he wants to return to Hamilton soon and target the same area and maybe land the monster again, or perhaps another massive striper. He credits having his sonar to be able to find fish, as it eliminates time in tracking them down, “but you’ve got to put your skills and talent, your technique, to get the fish to bite. It’s key to locating fish, but you still have got to get them to bite.”

Tyson runs a fishing guide service on weekends when he doesn’t have tournaments. The 27-year-old Camden native, who started fishing with his dad at age 3, guides on Upper and Lower White Oak Lake near Camden, along with Lake Columbia and Millwood Lake. “If I have any days off, I’ll book a trip.” Tyson works in packing at American Rheinmetall Systems in Camden, but he said that in April he plans to shift to full-time guiding and tournaments on the BFL and The Bass Federation (TBF) circuits.

“Right now I keep those very small,” he said of tournament plans. “One day I’m going to be at that point that I’ll take off with tournament fishing. But right now, the main thing is keeping my name in the game and running my guide business and spending time with family. I try to stay busy.” Tyson, by being the top Arkansan in a recent Arkansas-Oklahoma qualifying tournament, landed a spot in the TBF National Championship at Lake Conroe, Texas, March 2-4. Also on the horizon later this year is the BFL All-American, scheduled for Lake Hamilton June 2-4.

“That’s my goal, to qualify for the All-American. I feel like I’ll have home lake advantage,” Tyson said.

A Late February Tournament At West Point Lake

Fourteen members and guests fished our February tournament at West Point last Sunday. After fishing from 7:30 AM to 3:30 PM we brought 42 keeper bass weighing about 68 pounds to the scales. There was one zero and four people had five bass limits.

Lee Hancock won with five weighing 11.33 pounds and had a 4.46 pound largemouth for big fish. My five weighing 8.32 pounds was second and Jay Gerson had five weighing a close 8.23 pounds for third. Doug Acree came in fourth with five weighing 6.65 pound and my partner Will Mclean was fifth with four at 6.56 pounds.

I started out pretty good. Will and I stopped on a steep bank with blowdowns on it where I caught a good keeper last Saturday and started casting to the trees in the water. I looked down at my Panoptix and saw what looked like several fish on a small brush top ahead of the boat in 2 feet of water.

I cast a Carolina rigged Baby Brush Hog and watched the weight sink with the bait following it. When the lead hit bottom one of the fish went to the bait. When I tightened up my line a little I felt weight, set the hook and landed a two pound largemouth, my biggest fish of the day. I would not have made that cast and caught that fish without the Garmin Panoptix.

At our next stop on a long shallow point where I caught my biggest fish last Saturday a good keeper spot hit the same crankbait and I landed it. For the next few hours the only thing we caught was a largemouth that was not big enough to meet the 14 inch size limit.

At 11:00 I caught a barely legal 12-inch spot on my Carolina rig on one side of a rocky point then Will got his first keeper on a spinnerbait on the other side of the point. On our next stop Will got another keeper on his spinnerbait. Then he caught two more on his spinnerbait in the next two stops, giving him four to my three at 1:00! Made me wonder what I was doing wrong!

I caught one more keeper, this one on a shaky head worm, on our next stop. At 2:45 with just 45 minutes left to fish we went into a small creek with three rocky areas on one bank. I told Will we would finish up here since we were across from the ramp.

As we fished the first rocky spot a bass boat with two fishermen idled past me and started fishing a short distance ahead of me on the next rocky area. That made me mad but I learned long ago to just accept inconsiderate people and do something else.

Will and I ran to the bank where I caught my first keeper but Kwong was fishing it, so we stopped on a rocky point behind him. My first cast with a shaky head produced my fifth keeper. A short way down the bank I saw a brush pile in front of a dock, cast my shaky head to it and landed my sixth keeper, culling my smallest bass.

Time ran out before Will caught his fifth keeper. I really wish he had caught the little one I culled, but that would have given him a limit when I had only two. That might have messed up my mind even more!

Four Fishing Etiquette Tips Desperately Needed By High School Fishermen and Captains and Too Many Other Fishermen

FOUR FISHING ETIQUETTE TIPS

One of the biggest pet peeves for many freshwater anglers is when they are having a good day fishing from a boat in a quiet spot on the lake or river and another angler comes along, pulls up right beside them and starts casting in the same area without asking first.

“It happens pretty much on a daily basis,” said Mercury Pro Team member Michael Neal.

If it’s a public body water, everyone is welcome to use the resource, of course. In most places, there are no written rules about how far you need to stay away from other boats and anglers. It’s within your rights to fish next to someone, as long as you aren’t harassing them (intentional angler harassment is against the law in many states). It’s up to each individual angler to decide what’s responsible behavior in terms of how much distance to put between your boat and theirs. Practicing good fishing etiquette means treating other anglers and boaters on the water with respect and giving them their space.

Neal, who fishes the Major League Fishing Bass Pro Tour and Pro Circuit, said it all comes down to following the Golden Rule. “Treat others the way you want to be treated,” he said.

“Communication is key. It’s the number one thing that makes your day on the water go smoothly,” added Mercury Pro Team member and Bassmaster Elite Series angler John Crews.

Here are four fishing etiquette tips from these two pros to help keep it friendly and fun for everyone on the water. What’s outlined here are unwritten rules that guide tournament anglers and serious recreational anglers.

A “bent pole pattern,” indicating that an angler has a fish on the line, is not an invitation to take your boat to that angler’s position and start fishing right next to them. It’s probably better to go somewhere else, but if it’s a spot you had already hoped to fish, just wait it out. “My advice is to wait until they leave to go over to that spot,” said Neal.
When another angler is fishing in a spot near where you would like to fish, stop your boat within hailing distance and let the person know your wishes. For example, if an angler is fishing partway back in a creek, and you want to fish all the way in the back, ask first if he or she intends to head deeper into the creek before you go there yourself. “If I go into an area where someone else is fishing, I ask them if they are going to continue, and if it’s OK for me to fish there. If they are having a bad day and they want to be rude about it, you don’t want to be fishing around them anyway,” Crews said. On crowded lakes, you’re likely to wind up fishing near someone. In that case, keep a respectful distance. “We usually have a mutual understanding: ‘Don’t get any closer to me, and I won’t get any closer to you,’” Neal said, referring to his fellow tournament anglers.
Don’t pass too close to another angler’s boat. “Stay away from the side where their rods are; pass on the other side if you can,” Crews said, adding that it’s important to give other boats with active anglers a wide berth when you pass, if there’s room. “Two hundred to 300 feet is ideal; 100 feet at a minimum. Pass at speed and make a minimal wake rather than slowing down and pulling a big wake. However, if there isn’t room to pass far enough away, come off plane well before you get near the other boat and idle past.”
Never, ever cross lines with another angler. “The number one no-no is to cast across somebody else’s line. I’ve had it happen to me personally. I decided to leave the spot to him. I figured, if it’s important enough for him to do that, he can have it,” Neal said.

Use common courtesy, and there should be enough space for everyone to fish in harmony. When in doubt, err on the side of being as respectful as possible.

“Most anglers are super cool, and as long as you can communicate with them, you can make it work,” Crews concluded.

Cutting Firewood For Fun and Warmth

When I moved to Pike County in 1981 the house I bought had a functional wood burning insert in the fireplace. I was young and dumb enough to decide to heat the house exclusively by wood that first winter.

The house was two stories but the master bedroom and all the other rooms we used were on the ground floor. I tacked sheets over the stairwell to keep the warm air from going up them, helping keep the lower level warm.

Although I had never cut wood with a chain saw, I felt like I could do it. I went to Sears and bought a mid-size saw and learned how it worked, always fearing it a little, especially after reading and hearing about accidents folks had with them.

There was and old tree house in the edge of the woods and I tore it down and built a wood shed with the tin and plywood. Then I started cutting down some of the trees behind the house.

The four-acre lot my house was on was covered with trees with just a small front and back yard. I wanted a garden, so I started by cutting an area behind the house, trying to open it up enough.

I cut about 16 big oak and hickory trees and a few sweetgum and popular, cutting each piece about 18 inches long to fit my insert, and splitting the trunks by hand with a maul and stacking the wood.

I was much younger then!

But I really enjoyed using the saw and splitting the wood. Those trees more than filled up my small woodshed so I expanded it some and had enough wood for the whole winter, keeping a fire going all the time.

I learned a lot about wood that year. The few sweetgum and popular trees I cut taught me popular splits very easily and has pretty colors inside, but burns fast and does “pop” while burning. I had to keep the insert doors closed! Sweetgum burned fast, too, and its twisted grains made it almost impossible to split.

But I never wasted any wood, I burned the sweetgum and popular as well as any fast-burning pine I got during the day. At night I wanted slow burning oak and hickory.

My favorite wood to split was red oak, its straight grains made it easy to split up into chunks just right for my fireplace. Hickory was next since it split easily and burned very slowly. Whiteoak was fairly easy to split and also lasted a long time. With any of them I could fill my insert at bedtime, shut the air vents and still have heat the next morning.

For five years I heated exclusively with wood, even turning the pilot light off on my furnace. Linda learned to bring in the wood and start a good fire with the kindling I kept in a big box, and she did a good job when I was gone on fishing trips.

Then one spring I went to a Top Six tournament for five days. It was April and the weather should have been stable but a cold front dropped the nighttime lows below freezing and highs were only in the 40s.

The day I left there was a good supply of wood in the house and plenty in the woodshed. But the day after I left Linda got sick and developed pneumonia, making it impossible for her to bring in wood and keep a fire going.

We lit the pilot light when I got home.

I continued to burn wood but never shut off the furnace again. It was great supplemental heat and saved propane. But cancer three years ago weakened me to the point I have not tried to cut wood since then. I miss it and am going to get out my saw and try to use it. I desperately need the exercise, and maybe I will do something I enjoy!

January On Lake Sinclair Was Tough for Me To Catch A Bass In A Club Tournament

Last Sunday 11 members of the Spalding County Sportsman Club fished our January tournament at Lake Sinclair. After eight hours we brought 21 keeper bass to the scales weighing about 27 pounds. There was one five-bass limit and two people didn’t have a keeper.

Jay Gerson had the limit and it weighed 7.11 pounds for first place and his 2.94 pound largemouth was big fish. Raymond English had four weighing 4.77 pounds for second and third was Robert Proctor with three weighing 3.28 pounds. Kwong Yu’s two weighing 2.86 pounds was fourth, beating my one at 2.52 pounds that gave me fifth place.

After catching four keepers the week before in the Potato Creek tournament I had some hope, but those four were on no pattern, just one here and there. Will Mcclean fished with me, joining this club as well as the Flint River club, and we started trying to hook a fish after a very cold run first thing that morning.

At 10:00 neither of use had a bite after fishing four or five different kinds of places trying to find some kind of pattern. We then made a cold ride to near the dam where I had caught my fish the week before.

After about 30 minutes the keeper I weighed in hit my spinnerbait near a grassbed in front of some rocks. I told Will I felt like you needed to catch at least three bass to establish any kind of pattern, but that one was all we had to go on.

For the rest of the day we fished similar places, making hundreds of casts around grass beds near rocks, but neither of us ever had another bite!

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