Hello, Orange, Texas. As some of you have probably already picked up on thanks to my social media, I’m glad to be reporting to you from the Texas/Louisiana border, and a little piece of water known as the Sabine River. Yep! I’m heeeeere! It’s taken some creative scheduling, a little awkward travel, and a helluva lot of luck, but I’m happy to confirm that I’ll be fishing this week in the Bassmaster Elite Series event on the Sabine. And I […]
We all know about the Rapala Shad Rap. It’s one of the all-time great lures, one of the best ones ever made to be blunt about it. But, you don’t hear so much about the shallow version of this bait. You should, and you should have a handful of them in your boat at all times. We’ll deal with “all times” first. Too often this lure is thought of as only a shallow, clear water lure. I’ve caught bass on […]
Going Ike! shot some film recently with Fletcher Shryock on the Upper Susquehanna River. It should be up right now. We were chasing smallmouth, and did we ever catch them. In just five hours we caught 110 bass. That is getting on them. Our approach was pretty simple and straight forward. When we were casting into the current and bringing our lures back with it, we fished a homemade Ned rig. When we were casting with the current and bringing […]
Wake baits are seriously underfished. I really don’t know why because they are super good in the early spring and the late fall. The forage is up in the water column. That means the bass are up, too. Wake baits are an obvious choice. My idea of a wake bait is any lure that runs right under the surface on down to about a foot or thereabouts. Hundreds of lures fall into that category, but my favorites are the Rapala […]
If you’re even half-serious about bass fishing you should learn to fish the umbrella rig. It’s somewhat controversial but in the end it’s a real fish catcher, controversy or not. However, let me give you a warning before we go any further. Some tournaments allow it, some don’t. And, the number of hooks that you’re allowed to have on one rig or rod varies widely from one state to the next. Make sure you know the rules before you start […]
I’ve been out in San Diego, California, doing some saltwater fishing for my new TV show. We’ve been using jigging spoons, but in two ways besides just letting them fall to the bottom and then jerking them up or snapping them at a predetermined depth. So, for this blog the term jigging spoon is a little misleading. Early in the morning when the baitfish are up on top we’ve been casting them out and holding the rod tip real high […]
Last week at the 2018 GEICO Bassmaster Classic presented by DICK’S Sporting Goods I fished the Neko rig. I didn’t finish all that high but I did catch several bass that I wouldn’t have caught any other way. So, I thought it was worth sharing. The Neko rig is a super successful technique because it mimics the real thing. When it’s fished right it kind of pecks along the bottom. That’s exactly what real baitfish do when they’re feeding. They […]
This time we’re going to talk about an old technique that’s not used much anymore outside of Florida. It’s pretty basic, all you do is wind a Texas rigged worm through the water instead of letting it sit, quiver, hop or drag along the bottom. I used this technique when I won the 2003 Bassmaster Classic on the Louisiana Delta. It was one of three that were critical to my success. The place to start when you want to make […]
I first started thinking about the idea seven or eight years ago. I was ice fishing with a sponsor. That’s the first time I ever tried it, and I noticed that we were not only catching bass but we were catching them on lures that looked to me like they might work in warm water. The thing is, though, I really didn’t know much about what we were doing so I was a little hesitant to get out too far […]
It’s no secret that as bass fishing at all levels gets more and more popular the bass get harder and harder to catch. In some cases that’s because of cold, clear water. In others it’s because of pressure from boats and the noise they make or it might be because bass become conditioned to popular baits. Regardless of the reason, however, we need to do something different if we expect to be consistently successful. Looking for something different has led […]