OK, here’s the deal: I’m filming My World with Mike Iaconelli. My guest is Martin Truex Jr. We’re going to drive some fast cars and then try to catch a couple of big bass. Martin is the real deal. I’ve known him for some time. We’re friends. In the first part of the show he spends some time teaching me how to drive fast in go-karts indoors. And then, we went to the Airport Speedway in Maryland to do some dirt track driving. I had a blast. I can’t say I beat him on either track. But I did […]
This is unbelievable. I am seriously jacked up. Winning a kayak event at the professional level has been on my bucket list for the past three years. I just finished hugging my trophy from the 2021 B.A.S.S. Nation Kayak Series powered by Tourney X at Upper Chesapeake Bay for the bazillionth time. It’ll sit next to my Top 150 trophy, my Bassmaster Tour trophy, my Nation trophy, my Open trophies, my Elite trophies, my Classic trophy and my Angler of the Year trophy. Before I get into anything else, though, I think maybe I should tell you a little about […]
What we did here is take a good concept and make it better. There’s no question that the Ned rig has taken the bass fishing community by storm. Everyone has a few, and for good reason. They’re easy to fish, you don’t need specialized tackle to fish them, and they catch fish! So we decided to design a head that solved the problems that are inherent with most other Ned rig heads. We named our creation The VMC Ned Rig Jig. It’s different in a number of important ways. Here are the highlights: It has a pointed mushroom head design […]
Finally, after 10 years I got what I wanted in the Rapala DT series of crankbaits. I’m talking about an 8 size. We’ve had a 4, 6, 10, 14, 16 and a 20. Now, the lineup is complete! For those of you who don’t know, the number designation of the baits tells you roughly how deep they’ll run, depending on line type, diameter and strength. DT stands for dives to. The thing is, though, there was always a gap between the DT6 and the DT10. That’s been fixed with a couple of design changes to make the DT8. First, we […]
Hey everyone out there, ICAST is underway. One of the new products we’re introducing is the new Missile Mini Swim. It’s the real deal, different from all the other swim jigs out there. We’ll start off by talking a little about size. Most swim jigs are big, with a big profile. The Mini Swim is just the opposite. That idea came from our Mini Flip. It’s a smaller flipping and pitching jig and it’s made all the difference in the world when we need something smaller and less intrusive. The Mini Swim will do the same thing for swim jigs. […]
For a while now I’ve wanted to do something different with a spinnerbait. The challenge is that almost everything that can be done with one has been done. But, then it happened! I thought about making a short arm bait, a kind of comeback from times past, but with a new and modern design. When our research was finished the Molix Lover Short Arm Spinnerbait was born. It’ll debut at ICAST this year and it’ll be available to everyone shortly after that. We all know what a short-arm spinnerbait looks like, right? It’s a spinnerbait with the upper wire connecting […]
We all know that there are hundreds — thousands — of plastic swimbaits available to bass anglers. Some of them are a little better than others but very few of them are really different, fundamentally different. But, this year at ICAST we’re introducing one that really is fundamentally different. It’s the Berkley Powerbait Gilly. I’m calling it a swimbait, but that doesn’t really do it justice. Most swimbaits are made to look like long and slender forage. They have a tail that faces down and up instead of being vertical like a real fish. And, maybe most important of all, […]
In Part 1 of this series on Tokyo rigs — there’s more than one style, we covered the basics of what they are and how they work. We also covered using one style for flipping and pitching. BUT, there’s more ways to fish this rig, and they’ll all help you catch a ton of fish! So, this time in Part 2 we’ll talk about using another style of Tokyo rig for traditional Texas rigged baits. One of the rigs from VMC comes equipped just like the original except that it is armed with an Ike Approved Heavy Duty Worm Hook […]
This is the first part of a series on a rig that has revolutionized bass fishing rigs. At one time it was called the leadered punch shot rig. But, now everyone calls it the Tokyo rig. Here’s the general idea: The line from your reel attaches to a barrel swivel. Attached to the swivel is a welded O-ring. It’s not a split ring. It’s solid. It’s closed. Also attached to the O-ring is the hook. Now, over the next few weeks we’ll talk about what kind of hook we want to use. VMC has four setups with different style hooks […]
Most of you know something about the chicken rig. Traditionally, the chicken rig was a weedless way to Neko rig a straight tail worm. I’m in love with doing that but I’ve expanded the concept to include one of the most effective and natural looking bass baits on the planet — the craw. We’ll start with the hook. My favorite, by far, is the VMC Finesse Neko hook. The thing I really like about it is that there are two pieces of heavy fluorocarbon line on the top of the shaft of the hook up towards the eye. That keeps […]