The Free Rig
The Free Rig
Author: Mike Iaconelli
Rising Water, Rising Fish — Falling Water, Falling Fish
This spring has been unbelievably wet. It seems like it rains every other day, sometimes not even every other — just every single darn day. The lakes and rivers are high. The fishing is tough but it’s still possible to catch them if you keep a few basic things in mind. First, when water rises the fish will rise with it. They’ll follow it all the way in as far as they can go. They don’t care about houses, campgrounds or baseball fields. But, the good side of that is that their locations are predictable. They’ll usually be found in […]
Another Ike Hits the Water!
This is a proud time around the Iaconelli house. Vegas will be an official tournament angler in less than a week, and he’s only eight-years-old. Better yet, he’ll be fishing out of my first boat. It’s a Coleman Crawdad. I have to tell the truth, though. It was getting a little worn after 30 plus years of service. And so I did the only thing a true bass angler could do — I redid it top to bottom and now it’s his boat. We started by cleaning it from stem to stern. Hot soapy water and lots of elbow grease. […]
The 2019 Bassmaster Classic Part 4: The Ike Foundation
We had a huge success with The Ike Foundation at the Bassmaster Classic Expo presented by DICK’S Sporting Goods. I couldn’t be happier with what Becky said about things. (I wasn’t there because I was fishing all three days.) As I’m sure most of you know, The Ike Foundation is a charity set up to get kids fishing early. The idea is that if we get them started early, when they’re little, they’ll fish all of their life. But, even if they don’t, they always have positive memories of fishing and the outdoors. That’ll keep them on our side even […]
The 2019 Bassmaster Classic, Part 3: The Afterparty
After the 2019 GEICO Bassmaster Classic presented by DICK’S Sporting Goods was over the Ike Live! Afterparty got underway. It was maybe the best ever. It lasted from about 8:00 pm until 11:00 pm, or I should say that was the official time for it. The truth is that they finally ran us out of the hotel in the wee hours of Monday morning, and I didn’t want to leave even then. That’s saying something because I’d just finished three days of grueling fishing and media events. Nevertheless, I was having so much fun that I didn’t want to stop […]
The 2019 Bassmaster Classic, Part 2: Lure selection
Last time we talked mostly about the conditions and where I fished. Here’s the scoop on what I fished with, and why. My best spot, among equals, was the natural flat rock I talked about. My lure choice for that was a Rapala DT 6 in Caribbean Shad. It’s a fairly small crankbait — 2-inches, 3/8-ounce — and it’ll dive in the 6 foot range which was perfect for what I was doing. Remember that I said the rock was between four and six feet deep. I wanted something that would strike the rock easily and deflect off of it […]
The 2019 Bassmaster Classic, Part 1: The conditions, the choices
OK, fishheads, here’s the way the 2019 GEICO Bassmaster Classic presented by DICK’s Sporting Goods unfolded. It’s going to take me three or four blogs to tell it all in detail but it’s so important that I think it’s worth me writing that much. And the Classic part of things is something that we all should take note of if we love the sport of bass fishing. It was a wonderful tournament that was put together with everything a top-shelf professional level should have and need. So, here we go. . . They had massive amounts of rain in the […]
Fishing Blade Baits Shallow
When most of us think about blade baits we think about deep water, and cold water. Recently, however, I fished one shallow in the Upper Chesapeake Bay, and with great success. I do have to admit, though, that the water was cold. We fished with a Molix Trago Vib Blade Bait for several different reasons. For one, it’s well balanced. It’ll hang in a horizontal attitude no matter how it’s fished. Another thing is that you can change its vibration. There are three holes on top. If you attach your line to the front hole you’ll get a light and […]
Ice Fishing Lures for Warm Water Bass
Ice Fishing Lures for Warm Water Bass.
Just When You Think You Know It All…
Just when you think you know it all something comes along that you’ve never heard about, not even thought about. That’s what happened to me this winter on the Upper Mississippi River when I was fishing Pool 2. I was introduced to the tumble rig. We were fishing near a power plant with a warm water discharge. Typically that’s where you find a lot of fish in a small area, and that’s exactly what we found. But, even though we were catching fish, the bite wasn’t anything close to what we expected. That’s when the fellow I was fishing with […]