As kayak fishing continues to grow in popularity, the ability to customize your kayak grows in lockstep. There’s not just one way to do it. Depending on what you carry and where you fish, you might have a setup that’s uniquely perfect for you. To give you some ideas, let’s go through how I rig my Hobie PA 14. Let’s start with the battery power. This is no simple craft and it needs lots of juice during the day. Fortunately with a single Pro Guide PGL50 lithium battery, I can take care of all of my power needs. It’s super-light, […]
Author: Mike Iaconelli
Top Four September Bass Baits
I consider September to be the start of fall fishing patterns and behavior. Whether you’re in New York or Florida, California or Ohio, this is the time of year when we start to get the first night or two of colder weather, and the first week or so of temperature drops. Even if it’s just one or two degrees, combined with the fact that the days are shorter, it cues the fish that fall has begun. The changes spur the bass to start moving from where they spent the summer to where they’re going to feed heavily in the fall. […]
How to Fish Small Ponds and Lakes
For today’s episode I’ve wandered down from the shop to the dock to give you all a simple breakdown of how to fish smaller lakes. Whether you fish from the bank, from a canoe, a kayak or a jon boat, this one’s just for you. No matter the size of these smaller lakes, I believe that they’re “the same but different” from larger lakes and reservoirs. The first similarity is that you always want to be fishing around change. The second is that the bass will typically behave predictably with respect to seasonal movements. Whether you’re fishing on Lake Okeechobee […]
Top Four Baits for August
Mike Iaconelli No matter where you live across the country, August is likely to be the hottest month of the year. That means it’s prime time for summer patterns, and if you’ve watched any of my previous videos or read past articles, you know that means I tend to go “deeper, thicker or current.” They still have to feed, but they’ll do it in very defined zones. With that in mind, I’m going to give you four lures I rely upon this month. As usual, two of them are key for the North and two for the South, but to […]
Six Retrieves for the Berkley Nessie
The Berkley Nessie is an incredible bait not just because it fills a void by essentially crating the category of soft glide baits, but also because you can fish it so many different ways. Whether you’re an absolute novice or you’ve been fishing with glide baits for years, I encourage you to experiment with it. You may find new ways that work best on your home waters, but when starting out you’ll want to focus on six basic retrieves. The first is the simplest – just a steady retrieve. All you have to do is make a long cast and […]
Berkley Nessie – Features and Benefits
By now you may have heard a few rumors about Berkley’s new Nessie. It’s a bait I’ve been helping with for a while, and to be honest it’s so distinctive and novel that I cannot recall the last time I was this excited about a new design. Why? It’s one of the first soft glide baits on the market, and that gives it some huge advantages over the competition. First, let me explain the name. “Nessie” evokes the Loch Ness Monster, and glide baits are known for being bigger than average lures. We have a 9-inch giant, a 7-incher for […]
Top Four July Baits
All over the country, July means HOT weather. The water is hotter, the air is hotter, and the days are longer. That tends to push the bass deeper, where the oxygen content is higher, the water is cooler, and their prey is located. Of course, deep is a relative term. In some California reservoirs it might mean 100 feet, while in Florida it could mean 8 or 10 feet, but this is the time to focus much of your effort there. With that in mind, I’m going to give you information about four of my favorite July baits, two for […]
Top Four Bass Baits for June – Deep Dive into Summer Bass Fishing
It’s heating up throughout the country, and with summertime nearly here, bass are mostly post-spawn, even in much of the north. Normally I give you two monthly suggestions for the northern fisheries and two for the southern fisheries, but this time I’m not going to split it up. Wherever you live there are four iconic lures that dominate in June. All four of these baits have similar characteristics: (1) they get a little deeper; (2) they’re big and bulky to help fish recover from the rigors of spawning; and (3) they can help you cover water and locate fish that […]
Secret Bass Fishing Technique! The Sliding Weight Rig
If you’ve watched any of my videos or read some of my past blogs, you know that I’m really big on how baits move. Whether it’s side-to-side, up-and-down, or just simple undulation, slight variations are often the difference between a great day and simply a good one. But what if I told you that I had a soft plastic presentation that moves differently than anything else out there? You’d be crazy not to listen. When you get to the typical highly-pressured lake on a Saturday morning, there may be 20 guys throwing Texas Rigs and 20 more guys throwing Carolina […]
The Jointed Fluke Rig
Most bass anglers know about fluke-style soft plastics. They can be deadly from coast to coast in a variety of circumstances. However, most of them rig it in a similar manner. What I want to tell you about today is a rigging method that’s new and which gives these already-effective lures a unique side-to-side action. It’s something that’s super easy to do, and you probably already have the components in your garage or your boat. Start with a simple soft plastic jerkbait in a reasonably large size—4-, 5- or even 6-inches. I like the Berkley Powerbait Jerk Shad, but there […]