Lures are tools

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Lures are tools

I know you hear all the time that lures are nothing more than tools. The thing is, though, it’s true. And nowhere was that more obvious than in our filming of the . It was early fall so the bass were in a transition mode. We launched our big BassCat with the Hobie kayak onboard. When we got to a backwater area we dropped the kayak into the water and went on back into a place that wasn’t accessible any other way. It was basically a perfect spot for what we wanted. There was a mixture of hydrilla and coontail […]

It’s About Changing Direction

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It’s About Changing Direction

Anybody who has followed my career and what I’ve said about crankbait fishing over the years knows that I always want to change direction with my crankbait as I wind it back to the boat. I can’t remember a time when I threw one out and just brought it back through open water. As far as I’m concerned that’s a wasted cast. There are a lot of ways to get a change of direction. You can move your rod tip left and right, or up and down. That’ll work. But, the easiest way is to just bang it into something. […]

Match the Hatch!

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Match the Hatch!

The South Jersey Slam was the one film that I would call a true winter fishing trip. We wanted to catch several species. That turned out to be an educational experience. We caught crappie, yellow perch, bluegill, pickerel and perch on small jerkbaits and grubs. There’s really nothing special about that. They bite pretty good even in cold water — we had temperatures all day in the low 40 degree range — on most conventional lures. What I really want to talk about are the bass. They’re hard to catch when the water gets that cold in my neighborhood. Fortunately, […]

Blade baits aren’t just for deep water

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Blade baits aren’t just for deep water

Here’s the deal: We’re fishing the Upper Chesapeake Bay in the early winter. It’s tidal, a cold front has blown through, the water’s cold and it’s more stained than usual. Our mission is to find and catch bass on film. After we tried all the usual baits without success we decided to do something different. We knew the bass were holding tight to hard cover and that they were in shallow water. We used a combination of Silver Buddy and Molix Trago blade baits. They’re pretty much the same except for a few refinements on the Trago. Silver Buddys are […]

Size Matters

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Size Matters

OK, you just saw Fat Head and me skipping a jig in the Salem Canal, a tributary of the Delaware River. It was the only way to catch them. Our day was cold and blustery. The fish were positioned back under the shoreline cover and aggressive doesn’t describe the bite. That’s called tough. But, we had to make the best of it. Filming, fishing a tournament or fishing on your day off work is all the same when it comes to the weather. You deal with current conditions. Period. We fished with Missile Jigs’ Mini Flip jigs. There’s a reason […]

Yes, I Still Fish Spinnerbaits!

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Yes, I Still Fish Spinnerbaits!

As you can see from watching the Delaware River episode of Going Ike! most of the day was tough but once we figured out that we should be throwing spinnerbaits we ended up getting on them. There’s a lesson in that. You don’t hear or see much about them these days but spinnerbaits will still catch bass when conditions are right. We proved that. That’s why I always keep a collection of them in my boat. There are times when nothing else works quite the same. Like most of my tackle, though, I select my spinnerbaits carefully. First of all, […]