At this point it’s postspawn or early summer almost everywhere. That’s important because fish are totally controlled by their environment. They’re slow when the water’s cold and they’re active when it’s warm. The water’s warm right now, and that means they’re active. They need to eat. When they’re active and feeding heavily there are lots of ways to catch them. One of the best — big fish and explosive action — is on top. And, there’s not a better pair of topwater plugs to do that with than a buzzbait or a walkin’ stick. The reason I picked these two […]
Ice Fishing Lures for Warm Water Bass.
Last time we talked about the two rods in my Abu Garcia Ike Delay Series that are designed for twitching techniques. This time I want to cover the other five models. I’ll detail what they’re designed to do and why I recommend you take a close look at them when it’s time for you to upgrade. I may have mentioned this before but it’s important enough to repeat: The name Delay was no accident. The idea behind these rods is to make them hesitate just a little bit before you feel the bite and set the hook. But, I don’t […]
Recently I received a really good report from a friend who’s a serious recreational angler about one of my rods — the 6 foot, 4 inch, medium power, moderate action Ike Delay Series made by Abu Garcia. I thought I’d share some of his experiences with you and give you my perspective on why they should be in your rod box. He fished jerkbaits for smallmouth with it. Here’s a mix of what he had to say and what I have to say. First, let’s talk about the length and the handle. At 6 foot, 4 inches it’s short enough […]
Last time we talked about jerkbaits, my favorite bait in the winter. This time I want to talk about my second favorite, the Rapala Rippin Rap Lipless Crankbait. But you should know this: Just because it’s my second favorite doesn’t mean I don’t use it all the time. In fact, when the water’s cold I never leave the dock without one tied on and ready to go. I fish this little jewel two ways. The first is with a traditional yo-yo type retrieve. I just cast it out, let it fall to the bottom and then make it lift and […]
Becky and I got back from vacation last Saturday and I decided to fish a Winter League tournament up here on Sunday. The air temperature was really cold and the water was in the low 40s. The bite was tough. Nevertheless, we won with four bites that put four bass in the livewell. They weighed 6.86 pounds. Here’s how we did it… We used what’s probably my favorite winter bass lure — a hard jerkbait. But, we didn’t fish with just any jerkbait. We spent a lot of time matching size and figuring out how we wanted the bait to […]
This trip was really special. As you probably already know, I won the 2003 Bassmaster Classic on the Louisiana Delta. I won’t go so far as to say that it totally made my career but I will say that it’s a huge part of it. If you want to be considered one of the best, you need a Classic title. I will be forever grateful to New Orleans and the surroundingarea for mine. So anyway, when we arrived in New Orleans we had three species on our five day bucket list: Alligator Gar, Sea Trout and Bull Reds. Alligator Gar These […]
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