Every so often I think about a lure that everyone who want’s to catch a bass should know about, and so it is with the David Fritts designed Rapala DT Thug. It’s a small balsa crankbait — 2-1/2 inches long with a weight of 3/8 of an ounce — that’ll dive to between 4 and 8 feet on a normal retrieve. It has a hard, wide wobble, is hand tuned and comes in 15 colors. I don’t care where you live or where you fish you can match the local forage with one of them. What really makes it special, […]
It’s the postspawn all around the country and with that comes a topwater bite. The thing is, though, sometimes a noisy, splashy topwater plug runs them off rather than fills the livewell. When that happens I go subtle. That means I reach for a Berkley HAVOC Subwoofer. It’s a unique bait in that it has a short (4 inches), fat body with a classic cut tail that’ll move a lot of water when you crank it fast. And, you can do that with this lure because of the way the body is designed. It not only has a fat, shad-like […]
We hear all the time about specialty rods, how they’re an important part of the sport because they help us fish more efficiently. That’s true, and some of the most important and useful are what are commonly called crankbait rods. The thing is, though, they really should be named treble hook rods or reaction bait rods because the design features they have will help you fish more efficiently with any bait that has a treble hook on it. I’m thinking about hard jerkbaits and topwater plugs as well as crankbaits. The basic, and most important, thing about one of these […]
A big part of success when you’re bass fishing is proper bait presentation, and a big part of proper bait presentation is speed. To some extent that’s a function of the gear ratio of your reel. It’s true that you can speed up a low gear ratio reel by cranking fast and you can slow down a high gear ratio reel by cranking slow. I won’t deny that. But it’s a lot of work. It’s much better, and a heck of a lot more efficient, to select reels with the correct gear ratio for what you’re trying to do with […]
A jig is not a jig. They are not all created equal. Specific jigs work best under specific conditions. I sort my jigs into three categories, and then I think about size. Rocky bottom applications When I’m fishing a jig in rock I want one that has a wide head. As you look at it the head should stretch out left and right from the center point. A football head is an excellent example of what I’m talking about. The idea is to keep it from hanging up or wedging in the rocks. That ruins your cast, wastes time and […]
My Italy trip was fantastic. It’s a really neat country. On one level it’s very different from the United States. Everywhere you go there are lots of old ruins and marble, some of them thousands of years old. I live near the historical city of Philadelphia. We have lots of old stuff that has great significance to our country, but there’s nothing that old. On another level, however, it’s just like the United States. Of course, I’m referring to bass fishing. Fish Italy for a few days and you’ll realize that a bass is a bass regardless of where they […]
Everybody talks about getting kids interested in fishing. Talk is good, but action is better. I’m a firm believer that the only way fishing will survive and grow is through the next generation. Getting adults out on the water won’t help a thing 50 years from now. Assuming you want to get kids out there fishing I’m going to respectfully suggest you do a couple of things. Here they are… Start with a cheap bobber and a No. 10 hook. Tie the hook a little ways under the bobber and you’re good to go. From there all you need is […]
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. […]
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 […]
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 […]