Tag: Berkley Trilene 100% Fluorocarbon

How to Fish a Squarebill

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How to Fish a Squarebill

A bait that’s really started to shine over the past few years is the squarebill crankbait. Their shine is well deserved, too. They catch bass in heavy cover when they’re shallow, and there are always a few good ones shallow regardless of the season or the weather. Squarebills will create a true reaction bite and often catch bass when other lures won’t. My favorite is a Rapala Balsa Xtreme BX Brat Squarebill. It’s made from balsa, and that’s a good thing. It floats high and has that unique vibration that only balsa can produce. But because it’s covered with a […]

The 2019 Bassmaster Classic, Part 2: Lure selection

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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 […]

Winter Bassin’ with Hard Jerkbaits

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Winter Bassin’ with Hard Jerkbaits

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 […]

Taiwan: The Land of Aggressive Fish

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Taiwan: The Land of Aggressive Fish

In a lot of ways our trip to Taipei, Taiwan, was one of our best. It’s an amazing place. The culture is so different from ours that it’s striking. You can see and feel the magic the minute you step off the plane. I’d never been there before. And like I said, everything there was really neat but there was one thing that really stood out — it’s such a clean city. The streets are clean, the drainage ditches are clean and even the buildings are clean. It’s an example of what can be done when everybody pitches in and […]

Rigging a Drop Shot

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Rigging a Drop Shot

I’ve been catching bass on a drop shot rig for years, and until a couple of years ago I always rigged it the same way. I tied a fluorocarbon leader to a braid main line and tied the hook somewhere down the leader. Then, I nose hooked my bait, or maybe hooded it in the middle, and went fishing. It worked. I caught my share but I was dissatisfied with my hooking percentage. I just felt like I could do better. And, at the same time, I was having trouble with line twist. Even my braid started giving me trouble […]

Spybaits are the Real Deal

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Spybaits are the Real Deal

I’ve talked before about how some lures and techniques travel around the world. Spybaits are a perfect example of how that happens. They started in Japan, moved on to the West Coast and are now starting to get popular in the Midwest. Spybaits are simple enough, really. They have a cylindrical body with a prop on each end. The idea is to let the lure fall to where the bass are holding and then gently bring it back with little or no motion other than a smooth glide forward. The props are, or should be, turning slowly to give the […]