October is all about fall fishing patterns. As the water starts to cool down, the bait move shallow and the bass follow. Then when they’re done feeding up, they head back to their wintering areas. It’s a big transition, and if you use the right lures you can find and tempt quality fish the whole time. If you’ve read my previous “best baits” columns, you know that I like to pick two for the North, from Virginia up, and two for the South, from the Carolinas down. Don’t let that box you in. All four are good just about anywhere, […]
When I think of the best months of the year for bass fishing, March is at the top of the list. Of course, the bass are doing different things in different parts of the country, but almost everywhere, they’re big and they’re biting. North of the Mason-Dixon Line – from Virginia on up – the bass are still in their pre-spawn movements. They’re coming shallow, closer to their spawning grounds, but not yet spawning. South of the line, March means spawning fish. They’ll have moved shallow, crashing the bank. Either they’re setting up on shallower cover or actually on the […]
Is there anything more challenging than cold muddy water? I don’t think so, but that doesn’t mean you can’t catch a few. You just have to approach things a little differently. When it’s cold and muddy the fish have to use their senses, just like when the water’s clear — vibration, sound, scent and sight. All those senses are important but the one that’s not talked about enough is sight. It’s like anglers think that the fish are blind in muddy water so there’s no reason to take that into consideration. Well, they aren’t blind. They just need a little […]
Fall is here. The water is cool. The fish are shallow, or at least moving in that direction. It’s time for shallow baits to take advantage of that. Here are my top three… But, before I start talking about the baits we need to think about shallow water. It’s different in different parts of the country and in different lakes. It’s a term of art, not science. For this blog I’m going to tell you that I’m talking about water that’s no deeper than 3 feet. That’s pretty skinny, I know. Nevertheless, it’s fall and that’s the water I’ll target […]
I worked with professional bull rider, Keyshawn Whitehorse, in the episode this week. It was interesting and might have been the most difficult physical activity I’ve ever tried. Staying on a bull is not for the weak or the timid. Keyshawn is currently ranked fourth in the country and 11th in the world. He’s a man of faith and a man who hasn’t forgotten his Navajo roots. He is someone we should all admire before we even consider his professional accomplishments. He describes riding a bull as a dance. He points out that they’re bigger, stronger and faster than we […]
It’s getting late into the winter. Depending on where you live spring is right around the corner, or it’s still weeks away. Regardless of that, something has happened to everything that lives in the water. Their colors are getting dull, almost like they’ve been bleached. And that has a serious effect of how the bass relate to our lures. If we want to catch our share, or more than our share, we need to fish with dull colors. I have six favorites — three hard bait colors, three soft plastic colors — that have worked for me over the years. […]
The weather is hot. The green cover in our lakes and rivers is growing like crazy. That’s good for us. That’s bad for the bass. It’s a simple situation. We know where to find them when they’re shallow — somewhere that’s green. I’m not going to talk about all the types of cover that’s out there, only two types that grow — grass and trees. Before we get into that, however, I want to say something about deep and shallow. Right now a lot of the bass are out deep on main lake drops and channels, but a lot doesn’t […]
This time in our Top Secret Series we’re going to talk about the MJ rig, otherwise known as the spinner-jig. It’s super simple but it gives the fish something they haven’t seen before, something totally different. Basically, it’s a combination of flash and true tracking through the water. Let’s get started… You’ll need three things to build the MJ rig: We’ll start with a soft plastic stickbait. I use the Berkley Powerbait Maxscent The General Worm. The most important part of the stickbait is that it must have a big, fat blunt end on the back for the spinner to […]
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 […]
Last week at the 2018 GEICO Bassmaster Classic presented by DICK’S Sporting Goods I fished the Neko rig. I didn’t finish all that high but I did catch several bass that I wouldn’t have caught any other way. So, I thought it was worth sharing. The Neko rig is a super successful technique because it mimics the real thing. When it’s fished right it kind of pecks along the bottom. That’s exactly what real baitfish do when they’re feeding. They put their tails up and then they just peck, peck, peck as they move across the bottom eating whatever they […]
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