Now, when I think about spring bass fishing I’m thinking about the prespawn, the spawn and the postspawn. Obviously, that’s a very different bite from one stage in the cycle of a bass’ life to another but when it comes to color the best one is exactly the same. And that color is a combo of red and orange! We’ll start by talking about hard baits first. It doesn’t matter what kind of bait you’re throwing it has to be a combo of red and orange. The thing is that as the spring progresses and everything starts to warm up […]
I know it’s the middle of December and that means winter in much of the country. Nevertheless, the bass might not know that. They might be in their fall feeding patterns, especially where it stays relatively warm through the winter. And, if they are, one of the best ways to catch them is with a soft jerkbait. Here’s how I modify and rig my soft jerkbaits in the fall for maximum effect… It’s important to start with the right soft jerkbait. For me that is a Berkley Powerbait Jerk Shad. Size is simply a matter of matching the hatch. If […]
Most of you know something about the chicken rig. Traditionally, the chicken rig was a weedless way to Neko rig a straight tail worm. I’m in love with doing that but I’ve expanded the concept to include one of the most effective and natural looking bass baits on the planet — the craw. We’ll start with the hook. My favorite, by far, is the VMC Finesse Neko hook. The thing I really like about it is that there are two pieces of heavy fluorocarbon line on the top of the shaft of the hook up towards the eye. That keeps […]
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. […]
This time we’re going to talk about how to catch bass when there’s a few dragonflies around. Before we do that, though, I want to make sure that we’re all thinking about the same creature. A dragonfly is a dragonfly. It’s not a mayfly. It’s an insect all to its own. Most of them have a wingspan of somewhere between 2 and 5 inches and they’re very colorful. They are expert flyers, too. They can move in any direction — up, down or sideways — and some of them live for up to a full year. I first saw evidence […]
OK, so I like to color. But I don’t do it with a coloring book and I don’t use crayons. I do it with nearly every lure I own and with a variety of Spike-It products. Some weeks ago I wrote a blog telling everyone how and why I modify lures on the fly. The basic idea behind that is that I’m a big believer in matching the hatch, especially when I’m fishing clear water or heavily pressured fish. Over the years I’ve come to realize that the closer you can come to the real thing the more bites you’re […]
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