Wintertime For the Weekend Tournament Angler

So I Start Noticing when Getting Home From 3rd Shift That on my Covered Triton Tr-20 Sitting in the driveway that had been acustomed to many morning trips this summer, ( kind of a drive home-unplug-hook up-and get gone kind of scenario repeated randomly throughout the week) is progressivly getting covered more and more with frost from cold illinois nights. "Not Yet!" i think to myself wondering where in the world the warm weather has slipped off to...

Time to face reality i suppose as living in the midwest isnt quite as fair on us as it is on my Southern friends. Following trucks in the morning pulling small trailers with camoflaged ATV's should have been my hint, but i still wait out those unseasonbly warm days to hook up the boat and get on the water. When Those Days seem to be a shot in the dark here is the break down.

First and foremost get the boat winterized!! 

I just call up the dealership where i bought it from, schedule an appointment, and drop it off. They can usually get it done within a days time and this year i was even able to pick it up a few hours after i dropped it off. 

My Parents own a Marina on the Mississippi River and i have seen my share of Large Yachts and Housebouats get winterized but i still choose to have my dealership winterize the boat for me for a couple reasons.

• Generate Buisness For The Dealership in an economy that has not been too kind to the Marine industry

• Peace Of Mind That the winterization is being done correctly; these guys do this for a living there has to be something good about that as opposed to me struggling with it on a Saturday afternoon

•Probably the MOST important reason for me taking my boat to the dealership for maintnance is so they know i am taking the time to take care of my boat by professionals and not taking shortcuts to save a few bucks. This helps in total resale of the boat when i want to trade it in on a newer model down the road. This way they have documented every single time i have taken the boat in to them and they know exactly what has been done to the boat.

After the Mind is at ease that my Outboard will more than likely start March when i start Fishing again, it is time to stare at the Moutainous pile of tackle that has accumulated in my Basement.

What to do? 

My Custom soft plastics buisness keeps me quite busy year round, but in between orders to keep my mind at ease an for a little change of pace these are some things i do while theres a foot of snow on the ground and 8" of ice on my favorite lakes..

I like to start one project at a time....first thing that comes to mind when looking at all of this tackle sitting in front of me is "I wonder just how much tackle of mine is sitting on the bottom of the lakes on a stump or in a brush pile" ( Hint: Some Lakes drop there water levels in late fall so i go back and have retrieved SOME tackle i had lost in the summer while flipping brush and laydowns ) so i think one technique at a time... Crankbaits, Texas Rig, Spinnerbaits, Jigs are all things that tend to get snapped off. Take the time to go through your inventory and replace all these things and even re organize each box. Small things Save Big amounts of time while on the water in Tournament Situations

Take a Look at all hooks, sharpen and replace them if necessary

A Small Thing that i also do is take all my rods one by one and take the reels off and wipe my rods down, usually with just warm water to get any algae & hard water spots off of the blank. Then ill take a cotton Q-tip and get each end wet with warm water and swab out the line guides. I like to use Braided Line on My Spinnerbait rod and Flippin stick which brings in alot of debris and leaves line guides straight up filthy.

As far as the reels go, i take warm water and wipe off any algae build-up on the line guide an on the outside face of the reels. I leave the strenuous cleaning to my local Bait shop. They Call it COAG service on the reels COAG being a synonym for Clean, Oil and Grease. They take the reel completly apart and use special cleaning solutions to clean every part of the gears and bearings in the inner workings of the reel. The best part about taking my reels to the Shop i take mine too is that they hire High School Kids on the Moline High School Bass Fishing Team to help out in the shop, This gets High School kids into Tournament Fishing and they really get to learn every little part of the industry.

March Really isnt THAT far away and ill be Back on the water, so now is the time to control the few aspects of this game that i can...

Hopefully This Helps Ease the Start of Cabin Fever With a Little something to keep you occupied as well!

CATCH A MONSTER!!!

By: Derek Kaalberg

Small waters Big fishing

With an ever changing up and down economy, many of us have felt the hurt of trying to follow our passion of bass fishing. Many major corporations have taken a downturn along with us as consumers  and the money we invest has become very slim. I’ve followed the old golden rule of if there is a will, there is a way. With that said, I did my homework, and purchased a new Alumacraft and began to build a full custom reservoir boat. This was a pretty cheap investment in construction, doing everything myself from paint, flooring and add ons such as trolling motors, batteries and a reputable Humminbird unit.  It has been a fun build, I completed the construction around mid March, and from there I was ready to hit the water. I did some research, found some very quality fisheries in my area, and also found a few traveling tournament series that operate much like their counterparts. For someone looking to pursue a professional career in tournament fishing and can also help the serious angler fine tune his skills, test some new lures or just simply get away from the pressure of everyday life for a much cheaper investment. Aluminum johnboat fishing is a key component all around for those wanting to spend a little and learn a lot on smaller waters where the fishing pressure isn’t bad, and the payoff for a trophy bass is quite great. Give it a try if haven’t already, a lot of fun and a little money, hit up the small waters for some big fishing.

By Cale Milam

Trokar® Hooks: Does the Hook Live Up to the Hype?

All anglers have faced the challenge of setting the hook on a fish, and coming up empty handed.  At times we don’t set the hook hard enough, which allows the fish to come free from the hook.  Trokar has come out with the sharpest fishing hook on the market to help us catch more fish.  Trokar hooks are surgically sharpened and allow an angler to set the hook with less force.  The three sided cut makes the hook sharpening process different from all other hooks on the market and allows an angler to set the hook with less force and still have a better hook up with that fish you are fighting. 

            I have always been a Gamakatsu hook man, but when I got a call from Lazer Trokar® to test out the new Lazer Trokar hooks, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity.  When the hooks arrived, the first thing I did was get in touch with Shaw Grigsby, one of the pros who helped design the hook shape and someone who uses Trokar hooks exclusively.

Grigsby told me that no matter how many fish you catch with it will never dull.  To be honest I wouldn’t believe it if I had not put the Trokar hook to my own test.  I took the Trokar TK 130 flipping hook and drove the point into a block of wood repeatedly.  Then I took the same hook and used it to pitch and flip with.  The hook still set easily into the mouth of the bass.  According to tests, the Trokar hook needs less force to set the hook.  This has shown in my own fishing experience.  It seemed that every bass I caught on the Trokar hooks set themselves, even when pitching and flipping.

            The high carbon steel that is used to make the hooks show its strength and stands up to the toughest logs and still comes back in the same shape as when you started.  The Trokar B.A.R.B. works wonders as well.  It holds the plastic in place, securely like nothing I have ever seen.  With two barbs it keeps the plastic in place better then just one barb like on other hooks.  This allows you to spend less time pushing your soft plastic back into place between casts.  With 11 types of hooks there is a Trokar hook for every application.

            Trokar hooks are also being used by lure makers as well.  Wayne of Atomic Tackle Company (atomictacklecompany.com) even offers hand poured jigs with Trokar hooks you can order casting jigs in 3/8, ½, 3/4 and 1ounce with these awesome Trokar hooks.

            There are drawbacks with the Trokar hooks.  According to Grigsby “You can’t use the Trokar hooks for practice”.  The reason for this is because you will not be able to shake the fish loose before getting it back to the boat.  There is also the price of the hooks.  A package of four hooks runs around $10.  If you consider how sharp the hooks are and the fact that I have not lost a fish using the hooks, it is money well spent in my opinion.  I believe that the hook lives up to what Trokar says, and that ten dollars may be the difference of winning a tournament or losing it. In that case, does the ten dollars really make a difference?   

           

Now that I have tried the Trokar hooks and seen what they can do, I know that I cannot go back.  The point on the hook is too good and there is nothing like it out there.  So if you want a better hook up ratio and want to lose less fish do yourself a favor and go get some Trokar hooks today.  For more information about Lazer Trokar hooks visit www.lazertrokar.com

By Chris McDonald

Have You Heard of the Neko Rig?

Have you heard of the Neko Rig? It's the newest thing to hit the U.S. from Japan and it's basically a new way to wacky-rig a soft plastic worm. One of my favorite ways to catch them is with a wacky-rigged senko or a flick shake, but this is different. As always with new techniques, the tackle companies are putting out some great new products to use when fishing.

One of these items is a Damiki Neko Sinker, which is really cool and allows you to put a screw-in type weight into one side of the worm so it falls faster on one side. Lunker City also makes a version of the weight. You could also fish it with the weights in both sides to get to deeper water much quicker. I have been hearing about this technique for a few years now after tournaments on deep California waters like Lake Shasta. In fact, Brent Ehrler won the FLW Series event earlier this year with help from this technique.

Bassfan talked about another item the Neko Rig Master, which "makes it much easier to wacky rig finesse plastics, or any other type of plastic bait. The product is a copper screw – much like the screw-locks on hooks – but on top is a rubber section that securely holds a hook. Anglers can therefore screw in the product anywhere on a soft-plastic bait for all sorts of wacky-rig configurations. Plus, there's much less plastic in the hook gap.

Wacky-rig a tube so it falls backward and into cover. Wacky rig a soft-jerkbait so it swims perpendicular to the boat and under docks.Wacky rig a Senko and save serious money without having to mess with rubber O-rings." Bassfan.com

No matter how you fish it, I think technique is going to work!

bassfan.com