Inside Bass Fishing

Monday, April 11, 2011

Don't let the pressure get you!

I have taken this year to enter myself into the Walmart Bass Fishing League or BFL. After some thought between two divisions, Bulldog and Savannah River, I took a shot at the Bulldog division, with many of the lakes being no more than a 2 hour drive,which is key with climbing gas prices and the economy where it stands. I sealed the deal with registering a month early and came thru at the last minute, linking with a boater. I must say, its a crap shoot when you have no guaranteed boater, but your want to compete is there, simply, how bad do you want it? Fortunately, things fell in place and I met my partner for the day at 5:30 am at the ramp. After the hectic morning of unloading my gear, launching the boat, and boat check, we had a bit of downtime before blast off. We got the chance to get to know each other, talk fishing, electronics, life etc. After gathering a game plan, we blasted off on an overcast, rainy 50 degree morning and went to work. I went in with the mentality that I was fishing his techniques, but my way. We worked some potentially deep to shallow areas, looking for a solid bite, but we both struggled til around noon, landing short fish,having them slap at it, so on. He broke the ice not long after, landing a 5-9 largemouth, and backing it up with a decent 2.5. Here's where pressure set in, I took the last few hours, struggling, having a lot of short strikes, no commitment. My mindset went from bad to worse, but I did my best not to show frustration, and was proud for my boater. In a situation like this, most people would sit it out, give up. Not this guy, I collected my thoughts, kept a smile, and played on. And the best thing, I keep digging, preparing for the next one. Until next time, let's get at it!

BY: Cale Milam

Do you "like" Eco Pro Tungsten?

Eco Pro Tungsten is running a contest on Facebook that will allow anglers to weigh-in on what makes Tungsten better than lead while earning a chance to win a prize pack of the hottest tungsten products on the market. All you have to do is check out Eco Pro Tungsten on Facebook. Answer two questions; one as to why you think tungsten is better than lead and also find your favorite fact about Eco Pro from the website. Post them on the Facebook page for your chance to win. The winner will be randomly selected and will receive a prize pack including Eco Pro Tungsten inline spinners, Pro Beads, ProPegs, and of course weights: worm, flippin' and drop shot. Contest will run for two weeks starting April 11th.

Monday, March 28, 2011

Crankenstein!

from BB-Lures.com

There are a lot of different styles of lures that can be categorized as a crankbait. Today I am only going to talk about "regular" billed crankbaits.
   The regular billed crankbaits are very popular, and their are many different brands and styles.
   Manufacturers of crankbaits make sure that there are many colors available. Actually, too many colors, and while some people may like all those choices, other people shutter at the daunting task of trying to choose one or two that they could afford. We'll take a look at what you can do to try to narrow the choices down.
   In order to determine what different colors of crankbait you will need, you will have to consider what water you are going to be fishing. The clearer the water is, then the more realistic or natural the color needs to look. I am planning on getting a couple more custom painted crankbaits this year due to the fact that I have some lakes that I fish that are very clear. There are a number of places on the internet that you can find that will custom paint your crankbaits for a fee. I have seen prices anywhere from $15 to $50 just to paint them, if you provide the lure. If you don't have the money for custom painted baits, then search for over the counter lures that are natural looking. There are some very good ones out there, so don't settle for something that you won't be able to use. The more stained or muddy the water is, the darker the lure should be, but sometimes you need to try bright baits, like chartreuse. One lake that i have fished quite a number of times, I have a special color of worm I use, it is very stained, and I like a watermelon green and lemon laminated senko to do the trick on this lake. I like to call this my color for that lake, and I even hide it from my bass buddies from this lake.
   Most manufactures of lures offer choices in depths, from shallow wake baits to crankbaits that fish all the way to twenty feet plus. There are several things that you can do to the lures to make them fish differently. The line you use can change the depth that the lure will run. Thinner line will run deeper, so if you wanted a crankbait to go deeper you need to use smaller pound test of fluorocarbon to accomplish that. Likewise, if you want the lure to run more shallow, I would use monofilament and heavier line. How you hold your pole will also affect how deep a crankbait will run. Lower to help the lure run deeper, and higher will help to run more shallow. I have seen guys point their pole into the water to get it deeper. I have held my pole as high as twelve o'clock to keep it shallow enough to miss, or barely skim over a particular piece of cover.
Have you ever wondered why the pros can catch fish, while you continue to struggle to catch fish? Even though you thought you bought the same lure that they are using? Many times you may be using the same baits, but they know a few little tricks to help them catch more fish. I am going to talk about some of the modifications you can do to your crankbaits.
    There are several things you can do with the bill of a crankbait to try to improve your chances of getting more bites on your lure. You can heat up the bill with steam and adjust the bill with needle nose pliers. This will take trial and error, and can really affect the depth your crankbait will go. It is best to have a pool handy to test them so you know how the changes you made affect the bait. If you are new to fishing, or if you are not very much into do it yourself kind of thing, you may want to pass on this modification because you can really mess up the action of bait if you do not do it right. One of the next things you can do to improve the action and to improve success is to file the bill. If you want the bait to have a tighter wiggle, then you want to make the bill thinner, or more sharp on the edges to make the bait perform this way. This will really improve the bite in the spring and the fall. These are the times when you want a tighter wiggle. In the summer you want a wider type of wobble.
You may also add weight to your lure to make it run deeper. I have a crankbait that I have added a tungsten weight to the front hook keeper to make it go deeper. You could add weighted tape to you lure to make it go deeper. You must keep in mind that anything you do to modify a lure may affect the action of the lure, so you want to test it out in practice.
You may want to change the hooks on your crankbaits. Some manufactures have a reputation for using good hooks, others do not. If you buy cheap crankbaits you will want to change the hooks to a more dependable and sharper brand. You may want to change the size of the hooks, again be careful about changing the action of the lure when you do this. You also have to be careful of putting hooks that are too big they may tangle alot during the cast.
   Once you have modified the crankbait, you need to test it, to see if it still has the action you want it to have. Then the true test will be to try it out in the lake or river.
   There is nothing that can replace time in the water, so get out there and fish!
Joe Minor
Inside Bass Fishing Pro Staff

ARMYBASSANGLERS HAVE A MUCH BETTER OUTING ON AMISTAD THE SECOND TIME AROUND—HOOAH!

March 12 - The third South Region Bass Champs tournament of the year and the second on Lake Amistad and the fish were much more cooperative this time around. Beautiful weather all week and warming water temperatures had fish following their very predictable spring patterns and many teams were getting them figured out, including the ArmyBassAnglers.

For the ArmyBassAngler team of Chuck Guthrie and Chad Nelson, the game plan was to fish ledges adjacent to spawning areas in hopes of catching some big females as they migrated towards the banks. It was a good plan…..the first keeper was well over six pounds that came on a Victory Tackle ¾ oz spinner bait. The marker bouy was thrown and the big engine never fired until it was time to head to weigh in. They circled that mark all day throwing a variety of baits, but most would come on Texas rigged and shaky head Lake Fork Trophy Lures Hyper Sticks that required a dead-sticking technique. It was crucial to have the sensitivity of the Dobyns Rods as the bite was extremely subtle. They caught several keeper fish, but the best five weighed in at 23.65 pounds, good enough for 15^th in a field of 210 teams.

For the ArmyBassAngler President and founder, Cody Roberson, his day was a little more lonely. His partner, Don Bailey, was attending some military training at the University of Pennsylvania, forcing Cody to navigate the huge lake on his own. He concentrated a little shallower, in 5-7 feet, and relentlessly pounded the clear water with a Fury Lures square-bill crankbait. He found success twice bringing in two fish that would be close to six pounds, but opted to not weigh-in to support the Bass Champs conservation efforts. The circuit asks anglers that are not close to the money cut line to release their fish in the lake instead of putting them through the stress of coming to the scales. For their efforts, all anglers not weighing in are entered into a $500 drawing, referred to as the “zero bonus” program. What a great way to avoid stressing more fish than necessary.

Rodney Thompson, the newest addition to the ProStaff team also made an appearance at the Southern Region event. Notorious for throwing shaky heads, he did not disappoint those that know him. In addition, he found spinner baits and split shot rigs would work as well. He would catch fish all day long, but the large bass many other teams were finding would elude him, but he was pleased to have almost 14 pounds in his livewell by day’s end. Rodney is the first Air Force Veteran to be added to the ProStaff roster and the rest of the ArmyBassAnglers are aiming just a little higher in the name of friendly competition among professionals.

It was another great turnout among the Coalition ProStaff members. Efrem Dicochea also fished by himself and weighed in over 18 pounds for a 45th place finish. Mario Valenzuela and Wes Higgins opted to try to win the $500 zero bonus as they were just short of competing for a check.

210 Teams would compete with $56,750.00 paid out. Total number of fish brought to the scales was 582 with an avg weight of 3.54lbs. 114 Teams brought a limit to the scales. For individual standings visit http://www.basschamps.com/basschamps/results.cfm?tournament_id=124&type=team&yearSelected=2011

HOOAH!

SUPPORT.DEFEND.FISH.

Monday, March 21, 2011

Lure design - KISS ! It's about CONTRASTS ! Think about it.

I was sitting at my work bench making a few soft plastic lures, thinking about why certain lures catch fish. Is it color, size, action, texture (softness, fine appendages or grain), scent, natural appearence, vibration or a combination of all or any of them? If so, WHY?

Then it occurred to me that of the hundreds of plastics I've bought or made that have worked at one time or other have something that fish notice, become curious about and eventually decide to eat. You can see what I'm talking about on YouTube from the many underwater videos using AquaView.

First of all, artificial baits rarely have to be a detailed copy of the real thing to catch fish. For example Mad Man Craws never out produce a skirted jig and trailer , and they are exact copies of crawfish!

Scent is 50/50 as a factor. I know that after one fish hits a live worm, others soon come around. Is it the bait or something about the turned-on fish that infects other nearby fish to higher aggression levels, regardless of species? A YouTube video demonstrated one perch going after a salted minnow and soon half a dozen others joined in. Some may insist the salt is a factor, but I've disproven that time after time using salted and unsalted plastics.

That leaves the other things - size, action, appearence (color), texture and vibration.
When a company markets a new lure, the hype is usually about how natural the bait is or what it represents to a fish. If fish could speak English, I doubt we could understand it or come away satisfied with why fish hit artificials. Nature is somewhat random and generalities are all we have to go by, therefore, I chose to go with CONTRAST as the most applicable generalization of why all fish bite lures.

Fish feel a lures presence with it's lateral line and can locate prey with it in the dark or in muddy water.A proven FACT! The lateral line indicates size, speed, direction and action of whatever swims within range, similar to SONAR, but more advanced. Sight does not produce 3D images, but one eye and the lateral line do so combined. The closer in proximity a fish is to a lure, the more both work together to feel it and evaluate it as a food source.

Active fish aren't chossy (most of the time), so why would a food-bloated or semi active fish eat a lure? .... LURE CONTRAST and the fish's nature combined.
BY: Gordon Holman