ARMYBASSANGLERS STRATEGY….SECOND AND THIRD ORDER EFFECTS—HOOAH!

th, Bass Champs        Dodge Truck

being given away to the heaviest

bass each hour and one more

given for the heaviest overall

bass, several

ArmyBassAnglers

Pro Staff teams and Coalition teams tried to determine the best Course of Action for the chance

to at the hourly winnings.

For the team of Cody Roberson, President and Founder of ArmyBassAnglers, and

AirForceBassAngler Mike Carrol, the plan was to look for spawning fish in shallow water. Of

course, the weather always gets a vote and was less than cooperative on this day. The

temperature dropped forty degrees in the 24 hours leading up to launch and stayed cold all

day, making the usually great spawn bite very difficult on Lake Fork. However, Mike caught his

first fish on a

on a

hold out for a limit of good fish before heading to any of the weigh-ins. With over 1300 anglers

fishing this event, they were afraid to give up a productive spot to other competitors. They

continued to catch fish, including several “in the slot.” Any fish between 16 and 24 inches on

Lake Fork had to be immediately thrown back. “Always hard to throw those guys back…that

hurts,” Cody admits. As it turns out, Cody and Mike had a $400 fish in their livewell had they

weighed in earlier in the day. But, events like this are based on taking chances and being able

to guess better than others the right time to head to the scales.

Another success story for ArmyBassAnglers Coalition Pro Staff Dale Hughes has to be written.

Following a lucrative day on Lake Conroe in the Oakley Big Bass event a few weeks earlier, Dale

chose to fish with his Father, Danny Hughes. The two spent their day punching grass with a

Lake Fork Trophy Lures Hyper Lizard and Cody followed closely with one caughtFury Lures F4 Zoro square billed crankbait. They caught these fish early and decided to

Lake Fork Trophy Lures 4” Craw

Magic Shads

were in the slot. They decided to take their two legal keepers to the noon weigh-in. They split

their two fish between two hourly weigh-ins. While the second weigh-in only yielded a gift card

for the team thanks to a random drawing, they tied for fourth with their first fish. With this

in redbug and throwing vibrating jigs tipped with Fire Perch Live. They caught several good fish, to include a couple of six pounders, but they too

event being so highly supported, they still received a nice check. Dale’s sentiments after the

day were all positive. “It was a great event, we had a blast working with the Pro Staff and

Coalition and raising awareness for the nonprofit organizations. Thanks to LFT,

Dobyns Rods,

Ardent

Overall the organization had a great turnout from ArmyBassAngler Pros and Coalition Pros

across the board. They ran a fundraising event for the nonprofit charities they support on

March 26

there were 7 Ram Trucks awarded, plus over 70 hourly checks for a total payback of more than

$175,000 in cash and prizes! There were 1,371 anglers from 14 different states. For more

information visit the Bass Champs story at:

, Skeeter and all the other sponsors.”th, during the event’s registration. A ton of money and awareness was raised. In total

http://basschamps.com/basschamps/newsBigBass.cfm?tournament_id=21&type=bigbass&year

Selected=2011

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On March 27

hosted the fishing world’s richest

one day event and the Army

BassAnglers were there hoping

to cash in. With a

Bass Pro has a new contest.  All you have to do is "LIKE" the facebook page and then fill out the entry form on the left hand side of the page......winner is going to be drawn on June 15th GOOD LUCK!!!  click the picture and it will take you to the page!

Where is Spring?

Like any fisherman, I keep a close eye on the forecast, waiting for Spring to arrive. Here a few weeks ago, we had the perfect scenario play out, the two weeks before my planned trip, the weather stayed consistently in the high 60's during the day and mid to low 50's at night. Then came the perfect Saturday, close to 60 in the morning, high of 75 that day. Wind was light, around 5-7mph, stellar! I hit the water, ready to power fish, mentally thinking the fish were starting to pull up. Boy was I wrong, I had a hard time, and eventually slowed way down. I talked with a lot of other guys who anticipated a good bite, but everyone was struggling. If you were out for crappie, like a lot of guys, sitting on top of them was the ticket. Lesson learned, I was rushing t shirt and shorts weather a bit too soon. With Winter still showing its face, I'm gonna keep a watch, look at potential spawning areas and keep grinding. Come on Spring!

By: Cale Milam

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.

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!

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