Fishing is a Contact Sport:
Finding the Hawgs
by Bruce Callis Jr
It’s the middle of May already! Where has time gone? We have been getting rain, so everything should be full or nearing full. But, it’s also getting hotter and the mayflies, or deer flies, are out. It can get really rough at times, fighting mosquitoes and flies, not to mention the weather.
And the fishing is getting better! And for me,that means the bait choices expand and shrink. Now is the time to start with that topwater action. For me, that means a SPRO frog. Of course, saying a frog isn’t quite so simple. I like to use 2 styles, a regular Bronzeye frog and a popping frog. For fishing the pads and over mats, it’s a SPRO Bronzeye, and sometimes I will go with the King frog if the mat is heavy. While I can work it anywhere,e really, there are times that I prefer the popping frog. It gives more noise and can draw up those big girls.
And then there are times I like to use a more conventional bait, like a walking bait. I can work it in place and it gives off a great sound. But a popper can be worked in place and give off as much if not more sound. And then there is a buzzbait. It displaces a lot of water and gives off a lot of noise. The only thing is you must keep it moving for it to work.
I prefer to use braided line on all my frogs. I’ll use 65 pound Seaguar Smackdown braid in Stealth Gray for working in the pads. I’ll drop down to 50 pound for open water applications. Some like to use monofilament for open water baits, and there are times I will use it also. Everyone has a preference and all are great.
My second choice is soft plastic or a jig. I love to flip a Texas-rigged soft plastic around laydowns. There is something about that direct contact. After all, Fishing is a Contact Sport. I love a Missile Baits D Bomb, but will switch it up with a Chunky D and a D Stroyer. All are proven winners. Depending on the weather and the bass, I switch up my weights with a Woo tungsten 1/8 ounce flipping weight to a 3/16 ounce. If I am punching into the lily pads and mats, I will go heavier. But it is always pegged.
And I will mix in a Missile Baits Ike’s Mini Flip to a Flip Out jig, depending on the situation and water depth. I like a D Bomb or Chunky D for a bigger presentation. And I will go with a Baby D Bomb or Mini D Chunk as a trailer for a more compact presentation.
Depending on where I am fishing, I will vary the rod and line. For fishing around laydowns and the edges of the lily pads, I like to use Seaguar 20-pound AbrazX on a 7’ medium-heavy rod. If I am fishing in heavy cover, lily pads, and mats, I prefer 65-pound Seaguar Smackdown braid on an 8-foot heavy rod.
My third choice is a SPRO Fat John 60 or a Little John 50 for most applications. There is something special about a crankbait. I use 10-pound Seaguar Fluorocarbon, but I started with Red Label, still use it, and mix it with AbrazX. There is something about the way they come through the shallows out to 5 feet.
May is a great month to find some big bass. These baits are some of my favorite and they will be on my deck all summer long. You just have to adjust to the changing conditions and the moving bass. Just be patient and take your time. And have fun on the water!
Mistakes that Anglers Make in the Spring By Calvin Herndon
Have you ever been on the water in the spring and thought Why am I not catching fish? Usually, in the spring, catching bass should be relatively easy. In the spring, bass are looking to feed up and get ready to spawn, but unfortunately, anglers make tiny mistakes during this time that can affect their fishing experience during the springtime. Let’s talk about these tiny mistakes and ways you, as an angler, can make adjustments to avoid these mistakes.
The first mistake that anglers make is that anglers focus on wind-blown points. This goes against what every angler has been told to follow the wind, or wind is your friend. So in the spring, the wind that you get is usually a northern wind, which is a cold wind. Think about what bass are trying to find in the spring,g they are trying to find warmer water so that they can spawn. If you have the northern wind, that is going to cool the water down and make it hard for bass to find warm water. So what do you do? Find and fish pockets that are protected from the wind. If it is a northern wind, avoid southern pockets because they will be affected by the wind the most. Let me put a disclaimer about this mistake, this does not go for every lake. If you have a deep, clear body of water, then the wind does not affect the fish that much due to the depth of the water. Which this helps me move into my next mistake.
The second mistake that anglers make is that they are fishing too deep in the spring. In the spring, things happen really fast, and bass are on the move a lot during the spring. Pay attention to the water temperature in your lake once the temperature begins to rise into the 50s to the 60’s it’s time to begin to move shallow. Now I am not saying you cannot catch them deep weeks leading up to this temperature change, because you can. My advice during the spring would be to start shallow and work your way out deep. I would also challenge you to fish banks that have nothing on them. Bass do not need a lot of cover to spaw;n they just need a good bottom composition to start spawning.
The third mistake that anglers make is bait selection. What kind of baits do you think about fishing in the springtime? In my head, I go straight to moving baits and baits I think will catch big fish. As I learned this may not be the best way of thinking. Have you ever been in an area that you know has fish in it, but you are not getting any bites? Well, it could be that you are fishing to fast and going right over those fish. It is vital to slow down in the springtime, but there are time to fish fast. Some advice for you: try to avoid using reaction-style baits unless you are trying to find a good area. Use a reaction bait as a search bait. Once you have found a good area, slow down and begin picking apart the area with vertical baits. What is a vertical bait? Vertical bait could be a jig, Texas rig, or a wacky worm it is a bait that sinks vertically when cast. If you fish a horizontal bait this time of year you are missing the bass that are not super aggressive
The final mistake that anglers make is not paying attention to light and dark spots. When you are bed fishing you have always been told to look for light spots in the water, because that is where a bass is going to be making their bed. This is true, but there is other things you need to consider when bed fishing. Do not overlook the dark spots. Dark spots can lead you to where bass are going to be spawning. Dark spots can lead you to cover where bass like to bed. During the spring, it is important to have a good pair of polarized sunglasses to be able to see the beds and the bass. Some lens colors I would recommend is Bronze or Amber.
Has Sidescan become a lost art? by Carson Maddux
With summer coming in hot, these next few months of tournament season will be dominated offshore. That is not to say fish can’t be caught shallow, but the bulk of the weight on most reservoirs will be caught off the bank. Offshore fishing has been around as long as I can remember. It used to be a way of fishing that seasoned veterans would excel at due to their knowledge of the topography of the lake. Guys would drag Carolina rigs and throw marker buoys when they caught one. Technology has advanced, and maps have become more detailed. A lot of the “sneaky” stuff has become more obvious and hence easier to find. What started with a flasher has advanced all the way to what we have now with forward-facing sonar (FFS). Somewhere along the way, side imaging sonar helped carve the path to where we are now. Side imaging is a great tool to find fish and structure away from the bank.
Whenever a tournament is covered where an angler is fishing offshore, the negativity starts to buzz around FFS. This past week at Fork, Elite series angler Tucker Smith won the event fishing hard spots and ledges on the main lake. He caught a good number of fish on a spinning rod, consequently, he was grouped into the “can’t catch them without scope” category. That said, he was fishing a way that we have all seen before but with a few tweaks to his baits. How many tournaments have we seen Kevin Van Dam win offshore on a crankbait? Or how Bryan Thrift fishing brush piles? The answer is a lot. These guys dominated before FFS but used side imaging as their eyes underwater.
Side imaging is one of the most important tools on an angler’s boat. It allows you to cover a ton of water while at idle. You can sit in your seat, bump some tunes and unlock the lake. It takes discipline and time to master, but is easily one of the more rewarding practices out there. A lot of people give up without giving it an honest shake. You can learn so much about a lake while sitting behind the wheel. I see a lot of people scan for a few hours and fish everything they see while in practice. While this may be more fun than sitting on your butt in the baking sun, someone who has the patience will cover way more water. Going back to Tucker’s Elite Series win on Lake Fork, he claimed the sole reason he won was that he idled for three days straight.
Don’t get me wrong, I understand that most of us have been working all week, and when you get the time to go fishing, you want to start casting immediately. Having the discipline to put the rods down and idle will pay off tenfold. The more time behind the wheel, the more confidence you have in what you are looking for. The more confidence you have, the better you will perform. So next time you see an angler catching fish offshore, odds are they’re not just “scoping” but fishing something they found while idling.