CastAway Anglers
Open Tournaments
June 21-22nd (NIGHT)
Smith Mt. Lake
State Park Ramp
Time: 8 PM – 4 AM
Registration: 7:20 – 7:50 PM
Entry Fee: $60 A Boat (team or single)
Big Fish – $10 a boat (part of entry fee)
80% Payback/ 1 place every 6 Boats (3 places max)
Five fish Limit
3 – 14” and 2 – 12”
For more information call
Jimmy Thomas – 258-4231
Crankbaits for bass fishing are excellent tools throughout much of the year. It’s no mistake these billed beauties are responsible for hundreds of tour-level wins—they often catch bass when other techniques fail. Choosing the most effective shallow water colors, however, can be a bit intimidating at times.
Understanding a few key factors will help you avoid spending hundreds of dollars on wacky crankbait colors.
Crestliner has begun its fourth year of it’s Trumped Angler Competition where over $20,000 dollars of cash and prizes. Prizes will be awarded for catching the longest fish in four categories. Walleye, pike, crappie and bass are included in this FREE competition and its open to all anglers. A $5000.00 Grand Prize will be awarded at the end of 2014. Plano, Frabill, and Progressive Insurance are partnering with Crestliner Trumped in this contest.
BRP today revealed a new outboard engine that produces up to 75 percent fewer total regulated emissions, with 15 percent better fuel efficiency and 20 percent more torque than leading four-stroke engines*: G2 engines, the next generation of Evinrude E-TEC outboard engines.
“BRP’s Evinrude brand is an integral part of one of the most innovative powersports companies in the world,” said Alain Villemure, vice-president and general manager of BRP’s Marine Propulsion Systems division. “Our reputation for inventing and reinventing the playgrounds we’re in dictates that a new era in outboard engine technology and design would originate from BRP.”
Recently I was having a discussion with my friends Gary Dobyns, Mike Barone, and Goodyear Pro John McGoey about the significance, or lack thereof, in the relationship between barometric pressure and bass fishing. In 2004 I began journaling my fishing trips, and trying to gather as much data from the internet as I could find. Frontal systems, wind direction, moon phase, etc. Among those conditions I found research that suggested that the ideal barometric pressure for bass was roughly 28.5-30.1. In the ten years of data that I’ve collected, the most significant correlation that I could see between feeding activity and weather was when the barometer was falling from 30-29. That’s hard evidence, from over 150 total entries, with all data from that period provided by Weather Underground.
Pretty indisputable if you ask me…
At first I was amazed. The amount of fish I caught during those sweet spots was too significant to deny. Not to mention the size of the fish was just incredible. The more I began to study that and understand it, the more I could start to manipulate my tactics to support the conditions that I was in. Let me explain: barometric rises and falls with the presence of high or low pressure systems. How fast it falls and how much tends to vary from one system to another. Now for the past 10 years, there was not a single weather website I could find that was trying to predict this condition. That would leave me to have to use the hourly forecast to predict when the storm would arrive, and monitor the current conditions at wunderground.com (I’m going back to the days of pre-smartphone apps). While the pressure was high I would finesse fish: shaky heads, drop shot, small spinnerbaits, Texas-rigged soft plastics, etc. As soon as I saw the pressure start to fall I’d switch to reaction baits, and target big bites. I can’t tell you how often this allowed me to do well all day, rather than wondering why my fish “shut down” or stopped eating what had seemed to work all day long.
There are a lot of people, especially when you’re referencing deep water fishing (25 feet and deeper), that will tell you bp plays absolutely no part what you catch. While I won’t agree on that, I will say that the fish that are located deeper than 20 feet, in my experience, have proven to be impacted by pressure less than fish in 5 feet or less, but that comparison is really skewed from the very beginning for several reasons. For the most part, largemouth bass don’t typically live in water over 20 feet for prolonged periods of time in the summer months. Any fish that’s caught 20 feet or deeper is already subjected to pressure far greater than shallow fish of the same species. From my own experience, smallmouth are the fish that I’m catching in water deeper than 20 feet, and they’re always better about eating than largemouth anyhow. So naturally you might not see trends as significant in those brown fish in comparison to their green cousins.
As I said, for the past 10 years nobody was predicting barometric pressure. Was being the key word in that sentence. With the conversion to their new website platform, Weather Underground now has a completely customizable graph that will show you the 10 day or hourly forecast that includes chance of precipitation, wind direction and speed, humidity, cloud cover, dew point, and…barometric pressure. So now I can make a note to myself that I’ll expect my best fishing times to be between this time and that time, and allow myself to have a really solid game plan before I launch. Now to be fair, I’m not saying this will make you the next KVD. But it has certainly helped me catch more and bigger bass.
Authored by Jim Root, check out his website www.jimrootfishing.com, or his blog at Weather Underground Reel Weather. Connect with Jim on Fishidy
By Deb Johnson
DAYTON, Tenn. — Jacob Wheeler chose the road less traveled. It led straight to victory Sunday in the inaugural Bassmaster BASSfest event.
The 23-year-old from Indianapolis, Ind., amassed 90 pounds, 6 ounces over four days of competition on Chickamauga Lake. His margin of victory was 5 pounds and 10 ounces over arguably the best angler on the planet, Bassmaster Elite Series pro Kevin VanDam, who stepped up from third place to finish as the runner-up.
After leading for two days, Wheeler added a pad of 22-1 Sunday to clinch the win. He took home $125,000 and a qualification for the 2015 world championship, the Bassmaster Classic.
“I feel unbelievable,” said Wheeler, who at age 21 made a name for himself on the FLW tour by winning the 2013 Forrest Wood Cup. “To be the first BASSfest champion, and to do it in my first Elite Series event…I mean, these (Elite) guys are the best in the world. I couldn’t feel more humbled. The stars lined up for me this week.”
The Classic qualification means as much to him as the event win, he said.
“That’s so big, qualifying for the Classic,” Wheeler said. “That’s the event you want to be in for your career to advance. I’ve wanted to qualify for a Classic since I was 10 years old.”
Flipping a jig is something I have developed a love for. I’ve learned that if you’re going to get fish out of heavy cover you need a jig with a strong hook and a stout weed guard. Today I will explain to you what makes the V&M Pacemaker Adrenaline Jig an awesome choice for flipping shallow cover with a jig.
First thing I look at in a flipping jig is the hook. To me that is the heart of a good jig and everything else should be built around it. The V&M Adrenaline Flipping Jig has a strong custom made 5/0 VMC hook. It’s a hook that can handle the fight a big fish can produce without coming unbuttoned. Where the hook and head meet, V&M put a large keeper to hold your trailer in place while bringing your bait in and out of heavy cover. It also helps keep the trailer from getting pulled to the bend of the hook and robbing you from a good hook set.
Another thing that helps the hook is the 30 degree recessed line tie. Without a big line tie getting in the way, it gives the hook the opportunity to bury into the fish and not the line tie. The recessed line tie also keeps grass from getting caught up between it and the jig head to prevent snags. The jig head itself is mostly flat on the bottom with a small portion being concave. This makes the jig standup on the bottom and look like a crawfish in a defensive position.
The sturdy weed guard helps prevent the hook from getting caught on limbs from a lay down or stump, yet limber enough to allow for good hook penetration when you set the hook. The skirt is held on with a band with two keepers for rattles. The jig comes with one rattle on it and an eye for another one, if you feel you need the extra noise. The rattles are positioned in such a place to allow them to contact cover and make noise.
The V&M Pacemaker Adrenaline Jig comes in four sizes: 3/8, 1/2, 5/8, and 3/4. Of the 12 colors available, black blue, tequila, and black brown amber are my personal favorites.
I hope I’ve peeked your interest in the V&M Pacemaker Adrenaline Jig and you can purchase these jigs from Tackle Warehouse and V&M at www.bayououtdoors.com.
DAYTON, Tenn. — Last June in a major tournament on Chickamauga, Jacob Wheeler finished in 92nd place.
He’s a fast learner. Thursday he led the June 11-15 Bassmaster BASSfest competition on the same fishery. Saturday, he did it again.
“When it’s your time, it’s your time. I put that out there on the line here. If you’re meant to win, it’s going to happen,” he said near the start of the event.
So far, so good. Wheeler, who’s won one Forrest Wood Cup and placed second in another, started BASSfest strong in seventh place. By the second day, he had a 6-pound, 12-ounce lead after weighing an eye-popping 29-13.
In Saturday’s third go at Chickamauga Lake’s bass, apparently it was still the 23-year-old’s time. With a catch of 16-2 and total of 68-5, he was able to hold the lead— but not by much.
DAYTON, Tenn. — In the famed movie Groundhog Day, Bill Murray’s character was given a second chance — over and over and over again.
Skylar Hamilton was perfectly satisfied Friday to get just one second chance. After all, one was all he needed to stay in the Bassmaster BASSfest game for $125,000 and an instant-in to the 2015 world championship of bass fishing, the Bassmaster Classic.
With a Nickajack Lake catch of 25 pounds, 13 ounces — including a 9-15 kicker largemouth — the 19-year-old angler from Dandridge, Tenn., topped the list of the 10 competitors who won the right on Friday to advance to Saturday’s round of BASSfest competition on Chickamauga Lake.
