They Took Water Over the Bow, the Sides...Just About Everywhere

Last time I checked, those 21-foot Triton bass boats like you see here don't exactly come cheap, and they've already destroyed one. So, yeah, I'm bettin' the ranch (if I owned one, that is) that a certain trio of Okie anglers will dig a little deeper in researching their next fishing trip to unfamiliar waters.

It seems they learned the hard way that, while the mouth of the Mississipi River is the most productive fishery in North America, it's also arguably the most dangerous. Enter Captain Rob Buck, owner of Sea Tow Westbank, the gent who got a late-night call for H-E-L-L-L-P!!! Actually, his Nov. 16 call didn't come from the stranded fishermen--it came from the U.S. Coast Guard, who asked him to salvage a boat that had taken on water nine miles out of Southwest Pass at a platform in West Delta block 86.

"They feared the vessel would bang up against the rig, and we'd have another issue with leaking oil," said Capt. Buck.

This veteran skipper met the anglers at Venice, Louisiana's Cypress Cove Marina the next morning at 6 a.m., whereupon he learned they had come down to fish Venice and decided to tiptoe offshore.

"Subsequently, the seas built up, and the motor shut down," Buck recounted. "They took on water and ended up in the Gulf. They were able to loop a ski rope over a piece of the platform to hold the boat, and they then somehow were able to crawl onto the platform. A helicopter saw them and directed the Coast Guard to their location."

Incidentally, the platform, described by Buck as "WD86B," sits in 190 feet of water.

After rescuing the men, the Coast Guard flew them to Belle Chasse, and they finally made their way back to Cypress Cove at 3 a.m. Nov. 17, just three hours before Buck arrived to salvage their boat. He described them as "shaken, cold and tired but grateful to be alive." They wanted to tag along with Buck to retrieve the boat, but he wouldn't let them for insurance reasons.

An hour later, Buck and Capt. Evan Davis arrived at the platform in Buck's 29-foot catamaran with dual Tohatsu 250-hp outboards. They found the nearly submerged Triton still tethered to the platform and began the arduous process of dewatering the boat.

The complicated two-person technique involves towing the bow of the submerged vessel into an oncoming sea to kick it up and force water to the back of the boat. While one captain steers the tow vessel, the other jumps into the sunken craft with batteries and pumps to slowly rid it of water. Sea Tow captains practice this technique during training sessions in Montauk, NY, where seas often run 7 to 8 feet.

Still, that day in the Gulf, seas were too rough for Buck to feel confident spending any more time than necessary in the Triton. He and Davis waited until they were in Southwest Pass to complete the dewatering process. Then then returned the boat to Cypress Cove Marina, where the Okie anglers loaded it onto a trailer and headed home.

Buck said the boat certainly would have to be totaled, because it was fully submerged in salty Gulf water. As for the anglers, "They learned an important but expensive lesson, which could have been a lot worse. When you're in a single-engine boat, it's not a good idea to be offshore," he explained. "They're fortunate to be alive."

I saw this story in Jay Kumar's 11/29/2016 issue of BassBlaster. He picked it up from the original author, Todd Masson, who writes for NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune.

Tournament Advice From an Elite Pro

I think everyone probably knows that if something looks strange or weird, you call the ghostbusters. But whom do you call when you want some advice about catching big tournament bass?

The answer to that question--for some, at least--is Bassmaster Elite Series angler Todd Faircloth (pictured at right).

While digging around the Internet recently, I stumbled across some tips Todd had shared during a 2012 interview. As one who readily admits he has benefitted from things other anglers have shared with him over the years, he likes to give back when an opportunity presents itself.

"Sometimes, you'll hear a tournament fisherman say something like, 'I just go out there and fish hard all day and bring my best five to the scales.' Well, that's fine," said the Elite pro, "but without any way to measure performance throughout the day, you're fishing blind and can't make the kind of adjustments necessary to be successful. You can't afford to wait until you get to the scales to find out if you had a good day or not."

Faircloth went on to explain that he does a lot of research for every tournament he fishes. Besides figuring out the best locations, baits and patterns, he develops an idea of what it's going to take to do well and earn a check.

"I always have a weight in mind before I launch my boat each day," he noted. "Once I reach that target weight, my comfort level goes up, and I'm ready to explore and try something different. Until then, I'm doing all I can just to catch the quality fish I need to get there. I want lots of bites from respectable bass until I reach that target."

Todd's tournament mindset always is to go for a respectable limit first and to upgrade later. He'd rather start with a spot where he knows he can catch a lot of 2-and-a-half pounders quickly than another spot where the bass are bigger but the bites are fewer and farther between. That plan, however, is flexible.

"There are times when I'll go after big fish first," he said, "and then work on a limit. An obvious time to do this is in the spring, when you've found a giant female or two on beds that you need to go get before someone else does. Ordinarily, though, I'm focused on a limit first."

Once Faircloth has his limit, he starts looking for a couple of bites that will really help his bottom line...by several pounds, not just an ounce or two. His focus now is isolated cover.

"It doesn't have to be big, but it does need to be away from other similar cover," he explained. "I like to target isolated logs, boat docks, brush piles, mats of vegetation, or anything else that might hold a big fish. The isolated cover is a big-fish magnet because it's the only holding area around, and other anglers often will overlook it, preferring instead to fish bigger spots that might hold more bass but which take a lot longer to fish and generally doesn't hold the biggest bass in the area."

Todd sometimes makes a long run to get to an out-of-the-way spot or makes another change that's otherwise time-consuming or risky. Having a solid limit, as he sees it, frees him up to do other things that have the potential for a big payoff. He cautions, however, "You need to make such moves when you're in a position of strength and have the right mindset, not when you're in a position of weakness and pressing too hard."

For Faircloth, the idea of sitting on a spot and milking it hard for a bunch of fish that only add ounces to your bottom line is a mistake. He would rather gamble a little and try targeting better fish so he maybe can win a tournament, rather than just cash a check.

"I admit that my method of upgrading a tournament catch doesn't always work," he said, "but neither does anything else. What I can tell you is that it has worked more times than not, and I'll keep using it until I find something better."

Todd admits "hero or zero" is a popular phrase for guys who gamble with their tournament strategy, but he also offers, "it doesn't have to be that way. I much prefer 'hero or still-in-the-money.'"

A lot of anglers agree with Faircloth's strategic plan to focus on isolated pieces of cover for kicker fish. There appears to be two completely opposite trains of thought, however, when it comes to choosing the right baits. One group of anglers recommends using larger baits with bulky profiles. Another group suggests downsizing--perhaps going to finesse baits.

One point that all anglers probably can agree on is that scattered big fish can be heart-breakers. Catching one or two fluke kickers in practice can lead to the use of a losing pattern come tournament day. There are no guarantees about how long a pattern will hold. You have to be smart enough to know when it's time to cut your losses.

Another HRBT Trip This Morning

Received an email from Ron, telling me that he and a buddy went striper fishing from 3 to 6 a.m. Meanwhile, his son, Alex, stayed home in bed.

With 12-knot winds, 2-foot seas, and temps in the mid-30s, conditions were less than ideal, but that didn't stop the duo from getting what they went after. Said Ron, "I managed six stripers, including five short ones and (as pictured at left) a 27.5-inch, 8-lb. 4-oz. personal best. Meanwhile, my buddy also caught five short ones, as well as his own personal best: a 29-incher that weighed 10 lbs. 2 ozs."

Their productive bait was a 3-inch Z-Man paddle-tail soft plastic trolled on a 3/8-oz. jig head. "I hear a bucktail that runs deeper will get more big ones, but we troll a water depth of 6 to 9 feet," noted Ron. They were working the area along the light lines (streetlights).

The two anglers had to battle a constant chop. As Ron allowed, "The bite wasn't as good as the last trip, but the keepers were bigger."

I See It As Just an Inherent Part of Fishing

Let's face it, if you spend much time on the water, you quickly learn one seemingly unavoidable truth: Stuff happens. I don't care how careful you are, the odds are you'll eventually find yourself in a predicament--and perhaps a lot of 'em--that was anything but funny when they occurred and which you never may be able to laugh about.

Here is a sampling of some accounts I found on the Internet:

While dock fishing on the Potomac, an angler slipped off the dock into shallow water. His shin landed on an underwater cement slab that had pencil-thick rebar protruding from it. One of the bars impaled his shin about an inch and a half deep. Once he was able to free himself and slow the bleeding, he bandaged it up as best he could and kept fishing. The wound was healing fine a week later, but he went to a nurse just to be on the safe side. She gave him a thumbs up. However, three weeks later, his injured leg had swollen to three times the size of the other one. Wanting to find out what was wrong, he went to the ER and learned that he had gotten MRSA. They managed to save his leg, but as the victim commented, "Man, was that scary!"

A couple of guys had gone fishing together when one of them made a bad cast and imbedded the hooks of a Pop-R in the side of his buddy's neck. While the buddy stood there thinking he might die from a Pop-R stuck in his jugular, the other fella just laughed. Luckily, the hooks only hit muscle, and the fella who made the errant cast paid the ER bill.

Back in the early years of bass boats, an angler was riding with a buddy in the latter's 16-foot Ouachita, with stick steering and a 60-hp Johnson. These boats had two pedestal seats that were screwed to the floor. While running wide open down the lake, the angler in the rear seat noticed his buddy's front seat starting to tilt backward from the screws coming loose. Realizing what likely was about to happen, the backseater grabbed the sides of the boat. About the same time, the buddy at the helm fell backward, jerking the stick steering down and sending the boat into a 360. "I vaguely remember being upside down and going out the back of the boat, with my shoulder and head hitting the transom running light," the backseater said. "When I came to, I was several feet underwater, not knowing where I was but did have presence of mind to look downward and see it was black and upward, where there was light." The backseater subsequently swam to the surface, where he heard a boat idling. It turned out to be his buddy who had been slung all the way to the transom but had managed to scramble back to the controls up front and idle around looking for him. Other than some severe bruising to the back of his neck and one shoulder, the backseater was OK. And soon after this incident, he went out and bought a life jacket, which he didn't have at the time this event occurred.

One spring, a fella fell out of his boat into 45-or-so-degree water after a gust of wind blew his boat sideways. "The trolling motor caught a large stump, and over I went," he said. Fortunately, he was wearing Frogg Toggs, instead of his heavier Guide Wear rainsuit. With a looser fit, the Toggs caught a lot of air inside them, and he popped right back to the surface. Then adrenaline kicked in, and three kicks later, he was hanging on the side of his boat. Said the victim, "Call me anal, but the first year I got my boat, I practiced falling overboard (in the summer in 85-degree water) and then getting back onboard. I feel like that practice a few years earlier saved me that day. When I got home from that experience, I pulled out the Bass Pro Shops catalog and ordered an inflatable life jacket, and I'm pretty religious about wearing it now."

Then there's this story about a couple of guys who were fishing for bream from a 14-foot johnboat. The bream were hanging right in front of a spillway, with a lot of current being pulled through the gate. Each time they made a pass, the bream busters would load up, "and we were catching nice ones," said the one angler. The spillway had four gates, with only one pulling water, and there was a little bridge on top for access to the power house. The two fellas just had made a pass and caught a fish when a gust of wind slung the back end of the boat into the current moving through the gate. "Next thing you know," said the one angler, "we were standing up in the boat, hanging onto the bridge. A 20-foot drop onto a cement slab is behind us, and I am wondering how to get out of this one. I flip the Motorguide on high--but no help." Luckily, there was a cement wall on the side of the gate that the two anglers could pull on while running their trolling motor on high, and they eventually were able to work their way out of the current. Lesson learned the hard way: Always be careful while fishing spillways.

For that matter, always be careful no matter where you're fishing. Things can and often do happen in the blink of an eye.

All photos used here are only representative. They in no way portray the actual events.

The Early Bird Gets the...

In this case, the answer is stripers.

Most anglers have pulled their share of early-morning starts to a fishing day, but Ron (below) and his son, Alex (right), launched out of the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel this morning at 0245. That's a lot earlier than I consider getting started this time of year.

Only a little more than three hours later, Ron had landed 15 stripers, and Alex had caught about 7. Unfortunately, a lot of the fish were a little short--Ron had five that missed the mark by just a quarter-inch. However, they ended up with three keepers between them.

"It was a blast catching them," said Ron, "and they will be tasty!"

What Our Sport, the Players, and Their Toys Looked Like 40 Years Ago

Who doesn't like to take an occasional stroll down memory lane? I took one today and have decided to share it with all of you.

The idea for this pictorial post came to me while I was reading an old Sports Illustrated (SI) article online earlier today. I'm going to withhold those details until a bit later, though.

How many of you have ever seen a 1976 Ranger classic, 16-foot, Bomber-style bass boat like this one? As rigged here, the boat had a 1976 Johnson, 70-hp outboard with tilt and trim and a 40-lb.-thrust Minn Kota trolling motor. The owner of this rig was asking $1,500 for it in July 2015.

Although I have no way of knowing for sure, it's entirely possible a 1976 Ford pickup similar to this one may have been used to tow this boat and/or others like it back and forth to the local fishing hole.

Graphite and graphite-boron composite rods, as reflected in this ad, were making their debut on tackle shelves around the countryside.

The first Lew's baitcasters were showing up, too. This ad is from an old Bass Pro Shops catalog.

1976 B.A.S.S. Angler of the Year was Jimmy Houston, fishing in just his second year of professional competition.

1976 Bassmaster Classic Champion was Rick Clunn. This Classic victory--his first--came on Lake Guntersville.

Clunn, however, had to share that 1976 spotlight with Ricky Green, the man holding the 8-lb. 9-oz. largemouth in this photo. This bass represented the Classic record for a long time. Green was inducted into the Bass Fishing Hall of Fame in 2005; he died May 11, 2014, at the age of 69. And in case you haven't noticed, a youthful Ray Scott is the man behind the mike in this photo.

In the 1960s and 1970s, when big-time competitive bass fishing was an emerging sport, the fashion for anglers was short-sleeved, snug-fitting coveralls that zipped up the front. Like now, the pros back then showcased their sponsors on their clothing but with bulky, embroidered patches that had to be sewn on. During the 2012 Bassmaster Classic, Tim Horton, 39, of Muscle Shoals, Ala., decided to pay tribute to the sport's early days by wearing one of these old suits, complete with patches, on stage.

(NEW) The lure that fast was becoming "all the buzz" in 1976 was this Harkin's Lunker Lure. There had been a number of surface-type spinner/buzzbaits made over the years, including Floyd's Buzzer and the Al Foss Shimmy Wiggler. However, the Lunker Lure had a new prop design (actually patented), and the bait was lightweight, which meant it would come to the surface quicker than any other buzzing-type bait before it. Not only that, but it made a nasty squeak when the prop started to wear--a noise that reportedly "drove the fish nuts." In fact, many anglers of that day would attach their Lunker Lures to the sideview mirrors of their vehicles and drive down the road, which made the props wear faster--and thus enhanced that awful squeak.

As I mentioned in the beginning, the idea for this post came while I was reading a feature-length article in a 1976 issue of SI earlier today. Here's the link for that article: http://www.si.com/vault/1976/04/26/618207/5760-casts-a-day-now-thats-plugging. "5,760 Casts a Day: Now That's Plugging" is an excellently written article by Roy Blount, Jr. Give it a read--I think you'll enjoy the journey down memory lane.

As You Prepare To Gather With Family and Friends...

It was a cold winter day as an old man walked out onto a frozen lake, cut a hole in the ice, dropped in his fishing line, and waited patiently for a bite.

He was there for almost an hour, without even a nibble, when a young boy walked up and cut a hole in the ice next to him. The young boy then dropped in his fishing line and, minutes later, hooked a largemouth bass.

The old man couldn't believe his eyes but chalked it up to plain luck. Shortly thereafter, the young boy pulled in another large catch, and he kept catching fish after fish. Finally, the old man couldn't take it any longer. "Son," he said, "I've been here for more than an hour and haven't even had a nibble. You've been here only a few minutes and have caught a half-dozen fish! How do you do it?"

The boy responded, "Roo raf roo reep ra rums rrarm."

"What was that?" the old man asked.

Again the boy responded, "Roo raf roo reep ra rums rrarm."

"Look, Sonny" said the old man, "I can't understand a word you're saying."

The boy then spat a wad of bait into his hand and said, "You have to keep the worms warm!"

Sooo...I reckon my advice to all you cold-weather fishin' folks is to keep your baits warm...and, in case you're using artificials, beware all those treble hooks.

Whatever Is Beautiful,

Whatever Is Meaningful,

Whatever Brings You Happiness...

May It Be Yours

This Holiday Season

and

Throughout the Coming Year!

Warm Day, Bite Not Bad, Either

For the benefit of anyone out there who may be wondering, Ron has not missed getting in a little fishing the past couple of days. I've just been tied up with some things that prevented me from putting together a blog post about his trips.

Thankfully, though, things are back to normal for me now, which accounts for why you're seeing this report tonight.

Ron said he went to Rudee Inlet this morning from 0600 to 1100 in search of some speckled trout and puppy  drum. He managed to catch about 10 small specks (see photo above), but none of them were keepers.

After returning home to clean up and rest up a bit, he once again gathered his gear and headed to Milldam Creek. He fished there from 3 to 5:30 p.m. Said Ron, "The weather was very nice, and I found some protection from the wind."

Before he had to call it quits this evening, Ron caught two bass in feeder creeks on a Whopper Plopper. One was what he described as a "super dink," (see photo below) and the other weighed 1-14 (see photo above). He also caught a crappie in the main creek and lost three more bass on the WP.

The XTS Minnow, beetlespin, and Bomber Square A failed to yield a single fish.

Ron had been thinking his WP might have run its course for him this season after a couple of trips in which it had let him down, but he has changed his mind after today's success. "It's still working," he happily acknowledged.

Sunday, Nov. 20, 2016...Ron had said last evening that, because of the weather predictions for today, he planned to stay home and take care of some things there. But as I learned in an email a little bit ago, he "just had to get out and battle the wind and cold," to borrow his own words.

Having launched at West Neck Marina about 3 p.m., Ron headed under the bridge to the western shore and feeder creeks to try and find some protection from the western wind. He found some wind protection, but fish--not so much.

He ended up coming away with only two dinks. The one pictured here fell for a Mann's 1-Minus crankbait. The other hit a Whopper Plopper. He also tried an XTS Minnow but to no avail.

Said Ron, "The water was very clear but shallow, with a 1.66 gauge reading. Most of the grass is gone, and I was targeting cypress and fallen trees."

He called it a night just before sunset--the result of it being a bit too cold and windy. No one else was at the launch or on the water.

Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2016..."Barely avoided a skunk this evening," said Ron.

He fished Tecumseh from 3:45 to 5:45 p.m. and tried everything (beetlespin, XTS Minnow, Mann's crankbait and Whopper Plopper), everywhere, to no avail--not a single bump.

By sunset, it was very calm and chilly (42 degrees at recovery).

Finally, at 5:24, as he was heading back to the launch site, Ron allowed that he caught one chain pickerel on an ultralight rig. "At least it was a good fight," he said.

Sittin' Home Wishin' I Had Gone Fishin'

That's the undeniable thought that crossed my mind as I stepped outside a little earlier to move a bag of yard waste for my wife. When the warmth of that bright sunshine wafted across my face, I only wanted to be one place...and it wasn't standing in my driveway.

When I came back to my computer, I decided to Google the phrase I chose for the title to this post, and one of the things that immediately popped up was the lyrics to this song:

Home Wishing I Had Gone Fishing

Davin James, Davin James Music/BMI

Layne McGuffee

You can chunk a spinerbait,

You can work a worm,

You can crank a rattletrap

'Til your fingers burn.

Hula popper, jitterbug,

And a silver spoon,

Well, I hope we get to do some fishing soon.

Chorus

I'm home wishing

That I'd gone fishing,

Gone fishing,

You know I'd rather be fishing.

Blabbermouth, devil's horse, and a big O,

A hot spot, rogue, tiny torpedo,

Buzzbait, little george, and a zara spook,

I'll catch you on a lake bank soon.

Chorus

If the bass ain't bitin',

We'll change our luck;

We'll get a bucket full of crickets,

And we'll watch that bobber duck.

Chorus

You might hear me holler,

For big night crawler,

When I'm fishin' with my ol' cane pole,

And nothing could be finer,

Than a couple dozen shiners,

When we're sitting on a crappie hole.

Chorus

If you're interested in hearing a sampling of these lyrics set to music, first click on this link: www.davinjames.com/discography/old-soul/, then click on the "play" button shown beside the album cover.

I'll undoubtedly be kickin' myself for a long time to come because I sat home. On a day this nice, I don't even need to catch a fish--I just need to be out there on the water. And I feel equally certain I'll likely see some fishin' reports later that only will serve to make me feel even worse. Oh well... .

Wind From the West, Fishing Is Best???

I don't know who came up with that rhyme, but as far as I'm concerned, that's all it is--a rhyme. Given my luck today, or more accurately, the lack of it, I really cannot attest to the validity of that statement, which serves as the headline for this post.

No, I didn't get skunked, but neither did I accomplish anything worth writing home about. I fished one side of nearly the entire length of West Neck this morning, with absolutely no action whatever. It was then I decided, despite the traffic on the Intracoastal Waterway, to head south and try things in Albright's.

For a while, I was having the same misfortunes there with a chatterbait and flat-sided crankbait. Finally, there was a stir when I started throwing a jerkbait.

Between about 11 or 11:30 and 2 o'clock, I managed to find four dink bass on that jerkbait and also had a couple more fish act a little interested but wouldn't make the necessary commitment.

After seeing that my buddy, Charlie, had a very similar day to mine, I don't feel too bad.

Don't know when I'll get back out again--just know there won't be another day this week. Other commitments are calling me, which I cannot ignore. I'll just be watching the weather and water level for another opportunity.

Jerkbaits Aren't for Everyone

It could be said that seasoned pro Mike McClelland is the excellence of execution when it comes to using a McStick jerkbait to lure bass from cold water.

The proof is in the pudding. To wit: He has claimed his fair share of tens-of-thousands in tournament dollars while pulling fish from 40-degree water with these slow-moving shad imitators.

So, why can't everyone achieve a reasonable degree of success with these lures? McClelland suspects the problem lies in the fact most guys simply lack the patience to sometimes pause for as long as 30 to 45 seconds between twitches of the lure, once the suspending depth is achieved. That's the bad news.

The good news is: There are some alternatives, which may be more suitable for anglers who don't have a big threshold for patience. Here is a list of what some of them use to avoid frustration-filled moments on cold water with a jerkbait:

When a body of water is cold and stained-to-muddy, nothing works harder to connect you with a lunker bass than a jig 'n' pig. According to bass pro Ron Shuffield, "This is the ultimate cold-water big-bass lure." He recommends using a 7-foot heavy-action baitcasting rod or flipping stick with 20-pound mono for jig fishing. In his words, "You have to hammer the fish and winch it out of thick cover."

Mike Iaconelli throws a Rapala Shad Rap. "The secret is to use spinning tackle because it's such a lightweight crankbait," he said. He prefers a 7-foot medium-action spinning rod and 6-pound fluorocarbon line.

Although it's a world-class smallmouth lure, a hair jig works equally well on largemouths. It will catch anything that swims in gin-clear to muddy water and even can be fished under a bobber for suspending bass. Recommended gear for clear water includes a 6.5-foot spinning rod, with 6-to-8-pound mono. In heavily stained water, use a medium-heavy baitcasting rod with 12-to-15-pound line.

Tommy Biffle likes to throw his Biffle Bug on 20-pound Sunline when the water is in the 40s. He uses a 6-foot 10-inch rod, paired with a 7.3:1 reel to pick up the line quickly when he feels a bite.

One of the best things about a lipless crankbait is that you can cover a lot of water by fan casting it. Use a medium-action, 6.5-to-7-foot rod, and reel the lure fast enough to feel the action. A good low-stretch line, such as braid or fluorocarbon, performs well with these lures.

Davey Hite likes to use a chatterbait in cold water. He cautions, however, "The rod and line are the most essential ingredients to getting the most from your chatterbait." Hite swears by glass-composite rods and fluorocarbon line "because they improve the castability of the bait and essentially extend the strike zone due to their elasticity." His personal favorite is a 7-foot 3-inch heavy-action Evergreen Heracles Leopard rod, teamed with a Chronarch C14+ 6.2:1 ratio reel. His choice of line is 20-pound test Sunline Super FC Sniper fluorocarbon.

Virginian John Crews is an established expert on crankbait fishing. He even has an entire line of flat-sided crankbaits named after him: the Spro Little John series. His preferences for gear are a 7-foot medium-action Pinnacle Perfecta Cranking rod, with a Pinnacle Optimus LTE reel in a 6.4:1 gear ratio. His reel selection goes against the idea held by most that a slower gear ratio is best for crankbaits. John says, "I want to be able to get the fish to the boat as fast as I can once they are hooked."

The bottom line here is simple. If that "jerk, jerk, then pause"...for 30 to 45 seconds routine isn't for you, stop and give some of these alternatives a try. Change lures and change your luck.

An All-XTS Minnow Morning in Milldam

That was the gist of Ron's email I received a little bit ago. "Once the frost thawed, I headed out about 8 a.m.," he said.

Although searching for crappie, he only managed a dink yellow perch, as well as three bass, including a 2-2 (pictured above right), 1-12 and 1-1. He caught all the fish in the main creek. "The feeders were just too shallow," he explained.

Ron went on to note it turned out to be a beautiful morning, but the bite was so-so, and water was LOW. He acknowledged that a totally bluebird kind of day didn't help his cause any. "Will try for an evening bite and hopefully find some crappie this time," he said.

The only lure that worked this morning was the XTS Minnow.

Ron headed out to Tecumseh with a dozen minnows about 3 p.m. this evening, but as he admitted, "I should have waited." Why? Because he didn't get a nibble until sunset, and then the bites came frequently, resulting in a few hookups of the targeted crappie.

"I caught 10 that measured about 11.5 inches--just right for tacos, yum!" he said. "Seemed like the tiny yellow perch were more interested in the minnows."  

While trolling around with the minnows, Ron threw the XTS Minnow and Whopper Plopper to structure and shoreline but couldn't find any bass. The conditions, as he described them, were "dead calm, with a nice sunset and the rising super bright moon. Large flocks of ducks also were flying overhead. Just wish it was about 10 degrees warmer," he concluded.

A Windy and Cold Trip

Ron said he found some wind protection this morning in the Crystal Lake burrow pit. "Getting there was easy," he said, "but the trip back northward in Tecumseh--not so much."

Heading south, Ron averaged 3.3 mph. However, he couldn't make over 2 mph against the wind. "The chop was no fun, either," he added. 

His total included a dink bass and a dink chain pickerel.

"The wind looks to be laying down now," he noted, adding, "maybe I'll go again later." 'Twouldn't be the first time he has made two trips in one day.

For his second trip today, Ron went to Lovitt's Creek from 3 to 5 p.m.

In his own words, it was "against my better judgment." The water was very low and a bit murky. He ended up catching one bass that weighed 1-3 and losing a smaller one on the XTS Minnow. That was better than the report he got from a fella he talked to at the launch site. That fella had been skunked at Landing Cove.

Said Ron, "The wind died down at sunset, but that didn't help the bite."