For Week Ending Sunday, May 2, 2021

Tuesday, April 27 (from DMac)..."How the heck iz ya?" came the question this afternoon from my friend, dmac. "Got a little Back Bay love," he continued. "Fished 'til 10:30 this morning and caught only one dink on the frog. Then the fish gods told the bass to go have lunch, and they did." As he went on to explain, he caught a 5.05, 4.74, 3.03, 2.5, and 2.4 in just a matter of an hour and a half. Also bagged three more smaller ones, and then it shut off...just as fast as it had turned on...all while froggin'. Can't seem to remember which frog exactly. Lookin' forward to fishing a day without so much wind blowing. The predictions are for SW 20-plus for the rest of the week. Jeeez!

Who Says You Need a Big, Fancy Bass Boat to Win Tournaments?

I know a couple of fellas who are on a real roll in their aluminum rig. After just four tournaments this season, they already have accumulated a 23-pound lead over the nearest competitor and have taken first place in each of the last three tournaments. I'm talking of course about Fred Crawford and Gabe Himmelwright.

Where a lot of the Dewey Mullins Memorial competitors in those bigger boats are burning gallons of gas every tournament in pursuit of bass, these anglers are likely measuring their gas use in cupfuls. The truth of the matter is that they have fished every tournament thus far in West Neck Creek, which means they spend most of every fishing day on the trolling motor, and they know what they're doing. In their last three events, they have weighed 17.82-, 17.33- and 18.23-pound bags of fish (in that order).

And you know what? They chalk their success up to "luck." The reality, though, is that they simply know how to (in the words of Larry the Cable Guy) "git 'r done." The icing on the cake here is that these are two of the nicest, down-to-earth individuals you ever could hope to meet.

Just yesterday morning, for example, as they were motoring out the boat basin to start the tournament, Gabe hollered to me, "If you run into trouble today, Ken, just give us a call. It may take us a while to reach you, but we'll be there to help."

Their proving to the world that you don't need to own a big, brand-new fiberglass boat, maxed out with a 250-hp outboard, to win bass tournaments puts Fred and Gabe in good company with a pro named John Cox. "The Tin Man," as he's known, began his fishing career in an aluminum boat, participating in small pond tournaments with just a trolling motor.

In 2011, in his rookie season on the Walmart FLW Tour, Cox earned his first win out of an aluminum boat on the Red River. In 2015, he finished runner-up in the Tour Angler of the Year standings with an aluminum boat. And in March 2016, Cox got his second Tour win out of an aluminum boat. 

He reached the pinnacle of the bass-tournament world by winning professional bass fishing's Forrest Wood Cup in 2016. With that victory, Cox made a bit of unique fishing history by becoming the only pro ever to win a modern world championship bass fishing event from an aluminum boat.

Said Cox afterward, "Aluminum rigs are a more realistic boat purchase for the average working person. I used to paint apartments and just could not afford a $60,000 glass boat. After fishing out of aluminums, I discovered they have distinct advantages. One: They can get on plane in very shallow water. And two, they don't get stuck as bad when you plant one on a sandbar. Further, they tend to hop over logs and stuff better. They are simply more efficient for the way I like to fish."

I'm bettin' that Fred and Gabe see their situation in a similar vein. They probably feel they have an advantage...one of which is definitely expanding with every tournament they fish.

Good on ya, fellas! Keep on bringin' it!

The Rain Held Off Long Enough To Get Our Tourney In

There was a lot of fog around as the tournament director shoved us off this morning, and then a partly blue sky quickly turned into hazy sunshine, with the clouds increasing throughout the day. The raindrops held off, though, long enough for the 11 boats and 18 anglers to get our tournament in.

The 2:30 p.m. weigh-in saw 44 bass cross the scales, with a combined total weight of 93.83 lbs. Those numbers translate into an average weight per fish of 2.13 lbs. and an average weight per boat (among those 9 weighing fish) of 10.42 lbs.

The following anglers left with pay envelopes at the end of the day:

1st Place (for the third tournament in a row), the team of (from left) Fred Crawford and Gabe Himmelwright, five bass, with a total weight of 18.23 lbs. Their big fish weighed 4.78 lbs.

2nd Place, the team of (from left) Steve Bailey and Dennis Dean, five bass, with a total weight of 11.41 lbs. Their big fish weighed 2.53 lbs.

3rd Place, the team of (from left) Rob Chatham and Craig Jones, four bass, with a total weight of 11.32 lbs. Their big fish came in at 4.93 lbs., which earned them the day's Lunker Prize, too.

Here is how everyone else lined up behind these winners:

     * Wayne Hayes, five bass, 9.98 lbs. total weight, 4.05-lb. big fish.

     * The team of Rob Peppers and Don Carter, five bass, 9.26 lbs. total weight, 2.27-lb. big fish.

     * Ken Testorff, five bass, 9.06 lbs. total weight, 2.47-lb. big fish.

     * Bobby Moore, five bass, 8.43 lbs. total weight, 2.57-lb. big fish.

     * The team of Dave Anderson and Gary Coderre, five bass, 8.23 lbs. total weight, 2.22-lb. big fish.

     * The husband-wife team of Andy and Diana Morath, five bass, 7.91 lbs. total weight, 2.05-lb. big fish.

     * The team of Chris Fretard and Mike Miller, as well as Rusty Girard, didn't weigh any fish.

Congrats to all of the winners and thanks to everyone who came out to participate. For planning purposes, our next event is scheduled for next Sunday, May 2, from safe light (probably about 6:15 a.m.) to 2:30 p.m. Come out and join us if you can.

One Last Cast

I can probably count the number of times on one hand that I've ever drafted a fishing plan of action and subsequently had it go pretty much according to that plan. Today, however, was an exception.

The day didn't start the way I had hoped, but with some minor adjustments, everything started falling into place. I can't say I slayed the fish, but when I catch 13, with eight of those keeper size, I'm perfectly content.

In the absence of bright sunlight today, I figured I could catch most of my fish on topwater, and I wasn't disappointed. Every single one of my fish came on one of my favorite topwater baits...one that no longer is in production. Besides those 13 bass that I boated, I lost about another three or four fish that spit the lure at the last minute alongside the boat.

While executing my game plan today, I also visited some spots that have provided memorable action over past years, and for the most part, I was vastly rewarded for those visits. By and large, these spots are ignored by the vast number of anglers, but it has been my experience that you can have a blast plying topwater lures in these spots this time of year.

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed my day on the water, even though the aches and pains in my old bones abound tonight. This is a mild price to pay for a day like I had.

Bloopers...There's No End to 'Em

It doesn't take much digging around the Internet to reach one simple, overarching conclusion: Anglers just keep setting themselves up for failure. Here are some examples I found during my latest research.

A fisherman left his boat outside one summer night, all hooked up to his vehicle and ready to roll early the next morning to a club tournament. About 30 minutes into the trip, he asked his brother, "Did you unplug the battery charger?"

"Nope" came the reply.

Having traveled down the road about 45 km already, the driver decided he'd better pull off to the side and investigate. He found they had been trailing 50 feet of extension cord, with the plug end missing, that had been ripped from the garage socket. His single comment: "Only in Canada, eh!"

Then there's this tale of a fella who was fishing the Fox River in Wisconsin. He decided to tie up at a dock in front of a riverside restaurant. About halfway through his burger, some guys came in and asked who had the gold/black bass boat that was floating down the river. All the walleye dudes got a good laugh since bass boats aren't the norm up there, but one did volunteer to take the fella to retrieve his boat. The fella with the bass boat made note of the fact that, since that event, "I tie better knots in my ropes now."

A guy just had taken delivery of a new ski boat and was screwing the mount for a fire extinguisher into what he thought was an inner shell. Like a lot of others before him, though, he learned a dear lesson about that word "ASSUME." Turns out that he wasn't putting screws in an inner liner after all. Instead, he had put four screws through the new boat's gel coat.

While the owner was busy "losing his mind," his dear wife promptly called the dealer and told him her husband was on the way there and "not to ask what happened." Luckily, the owner was on the Pro program, and the dealer made the boat look as good as new.

Four weeks later, however, during a skiing trip on a local river, the owner and his wife had just decided to call it a day. Since his wife was a good boat driver...in the owner's estimation, at least...he went to get the trailer and back it in.

Now we all know that disaster can and often does strike twice. That being said, the wife was driving the boat on the trailer when the stern got caught in the current. In the owner's words, "She panicked and went fist down on the throttle. The boat jumped over the trailer and landed on rocks. My insurance agent almost wet himself when I told him what had happened."

Any ideas about who wasn't laughing?

Finally, there's this tale about a fella who was trying to put his boat on the trailer when he heard a thud, and the boat quit moving. With no idea about what the problem was, he decided to back up and try it again. Another thud later, he finally figured out what was going on. The trolling motor was still down, and he had knocked it halfway off its mount.

This same fella drove to a lake an hour and a half away. Upon arrival, he motored all the way across the lake, then dropped the trolling motor. Trouble was it wouldn't work. Didn't take long to troubleshoot the problem: a dead battery. Drove all the way back across the lake, pulled the boat out, went to a marina boat shop, and (in his words) "paid a crapload of money" for a new battery. Said the owner even tried to charge him 75 bucks just to screw down two wingnuts. Put the boat back in water, went all the way back across the lake, and on the first cast with his flipping stick, the reel broke. And he didn't get a bite all day.

One might begin to wonder why a guy with such rotten luck would even try to go fishing. However, you gotta give him an "A" for persistence. Seems he had decided to fish a tournament with 100 of his best buddies. He met all of them, including his co-angler, at the ramp at 0-dark-30, and the co-angler, according to this fella, immediately proceeded to throw him off his launching routine.

"I jump in the boat," said the fella, "and the co-angler backs  me in. The boat floats up and spins toward the dock. When the co-angler starts to pull out, the ass of the boat swings wildly toward the ramp."

You get one guess what was wrong. If you guessed the fella had left one of the tie-down straps on, you're absolutely right. It was a slow, painful process to get the boat righted and off the trailer. To make matters worse, this event happened on the very lake where, of all things, this fella was a guide...if you can believe that.

Rookie Anglers Aren't the Only Ones Who Make Dumb Mistakes

I offer for your consideration this tale of a 25-year veteran who, in his own words, "played the part of all three stooges" in one day.

This fella lived only a mile or so from Castaic Lake, but his company bass club was having a small tournament at San Vicente near San Diego. He spent the night before with his in-laws in Oceanside and drove to the lake early the next morning.

As he explained, "Many lakes in California are only open from sunrise to sunset, and you have to get in line at the gate. This line can be several hundred yards long, so all you can do is take your place in line and deal with the mayhem when they finally let you in."

The angler used this time in line to ready his boat for launch, making sure everything was set to go. There was just one problem: He couldn't find the ignition key to the boat.

"For nearly an hour, I frantically was looking for the key," he said. "Over and over, I looked everywhere and finally found it just before the line started moving. Little did I know that the stress of what just had happened was going to set the table for some truly dumb stuff."

Turns out this angler was fishing solo that day. The ramp being used had very little slope to it, and as he started backing, he couldn't help noticing the boat was showing no signs of floating off the trailer. He  kept backing further and further, until finally deciding to pull up and go have a look at the situation. It was then that he saw he had left the hold-down straps on the rear of the boat.

Having solved this problem, the angler soon was in the water and ready to pull away from the dock...or so he thought. As he pours some gas to the outboard, water sloshes up through the floor drain. Seems he had neglected to install the drain plug. He immediately switched on both bilge pumps and contemplated his next move.

"I stripped off my shirts and leaned over the back of my 19-foot Ranger to stuff the plug in, with water sloshing up into my ear," he noted.

Once he had put all his layers back on and tucked in, he assumed he finally was ready to get to fishing. However, once again, water sloshed up through the floor drain when he applied gas to the outboard. As luck would have it, he had stuck the drain plug into one of the livewell ports. There was no other choice but to strip down to the waist once again and take another stab at putting the plug in the correct hole.

Finally, it was time to fish...even if the angler was a bit frazzled by then.

"I eventually managed to catch one nice fish in the afternoon," said the angler, which earned me a modest check and sort of brought me solace, considering how the day had started. Looking back, I had pulled off the trifecta of dumb rookie moves...all in one short morning."

Bass pro Tom Redington has his own "blooper" moment to talk about. Click on this link (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5t7ELSOVdg) and take a look for yourself.

And then there's this note from a fellow pro who happened to see Tom Redington's fail:

"Your screw up, Tom, was surely a bonehead move at the time, but it didn't have much bearing on the final outcome. In my case, I had two BFL wins in a row, with an Everstart win sandwiched between...all within five weeks. The next tournament was a two-day BFL Super Tournament.

"On the first day, I had around 22 lbs. of smallies early and decided to quit for the day. My crankin' battery, though, failed to start the motor, so I had to unhook everything and wire them all together to get enough juice to start.

"As we were headed back for weigh-in, I looked down at the boat's clock and saw that we still had 15 minutes. And since my co-angler was still one fish short, I stopped at one of my honey holes, so he could fill his limit. In about 5 minutes, he boated his final keeper, and we headed on in.

"The check-in official, however, noted that we were six or seven minutes late. I had failed to allow for those 10 minutes it had taken me to rewire things to start the big motor. The boat's clock had been off that whole time, and my cellphone was packed away because we were running in 4-footers."

With the passage of time, drama occasionally turns into comedy, but the last fella here still isn't laughing about his incident. In his own words, "It makes my blood boil every time I stop and think about what happened."

For Period Ending Sunday, April 25, 2021

 

Saturday, April 17 (from Ken)...Took my chances this morning on there not being a lot of anglers going out of West Neck, and it proved to be a good plan. Apart from the bank fishermen who were on the scene, there was only one other rig in the parking lot; it belonged to Dave. He and his partner, Gary, launched 30 or 45 minutes ahead of me and were out of sight by the time I headed out the channel from the West Neck Marina launch ramp. Ran to Albright's Creek, intent initially on seeing if I could find the rod and reel I lost overboard at last Sunday's tournament. After nearly an hour of searching, I gave up the hunt and began fishing. I quickly put a dink in the boat and went on to boat a total of eight bass before quitting about 3 o'clock this afternoon...my best day, by far, in a mighty long while. In addition to three dinks, I boated a 1-0, 1-2, 1-4, 1-7, and 1-15. Also lost a couple of fish today that came unbuttoned as I was bringing them to the boat. All of the fish came from two different short stretches of shoreline.

Wednesday, April 21 (from Ron)...Got back out in the freshwater this evening at Ashville Bridge Creek. Wind made for a difficult trip, and though it was a short one, managed to find three dinks, a small crappie, and a small yellow perch, all on a gold spoon/white-skirt spinner. Looking forward to more freshwater fishing.

Thursday, April 22 (from Ron)...This evening, the wind still was dreadful, but no rain. Donned a warm jacket and launched about 5 o'clock, hoping the wind would die down, but it didn't. Trolled to a spot to try some plastics, and on the way, I caught a decent crappie on the ol' XTS Minnow. Started throwing the SwimSenkos around the cypress and caught a dink, a 2-14, and a 4-10! As the sun hit the horizon, I tried a Pop-R and had about a three-pounder throw the hook after a good little battle.

Friday, April 23 (from Ron)...Watched the wind forecast start to drop, so loaded up and headed to Horn Point (Back Bay) for an evening trip. When I arrived, the bay looked awful...whitecaps and murky. "Oh well, I think I will take a day off" was my thought. As I left the parking area, I noticed a small sign that I never had seen before, consisting of a fish, hook, and an arrow. So I walked the small trail about 50 yards and discovered a pond that I didn't know was there, and it was glass-calm, protected by trees. I then think, " I'm here, might as well try." I put the yak on the cart, headed down the trail, and launched at an opening along the bank. The pond is about the size of a narrow football field, with overhanging brush and some structure. Threw a micro-spinner for a while without any luck, so tied on a Zoom U Vibe with a keel-weighted hook but still couldn't catch anything. Just as I was thinking "I wish I had an unweighted worm hook," I looked up and low and behold, there, hanging on a limb, was just what I needed. It was attached to some line and an old rubber worm. Tied the hook on, rigged the U Vibe, and found a bite. Caught five dinks, two small chain picks, and a 2-1.

Day Started Wet and Windy, Ended Just Windy

...And those winds today were not of the 10-to-15-mph variety I saw advertised yesterday by the local weather prognosticators. As I heard one of today's tournament anglers aptly put it, "Felt more like 30 to me."

Nevertheless, when there's a tournament, fishermen and women will show up to brave the elements...whatever they may be...and chase those little green fish all over the place, especially this time of year. Today was no exception.

A total of 20 anglers in 12 boats were on hand for today's competition. They weighed in 53 bass for a combined total weight of 122.96 lbs. Those numbers equate to an average weight per fish of 2.32 lbs. and an average weight per boat of 10.24 lbs.

Here are the participants who went home this afternoon with pay envelopes in their pockets:

1st Place, the team of (from left) Fred Crawford and Gabe Himmelwright, five fish, 17.33 lbs. total weight. Their big fish weighed 6.42 lbs., which also earned them the day's Lunker Award.

2nd Place, the team of (from left) Mike Miller and Chris Fretard, five fish, 15.95 lbs. total weight, 4.78-lb. big fish.

3rd Place, the team of (from left) Jim Crist and Wayne Hayes, five fish, 14.76 lbs. total weight, 4.53-lb. big fish.

The remainder of the field lined up as follows:

     * Bobby Moore, five fish, 12.45 lbs. total weight, no big fish.

     * The team of Steve Bailey and Dennis Dean, five fish, 11.65 lbs. total weight, 3.87-lb. big fish.

     * The team of Keith and Adama Webb, five fish, 10.62 lbs. total weight, 3.44-lb. big fish.

     * Jim Calhoun, five fish, 9.70 lbs. total weight, no big fish.

     * The team of Matt Ramirez and Fisher Bryan, five fish, 8.60 lbs. total weight, no big fish.

     * Mark Ingram, five fish, 8.09 lbs. total weight, no big fish.

     * The team of Dave Anderson and Ken Testorff, four fish, 7.19 lbs. total weight (after 2.0-lb. deducation for four dead fish), 4.76-lb. big fish.

     * Rusty Girard, three fish, 5.77 lbs. total weight, no big fish.

     * The team of Josh and Jody Puhlman, one fish, 0.85 lbs. total weight, no big fish.

Congratulations to all of the winners and thanks to those who assisted Wayne with details that ensured another successful tournament. For planning purposes, our next scheduled event is Saturday, April 24th, starting at safe light (about 6:30 a.m.), with weigh-in at 2:30 p.m. Hope you can join us.

One Last Cast

I learned once again today the value of choosing my words carefully. To wit: Prior to shoving off from the boat basin this morning, I made a statement to my partner that ended up costing both of us dearly (in a manner of speaking), as the day would reveal.

My statement was, "Sure would be nice if we could find a limit by 8 o'clock and have the rest of the day to improve on that limit."

As it turned out, we indeed had found a limit by 8 o'clock. Only problem, though: We weren't able to get any of those first five fish in the boat. Each one got squirrely on us as we were bringing them toward the boat, and they leaped high into the air, sending our bait flying one way while they went the other.

And granted, we have no way of knowing exactly how much those fish weighed. Suffice it to say, though, that two of those first five fish looked to be about 5 lbs. apiece, with another that looked like he might go 4 lbs., with the last two running 1.5 to 2 lbs. apiece. Don't figure I need to do the math for any of you to see what kind of difference that would have made in our total, especially with Dave's 4.76-lb. big fish caught later, replacing one of those smaller fish.

However, that was not to be. And worse still, something evidently happened to both livewells on the way back to the marina for weigh-in, because we had four dead fish staring at us as we opened the lids and looked inside. Still don't know what the gremlin was, but it certainly added insult to injury, as far as we're both concerned. This much I do know for a fact: Those fish beat my feet to death today as they banged against the lid of the livewells.

And finally, just for good measure, so to speak, I had a net-handling episode arise today in which I had to choose between losing a rod and reel overboard or netting my partner's big fish. I opted for the latter and would do the same thing again if I had it to do all over. We spent a few minutes trying to locate the outfit, which temporarily was seen floating by the handle. Ultimately, however, it had gone to the bottom before we could reach it. Like most anglers, I have extras and will activate one of those prior to my next trip on the water.

As Dave reminded me near the end of our fishing day, "Next time you make a statement like you did this morning, make sure you say, 'Sure would be nice if we could boat a limit by 8 o'clock... .'" Point well taken, my friend.

When Was the Last Time You Paid $1,675 for a Lure?

The answer for most folks probably is never. However, there's one fella--a collector from Texas--who did exactly that back in December 2016.

The story behind this purchase began in August 2016, when then-27-year-old Harrison, Ark., resident Kevin G. Brightwell, who owns KGB Swimbaits, took a prototype-in-progress to Big Bass Dreams, a premiere event in Los Alamitos, Calif. This event was a bass-fishing film series produced by Oliver Ngy.

Said Brightwell, "I was the only garage-manufacturer (actually, he works from his basement) there. The others were big manufacturing companies."

The KGBullfrog, as his prototype was known, all 13.5 inches and 10.9 ounces of it, created so much buzz that Brightwell couldn't decide who should get the first one.

"Everybody was wanting a frog," he said. "I didn't feel comfortable choosing who would get the first one."

Bottom line: He decided to post the first bullfrog for sale on eBay on Dec. 9, with a starting bid of $100. It sold three days later to the Texas collector for $1,675. His was the winning offer among a total of 63 bids from nine different bidders.

Brightwell wouldn't divulge the name of the buyer, who said he planned to add the frog to his collection and perhaps fish it a couple times a year. Made from plastic resin, it comes with two saltwater treble hooks hanging from its belly. Ultimately, the owner is going to pass the frog down to his son.

In case anyone is wondering how Brightwell happened to settle on making swimbaits, you probably only need to know he lived in California from 2003 to 2010. Originally from Harrison, he moved back there in 2010.

Money was tight, and he was having a hard time making a living cutting firewood. He couldn't afford to buy swimbaits then, so he decided to make his own.

"They got better and better, and people started wanting them," he said.

As a result, he started selling his swimbaits on Facebook and Instagram, and in 2012, started KGB Swimbaits. At the time, he also worked fulltime as a Harrison firefighter.

Following the sale of his original frog, Brightwell had plans to make more of them but noted they would have a regular sale price of at least $150.

If you're interested in seeing samples of what he has available, I recommend that you check out his website at https://kgbswimbaits.com/.

Bass on a Shoestring Budget

We fished at the wrong time. The weather was rotten. The moon was wrong. The wind was way too strong. Other anglers are fishing better than we are. These are all samples of typical excuses anglers use to account for their lack of success. But there's one that perhaps is heard more often than all the others: These baits I'm using just don't work.

"When we fail as anglers, the baits oftentimes bear the brunt of our anger and frustration," noted one angler I read about online. "We are quick to say that a particular brand or type of bait totally sucks and head to the store to buy 'good lures' that surely will outfish the crappy ones with which we just caught a skunk.

"Let's face reality here, folks," he admonished. "The baits we have today are head and shoulders above what our fathers had. Advancements in lure technology and effectiveness have been astounding. And yet we are prone to quickly proclaim a bait as an epic failure when we don't catch a fish on it."

This particular angler remembered a phrase his buddy often used. "Catch a bass on a boot lace," he often would say. And with that, the angler decided to perform a little experiment. He up and went fishing with a shoestring...and he caught a bass...and he took a picture of it (see photo above). He also had eight other bites that he intentionally took the "bait" away from because he just wanted to see how many hits on the piece of shoestring he could elicit.

"Please don't misunderstand my intentions here," the angler said. "I'm not saying that I'm so good I can catch a bass on a shoestring, and you can't. Quite the contrary. You can...for that matter, anybody can, if they simply do things right.

"Maybe we just need to stop blaming this, that or the other thing for our lack of success as fishermen and honestly search for the real reason why we keep coming up short. As long as we can convince ourselves that the only reason we are struggling is because of the baits we are using, we have no real reason or motivation to try to improve our game. Stop blaming the baits and own the fact that the fault is yours.

"If nothing else, try this shoestring thing. Done right, it looks pretty convincing in the water...right up there with a trick worm. And if you use your head just a little, there's plenty of rigging options, like inserting tiny split shot in a 'hollow' shoestring to add weight for casting distance. You even can color 'em up with a permanent marker. And finally, being cloth, they soak up and hold scent way better than plastic.

"Give it a try. I promise you'll never look at bass fishing the same way again after you've caught a bass on a shoestring. It kinda de-mystifies things. Instills that much-needed boost of confidence and makes you realize this shouldn't be nearly as hard as we try to make it sometimes.

"In the meantime, know that there's nothing wrong with having your favorite baits. We all do. I have some baits that are consistent favorites, and I have some whose stock tends to fluctuate dramatically. I also have some I don't ever like and probably never will. That doesn't mean they aren't good baits; they're just not good for me.

"Good luck with that shoestring thing."

When on the Water, I Gotta Stay Warm

I’ve lived in Virginia Beach long enough to know that some folks around here wear cutoffs and/or shorts year-round. During the colder months, you’ll likely see at least a few of them in jackets or coats, and even a few may wear gloves and/or hats. By and large, though, it seems that many locals like to think of this city as a resort area 365 days a year.

That truth was never more evident than yesterday, during my trip to the river for a day of bass fishing. There I sat in my boat, dressed in jeans, a long-sleeved shirt, sweatjacket, and ballcap in the afternoon sun, as an outboard-powered johnboat approached me. The occupants, a bare-armed young boy and girl, were simply out for a boat ride. It was evident they were enjoying themselves by virtue of the fact they made three or more trips up and down the wind-blown creek…always sleeveless.

Then, when I had decided to call it a day and headed to the boat ramp, I was even more stunned by the scene that unfolded before me. Seems that a good-sized crowd of bank fishermen had taken over the point at West Neck Marina where the boat ramp is located. Except for my trailer rig and one other in the parking lot, there was nothing but passenger vehicles parked there.

And those people…for the most part…were treating the day as an opportunity to begin their yearly suntans. There were guys in cutoffs and no shirts and girls in shorts and sleveless tops everywhere I looked.

Perhaps in a bygone day, my dress would have been more in line with all those folks, but I offered no excuses to anyone for hustling to my van in the same attire as I had started the day. My wrinkled skin was enjoying that long-sleeved shirt, jacket and those bluejeans. That hat on my head also felt good.

As reported in a New York Times article that I read, “As people age, their metabolic responses to the cold may be slower. Vasoreceptors, for example, may not be as quick to direct blood vessels to constrict to keep the body temperature up. As it happens, studies have shown that older people are more likely to have slightly colder body temperatures than younger ones.”

I, for one, have no problem fully accepting the fact that as people grow older, they have a harder time taking the cold. This much I can tell you: I was only in my 20s when I did a two-year tour of Navy duty in Adak, Alaska, and the cold up there certainly never bothered me the way this in Virginia Beach does today, as I near 78. In my own defense, however, I offer that I still haven’t reached the point where I have to wear socks to bed.

For Week Ending Sunday, April 11, 2021

Monday, April 5 (from Ron)...Fished from 3 to 7 p.m and caught 28 speckled trout. They ranged in size from very small up to two that were over 24-inch citations. In six years, I've only ever caught one 24-inch citation, so this was a very good day.

Tuesday, April 6 (from Ken)...Sure glad I didn't leave the house this morning with any expectations of having a stellar day on the water, 'cause I certainly would have been disappointed if that had been the case. I did figure to have at least one bass to my credit by day's end, but even that apparently was a bit more than the fishin' gods deemed appropriate. As it worked out, I spent about four hours this morning wasting my time with an assortment of crankbaits, jerkbaits, chatterbaits, and topwaters--none of which resulted in a single strike. Hit about four different spots, too. Ultimately decided to return to my roots--West Neck Creek--and try my luck there. The only lure I threw then, however, was a worm. And I have to admit it at least was nice to "feel" a fish finally, but three feels is all I got. I managed a solid hookset on the first fish, but quick seconds later, I felt that same fish sawing my 40-lb. braid on the log from which he had come, and in the blink of an eye, I felt the line go limp, followed by the fish showing himself as he departed the area. In the second and third instances, I jerked on what seemed to be solid hits, but neither time did I drive the hook through the plastic into their mouths. I can't help getting the sense that I'd better plan on throwing a worm about 85 or 90 percent of the time at this Sunday's tournament and hope that my hooksets prove to be far more adequate than they were today. The water color, in my opinion, still leaves a lot to be desired, but maybe it will be better by Sunday.

Tuesday, April 6 (from Ron)...Caught about a dozen speckled trout, with the biggest at 24 inches, as well as a nice surprise striper.

Saturday, April 10 (from Ron)...Still chasing the speckled trout and had a good morning with about 15 of them. Two were just over 23 inches, and I thought I had hooked into a record-sized speck, but it turned out to be a 26-inch puppy drum that bent the rod, screamed the drag, and towed me around a bit.

Not Catching As Many Bass These Days?

If so, you're not the Lone Ranger. As a matter of fact, you have lots of company, starting with avid angler and veteran fisheries biologist Hal Schramm. Saw a paper the other day he had published last year on this subject and found it interesting, so decided to share his thoughts about the science involved.

Schramm noted that fishermen all the way from Sam Rayburn Reservoir in Texas to Mille Lacs Lake in Minnesota are complaining about it being harder to catch a bass these days. "While some just want to blame fishing pressure for the problem," said Schramm, "there is good science to support claims that bass actually may be getting tougher to catch."

He first offered a quick history lesson, explaining that 60 years ago, bass fishing was primarily a Southern thing. Many new reservoirs had growing largemouth populations, plus good habitat that was easy for anglers to identify. Bass fishing was excellent--for a while--but then, over time, catch rates began to decline.

"Angler harvest was partly to blame," said Schramm. "So agencies implemented minimum-length and reduced-bag harvest limits to protect bass numbers. The real game-changer, though was an evolving catch-and-release ethos. Using bass tournaments as a stage, and with strong media support, the bass-fishing community promoted the idea of catch-and-release fishing during the 1970s. Today, live-release rates are at 85 to 95 percent among bass anglers, and fish are as abundant as ever in most waters.

"So, why aren't you catching more of them? Well, for starters, bass learn, and that reduces catchability (the research term for the probability of a fish being caught with a fixed amount of effort)."

The veteran biologist then discussed a 2017 study out of Mississippi State University, in which researchers, working in small unfished ponds, saw rapid declines in largemouth bass-catch rates under continued fishing pressure of one angler per acre per week. Then they stopped fishing for two months, and when they started again, the catch rates shot back up. The bass forgot what they had learned--to avoid lures--after a couple of months without fishing pressure.

"Another interesting aspect of the Mississippi State study," according to Schramm, "was that testers systematically used 11 different types of lures during each weekly outing, and few bass were caught multiple times. If the bass learned to avoid only one lure, they should be caught on the other lures, right? But it was possibly the other intrusions from fishing--maybe the vibrations of the motor, the boat, or the sounds of anglers--that prevented the bass from biting.

"But there's more to it than individual bass learning to avoid lures," he continued. "Some bass are innately harder to catch."

Another study spanning nearly two decades was done by Illinois Natural History Survey fishery scientists into whether catchability is an inherited trait. In this study, adult largemouth bass in a 17-acre impoundment were fished for a summer and marked each time they were caught. Then the lake was drained, and the bass were sorted. Fish that were caught multiple times--the highly catchable fish--were stocked in one pond to spawn, and the fish that were caught infrequently or not at all were stocked in another pond to spawn. The progeny from both groups was reared to adulthood, fished, and again sorted into separate ponds.

After three generations of selective breeding, the catch rate of the highly catchable fish remained the same, but the catch rate of low-catchable fish declined with each successive generation. Catchability was a heritable trait. In other words, the researchers were able to breed bass that were harder to catch.

Both studies were done on small waters, but what about bass populations in big lakes?

Said Schramm, "I analyzed catch rates from 311 bass tournaments on major bass fisheries throughout the country. And from 1972 to 2015, the average catch rate in these tournaments increased at a rate of only .06 bass each year. Pros were catching slightly more fish each tournament season, but consider that there were tremendous advancements in technology, knowledge, and the development of bass pros who fished for a living (not just a hobby) over this time.

"The upshot of these studies is that even though catch-and-release is common these days, not all bass are released and not all released bass survive. As easily caught bass get removed from the gene pool, those hard-to-catch bass continue to reproduce elusive offspring. So even top anglers will have a tougher time putting bass in the boat. The solution? Fish harder and fish smarter."

A Tip To Get More Use out of Creature and Beaver-Type Baits

Soft-plastic baits come in all shapes and sizes and with every conceivable type of tail and appendage, so there's a bait that will work in nearly every situation. There's just one flaw: their softness.

While this characteristic gives the baits great action, it doesn't last long once a fish eats the bait and you set the hook. The top of the lure often splits as the hook tears through it. It's not a big deal if you happen to be fishing a 10-inch worm. Just cut off a half-inch of plastic, and you're back in business. For a lot of lures, though, such as creature and beaver-type baits, a torn head instantly renders them worthless.

Thanks to bass pro Tom Redington, there's an easy fix for this problem. You just use an O-Wacky Tool to put an O-ring on the upper end of the bait, approximately one-quarter inch from the head. On a ribbed bait, such as a beaver-type, slide the O-ring to about the second ring down from the head, then run the hook through the lure as usual.

For any flipping-style hook with a keeper, the keeper should be just below the O-ring, resting against it. With EWG and offset-style hooks, the bend should rest against the O-ring.

Now you're ready to go, and your lure usually will last for several more fish than normal. The O-ring protects the nose of the bait, so the head won't tear out as easily. And even if the head does tear, the O-ring keeps the plastic together enough that you still can fish it without the bait sliding down the shank of the hook every cast.

The O-Wacky Tool only costs a few bucks, and O-rings are super cheap. This trick not only saves you a lot of money by extending the life of your baits, it also saves the day when the bass are locked on a certain color, and your supply is running low.

The best news is you'll also snag less because the bait won't slide down and expose the hook, plus there's usually not any difference in the hookup ratio while using an O-ring.

Try this on anything from Texas rigging weightless soft-plastic jerkbaits to punching beavers and craws through grass mats. For a better look at how to rig, watch the video, using this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtOkBXxPhyU.

"The Last Line Cutters You'll Ever Need...Period"

Thus reads an advertisement I saw for the Pitbull Tackle Braided Line Cutters 2.0 (see photo left), which appeared in the latest issue of Jay Kumar's BassBlaster. It doesn't matter if you're talking monofilament, fluorocarbon or braid. These line cutters are advertised to be the most precise and efficient cutters on the market. They earned 10/10 in the performance category on Tackle Tour's Review of the product.

Many anglers see any regular pair of line-cutting scissors and assume they'll do just fine, but that's often not the case. Too many times, those same anglers end up plagued by the frustration of dealing with braided lines that have a tendency to kink and fray around each cut, especially in tight areas around knots and connections.

Those troubles allegedly are a thing of the past with the Pitbull Tackle Braided Line Cutters 2.0. Their serrated-edge design was created to slice through braid effortlessly, keeping a clean, fray-less edge on each cut of braid, with no tension applied to the line.

Gone are the days of your old cutters mashing the braid several times before finally slicing through it. With these braided-line cutters, you'll be able to make smooth connections to leaders, swivels, split rings, hooks, lures, etc.

All sorts of features have been included with these cutters to create the simplest, most efficient cutting tool on the market. Their spring-loaded handle allows for smooth repeated cuts, while the locking clip lets any angler store the cutters safely and securely. In addition, these cutters are engineered with high-quality stainless steel, which delivers superb corrosion resistance in both freshwater and saltwater.

This version 2.0 of the Pitbull Cutters offers more functionality than its predecessor. The cutting edges and overall design of the original product remains unchanged, but an integrated monofilament/fluorocarbon cutter was added at the base of the cutting blades, as well as a lanyard attachment for safely securing your cutters to a boat, backpack, line counter, or even yourself.

By adding the mono/fluoro cutting area on each blade, the longevity of each cutter is greatly increased, as repeated cuts with non-braided lines over time will dull the serrated cutting edge and diminish the effectiveness of the blades.

I personally cannot offer an endorsement for this product because I simply never have used it. However, I can and do have nothing but good things to say about these titanium-bonded, stainless-steel Cuda Micro Scissors with oversize loops and the Cuda scale-pattern grip for easy and comfortable cutting.

This scale pattern is important as it connects the tools to the fast and fierce ways of the barracuda and also provides an incredibly secure and comfortable grip in all environments and conditions.

Titanium-bonded means they're not painted or plated but have an application of a unique formulation of titanium, chromium and nitride to the cutting blades that actually penetrates and treats the metal to create a permanent bond. This patented process provides corrosion and adhesive resistance, and itself makes the stainless steel 3x harder than untreated stainless, providing a blade that stays sharper longer.

Cuda fishing products are built for the ultimate in fresh and saltwater fishing and will continue to perform over time. They're designed by professionals and thoroughly tested, providing the highest quality and reliability.

Cuda Micro Scissors also come with dual serrated blades that, like the Pitbull Tackle Braided Line Cutters, cuts braided, mono and fluorocarbon lines with ease. More importantly, the Cudas come with a lifetime warranty.

I've had two pair of them for about two years now, and they still cut as good as they did the first time I ever used them.

Wanna Know What Angry Fishermen Do?

In some cases, like the one involving the young fella at left in this photo and the accompanying video link (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJfRQICPFL0), he very well may throw the object of his consternation as far as he can send it. Of course, he later may have second thoughts about pulling such a stunt, especially if, as in this case, he had paid $170 for the baitcaster. That logic led to this disgruntled angler and his fishin' buddy returning to the area where the reel had been tossed and salvaging it.

For the benefit of those who would like to know why the young fella was so frustrated in the first place, there are a couple of pertinent factors to be considered. For openers, there was a matter of operator error. Seems the young man accidentally had jammed the reel's side plate on so hard it was hampering the spool's operation. As a result, he couldn't make a cast longer than about 20 yards.

Further exacerbating the situation was the fact that, during the 30 minutes he had been trying to resolve the reel's problem, his buddy had been having a heckuva time with one smallmouth after another blowing up on his topwater bait. In short, the combination of these factors was just a bit more than the one young fella could stand. With a single motion, he saw a way to make quick work of one of the two things that really were annoying the crap out of him at the moment.

I have to admit I truly am enjoying this picture and the accompanying short video, but I shouldn't laugh too much, because I'm reminded of an occasion many moons ago when I, too, found myself in a funk and subsequently flung a baitcaster off the bow of my own boat. I have to say, however, I at least gave the reel three chances to start cooperating. And I even paused for a moment before the third attempt to make a successful cast and "admonished" the reel that this was its last chance. It failed, and being a man of my word, I didn't hesitate to unmount the reel and give it the old heave ho. Therein, however, the similarities end, 'cause I didn't pay $170 for the reel and therefore made no effort to retrieve it.

All levity aside, I should continue with my story by noting that not all fishermen behave as the young one just discussed or yours truly have been known to do. In fact, quite the opposite has occurred in some instances.

Take, for example, the 15-year-old California lad Braeden Steveson (pictured right). In late March, as reported in the latest issue of Jay Kumar's BassBlaster, he was fishing one of the Santee Lakes in east San Diego County after baseball practice and wasn't having much luck. As a result, he just had taken an "angry" cast over the fact he couldn't get bit.

Suddenly, though, it felt like he had hooked a log. That "log," as luck would have it, turned out to be this 15.12-lb. largemouth, which reportedly set a new lake record for the species. He caught his new "personal best" on a Rat-L-Trap rigged on 6-lb. test line.

The smile on this boy's face says it all. In the moment of this photo, he was in "hawg heaven."

Be Careful What You Read Into Boating a Fish on the First Cast

Recently read this story about a fella who started his fishin' day on a stretch of shoreline rip-rap, where just a year earlier...about the same time and under the same weather conditions...he had "killed it" while throwing worms all day.

And don't you know that, as he motored over to the rip-rap area this time, that angler again knew exactly what he was going to be fishin': none other than a 7.5-inch Culprit worm in grape shad color.

On his very first cast this day, it was Bam!...and a nice 2-lb. bass came over the gunwale. The fella couldn't help thinking, "Here we go again!" He felt certain he was going to have another "killer" day working this rip-rap, which quickly dropped off into 12 feet of water.

Unfortunately, it took four more hours of nothing but a few light hits and a lost fish at the boat to persuade this angler to try something different. Late in the day, he finally found a pattern that produced well.

There's also this account of a fella and his fishin' buddy who signed up for a local eight-hour tournament. It was mid-fall, cooler than normal, and breezy. One of them boated a 14-inch largemouth on his first cast, and they both also immediately lapsed into visions of grandeur. Seven hours and 45 minutes later, however, without even another bite, they realized they simply had endured a brutal day. Their one fish helped them finish fourth out of 12 boats.

Another fisherman put the situation into perspective this way. "If I catch a bass on my first cast, then don't catch anything for a few hours, I figure one of three things has happened: that one bass is a blabbermouth and told all the others to swim away once he was released; that bass has eaten everything, including other bass who lived near him; or that the first bass was a social outcast, which no other fish wanted to be around, and he only hit my lure 'cause he was looking for a friend."

The simple lesson to be learned here is this: Take that fish you catch on the first cast, but don't assume you have magically found the "killer" pattern.

As another angler explained, "We've all been fooled by an isolated fish, or as my friend, Dave, called it this past Saturday, a 'liar fish.' You think you're on the beginnings of a pattern and spend the next few hours realizing you aren't." The truth of the matter is that "one fish is luck, two fish are the start to a pattern, and 10 fish is a good day."

In closing, I would like to add a personal lesson learned to this list...one that took me a few times before I finally got the hang of it. Back in the day, I used to occasionally compile a run of two or three good days back-to-back, using the same bait each time. Whether it was a hard bait or a certain type and/or color of soft plastic, I would run to the local tackle store and buy up as many extras as I could afford.

More times than not, though, I would discover...usually within the next trip or two...that the fish had turned off to the bait I just had stocked up on as quickly as they had turned on to it. Bottom line: That's why I ultimately decided it was time to start trying to sell all that extra stuff in the West Neck Marina Store. My garage and closets simply couldn't hold any more.