Like Finding a Needle in a Haystack

That, in essence, is how pro bass fisherman Sammy Burks (left) of Joplin, MO, likened the problem many bass anglers have when summer temperatures finally begin to give way to the coolness of fall...otherwise known as a transition period.

Incidentally, Joplin is located just 60 miles from my hometown. I know because, in my younger days, I wore a path to the front door of a girl who was in nurse's training there. However, I digress.

The reason these anglers struggle so much during this period, according to Burks, is that bass leave their deep-water summer haunts, start moving around, and become difficult to find.  

"Historically speaking," he said, "if you look back at records of bass-fishing tournaments, weights are way down during September. They begin moving shallower and shallower, and they disperse.

"It's a crazy situation," he continued. "Where you find them in the morning, they won't be in the afternoon."

Burks explained that these challenges were highlighted during a September tournament he once fished on Lake Amistad in Texas.

"I weighed in 27 pounds the first day and caught them all in the first two hours," he noted. "On the second day, I went back to the same place and caught 2 pounds, which dropped me from first place to 16th. The third day, I weighed 17 pounds and finished 10th."

The problem was that baitfish hadn't committed to any one location.

"It's all about the bait," said Burks. "They're moving around, and the bass move with them. The solution to this unpredictability? Throw out the rule book.

"Basically, don't stop practicing," Burks urged. "You can find them, and two hours later, they can be gone. Pattern fishing is almost out the window. A key to making the most of your opportunities is being prepared to make quick lure changes."

The Joplin pro went on to say he keeps 20 rods on the deck, containing a variety of lures designed to cover the whole water column...everything from topwaters to bottom structure-fishing baits.

"I might have four different crankbaits tied on, but I'm still prepared to change to other baits," he explained, "because I know the reputation of fish in September."

According to Burks, many anglers often take advantage of schools they see feeding on the surface. However, electronics is a huge part of his strategy.

"The shad are still balled up, and without a doubt, that's the main search," he said. "Whether you're on a flat, a ledge, or a brushpile, you want to find the shad."

In his words, "The transient nature of baitfish and bass demands a willingness to make regular moves. It's run and gun. You have to keep an open mind and be willing to move when the fish disappear."

However, Burks doesn't necessarily mean running long distances. Instead, he covers all water depths within a given area to make sure he hasn't overlooked nearby pods of bass.

"If I'm fishing a creek, I'm zigzagging in and out," he noted. "I'm starting deep. Then I might move to 15 feet of water, then maybe to shallow water."

As Burks allowed, wind also is an important factor because it allows anglers to focus their search.

"If you get a fairly windy day," he said, "those baitfish are subject to getting hung up on a bank, a ledge, or on the edge of grass on the windy side of the lake. That means you can ignore the leeside of the lake and concentrate on those windblown areas," he concluded.

Guess What...The Fall Transition Still Is Here

With Ian on the rampage in Florida, and remnants from her headed our way, Wayne and I decided to grab one last day on the water ahead of her dreaded arrival. Much like we suspected, fishing hasn't even begun to get right yet.

For a mere second early this morning, I thought perhaps things were starting to turn around when I boated about a 14-inch keeper, but alas, that wasn't the case at all. For the next few hours, it was "deadsville."

It wasn't until we returned to the spot where Wayne caught three during our previous trip that signs of life once again flourished...albeit very briefly. On this occasion, he had to settle for only one fish and a couple of temporary hookups.

We hit three different areas during today's travels, none of which revealed clear water. And if we get as much rain from Ian's remnants as the weather forecasters are predicting, it's likely to be a good spell before we see any.

If You Fancy Some Cooler Fishin'...

Hit the Road Jack and Don't You Come Back No More...No More...No More...No More

In case you can't figure out for yourself what I'm talking about here, that's our collective message to this pain-in-the-butt period known as the fall transition. It can't get out of town fast enough. That's my opinion, but I'm not alone. There are a lot of other anglers who share the same thought, especially after today's weigh-in.

Out of seven boats, we had three that didn't weigh a single fish. Now, in all fairness, I will admit that I think all three of those boats had at least one fish in the livewell, but the anglers opted not to weigh their catch. However, that fact still doesn't help the tallies of the four other boats that did weigh in. Together, they weighed a total of 14 fish, for a total weight of 23.58 lbs., or an average weight per fish of 1.68 lbs.

To give you some perspective, those numbers are on par with what we routinely were weighing back in 2010, when I started keeping records of our tournaments. I know, because I just checked those records.

In any event, here are  today's short line-up of winners:

Claiming 1st place, with five fish (the only limit in the bunch), was the husband-wife team of Andy and Diana Morath, who weighed 11.43 lbs. They also walked away with the big-fish prize, which tipped the scales at 4.10 lbs. They further won the day's only side pot.

In 2nd place was the team of (from left) Rob Peppers and Don Carter, who had three fish, weighing a total of 4.90 lbs. Their big fish came in at 2.86 lbs.













The last two boats to weigh any fish consisted of the team of Fisher Bryan and Gabe Himmelwright, who weighed three fish, for a total weight of 4.26 lbs., and the team of Gary Coderre and Dave Anderson, who also weighed three fish for a total weight of 2.99 lbs.

Those who didn't weigh-in included the teams of Allen and Chris Napier, Bobby Moore and J. P. Twohig, and Wayne Hayes and Ken T.

With only one regular tournament left this season, it's noteworthy to mention that the race for Angler of the Year tightened considerably today. Going into this event, Rob Peppers held a 14-point lead, with 156.10, and Andy Morath with 142.54. After today, though, Rob's lead shrunk to 7.3 points, with a total of 161 even, compared to Andy's 153.97.

As a result, next Saturday, Oct. 1, promises to be somewhat of a nail-biter, unless Tropical Storm Ian finds a way to prevent us from holding our final tournament of the season. Here's hoping the storm lets us have a jim-dandy finish.

Finally, let me congratulate today's winners and thank those anglers who showed up this morning.

One Last Cast

While big bass generally have been in short supply this past month plus, that's not to say the same is true of other species. For example, take this big catfish Andy Morath caught during today's competition. He estimated the fish at about 25 pounds.

In checking the Internet, I learned that the official size for a citation channel cat in Virginia is 12-0.

Meanwhile, there are two state records on file. The first is a 32-lb. channel cat caught 04-28-1980 on Lake Chesdin by Hugh Wyatt. The second is a 31-8 channel cat caught 10-2-1992 on the Rappahannock River by Sue Stanley. The difference is that the first one was caught before the state started using the new State Record Fish Rules adopted in 1985.

Current Overall Statistics

And Now, As Paul Harvey So Famously Used to Say, "The Rest of the Story"

As water temperatures start cooling across the country, it generally becomes a signal for anglers to slow their presentation. Such a move, however, may or may not be the case for Tommy Biffle when he's fishing the HardHead jig during this cold-water transitional season.

Development of the Gene Larew Biffle HardHead Jighead and Gene Larew Biffle Bug plastic-trailer combination led Biffle to a trailblazing technique that covers water far more effectively than conventional bottom-bumping jig-fishing approaches. The HardHead hook secures to a hookeye-type attachment that allows the hook to swing freely from side to side during the retrieve (hence the generic name "swinghead"). The fast retrieve activates the appendages of the Biffle Bug, giving it a frantic, lifelike scurrying action.

Though many link the technique to fishing for aggressive bass in summer, Biffle says his "wake-up" to the bait combination's true potential came during a cold-weather photo session with an outdoor writer.

"I had one tied on, but I hadn't used it," recalled the Oklahoma pro, who had been reluctant to test what he expected to be a tough winter bite that day. "On the first cast, I caught a 5-pounder, a good picture fish. We shot photos, then I went back to fishing and caught another 5-pounder, then another...before completing a cycle of five fish over 5 pounds in five throws!"

Biffle initially thought the HardHead and Biffle Bug combination pretty much was tailored to a chunk-rock bottom. However, he quickly came to laud its effectiveness over a wide variety of bottom types and went on to win major tournaments fishing it over sand, pea gravel, and larger rock, as well as classic chunk-rock conditions. The swinging jighead also adds a wrinkle to the presentation of other plastics, including worms.

"You can cover a lot of water with it because it's almost like fishing a crankbait," Biffle said. "I cast, let it go to the bottom, and reel it. The faster you reel, the better they like it. The fish think it's getting away, but as long as you keep it in contact with the bottom, you're good."

Biffle confesses that his discovery of the effectivness of a "fast reel" approach to the swinghead technique was accidental. Like most anglers who use the jig for the first time, he first fished it like a football jig, or with a dragging, Carolina-rig approach. Once he started fishing it in shallow water, however, he found himself on the "fast" track, in more ways than one.

Said the veteran pro, "I found that when I fished it slowly in shallower water or over bigger rock, it got hung up. But the faster I reeled it, the less it got hung up...and the better the bass liked it."

Biffle continued working the bait combo at a rapid pace in deeper water, too, and its effectiveness increased there, as well.

Today, Biffle adjusts the weight of his HardHead jig to depth and conditions. If fishing in 5 feet of water or less, for example, he most often will use a 5/16- or 7/16-ounce head. In deeper water, he usually opts for 11/16- or 1-ounce jigheads. In special circumstances, a 3/16-ounce head comes into play.

"I went to a 7.3:1 gear-ratio reel and started reeling it fast," he said. "I tell everybody to reel as fast as they want, as long as you are hitting bottom.

"There's no wrong way to fish it," he continued. "There's just a better way to fish it. A guy will fish it, just hopping it along. But if I'm reeling it, I'll catch 10 fish to that guy's one. Just stay in contact with the bottom, even if you're fishing 30 feet deep. Use the jig-weight size that will keep it on the bottom."

There are times, though, when slowdown becomes essential. Steep-sloping structure is one such circumstance.

"When bass get on 45-degree banks, you need to use a bigger head and wind a bit slower to work the bait down the slope," noted Biffle.

Cold weather and water conditions can dictate a slowdown, too. Biffle recalls that while fishing the Bassmaster Classic on Grand Lake, fast-fishing the HardHead/Biffle Bug combo had him anticipating victory during practice rounds. But when the air temperature dropped to 11 degrees on opening day of the tournament, his pattern died.

Switching to a shaky-head worm on a 3/16-ounce HardHead and downshifting to a significantly slower retrieve the following day got him back in the game. He continues to favor that combination in similar conditions yet today, as well as during the September doldrums.

"I can put a YUM Dinger on that jig during the worst month of the season, and it's like flipping a switch," claimed Biffle. "For some reason, they want something long and fished slow in September."

Another favorite cold-water adaptation is switching to a smaller trailer. Biffle's favorite is a 3.5-inch version of the standard 5-inch Biffle Bug.

"If they're not hitting in colder water, I just put that tiny 'junior' bug on," he said. "If you find the fish are not hitting, or you are just getting a bump, change to the 'junior,' and you'll catch 'em."

I found evidence online that purports this bait combo also can be worked successfully when pitching and flipping around cypress trees, laydowns and stumps, but I would suggest that it likely will take some time...and perhaps a major dose of patience...to learn how to avoid hang-ups. Personally speaking, I decided many moons ago that jig fishing wasn't made for me, so you won't ever find any HardHeads in this Hard-Headed Dutchman's tacklebox...need I say more?

And with that, as Paul Harvey also used to say when signing off from each of his radio broadcasts, I wish you a "Good day!"

"September Is the Worst Time To Go Fishing"

Now there's a statement I (and probably a lot of others) can agree with...in spades, no less. And moreover, since long-time Oklahoma bass pro Tommy Biffle said it makes it all the more convincing, as far as I'm concerned anyway.

Biffle laid it out like this: "The fall months can offer some of the best fishing of the year, but the window right before summer fully wanes can be some of the most challenging fishing of the entire year. It's a transitional period between awful and excellent fishing that I've seen countless times in my professional career."

This Mercury pro, however, has learned to have patience, because he knows fishing indeed will get better with the changing of the seasons.

When asked about fishing in late summer--specifically September--Biffle had a blunt assessment of the 30-day window that signals the end of summer and the official start to fall.

"It's the absolute worst month to go fishing," he said frankly. "Unless you're up north, and the water has cooled down, and they're biting, it's not a good time to go fishing. I told someone recently that if you could figure out how to catch them consistently around home in Oklahoma this time of year, you'd win a bunch of money, because that's when all the regionals and team championships are held, where you're competing for a boat."

Even though the fishing may be difficult for another couple of weeks in late September/early October, Biffle plans to fish...but with smaller baits.

"Anytime things get tough," he noted, "it always pays to downsize your bait. It could be a topwater or crankbait or soft plastic. I fished a tournament on Grand Lake a few years ago in September, and they'd just bump a 4.25-inch Biffle Bug. I switched to the junior size (3.25 inches), though, and it made all the difference in the world."

Biffle looks forward to the weeks in mid-October when the water cools and fishing improves noticeably.

"The fish in September are in that transition between summer and fall patterns, and when October rolls around, it's a little bit better," he said. "Middle October is usually when it gets a lot better, as the water cools, and fish start to migrate to the backs and into the creeks following shad. If you're staying around your home, you'll start to notice the weather trends where the nights are getting a little cooler."

There's a litany of proven baits that will catch fish once the fall bite turns on, and Biffle employs many of them...but with his own unique twists.

"There's a lot of baits you can catch them on when they are heavily feeding on shad," he explained. "Topwaters, chatterbaits, spinnerbaits, jerkbaits, crankbaits, and I also catch them on my Biffle Bug in the smoke silver color. That's my favorite color anytime baitfish are around."

Instead of targeting the aggressive schooling fish near the surface that he says tend to be smaller, Biffle prefers to fish under all the surface activity, in search of bigger bites.

"When they're busting and chasing bait, they can be hard to catch and often are the smaller bass," he asserted. "Those big ones sit down below it all and wait for a free meal. I'll reel a 5/16- or 7/16-ounce Gene Larew Hardhead with that silver bug right below it all. You can't beat that color for imitating a baitfish," he concluded.

Credit Wayne With 3, Give Me a Zero

That's how today's first prefishing trip for next Sunday's tournament turned out after spending about five hours on the water this morning.

Wayne caught all three fish from the same little piece of water. I've watched and talked to others who also have caught fish from this area, so I was anything but surprised when I watched Wayne duplicate those earlier successes.

Meanwhile, I went through a topwater bait, a couple of crankbaits, a spinnerbait, and a plastic worm...all to no avail. To put it bluntly, I never even felt the first bite...but not for a lack of trying.

We now have tentative plans for a couple more trips this next week to see if we finally can put an end to these dog days of summer. We both have threatened to give up fishing and take up golf, all the while knowing those were nothing more that idle threats.

Still Not Seeing Any Improvement in the Fishing Numbers

When I left the house this morning, headed for West Neck, I had hoped I'd be able to break out of the slump that has been dogging me for longer than I can recall now. That, however, proved to be nothing more than a pipe dream after five hours on the water.

Guess I should count myself lucky, in the respect that I didn't get skunked. However, I didn't derive much satisfaction from catching only two 1-pound bass during the course of the morning. Nothing happened until I had gone through a wide variety of baits and colors. And, as it turned out, I had only one bait in the size and color that produced my "matching bookends" this morning. Accordingly, I plan to get an online order off sometime before the end of the day for a couple of extras...just in case I lose this one bait before the fish turn on again...if that ever happens.

Saw Rob and Don during my travels on the water today. Other than that, though, I didn't see a soul...unless you count the one "big boy" I came across heading south as I was returning to West Neck at noon. Didn't find out what kind of day Rob and Don were having but have a sense they probably were having better luck than me.

Not sure how many more trips to the water I'll get before the next tournament on Sept. 25th, but am hoping for at least a couple. Things have to change eventually, and I want to be there when it does, so I can make up for some of this lost time. It only takes one good trip to make up for a whole bunch like I've been having.

Incidentally, I can't say enough good things about the weather today. Had a jacket on when I left the house this morning and was plenty comfortable all of my five hours on the water after I peeled my jacket off. Didn't break a sweat at any time. Perhaps fall really is getting close. Sure won't hurt my feelings.

Load Your Boat With Fish--Not Tackle

That's pro angler Boyd Duckett's advice for everyone with fall bass fishing on their mind. He focuses on five specific presentations that cover his bases in almost every stage of fall, including crankbaits, jerkbaits, swimbaits, topwaters, and lipless crankbaits.

"If the conditions line up well, you can catch big fall bass by deep cranking creek ledges throughout fall," he said. "A more consistent pattern, however, comes from utilizing shallow squarebills and mid-depth crankbaits."

Because most of the bass are shallow this time of year, Duckett primarily targets the 3-to-6-foot range and focuses on shallow flats very close to creek channels. If the water happens to be stained, he targets the 1-to-3-foot range. In dirty water, bass will get "dirt shallow," in Duckett's words, and hold close to stumps and laydowns.

"The key to fall fishing is putting the trolling motor on high and keep moving until you find something worth making multiples casts to," said Duckett. "The fish are going to be in groups, so it's important to move quickly until you find a school of active fish. The quicker you eliminate dead water, the faster you can get on a big sack of fish.

"When the water temperature gets into the 50-degree range, that's when your biggest fish will move shallow," continued Duckett. "I use shad patterns almost exclusively, but the bass can get very peculiar when they school. If you're getting short strikes, it's probably not a color issue...they likely want a different action. Make sure you keep switching between wide-wobbling and flat-sided crankbaits for the best results, because every school you find will be different."

Duckett feels that jerkbaits are extremely overlooked lures for catching schooling bass in the fall, even though they should be the way to go if you run across a wary school.

"Their aggressive slashing action forces a bass to react," he noted. "There's no need to get fancy with your color selection. On cloudy days or in lowlight conditions. stick with a matte shad pattern to allow fish to get a better bead on it. When it's sunny, use a chrome color because its flash will draw bass from a long way away.

"If you're fishing on a windy day, you need to be throwing a jerkbait," Duckett urged. "You'll still catch some on other reaction baits, but windy conditions bring the big ones out of the woodwork. Focus on windblown shallow secondary points and gravel bars if you're looking for a kicker fish. They'll show themselves pretty quickly, so there's no need to soak an area if you're not getting a few bites."

When you're looking for a giant fall bass, Duckett suggests using swimbaits.

"It's absolutely essential to find a swimbait that does two primary things," he explained. "You want the tail to produce a lot of 'thump', and you also need the body to rock side-to-side.

"I've fished with a lot of swimbaits, and the Yamamoto Swimbait takes the cake. The fish just annihilate that thing."

Duckett uses a crankbait, jerkbait, lipless crankbait, and topwater plug to find schools, but when he finds them, he switches to a swimbait to catch the larger fish.

"It's an excellent way to cull through schools in the fall," he said. "One- and two-pounders can be busting on top, and you can catch big four-pounders from underneath them with a swimbait. You won't get as many bites, but they'll be big.

"Each swimbait has a specific cadence that gives it the most action," Duckett continued. "In a sense, you're trapped at a certain reel speed, so reeling slower isn't the answer to getting deeper. You have to add weight, so you don't change your retrieve speed. The Yamamoto Swimbait likes to be fished slowly, so I'll have three different head sizes rigged up: 1/8-ounce for shallow cover, 1/4-ounce for mid-depth, and 1/2-ounce for fishing deeper structure."

When Duckett sees a lot of schooling bass breaking the surface, he always throws a topwater before leaving the area. If throwing a walking or popping topwater, he makes long casts and fishes quickly.

"Walking topwater baits absolutely catch bigger fish in the fall," he said, "and I think it's because they really trigger a bass' predatory instincts. That big bass thinks something is trying to get away, and it can't help but attack it."

In order to hook more bass, Duckett suggests reeling in your lure when it gets halfway back to the boat. Most of his short strikes come while his lure is close to the boat, so he reels it in quickly to avoid missing any opportunities at a big bass.

"You'll definitely get a lot more bites on a small topwater popper," Duckett said, "so when it's tough and you need a limit, it's the way to go. The further you cast it, the more fish you'll catch, so long casts are essential."

Before he throws a topwater lure, Duckett looks for two things: bait on his electronics that is in 5 feet of water or less, and balls of bait just under the surface.

When it comes to walking baits, he always puts a larger hook on the back, being careful, of course, not to screw up the balance of the lure.

"Bigger hooks make it splash more and also helps you get more hookups," said Duckett.

Finally, according to Duckett, "It's almost impossible to talk about fall fishing without mentioning the effectiveness of a lipless crankbait. Without much work at all, a lipless crankbait gives even novice anglers the chance of catching dozens of bass from a single area.

"This is another bait that I keep very simple in regards to color selection," he continued. "If you stick with white/grey, chrome/black, and chrome/blue, you're going to catch plenty of fish. Spots, smallies and largemouth are all complete suckers for it."

When fishing his favorite lipless crankbait, a Bill Lewis Rat-L-Trap, Duckett always reels it a few feet, then gives it a few aggressive pops with the rod tip.

"I never just cast and wind it back," he said. "Ripping it and letting it fall on slack line drives bass absolutely crazy. People do that on grass fisheries like Lake Guntersville, but it really doesn't have anything to do with grass. It's all about the reaction. It's making all that sound, and when it stops for a second and gets loud again, they can't help themselves," he concluded.

There Was No Fanfare Today...Seldom Is When the Water's Low

You know it's a pretty ho-hum type of day when the biggest excitement you experience during your eight hours on the water is watching a "healthy" rat leap off one of the barges sittting in what generally is known as the "grain canal," swim to the shoreline ahead of your boat, and then hop out of the water and disappear in the distance. That, however, is exactly the sort of day Wayne and yours truly had.

To be fair, though, some of those 12 anglers in six boats fishing today's tournament out of Pungo Ferry managed to have a bit nicer day by catching a five-fish limit of bass, which, after all, is what these gatherings really are all about. The combined final tallies were a total of 20 bass caught, with a total weight of 34.83 lbs., and an average weight of 1.74 lbs. per fish.

Taking 1st place was the brothers team of (from left) Chris and Allen Napier, with a total weight of 10.67 lbs. They also claimed the sidepot, as well as lunker honors, with a bass weighing 3.69 lbs.

Finishing in 2nd place was the team of (from left) Gary Coderre and Dave Anderson, with a total weight of 8.47 lbs. Their big fish weighed 1.80 lbs.

The remaining competitors ended up as follows:

     * The team of Andy Morath and Nick Estrada, five fish, 8.22 lbs. total weight, and a 2.16-lb. big fish.
     * The team of Rob Peppers and Don Carter, five fish, 7.47 lbs. total weight, and a 2.21-lb. big fish.
     * The team of Steve Bailey and Dennis Dean, as well as the team of Wayne Hayes and Ken Testorff, both had some fish but decided to dump them, rather than take them to weigh-in.

Only one more name was added to the list of anglers qualified to participate in our 2022 Classic as a result of their participation today. Chris Napier becomes the 14th competitor eligible to fish our season-ending event on Oct. 15th & 16th. There are just two more qualifying events scheduled this year: Sunday, Sept. 25th, and Saturday, Oct. 1st, and there are just two more anglers who still can qualify by fishing each of these last two events. They are Bobby Moore and Ken Matthias.

Congratulations to the winners today and thanks to everyone who came out to participate.

One Last Cast

For a while today, Wayne and I stopped in West Neck Creek to fish. I was tossing a small square-billed crankbait when, all of a sudden, it just stopped dead in its tracks.

I quickly ascertained that, while the lure seemed hopelessly stuck, the object it was stuck on wasn't entirely immovable. By tightening down the drag on my rod's 30-pound braided line, I could get the bottom object moving toward the surface...finally far enough to get a quick look at what it was. I immediately knew beyond any doubt that I somehow had hooked what appeared to be a large concrete block.

Turning toward Wayne, I jokingly commented that I thought I just had snared Jimmy Hoffa's anchor.

For the benefit of anyone who isn't familiar with the Jimmy Hoffa story, he was an American labor leader who served as president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters from 1957 to 1971, and was one of the most controversial labor organizers of his time.

Known to have long associated with organized crime figures, Hoffa nevertheless survived a series of governmental prosecutions until 1967, when he entered the federal prison in Lewisburg, PA, to begin a 13-year sentence for jury tampering, fraud and conspiracy. Hoffa refused to resign as president of the Teamsters while in prison and kept his position until December 1971, when President Richard M. Nixon commuted Hoffa's sentence, stipulating that he could not engage in any union activity until 1980. Hoffa, however, fought the restriction in court and was widely believed to have covertly continued his efforts to reestablish a union position.

On July 30, 1975, he disappeared from a restaurant in suburban Detroit under circumstances that never have been fully determined. He was said to have had an appointment at the restaurant with Anthony Provenzano, a New Jersey Teamsters official and former Mafia figure, and Anthony Giacalone, a Detroit mobster. Both later denied having encountered Hoffa, who never was seen again. He was legally declared "presumed dead" in 1982.

A popular theory espoused during my youth was that Hoffa probably ended up at the bottom of a lake, river or ocean, with a piece of concrete tied to his butt...hence, my comment earlier today.

In case you're wondering, I truly was only being facetious, but it was good enough to bring a smile to both of our faces and...momentarily, at least...gave us some comic relief from the frustrations of yet another very slow day on the water.

Current Overall Statistics

Staying Flexible Is the Name of the Game

Heard from DMac this morning. Seems that he and his son took a trip to the Little River this past Sunday and didn't find out 'til afterward that the NC Big Bass Challenge had taken place Saturday at the Hall's Creek ramp. "So we fished a beat-up river," he said. "WAAAAAAH!!!

"It was a slow day froggin'. Had three fish grab a frog, with no blow-up. They just slurped it in while I watched the line swim off. Also had four or five tail-slaps.

"Did manage five fish-keeping size that hit the frog as expected. 'Bout 10 o'clock, we found a school of feeding stripers and threw shad swimbaits at them. That was fun and salvaged an otherwise slow mornin'."

In conclusion, DMac asked if I had seen the results from Bob's weekend tournament. After he noted they had seen a new all-time record weight of 27-plus pounds, along with a bunch of big fish, I decided to have a look for myself. In DMac's words, "Great day for some fo sho!"

It's a Story Not Unlike the One About the Tortoise and the Hare

That's what you get when summer's sweltering temperatures arrive, along with lower dissolved oxygen in the water. Bass simply don't chase their prey as much. Not that they can't; they just don't want to, so the predictable result is declined aggression.

Notwithstanding the brief flurries of activity you may find at dawn and/or dusk, the smart bass anglers plan on slowing down in most bass habitat they fish during the day.

"Now 'slow' is not necessarily synonymous with a heavy object pegged to the bottom," explained fishing guide Stephen Johnston. "No doubt, creeping a 10-inch Texas-rigged worm across wood and rock will produce bites, but so will a tiny worm, lizard or creature bait when fished on a dropshot, shaky head, or wacky worm rig."

One of Johnston's favorite slow-down rigs is a 4-inch V&M Chop Stick Texas-rigged with a 1/16-ounce weight.

"Light Texas rigs like this probably won't cut it in 20-plus feet, where current and line drift often will pull your bait off target," he said. "However, for shallow flipping or dragging, such diminutive packages look like the kind of meals bass are likely to favor on these low-speed days. You don't have to have a big, bulky bait. During those hot days, the fish look at that smaller bait as easier prey to get than, say, a big beaver-style bait, or a crawfish-style bait."

One of the more innovative tactics to have come out of California's finesse-heavy bass scene is the scaled-down Carolina rig.

A tactic fit for any situation requiring small lures and slow-moving presentations, the Little C allows you to present a light rig without the bold, intrusive principle of a traditional setup.

Jason Milligan, whose Northern California home waters is Shasta Lake, has perfected a rig that serves bass anglers well in just such tough scenarios. His specialized C-rig starts with 8-pound Seaguar fluorocarbon as main line, sans the leader, thanks to a stiff rubber stopper called a Carolina Keeper that eliminates a swivel and one knot in the light line. Positioned below a 1/8-to-1/4-ounce tungsten bullet weight, the adjustable stopper slides along the line for instant leader adjustment.

Milligan sets his leader at 1.5 to 4 feet long and omits the rattle beads to avoid spooking sluggish bass. To create the right presentation, he uses a Damiki Air-Pocket worm on a light 1/0 to 2/0 Roboworm rebarb hook. The combination of minimal hook weight and bait buoyancy allows the worm to float as high as his leader length, enabling Milligan to simulate the look of a dropshot bait, only with a more active appearance.

"The way I set up my rig with a light-wire hook," he said, "allows the bait to float up off the bottom and target those fish that are in reach of where you'd normally catch them on a dropshot--even if they won't react to a dropshot," he continued.

Sometimes it's necessary, according to FLW touring pro J. T. Kenney, "to effect a slow presentation by minimizing your bait's forward progress and maximizing its face time in a particular area. Stroking a jig, vertically hopping a tube, and/or suspending jerkbaits all are designed to keep the potential meal in front of a bass long enough for the fish to saunter over and have a bite.

"Topwater frogs are another good example of this principle. More commonly worked with twitching, chugging or walking presentations, these baits can tempt some of the most exciting surface strikes imaginable. However, bass that don't feel like chasing down an ambling amphibian may just let it go by. The solution? Let that frog pause and kinda wiggle back and forth in an area the size of a dinner plate, and you'll often tempt something big into tip-toeing upstairs to slurp down this easy target."

Bass pro and frog expert Ish Monroe said "the key to this deal is working the frog on a slack line, so it kind of walks in place. Working this slow, nearly stationary presentation along the edge of a grass line or next to a dock often will deliver the desired results. Also try this over one of those random 'windows' in a weed mat or a lily-pad field, as these natural access points are where lethargic bass are more likely to gobble the amphibian imposter."

"Below the surface, letting that jig or Texas-rigged bait soak a little longer than usual often can help pick up another bite during a slow period. When flipping beavers or big worms or punching hefty baits, for example," said Johnston, "that persistent pestering affects bass very much like it affects humans.

"If you're sitting in your living room, watching TV, and someone starts dropping French fries in front of your face, you might ignore them at first, but after a while, you're going to grab one of them," he said. "With bass, when they're sitting there comfortably in their fortress beneath the vegetation, and a bait drops in front of them and stays there, they won't be able to resist it forever," he concluded.

Mark Your Tournament Calendars Now

Nick Koenig has announced two more open tournaments. The first one is slated for the North River on Sunday, Oct. 2, 2022. Participants will launch at safe light from Mutt and Jeff's (AKA the old Riviera Motel), located at 5556 Caratoke Hwy. (off Rte. 168), Poplar Branch, NC 27965.

Entry fee for this event is $125, plus a ramp fee, which Nick believes is $5. Further, new sponsor "A Cut Above the Rest LLC," courtesy of Sterling Woolridge, has donated $250 toward the 1st place boat.

Weigh-in for this event will be at 3 p.m.

Then, on Sunday, Nov. 27, 2022, the next 125 jackpot tournament will launch out of Bob's Fishing Hole in Chesapeake at safe light. As usual, $70 of the $125 entry fee will go toward first place, $30 toward second place, and $25 toward big fish. Regardless of how many participants there are, no other places will be paid.

Weigh-in will be at 3 p.m., with food and beverages provided to all the competitors afterward.

For more information about either event, contact Nick at 757-409-7887.

Today's Prefishing Bottomline: We Know Where NOT To Go

I can't say today's results came as a surprise, 'cause both Wayne and I would be telling a boldface lie...and, of course, that's something no fisherman ever does...right?...wink, nod.

The gospel truth, however, is that we each boated a single fish. Wayne caught a bass, and I caught a catfish...in different locations and on different lures. So the sum total of our approximately five hours on the water this morning amounted to nada, except for our being able to say that, at least, we didn't sit home on this nice weather day.

There are no firm plans for another prefishing trip before next Saturday's scheduled tournament, but I suspect one or both of us very well may spend a few more hours later this coming week, trying to assemble some kind of a game plan for that event.

Incidentally, our plan to get off the water at 11 o'clock this morning worked to perfection. We no more than had recovered Wayne's boat than a line of cars showed up and started dumping in at the West Neck Ramp.

Meanwhile, the parking at the marina was...at best...a nightmare. For openers, there were at least a half dozen cars parked in the area where vehicles with trailers are supposed to park. There also were several vehicles parked in a manner that only could be described as anything but orderly. Equally important...at least as far as the ownership/management of the marina goes...is the fact that at least the two fellas who came onto the premises as we were launching this morning simply sailed by the store without paying their launch fee. And I have a strong hunch that many more after them probably did likewise, since there was absolutely no one in charge onsite this morning.

All I can say is: "So much for the honor system!" That only works for some people.

The Reminders Just Keep Coming

A few months ago, it was a bed's headboard that kicked my butt. Yesterday, it was the remnants of a couple old bushes I had cut down some time back, along with a surrounding area of heavy ground cover. In both cases, I ended up having to pay a visit to the local Patient First neighborhood medical center.

In the first incident, the headboard fell, slamming into the side of my knee, then sliding down my leg and ending by claiming some of the skin from around my ankle. Ultimately, I had a "melon" swell up on the side of my knee that, for a good spell, made it impossible for me to wear jeans. I either couldn't get the pant leg past my knee, or if I could, the pain from the melon and all the accompanying bruising while wearing them was more than I wanted to tolerate.

Yesterday's encounter was with a picket fence on one side of my house. For a matter of several weeks now, I've been having to take the weedeater to the former area of ground cover to keep it from springing back to life...with no problems whatsoever. As luck would have it yesterday, however, I ended up getting my feet tangled in the earlier mentioned remnants of an old bush, lost my balance, and started falling. In reaching for anything available, the backside of my left arm, just above the elbow, impaled the tip of one of the picket-fence boards.

My wife cleaned up the wound, applied some Bacitracin, and applied a large bandaid. As I readied for an early bedtime, though, so I could be ready for an early-morning fishing trip, I became the target for comments about maybe needing to get a tetanus shot this morning and/or seeing if a couple of stitches might be in order. When I dozed off, the fishing trip was still on my agenda, but my thinking had changed when the alarm went off this morning. I opted to give up my fishing trip and go see what the doctor had to say.

As a result, I now have a new tetanus shot, and I'm on a regimen of antibiotic tablets twice a day for a spell. I also find myself once again bemoaning the fact I'm getting older, clumsier, crankier, and you-name-it. Not helping things is the reality that my fishing skills (if I truly ever had any to start with, that is) are diminishing equally as quickly as everything else about me.

Accordingly, I went looking around the Internet to see if I'm the Lone Ranger here, or if perhaps there are lots of other folks who feel similar. As it turns out, I have a whole bunch of company. One video in particular caught my attention, and I want to share the link here, in case some of you other cantankerous ol' codgers might like to see it, too. The video is titled "Why Do We Start To Suck At Bass Fishing As We Get Older?" It's part of Randy Blaukat's Intuitive Angling series. Just click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qREfMd5gzMk.

September 2022 Best Fishing Times

The Evolution of Bobber Stoppers

When I started bass fishing, I pegged my slip sinkers with wooden toothpicks. As time went by, I began using short pieces of rubber bands. And now, some 50 years later, I find myself reaching for bobber stoppers to peg the slip sinkers on my plastic baits.

The bobber stopper, I assume, got its name from originally being designed to hold corks and bobbers in position for anglers fishing with live bait. Now, though, bass anglers everywhere use these devices in several different ways.

One such use, according to Wired2Fish scribe Shaye Baker, "is with a light Carolina rig, or split-shot rig, when you're wanting to drag a bait over a flat, through submerged vegetation, or along seawalls. For this type of stuff, you don't need a big, heavy weight and a 4-foot leader like you might when fishing a Carolina rig out deeper. We're talking more like something around a 1/4-ounce weight and a 12-to-18-inch leader.

"But if you put this rig together like a traditional Carolina rig with a swivel," said Baker, "you're locked in on the length of your leader unless you retie. Instead, I like to take a bobber stopper and slide it up my main line, followed by a VMC tungsten weight and then another bobber stopper. Tie a 4/0 EWG hook on, and now you have a lightweight Carolina rig that you can adjust the leader length of by simply sliding the two bobber stoppers and weight. The really cool thing is you actually can slide the setup all the way down to the eye of the hook and go from a Carolina rig to a light-weight Texas rig and then back again, without ever retying if you want.

"The limitations of this rig come when you move up to heavier weights or down to lighter lines. The heavier weights will cause the bobber stoppers to slide down the line on the cast. Likewise, the bobber stoppers won't grip 10-pound-test line as well as 15-pound-test. However, there are different sized bobber stoppers for that very reason. Smaller sizes will hold onto bigger diameter line even better against the pressure of the weight in your back cast. But you don't want to go all the way to a bobber stopper rated for an 8-pound-diameter line, for example, with 17-pound test because that big of a difference can actually lead to the line ripping through the bobber stopper.

"If your weight continues to slip, and you only have one size of bobber stopper, you also can try stacking two bobber stoppers on either side of the weight, and that will usually do the trick."

Another use of bobber stoppers comes from professional angler John Cox, who always snugs two of these devices against the eye of his Berkley Spin Rocket.

"I use these bobber stoppers to keep my braided line out of the prop of my topwater. A lot of anglers prefer throwing prop-style topwaters on braided line to increase the distance they can throw the bait. The braid also comes in handy when battling big bass that try to bury up in dense vegetation. But the drawback of the limp braid is that it gets tangled up in the front prop of a bait like this between twitches. Then the bait has to be retrieved in order to untangle the line from the prop.

"One solution many anglers use is a braid-to-monofilament leader. The stiffer monofilament stands out and doesn't get tangled in the prop as the lure moves toward you, but you still get the benefits of a braided main line. The drawback here is that you're adding another knot between the angler and the fish, which increases the work when rigging the lure and adds one more potential point of failure."

One other method some anglers use with prop-style topwaters, to keep them from tangling, is a 6-inch steel leader. I used one of those leaders for a short spell several years ago with some success, but they didn't prove to be 100 percent effective.

Another useful purpose of bobber stoppers...for those anglers who own rods with micro guides, anyway...is to slide a bobber stopper on the tag end of your line and reel that up to your rod tip, slide the rod in a rod glove, and now it's ready to go until you need it again, without wasting a single inch of line. The same thing can be done to store reels with smaller diameter guides on them. For any other rod or reel where a bobber stopper alone won't do the trick, you can keep a few pieces of cork in your rod locker to do the same thing. Just put the cork on first, then add the bobber stopper, and your setup will be there when you need it.

As Shaye Baker remarked, "I really believe that bobber stoppers are one of the more underutilized tools available to bass anglers. They're probably the cheapest bass-fishing tackle you can possibly buy, but that minuscule purchase can make an enormous difference on the water. With these small pieces of rubber, you'll be able to rig a quick Carolina rig, fish topwaters with less hassle, and store your rods and reels easier. For just a few bucks, that's some serious value."