What's the Next Rig Coming to Bass Fishing in Our Neck of the Woods?

According to one account I found online today, the answer to that question is the "free rig" (right).

Although it owes its origin to Japanese counterparts, this rig already is finding favor among some anglers in America. One such angler is Bassmaster Elite Series pro Taku Ito, a pro who has quickly gained a large fan base, given his infectious personality and unique angling methods.

Ito has found plenty of success on the water, with seven Top 10 finishes, including a win on the St. Lawrence River, New York, in less than three full seasons on the Elite Series trail. During his short stint as a professional bass angler in America, Ito has opened some eyes with his Japanese techniques, including the free rig.

A hybrid, this rig shares some aspects of the popular Texas and Carolina rigs. It uses a weight with a hole at the top through which anglers thread their line, tie their hook, and then rig their soft-plastic bait. As the rig is cast, the weight falls first, and the soft plastic falls slowly behind it in a free-flowing and unpredictable way. As Ito says, this falling action is what makes it so deadly.

While similar to the Texas rig, the free rig is not the same.

"The Texas rig is much better for heavy cover, but the free rig is the best for suspended fish," explained Ito. "It started getting popular in Japan about five years ago on Lake Biwa, which has a lot of grass like Lake Guntersville in Alabama. The bass would suspend over the grass and were hard to catch until they started using the free rig."

As noted by Ito, the free rig is a perfect solution to fool finicky bass all four seasons.

"It shines the best, however, around grass, brush piles, and when bass suspend under docks," he said. "Most of the time, it's done between 5 and 25 feet of water. Any shallower," he continued, "and the bass don't suspend as much, and the bait falls too fast. Fifteen feet is the average depth I use it in, but only if the water is warm. If the water is cold, the bass mostly rest on the bottom and don't suspend.

"Letting the free rig fall on a slack line is vital," he said, "because as the weight falls first, you want the plastic to free-fall behind it. The fish usually bite as the bait falls. You will see your line swimming away. I let the bait hit bottom, shake it a few times, and then make another cast."

When fishing the free rig, Ito prefers a setup similar to what most anglers use for jigs and Texas-rigged plastics: a 7-foot to 7-foot 3-inch heavy baitcast rod, paired with a Shimano Metanium XG reel. For line, he uses 17-to-25-pound Seaguar Tatsu fluorocarbon. His favorite is 20-pound, but he'll go heavier on a lake with big fish and lots of trees...like Lake Fork in Texas. It the fish are smaller and/or the lake has less cover, he will use 17-pound but nothing less.

Ito prefers using heavy lines to gain a slower fall from the thicker diameter.

"Lighter line makes the bait fall too quickly," he shared. "You want it to stay in the water column and sink slower, so you can suspend the bait longer."

While many Japanese imports are finesse techniques with downsized baits, Ito prefers large soft-plastic baits with curly tails or plenty of appendages, which helps add time for the bait to fall and attract fish.

"I like baits such as the Zoom Ol' Monster 10-inch worm with a big curly tail, or a big creature bait with a lot of appendages to slow it down," he said. "You want the bait to grab water and fall slowly. Baits like a Senko or fluke fall too fast, since they have straight tails. I also don't like anything less than 4 inches long because they likewise fall too fast."

A simple lead bass-casting sinker will work for the technique, as it has a large opening for the line to flow through and has the perfect teardrop shape for the best fall, but Ito uses free-rig specific weights from Japan. He prefers the Fuji Rig Suberu that's made of tungsten, with a line guide that allows for smooth line movement.

"Normally, I like 1/4-ounce but will use 3/16-ounce for shallower water and 3/8-ounce for deeper brush," he said.

Ito also will use a bobber stopper, adding two of the Ryugi Rubber Stoppers just above his hook. "Without those, the weight can get stuck to the knot sometimes," he added.

Having already proved its worth in Japan, the free rig just might be the next big thing in American bass fishing, too. The rig is simple and gives anglers yet another effective way to rig soft-plastic baits for enticing otherwise stubborn bass to bite.

2023 Tournament Season Off and Running

Wouldn't you know that, on our very first event of the new season, the local weather forecasters would blow their predictions in grand style. Nowhere had I seen the first call for rain in our area today, yet the trip Wayne and I had to make back to West Neck from Milldam this afternoon was anything but dry. More precisely, it was painful. The raindrops smacking us in the face were smarting.

The unpredicted rain, however, didn't cause any of the 21 anglers in 12 boats to give up our pursuit of those green fish. We stayed at it until weigh-in time arrived, and all but two of the boats weighed five-fish limits.

Those anglers who finished in the winners' circle at day's end included the following:

1st Place, (from left) the team of Ken Matthias and Jim Leavis, with 13.26 pounds but no big fish.

2nd Place, Mark Ingram, with 12.93 pounds and a 5.17-pound bass that was good enough to capture big-fish honors for the tournament. Mark further won the side pot.

3rd Place, the team of (from left) Dennis Dean and Steve Bailey, with 12.86 pounds and a 3.81 kicker.

Here is the finishing order for the remainder of the field:

     * The husband-wife team of Andy and Diana Morath, with 12.44 pounds and no kicker.

     * Eddie Sapp, with 11.87 pounds and no kicker.

     * The team of Dave Anderson and Gary Coderre, with 9.84 pounds and no kicker.

     * James Calhoun, with 9.41 pounds and no kicker.

     * The team of Rob Peppers and Don Carter, with 9.01 pounds and no kicker.

     * The team of Fisher Bryan and Gabe Himmelwright, with 7.71 pounds and a 4.10 kicker.

     * The team of Wayne Hayes and Ken Testorff, with 7.38 pounds after a 0.25 dead-fish penalty and no kicker.

     * The team of Craig Jones and Rob Chatham and the uncle-nephew team of Robert and Ryan Land didn't weigh any fish.

Congratulations to all the winners and sincere thanks to all those who joined us today.

In closing, let me announce a couple of events for April. As announced today by the tournament director (right), everyone is invited to participate in an open-to-anyone bass tournament on Saturday, April 15. Plans call for launching this event at 6:45 a.m. or safelight, as the TD desires. He also will announce weigh-in time. This tournament will be conducted under all the rules currently in force for the Dewey Mullins Memorial Bass Tourney Series, but the totals WILL NOT have any bearing on totals in this series. This will be strictly a one-day open event.

Two weeks later, on Saturday, April 29, the second event of the 2023 Dewey Mullins Memorial Series will be held.

Be watching for my emails in coming days with details about both of these tournaments. As usual, if you have any questions, you can reach Wayne at 757-478-3387.

Current Overall Statistics

Click anywhere on this chart for an enlargement.

53rd Edition of Biggest Bass Tournament on Earth Is Underway

And the Winner Is:

Jeff Gustafson (42 pounds, 7 ounces)

Top 10 After Day 2

Jeff Gustafson (35 pounds, 11 ounces)

2. John Cox (29 pounds, 15 ounces)

3. Bryan Schmitt (29 pounds, 13 ounces)

4. Drew Benton (28 pounds, 6 ounces)

5. Scott Canterbury (28 pounds, 0 ounces)

6. Brandon Lester (27 pounds, 9 ounces)

7. Cory Johnston (26 pounds, 9 ounces)

8. Jay Przekurat (25 pounds, 6 ounces)

9. Austin Felix (23 pounds, 10 ounces)

10. Jason Christie (23 pounds, 3 ounces)

Top 10 After Day 1

1. Jeff Gustafson (18 pounds, 8 ounces)

2. Brandon Lester (17 pounds, 7 ounces)

3. Bryan Schmitt (16 pounds, 1 ounce)

4. John Cox (14 pounds, 4 ounces)

5. Cory Johnston (14 pounds, 2 ounces)

6. Jay Przekurat (14 pounds, 0 ounces)

7. Chris Johnston (13 pounds, 12 ounces)

8. Drew Benton (13 pounds, 5 ounces)

9. Scott Canterbury (12 pounds, 13 ounces)

10. Jacob Powroznik (12 pounds, 9 ounces)

As reported this morning by Shaye Baker, the 2023 Academy Sports + Outdoors Bassmaster Classic, presented by Toyota, has begun on the Tennessee River, and as usual, plenty of fans were on hand to watch things shift into motion.

The weather in Tennessee this morning was as pretty as a fisherman could ask for to start the Classic. Air temps were in the mid-60s already, with a predicted high in the upper 70s. Rain came down heavy during practice at times, and more precipitation is predicted for Day 2.

A front is supposed to move through the area, with an 80 percent chance of rain, a high of 75 degrees, and temps dropping a bit...into the upper 40s tomorrow night. However, the highs are predicted to bounce back on Championship Sunday, perhaps reaching the mid-70s.

According to this morning's reporting, three pounders are solid gold on this fishery. A 15-pound bag equates to a strong bag, and an angler really shows out with 18 pounds.

Here's where a win, or even just a good, strong finish can do more for an angler's career than any other thing.

It Was a Day on the Water for 5 Amigos

We made our plans a few days ago and then executed them this morning. Skip in his boat, Craig and Rob in the latter's boat, and Wayne and me in his boat were going to show up at West Neck this morning and get in some fishing time.

Skip chose not to show up as early as the rest of us, but we all met up one way or the other today before all was said and done. As it worked out, none of the three boats registered a skunk, which is always a good thing.

The picture here is Skip's first fish of the day, and I know for a fact that he boated at least one more before the end of the day, because I saw him swing it over the side. Came off one of his favorite trees in the upper stretches of West Neck Creek.

He just had told Wayne and me it's one of his favorite trees, when I turned around and saw him chalk up yet another bass from it. Also heard him chuckle a bit as he swung it aboard.

Rob and Craig got the jump on the rest of us as far as striking paydirt. They let us know that the two of them started getting their fish nearly right away this morning. They ended their 2- or 2.5-hour trip with five fish to their credit, with each angler using different baits.

Because they were interested in trying to preserve their productive stretch of water for a revisit during this Sunday's tournament, both were trying just to feel the fish but then allow it to go free without ever setting the hook. As it turned out, they were only partly successful in that effort. A few of the bass were just too eager.

Wayne and I were the "renegades," in a sense, today. Of all three boats, we were in the only one that headed south in West Neck Creek, while the other two went north.

We fought the strong winds for a spell but soon grew tired of the conditions and decided to go looking for some cover. We first checked out a couple of new spots to us down south on the North Landing, without finding anything, and eventually made our way back to West Neck.

It wasn't until we got above the bridge, however, before we started finding any catchable fish. We ended the day with a total of four bass, none of which was anything to write home about. Only a couple of them would have cleared the 12-inch tournament minimum length.

Whether today's excursion on the water will lead to any success Sunday remains to be seen. At least we got out and had a look around for some ideas to help us form some kind of battle plan for the tournament.

A Saying That May Hold Some Truth

"He who dies with the most 'toys' wins." That saying implies what appears to be the way most bass anglers think and act if/when they get really hooked on the sport of bass fishing.

In reality, there's nothing wrong, generally speaking, with an angler having all the basic tackle and extra things he or she needs/wants, as long as it doesn't lead to their having to take out a second mortgage on their home to pay for everything.

One thing we all can do is learn to become "bargain conscious." Just as there are certain seasons of the year when bass are easier to catch, there are times of the year when expensive tackle can be purchased at bargain-basement prices. Stores routinely clear their shelves of old inventory to make room for all the new stuff, including fishing tackle. It's nothing unusual to see some prices reduced by more than half during seasonal clearances.

Conventional wisdom holds that you get what you pay for. And since a fisherman's line is the most vital link between him and his quarry, it then behooves him/her to choose good line. While inexpensive monofilament line may fill some of your needs, you will be better served with fluorocarbon and braid for other occasions. Once again, you may find bulk spools of all these lines in the spring sales offered by many retailers.

Some of the most dramatic cost increases in recent years have been in fishing lures, with prices running $30 and, in some cases, considerably more. One way to reduce these expenditures is by finding outlets that deal in knockoff models and painting them yourself or obtaining the services of a custom painter.

And if you happen to be a live-bait fisherman, you always have the option of gathering your own bait at no expense whatsoever to yourself.

By being observant and choosing wisely, an angler should be able to save enough cash to put gas in his vehicle and drive to that special spot a little farther away, where the big ones are just waiting.

Crazy Stuff You Don't Often Hear About

During the first round of an old CITGO Bassmaster Classic in Pittsburgh, Terry Scroggins was surprised by a 13-ounce smallmouth that suddenly leaped into his Triton/Mercury rig. To the Florida pro, it must have seemed like manna from heaven in a tournament where keeper-sized bass were, according to one writer, "as scarce as Paris Hilton's brain cells." Alas, a chagrined Scroggins simply grabbed the illegally caught fish and tossed it overboard, no doubt muttering something about being teased by the finny stowaway.

That scenario was the motivation for some research into other weird ways Bassmaster pros have boated bass over the years, along with the strange circumstances that were involved. Spend enough time on the water, and strange catches are bound to occur, as revealed in the following examples.

Hungry Bass. Jim Bitter recalled the time he once caught a bass on another one. As the Florida pro related, "I was cranking a bass in that was about a 1-pounder when a 3-pounder gobbled him up. I saw the bigger fish attack from behind and then couldn't release the smaller fish because its dorsal fin was caught in the roof of his mouth. I got both of them in."

Ambitious Bass. The fishing was so tough on Georgia's Lake Russell in a past BASS event that the country's top tournament pros were highly appreciative of any and all bass that would cooperate, even the smallest legal fish. That included Kevin Wirth's 12-inch, 12-ounce largemouth, which ranked as the smallest specimen of the week.

"That fish hit a 12-inch worm," said the Kentucky angler. "These fish are nuts. That's why we're not catching more of them."

Tug-of-War Bass. Pete Thliveros chuckled when he remembered a crazy bass that appeared during an outing with friends on the St. John's River.

"A couple of buddies in two different boats were fishing one little point," he said. "We were close enough together that we were throwing at each other and goofing off. I made a cast, and one of my buddies in the other boat made a cast right on top of where I had thrown. He was laughing when I felt a fish and set the hook. He jerked at the same time, and the fish came up between the two boats. It had two worms in its mouth. I pulled a little harder, and it came off his hook, allowing me to land the 13-incher."

Amateur Lesson. Randy Howell recalled a time when he didn't feel much like the pro in charge of his boat.

"I was fishing a Tour event on Neely Henry Lake, and my partner was using one of those Yankee-rig worm things with three hooks in it," noted the Alabama pro. "He had caught a couple behind me, and I asked to borrow one. I tied it on and caught a 3-pounder right before we came in. That's probably the weirdest bait I've ever caught one on."

Bass Traffic. In the final round of his wire-to-wire domination of the 2002 Classic on Alabama's Lay Lake, Jay Yelas somehow caught a 6-pounder in the wake of an obnoxious boater who purposely ran over his spot.

"This guy in a pontoon boat ran between me and the bank, and he was only about 10 feet from the shoreline," said Yelas. "I don't know what the deal was with that guy. After he did that, I said 'It'll take an act of God for me to catch one there now.' So I certainly need to thank God for that 6-4."

Largemouth Assault. Little-known Florida pro Greg Brightbill took big-bass honors in a Georgia Invitational with a Lake Lanier trophy largemouth weighing 8 pounds 6 ounces. Its sheer size was impressive enough, when you consider that Lanier is renowned for its spotted-bass population. But the way in which Brightbill lured and landed the fish made this saga seem even more incredible.

"I flipped a Berkley Power Worm up against this dock, and I felt a little twitch, so I set the hook on a little spot of about 9 inches," he recalled. "I had started reeling it in when I saw a big ol' bass coming out from under the dock, and he just sucked that little fish in and ate it. I set the hook again, and as I was fighting the big fish, he spit out the spot, which was about 11 inches up the line by the time I landed them both."

Then-assistant tournament director Trip Weldon ruled that this inadvertent bit of live-bait fishing was perfectly legal. If only the spotted bass had been 12 inches long, Brightbill would have weighed in perhaps the most unusual double in BASS history.

Shared Fish. North Carolina pro Dustin Wilks once caught a 2.5-pound Lake St. Clair smallmouth that he shared temporarily with an amateur partner.

Said Wilks, "I laid my rod down and tried to net my partner's fish, but it was hooked in the belly and got off. When I picked my rod back up, I had a fish on it. The fish had a grub snagged in its side, which turned out to be the same fish my partner just had lost. It didn't fight very much because he had worn it down already."

Tripleheader.

During a Tour event on Arkansas' Lake Hamilton, top western pro John Murray caught and landed three bass on the same cast. One was hooked on a Frontrunner teaser, while the other two nailed his topwater bait.

Chinese Rig. Arizona pro Brett Hite once caught a bass on what is called the Chinese rig.

"It's like a drop shot," he said. "Where you normally would tie the weight for a drop shot, though, you attach a Carolina rig weight. Tie a swivel and then tie another leader with a lizard or something behind it."

Fly Rod Surprise. While fishing crystal-clear spring waters with a fly rod and popping bug, Florida pro Shaw Grigsby hooked a little guy, maybe 10 inches long. As it jumped out of the water, he saw a big one right behind it.

"All of a sudden, my little fish started feeling heavier and heavier. Turns out the big one had eaten the little one and gotten hooked, and I landed the 4-pounder. There was no sign of the little one. That was really wild."

Hand-y Bass. North Carolina's David Dudley had an interesting encounter en route to winning a BASS tournament on the James River. It began when his rod and reel became separated on a hookset.

"I stuck the rod between my legs and started hand-lining the fish in," he recalled. "Just about the time I was going to flip him in the boat, the fish came off. So I was sitting there fooling around when that bass came back and grabbed my lure again. I saw my line taking off, so I set the hook by hand, then hand-lined him in. It was one of my biggest fish."

Fishing Is an Humbling Sport To Start With...

Throw in a spring cold front...even though spring doesn't officially start for two more days...and you have the makings of some tough fishing. Just ask those anglers who showed up Saturday at the Pasquotank River for the season-opener of the Tidewater Division, NC CATT Trail Tournaments.

As anyone who has fished on the heels of a spring cold front knows, bass usually get downright finicky or stubborn after one of these weather events occurs. It's not an exaggeration to say that you can put a bait square on their nose at such times, and they won't even think of biting.

Wayne Hayes didn't waste any words Saturday afternoon when he phoned, telling me about how miserable a day he and his partner, Andy Morath, had had. As I also understand it, the same was true of the team composed of Bob Clarkson and Mark Ingram, as well as a large swath of the other competitors. Simply put, when Saturday morning's cold front passed through, it choked the bite down to parade rest.

The only hope anyone in the field ever had, as described in the tournament director's comments, was to have scored big in the first hour or so of the competition...before the front passed through. That's exactly what at least the top three teams did and subsequently finished in double-digit figures.

There's nothing new about Mother Nature playing a dirty trick on you after a short warming period and then kicking you and your fishing patterns in the teeth. Walker Smith of Wired2Fish knows the drill, too. A few years ago, though, he sat down and generated a list of all the things he had to do to keep catching bass during these tough conditions. Following is a digest of things he learned that may help you the next time a front blows through and cools down the bite in your area, as well.

Said Smith, "I've figured out that I get a lot more Texas-rig bites in cold-front conditions when I don't peg my weight. Most shallow-water guys, including me, peg our weights, so this can feel pretty awkward at first. But think about what an unpegged Texas rig does underwater: It creates an incredibly natural, gliding action as it falls. Your tungsten weight is going to hit the bottom first, as it slides up your line. This allows your soft plastic to glide slowly to the bottom as it catches up with your weight.

"The slower and more deliberate fall gives these slow-moving bass extra time to detect and bite your Texas rig. In these conditions, bass don't necessarily want something fast-moving and obnoxious. The more natural you can get your presentation, the better off you'll be.

"This time of year is not only volatile due to the weather but also because of the shad spawn in much of the country. These big bass will gorge themselves on spawning shad all night and for the first hour or so of daylight. But once that sun gets over the trees, they're done. They're full as a tick and have no reason to actively feed for the rest of the day. This is why they can nearly vacate the shallows for most of the day; they're simply not hunting.

"This concept, although fairly simple, finally clicked for me. I could fish miles of bank with very few bites. But when I started scanning around on my LivScope unit, I noticed several bass sitting off the first depth change from the bank. I was targeting 3 to 6 feet of water, and the bass actually were sitting behind me in 10 feet of water. They had eaten their fill during the morning shad spawn and just slid out to deeper water to hang out for the rest of the day...not unlike the dude who pigs out at a Thanksgiving feast, then has to undo his belt buckle and spread out on the sofa all afternoon.

"I chose to cast something very small and subtle to 'em, so I rigged up a small grub on a spinning rod with 8-pound test line. Sure enough, I caught three of the four bass I saw on my LiveScope. For the rest of the afternoon, I made a conscious effort to target that first depth change off the bank, and I turned a poor day of fishing into a surprisingly productive one.

"I'll be the first to admit that I'm not a huge fan of jerkbait fishing. I throw a jerkbait more than you'd think, however, because the dang thing just gets bites. If you held a gun to my head and told me to go catch a bass right this second, a jerkbait would be the first thing I'd throw. They're like bass candy.

"Once a spring cold front rolls through, in addition to the high barometric pressure, you're also left with high winds. It's been so bad here lately that I've had to leave the big water a few times and head up rivers to get away from the huge swells.

"You can use this wind to your advantage, though. It will position both baitfish and bass on windblown points and seawalls throughout the lake, and there is no better lure for windy conditions than a jerkbait. The waves and ripples created by the wind distort the profile of the jerkbait just enough to hide any unnatural characteristics, such as hooks and split rings, which makes it much easier to fool bass.

"Even if you're not crazy about jerkbaits, try it during the next cold front. I've had nasty days lately when I've caught upwards of 30 bass in just a few hours. Is it because I'm that good? Heck no. Absolutely not. It's because a jerkbait flat-out catches 'em during cold fronts.

"I wish I had some elaborate biological explanation for these points, but, sadly, I don't. This, though, has been a big deal for me throughout these spring weather fronts. Don't be afraid to hit a productive spot several times during the day. When I run across a good stretch where I can get a few bites, I'll come back every hour or so and beat the fire out of it. Fish are moving constantly right now, so I don't try to "save" fish for the next day or the next tournament. I milk everything for every ounce it's worth because chances are, those fish won't stay there long.

"There's a reason those fish are there. Whether it's the presence of bait, bottom composition, or vegetation, it all depends. But again, they're there for a reason, and in cold-front conditions, their feeding windows get incredibly small. So revisiting a productive spot several times increases the likelihood of your pulling up while they happen to be feeding, or at least, that's my opinion.

"So try these tips on your next trip. If you run across a little bunch of 'em, come back in an hour or two. Don't peg your weight. Throw a jerkbait. Back off the bank a little bit. I'm willing to bet if you try these things, you won't be so hesitant to go fishing during that next cold front."

When Stuff Off the Shelf Don't Work, Whaddaya Do?

Choosing the right lures for a productive day on the water is sometimes easy. Other times, though, it can be a challenge...and downright frustrating, too. 

When none of the tried and true are working, whaddaya do? Throw your hands in the air and say, "I quit," or knuckle down and do what a fella I read about online today does: Come up with a homemade lure or two of your own...something none of the fish likely have seen before.

This guy very well may be a one-of-a-kind. After all, how many people do you know who owns a Liz Claiborne lure?

It seems that several years ago, the guy's wife purchased a new purse with a 2-by-2-inch brass "Liz" insignia that was fastened to it by a key chain. Upon seeing that insignia, his devious mind immediately thought: fishing lure! Since it already had one hole in it, 'twas an easy matter to drill another and attach a split ring and a No. 6 treble hook. Voila! A new lure was born.

"Does it work?" you may be asking. How about this: Check out the accompanying photo carefully and decide for yourself.

Like a lot of men, this guy was one to never throw away anything. He subsequently spied the handle of an old silver spoon gathering dust on his workbench. Once again, a light bulb went off in his head, and another lure soon was born.

A friend used a drill press to poke two small holes in the very hard metal, then a split ring was attached, and a No. 6 Daiichi bleeding-bait hook was added. Why red? There are two prevailing schools of thought. The first is that red duplicates the gill flash of a wounded or fleeing baitfish, and this in turn provokes an aggressive response from predatory fish. The second is that red disappears in the water, and that since the fish can't see it, the hooks don't spook them away from the lure.

This do-it-yourselfer believes the first theory. He thinks the fish can see the hooks, and the red color provokes them into striking. As pro walleye angler Mark Martin once stated, "All I know is that I have cashed a lot more checks since I began putting red Daiichi hooks on my Rapalas."

The DIY guy also decided to add red hooks to his "Ol' Liz" lure the next time he used it. At the same time, he further came up with a way to customize an old Road Runner lure that he found laying on his workbench. For the past 10 years or so, he had had great success catching bass on bubblegum pink artificial worms. So he snipped off about four-and-a-half inches of an old, chewed-up pink worm, attached it to the hook of a 1/8-ounce red-headed Road Runner and set forth to try his luck.

With two small ponds located within easy walking distance of his house, which the DIYer likes to think of as his "laboratories," he walked over one early, chilly morning and put his wacky new idea to the test.

Within a very short period, he had landed eight largemouth that literally had destroyed his new lure...so much so that he had to bite off about the first half-inch of the worm and reattach it. Their zeal told him that they liked the look, action, smell, and whatever else of the lure and wanted to eat it, rather than just chase it out of the area.

If any of you other DIYers out there find these ideas appealing, why not try coming up with some homemade lures of your own? Let your imagination be your guide and create something unique. Whatever you do, don't forget to take some pictures as a reminder of your creative talent.

One-Lure Bass Fishing--Ever Tried It?

While still in the Navy and assigned to duty in Washington, D.C., I fished with a couple different clubs, one of which had a member who was a dedicated spinnerbait man. He always fished as a backseater, always fished a spinnerbait, and always wore out his frontseater in the course of any given tournament. He constantly urged the frontseater, regardless of who it was, to speed up their casts and retrieves.

I also participated in some one-lure tournaments, in which everyone named their lure of choice at sign-in and had to stay with it all day long, regardless of the outcome.

Then, back in the '70s, I spent one full year fishing the Charlie Brewer slider system (with 6 lb.-test mono), followed by a year in the mid-'80s or mid-'90s, when I fished nothing but spinnerbaits.

So, I've had my fair share of experience with fishing only one lure. A quick check around the Internet revealed that others also have sampled this kind of fishing.

A Florida fella had to leave the working world because of health concerns. One side benefit that developed as a result of his situation was that he could fish as often as he liked, as long as it was from the bank. On a lark, he decided to start fishing with just topwater baits.

"I would rather fish for bass with topwaters and not catch anything, rather than catch them on something else," he said. He went on to explain that he had been having good luck recently with two old favorites: the Storm Chug Bug and the Heddon Super Spook Jr.

This fella indicated he was beginning to wonder if his newfound success with topwaters might be a result of developing a determination and confidence level in topwaters or something else.

Turns out this Floridian heard from another guy who likewise was fishing solely spinnerbaits...the Chug Bug and Super Spook Jr., in addition to a Torpedo and Spro Pop Frog, and also doing well. Like the Floridian, too, he would rather catch one on topwater than 10 on soft plastic.

"Everyone likes the audio and visual parts of a good topwater strike," he said. "The best part of all is knowing that you were able to irritate the fish bad enough to make him strike your lure in the first place."

A third fisherman was lamenting the fact that most bass fishermen take far more tackle with them on a trip than they'll ever use. He spoke of a fella named Frank, whom he once fished with in a club. It seems that Frank only fished plastic worms...various sizes from 4 to 10 inches, rigged a lot of different ways (e.g., T-rig, weightless, split shot, or on his own version of a shakey head, before shakey heads became a big thing).

Frank's catch rates were impressive...often placing in the top three in club tournaments. He had fished for many years and had tried a lot of other bass baits before settling on plastic worms. He had the utmost confidence in his choice.

When it comes to trophy-bass hunters, they generally favor topwater baits, just for the simple reason that big bass generally are found in shallow water. Topwaters, like buzzbaits, twitching stickbaits, and frogs, usually get the nod.

As one angler explained, "You wouldn't think of going elk hunting with a .22 rifle, so why would you go search for trophy bass with average tackle?"

No, They Weren't One-Eyed, One-Horned Flyin' Purple People-Eaters...

That was just the name of a highly popular tune by Sheb Wooley, way back in 1958 (before a lot of you probably were born). Instead, the following are incidents about fish with two mouths, starting with one that a fella named Phillip caught from a private pond in Cobb County, Georgia, on Sept. 30, 2010.

As noted by fisheries biologist Greg Grimes at the time, the fish actually had a second jaw that led to the shared throat. The second, smaller jaw was located directly below the primary jaw. This bottom jaw couldn't create the sucking action that would have allowed the bass to engulf prey and feed. However, the anomaly probably didn't interfere with the feeding habits of the fish. The 10-inch bass was in good body condition, which indicated the fish was feeding just fine.

Grimes couldn't say exactly what caused the bass to have two mouths, but suggested it could be a genetic mutation or perhaps was the result of an injury to the fish's lower mouth at a younger age. The only other two-mouthed fish he had heard of was a trout in Nebraska.

My Internet research, however, turned up another trout with two mouths that a lady named Debbie caught from Lake Champlain in upstate New York in August 2019. While reeling it in, she thought she had "a good catch," but when she and her husband saw the fish, they were shocked. As they pointed out, the fish's bottom mouth had been hooked, and it appeared to have a normal mouth on top.

Debbie said the fish appeared to be in good health. She and her husband released the fish but not before they had taken a few photos of the rare find, which they shared with Ellen Marsden, a professor of fisheries at the University of Vermont's Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources. She speculated that a random, embryonic mutation likely prompted the unusual growth.

"Such departures from the normal happen fairly frequently in nature," said Marsden, "but most are lethal."

And finally, there's the two-headed, four-eyed carp that was caught back in 2017 from a lake near where the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant accident occurred. Dubbed "Chernobyl fish," the freaky specimen prompted theories that the deformation came about due to contamination in the lake. However, scientists aren't sure, saying that they would have needed to run tests on the specimen to determine whether contamination was a factor or not.

For all intents and purposes, the carp looked to be healthy and fully-grown, leading one expert to theorize that contamination wasn't a factor, because that would have killed most fish in their infancy.

University of South Carolina biologist Dr. Timothy Mousseau said, "Most radiation-induced mutations lead to lower growth, survival and fertility. Most such 'mutants' do not live long enough to get so large. Most are slower, less capable, and thus more likely to be eaten or die than 'normal' individuals."

The scientist, who studied Chernobyl and Fukashima extensively, added that "controlled experiments" would have been needed to determine what was wrong with the fish, most likely an Asian carp. He went on to note that the two eyes at the top of its head were nostrils. A defining feature of these fish are that the nostrils grow high on the head, above the eyes.

None of this info, however, stopped social-media users from saying the fish looked like it was caught in Chernobyl, or that it looked like Blinky, the three-eyed wonder caught in the water outside the nuclear power plant in The Simpsons.

If You're Lookin' for a New PB, NOW!!! Is the Time of Year To Make It Happen

Lacey Cothern (left) of Bacon County, Georgia, is all smiles on a March day after catching an 11-pounder from a pond...on her very first fishing trip ever, no less.

By Ken Duke

Managing Editor

Fishing Tackle Retailer

Often, "they" say that March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb, but "they" forget to mention bass, and that's a big oversight. For bass angling, March comes in like a lunker inhaling a jig and goes out like a leviathan hammering a swimbait.

When you're talking about weather, March is one of the most unpredictable months on the calendar. But when it comes to giant bass, March is money--the closest thing to a sure thing we have. February can be tough, and April and May can be easy if you're looking for numbers of fish, but March is your best bet for a true-blue honest-to-goodness Southern hawg.

Just look at the record books. Eighteen state-record bass were caught in March--six for each of the major bass species.

The record largemouths came from Arkansas, North Carolina, Oklahoma, California, New Mexico, and Wyoming. The smallmouths were caught in Georgia, Oklahoma, Texas, Virginia, Arizona, and Illinois. And the states recording top spotted bass in March were Alabama, Arkansas, Texas, Illinois, Nebraska, and New Mexico.

That doesn't include any records for which a state did not identify the month it was caught, and it's a far more impressive tally than any other page on your calendar.

If that's not enough, a look at the list of the 25 biggest largemouths ever certified shows that eight--more than a third--were caught in March, which, again, is more than in any other month.

Depending upon your latitude, bass can be in either pre-spawn, spawn or even post-spawn mode in March. For most bass throughout the South, though, March is the pre-spawn period, and that'll be our focus here.

Pre-spawn bass are typically feeding more aggressively and shallower than at other times of the year. Those traits make them more vulnerable to you and me, but also to every other angler on the water. That's why we need to find whatever edges we can to tip the odds of catching a lunker in our favor. Three simple steps will do that, but we need to follow them carefully. When our goal is the biggest bass in the lake, we can't leave anything to chance.

Step 1: Hit the Right Water

For any number of reasons, some bodies of water are simply better than others for producing lunker bass. The biggest factors are genetics, habitat and forage. Do you know the fisheries near your home that turn out great numbers of big fish or the heaviest bass each year? Check with state biologists to get the lowdown on this, or keep a personal tally based on what you hear from friends and biologists or through the grapevine.

Consider fishing smaller waters, rather than the giant reservoirs with big reputations and crowded boat ramps. Small waters warm faster than big ones and generally get less fishing pressure. You can learn the nuances of a smaller body of water faster and more thoroughly than you can a large impoundment. Those are big considerations when it comes to finding and catching the bass of a lifetime.

Being on the right body of water is just part of the equation. You also need to be in the right part of that body of water. To get there, look to the wind and the sun.

As the water starts to warm after winter, sustained winds will push the warmest layer--near the surface--to one side of the lake. This windward area will hold the warmest water available, and the bass there will be the most active. Second, because of the angle of the sun in late winter and early spring, the northwestern corner of your lake gets the biggest boost from its rays. If the water's still cold (below 55 degrees), consider concentrating your fishing efforts in the afternoon when the sun has had a chance to do its work. The bass may be more inclined to feed later in the day.

Step 2: Go Big

It's March, and unless you're in the extreme South, there's no young-of-the-year anything for bass to feed on--no bass fry, no bluegill fry, no shad fry. The baits you choose should reflect that. Go big or go home lunkerless.

Spinnerbaits, large soft-plastic swimbaits, bladed jigs, jigs with plastic trailers, and soft-plastic lizards will help swing the odds in your favor. Use the first three as search baits and to cover water. Use the last two to work the heaviest cover thoroughly. Slower is mostly better in March, though there will certainly be days when bass are in a chasing mood.

Apart from the fact that these lure types are generally regarded as "big-fish baits," they have another thing in common. They are all single-hook lures. That's important when you're chasing the bass of a lifetime. A single hook means better hook penetration, and it decreases the chances that a big fish will "throw" your bait during the fight due to the hook size and bend gap. You also can cast a single-hooked lure into places that a treble-hooked bait never could navigate.

Step 3: Be There

The unfortunate truth is that there are few substitutes for hours on the water when you're targeting the bass of a lifetime. As Woody Allen once said, "Ninety percent of success in life is just showing up." Well, that could be exaggeration, but showing up is critical, and the more time you're out there, the better your odds of connecting with a personal best.

Sadly, few of us have the freedom to be on the water every day, so we take what we can get--a weekend or holiday here and there. If you can, hit the water several days before the full moon, especially if water temperatures are in the high-50s to mid-60s. That's when you can expect lots of bass to spawn. It's also when big bass are most active, most apt to be shallow and aggressive and most likely to fall prey to our lures.

It's likely that no one in history spent more time underwater studying the behavior of bass than the late Glen Lau. The legendary cinematographer spent thousands of hours breathing through a scuba tank and watching the lifestyle of the Micropterus clan. As he wrote in his book Bass Forever, "Six days before the full moon of the spawning season, the females congregate around rubbing logs, bumping and scraping against them, perhaps in an attempt to loosen their eggs before laying."

This activity will last for about three days, according to Lau. "This is one of the very best times of the entire year to catch a truly big bass," he wrote. "If you can locate a rubbing log at this critical time, it's a good bet that several big females will be nearby. A good rubbing log can be almost any size, but it needs to have sufficient diameter and strength that it won't flex or 'give' much when a big female rubs against it. In areas with no logs, I've seen bass use rocks for the same purpose."

The lesson to be learned when fishing for March bass is this: Establish a game plan, based on the physiology of the bass in your area. Map out the most logical places for fish to congregate and then approach them with the right gear to maximize your chances of catching a March monster.

Reprinted with permission. This article first appeared in the March 16, 2022 issue of  Game & Fish South magazine.

More Than 4,000 Years Old and Still Going Strong

"Fishing with a cane pole can be a lot of fun. You haven't had a thrill until you catch a two-pound bass on one. That's a fight any fisherman would enjoy." That's how one fisherman I read about earlier today described his recollection of those early days.

Also came across a fella who remembered his brothers and him going cane-pole fishing with their dad when the boys were just kids. 

"Sometimes on a Sunday afternoon," he recalled, "we'd get in the Rambler (Remember those old Nash Ramblers? I do, even though there was only one in my hometown back in the day.) and ride out to a pond or creek somewhere. All we had were bamboo poles and green cotton line, with a red-and-white painted bobber. That's how Dad did it. He wanted no part of any reels or fancy equipment. He'd just bait up with a worm or a minnow, sit down on the ground, watch the cork, and maybe haul in a fat bluegill...sometimes a catfish or a bass.

"And I can remember being too young to fish but excited just to be there," noted the fella. "Even today, I think about those days when I would see the bobber at the edge of a patch of reeds, bouncing once, twice and then going out of sight, each time knowing...or hoping, at least...that a big one was on the other end.

"Fifty-some years later, my dad and brothers were all gone, but I still was getting on the water, throwing every kind of lure and bait with spinning and casting rods, and buying more gear than I could use. I also remember the exact day when all of that changed.

"It was summer, and my buddy, Harlin, and I just had put a little john boat in at the Sycamore Creek ramp in Cheatham County, and it took me two trips to get all of my stuff out of the truck. I got into the boat with three rods, two tackleboxes, an ice cooler, and a sweat towel. As I sat down, I realized I didn't have enough room to move my feet. I couldn't help wondering why I hauled all this stuff around when most of it never came out my box. 'Why spend so much time fiddling with equipment?' I asked myself. At that point, I became enlightened and resolved to change.

"From that day forward, I have discovered the perfect tacklebox. Someone who doesn't fish would think of it as just a Band-Aid can, but no, it's so much more, and it's all you really need. The basic setup includes a few hooks and split-shot sinkers in little plastic envelopes, and one or two each of the two essential creek-fishing lures: a No. 5 original floating Rapala and a 1/16-ounce brown Rooster Tail spinner. There's also some room left over for a few soft baits and a jig head or two if you feel like it that day. With the box in your shirt pocket and a light spinning rod laid alongside one gunwale, you're ready to push off in your canoe for a day of fishing adventure." (Reminds me of ol' Woo Daves when he used to give seminars at the annual Richmond bass show. He always had a pocket full of rubber worms and told everyone that's how he routinely carried them.)

Finally, there's this account from a guy who started fishing tournaments back in the 1960s, when the rules were few, and the competition was fierce.

"We used 14-to-16-foot boats, with a 40-hp limit and a 17-pound-thrust trolling motor," he said. "A depthfinder was a tree limb pushed to the bottom. Most guys had a few favorite lures and used them everywhere."

He went on to describe a tourney he fished at Lake Wappapello, a very shallow lake in Missouri with lots of trees and laydowns. It was a draw tourney, where the backseater was an amateur. The boater described the day like this:

"My draw showed up wearing bib overalls, a farmer's hat, work boots, and worst of all, a 12-foot cane pole," he explained. "He had all his tackle in a small sandwich bag. I never said a word...lots of folks in the area were poor then.

"Once the gun went off, away we went. The fish this day were living near the shore, behind the trees and laydowns. I was concentrating on trying to get my lure behind the laydowns, which was anything but easy to do. I had to throw my lure up in the air, as though I was punching grass, and try to feather it on the way down...not exactly easy with the gear I had back then.

"I was so busy with what I was doing I hadn't had time to pay any attention to what the farmer on my backseat was doing...until I heard a big splash and looked back just in time to see him with a 5-pound bass. It was then I said to myself, 'You'd better watch what this ol' boy is doing.'

"I immediately noticed he was using a topwater bait. He would drop it over the laydown with that long cane pole and then swish the lure around. When a bass hit, he would jerk it out of the water, back over the laydown, and there would be a big splash as it hit the water.

"Over the course of that one-day tourney, the farmer probably culled 40 bass. Meanwhile, I only caught two keepers. When someone lays a whipping of 50 to 2 on you, the feeling you get is that of being a beaten dog. I didn't even want to go to the weigh-in because of the embarrassment.

"I asked the guy what it was that he was doing, and he explained that it was called 'doodle-socking.' Not long after that, it was outlawed from tournaments." (My research indicates that "doodle-socking" indeed was banned at some point in the past from bigtime bass tournaments. So it shares the same fate as Alabama rigs.)

For all the history buffs out there, the story of cane-pole fishing rods can be traced back more than 4,000 years ago. The first rods were made from six-foot-long bamboo, hazel shoots, or sections of a thin tapered flexible wood, with a horsehair line attached. A simple hook was attached to the end of the line.

Old-Timers Aren't "Dumb"...Our Timing Is Just Off, So Give Us a Break, Huh?

As a kid growing up, I thankfully was taught to always have respect for my elders. Because of that training, I didn't hesitate to do things for seniors, especially my grandparents.

I remember a period of time while still a kid when my one granddad, who lived alone in a very small mobile home, took sick and needed someone to check in on him for several days. And later, after he had to move into a nursing home, I regularly went to visit him.

Then, as my other grandparents aged, my grandma got to the point where she no longer could drive safely. Since I already had a driver's license, I started taking her and my granddad places they wanted to go, as well as helping them with yard work when they needed it.

And, of course, I watched my parents grow into old age and need my help with different things. The hardest day of my life came when my brother and I had to put them in a nursing home in our hometown.

And now, guess what? I'm the old fella on the block, and just like all those kinfolk who came before me experienced, life isn't always a bowl of cherries. Certainly, like everyone else, we have some bad days, but what I'm talking about here is the assorted dumb stuff that just seems to happen more regularly once you reach senior status.

For example, I was reading an account yesterday evening of something that had happened to "a poor old guy, that really just hurt to watch," to borrow the words of an eyewitness. Seems this old guy was launching a vintage boat that the eyewitness estimated to be somewhere between a 1970 and 1975 Ranger bass boat.

He described it as being in "immaculate, mint condition. Obviously, he had babied this thing."

Anyway, he was launching it by himself and had tied the slack end of the launch rope to a tree beside the ramp. He then backed in until the boat had drifted off the trailer, then proceeded "to jump on the gas pretty hard to pull out," as some golden-agers are inclined to do. (My dad always revved the gas pedal right after his car started. Imagine his surprise when he had to start and move my car the morning after my best friend's dad had installed dual straight pipes on my ol' Chevy. I'd swear he reached my bedside in about three leaps.) Unfortunately, though, this poor old guy's slack rope "got wrapped around a bar on the back of the trailer and started doing like a block-and-tackle effect, as he just kept driving toward the parking area.

"That fiberglass hull made the ugliest sound I've ever heard," continued the eyewitness, "as it dragged completely up the ramp, on super rough pea-gravel concrete. I really was wondering if the boat was going to catch all the way up to the trailer, and if so, what would break next...but luckily, the rope finally snapped.

"The poor old guy didn't even know anything had happened until after he parked and started walking back down to the ramp.

"It took eight of us to lift the boat straight up in the air, then set it back down on the trailer. His hull was so heavily damaged, he now was afraid to even put it in the water.

"Watching that happen really sucked!"

In another case, an older fella, who usually fished with a partner, showed up at the ramp one day by himself. According to the eyewitness to this event, the older fella "acted a little confused this day but launched his boat without incident"...and then just proceeded to ease on out in the river and go fishing, without parking his truck. He came back six hours later, and there was his truck, still backed down the ramp just like he had left it. Fortunately, there were two other ramps patrons could use at that launch area.

I can't say I've ever pulled that trick yet. However, there was one occasion when I launched my boat at West Neck, parked my vehicle but forgot to close the rear doors on my van, and left them that way for eight hours...without anyone seemingly to have bothered a single thing.

Finally, there is this account of a fella who admitted to having a heart/neurological problem, which would cause him to pass out fairly frequently. He described a fishing trip with his brother and two cousins, and don't you know, right in the middle of fighting a fish on his fly rod, he passed out and subsequently drifted down the river right past his brother and one of his cousins. (Thank God for lifejackets.) He fortunately ended up about 200 yards downriver in a shallow back eddy. Otherwise, he would have entered some nasty rapids a short distance ahead.

In a separate incident, this same fella was fishing a bass tournament and passed out while drop-shot fishing. It all happened so quietly the boater didn't even realize his partner had fallen out of the boat until the victim came to and started hollering for help.

I thankfully don't have any heart/neurological problems that I'm aware of, but that not-so-distant spell of vertigo, coupled with an earlier episode of transient global amnesia, gave me reason to temporarily pause my solo trips on the water or in traffic. Unless I was riding with someone, I stayed close to home.

So maybe you're in your 50s and watching your own elders reaching their sunset years and thinking to yourself, "Will I end up just like them...with dumb things happening around me...and my just laughing it off when confronted about it?"

I still remember the day my brother and I confronted our dad about handing his driver's license to us. After all, he just recently had taken out a strip of steel girder along the road to the city park...much to the dismay of the local cops. Pop grabbed his wallet and handed over the license, all the while laughing and saying, "Here, take it, but I'll keep driving anyway. Besides, it's just a piece of paper." Fortunately, we got all of his vehicles sold before he could make good on that promise. Of course, my brother and I never could have guessed he would become nearly as big a problem with the city law enforcement after we gave him an electric scooter to ride at the nursing home. He saw fit to start riding it to town, whereupon my calls from the cops started all over again.

While doing my research for this item, I happened across an advertisement for a book written by the award-winning journalist Steven Petrow. Soon after his 50th birthday, he began assembling a list of "things I won't do when I get old"--mostly a catalog of all the things he thought his then 70-something-year-old parents were doing wrong. That list, which included such things as "You won't have to shout at me that I'm deaf," and "I won't blame the family dog for my incontinence," became the basis of this rousing collection of do's and don'ts, wills and won'ts that is equal parts hilarious, honest and practical in his book, Stupid Things I Won't Do When I Get Old.

As Petrow wrote, "The fact is, we don't want to age the way previous generations did. 'Old people' hoard. They bore relatives--and strangers--with tales of their aches and pains. They insist on driving long after they've become a danger to others (and themselves). They eat dinner at 4 p.m. They swear they don't need a cane or walker (and guess what happens next). They never, ever apologize. But there is another way... ."

Petrow's book candidly addresses the fears, frustrations and stereotypes that accompany aging. He offers a blueprint for the new old age, and an understanding that aging and illness are not the same. As he noted, "I mean the list to serve as a pointed reminder--to me--to make different choices when I eventually cross the threshold to 'old.' (How well I remember making that same promise to myself when I was about Petrow's age. Maybe he'll have better luck than me. But if I was him, I wouldn't go making any bets just yet.)

"Getting older is a privilege," he continued. "This essential guide reveals how to do it with grace, wisdom, humor, and hope...and without hoarding."

A Veteran Angler Tells It Like He Sees It

Some might even call him a "philosopher," of sorts. Regardless of what you call Rick Clunn (right), one thing is certain. As one of the sport's oldest competitors, the four-time Bassmaster Classic champion has seen professional bass fishing grow from its free-for-all infancy to a tech-driven 21st Century juggernaut. And his observations from a decade ago on how technology has and could have changed the game are, as some put it, "intriguing."

"GPS is the most powerful, addictive force in professional fishing," said Clunn in an interview at the time. "It's the one thing that has the potential to change everything about the sport."

He noted that the ability to save hundreds of pinpoint locations and even synchronize them with certain trolling motors was "something we never would have dreamed of in the beginning.

"They are, no doubt, a tool that never will go away and that has added a level of precision to the sport unlike anything else," he explained. "The benefits are obvious, but the drawbacks are seductive."

During his interview, the veteran Clunn described a conversation he had had with a young angler, who detailed a bad run on a regional tournament trail. When he asked the young fella what his problem was, the angler said, "My spots didn't hold up. My GPS sort of betrayed me."

In his response, Clunn cautioned the young man not to give up his instincts for the sake of convenience.

"You can have both," he said, "but you have to walk a very fine line."

Clunn further expressed concern that young competitors will become extremely proficient technically but lose the "it factor" of the great anglers of the past and present.

"Instead of learning minute details of things like seasonal patterns, water conditions, weather factors, and ecology," he said, "I fear we will have people who simply get the GPS coordinates, which are so easily obtainable, and run the numbers until they find fish. There is an art to fishing, and there is potential for some of that to be lost by total reliance on GPS."

Clunn, who always has been known to find locations others passed by, could have faced a very different1984 Classic had GPS been at play.

"It certainly is ushering in a whole new era of fishing, for better or for worse," he said.

Sometimes technological advances would have changed the game in a negative way in earlier tournaments. For example, take the 1983 U.S. Open, which Clunn won chiefly by fishing a Rebel Pop-R in a unique, lightning-fast fashion, instead of the slow "chug-chug-sit" cadence with which most anglers are familiar.

Soon after that tournament, the lure was discontinued but then renewed a few years later. According to Clunn, though, something was different about it, due to new manufacturing techniques and design.

"The lure just didn't fish the right way for that fast-paced technique any longer, so I could not have performed the same way in that tournament with the later models," he said.

Clunn went on to note that new manufacturing processes and different components that enable mass production often skimp on details.

"And sometimes, you actually improve overall quality, but with certain very specific techniques, those advances can have a negative impact," he continued.

A more recent innovation that Clunn suggested would have been a game changer at any point in time is shallow-water anchoring systems, such as the Power-Pole and Talon.

"If I would have had my Power-Poles from day one," he said, "I have no doubt that I would have won six or seven more tournaments. The greatest mistake you can make is not repeating the exact cast you just made to catch a fish. First off, bass are often together, so there very well could be another there. With Power-Poles, you can click the button to put them down when you get bit and maintain optimum position."

A similar technology used by most anglers is Google Earth mapping.

"That's definitely a mind-blowing change and one that is a plus," said Clunn. "I mean, anglers still have to study and understand what certain things mean in the environment, so from that perspective, it's a little different from GPS. There is no doubt it would have changed things had it existed in the beginning."

In earlier days, Clunn used to fly over areas before tournaments to look for grass and other key fish habitat.

"Now you can do that simply by getting on a computer," he said. "The only advantage flyovers had was we used to be able to do that right up close to tournament time, and we could get an idea of water levels, clarity, current vegetation growth, etc. Google Earth isn't updated all the time, so it isn't always accurate, but it gives you a mind-blowing look at areas we never dreamed possible back in the early days."

Clunn pointed out that anglers today may have too many choices and too much detail with all these technological advances.

"For example, take the Sabine River system site out of Orange, where the Elite Series tour opened in 2013. You have virtually unlimited fishing areas, with hundreds and hundreds of square miles of potential habitat," explained Clunn. "When you have the ability to microanalyze areas, you can overdo it. The key is taking a balanced approach."

Clunn knows change is inevitable and believes those who embrace it, while remaining highly aware of nature and the fundamentals of fishing, will be the future greats in the sport.

"Technology is great, but in the long run, it cannot replace awareness," he asserted. "If you can feel subtle weather changes, discern particular water changes, or simply feel something is about to happen, that is awareness, and I have said that is more valuable than intelligence. The angler who gets that aspect and is in tune with technology will go far.

"Just because something is new doesn't mean it's better," Clunn continued. "Some innovations are game changers; others are just hype. Technology in and of itself is neutral. In the end, it's the angler who chooses whether to master it or to let it master him."

There's a Saying That Goes Like This...

"The bigger they come, the harder they fall."

In the case of this extreme swimbait, though,

I would suggest the following:

"The bigger they come, the harder they cast."

(As published by Jay Kumar in the latest issue of his BassBlaster)

When It Comes to Fishin' Jerkbaits, This Pro Is Da Man

Was watching some video yesterday of Elite Series pro Chris Zaldain (left), from Ft. Worth, Texas, who has built a reputation in bass-fishing circles by going against the commonly accepted generalities. In this particular video, he was talking about how he fishes a hard jerkbait around shallow grass in competitions because he knows "the bass have seen a lot of spinnerbaits, swim jigs, and topwaters but not many jerkbaits in these same locations."

Zaldain was using a Megabass Vision 110 Max LBO (linear bearing oscillator) in the video I watched. Slightly larger than many models on the market, this jerkbait has a weight-transfer system that not only allows you to make super-long casts, but you also can be very accurate and maneuver it around cover that's up shallow. The only hangup--for me, that is--was the price: currently running $26.99 at most outlets.

While my memory of some things over the last nearly 80 years have faded, one thing that hasn't is my recollection of what I did when the Deps Buzzjet Jr. wakebaits first hit the marketplace. I didn't even blink an eye about dropping $100 for four of those "crown jewels." However, I also didn't waste any time locating a supply of knockoffs, along with the name and address of a reputable custom painter. Subsequently, I made myself a promise that I'd never again spend that kind of money on a fishing lure. As a result, I quickly forgot any idea I might have had of purchasing even one of those Megabass baits.

Besides, I have a decent supply of Rapala Shadow Rap Shad slow-rising jerkbaits  (my go-to choice) that have served me well for several years now, along with a few odds and ends that have proven they can catch fish, too.

Zaldain, on the other hand, throws a suspending jerkbait all year, in all water temps, for all species of bass, because it does the one thing you want a jerkbait to do: mimic a dying baitfish. The original Megabass Vision 110 gets the nod about 80 to 85 percent of the time.

"A lot of times when you look at a dying baitfish in a tank or an aquarium," he explained, "they just sit still in the water column. That's why an original suspending Megabass Ito Vision 110 works so well. It just sits there."

However, that suspending characteristic is largely dependent on one other aspect of your gear: the line. A line that sinks too fast will pull the jerkbait down. A line that floats or sinks too slowly will affect the suspension of the bait, as well. Zaldain has tinkered with several brands, types of line, and pound tests over the years and found one line that does the job perfectly, as far as he's concerned.

"The best line size to get an original 110 jerkbait to suspend freely is 12-pound test Seaguar InvizX...not 15, not 10, but 12-pound," he said. "Right out of the package, the 110 will suspend great throughout all the temperatures with that 12-pound Seaguar."

Although he will throw a jerkbait year-round, Zaldain says that the pre-spawn and post-spawn windows are when it really shines. But what about that other 15 to 20 percent of the time when he isn't throwing a suspending jerkbait? The answer is a floating jerkbait, specifically a Vision 110 Magnum. He does a couple of modifications to this bait to get it to float even faster when he wants it to do so.

For openers, he goes with a lighter wire hook, which naturally takes a little weight off the bait. But when he really wants the bait to pop back up between jerks, he'll go with a large diameter monofilament line.

"I like to go with the big, heavy, nasty 20-pound monofilament that floats like crazy...same rod and same reel, though," he said.

Zaldain primarily uses this technique when fishing around isolated hard cover, like docks, rocks and wood, as well as around dense cover, like flats with vegetation.

"I strictly do that in four feet or less," he explained. "I use that floating characteristic of the monofilament as a measure of control. I go ahead and jerk the jerkbait into that piece of cover and then let the bait float over it.

"Say it's a laydown log," he continued. "I'll jerk, jerk, jerk into it, but just before it hits the log and snags, I'll let the bait float over like you would a balsa crankbait or a squarebill and continue to jerk it around. That heavy mono helps me manipulate the cast and maneuver around cover, whereas a suspending jerkbait doesn't do that. If you jerk a suspending jerkbait into a rock pile, it's just going to sit there."

Zaldain mainly wants his jerkbait to float when fishing around the spawn and post-spawn, and then also in the fall, when the shad push to the backs of creeks.

"If I cast over a shallow flat with grass," he said, "I'll use that floating characteristic to work the bait up high and tight to the surface, and then when I see the bait get to a hole in the vegetation, I'll give it a couple of violent strikes down into the hole, knowing that it will pop right back up out of that depression in the grass."

When this Texas pro wants his jerkbait to get deeper, he simply switches to a Vision 110+1 or a Vision 110+2, which means plus one or plus two meters, so roughly three or six feet.

The one jerkbait you'll never find Zaldain throwing, however, is a sinking model. For him, a spybait replaces a sinking jerkbait.

As he explained, "You can count it down, and there's more control with a spybait."

Also noteworthy in this discussion is the fact that Zaldain has noticed a trend develop in his color choices when he wants his jerkbait to float versus suspend. With the suspending bait, he'll go with a more natural, translucent color, like Pro Blue or Tennessee Shad. When he wants his jerkbait to float, it's a different story.

"I like foil finishes, something really flashy," said Zaldain. "Ozark Shad is my favorite, which is just black back with chrome sides...or gold...just anything flashy. And that's because anytime I'm fishing shallow like that, I'm typically fishing in more stained water. Every time I jerk the bait, I want it to be sending a big, giant ray of light through the water column."

For all his jerkbaits, Zaldain goes with the same rod and reel combo. The rod is a 6-foot 11-inch Megabass Destroyer 110 Special. An obvious choice, it literally was made for the 110 jerkbait, but his reel selection is a little unique.

"I like a reel that I can palm for fishing jerkbaits," he explained. "So I like for it to have a full side to it. I use an older Shimano Core in 6.3:1 gear ratio. It has kind of a higher profile. It just has a nice grip to it, which helps with fatigue," he concluded.