Do You Feel Like Your Fishing Is Jinxed?

We've probably all felt that way one time or another. And as I learned from a Bassmaster article by award-winning writer and photographer Mark Hicks (left), he, too, knows that feeling all too well.

Seems that he entered a Bassmaster James River Northern Open in 2015, hoping for redemption from three previous abysmal showings in opens on the James. Even his practice days for those events had been woeful.

Said Hicks, "I arrived at Chickahominy Riverfront Park the week before the 2015 tournament and set up a tent camp. I needed extra time to get in tune with my boat, tackle and, especially, my casting. Life's curveballs had allowed me to fish only three mornings in 2015 prior to leaving Ohio for the James River."

He invested most of his practice time fishing wood cover in the Chickahominy River and caught bass with more regularity than in past trips to the James. He also caught a number of bass over 3 pounds.

"Several heavyweights also engulfed my Scum Frog while fishing the Chick's lush pads fields," he said. "I didn't set the hook, but some of those bass would run several feet before jumping and spitting out the bait. One of those maulers looked to be a 6-pounder.

"My plan for the first day of the tournament was to fish the pads for the initial two or three hours, while the tide was high. I was hoping to stuff one or two good bass in the livewell and then go to wood cover and fill out my limit as the tide dropped.

"My partner was Donnie Bell, a local angler who knows the James River well," continued Hicks. "He had practiced with Elite Series standout Jacob Powroznik, a Virginian who always is a threat to win on the James. Bell bewildered me when he said that he and Powroznik had gotten 30 to 50 bites on each of the three official practice days. For me, 10 bites in one day on the James is cause for a champagne celebration."

When the tournament director called their boat number, Hicks and Bell got in line and went through the boat check, then idled away from the dock, put the hammer down, and flew around the first bend as fast as his 1999 Mercury 150 XR6 could push his old bass boat. Then, the motor shut down. The "James River Jinx" had struck again.

"I restarted the engine and jumped the boat back on plane," said Hicks, "but it immediately shut down again. After a few more attempts, I checked the squeeze ball. It was sucked flat. Fuel was not flowing through to the engine. I had replaced the fuel lines and the squeeze ball with new ones the year before. I also had rebuilt the fuel pump and added a fuel-water separator to eliminate the very type of problem I was experiencing."

In near panic, Hicks cut the fuel line, bypassed the fuel-water separator and connected the line directly to the gas tank. That didn't fix the problem, though. By easing back on the throttle, the boat would push them along at about 30 mph without shutting down, and that's what Hicks did until they were about halfway to the Chick. The squeeze ball then suddenly opened, and they were able to run at full speed.

By the time they reached the Chick, they had lost an hour of the crucial early-morning/high-tide bite. Hicks only got three blowups from bass that never engulfed his frog. Meanwhile, Bell caught two keepers, casting other baits to the edge of the pads.

It now was time to fish wood cover, so they headed toward one of the three creeks on the Chick that were on Hicks' hit list. Then, the engine bogged badly. The squeeze ball had sucked flat again.

The duo stopped at a marina and spent the next 90 minutes or so working on the boat. They checked the fuel pickup in the gas tank. It was clear. Hicks also bought another squeeze ball and swapped it with the one on the boat, and the motor ran perfectly the rest of the day...problem solved, or so they thought. The question now was: "Do we go to my fish in the Chick or Bell's fish that were on the way back?"

Hicks knew it would be a challenge to catch five bass from his backwater spots, with the limited time left, and Bell's comment of "30 to 50 bites a day" still was ringing in his ears. He decided the better chance of filling a limit was with Bell's fish. "Perhaps I might also learn something new about fishing the James," he thought.

Hicks and Bell flew out of the Chick and wound up in a very narrow and very shallow creek that was at the tail end of a slow, outgoing tide. Bell was casting a wacky-rigged worm, with no weight, on the edge of a submerged grass line along the bank. He soon caught three bass, only one of which passed muster.

Meanwhile, Hicks was fishing a Texas-rigged Strike King KVD finesse worm, with a 1/16th-ounce sinker. He couldn't get a sniff.

"Your bait has to float with the current to make these fish bite," said Bell, so Hicks dropped to a 1/32nd-ounce sinker, and that made the difference. With time running out, Bell caught two more small keepers, and Hicks boated two bass that made it to the livewell, one of which weighed 3 pounds. Bell's three-bass co-angler limit weighed about 5 pounds and kept him within range of cashing a check, but Hicks had only 4 pounds, which quashed any chance of a strong finish.

Hicks second-day partner was Michael Barton, a young angler from New York who had caught only one bass the first day. The two of them were literally and figuratively in the same boat...needing a big catch.

After passing through boat inspection, Hicks jumped the boat on plane and sped around the first bend, only to have the motor shut down yet again. The James River Jinx had morphed into a curse. It was the same problem as the day before.

Hicks idled back to the ramp and consulted with the Mercury support technician, who told him the steps he had taken to run down the problem were right. The technician, however, suspected that the pickup tube in the gas tank was the real issue.

Said Hicks, "I cut off the bottom of the pickup tube, strapped a tungsten sinker to it, and stuck it back in the gas tank. With the first hour of our fishing day lost, I put the boat on plane for the second time. At the same time, I caught a glimpse of my partner crossing himself. I knew exactly how he felt.

"We rounded the first bend, then the outboard balked again. There would be no run to the Chick. We instead limped to the Appomattox River and spent the day fishing anything between the two outer bridges that looked capable of holding a bass. I caught three small keepers, and Barton lost a huge bass right at the end of the day.

"The engine ran even worse on the way back. I barely could keep it on plane and ended up 4 minutes late. The 4-pound penalty I incurred surpassed the 3-15 that my three paltry bass weighed.

"When I returned home," Hicks continued, "I took my boat to Schwarzel Marine in Hockingsport, Ohio. It didn't take their two mechanics long to determine that the problem indeed was the pickup tube in the gas tank. It was sucking air between the aluminum fitting in the top of the gas tank and the plastic tube that extends into the tank from the fitting. Ethanol had eaten away the adhesive."

John Schwarzel, one of the mechanics, made a custom pickup tube from a copper line soldered to a brass fitting. It solved the problem for good...air never again will get into the line.

As I was reading this account, couldn't help wondering if maybe there was a banana hidden somewhere on Hicks' boat. That may just be an old superstition, but a lot of captains won't allow them on their ships to this day.

And speaking of superstitions, while Sailors believed that women onboard would anger the sea,  causing rough and stormy conditions, they also believed a naked woman or one exposing a bare chest would bring good luck. Perhaps that explains why, back in the day, I used to find a few "big boys" sailing along the North Landing with a woman or two standing tall out on deck, exposing their bare chests to all who happened to be passing by. Don't find any of that "eyeball liberty" these days, though.

I Very Well May Be the Biggest Sucker in the World...

But now that I've learned my lesson, I'm going to share it with everyone who reads this blog. If I only deter one other individual from making the same mistake, it will have been well worth my time to so inform you.

Let me clarify right here at the front end, though: This item has nothing to do with fishing. Instead, it involves what, based on my experience, I can only describe as an unscrupulous business. I'm talking about the Dental Studio of Hampton Roads, located in Suite 111, 3809 Princess Anne Rd., Virginia Beach.

My spiraling problem started about six months ago, when I had a tooth filling that needed to be replaced.

After many six-month routine cleaning visits, in which I went in, had the cleaning, and then was escorted out of the office (per their extended pandemic measures), without once being required to stop and make a payment for services rendered, the procedure suddenly changed the day I had the filling replaced. Let me explain here that I had been thinking all along that my dental insurance must have been covering the whole bill for all my cleanings.

Little did I know the surprise that awaited me that day I went in for the filling. When the dentist was through with me, he escorted me...not out the front door...but directly to the counter with the folks who take care of all the administration duties. There, I learned they wanted payment of my share of the bill for the filling, as well as for the many previous cleaning visits. To that point in time, no one in the business even had explained that a bill had been accruing, nor had I received any billings from them or the insurance company to date.

Now fast forward to two days ago, when I paid my first visit to a new dental office...when I was in for yet another rude awakening. Following their X-rays of every area in my mouth, I was greeted by a dose of reality I'm still trying to wrap my head around. Without mixing words here, let's just say that the staff at the old dental office had misled me much farther than I ever would have suspected, given their repeated comments after all those routine cleanings to the effect, "Well, you're good to go for another six months."

Turns out that I really haven't been "good to go" for a long time now...and more to the point, there's no way I can really get back to a "good" point. The truth of the matter is that the old dental-office staff has allowed so much decay to occur in my mouth that I'm now even losing bone mass in my jaw.

So, where do I go from here? That's a question I don't have full answers for at the moment. The folks at my new dental office have offered their recommendations, but I have to decide which ones I can handle financially. As I've already explained to them, I refuse to make a bill for a lot of dental care at this point in my life. I will not leave a dental bill behind for my wife to pay.

In the final analysis, suffice it to say I'm not a happy camper. If I had the monetary where-with-all, I likely would hire a lawyer and sue that old dental office. But since that's out of the picture, I'm doing what I consider the next best thing and alert all my blog readers to beware if they utilize the services of the Dental Studio of Hampton Roads. If you happen to be a current customer, you might want to go elsewhere for a second opinion...just in case.

Bass Anglers Catch a Lot of Strange Things Over the Course of Any Given Year...

But a short photo story from the latest issue of Jay Kumar's BassBlaster really takes the cake, as far as I'm concerned. Check out the following photo and see if you agree.

That's right. It's an armadillo, which bass-head Jason G. caught at Truman Lake, MO, on June 8th.

Said Jason, "I'd love to see how many people have ever caught one of these while fishing."

He managed to snare it in the back of a cove on a Spro Rock Crawler in about 5 feet of water.

"I'm still soooooo confused," he added. "Hooked in the mouth, so I think it went after my Rock Crawler. I thought it was the craziest thing ever."

Said Jay, "It's for sure one o' the craziest bassin' things I've ever heard! Thanks for sharing it, man...and it can only mean one thing:

The Heat Is On, But...

That didn't stop 13 anglers in seven boats from showing up at West Neck Marina this morning for another Dewey Mullins Memorial Bass Tournament. The 2 o'clock weigh-in produced a grand total of 33 bass, all of which were released alive, for an accumulative weight of 71.36 pounds and an average weight per fish of 2.16 pounds.

Taking center stage at the weigh-in was the solo angler Mark Ingram (left), who claimed 1st place and the side pot with a five-fish limit weighing 16.80 pounds. His big fish weighed 4.28 pounds.

Coming away with 2nd place was the husband-wife team of Andy and Diana Morath (right), also with a five-fish limit that tipped the scales at 15.68 pounds. They further won the big-fish prize with a bass weighing 5.39 pounds.

Following is the finishing order for the remaining competitors:
     * The team of Dave Dozier and Richard hall had five fish, weighing 9.70 pounds. They didn't have a big fish.
     * The team of Gary Coderre and Dave Anderson had five fish, weighing 9.61 pounds, and a big fish that weighed 3.65 pounds.
     * The team of Rob Peppers and Don Carter had five fish, weighing 8.85 pounds. They didn't have a big fish.
     * The team of Rob Chatham and Greg Jones had four fish, weighing 6.25 pounds. Their big fished weighed 2.07 pounds.
     * The team of Wayne Hayes and Ken Testorff had four fish, weighing 4.28 pounds. They didn't have a big fish.

With today's competition now in the record books, a total of five anglers have satisfied the requirement for having fished five tournaments and are qualified to fish our annual one-day Classic in October. Those anglers include Mark Ingram, Dave Dozier, Gary Coderre, Wayne Hayes, and Ken Testorff.

Congratulations to all of the winners today, and thanks to all those who came out to participate. For planning purposes, our next qualifying tournament is scheduled for Sunday, July 14th. Hope to see you there.

(Click anywhere on this chart for a larger version.)

Look, It's a Deer; No, It's a Bear

That pretty well describes a conversation my Dewey's tournament partner, Wayne, and I had earlier this week. We had paid a visit to the North Landing River to do a little fishing, prior to tomorrow's scheduled competition.

We were making our way toward the back of a creek when Wayne looked in the distance and spotted what he first thought was a deer. A closer look, however, revealed that the would-be deer actually was a black bear.

This sighting put both of us on full alert as we neared the area where the bear had been standing in the water. Can't speak for Wayne, but this wasn't my first "dance" with one of these critters. First saw one several years ago in a different stretch of North Landing, but there was one major difference between the two sightings.

In the earlier incident, the bear was crossing the stream behind me, and I would have no choice but to go back through the same area to reach the main river. Thankfully, that bear simply took one look in my direction and proceeded on his way. He was nowhere to be seen on my breath-holding return trip.

And the one Wayne and I saw earlier this week simply turned and went back in the direction from whence he had come...or that's the way I remember it, at least.

Just goes to show that you never know what you'll find on a fishing trip. I, for one, simply hope I never have an up close and personal encounter with Sasquatch...or anything that looks like him. The same goes for a crocodile or venomous snake.

Which Would You Rather Listen To?

The chirping of a beautiful woman?

or

The chirping of a frog?

Seems that the ol' fella in this cartoon

prefers the latter.

I wonder why...

Passed to me by Wayne, whose wife showed it to him.

Soft Plastics: Both Friend and Foe

We all know that soft-plastic baits catch lots of fish, and because of that soft texture, they readily rip and tear up while anglers fish them. At the end of a long day on the water, it's nothing unusual to have gone through multiple packages of them.

One of the problems associated with these plastic baits is that many anglers at least sometimes and perhaps more times than not toss the remnants overboard. The unfortunate reality of this kind of disposal is that it litters our lakes and rivers, but more importantly, can cause problems for the fish that swim there.

As biologists have well-documented, most of these soft plastics don't break down in the water or the digestive system of popular species, such as largemouth and smallmouth bass, pike, and walleye. Those that the fish don't ultimately scoop up are thus left to sit on the bottom for weeks...or even years. (FYI: One notable exception is the Berkley Gulp soft plastics, which are designed to quickly decompose.)

Once a fish's digestive system gets blocked, a typical response is that you end up with a "skinny" fish. For example, I read about a situation in which a pond owner called a biologist about a 21-inch bass that weighed less than 3 pounds when it should have weighed more than 5 pounds. Meanwhile, the relative weights of all the other bass in that owner's pond were normal. It was agreed that the pond owner would ship the skinny fish to the biologist for autopsy, to find out if there was an obvious problem. If not, it would be forwarded to a pathologist to check for diseases.

The first thing the biologist did was to open the gut cavity with a fillet knife and see what was going on inside the fish. When the stomach rolled out, it was packed tight with four soft-plastic baits (right), in varying degrees of digestion, effectively blocking the digestive system.

It wasn't that this bass couldn't eat. The stomach certainly could handle more volume. But with the digestive system blocked, it couldn't digest and pass any of its natural food. Consequently, the bass had been starving to death.

All of its organs looked pretty good. Its liver was normal color, with a moderately low number of grubs. Its heart was fine. Kidneys were a little distended-looking. Its swim bladder was much larger than normal, taking up considerable room in the gut cavity, but that was probably because the fish was in survival mode and struggling to maintain its equilibrium, plus it had been in an ice chest for 24 hours.

Bottom line: There was only one reason this particular fish was so thin. It had lost almost 50 percent of its body weight because it couldn't digest food.

And there was one other pertinent fact: There wasn't a single hook anywhere inside the fish...just four plastic baits. All those baits had started off as watermelon color but had turned a funky green inside the fish.

We all know its impossible to keep from losing a few soft-plastic baits when we're fishing. Bass notoriously pull a few of them off hooks from time to time. However, we should refrain from arbitrarily throwing them overboard.

Instead, let's all be responsible and take a few minutes to clean up after ourselves. Be good stewards of our water resources.

I also invite you to check out this link to see what Bassmaster had to say on this topic back in 2012: https://www.bassmaster.com/news/dont-discard-soft-plastics-they-can-kill/#:~:text=Bass%20that%20swallow%20soft%20plastic,number%20of%20discarded%20soft%20plastics.

Like Father, Like Son...

After spending the day Friday, June 14, at Busch Gardens with family, it didn't take long for 13-year-old Jackson Waller to talk his dad, Philip, into going to that neighborhood pond where the latter caught a big bass earlier this week (see my blog post for June 12th). Daylight, however, was fading quickly, so the father-son duo just grabbed two rods each, rigged with new Whopper Ploppers that had been a birthday present from Grandfather and Great-Grandfather Jim Bauer.

In any event, it seems that young Jackson was standing basically in the same spot as his dad had earlier when he hooked into a bass weighing an estimated 7 pounds...a new personal best for the boy. He hollered for his dad to come help him lift the fish the 6 feet from the water to the drain pipe, where he was standing.

As a result of the latest catch, Jim Bauer learned why his kin haven't been taking a set of scales with them to their fishing site. Seems that every time they carried scales with them in previous years, they had lousy luck. Given their recent successes, however, the duo are thinking about changing that philosophy.

According to Great Granddad Jim Bauer, 13-year-old Jackson was one happy camper last evening over his new PB. I gotta believe most young fellas his age would be the same way. Oh, incidentally, like his dad, Jackson released his big fish after his dad snapped a quick photo of the boy with his latest catch.

Who Needs...or Wants Livescope or Forward Facing Sonar?

There's nothing like watching your bait and waiting for a bucketmouth to blow up on it...that's the fun of traditional topwater bassin'. As my friend D Mac so aptly put it, "Fishing is a blessing, catching is a bonus." Keep all your idiotic, expensive gadgets...I'll take old school anytime. Just the tug of one little fish excites my soul. And, yes, the old-timer on the front pedestal in this photo, as well as the owner of the opinion expressed here, is yours truly.

Hard To Beat Those Neighborhood Ponds

My friend Jim Bauer sent me this photo of his grandson, Philip, with his estimated 8-pound bass that he caught yesterday morning on his way home from work. He caught it while standing about 6 feet up on a concrete drain pipe, using a 6th Sense wakebait. Philip released the prize after snapping this photo.

Ya Never Know What Kind of Surprise May Linger Yonder in the Livewell

Some folks just prefer a little privacy when the urge strikes,
no matter where they are.

Read here recently about a fella who had taken his young son out for a day of fishin' on his bass boat. As you should expect, the young 'un eventually needed to pee. When he asked Dad what he should do, Dad simply told him to use the one livewell. The young boy did as he was told...that time and thereafter, too, throughout the day.

What Dad didn't realize until they returned home, and he was cleaning out the livewell, is that on one occasion, his son had done more than No. 1. Dad was a might put out but, at the same time, grateful that he hadn't forgotten to empty and clean the livewell before putting his boat away.

That kind of surprise, however, is a mere fraction of what people sometimes find in their boat's livewells. No one probably has a better feel for this topic than a fisheries biologist, and the one involved here has been in the business for more than four decades.

Don Lusk was only 14 years old when he already knew he wanted to make a living messing with fish. That was the same year he saw his first weird thing in the belly of a channel catfish. At the time, he was spending a summer weekend on the Brazos River, between Granbury and Glen Rose, Texas. The river began to rise, and the current soon became pretty swift. Having captured some big yellow grasshoppers in a coffee can by flashlight, he threaded one on a big hook with a heavy weight, pushed the button on his Zebco 33, and lobbed a long cast into the river, which immediately took it downstream and deposited his offering about 2 feet from the bank.

It was getting late, so Lusk did what most 14-year-old boys probably would have done. He laid a concrete block on top of his rod handle and tied the rod to a willow limb and hit the sack.

The next morning, when he went to check his rod, it wasn't under the block anymore. It was in the river. He grabbed the cord, retrieved the soaking-wet rod, and saw the line way out in the middle of the river. His heart pounded as he started reeling. Whatever was way out there on the business end wasn't quite ready to give up. After a few minutes of fighting both the fish and the current, though, he was the proud recipient of a nice-sized catfish, weighing 4 pounds, 10 ounces.

Lusk and his dad hung that catfish on a nail in a tree and cleaned it. At that young age, he already was fascinated with what fish ate, but he was especially surprised to find a pocket gopher in this channel cat's belly.

Lusk also remembers electrofishing a lake in upstate New York with several fisheries students. They were dealing with mostly 12-13-inch-long bass, but one had a pooched-out belly. When Lusk looked down its gullet, he saw two little black feathers, so he gave the belly a squeeze, and a drowned barn swallow popped out.

And way back when, Lusk also went frog gigging around one of his hatchery ponds. He caught two dozen bullfrogs, cleaned them, and planned to eat frog legs that night. Being that biologist-guy, though, he took note of what was in all of their bellies: mostly crawfish and coppernosed bluegill fingerlings. One, however, had a rock-hard lump in its belly, which turned out to be a newly hatched turtle. Still alive, the amphibian quickly flipped over and tried to run away, but he kept it and gave it to his little niece, who named the turtle Jonah.

Another time, while electrofishing a small pond about 50 miles from his home base, Lusk had collected the typical stuff when he came upon a rather plump bass. Opening its mouth, he stuck his thumb inside to take a look and immediately dropped it. The netter on the front of the boat started asking him why he'd done that. Turns out, the bass just had swallowed a 14-inch diamond-back water snake, and its head was sticking out the fish's throat...still alive.

Lusk also has seen 3-inch bass try to swallow a 2-inch bass, and both of them perished. Predator fish will eat pretty much everything, plus lots of stuff you don't even think about. If it moves and fits into its mouth, a largemouth bass will try to eat it.

In addition to seeing remnants of crawfish, he once found a 5-pound bass that had tried to swallow a 12-inch gizzard shad (see photo right).

He's also seen a cottomouth water moccasin coughed up in a livewell (see photo left), courtesy of a 6-pound bass.

Said Lusk, "Just because we work hard to grow a good food chain to support our fish, they'll take the opportunities that avail themselves. If you have an ounce of biologist in you, pay attention to what your fish are eating when you catch one."

You might be surprised at what you find in the bottom of your livewells. Wayne and I certainly were this past Saturday.

9 of 11 Boats Finish With 5-Fish Limits

Today's 17 anglers in 11 boats delivered a combined total of 48 bass to the scales for weigh-in at 2 p.m. Those fish weighed a grand total of 109.85 pounds, which amounted to an average weight of 2.28 pounds per fish.

Leading the list of winners was the team of (from left) Richard Hall and Dave Dozier, whose five fish tipped the scales at 16.63 pounds, earning them the 1st place prize. They also took home the larger of two side pots, as well as the day's big-fish pot for a bass weighing 6.18 pounds.

Walking away with 2nd place prize money was the team of (from left) Allen Napier and Gary Coderre, with a limit weighing 12.97 pounds. They also claimed the smaller of two side pots. Their big fish weighed 4.95 pounds.

Finishing in 3rd place today was Andy Morath (left), who fished solo. His five-fish limit weighed 12.51 pounds. However, he didn't have a big fish.

The rest of the fishermen completed the day's 8-hour event in the following order:
     * Gabe Himmelwright had five fish for a total weight of 11.95 pounds and a big fish that weighed 3.77 pounds.
     * The team of Bobby Moore and J. P. Twohig had five fish for a total weight of 11.57 pounds and a big fish that weighed 5.20 pounds.
     * The team of Ken Matthias and Tommy Dewitt had five fish for a total weight of 11.29 pounds. They didn't have a big fish.
     * The team of Wayne Hayes and Ken Testorff had five fish for a total weight of 11.18 pounds. They didn't have a big fish.
     * Bob Clarkson had five fish for a total weight of 9.17 pounds. He didn't have a big fish.
     * Mark Ingram had five fish for a total weight of 8.90 pounds. His big fish weighed 2.24 pounds.
     * Skip Schaible had three fish for a total weight of 3.68 pounds. He didn't have a big fish.
     * The team of Rob Chatham and Craig Jones didn't weigh any fish.

Congratulations to all of the day's winners, and thanks to everyone who showed up at West Neck Marina in the wee hours this morning to fish. Hope you will plan to join us again for the next Dewey's tournament, which is slated to occur on Sunday, June 23rd. Stay tuned for more details as that date draws nigh.

(Click anywhere on this chart for an enlarged version.)

Confused About What Color of Lure You Should Be Fishing?

Don't feel bad if that's the case. There are plenty more of us in the same boat.

Choosing the correct bait for the conditions we face any given fishing day can make the best among us stand and scratch our heads, to say the least. Thankfully, however, a handful of hues can cover just about every bass-fishing situation, whether it be soft plastics or hard baits.

When it comes to soft-plastic worms, creatures and other baits, one color is a favorite for bass anglers everywhere: green pumpkin. The old joke is "color doesn't matter, as long as it's green pumpkin," and that appears to ring true, no matter where you live. So, if you have only one choice, let's assume you can't go wrong with green pumpkin.

As expressed by bass fisherman and professional outdoor writer Tyler Brinks, "Solid colors are the way to go for dirty-water situations, and black or black and blue  are two proven other colors that always show up well and produce in stained and muddy water. White is another solid choice for soft plastics and jigs when the water if off-colored.

"When fishing clear water, green pumpkin is excellent, and so is any watermelon shade. These natural colors are excellent when the fish can see the bait well, as are translucent colors, such as pinks and purples. Another excellent choice for clear water soft baits is solid black, as it shows up well and looks natural."

If we're talking crankbaits, jerkbaits and topwaters, they, too, come in many different colors, but a handful are best sellers that will work everywhere. The three most significant factors to keep in mind are water color, brightness of the sun, and the forage in the waters you're fishing.

For highly visual baits like topwaters and jerkbaits, Brinks explained that the color selection often comes down to the water clarity and sun conditions.

"Generally, solid colors, like white or bone, are the best choices for the most cloudy days and when the water is slightly dirty," he said, adding that "a solid-colored jerkbait works wonders when fishing in lowlight, cloudy conditions. Solid white is easy for the fish to see when the water is stained. It creates a stark contrast to everything else, making it easy to locate.

"For sunny days, flashy colors work well, because the sunny skies help to reflect the colors and create a little extra flash and shine," noted Brinks. "Metallic colors, like chrome, are good choices for these conditions for both jerkbaits and topwaters.

"When the water is exceptionally clear, translucent patterns are good because they appear natural to wary fish," he continued. "Countless clear and transparent colors are great for clear water and help disguise the bait while attracting fish."

Brinks went on to say "the various styles of crankbaits are proven lures that catch fish on various lake types, and they are available in everything from super-shallow divers to those that reach extreme depths. Keeping it simple with color selection is the best rule of thumb for all crankbaits, and the most significant consideration is water clarity."

Each spring, bass anglers reach for red-colored crankbaits and lipless baits for several reasons, but the biggest is how well they work.

As Brinks explained, "Spring is usually when the rain or melting snow brings an influx of runoff into the lakes and rivers and creates stained water. Red shows up very well in these situations, and bass quickly can locate a bight red bait.

"Another reason that red is so popular and effective is because it imitates a favorite spring meal of bass: crawfish," he continued. "As the water warms each year, crawfish begin to get more active, and bass are keyed on eating crawfish in shallow water, and this is why red baits are so helpful early in the year."

The term "match the hatch" gets thrown around a lot in fishing circles, but it applies to crankbait fishing, where imitating what the fish are eating is a great way to pick the perfect color. According to Brinks, "Red-colored baits are a must for the spring months.

"Like the reds mentioned earlier, it can be helpful to choose a color based on the most common foragte in your waters," he said. "For example, it could be reds or browns for fish feeding on crawfish or whites and silver shades for bass that are more shad-oriented. Also, some incredible patterns perfectly imitate small bluegill or perch.

"Choosing a crankbait color based on what the fish are eating is a simple and effective way to make sure you're using the correct color crankbait. You can go with a simple crankbait color that loosely imitates what they are earing, or choose an ultra-realistic finish like those available from many lure companies."

There are still exceptions to the rule and times when it pays to be unconventional regarding water clarity and sky conditions and how they impact lure-color selection.

"One of these," said Brinks, "is when fishing for smallmouth bass, which often prefer gaudy colors like chartreuse, even in the clearest water you'll ever see. However, their aggressive nature makes them gravitate to bright colors, and they'll hit them with fury.

"Bright colors like chartreuse with a black back or fire tiger are very effective colors for fishing smallmouth, but they also are great options for fishing dirty water for all bass species. Even though they may not look like anything in nature, the fact they can be seen by bass in these situations makes them excellent tools, and they are worth a spot in your tacklebox.

"Picking the right lure color can be confusing," Brinks admitted, "but you can simplify the situation with many different options. Having a small group of the basics and some of your confidence colors will be more than enough to ensure that you have the right tool for the job."

In Pursuit of Fish for the Freezer...

Had an email this morning from my friend DMac, letting me know he had put down his frog rods long enough recently to make a trip to Nags Head. While there, he decided it was time to see if he could find some fish for the freezer. As luck would have it, he didn't have to look any farther than the dock where he was staying.

Jig heads and some old-school Charlie Brewer bass grubs served to satisfy his longing for the speckled trout you see in the accompanying photo. The weather was less than stellar, what with NE winds blowing 15 to 20 for 4 straight days...along with rain, but that didn't deter DMac's pursuit. Good on ya!

What Does It Take To Succeed in Bass Tournaments?

In a word...consistency. That's your response anyway if you happen to be retired pro Hank Parker (right).

"While my tournament record contains some individual wins that I'm proud of," said Parker during an interview, "I'm still content that my greatest accomplishment is revealed in the number of times I finished in the money," which, for anyone who doesn't already know, amounted to a whopping 76 percent of the time. "Put simply, if you're consistent, the wins will come."

Early in his career, Parker recognized that consistency was directly related to his ability to read the water and discern the appropriate patterns successfully. To constantly improve, he dedicated himself to analyzing his past tournaments and applying those "lessons learned" to future events. This led him to an exciting discovery: His best tournaments resulted from becoming "married" to a small area of the lake.

It turned out that running from one end of the lake to the other wasn't nearly as productive as when he married a small area, such as a creek, cove or bay.

"The majority of my wins resulted from getting to my fishing spot, dropping the trolling motor, and then not picking it up again until weigh-in," he said. "Staying in that small area inevitably gave me the most consistency and kept me in the money three out of four times.

"Naturally, what worked for me won't work for every tournament fisherman," Parker continued. As he pointed out, "No two anglers are the same. What's important to stress here is that we each have to find our personal strengths...those unique gifts that will lead us to do our very best. It's essential to discover our personal style, methods and philosophy of fishing and then fine-tune it over time."

According to Parker, a common mistake among tournament anglers is their trying to force fish to do what they want.

"Instead," he noted, "the key is to accurately read the water, then fish your strengths in a way that enables the fish to reveal what they are doing. This places the fisherman in a much better position to be productive. Let me give you an illustration.

"When fishing a lake with clear and muddy water, a clear-water fisherman is better served to run to the lower end of the lake, near the dam, and fish his strengths in clear water. On the other hand, a muddy-water angler might run to the upper end of the lake to find the dirty water that best suits his method, technique and style of fishing.

"That fact seems so simple to me now," Parker continued, "but I assure you it was just one of many lessons I had to learn fishing tournaments...and a few of those lessons came the hard way.

"I remember sitting and talking to Ray Scott after our tournament on the Potomac River had been canceled because of Hurricane Hugo. He had been suggesting that the first angler to win the Grand Slam would become one of the most famous anglers of all time." (FYI: The Grand Slam is an honor presented to the winner of four major events and awards, including the Bassmaster Classic, the qualifying tournament, a Super Tournament, and the Angler of the Year.)

Discovering that no angler ever had won all four, Parker set his sites on this goal. He previously had won three of the four but never a Super Tournament. That year, it was located on Lake Lanier in Georgia. As it turned out, the first three days of the tournament were dominated by Gary Klein.

"By the fourth and final day," said Parker, "I had remained consistent and was coming on strong. I was able to come to the weigh-in that day with a giant stringer of fish...the largest of the tournament. Ray said, 'Hold those fish up. Let everyone see them, and give the audience a chance to take some pictures!' So, I did...for quite some time. Finally, we weighed them."

When Gary Klein came to the scales, it had just started to rain, so Ray said, "Bring those fish on up here, and let's not waste any time. Let's put them on the scales and see what we've got." Gary won that tournament by one ounce.

"I learned a painful lesson that day," admitted Parker: "Never hold your fish up until after you weigh them. I can't prove it, but there is no doubt in my mind that I would have won that tournament had I put those bass directly on the scales and not held them up. That was a painful lesson."

Five years later in the Bassmaster Classic, Parker was able to benefit from that earlier lesson. In a similar scenario, he was in a shootout with Jim Bitter. Again, he came in with the biggest stringer of the tournament on the last day. And at the weigh-in, Ray Scott again said, 'Hold them up.'

"This time, I said, 'No, I won't hold them up. Put them on the scale.'"

Always a showman, Ray insisted, but Parker refused. "No, I won't hold them up," he said. "Place them on the scales, and then I'll hold them up."

Reluctantly, Ray had the bass placed on the scales, and Parker won the Bassmaster Classic by two ounces.

A painful lesson can become a great lesson if you learn from it. When you successfully apply that lesson to future events, it sometimes pays great dividends.

Incidentally, Parker got another chance to take a crack at the Grand Slam the very next year on the St. John's River in Florida. He won that Super Tournament and was blessed to the first to win the Grand Slam.

Now that Parker's son, Ben, is fishing tournaments, the latter often gets cautioned about the dangers of listening to dock talk. Some anglers do that to beginners just to psyche them out.

"Remember," said the elder Parker, "there was a reason old-time farmers used to put blinders on their mules when plowing. Those blinders prevented distractions and kept the mules focused on going straight ahead, rather than wandering all over the field. Likewise, if you're a tournament angler, you must wear earmuffs to prevent dock-talk distractions from influencing how you approach your tournament plan.

"My experience taught me it was better not to care what everyone else was saying or doing," he continued. "I needed to stay faithful to how I'd learned to read the water. Leaning on my strengths, it was my job to discern what the fish were doing on that particular lake. It was up to me, not others, to figure out the correct pattern and then bring those fish to the scales."

Parker continued, "There's an adage that goes, "A smart man makes mistakes and learns from them. But a wise man learns from a smart man's mistakes, to never make them. Whenever you can, be a wise fisherman and learn from other anglers' mistakes--don't go out on the lake and chase everybody else's patterns. To the best of your ability, lean on your own personal experiences and unique strengths to put together your own patterns."

Just How Big Is a 2-Pound Bass?

That's a question bass angler, outdoor writer, and TV co-host Lyle Johnson (right) once asked himself, but he didn't stop there. Instead, he decided to do some research and find an answer.

It's a well-known fact that a lot of fishermen are tight-lipped about the locations where they catch fish and what baits they're catching 'em on, but those same people...by and large...are quite willing to share the numbers they're catching and how big they are. Those conversations usually go something like this: "Man, we caught our limit, and all of them were over 2 pounds--one went over 4," or "We caught so many big fish, we were culling 2-pounders."

In a disappointed tone, you also might hear, "We caught plenty of fish but none over 2 pounds," or "No big fish at all--our largest was a little over 2."

For Johnson, the thought of having a 2-pound bass in the livewell always got his blood pumping. Although catching a 4- or 5-pounder might be a great goal, he considered a 2-pound average weight very respectable. If you could catch five 2-pounders every time you went fishing, he felt you could quit the grind of your day job if you wanted and earn a good living bass fishing.

That notion drove Johnson to research the matter. He checked the recorded weights of tournament anglers, both amateur and professional. The results weren't a big surprise in some ways, but they amazed him in others.

He first found a survey on BassFan that posed this question: "What size of bass do you typically catch when you go fishing?" The categories to choose from were: 1) up to 2 pounds, 2) 2 to 3-plus pounds, 3) 4 to 6-plus pounds, 4) only 7-plus pounders, 5) I only fish for bluegills.

When thinking about his vote, the first one that came to Johnson's mind was 2 to 3-plus pounds, but in all honesty, he knew that's what he "wanted" to catch. The question was: "What size of bass do you typically catch when you go fishing?" He knew he had to go with "up to 2 pounds."

When Johnson got to the results page of the survey, he discovered that 41 percent of the people had voted like him, but 49 percent had said they usually catch 2 to 3-plus pounders. More than 2,500 votes from bass fishermen were cast in that survey.

After some tedious research on BassFan, along with some great help from ESPN Outdoors, Johnson got some results that might get your attention.

The Bassmaster Elite 50s are a good example. This series lasted two years, with four tournaments each year. Five 2-pounders would have netted a first, two 2nds, and then one each of the following: 8th, 13th, 16th, 27th, and 30th...not bad for fishing against the likes of KVD, Mark Davis, and Greg Hackney.

And for the ultimate crown of professional bass fishing...the Bassmaster Classic...you would have beaten the best gathering of pros in 2005 by a whopping 17-01. Your finish in 2004 would have been 13th, then 8th in 2003, 9th in 2002, 4th in 2001, and 1st in 2000. You also would have won in 1983, 1986, 1987, 1988, and you would have scored plenty of Top 10s along the way, too.

"So now, just how big is a 2-pound bass?" as Johnson asked. The answer: Bigger than most of us think.

June 2024 Bass Fishing Forecast

(Click anywhere on this chart for a slightly bigger version.)

Local Duo Takes 3rd Place in CATT Tidewater Divisional Championship Today

That's right...the team of (from left) Wayne Hayes and Andy Morath brought this 20.85-pound bag of largemouths to the scales in today's championship, held out of Pembroke Creek on the Chowan River. They also laid claim to the tournament's lunker pot, with a 7.49-pound hawg. FYI: This photo replaces the one I had to use last night showing their five-fish limit from an earlier CATT qualifier event.

Well Done! Fellas.