Bass on a Shoestring Budget

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Good luck with that shoestring thing."

When on the Water, I Gotta Stay Warm

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

For Week Ending Sunday, April 11, 2021

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

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

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

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

Not Catching As Many Bass These Days?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Wanna Know What Angry Fishermen Do?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Some Days It Just Doesn't Pay to Get Out of Bed"

That was the sentiment of a bass angler who definitely had every reason to feel that way. His day, in a nutshell, went like this.

Having backed his Suburban up to the boat trailer, he immediately had problems getting the receiver on the trailer to drop onto the ball. Nothing he tried would work.

"I tried raising and lowering it, shaking it, jerking it, banging it with a hammer, and everything else I could think of, but it would not latch down," he explained. "Finally, in desperation, I sprayed everything with WD-40, then again lowered the receiver onto the ball, and it latched with ease...go figure."

Soon, the angler was on the road to the lake, located about 30 miles away. The moment he got there, though, it started raining heavily.

"I sat there for about 30 minutes, but the rain didn't let up," he said. "So, I called my daughter and asked her to have a look at the National Weather Service radar. She told me there was a large cell in the vicinity, and that it probably would be at least a couple of hours before it passed. Thoroughly disgusted, I drove back home...into bright sunshine."

The angler then checked the radar for himself and discovered that the cell his daughter was referring to was nowhere near the lake. The only thing showing over the lake was a couple of popcorn showers that quickly had fallen apart after he left.

"Needless to say," grumbled the angler, "I was somewhat perturbed to learn that my daughter was geographically-challenged."

And with that, he got back in his vehicle and once again drove to the lake, where, this time, he was graced with a partly cloudy sky.

"I was boating alone," he said, "so I kicked off my new sneakers, put on my flip-flops, then opened the cargo doors on my Suburban, and backed the boat down the ramp. Upon getting out of the truck to free the boat of the trailer, I unknowingly kicked one of my sneakers into the water. Luckily, it landed right-side up.

"I waded around to the back of the truck and checked the cargo area, only to find that I had neglected to put my tackle box in the boat. In taking care of this, I soon would learn that I had created another problem for myself. I accidentally had hit the door-lock button on the rear post of the cargo area while closing the doors."

After a 15-second delay, all the door locks clunked down, but he never heard them. Here he was, with a locked truck, keys in the ignition, and the vehicle sitting in water up to the running boards on a busy boat ramp...oh, and with a new sneaker slowly floating away in the distance.

"First things first," noted the angler. "I fired up the boat, chased down the sneaker, and then tied the boat to the dock. I waded back to the truck and found there was no way I could get into it without breaking out a window. I found a boulder about the size of my head and decided to break in through the window on the right-side rear-seat door. That glass, however, must have been bulletproof.

"I ended up throwing that boulder at the glass, and all it did was just bounce off, without even causing a scratch. After eight or nine attempts, I gave up and decided to try the front-seat passenger side. This time, the boulder went through that glass like a knife going through butter. Glass went everywhere, as if I had thrown a hand grenade into the truck."

Besides throwing a lot of glass into the driver's seat and causing a lot of damage to the leather, the boulder hit the console and knocked the lid off its hinges. Twenty minutes and several lacerations later, he had removed the boulder and enough glass from the driver's seat to allow him to get in and drive the truck out of the water...a big relief.

"I then reminded myself that despite the fact it now was 3 p.m., my intent since 6 a.m. of catching a few bass had yet to be fulfilled," said the angler. "So I hopped in the boat and went tooling across the water. I was so angry with myself that all I wanted to do was haul azz across the water. I did this for about an hour and then cooled off enough to try fishing. I found a point and half-heartedly fished it for about 20 minutes, all the while thinking about all that glass and blood in my truck. Needless to say, I gave up and headed back to the landing."

As it turned out, a park ranger had noticed the shattered window during the angler's absence and left him a note, saying that he had notified the police of a break-in. Fortunately, the ranger also had left his phone number, so the angler was able to call and cancel the Red Alert.

And then comes the kicker to this story: A game warden drove up while the angler was tying down his rig and getting it ready for the road. "Have any luck today?" he had the audacity to ask.

"What I said to that poor guy is not fit to print," the angler allowed. "Let's just say I was VERY vocal about the luck I had had. At least he never asked to see my fishing license."

For Week Ending Sunday, April 4, 2021

 

Monday, March 29 (from Ron)...Fished upper West Neck, and the bite was near non-existent. Tried a variety of lures but the only productive lure was a micro spinnerbait. Again, there was nothing caught on plastics. Did avoid the skunk with two small fish.

Wednesday, March 31 (from Ron)...Before the rain arrived, I fished Pocaty for a bit. Caught one white perch and one bucket of trash...and yes, he meant just what he said...one bucket of trash. It's all part of the Tidewater Kayak Anglers Annual Trash Tournament, an event run like a fishing tournament, but instead of submitting photos of fish, a participant submits photos of his/her catch of trash. The more trash photos you submit, the greater your chances of winning the grand prize, as well as other great prizes. This event began at 8 a.m. Feb. 1, 2021, and runs 'til 12 noon Sept. 25, 2021. The Tidewater Kayak Anglers Association is a non-profit organization dedicated to the safety of kayakers and the conservation of Virginia's natural resources.

Thursday, April 1 (from Ron)...I will be fishing saltwater for the next two weeks in pursuit of speckled trout. Got about a dozen today, running between 15 and 22 inches. It was kinda choppy and windy, but the weather should improve.

Friday, April 2 (from Ron)...Fished for some trash and speckled trout. Did well on both fronts. Caught about six 5-gallon bucketsful of trash and a nice 23- and 23.5-inch speckled trout, as well as a few shorter ones. The wind and cold were dreadful, though.

Sunday, April 4 (from Ron)...Happy Easter. Fished the incoming tide this afternoon and caught six speckled trout to 22.5 inches. Also landed five 5-gallon buckets of trash.

62-Degree Water Greets Anglers for 2nd Tourney of 2021

I know what some of you...like me...probably are thinking, "Wow! That's topwater conditions." As it turned out, though, not everyone found any such action. My partner nor I certainly never had any...and that was after throwing an arsenal of several different kinds of topwater baits.

Most of the 15 anglers in nine boats today, however, did find fish. Our totals at day's end were 37 bass brought to the scales for a combined total weight of 80.74 lbs. Those numbers translate into an average weight per fish of 2.18 lbs. and an average weight per boat with fish to weigh in of 10.09 lbs.

Here is the rundown of those anglers who finished in the money:

1st Place, the team of (from left) Gabe Himmelwright and Fred Crawford, five-fish limit, 17.82 lbs. total weight, 5.14-lb. big fish, which earned them the day's Lunker Prize, as well.

2nd Place, the team of (from left) Rob Peppers and Don Carter, five-fish limit, 11.93 lbs. total weight, 3.81-lb. big fish.

3rd Place, Wayne Hayes, three fish, 11.75 lbs. total weight, 4.87-lb. big fish.
















Here is the lineup for the rest of the field:

     * The team of Dave Anderson and Ken Testorff, five-fish limit, 9.81 lbs. total weight, 4.15-lb. big fish.
     * The team of Chris Fretard and Mike Miller, five-fish limit, 8.37 lbs. total weight, no big fish.
     * The team of Steve Bailey and Dennis Dean, five-fish limit, 8.36 lbs. total weight, 2.82-lb. big fish.
     * The husband-wife team of Andy and Diana Morath, four fish, 6.82 lbs. total weight, 2.65-lb. big fish.
     * Mark Ingram, five-fish limit, 5.88 lbs. total weight, no big fish.
     * Jim Calhoun did not weigh any fish.

Congratulations to all of the winners, and thanks to those who assisted the tournament director, Wayne Hayes, in taking care of all the details. For planning purposes, our next scheduled tournament is Sunday, April 11th. As usual, we will fish from safe light (probably about 6:30 a.m.), with weigh-in at 2:30 p.m.

One Last Cast

One of the most telling signs of the time of year we're moving into now was the number of ol' turtles that were sunning themselves on logs nearly everywhere you looked today.

I don't remember another time when I saw as many as were out today. As usual, the vast majority were lined up by order of size, with the biggest at the front.

As I once commented to Dave, turtles are definitely one species that knows their pecking order. However, we did see one giant among today's throng. He was a real bruiser...and he had a log entirely to himself.

Apart from observing this yearly phenomenon, this was a day...for Dave and me, at least...which best could be summed up as "pot luck." Upon landing our fifth keeper of the day, Dave took note of the fact that each fish in the livewell had been caught on a different lure than any of the others. Eventually, though, Dave found one lure that put about three fish in the boat.

And we weren't the only anglers who had this experience. I was talking to some others today, following the presentation of money envelopes, who echoed the same thing. If any pattern truly existed today, we never were able to diagnose it.

All in all, it was a pretty decent day. The temperature wasn't too bad until the clouds, which built throughout the day, finally obscured the warm sun. At that point, it felt as though there was something like a 10- or 15-degree temperature drop in a matter of only a few minutes. And by the time I got home, grabbed a shower, and was able to sit down for dinner, I was listening to raindrops hitting the skylight in our kitchen.

One final note, and then I'll shut up and give everyone's eyes a rest. Remember I noted back in the beginning that Dave nor I...and other anglers, too...were able to generate a topwater bite today? I should point out, that this afternoon, we happened across a fellow in a johnboat who rather gleefully reported that, while he was fishing the mouth of West Neck this morning, he had landed a dandy 5-10 bass on a buzzbait. The one seeming constant reality of bass fishing is that someone somewhere is always putting 'em in the boat on a bait that you can't even buy a strike with. I say that because Dave fished a buzzbait this morning without so much as a second look from a fish. Oh well...

For Week Ending Sunday, March 28, 2021

Thursday, March 25 (from Ron)...After far too long, finally got out and caught a few. The jerkbaits were only attracting white perch...caught about a half dozen. Switched to SwimSenko and landed one 2-2 bass. Weather sure was nice, and it felt good to get back out. Water is still a murky mess from the serious fluctuations in the water level but hopefully will settle down before the weekend.

Saturday, March 27 (from Ron)...Fished Blackwater this morning. Launched at 0830 and threw SwimSenko, as well as Zoom Flukes (base of cypress and shoreline)  for two hours without a sniff. Tied on a micro spinnerbait (white), and that seemed to be the ticket.  A 2-2, 2-10 and a 4-13 made my day! Stopped at Pocaty River launch on Blackwater Road and picked up six 5-gallon buckets full of trash. Could have picked up at least five more but didn't have enough trash bags.

Spinnerbaits Ready for the Scrap Heap of Time? Never!

As some people age, they often tend to become resistant to change. Just don't include Kevin Van Dam in that assessment, though--at least, not yet.

For example, you probably remember that, prior to the start of the 2018 Bassmaster Elite season, KVD opted for a Minn Kota trolling motor, vice MotorGuide. And as I learned during some Internet research yesterday, it also appears he shelved his affinity for spinnerbaits...even earlier than that.

Throughout most of the 1990s, KVD always "was flinging blades and whipping ass," as veteran outdoor writer Pete Robbins put it. "But since taking the 2011 Bassmaster Classic with a one-two punch of a spinnerbait and a crankbait," continued Robbins, "he's won five B.A.S.S. events, and a spinnerbait played a major role in exactly none of them. The world's greatest power fisherman has won more times with a dropshot in the last five years... ."

So, what does that mean? Is the spinnerbait likely to disappear from store shelves? Hardly. At worst, it's just another contender for space on those shelves with the likes of square-billed crankbaits, swim jigs, vibrating jigs, and swimbaits...all of which weren't as much in play when KVD first arrived on the scene.

As Brandon Palaniuk, the 2017 Bassmaster Angler of the Year, explained, "The fishing world has constant innovation, and people always are trying to get a leg up. There are so many more techniques available now, and when you look at something like a bladed jig or a swim jig, they're just easier to understand than a spinnerbait. You don't have to be in tune with all the different spinnerbait styles for specific situations and conditions.

"Therein lies the rub," said Robbins. "A spinnerbait's situational specificity is what makes it tougher to pick up and throw, but it's also what makes it so deadly when conditions are ripe."

"You shouldn't forget it because it's so versatile," added Palaniuk. "I love it in the spring when the water is cold and muddy because I can get a whole lot more vibration fishing it slowly through the water column than I can with any other bait. And I love it later, during the shad spawn, because the multiple blades imitate multiple shad. There are so many things you can do with a spinnerbait--you can slow roll it, bump stumps, fish it around grass."

"The only limitation on spinnerbait use is your imagination," noted Robbins. "There may be no more versatile category of lures. Perhaps most importantly, to the extent that spinnerbaits have lost some street cred, that's all the more reason to start slinging them again."

"In the last seven to 10 years, spinnerbaits probably haven't been as popular," Palaniuk concluded. "The age of most bass people catch is younger than that, which means there are whole generations of bass that never have seen one."

Tournament wins may move products, but big bites will elevate your heart rate.