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Any good fisherman knows, ‘If it works, use it!’ Pacific Northwest Bass fishermen have learned that many Southern tactics work well on Largemouth and Smallmouth in our lakes and rivers. Like the Texas Rig, the Carolina Rig can certainly be an excellent choice for presenting your soft plastics, under right conditions.

The rig itself is simple enough: Slide a bullet sinker, egg sinker or barrel sinker up onto your main line. Then put on a bead or two and if you want, a brass ‘clacker.’ Then tie on a swivel, a 10 to 24 inch leader and a good ‘weedless’ soft plastic hook. Being a bit of a bumbler and a bit nervous about too much leader dangling around, I usually opt for about a 12 to 14 inch leader, and I think that works well. Choose the most seductive, prey-resembling soft bait you can think of, add a little scent and Presto! You have an excellent fish-getting Carolina Rig! The pictured rig shows a lizard, but a worm, tube, swim-bait or creature bait can be used just as well. Combine the weedless hook and soft plastic as described in last month’s Texas-Rig article.

Another possibility is the ‘pre-tied’ Carolina-Rig {Pictured}. A wire holds the whole compact assembly together, it comes in an assortment of weights, and it’s a fast way to get into action. Just tie your main line to one end and your leader and hook to the other, and you are ready to fish. Whether using the pre-tied or setting up your own rig, remember that one outstanding advantage of the Carolina-Rig is that without weight, your soft-plastic is free to drift, wave, rise, drop and slither seductively. Fish it with this action in mind and it will help with your presentation.

Most people use bullet sinkers for this rig, but other styles work, including tungsten instead of lead. The main thing is to separate the bait from the weight and add some fish-getting noise. I like to sweeten the pot by adding a glass rattle, inserted into the soft-plastic bait. Insert the pointy end of the glass straight into the thickest area of the bait, then run it parallel up inside the bait, backing the blunt end back inside the plastic so the rattle doesn’t cast out or shake out. This is effective on Texas Rig plastics as well. Unless you are among spooky fish in a highly-pressured area, it helps to have that extra little bit of ‘clicking’ sound to bring in curious Bass.

Both the Carolina and the Texas Rig are great for fishing weedless soft-plastics, but the Carolina really shines when fishing in a less snaggy, more open area with sparser weeds and a cleaner bottom. In this situation, your Carolina is actually functioning as a softer version of a ‘searchbait,’ efficiently sectioning off a larger area and calling up Bass that happen to be in the vicinity of each cast. This is classic Carolina territory, and stirring up a commotion over the bottom, rattling, clicking, clacking, then pulling a tasty looking morsel right into the area where the noise is attracting fish…..Get ready to set the hook! Avoid being too twitchy, though. Don’t rear back on the first ‘tick’ or nibble on your line. Let the fish set up a good pull before you stick him. Otherwise, you can easily take the bait out of the strike zone and change the fish’s mind.

While the open-water approach is great, giving the Bass a maximum opportunity to locate, stalk and examine your Carolina offering, there is another tactic that can be deadly as well. It’s the old ‘Bump the Stump’ ploy. Sure, you can do the bump by hustling along with a spinnerbait, crankbait or Texas-Rigged plastic, but the Carolina Rig gives you one more advantage: Lag time.

If you know where there is a likely stump, small rockpile or other underwater structure, the Carolina can be perfect for delivering a ‘thump,’ then allowing a little hesitation before moving the bait itself into the object or into the fish’s view, then showing the Bass an ‘escape’ action that requires a quick commitment. A less active – or larger Bass with more efficient feeding habits! – fish might still be considering what the noise and flash was all about, as your crankbait or spinnerbait is disappearing off into the murk. But that same fish may well decide to take advantage of a strong hint that something good is coming!

Once you have made first contact with the stump, you can also add a series of short, sharp ‘jerks’ to activate the bait and make more noise and commotion before your whole set-up leaves the area. Another tactic is to make that first thump, then delay any action. Pause and allow the bait to just sit for a couple of beats before moving it again. Often the initial movement after resting the bait will trigger the fish to bite.

Unless you have become ‘expert’ at interpreting your electronics (A skill worth working on!), or have one of the newer ‘high-definition’ fish-finders, you can view your display without actually seeing some subtle features that could be important to a Bass. Or you could be on smaller water and fishing from a craft that does not have electronics. Either way, it’s easy to miss a good, fish-holding feature. Here is where the ‘search-bait’ capability of a Carolina-Rig can come into play. Say you’re in a new area or fishing in water of low-visibility. Allow your rig to slide along, telling you when it finds a stump, rotted-off piling, brush-pile, submerged log, limb or partially-buried boulder.

Once you know where these sunken treasures are, use your Carolina to call up some fish. Or say you know you’re on a scattered stump flat, but you’re not entirely clear on specific locations of good stumps. Fish for them with your Carolina-Rig. Use a little patience, feel around, present that bait in those prime spots that you or other fishermen might otherwise have missed, and you might just be glad you included this tactic in your arsenal!

Whether you want to go after Bass exclusively with just soft-plastics, or whether you want to use everything in your tackle box and explore the entire water-column, using options from hyper top-waters to slow mud-dragging jigs…..Don’t neglect the Carolina-Rig. It might must be the one thing that trips Mr. Big’s trigger!

The Carolina-Rig moves the weight along well ahead of the unweighted bait. Under circumstances we have discussed above, this might be the perfect presentation. But what might happen if we drop or drag the weight behind the bait? Ah! We might be talking about the Drop-Shot rig! Let’s consider this technique next time. Until then, keep your dry side up, your wet side down….And make one more cast!

Your fellow Big Bass-hunting maniac,

Bob Larimer

If you’re relatively new to Bass fishing, you have probably heard of or tried fishing with ‘soft plastics.’ What some folks have mistakenly referred to as ‘a rubber worm’ has exploded into an amazing variety of lifelike and/or bizarre-looking soft baits that appeal to fish for various reasons and under various conditions. One thing is common to all soft plastic baits: If you rig them properly, you can penetrate deep into ‘snaggy’ cover and present the bait to fish that would never see other categories of baits because they feature treble hooks or exposed hooks.

From Left to Right among the pictured baits you can see represented snake baits, worms, grubs, Senko-style stick baits, lizards, tubes, ‘creature baits,’ swim baits and crawdad ‘trailers’, all in various sizes. While you are reading this, someone somewhere is maniacally mass-producing or hectically hand-pouring a new variation of a soft plastic bait, experimenting with different colors, textures, sizes, arms, legs, wings, scales, antennae, claws, fins and tails.

Some baits will realistically mimic a specific fish species such as Bluegill, Shad or Rainbow Trout. Some will look like live crawdads, frogs, leeches or worms. Some will look like nothing that flies, crawls, swims or scurries on planet Earth. But all of them will catch fish and if they are Texas-rigged, they will come through brush, branches, limbs, logs, weeds, moss, pads, reeds and other obstacles that would immediately grab and hang up other baits. They will also move in ways that are unlike other baits, and their look and feel can cause Bass to hang on just a little longer than they would when mouthing a hard, unnatural feeling bait. They also lend themselves well to various, lubricating scents which not only attract fish but also aid in sliding over obstacles.

Texas-rigging, therefore, is mighty important if you want to hunt Bass where they are hiding. Consider: If you were one of those guys standing in the boat pictured, would you throw your bait into that mess? Of course you would! That’s where the fish are!

So how do you effectively ‘Texas-rig’ a soft plastic? It’s relatively easy, and once you figure it out and practice a few times on a medium-sized worm, you will have it mastered. Then you can do it with just about any of the baits pictured, and others as well. Imagine the possibilities! It does not have to get complicated either. Sometimes just a grub, Texas-rigged and skittered across the top of a weedy stretch will produce a hump of water followed by a smashing strike from a fish that thought he was safely buried in weeds. Don’t forget your heart medicine!

To rig Texas-style, first choose a good, sharp hook that will be a match for the size of bait you are rigging. The hooks I normally use range from big 6/0 or 5/0 hooks for larger swim baits, down to 1/0 or even smaller, if I am using a tiny version of, say, a plastic lizard.

When them good old boys down in Texas first started this method, all they had were regular, straight-shanked worm hooks, or they could use a jig hook (Intended to have lead molded onto the bend, up near the eye). That straight ‘L’ shaped bend produced a corner, and in that bend they could secure the head of the plastic worm so that it would not slide down the shank during casting, or while bumping and dragging against cover. Then those ingenious Bassers could bury the point of the hook in the plastic, put a bullet sinker out in front – pegged or un-pegged with a toothpick – and suddenly they were fishing ‘weedless’ and ‘snagless.’ Whether the fish thought the bait was a slithering worm or a darting baitfish, they gobbled ‘em!

As folks discovered just how ingenious and effective it was to drag a Texas-rigged worm or lizard up and down over submerged brush and through weeds or branches without hanging up, they ignited a demand for Texas-rig hooks that were easier to use and that produced a rig that kept the bait looking straight and natural. The market responded.

All major hook manufacturers have several different styles of hooks that were designed specifically for Texas-rigging. I am not a big fan of the bent-shank style of hook, though they work well and come in different gaps, gauges, styles and sizes. They require the angler to run the hook point through the top of the head of the bait, then twist the bait around, hang the head on the bend near the eye, straighten the bait out, line up the bait, and push the point of the hook through the center-line of the body of the bait, either coming near the surface, or punching all the way through, then ‘skin-hooking’ the point back down onto the body of the bait. All this must be done in such a way as to prevent the finished bait from ending up looking twisted, bent, off-center or bulging unnaturally. Done improperly, the head of the bait still does not stay up on the bend. They work fine when you set them up correctly.

I’m not all that patient – especially not in the middle of a hot bite! – and I have a tendency to be fumble-fingered, so my favorite hook will have a separate ‘prong’ with barbs, attached to the hook eye. I really like the Mister Twister version of this hook, and it comes in many useful sizes. I also like Owner hooks that have both a prong and a coil spring around the prong, attached to the eye. These are very effective on some of the ‘slimier’ baits that might slip right off of a single prong. I keep a skeptical eye out for any hook that sports a prong that comes down too close to the hook point. I want the Bass to be able to munch on my weedless hook, push the plastic head of the bait down, swinging the prong down toward the hook shank and away from the point, and then get real nice and closely acquainted with the hook point that is now sticking in under his jaw, or up into his nose. If the point of the prong is too close to the point of the hook, that does not leave a lot of gap or stretching room for the plastic to move and expose a good length of hook point. Sounds fussy, but I’ve proven to my own satisfaction that it can make an important difference in hook-up ratios.

What’s the big advantage of the prong-style Texas-rig hook? The nose of your bait is independent of the shank and hook eye. You simply center up and jab the nose of the bait onto the prong, or jab and twist it on, if it has a coil and a prong, line up your bait in the orientation you want (Some baits have an obvious ‘top’ with eyes up and legs down, a flat ‘bottom’ or even a well-designed ‘hook slot’ on the top of the bait so your hook point can lay outside of the bait, while still remaining hidden, unexposed and safe from weeds and snags. One hint: Though some baits are formed with a flat ‘bottom,’ you can sometimes cause your bait to have a great, erratic, random, darting action simply by rigging with the flat side up. Or if the bait has a flat top, reverse that. This can be killer when fish are ignoring ‘normal’ presentations and might be more prone to react to an unexpected movement. Try it!

Common sense works well in choosing the amount of gap on a hook. If I’m using a slim, straight bait like a worm, I’ll usually opt for a narrower gap in the hook. If I’m going with something bulkier, I’ll use a hook with a wide gap. A wide gap is best for most swimbaits, so that you can rig them to track straight without the hook deforming the bait’s shape.

Want to know a secret about Texas-rigging? When you do get bit and set the hook, that hook is in that fish! A jig might ‘flip’ out of the fish’s mouth on a head-shake, a spinnerbait might ‘twist’ out during an acrobatic roll or change of direction, a treble-hook might simply pull away, simply not having enough ‘gap’ to really grip a good amount of the fish’s face. But a Texas-rig worm hook is going in, penetrating deep, capturing a good amount of flesh or jawbone and then holding well, backed up against the barb. Keep that fish from wrapping around an object down deep and no matter what he does, you are most likely going to have him in your hand!

A quick word on weights: I prefer plain old lead bullet sinkers in various sizes. I usually use the lightest weight I can cast well with. If I have a heavier worm, like a 10 inch Power Worm, I might use no weight at all, allowing the worm to ‘settle’ and move freely in the water. This is especially effective if you have a little current. Let the current press your offering right in under a weed mat, brush pile or log. Wham! Or if I know I’ll be contacting brush or branches throughout a retrieve, I might use a small bullet sinker just to help deflect off of cover and make a little fish-attracting commotion. In heavier river current I might upsize the bullet weight, but most often I go lighter if I can.

You can also use tungsten weights. They work well but they are more expensive, though they do create a sharper knocking sound and that may be helpful on a particular day. Ordinarily, I prefer the soft thump or ‘tick’ of a lead weight. For most applications, I stick a toothpick into the point of the sinker and alongside the line, then snap it off cleanly, flush at the front of the sinker and sitting on top of the hook eye. This ‘pegs’ the weight and gives you confidence that when your lead is contacting cover, your soft plastic offering is doing the same thing in the same spot. Sometimes a slip sinker can be helpful. The above-mentioned grub on the weed-tops seems to do better with a sliding sinker. Experiment and see what you like.

Some bullet sinkers come with a coil extending out of the back of the weight. This can be a great help when trying the ‘Florida’ variation of Texas-rigging. Instead of having the hook up near the head of the bait, you can run the line down through a screwed-in bullet weight, even midway down the bait, then to your hook eye, hiding the hook point as usual. This can produce a different, more horizontal, enticing action and might help it slip through thicker cover. Whether hooked at the head of the bait or further down, have no fear that the fish will bite the hook. I have been able to watch strikes in clear water, and it is amazing to watch a Bass, Smallmouth or Largemouth, as it homes in on the bait and strikes the head and center mass. They are efficient predators, and they know how to attack their prey!

Another sneaky tactic that qualifies as Texas-rigging is to use a floating bullet where a lead bullet sinker would normally be. Usually colored, these can make any soft plastic a surface bait. Fish like any topwater, or hover and twitch a soft plastic over a shallow Bass bed and you can provoke a strike from an enraged fish that thinks it’s defending its offspring! The purple bullet weight in the picture is actually a floating bullet.

As in the picture, there are also some hooks with weight molded right onto the shank. The two shown are from Owner and Gamakatsu. ‘Belly-draggers’ and ‘butt-draggers’ are often used with swim-baits, but they can also be useful for many other soft plastics when a different ‘look’ is desired. Switching from a nose-dive to a horizontal drop might just produce more hits. A combination of a butt-dragger and floating claws on a soft plastic crawdad might just prove too much for a crustacean-munching Bass to resist! Experimentation with all of these possibilities is strongly encouraged. Sometimes just a small change or adjustment might turn on otherwise inactive fish. They’ll let you know!

The water is warming up. Bass are becoming more active right now. In the Northwest, they are starting to move up in the water column and in toward spawning areas. In this pre-spawn mode, as well as during the spawn, soft plastics might be just what you need to put a bend in your rod. You can really improve your odds by fearlessly fishing snaggy areas. So get your Texas on!

Your friendly, fellow Bass fanatic,

Bob Larimer

When I first got started Bass fishing I had accidentally caught a Largemouth while showing my kids how to fish for trout. It was a beautiful, aggressive, chunky-looking, fascinating fish and it launched me on an entirely new adventure that has never stopped. My brother and I – both reformed Steelhead fishermen now – learned together, and we shared hours of experimenting and chattering about our ‘discoveries’ regarding this amazing, challenging ‘new’ fish.

I first studied up by reading magazines and watching fishing shows on TV. Then I went out and bought what I thought was a pretty good representation of all the major categories of Bass baits. I got floating stick baits, spinnerbaits and trailers, jigs and jig trailers, various topwaters, and plenty of soft plastic worms, lizards and flukes. All of these strange new baits were fun to look at and speculate about, but the most fascinating to me were the crankbaits. They came in a wide variety of realistic or fantastical colors, weights, shapes, bill lengths and angles – or no bills at all – diving depths and actions.

I had good success with almost all the baits right away, not necessarily boating big Bass, but catching good numbers nonetheless. With one exception, however: I could not buy a bite on a crankbait. What a disappointment! Here was a bait that seemed to hold the very essence of Bass fishing mystique, that was obviously baitfish or crawdad shaped, that wiggled underwater in what to me were very ‘realistic’ ways, that could be cranked right down into the fish’s lair, and that had not one, but two deadly treble hooks attached. And I could not catch a Bass on it.

Whether I cranked the bait through open water, ripped it through weeds, bounced it off of rocks and stumps, plowed along the bottom in the sand or mud, sped it up or slowed it down, I hardly ever got even a bite. My first ‘success’ was a hapless little dink of a fish that somehow got too close and got one point of one treble hook stuck in the top of its head. How humiliating! What the heck were those Bass Pros doing with crankbaits that I couldn’t do?

What I eventually learned was that while each category of Bass bait requires time on the water, and each has a learning curve associated with it, the crankbait demands an attitude of determination, dogged perseverance, curiousity and attention to detail. You can drag a jig-and-grub or a Texas-rigged worm through the weeds, you can strain the water with a spinnerbait, you can sputter or twitch a topwater and learn fairly quickly how to produce a hit on them. The crankbait, not so much.

The key to crankbait success, in my opinion, is lots of specific study and practice coupled with a willingness to develop a ‘feel’ for each type of crankbait in your tackle box. My earlier mistake was to expect such beautiful baits to automatically produce a fish whenever I wet them and turned the handle on my reel. They looked good and produced a satisfying vibration through my rod, so I felt they should immediately grab fish. After a few big buildups and disappointments, I put crankbaits back in my box and went back to what I knew would produce some action. Sure enough, not one of those gorgeous crankbaits ever caught a fish while laying there unused!

But defeat has never set well with me, and those pictures of guys grinning while holding up big, fat, dripping Bass with crankbaits stuck in their jaws just would not stop haunting me, so almost in spite of myself I started paying more attention to articles and shows and advice about crankbaits. It slowly dawned on me that each kind of crankbait, even each size of crankbait, had to be approached with a different mindset. Once I started paying attention I realized that the ‘feel’ of one crankbait could be radically different from that of another. I also discovered that water temperature, water clarity, depth, light levels, available forage and bottom contours all play a role in lure selection and presentation. Line sizes and varieties, along with rod compositions and actions must also be considered.

Maybe all this seems obvious to you, but they say that success can spoil a person and that had certainly proven true for me. I had expected crankbait fishing to be as easy as the other methods I had tried, then I had given up. I urge you not to repeat my mistake if you don’t want to miss out on a great challenge and a lot of fun.

The quality and variety of crankbaits continues to grow, but there are some basic categories that all aspiring anglers should familiarize themselves with: Lipless, floating/diving, suspending/diving, sinking/diving, minnow, and last but not least if you fish the Columbia River for Smallmouth, crawdad crankbaits.

Lipless crankbaits dive because of the flat, downward-sloping surface on the top of the head of the bait. Most contain rattles, with some being louder than others. I was with a friend in his aluminum boat retrieving a lipless bait and it actually produced such a loud echoing sound in the boat that it was irritating. Lipless baits are often called ‘searchbaits’ because their racket and tight, vibrating commotion have a tendency to bring in any active fish in the area. A lipless crankbait retrieved super fast in the Spring in the Columbia can produce jarring strikes from large, aggressive, pre-spawn Smallmouth.

Floating/diving crankbaits are the originals, the ones you see in classic Bass fishing art. Your cranking action causes them to dive and activates their wiggling, vibrating or wobbling action.

Suspending crankbaits are relatively new to the Bass fishing scene, and they can be deadly because of the ability to ‘park’ them momentarily before making them seem to ‘escape’ from an interested fish. They will not rise quickly to the surface as floating baits do, so they allow longer ‘hesitations’ during the retrieve.

Some crankbaits sink like a rock. Most lipless baits are in this category. Some wily Bass fishermen will actually ‘thump’ the bottom with such baits, giving them a vertical or traveling ‘hop’ that can entice fish to bite.

Minnow style crankbaits are designed to resemble baitfish, though some are highly effective in frog or crawdad color patterns.

Crawdad crankbaits come in body shapes that clearly resemble crayfish. These can be deadly when retrieved around rocky, prey-holding areas. No Bass fisherman should ever forget that for both Largemouth and Smallmouth, crawdads are a recognizable, very desirable, high-protein food source. The fish in the picture fell to a River-to-Sea, crawdad-pattern crankbait and hammered it like a fullback on steroids!

Diving actions on lipped crankbaits depend upon the angle, length and width of the bill. A short bill angled steeply down from the head of the bait will produce a shallow diving action. A long bill proceeding straight forward from the front of the bait’s head will produce a steep, deep diving action. Wider and narrower bills will alter the depth and action of the bait. Most manufacturers give you a ballpark estimate of diving depths for each bait.

Not all baits travel straight right out of the package. They can be tuned with a gentle, small redirection of the line-tie eye using needle nose pliers, usually in the opposite direction the bait wanted to angle. An encouraging word here: Baits that quickly come into compliance after a tiny adjustment will usually be your good producers. Don’t be afraid to experiment to get the travel you desire. Some folks do not tune a particular lure and keep a separate spot in their box for a ‘left-hand’ or ‘right-hand’ bait. These can be useful for working a dock or rock wall.

Before purchasing a bait, examine it closely, look for uneven seams, bad paint jobs, loose or un-evenly mounted eyes, suspicious tie eyes or hook mounts. Don’t start out with trouble, if you can avoid it. Some fishermen argue that only the snap ring should be used to tie on to. I believe a snap such as a Duolock attached to the snap ring will give a crankbait better performance, though sometimes they will ‘foul’ on the cast. Balsa or plastic composition is another debatable topic, but I am convinced that an angler who pays attention can make either one perform satisfactorily. Thin bodies on either one usually produce a tighter wiggle. Thick, wide or bulging bodies will produce more of a wobble. Something to consider is that you can order bodies and components online to build your own crankbaits from the ground up. Tempting, during these long dark coldweather days, eh?! If you are interested try Jann’s Netcraft or Barlow’s Tackle online.

The weight, attitude or action of a bait can be adjusted by customizing one or both treble hook sizes. Some anglers will remove one of the bait’s treble hooks for better travel in some kinds of cover. It is possible to use extra weight, such as adhesive-backed Suspend Strips or Suspend Dots by Storm, to get a crankbait to perform better. One of the pictured baits simply refused to dive how I wanted it to. After customizing with Suspend Strips, then clear coating that area, this bait behaves just like I want it to! Because of variations in manufacturing and different lots of the same bait, some baits will simply perform better than others. Those are the beat-up looking, worn old baits in crankbaiters’ tackle boxes!

As I became more effective with crankbaits I usually wanted a larger size, simply because I could keep track of it and feel it better. As my ability improved, I was able to have a good ‘feel’ even for the smaller cranks. For the beginner, I recommend practice with a larger bait at first. I recommend getting out on the lake or river, using your electronics to mark fish, then experimenting with baits and retrieves. Make sure to watch a new bait in clear water, getting an idea of its movements at various retrieve speeds and remembering what those movements feel like to your hands. When you do get struck, remember the water temperature, remember what you were doing, whether steady retrieves or pauses, at what depth, near what structure and at what retrieve speed. Over time you will be able to use this information to choose specific crankbaits for specific conditions.

Do you have that ‘can do’ or ‘never give up’ attitude? Can you keep learning and trying, even if your first efforts are not productive? Are you willing to spend time on the water getting the feel of your crankbaits and what they can do? Then you have what it takes to become an accomplished crankbait fisherman. That ‘cranky’ attitude can pay off in big fish and big fun!

From your friendly, fanatical, Bass fishing buddy,

Bob Larimer

Many kinds of ‘spinners’ are used effectively for catching different kinds of fish, but the ‘safety pin’ Spinnerbait is one of the best lures ever invented for catching Largemouth Bass. Even Smallmouth Bass fall prey to this amazing bait. While the Spinnerbait is really only a bent wire with blade(s) on one side and jig head, hook and skirt on the other, it does not take much experimenting to realize that the reasons for the lure’s effectiveness are many:

1- By varying retrieve speed, a fisherman can cover the entire water column from top to bottom.

2- The ‘hidden’ hook means spinnerbaits can be deliberately ‘knocked’ into cover, which attracts Bass.

3- The bait can resemble a baitfish, an insect, a bird, a bat, a crawdad and other prey Bass like.

4- In heavier weights it casts like a bullet, giving the shore-bound fisherman a new reach to fish-holding areas and offering the boat fisherman a long-distance search weapon.

5- Blade sizes and shapes can be varied for specific conditions.

6- Skirt sizes, materials and colors can be varied for specific conditions.

7- A hard strike on the bait’s large hook usually means a caught fish.

8- The weighted head can have different shapes, colors and eyes.

9- Spinnerbaits can be dropped, jigged, pumped, hopped, retrieved straight or even trolled.

10- Addition of a ‘grub’ or other trailer can slow the fall rate and change the look and feel fish perceive.

I can think of no other bait that offers so many advantages.

Up here in the North country it can be difficult to find a Spinnerbait weighing more than ½ ounce. Wholesale Sports in Vancouver does have some baits weighing in at ¾ ounce and that is my preferred weight. Unfortunately some manufacturers seem to imagine that a ‘heavy’ Spinnerbait must either be a bottom-dragging bait or a night-fishing option, so often they only have one blade which is usually a ‘thumper’ Colorado-style blade.

I prefer a heavy, twin-blade Spinnerbait. I like the long castability of the heavier bait, I can feel it’s progress through the water, I can feel the blades turning, I can sense how high or low it is in the water column, I can tell what type of cover the bait is contacting, I can even detect a following Bass when the rear blade first ‘tickles’ his nose and this prepares me for the hookset, though often fish crash the Spinnerbait like a freight train with no warning at all. I have had the rod nearly yanked from my hands on Spinnerbait strikes.

After ‘discovering’ the Spinnerbait (I think I saw Bill Dance using them), I first used ½ ounce spinnerbaits and caught fish on them but I soon realized that they were not quite heavy enough for my purposes. Not satisfied with baits I could find in stores or online, I began building my own. Adding up the cost and time spent, I don’t think I am saving any money, but I am creating a bait that does exactly what I want it to. It’s not difficult and I enjoy using free time in the off-season building baits and thinking about what is to come in the Spring.

Choosing skirt and head colors will be up to you, as will your blade shapes, sizes and colors. I believe contrasts can be important. For instance, a different color skirt than grub trailer can be a fish-getter. Also, I prefer a very small Colorado blade in front, with a large willow leaf blade in the rear, again in contrasting colors. I think brass, copper or gold in front and nickel in the back is the best combination. I believe that this combination can look like feeding activity and stimulate fish to strike. Remember that baitfish grow throughout the season. I increase blade sizes as the Summer wears on in order to match the feed Bass are eating.

If you decide to build some of your own baits, here is what you will need:

-Spinnerbait heads and wires. You can really start from scratch and mold lead heads onto wires and hooks or like me, you can simply order pre-painted wire heads in the weight you want. The ones I prefer are not only painted, but they have eyes painted on as well. I prefer ‘open-eye’ Spinnerbaits. They have a bent wire line tie, as opposed to a twisted wire loop tie. I believe that open-eye baits allow the entire wire to ‘pulse’, giving more action to the head and skirt on one side and to the blades on the other.

-Metal or glass beads, plastic spacers, high-quality ball-bearing swivels, wire clevises, blades, skirts- and some kind of wire-bending tool. I simply use my Leatherman Charge tool. It is titanium tough, but the nose on the plier comes down to a fine point, allowing me to make a nice, small loop at the blade end of the wire. Larger loops or twist ties will gather moss or weeds which then foul in the blade, stopping their action. You can obtain all these components from stores, catalogues and online sources such as Jann’s Netcraft or Barlow’s Tackle.

Assembling the pieces can be tedious, and it requires concentration and attention to detail. You don’t want to end up with a bait that is missing a component. But the finished product is a satisfying sight to behold. Just imagine the odd looks you can get from friends and family as they watch you madly assembling and playing with your beautiful lures. I’ve even had ladies hold them up to their ears like jewelry!

The best part? There is nothing quite like the feeling of a jarring, yanking strike on a Spinnerbait that you put together yourself! You have just fooled a fish with a bait of your own creation.

Now that’s real Bass fishing!

Well another September is coming, with its cooling temperatures and shorter days. Bass will go into their weight-gaining feeding frenzies and it will be more comfortable daytime fishing. Take some Spinnerbaits with you, present them in various ways and be prepared to haul in a monster Bass. I often make many, many casts before nailing a good, heavy fish. That’s Spinnerbait fishing.

We’ll discuss another kind of bait next month: The Crankbait. Until then, keep your line tight, your dry side up and your wet side down.

Best of luck from your fanatical Bassmaster friend,

Bob Larimer

I thought April showers were supposed to bring May flowers, not monsoon rains and record-setting cold temperatures? It’s the third coldest May on record around these parts. Friends and I were wondering if plunging water temperatures might just put Bass on rewind, back into pre-spawn mode.

If you take a look at my most recent Largemouth picture, you will see that this big female is still carrying eggs and has a sore tail from preparing a bed for the spawn. Definitely a pre-spawn fish. Though all fish do not spawn at precisely the same time, even on the same body of water, I think we will find a similar story in most Southwest Washington waters. Every cloud comes with a silver lining, and the cold rain might just extend some crazy spring Bass fishing. I can deal with that.

The pictured fish could not resist a new River-2-Sea, double-jointed, floating stick bait in Rainbow Trout pattern. I had placed it right next to a corner of flooded brush. She hit near the surface of 3 feet of water after I gave up on twitching the bait. I had just started to move it toward me when she grabbed it and then tried to dive back into the brush. Even in chilly water, this fish had plenty of fight. Three times on the way to the boat I had to wrestle her back out of different spots along the brush line. The water was dingy with new run-off and because of our tangles in the brush, I was not really too sure how big of a fish I was dealing with. After finally being forced away from the shoreline she made a dash for the boat, freight-trained underneath and right out the other side. When I tried to pull her back to my side, I had to pull so hard that I thought maybe she was wrapped on something. No, just a strong, heavy fish. I netted her, amazed at the depth of her body and the thick hump of her back. The backwaters of the Columbia hold such treasures, but finding high enough water and pre-spawn-attractive flooded brush can be a challenge. With all the recent rain, it wasn’t too much of a challenge this time. Who knows? Maybe the water will stay up as the temperature comes up and we’ll have a few more weeks to try such areas?

I still have some more River-2-Sea baits to try out, including some really detailed, realistic salamander imitations, complete with adjustable brush guards. There is also a dandy, sinking, single-jointed Rainbow Trout patterned bait that seductively ‘walks the dog’ underwater with a little practice. It has a hard body, but it comes with a replaceable soft plastic tail. Now that’s attention to detail! If they are as productive as the floating version, I’ll be very pleased. I have not tried them yet but there are also some very highly detailed soft plastic crawdad imitations as well. This new line of baits is available at Wholesale Sports in Vancouver, and I know I’m not the only guy picking them up.

A few weeks ago my friend Ken and I went East up the Columbia Gorge to see if we could find some Smallmouth. We found three foot waves and cold wind, but we also found some good fish. Using the old standby lipless crankbaits, we found fish around the usual suspects: Underwater humps and small rocky islands. Sheer rock walls that work for me in warmer water seemed to hold no fish at all. Though I fished them with confidence, soft plastics such as grubs or tubes produced only a few fish. The water was barely 50 degrees and probably too cold for a good grub bite. But it was great to get smacked by Smallies chasing the crankbaits. Lucky Craft seemed to produce the best, and I also did well with a blue and chrome Rapala and a red Rattle Trap. The size of the fish was nothing to write home about, as you can see in the picture, but the rollicking, racing, yanking fight of a Smallmouth of any size is always a thrill. Just a week later, my friend Josh was able to blast a 5+ pounder in the same general area. It’s just going to keep getting better as the temperature rises, and I recently heard a rumor of Salmon fishermen complaining about ‘nuisance’ Smallmouth hitting their baits!

Every Spring has its own character. Usually May is a dependable, uniformly warming month, but not this year. I suspect that we will snap back into more ‘normal’ weather and a rapid warming spell in the next few weeks. This means that Bass fishermen will need to stay adaptable, ready to hunt pre-spawn or spawning fish, and ready with either foul-weather gear or shorts and T-shirts!

I recommend having several rods baited up and ready to go. Have a stickbait rod, a soft-plastic rod, a spinnerbait rod, a crankbait rod and a top water rod with a Zara Spook, a River-2-Sea floater or a buzzbait ready to tempt surface-striking fish. Low-light hours will probably be better for your top water offerings. Remember, never give up after being short struck on any hardbait. Immediately put a soft plastic such as a worm, a tube, a creature or a lizard right back into that same area. You might just score big on the second strike! Use scents! They work, and the lubrication helps your baits move through weeds and snags more freely. Vary your retrieves, especially with spinnerbaits and crankbaits. Short pauses and bursts of speed will arouse fish more than a steady, predictable retrieve. Remember that Largemouth can have spawning beds anywhere from 1 foot to ten feet deep. If you use your Polarized sunglasses and look for them, you might just find them. When fishing flooded brush during midday, cast to the deepest shade areas and don’t pass up indentations or ‘pockets’ in the brush. Even small changes in a brush line  or any weed line or shoreline – might hold big fish!

If it stays cool and rainy, just put your rain gear on and get out there! I hustled off the water when the thunder and lightning started today, but the rain wasn’t so bad. Catching a nice big fish can make you forget having to wear a raincoat!

Your fellow Bassing fanatic,

Bob

With spring time pretty much here and summer time just around the corner, you have to choose the long beach peninsula as one of your bass fishing vacation plans. There is lakes scattered all over the peninsula full of largemouth bass, and they get very little pressure. There are a few lakes that I would definitely concentrate most of my time on, Loomis, Black, Island, and Lake O’Neil

Loomis Lake is the first one I would spend a day on. The lake is a pretty big lake and is just completely full of big largemouth bass. The lake has a pretty good public boat launch, but other than that there is no public access. There is no shore access to the lake at all, the one boat launch has a few places for people to fish but without a boat here, you are pretty much wasting your time. There used to be a nice dock to fish off but as of last year a tree had fallen on it and they did not fix it. The bass in this lake can be very finicky, sometimes its crazy and you will have 20 fish days and other times you will be lucky if you’re able to hook a couple. I have fished this lake since I was a little kid and I have never been able to pinpoint the reason for this but it just happens. The main places you are going to want to concentrate on this lake are the docks and any other wood you are able to find. There are logs and pilings all over the lake for bass to live. Fish all of them; don’t pass any of them, because the one you pass is the one that has a big largemouth on it! Another place the fish like to hide in this lake is the weed bed breaks. The lake has a really bad milfoil problem. The state has tried to get rid of it numerous times but have failed. The bass love it though! There is spots where it’s so thick you can’t get your trolling motor through the weeds but then all the sudden it will just stop…..when you find these spots fish them. The bass suspend just inside these beds and destroy food that crosses their path. The best baits of choice to fish this lake are spinnerbaits on the wood and 5” weightless senkos on the weed beds. After you have spent your time here, head over to Island Lake, it is just a short drive away.
Island is another lake where you need a boat. There is no bank access what so ever. This lake is huge! You could spend all day fishing the lake. I like to launch my boat and head directly east, once you get through the first bigger channel then start concentrating fishing the south shore. The fish in this lake don’t average very big but I think that is just because how many are in the lake. No sarcasm at all, I have caught upwards of 50 largemouths in one day on this lake. Most fish average between 1-3 pounds, with one pound fish being more common. The lure of choice I like to throw is brush hogs. These fish love to hide way up on the bank in thick brush so, casting up on the bank and dragging the bait into the water works very well here. If you get board catching small fish, it’s time to head to Black Lake.

Around 15 mins from Island Lake, Black Lake gets absolutely no pressure from bass fishermen. The main reason this lake isn’t fished is because of the difficulty this lake conveys in catching bass. Not only is the lake very clear, there isn’t a large number of bass in the lake. The lake is stocked with rainbow trout frequently, so the bass in the lake reach very big sizes. I have pulled 2 fish out of the lake pushing 9 pounds. This lake has a trail that goes most of the way around the lake, and yea you can catch a bass sometimes from the bank but your best bet is still going to be from a boat. Launch your boat and head south around the left side of the lake back into the bowl shaped section of the lake. The most effective way in catching the huge bass that live in this lake is drop shotting. Use your electronics and find some of the deep water structure, a hint for you; it’s in about 25 feet of water. Both the big bass I caught in this lake came in deep deep water. Be patient and if you can come back to the lake numerous times in a season you will eventually hook into one of the big guys living here. Now just 10 mins away from Black lake lies Fort Canby.

This beautiful state park has 2 really untapped bass lakes. The one that has campsites all the way around the lake is called Lake O’Neil. This lake is a great lake to fish from the shore just casting weed less frogs. The fish average 2-3 pounds in here with the occasional 5 pounder falling to your frog. I love fishing this lake when I want to just drive to the beach and go catch some easy bass. The lake gets pretty much no pressure so the fish are pretty willing biters. If you have a pontoon boat you can do very well in this lake as well. The other lake in the campground requires a pontoon or other small watercraft. If you head back towards the Yurts in the campground there is a little gravel parking lot with a hiking trail on the left. The trail isn’t much maintained so dragging your boat through here isn’t easy and make sure you bring your bug spray! If you can endure these 2 things you are in for a treat. This lake is chalked full of bass and some really big ones can be taken out of here. This lake is really weedy as well so bring your Spro frogs! Have fun out there and leave some bass for me!

Your local fishing addict

Marlin LeFever

Bass fishing with fly tackle is unlike trout fishing. Trout fishing is a lot about style and finesse, where as bass fishing is more chill and relaxed, making it easier for more of the beginner class of folks. With bass fishing presentation isn’t everything, gear has a big deal in being successful in adverse spring conditions.

Rod selection for bass is much different than for trout fishing. Trout is more of a slower action rod, and can get away with a 2-5wt rod with any type of line. Bass you want a shorter rod with a stiffer butt and fast action tip preferably 7’6”-8’ in length and in a 7-8 wt with mainly sinking line, or sinking tip to make it easier for casting larger more wind resistant flies.

A fun and action packed way to catch bass as everyone knows, is on top water gear. There is a good variety of top water flies for bass, from poppers to foam frogs to deer hair mice. Popular colors for flies are basically the colors in the rainbow, something that is going to stand out to the bass and say come eat me.

More flies for subsurface are the deke’s bead leg, softshell crayfish, and marabou streamer. The deke’s bead leg is basically a bead head woolly bugger with round rubber legs and can be presented same as a standard bugger although for bass you would want a sinking line, with slow or fast retrieve. Crayfish patterns are best used in a slower retrieve using full sinking line nearer the bottom pausing intermittently. Marabou flies are preferably a mid range fly using float line and a sink tip with a retrieve with short fast strips and pauses frequently imitating injured prey. Mainly fished over weed beds or submerged structure.

Bass are ambushers, they mostly hide out and wait for their prey, so we must go to them. Fish the structures such as sunken logs, rock out-cropping, and docks, find the best ambush points offering some safety and seclusion and typically you will find bass. Not all structure is below the surface either, bass like to sit up under low hanging trees awaiting prey also, lily pads and weed lines are good places to find the aggressive predators also.

During the spawning spring days a good method is dragging sub-surface flies through the spawning beds of bass, but beware their is an angry mother bass watching and waiting.

Bass fishing is an explosive hard hitting experience in itself, add the combo of a fly rod to the deal, and it’s a whole nother ball game. Spring time into the summer months is the best time to fish for these guys, but really there is no better time than the present. Go get your gear, sneak into your neighbor’s frog pond, and give it a whirl (jk always ask permission). Good luck!

written by,

-Tight-lines

-Troutbum89

It’s as simple as picking between braid and monofilament, right? Well, not quite. In recent decades fishing line technology has been leapfrogging itself and with the present varieties of line and their specific uses available, it might pay you to make your spool-up decisions armed with a little more information.

In a more primitive day, fisherman could only use gut, hair, silk or string to connect hook to rod. {“Look! Oog have big fish on line! Me stand there too!” – Yes, competition began early…..}

Then came the advent of that space-age material, nylon monofilament. Clear, smooth, strong and relatively small in diameter, mono revolutionized the quality and length of lines that could be wound onto a reel. Fishermen could fool fish in clear water, cast further, troll deeper, fight heavier fish over longer distances and enjoy small, reliable knots on their hooks.

This breakthrough also forced leaps forward in fishing reel technology. No longer were reels just storage devices, and concepts like casting distances, fish-fighting drags, line capacities, gear ratios and specialized features made fishing reel innovations skyrocket in importance. None of the reel features we have discussed in previous articles would be available to us now, without the blessing of modern fishing lines.

Monofilament itself has improved in leaps and bounds. Line diameters have been reduced, knot-strength improved, visibility (or invisibility) enhanced using different colors or properties, and overall consistent quality has vastly improved. These are not the monos of decades ago and they are dependable lines.

Some new lines, such as P-Line CX, incorporate ‘copolymer’ technology and offer a much smaller diameter at the same pound test or line strength. This means easier handling, smoother casting, less line ‘memory’ or coiling, less visibility to the fish and reduced planing of line. CX is also fluorocarbon coated, which also helps hide it from the wary fish’s eye.

I have caught many species of fish on P-Line CX Moss Green, including Salmon, Steelhead, Catfish, Largemouth, Smallmouth and Crappie, and the 20 pound test CX version remains one of my favorites for heavy cover Largemouth fishing.

When there is either moving water, or water pressure on line being drawn through water, it results in an often unwanted rise of baits or trolling riggings toward the surface. A smaller line diameter encounters less resistance and stays down deeper, hence one advantage of small-diameter line. The 20 pound CX diameter compares to 17 or even 15 pound test in other lines, so I can get more line on my spool in a bigger pound test, which is another valuable feature.

The relatively new copolymer lines are a real improvement on ordinary mono. The copolymerization process combines several nylon ‘monomers’ (A sort of hybrid of monofilaments) in a formula that produces a stronger, yet smaller line that reacts less to physical and chemical weakening. This also translates to good abrasion resistance.

I have fished with Silver Thread’s ‘Excalibur’ copolymer and had good success hauling in big Largemouths on it too. It is more expensive than some lines, but the quality is worth it. My brother, ‘Mr. Finesse,’ likes the clear Silver Thread copolymer for his subtle soft-plastics presentations. Other popular copolymer lines include Berkley Trilene Sensation, Suffix, Izorline and YoZuri (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/catpage-FLCOPOLYMER.html). I have not fished them all, but I’ve had enthusiastic reports from other fishermen.

A related but high-tech departure from monofilament and copolymer is ‘flourocarbon.’ While it looks like mono, its chemical structure is quite different. It is made of extruded polyvinylidene fluoride, a material that is denser than mono and copolymer, and has a light refraction almost identical to water itself. This means that in its pure form, fish just can’t see it at all. It also absorbs less moisture, does not stretch as much, and is ‘harder’ on the outside than the above lines. Also, fluorocarbon sinks in water. Doesn’t take much imagination to think of some real advantages here, does it? Some earlier fluorocarbons were a little stiff, but most of them cast quite well. Most manufacturers have at least one fluorocarbon offering. Here is a helpful comparison of various fluorocarbons: http://www.tackletour.com/reviewfluorocarbontest.html

Even the best of the new monofilaments, flourocarbons and copolymers suffer from a tendency that many fishermen do not welcome…..Line stretch. Sometimes stretch is a good thing. I like knowing that my copolymer line will stretch a little at the hookset. Most of the time the distance from rod to bait is not that far, and I do not want to tear away a crankbait, topwater or other hardbait from a freight-training monster Bass. Also, at boatside where many fights are lost, and where there is only a short length of line under tension between you and your potential catch, do you want some cushioning when the fish shakes his head? I sure do!

But sometimes you can get too much of a good thing. Some of the older monos will stretch as much as 30% of length when the line is wet. Many monos have been reduced to 25% or even less than 10% stretch. Some stretch percentages are just too much. How far back can you sweep your rod in a hookset, and how long do you want it take before the hook point actually penetrates when a fish is biting? Before you pick one of these lines, take a good length of it and see if you like the amount of stretch. Find one that is acceptable to you.

A newer line that completely eliminates the stretch problem is a complete departure from either mono, flourocarbon or copolymer, called ‘braid.’ It is made by intertwining fibrous material, usually aramid, gel-spun polyethylene or Dacron, and weaving it into a very tough, very small-diameter line. A variation of braid is ‘fused’ line, actually braided fibers that have been fused into what appears and performs as one single strand.

Most braids have a wet-stretch of only 2 to 4 % or less. That means whatever happens at the tip of your rod is immediately happening at the hook, and vice versa. This can give you a tremendous advantage.

Braids are so small in diameter compared to mono and copolymer that line capacity on your reel is no longer a consideration. Braids are very light and have a tendency to float, making them the choice of many bobber and jig fishermen, especially in the high-vis form. There is virtually no line-memory or coiling, and braided line is also extremely long-lasting and tough. This can be a real problem for older rods with softer guides and tips, and for older reels with softer line rollers. Braid can saw right down into them. If you make the mistake of wrapping the line around your hand to yank it, it will cut through your hand too!

In the weight ranges I use for Bass, braid can actually be too small at times. I do not want to waste time on the water trying to get spider-like braid out of snap rings and other terminal tackle, wind knots from wispy lines and breezes are always unwelcome, and I do not want braid pulling down inside of itself on my spool when I put it under pressure. These are some of the drawbacks of smaller pound test braids. I know some fisherman who have resolved these problems and adapted well enough to be big fans of lighter braid, so it could be just my own preferences here.

On big water and in bigger sizes, I find braid to be superior in almost all respects. I have caught 8 ½ foot Sturgeon and big Spring Chinook Salmon on the Columbia River using braids. Sea Lions and other boaters and lines might be a worry, but not this line! Power Pro, Tuff Line, Berkley Spider Wire and Fireline, and P-Line Spectrex are all excellent braids, with only personal choice of color and ‘feel’ of the line itself being considerations. http://www.nextag.com/braided-fishing-line/search-html

Just a warning: Braid will work fine on the new low-profile bait-casting reels, in fact that is one of its strong suits. But remember the power and strength of this line! You can literally deform, bend or collapse a small, super-light, high-quality, floating spool by applying too much force with braided line. Also, line rollers on spinning reels and other reel parts can be susceptible to increased wear due to braid’s tough qualities. Choose your pound test accordingly and remember that your reel, no matter how high-end and well-machined, is not indestructible! Yes, braid really is that strong.

Now with all this information and real-time fishing tests, which line do I choose as my all-time favorite? The winner is . . . You guessed it. It really depends on what I want the line to do in a given situation.

Do I want a great, invisible, quick-sinking, low-stretch, high-sensitivity line for finessing big smart Bass with a subtle drop-shot rig? Then I should probably pick fluorocarbon.

Do I want to jab the hook in deep and cut my way out of tangles of cover with tough, powerful line when fighting a monster Bass that attacked my jig-and-pig? Then it’s time for some braid.

Do I want something that will load up and stretch a little bit on my long-distance casts, allow my crankbaits and spinnerbaits to stay at the desired depth, allow the fish to get a good pull going on my topwaters before I set the hook, and still be a relatively invisible line? Then I’m going with a small-diameter copolymer.

You will undoubtedly find your own favorites for various kinds of fishing.

I for one am very happy that line technology has come so far and allows so many excellent choices for just the right situations.

We’ll talk about which baits to tie these excellent lines onto when the May article comes out. Keep your wet side down and your dry side up, and give a few good, eye-crossing hooksets for me till then!

Fanatically Yours,

Bassmaster Bob

P.S. Please remember that all lines actually last a long time out in nature. They can prove to be cruel death-traps to birds and critters. I often return from fishing trips with someone else’s line wadded up in my pockets to discard later. It’s smart to take good care of your favorite fishing holes!

As my friend Jim would say, you can’t make a rod work for everything from Tuna to Trout.  Anyone who has been fishing for a while has come to realize that even going after just one species requires more than one rod.

A Steelhead fisherman might have one rod for side-drifting, one for pulling plugs, one for bouncing bait and another for jig and float fishing. And if he’s anything like us Bass fishermen, he’ll still want more rods!

The reason is that varying conditions and tactics require varying equipment. It’s just that simple.

When I am fishing a jig-and-pig, I want a stout rod that can take a smash-mouth attack from a big fish, then wrestle him out of heavy cover with enough authority to prevent the him from see-sawing away from me and down into an area of hazardous pad stems, rocks, sunken logs or limbs and make his escape. My brother calls such rods ‘pool cues.’

If I am fishing light soft-plastics or drop-shot rigs and finessing the fish, I want a rod with a tender, sensitive tip that will help me detect subtle taps or movements, yet with enough power to ‘stick’ the hook in when I make my move.

When I am fishing a crankbait, I need a flexible rod that lets the bait work and ‘dance’ in a way that allows me to see and feel the action, making sure that the crankbait is working how I want it to, and that will allow the fish to grab and go, without yanking the lure away before the Bass really has time to crunch it.

When I’m throwing a spinnerbait, the rod must have the flexibility and power to launch the bait as far as I want, and it must have the sensitivity to allow me to feel the bait contacting cover and feel my blades spinning. I have caught more than one Bass because the bait was still coming toward me without resistance, but the blades had stopped turning. Setting the hook – because nothing was happening! – I found that sure enough, a big fish that had taken the spinnerbait and maintained its course and speed was there on the other end!  It is crucial to be able to sense such changes, and a good rod will give you that ability.

Do you want to fish a floating, minnow-immitating stick-bait?  You’ll need a rod that will help you give subtle twitches to the bait, yet will be powerful enough to give you a good hook-set when the time comes.

Sound complicated?  It really isn’t. Choose your line size and application, and you can choose the right rod.

Almost all good rod manufacturers give you helpful information near the butt of the blank.  This includes length, power, line weight ranges,  bait weight ranges and sometimes even specific designations such as ‘Crankbait.’  There will also usually be some information, sometimes on a tag, regarding the composition of the blank and guides.

A fiberglass rod, for instance, might be a good choice for a crankbait rod, though many graphite blanks will perform extremely well too.

Here is some useful technical information about how a rod bends:

http://www.fries-rods.dk/lang/uk/rods_action.htm

And here is more good information about composition and rod flex:

http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/rodselection.html

I don’t get too caught up in the technicalities.  I simply look for a rod that will do what I want it to. Most of the time I can tell right away by first deciding whether spinning or baitcasting best suits my application, by looking at the specs on the blank, and finally by hefting, flexing and examining the rod for the characteristics I’m going to need. Sometimes I will do a little research and find out what other fishermen are using for a certain application.

If you live in or around Southwest Washington, another great resource can be found in the Fishing Department at Wholesale Sports in Vancouver.  With combined experience of over 175 years of fishing, the experts there can offer information and suggestions on all species of fish and the right rods to catch them.

You can make a rod serve several purposes, but I strongly suggest that as you become more experienced it is best to demand exactly the right rod for the right situation.  This will give you more success and help you to get more satisfaction out of your fishing.

But then, you’ll still need another rod!  Right?

Most Largemouth fishermen agree that Summer can be the toughest season of all. Somehow it just doesn’t seem right that the times of best weather, longest days and vacations should also offer more difficult fishing conditions. Smallmouth fishermen can enjoy 50 to 100 fish days simply casting soft plastics and filling the livewell, but if you’re going for Largemouth, it will take a little more planning and attention to detail.

While the fish are mostly done spawning and have ample feed in lakes and rivers, and while they may be relating more to underwater humps or shelves, most catchable Bass will still be found shallow – anywhere from 2 to 15 feet of water – though in some lakes big fish will be found along dropoffs or ledges or in very deep water from 25 to 50 feet. You can use your electronics and attempt to catch these very deep fish using vertical methods with such baits as heavy jigging spoons, blade baits, Senkos, tube baits, Texas or Carolina rigged worms, finesse drop-shot rigs and heavy jig and pork combinations.

One big fish hunter I know of uses very large swimbaits such as the Castaic Rainbow Trout, marking fish and then ‘parking’ the bait on the edge of weed lines where the vegetation begins to take hold just up from deeper water. He goes for long periods with no fish, but when he scores on a big one it is usually a dandy. He ‘deadsticks’ the bait, just leaving it still for long periods of time.

Some guides will employ a similar tactic while helping their customers go for shallower, more active fish. The guide will simply drop a large, Texas-rigged worm over the side of the boat and leave it sitting or slowly drifting on the bottom. Sometimes this deadsticking or do-nothing approach will result in the capture of a monster Bass that took his time locating, examining and eventually biting the ‘easy prey.’ Both methods usually involve anchoring your boat. If you are a particularly patient person, able to stay relatively still for mind-numbing periods of time, have at it. I may not be so twitchy that I have to constantly run-and-gun up and down the lake, but I do prefer systematically fishing an area, moving from place to place fairly often. When it’s not too weedy, I use the side-scanner feature of my fish finder to help find more productive spots.

Watching for surface activity and concentrations of baitfish helps to zero in on good areas too. Using my polarized Native sunglasses, I also spot big fish. They can be a challenge, but if you don’t get too close, and if you find the bait they want, they can be caught. Sightfishing can be frustrating, but it can be very rewarding. If nothing else, study the fish. Watch what he does, what he seems to be looking for. How he relates to the cover and structure in his environment. You just might pick up some information that will help you in the future, even when you can’t actually see a fish.

This Summer, remember that the old adage is true: There are always shallow fish. Along with this is the fact that shallow fish will be found wherever there is shade. Summer Fish must seek the protection and cooler qualities of shady areas, whether it is under lily pads, among cattails and bullrushes, under thick weed beds, under or beside mudlines, behind boulders or under logs. I have caught quite a few large fish in our local area that had raw spots on the tops of their tails – a kind of reverse spawning sore – from constantly sculling under their favorite log. I caught a big fish on a Texas rigged black lizard, while nightfishing in Long Lake in Spokane last July. The back of its tail from top to bottom was badly worn. This big Largemouth had been lurking along a vertical rock wall and had obviously taken up residence in a small pocket in the wall, facing out and watching for dinner. All such hideouts offer shade and cover, but the premium spots are also great ambush points where small prey do not see their doom waiting to pounce. Look for such spots!

Whether in lakes or rivers, I look for weedbeds and pads. Then I ‘pick them apart,’ dropping heavy jigs into holes in weed matts, dragging baits between clumps of pads or working weedless baits through pads. Letting a Spro Frog sit on a pad near an opening, then finally pulling him off and twitching him through the opening can produce a Summertime smash hit. Remember not to set the hook when you see the swirl or splash. Wait until you feel weight, then jab the hook in. The same pad-resting tactic, only with a Texas rigged worm which I eventually drop into an opening, can also tantalize a shady Bass into biting. Clear water and openings in vegetation are also good combinations for swimbaits, Sluggos and flukes. Try parking them like a baitfish hesitating between dashes.

I use the venerable spinnerbait too, but now I can ‘burn’ it through fish-holding areas. I might use the drop and flutter technique in some specific spots, but mostly I’m fishing the bait fast either just sub-surface or during daylight hours, deep enough so as to be barely visible to me. Usually around two feet or so, depending on water clarity. It’s somewhat of a relief to me when the warm weather finally comes and I no longer have to crawl my baits. But if I know for sure there are fish present and I’m not getting bites, I will slow the bait down or even slow-roll it on the bottom.

There was no need for that just the other night when a big fish came near to yanking my 6’6” baitcaster out of my hands. He was lurking in a barely submerged weedbed and after jarring me from daydreaming in the darkness, he dug in for the battle. Proof that even on moonless nights, Bass can still see and attack fast moving baits! This time topwaters didn’t work, but spinnerbaits did.

That happened in a lake, but don’t neglect the Columbia River. Its backwaters have some monster Bass hiding and they can be caught in daylight hours as well. I usually prefer slack or outgoing tides, but I used an incoming tide one afternoon to push a weightless, weedless, 10 inch black Powerworm under a jumble of crossed logs. A big fish gave an aggressive yank and then headed up-current in an arcing, Steelhead-like run. I had never seen a big fish make such a run. River fish have attitudes! I often find them hiding near shore along big laydowns or partially submerged logs, and such fish seem to be most vulnerable to a jig and grub dragged parallel – not across – the log.

Persistence pays off, so this Summer don’t get discouraged by the dog days and ‘slow’ doldrums. Use a mesh hat and some cool clothes to beat the heat. Bring plenty of fluids. Make lots of casts. Don’t be afraid to use big baits. And about the time you’re feeling like settling into that easy chair or lounge out on the deck at home, head for the water instead. It can be beautiful out there at night. So can the big fish that are waiting. {Wear long pants and a long-sleeved shirt and put on some insect repellant…the skeeters are on the bite too!}

See you in August.

Your fellow fishing fanatic and Bassmaster,

Bob Larimer