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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?

The days are getting noticeably shorter, lake and river temperatures are ramping down, and Largemouth Bass are responding by going on ‘The Fall Bite.’ In this time of ‘feeding frenzy,’ fish are bulking up in preparation for the cold winter months when their metabolism slows way down and with it, their feeding activity. Plus, a beautiful Indian Summer is a great time to be out on the water.

In the Pacific Northwest, September and even October can be excellent for Bass fishing, mirroring the crazy activity levels of Spring. Fish caught during this time can be much heavier and have much more of a football shape, compared to fish of the same length caught in Spring and Summer. One particularly warm mid-October, I caught 10 Largemouth in a row out of the same small area in a backwater of the Columbia River near Woodland, Washington. I had an appointment to keep so I had to leave without being able to find out how many more would have jumped on my baits, but what a day!

The above is just one benefit of the Fall frenzy: Bass seem to be more concentrated in obvious areas, not dispersed as in Summer fishing. Look for Largemouth attracted to riprap and other rocky areas. Rocks hold heat and radiate it during the cooling weeks of Fall, and Bass begin to look for these warmer areas. I have caught very large fish simply by making casts parallel to riprap shorelines and by running baits through shallow, rocky areas. Crankbaits, spinnerbaits and jig-and-grub (skirted with brush guard) or jig-and-frog combination’s work well in these situations. In clear water, try a swimbait that looks like the baitfish in that area. Rig it with as little weight as possible, but make certain it stays upright and straight, then swim it slowly along the rocks at mid-depths. A recognizable, easy meal will be hard for a Largemouth to resist. Don’t forget to experiment with a topwater bait too. A hardbait or a frog can still work under the right circumstances.

Start with the bigger, flashier lures. If they do not work, or if you get hit but not hung on a fish, go to the swimbaits or the quieter, smaller jig combo, or even a Texas-rigged soft plastic worm or tube bait. If you can be on the water at the beginning of a Fall rain, be there! This often turns on a major bite. My biggest Fall fish have come at such times.

An excellent all-around Fall tactic is to prowl river or lake shorelines from a boat, canoe, float tube, pontoon boat or kayak and simply cast a ½ ounce jig-and-grub to the shore, then drag it into the water and reel slowly, letting the jig bumble along the bottom. Aggressively feeding Fall fish will know what to do! I prefer a multicolor jig such as black, brown and green, with a little touch of red somewhere on the jig or grub. If you are shore-bound, don’t give up! You can still catch big Bass by working the shoreline to the right or left of you, gaining more access by carefully, quietly wading out where possible.

Remember that because of it’s off-center, head-heavy design, the jig is especially susceptible to being thrown if a caught fish gets his head above water and shakes it. The bait will flip out of the fish unless you keep a moderately tight line while the acrobatics are going on. Don’t allow your line to go slack, and don’t try to jerk or ‘horse’ the fish toward you. Just keep the line straight and tight between you and the fish while he’s head-shaking. I like to keep my rod more parallel at such a moment, so there is less of a sharp angle between the tip of my rod and the hook in the fish’s face. It seems to help keep him stuck. Remember that water temperatures and fish activity levels can vary quite a bit from day to day, and from area to area. A faster retrieve might stimulate attacks in one instance, a slower retrieve might be the real producer in another. When you catch a Fall bass, remember what you were doing and at what speed. The fish just gave you a hint!

As the days grow even shorter and colder, as light levels decrease and as the Bass’s metabolism decreases, the Bass will begin to move to deeper haunts and become harder to catch. But not impossible! The ‘strike zone’ – distance from the fish in which he is willing to move to take a bait – will shrink, but fish will still need to feed. Slower fishing is called for, but it will still produce fish. We’ll talk about some specific slow tactics and presentations in October. See you then!

BY: Bob Larimer Your Friendly Addicted Bass Fishermen

No, that doesn’t mean that pollution and radiation have given the fish three fingers, or that I set the world record with a hundred pound fish! It means that even in the hottest weather, Smallmouth and Largemouth are biting.

The hottest day at my house hit 109 in the shade, and I saw on national news that Vancouver, Washington had broken it’s all time record with 108 degrees. But I hit the Willamette above the falls at Oregon City and found many Smallies volunteering to bite soft plastics, crankbaits and spinnerbaits. Rapala’s Shad Rap suspending Rainbow Trout worked great, alternatively sitting it and ripping it. A firetiger DT4 crankbait, bumbling along on the rocky bottom also produced. Gary Yamamoto grubs on ballhead jigs ticking the rocks also worked. Most volunteers were relatively small, but my friend Roy caught a battling 4 ½ pounder that nearly escaped the best efforts of two excited guys to net him. This was all in 100+ degree weather. We found shady spots and hid under the boat’s Bimini top. The river breeze helped out too.

I also fished some backwaters behind islands in the Columbia and caught quite a few Smallmouth. I have heard that the Columbia slough near the mouth of the Willamette is producing a mixed bag of Smallies and Walleyes too. More than one fisherman told me that they are getting big Smallmouth – 4 pounds and above – using topwaters early in the morning. Might be worth a try, if you like the adrenalin rush of a topwater attack!

We’ve got more hot August weather coming, and I don’t think we should let the heat keep us off the water. Also, there is an alternative to broiling in the heat.

Go West, young Bass man!

Many of Washington and Oregon’s coastal lakes and ponds are loaded with Largemouth. Some are hefty fish approaching 10 lbs., and you’ll be fishing in much more pleasant weather. In the past I have fished Loomis, Siltcoos, Takenitch and other coastal lakes, but this Summer I vacationed for a week with friends near Florence, Oregon and we fished a lake a few miles inland that proved to be a real producer. Combining our two families, we rented a home on the lake and were able to moor our boat and canoe at a private dock just across the lawn from the house. What a hardship it was, getting up in the morning, walking over to the boat, motoring a short distance and immediately catching fish!

When we asked an old guy who lives on the lake about launching he asked us if we were Bass fishermen, then informed us that the water was cold and no fish were being caught. We found the launch, got set up at the house, then caught fish at all hours of the day all week long. Can’t blame the guy for trying to shoo us away though!

I am proud to report that I experimented with many types of baits. One of my biggest fish came on a Bill Dance’s Eel. I wanted a more subtle bait in a shallow cove, and the head-wagging, tail-rippling motion of the bait seemed perfect. Also, we had seen quite a few salamanders surfacing for air and the Eel has similar movements. I watched a huge shape move out from under a submerged jumble of limbs and logs, then felt the weight on my line. The treble hook under the Eel’s head did the trick and we had a monster in the livewell! (I have now caught a surprise backwater Chinook Salmon, Largemouth, Smallmouth and a Rainbow Trout on the Dance’s Eel). Jig and grub combos, crankbaits and floating and suspending stickbaits also lured in some good fish. Twin-blade spinnerbaits accounted for most of our bigger Bass and we found that concentrating on points seemed to be the best strategy. Shallow coves produced during low-light hours.

A bit of experience that might help on your next outing: Topwater splashes, chases and slurps might not necessarily mean that topwater baits will produce. On several evening outings on the lake, I noticed lots of noise and motion on the surface. Desiring to be as cooperative and adaptable as possible (I always try to help supply the fish with what they want!), I put on single, then twin-blade buzzbaits. Nothing. I tried a Skitter Pop baitfish imitation using varying speeds and actions. Nothing. I twitched a floating stickbait. Nothing. I tried a Spro frog. Nothing. I tried ‘burning’ a spinnerbait just subsurface through open water where I had seen baitfish being chased. Nothing.

As I was experimenting with these baits I noticed baitfish activity at the very tips of several laydown trees extending out into the lake. Active fish were using the swamped trees to hide from predators. We made a slow, quiet approach to one these half-submerged treetops and I made a cast beyond, then hurried my spinnerbait through the water, letting it bang among the smaller branches. Even without my polarized glasses on, I suddenly saw a big bass torpedo straight up from beneath the treetop and make a vertical hairpin turn as he smashed my bait and headed for the deeps of the lake. By the time I reacted and set the hook, he had already peened himself on the bait and disappeared. He was one of the strongest, best fighting fish of the trip, and we caught several others by using the same tactic on other laydowns. It is possible that the ultra-clear water made open-water surface baits a little too flashy. Also, we had noticed many predator birds such as Cormorants, Blue Herons, Ospreys and Bald Eagles. I saw Eagles and Ospreys tumbling through the air in mock battles, screaming at each other over prime areas. With so much danger in the skies, I think the bigger, smarter fish were reluctant to risk exposing themselves by chasing baitfish out in the open.

If your are prospecting and trying out new areas this Summer, remember to try different tactics. Even though one idea or bait might make sense, there may be some factor influencing the fish in another direction. Use your powers of observation, keep an open mind, experiment and don’t get discouraged. If you keep trying, something will work. Then you can duplicate that success elsewhere on the same water.

I am excited about next month. September can be one of the best months for intercepting turned-on, football-shaped Bass. Book-ending the strategies of Spring can yield deep-bodied, hard-fighting fish that are bulking up for the chilly Winter months ahead.

See you in September!

Your friend,

Bassmaster Bob

With the Columbia staying up unusually high and chilly for this time of year, Vancouver Lake is still a good place to hunt for big Largemouth.

Cast the pockets in flooded brush, look for leaner logs and bounce your spinnerbaits or jig-and-pigs off of them underwater, or yo-yo a Texas-rigged plastic worm up and down on underwater branches. Try rigging them ‘wacky’ too. If you’re sure the bottom is not too weedy, a Carolina-rigged worm, creature or lizard 18 to 24 inches behind the lead and bead might be the just the thing to fool a late Spring or early Summer Bass to chomp and romp. One recent Gallery picture has me holding up a hefty LakeRiver Bass that could not resist a twin-blade, Colorado and Willow Leaf spinnerbait dragged through and over a jumble of logs, then allowed to flutter down helplessly. Wham! What a bite and what a fight!

Lacamas Lake has been producing good fish too. My most recent June Gallery shot features a deep-bodied Largemouth that nailed the same bait just as it dropped in near an underwater branch. The picture is pretty dark {Hint!}.

Silver Lake has been producing good fish soft plastics and on jig-and-grub combinatons. Some folks have been having success with finesse drop-shot rigs, fooling Silver’s heavily pressured, tournament-wise fish. The old weedless Johnson Spoons are also producing, slipping and flashing through weeds and pads, but nobody much mentions them. Wonder why??!!

This brings us to the promised discussion of varying your Topwater assaults on the Bass’s world. In lakes, ponds or even river backwaters, topwaters will trigger vicious hits from aggressive Bass. I recommend getting in on early morning and late evening bites. Previous articles have discussed the floating minnow-bait such as Rapala or Bomber Long A, along with their jointed-body brothers. We’ve also discussed the delights of ‘walking the dog’ with a Zara Spook or other wigwagging, baitfish-resembling surface skimmer.

Floating wacky worms hooked in the middle and twitched open and closed also qualify as topwater tempters, as do ‘Salad Spoons’, Scum Frogs and other soft plastic surface offerings. Even the lowly curled tail grub, fished weightless or Texas-rig-pegged with a very light bullet weight will also slither across weeds and produce jarring surface hits. It’s a real thrill to watch the water hump up when a big fish zeros in on your helpless little grub!

Chuggers (Some come equipped with ‘weedless’ treble hooks), poppers and ‘Crazy Crawlers’ can also be relied on to trigger surface hits. The amazing, jiving, diving, rising BassOreno is another topwater that some place in a category all its own. They all get the fish looking up for dinner.

Probably one of the most time-honored topwater baits, though, is the ‘Buzzbait.’ Whether a single-blade, inline buzzer sporting a weedguard on the hook, a double small-to-large inline blade affair, a ‘safety-pin’ style buzzer with blade on the top arm and a hydrodynamic, skirted jig head on the bottom arm, or the fancy new side-by-side, ‘counter-rotating’ blades (or ‘wings’) on a safety-pin style buzzer wire, buzzbaits produce. You can also buy them in varying sizes, or with ‘clackers’ depending on how noisy or subtle you want to be. There are even hollow ‘spoons’ with rattles inside, designed to wobble and sputter along on the surface

These baits may irritate a lurking or hiding Bass into striking as they gurgle over the fish’s lair, they may resemble a fleeing baby bird or mouse whose luck ran out, they may resemble surface-busting baitfish being chased, or they may just attract random, curious, feeding Bass. For whatever reason, under the right conditions Bass will explode on them.

Because their hooks usually ride with the point up, buzzbait fishing can sometimes produce fish on only about 70% of the strikes the bait draws. But since the action can be really hot, it probably won’t matter! My preference is to fish them with a grub trailer, with the curled tail pointed down away from the hook point. I believe that a slightly inaccurate or short-striking fish is more likely to return for the kill if he got a taste of a lifelike, wiggling grub tail on his first whack at the bait! Either way, confidence in your bait is important.

I like to drag buzzers through ambush points between separate groups of lily pads, over grassy points, through thin stands of bullrushes and over slightly submerged weedbeds. What seems like open water can also produce well too, as can parallel retrieves along shorelines, no matter what features the bank has. Just a related note: Tournament Frogs or any floating frog imitation can sometimes do a surprising job of attracting big fish, even when retrieved across expanses of open water. It’s the only game in town, and Mr. Largemouth just might want to play!

My recommendation for this time of year, once the water is warm, is to have a variety of topwater baits ready and try them throughout the day, with special attention to evening hours when the water seems to ‘come alive.’

I think you’ll be glad you tried topwater tactics!

Have a great June and we’ll talk about the ‘dog days’ of Summer in next month’s article.

By Bassmaster Bob