OMEGA ALPHA SHADS

When it comes to catching better than average fish I would say my two favorite baits to throw are jigs and buzzbaits. Jigs do such a great job of getting deep into the cover where the big girls live, while buzzbaits can produce the most explosive strikes.

I have been throwing OMEGA Custom Tackle’s jigs for a while now with great success and just recently I started throwing the New OMEGA ALPHA Shad buzzbait. The ALPHA Shad has just been tearing them up. While there are a lot of other buzzbaits out on the market you can really see and appreciate all the time and effort that went into creating the ALPHA Shad.

When you retrieve the bait it comes to the surface really fast and the gold blades shimmer in the sun as they hit each other on every turn of the reel which produces a ton of spit and noise unlike any buzzbait I’ve ever thrown. The buzzbait produces a great bubble trail and the skirt pulsates in the water giving off a tremendous amount of action. The blades allow you to crawl it along the bank really slow and keep it in the strike zone.This buzzbait produces the sound and action of a double buzzer but is real easy to cast due to a 7/16oz head.

The ALPHA Shad has a Z wire which works with a long shank Gamakatsu to hook bass fast and keep them hooked all the way to the net. I haven’t found the need to add a trailer hook yet. The skirts are really lively and it’s available in the Chartruese Shad “Big Money” color and Black.

The OMEGA Custom Tackle ALPHA Shad is now available at www.omegacustomtackle.com

nice healthy bass on the ALPHA Shad

The AiRRUS Feather Touch T6 is available and has features that could only be found on a custom made rod. The rod features a one of a kind Feather Touch Reel Seat which is built with air craft grade aluminum that reduces weight and increases strength and sensitivity. The handle puts an angler in direct contact with the rod blank which reduces weight and allows for the ultimate feel. This rod also has an aluminum screw lock cap that reduces weight from a foregrip and allows faster transmission of vibration to the reel seat increasing sensitivity. The rod has Fugi Alconite Guides which are extremely durable and allow line to flow through without drag which increases casting distance and accuracy. These rods also feature the popular split grip handle design which adds style as well as performance. The rod is also assembled in Texas by American craftsmen.

Tackle Warehouse also has the AiRRUS Ultra XL in stock. This rod has thermalon grips which trap heat and keep your hands warmer on cold days while wicking away moisture and adding comfort which all add up to less hand fatigue after a days worth of fishing. The rod comes with two interchangeable butt sections which can be easily swapped out allowing the angler to customize the rod for different presentations. The sections are 4 1/2″ and 7 1/2″. I have found this feature to come in handy when throwing jerkbaits in the winter and then cranking in the summer. I like to stick the 4 1/2″ in for jerkbaits in the winter time because a shorter handle doesn’t get caught up my clothing as much as a longer handle would making it easier to work a jerkbait. The 7 1/2 inch comes in handy for increasing your leverage when you need to make two handed casts with a deep diving crankbait. The interchangeable grip is a great feature that you just can’t find on any other rod on the market. Ultra XL rods are extremely light and easy to handle and make putting in those long hours on the water a whole lot easier. If your looking for a rod with great performance and style this is one rod you need to try.

Top to Bottom: AiRRUS Ultra XL, Co-Matrix 457, Copperhead Series, Ultra XL, Co-Matrix 457.

The AiRRUS Co-Matrix 457 is also available at Tackle Warehouse. The Co-Matrix has a great feel and is priced right for the angler who is looking for a lot of performance without breaking the bank. The rod has a thermalon grip which makes it really comfortable in your hand which is a big plus. The grip also wicks away mositure and keeps your hands warm on those chilly days. These rods are really durable and can take a ton of abuse. I have used the Co-Matrix 457 in the 7 foot medium heavy action for pitching jigs and plastics for the past couple of years without having any break. The durability has saved me a lot of money that I have been able to put towards other expenses like gas and entry fees. Even though everyone tells you not to swing fish over 5lbs in the boat, I do that all the time with these rods and it doesn’t seem to hurt them at all.

I made it out to Vandalia Lake in Illinois for some fun fishing two days ago. I know Vandalia Lake like the back of my hand and I was excited to be able to get out on the lake to try and catch some big ones. Well the fishing out at Vandalia Lake from what I’ve heard has been a lot tougher this year. The tournaments at Vandalia have been taking about 12lbs to win and about 8 to 9lbs to get in the money. In the past sometimes it would take upwards of over 20 pounds to win a tournament on the lake this time of the year. Even though the fishing was suppose to be tough I felt confident that I could put some in the boat, I mean I do have two second place finishes, two third place finishes, and a fourth place finish to my name on the lake.

Thunderstorms were in the forecast and for once the weathermen got it right. I put the boat in the water as the rain was coming down and made a short run to my favorite stretch of bank and was able to put four bass in the boat pretty quick with one of them about 2 and a half pounds for keeper number one. I was flipping a black and blue sweet beaver that I had rigged up on a Naked Bait Company Skirted Weight with a Honey Hole 3/0 hook. It wasn’t long that a lightening storm blew up on the lake and I had to head to this vacant dock that I know about to wait it out. So for about an hour and a half I sat under this dock waiting out the storm just dying to get back to fishing. I imagine that the topwater bite would have been insane during the down pour with a buzzbait.

The storm blew through pretty quick and I decided to go fish some areas that have worked in the past but for whatever reason really haven’t held any fish for the last two years. After spending some time exploring these old areas without any luck it was time to go hit some of my favorite spots with a crankbait to see what I could bring up. I ran to one of my favorite points and quickly caught one about 4 pounds on a Smack Tackle Gizz 3 shallow crank. The bait was hooked in the fish good enough that I just swung it in the boat on 20lb test line. I then made a short trip to another productive point and caught my third keeper on the crank that went about 2 and half pounds. This one I had to scoop up because he just had the back hook in its mouth.

It had been a while since I fished my productive little stretch of bank that I started on in the morning so I decided to head back to it and flip through it one more time with my beaver rig. A couple of pitches to some vegetation and I was reeling in my fourth keeper that was about four and a half pounds. This fish took a little dead sticking to get it to bite and about 5 flips to the same little clump of grass. Whenever you are fishing shallow cover sometimes it will take a couple of pitches to get a fish to bite. Especially on highly pressured lakes like Vandalia.

After fishing so deep down in Kentucky for the last couple of times I’ve been out it was refreshing to get out and do some shallow fishing for a change with the old flipping stick and the cranking rod. While fishing deep can be a lot of fun and challenging every bass fisherman has to enjoy casting to targets and just going down the bank.

Although a lot of anglers might be more familiar with the Pay Check Baits Punch Skirt, which was just recently created out on the West Coast for fishing the California Delta and other grass filled lakes, The Naked Bait Co. Skirted Weight System has been a secret set-up with anglers on the East Coast and throughout the Midwest for some time.

Naked Bait Co. Pro Jon Stanco who hails from Plainville, CT has been reaping the benefits of the Skirted Weight System for the past couple of years since he joined forces with Naked Bait Company. Stanco has been using the Skirted Weight System to probe the immense grassbeds on his home waters, the Great Lakes.

Stanco said the Skirted Weight System really shines when fishing grass that doesn’t top out and canopy on the waters surface to where it is open underneath. Often Stanco finds himself fishing coontail grass on some of his favorite lakes and it can be a real challenge to get a jig to come through the grass easily. Stanco said that whenever he would try to bring a jig through the coontail, he would have to often fight to get his jig to come through a lot of times and it would a lot of times come back with grass all over the weedguard which made for an unatural presentation. When he started using the Skirted Weight System, fishing the grass became a whole lot easier. He was also able to keep the same profile and action of a jig but have a bait that wouldn’t get caught up in the grass.

Recently Stanco used the Skirted Weight System to flip up big smallmouths on braided line on grass beds that were in six and half to twelve feet of water. His setup consisted of 3/4 oz to 1oz Skirted Weights that he pitched on a flipping stick with 65lb test braid which enabled him to yank the hard fighting smallmouth out of the grass and into the boat. Stanco has shared his Skirted Weight technique with a couple of close friends who have become big believers in the Skirted Weight System. He admits that a lot of his friends thought the rig was a bit goofy until they gave it a try and then they witnessed its performance first hand.

Stanco does make a small modification to his Skirted Weights by taking a sharpie and coloring the Naked Bait Co. Skirted Weights whatever color he desires. After he is done coloring the weights he will add a clear coat to give the weights a slick finish. He says it’s more of a confidence thing and that the unpainted weights will work just as good.

One thing is for sure the Skirted Weight System from Naked Bait Company is catching on with anglers all across the country and the whole system is a lot more economical than other variations on the market. Naked Bait Companies Skirted Weight System can be purchased by visiting www.nakedbaitco.com.

Naked Bait Co. Pro Jon Stanco

But the way it stands, the BASS postseason is here to say as it is and looks like something we’ll (all) have to get used to.  Is it the the most accurate measure of AOY?  We all have our opinions.  Is it the most dramatic way to end a (once dominated, play-for-second) tournament season?  Yep.

Congrats to KVD.  You’re the man.  And you too, Skeet.

When it comes to bass fishing you can not beat a good flipping bite in the grass. Big bass love to burry up in the grass because it offers shade, protection, increased oxygen, and great cover to ambush prey. Whenever you have a lake that has vegetation in it the bass will almost always use it at some point during the course of a year.

We all know that big bass like jigs, especially big bass hanging out in the grass. One of the problems though you can face with throwing jigs in grass is that sometimes grass can get caught around the weedguard which can make for an unatural presentation to the bass.

Naked Bait Company has the solution to this problem in the Skirted Weight System. Naked Bait Companies Skirted Weights allow the angler to present a bait with the same exact profile as a jig while allowing the angler to add whatever bait they wish as a trailer.

Skirted Weights do such a great job of coming through the veggies and they are offered in both freshwater and saltwater sizes to make punching the thickest vegetation possible. A freshwater pack contains two of the following 1/16 oz, 1/8 oz, and 3/16 oz. A saltwater pack contains two of the following 1/2 oz, 3/4oz, and 1 oz.

When rigging the Skirted Weights what I like to do is take the 1/2 oz or the 3/4 oz and add one or two skirts to the collar. Then I’ll put the skirted weight on my line and then tie on a Honey Hole 3/0 hook. I’ll put either a Sweet Beaver or some type of craw on the hook texas style. Then I will peg the skirted weight with a rubber stop that is also available from Naked Bait Company. When everthing is set to go one more thing that I will do is slide the weight on down to the hook but make sure you leave a little room between the hook and the weight so you can get good hook movement so you can a good hookset. One of the biggest mistakes you can make is to slide the weight all the way down on the plastic bait which makes hookups harder. Leave about a 1/4 ” space.

When you have your Skirted Weight rigged up just take the bait and throw it in the grass and work it like you would a jig. The action is so good and you will be surprised with how many more fish you catch in the process. All the components of the Naked Bait Company Skirted Weight System can be purchased by visiting www.nakedbaitco.com.

I got down to the lake around 1 pm on Friday and put the boat in the water to check out some of the spots that have produced a lot of keepers for me in the past up by the dam. All I could gather from practice was what areas I would not be fishing in the tournament. One of the biggest problems was that there was no current being generated which was changing the way the fish were positioned on the ledges that had been so fruitful in the past. Instead of the fish being positioned on tops of the ledges on a 15 to 20 foot break and just on the drops the fish seemed to be suspended out in 25 to 30 feet of water on the base of the drop offs on the channel bottom or out in open water. Not much was showing up on the depth finder on top of the ledges. Whenever there is current the fishing is a lot easier because the bass will pop up on top of the ledges and get tight to the bottom. Since there was no current the fish were backed out off the ledges and I knew it was going to be a grinder for me because I’m still learning how to catch these fish.

Going into the tournament I knew where a couple of rock piles where out in 25 to 30 feet of water that I had found in previous visits to the lake. I hadn’t checked these spots yet so I thought it would probably be a good place to start. When my boat number 83 was finally called I tore out of the marina and headed full speed to the first deep rock pile. I had on the deck a 3/4 oz OMEGA football jig that I had added a custom made skirt that was watermellon candy with a couple of strips of firetiger on the belly that I had created with the Naked Bait Co skirt expander and a 10 inch green pumpkin Power Worm. When I got to the spot I found another boat already sitting on it working it over. He wasn’t fishing the rock pile though but fishing about 30 yards to the right of where it was so I idled on over to the spot and noticed that he wasn’t in the tournament. After a couple of words were exchanged he said it was fine for me to fish the spot too. I pulled out the rod with the power worm and made repeated casts to the rockpile and on the 8th or 9th cast I got a solid thump and set the hook on a 3lb bass and quickly swung it in the boat.

I picked up the rod and put a new worm on it and threw it right back to the rock pile hoping that I had just gotten a school of bass stirred up. Well after about 8 or 9 more casts with no luck I picked up the football jig and started stroking it on the rock pile and bagged up another 3lber. The fish just about too the rod out of my hands. Having two keepers in the boat for about 6lbs before 7 am I was feeling pretty good but I knew to have any chance I would have to catch some 5 and 6 pounders. Kentucky Lake has so many big fish that if you are not catching 5 and 6 pounders you don’t have a prayer.

After not getting any more bites I decided it was time to make a move to another deep rockpile. On the first cast I caught a short on the worm and went a little while without another bite. I picked up the football jig and hit the rockpile a couple of times and finally got a solid thump and set the hook on another 3lber and swung it in the boat. The fish had the jig all the way down it’s throat but I didn’t need a 3lber I needed one about 4 or 5 lbs. I fished the area without another bite and made a move to another rock pile that sat in 30 feet of water. After a couple of casts to the pile I boated a short and then as I was snapping the jig up off the bottom my rod about doubled over and I set the hook on a 4lber and walked it around the boat a couple of times and swung it into the boat. The jig was all the way down it’s throat.

It was about noon and I didn’t have to be back for weigh in till 3:30 I had plenty of time to check some other locations. I pulled up on this hump up by the dam and caught a short off it on the football jig and then didn’t get any more bites. The day after the tournament I caught a 5lber off the hump so guess I just didn’t time it right. Since nothing was biting I made a move to a rocky main lake point that I have fished in the past with some luck. On about the 3rd cast I got a bite at the end of the cast. I reared back to set the hook and my rod was doubled over. I quickly put the rod down to try and keep the fish from jumping but the 4lber shot up and threw my 1 oz jig. It hurt so much to lose that fish.

It had been a while since I had fished that rockpile that I started on so it was time to make the trip back down lake to hit it again to see if it had reloaded. I managed to pull a couple of shorts off it and then lose another 2lber at the boat because I had tried to swing it and it hit the side of the boat. A 2lb fish on Kentucky Lake isn’t going to help you out at all anyways so it was pretty easy to shake loosing that one off. I rotated through the rockpiles that had produced earlier and just couldn’t get anything off them.

Time was starting to run out and the day wasn’t getting any better. My lack of practice was going to hurt me. All the obvious spots were covered up with boats and I tried joining the party on a couple of the holes but nobody was getting bit. Since the Marina wasn’t off limits to fishing I decided to make a run back to the Marina to fish the last 15 minutes of my day away to try and pick up one more keeper. I was mentally exhausted from battling the heat and boat traffic and I knew that it would take culling all my fish or catching a 10lber to even have a shot at getting in the money because my day had been so slow.

When I weighed in my 4 keepers went 13lbs and it wasn’t good enough to get in the money. I ended up somewhere in the 30′s and was pretty disappointed with how I fished but I guess it could have been a lot worse. The tournament took 19lbs to get into the top 10 and 28lbs to win. That 4lber that I wasn’t able to get in the boat would have made it close. I would have had around 17lbs but I guess that is why they call it fishing instead of catching. The last couple of tournaments I just haven’t been able to control the variables. In order to do good you have to be able to execute when it counts. I’m sorry for no fish photos from the tournament. Since it was so hot the fish after weigh in were released as quickly as possible to try and ensure their survival.

Gear:
7 Foot AiRRUS Co Matrix Rod, 15lb Flurocarbon Line on the Jig, 12lb Fluorocarbon Line on the Worm, 3/4 oz OMEGA Football Jig, 10 Inch Berkley Power Worm Green Pumpkin t rigged on a 5/16th oz bullet weight with Honey Hole Hook.