The days are getting longer and the fish are starting to get a little more active.  Where I’m fishing at right now I’m still dealing with cold muddy water. The water has been ranging anywhere from 42 to 45 degrees.  I haven’t been having a whole lot of success on some of my classic wintertime favorites….the jerkbait, crank, and the jig. What I have been having success with is a spinnerbait.

The spinnerbait has always been a great bait to throw in muddy to stained water. The bait produces a tremendous amount of water displacement and vibration that makes it easy to find for the bass. Also this time of year the shad can be dying all over the place and a spinnerbait works wonders at imitating them. Continue reading ‘Early Spinnerbaiting…..’

As I was walking out of an extremely boring 8am English class into the North Carolina weather, I wasn’t feeling it. It was a balmy 48 degrees and cloudy with a piercing cold front wind blowing 10 miles an hour. All I could think about was sleeping. I had been up til 3am the previous night typing a paper (I don’t procrastinate…..much) and really was not in the mood to go battle the elements. I knew in the back of my mind I needed to get out and fish. I have a tournament on March 22nd and the fish weren’t going to figure themselves out for me on Falls lake.

As I got back into my room, I decided to stay in. The bed was calling my name, and I knew the fish were not going to bite after a 32 degree drop in temperature from yesterday. All the books say that when a cold front moves through, the fishing will generally get tougher. Just as I was about to climb into bed my ringtone (My Name Is by Eminem) blasts through the silence. Continue reading ‘To Fish or Not to Fish: What a STUPID Question’

Just because the water is in the upper 30′s to 40′s doesn’t mean that you can’t have success on a crankbait. The key is all in location and the retrieve. Some of the most productive places to toss a crankbait this time of the year are chunk rock banks and bluff end points. The best points seem to be those that have rock going all the way out to around 12 feet. You want to try and find the rock that is baseball sized and rock that is basketball sized in close proximity to deeper water. Bass will move up out of that deep water to feed on crayfish in the rocks and a crankbait rooting around will get the bass to react. When searching for these cranking hotspots it is important to try and keep the sun at your back. These areas will warm up the quickest and are usually the most productive. The wind is often times your friend so if you see a windy point with some rock make sure to give it a shot.

A couple of crankbaits that seem to work well this time of year are a Storm Wiggle Wart, a Bomber 7 A, and a Rapala Shad Rap. I like the brn crawl, hot crawl, and the phantom green in a wiggle wart. The red crawl and fire tiger works well in the Bombers. This time of year a crawlfish pattern shad rap also does good and the minnow color with the black back. I throw these cranks on 8 to 10 pound test line. I’ve been having success with 8 as of late. I’m not a fan of the flouro because it doesn’t seem to deflect as much as the mono. You get hung up a lot more on the rocks if your cranking with flouro instead of mono.  I like to use a slower 6.31 Diawa or Abu Revo reel to do most of my cranking because I can give the crank just a slow steady retrieve without moving it too quick. All I want the bait to be doing is crashing into the rocks. I will ocassionally pause the bait for a couple of seconds and then start to reel again. You don’t want to make reel eratic starts and stops like you would during the summer time. The key is slow and steady.

My  rod of choice is an AiRRUS Copperhead Cranking stick at least 7 foot in length. I want to be as efficient in covering water as possible so I use the 7 foot rod to make really long casts. The rod also has the right action and feel that I can feel a bass when he hits. Early in the year the bass will still swallow your crank but you won’t feel anything except a change in the vibration. Whatever rod you choose to throw your crankbait on make sure you have enough sensitivity to feel the light biters.

- Spencer Clark, Editor

         When you walk through the isles of a tackle store a lot of times you have to deal with the frustration of not being able to find the right skirt color combinations on spinnerbaits and jigs.  So many times this has happened to me.  You have to settle for whats available, buy jigs or spinnerbaits and then swap the skirts, or spend a lot of time looking around on-line for  baits with your favorite skirt combinations. A lot of anglers don’t know that there are tools today that exist  that make building your own skirt combinations really easy and affordable. A lot of people spend money on those 3 skirt packs that are way over priced. If you have a couple of favorite skirt color combinations that you catch a lot of fish on it is way cheaper to build your own skirts. There are several skirt building tools out there on the market.

Naked Bait Company Skirt Expander

          The Naked Bait Company skirt expander is the easiest  skirt building tool to work with and it’s what I use to build my skirts. I really like a couple of colors for my jigs skirts and spinnerbaits so what I do is get a bunch of skirt material in those colors. I catch a lot of fish on a peanut butter and jelly skirt combination and black and blue so I’m always making those skirts. A lot of times if your on a hot jig or spinnerbait bite your skirts will take a beating and its great to be able to add a fresh one in the same exact color. An added bonus is that you can make those finesse jig skirts for your jigs that you can”t find anywhere in the stores. You don’t waste as much material because you can add just a couple of strands to a collar instead of having to trim and tear up the skirts that come on your jigs. A lot of times with a football jig I like to have anywhere from 80 to 120 strands at least to give the jig that bulk and water displacement. It’s hard to find pre-made skirts with that many strands. Another thing I’ve been experimenting with here lately is inserting a couple of strands just barely in the collar to give the jig the illusion of tentacles of a crawlfish. Another thing you can do is trim up the skirts really short so that the skirt flairs a bunch giving it some more action.  Talking to some of the pro’s one of the hottest trends on the tour is building skirts to match the zoom finesse worm colors on shakeyheads.

The Troops from 2-7 Calvary, 4^th Brigade, 1^st Calvary Division would like to extend our deepest appreciation for all the support we received from all the ArmyBassAngler fans and family members during Operation Iraq Freedom 08-10.  To date, 2-7 CAV has received an estimated 500 Operation 2-7 Gatorade care packages full of Gatorade powder and other essential items ranging from home made baked goodies, magazines, photos and letters of encouragement.  I have vivid memories of when 2-7 assumed the mission to relocate to Maysan Province in Eastern, Iraq in June of 2008. 2-7 CAV would occupy an Iraqi Army compound in Al Amarah, Iraq called “Sparrow Hawk”.  Living conditions were austere to say the least with temperatures reaching and exceeding 140 degrees, yes that’s 140, not a typo.  2-7 CAV had very limited ice at that time and the water was well, just hot water, despite our best efforts to keep it cool.  Then, ArmyBassAnglers  launched Operation 2-7 Gatorade and within days Gatorade began to poor in from all across the country, making a tough mission and situation just a little more bearable, boosting morale and replenishing  much needed electrolytes to help us sustain our energy and our mission.  The magazines and newspapers were also a treat. Something as small as an issue of Maximum Outdoors of BASS Magazine can instantly bring you back home for a brief moment in time and in some cases that’s all anyone needs to re-charge their batteries.  We have since moved to a FOB (Forward Operating Base) Garry Owen and our living conditions continue to improve.  As our time in the desert comes to an end I would like to extend the deepest and warmest of wishes and gratitude from all of us at 2-7 CAV and especially from me (SSG Garrett), for all you have done and will continue to do to support the troops—Thank You!

SSG Michael Garrett

“7^th FIRST”