Just got back from the BFL Super Tournament at Lake of the Ozarks. I was able to finish 12th out of 102 co-anglers. The tournament qualified me for the BFL regional on Degray Lake and I ended the season ranked 20th in points.
Coming into the event my main goal was to make the top 20 to fish day 2 and stay in the top 40 in points to make the regional. I drew out boater Gary Shartzer on day one. Gary was great to fish with because we were around fish the whole day. I was able to boat 4 keepers. I caught my two biggest largemouths and kentucky on a trick worm rigged on an OMEGA Savior shakey head in the 1/8th oz size. My last keeper a 13 inch spot came on a 10 inch worm. My fish ended up going 6lbs 15 oz which put me in 10th place after day one.
I am always trying to learn from the people I fish with and we talked a lot about jerkbait fishing at the ozarks during the winter while we were fishing. Gary gave me some great tips on what to look for next spring. It was great because he also showed me some deep water spots.
Day 2 I drew out boater Chris Jeffries. We were covering a lot of water and the fishing for me out the back of the boat was pretty tough. We were fishing really fast. I was able to trick one kentucky into the boat by ripping a jerkbait to stay in the top 15 to end the tournament with a two day total of 8lbs5oz.
During the tournament I tossed my shakeyhead on a 7 foot AiRRUS Copperhead Cranking Stick on 10lb GAMMA High Performance Co-Polymer Line. I threw the 10 inch worm on a 6 foot 9 medium heavy AiRRUS Ultra XLÂ with 20lb test GAMMA High Performance Co-Polymer Line with a 1/2 oz Tru-Tungsten weight. The jerkbait was a lucky craft and I threw it on 20lb test as well to keep it shallow.
Tony Lain with a nice Thousand Hills 4lber
Yesterday local gun Tony Lain and I loaded up the boat and hit Thousand Hills Lake for an afternoon of fun fishing. With the water still around 70 to 74 degrees we found a majority of the bait fish to still be relating to the main lake. The first spot we stopped to fish was a main lake flat that dropped off into the channel. Tony was able to connect with a nice 4lb fish just as he snapped his bait off the drop off. After working this spot over with a couple of different baits we headed back to work some of the pockets and creeks in search of shallow bass. Tony was able to connect with a couple of shorts flipping an OMEGA football jig in front of me and I was able to snatch up keeper #2 on the day on a black and blue sweet beaver that I pitched up to a big lay down. We worked our way around the back of the creeks and despite there being bait fish present in the backs we couldn’t figure out how to tempt the keepers. We decided to head back out to the main lake and work a couple of underwater points without much luck. We came to a nice flat with a drop off and Tony caught a couple more shorts and a couple of walleye on a Pro-Mega structure fishing jig. Continue reading ‘Transition Time Bass’
One of the hottest techniques across the tournament trail is wacky jig fishing. The technique has been more of a sleeper than other popular finesse fishing techniques but one thing is certain if you haven’t tried this rig you need to because it will put more bass into your boat now!
The wacky jig is a spin off of the wacky rig because you take your jig and run the hook through the center of the worm. Now this might look like a goofy way to rig your bait and you might wonder how in the heck is that suppose to catch a fish? While the rig might look a little odd in your hand the magic happens when you put the bait in the water. The weight pulls the worm towards the bottom and the two ends of your worm go wild. This action drives bass crazy and it is something that most fish haven’t seen. You can also give the bait great action when it gets to the bottom. If you keep your line semi slack you can make your plastics wiggle with small twitches. Continue reading ‘A New Wiggle on Wacky Worming’
A lot of people think of a crankbait as a dummy bait. To the casual fisherman it may seem like all you need to do to fish a crankbait is tie one on and throw it out there. While you can probably catch some fish here and there with that mentality, there are a couple of tips that I can give you that have helped me take my crankbait fishing to the next level.
#1. When it comes to crankbait fishing you need to make sure that you have the Continue reading ‘Tips for Cranking’
Coming soon from Smack Tackle is the ultimate lipless crankbait! The new Flitterbait is the most realistic looking rip bait out there. The Flitterbait combines that action of a blade bait with the beauty of a crankbait. When you take the bait in your hand it is just like you’ve reached into a bait bucket. The bait was created to mimic a gizzard shad which is one the the predominate baitfishes in our lakes and streams. If you like to throw a rattletrap your going to want to add a couple of these baits to your arsenal. The bait is great for triggering schools of fish in the jumps as well as triggering reaction strikes from fish that don’t want to bite. The bait is so versatile. You can crank it, rip it, and hop it. If you like cranking grass, this bait excels. There are a lot of great trap lakes around me that get pounded with traditional rip baits and the fish get conditioned. This is going to be a bait that the bass haven’t seen before and that you can come behind other anglers and whack them. To order visit www.smacktackle.com
