I had been thinking about selling my boat for a while and yesterday I decided to let her go. My 89 Champion with a 115 Merc went bye bye yesterday. They say the best days of owning a boat are the day you get it and the day that you sell it. While I’m going to miss the old champ, I am happy to see her go. The boat was good to me while she lasted. I have some great fishing memories while out fishing in that boat. It was two summers ago that I fished a pretty big tournament down at Kentucky Lake and took 5th out of 40 something in that boat. It was the oldest boat in the tournament by far. This past year I had cashed numerous checks while standing on its front deck. I even used it to find the fish for the FLW National Guard College fishing tournament up at Ft. Madison that netted us 4k. I had pulled that old boat all over and probably pushed it way past its limit. It just goes to show you that you can still catch fish from an old boat.

Yesterday I picked up a big box of OMEGA Jigs to take over to Bluff City Tackle in Alton, IL. The box included a little bit of everything. The Pro-Mega structure jigs, the new Baby J jigs, The Savior Shakeyhead jigs, Derek Remitz Signature Series Football Jigs, and some of the new Shakey Foot shakey head jigs. The Shakey Foot jigs are a great jig head when you want to throw a senko type bait. The head on the fall gives your senko a spiraling action to the bottom which continues when your bait lands on the bottom. Just a little shake of the rod will give your bait a good wiggle.

When I got over to Bluff City Tackle I had to spend a couple of hours in there looking at all the baits and talking fishing. One of the great things about a tackle shop is just the atmosphere. This shop had all kinds of stuff that the large retailers don’t carry. Japanese crankbaits, spinnerbaits,and just about every color imaginable in plastics were just crammed into this little shop. Some of the guys the showed me
a couple of new baits that are out that I hadn’t heard much about as they were getting stuff ready for the upcoming Let’s Go Fishing Show in Collinsville, IL.

The Let’s Go Fishing Show has been an annual event for a quite some time. I’ve gone a couple of times over the years and it’s great to be able to see so much at just one show. Various tackle shops, guide services, bass clubs, resorts, lodges, bait companies all attend this event. There are also seminars put on by professional anglers. Some of the anglers that I can remember from the past have been Stacey King, Roland Martin, Alton Jones, Denny Brauer, Jeff Kriet, Scott Campbell, and Rick Clunn just to name a few.

This year I’ll be attending the show once again and helping out at the Bluff City Tackle Booth. We are going to have a variety of Tru-Tungsten, Smack Tackle, and OMEGA baits at the show. One of the great things about spending time at a fishing show is being able to meet a lot of people in the industry and talk to a variety of people about bass fishing. The show is going to run from January 8th through the 10th.

Keeping your hands warm during a days worth of fishing is so important this time of the year. If your hands get cold and stiff you can’t make accurate casts, you can’t feel the bite , and you can’t concentrate on catching fish.

There’s a little trick that I learned from a pro that will keep your hands warm.

First off, get a pair a latex gloves and put them on your hands. These gloves will keep the water away from your skin and insulate them from the chilly temps.

Then you need to get a heat pad and place it on top of the back of your hand. The heat pad will help warm the blood as it flows from your hand down into your finger tips.

Then in order to keep those heat pads in place you just need to slip a pair of wind resistant gloves over your hands. This combination will keep your hands warm all day helping you concentrate on catching the big one!

Happy Holidays everyone! Merry Christmas! Things have been going great the past couple of days. I've been having fun with the family.

We are heading into the jerkbait season. The bass are going to be switching from feeding heavily on craw fish to shad as the temps continue to plummet. When the bass start to key in on the shad and everyone is tossing a jerkbait, there's another bait to try. That is a Smack Tackle Gizz 3 or the Gizz 4 crankbait. These baits look just like a gizzard shad which is one of the most predominate bait fishes in our lakes and river systems. When you take a look at one of these baits up close it's almost like you are fishing with live bait.

While these cranks are just like a gizzard shad in size and appearance they have a very erratic and unpredictable action that will trigger strikes when they are fished like a jerkbait. You can make these cranks do a complete 360 with a slight twitch of the rod. When you stop the bait it looks so natural that the fish have to eat it. The baits have a weight transfer system that gives off incredible sound and vibration. Check em out at www.smacktackle.com

Cold water bass fishing for most of us involves a little more finesse to our presentations. Most anglers find themselves working jerkbaits,finesse jigs, shakeyhead rigs, and crankbaits. For all these applications fluorocarbon line seems to make the most sense this time of the year.

Fluorocarbon line helps get your jerkbait deeper than what you would with a mono or a co-polymer which can be critical for catching reluctant winter time bass. Fluorocarbon line gives you that same advantage with crankbaits. The ability to get your wiggle warts or other cranks a little deeper can get you a couple more bites. Since fluorocarbon line sinks it also gives your crankbaits a slower rise. That slight difference might not seem like much to us but it can be noticeable to the fish. In the winter time all the forage is moving slower and being able to slow your baits down as much as possible a lot of times is real key. For jerkbait fishing and winter time cranking I usually stick with 8-10lb GAMMA Edge Fluorocarbon. It’s what has worked the best for me and a lot of other people I know.

When your hands are cold and that northern wind is whipping across the lake the sensitivity of fluorocarbon can really come in handy when your working your smaller jigs and shakeyheads. This time of the year the bites can be really soft and hard to detect when your fishing deeper water. Fluorocarbon because of its natural sinking ability helps give your bait a more natural fall and get it down to the bottom quicker. Keeping your bait in contact with the bottom is usually important this time of the year. Fish don’t like baits stroked like in the summertime. For winter time shakeyhead fishing, 9lb GAMMA Touch Fluorocarbon is a great line. It was created specifically for finesse techniques like shakeyhead and drop shot fishing. It just came out a little while ago but I’ve had some great results with it and that seems to be the general concession. On smaller finesse jigs I learned that you should stick to 10 to 14lb GAMMA Edge for the best results. On my regular jigs I will throw 20lb test but on these smaller jigs, especially when the water is cold, it’s best to downsize a little and go with that lighter line. Just remember to use a rod with a softer tip and back your drag off a little bit for the hookset. Don’t be afraid to use a spinning rod if you drop to 10lb test.

One last thing to remember is to invest in some KVD Line and Lure Conditioner if you can afford it. Icing of the guides can be a real problem when it is cold out. That line conditioner for whatever reason keeps the water out of your guides and helps prevent freezing. Spray it on the night before and during the day apply it as needed. If you get ice in your guides and you continue to reel you are constantly weakening your line. One bottle of this stuff last a long time and it really helps with making your line last so it will save you money in the end.