Sometimes you don’t have the luxury of a lot of time to prefish. So what do you do when you get there and you have to figure things out on the fly. Well here is what I do in preparation when I don’t get to go to the lake or minimally beforehand. The first thing I do is look at a map and find the main creeks. Creeks hold fish year round. Find the main creeks and fish them until you isolate what part of the creeks are holding fish. I usually start in the sharp bends of the creeks. Often the banks are cut out steeper in the curves providing excellent ambush points for feeding fish. Sometimes the fish are staged on the inside or the outside of the curve. Sometimes they are not holding actually in the curve they may be staged slightly north or south of the curve depending on current or wind. Me and Phil fished a club tournament this weekend and won first place and big bass using this methodology. I had half a day of prefishing which didn’t prove to productive. We headed out Saturday morning for the tournament and started fishing a main creek. We isolated the fish down into just the bends of the creeks on the inside of the curves. We caught some fish early on topwater baits and then later the bigger fish on a jig. This stringer is 17.5 lbs on black lake Saturday April 5. This is a good demonstration of using creeks to locate fish on fresh water.

There was frost on my boat, and truck all the way to the lake this morning but it didn’t stop me from finding some good fish. I think the low last night was supposed to be 30 degrees. When a hard cold front comes in sometimes you just have to knuckle down and fish harder. I caught this pretty 8 1/2 pound fish on a custom painted crankbait. A good crawfish color did the trick. I also caught bout 10 other fish today despite the cold cold weather. Except for this big fish I caught everything on a 3/4 oz jig punched in the grass.

Every fish counts when it comes to tournament fishing. One important tool to have is a check stick. Storing and using a check stick can be real aggravating. If you have it stored in a box then you have to dig it out and waste valuable time when you catch a fish. If you leave it out on the deck you will most likely step on it at some point or another. So what do you do with this tool. Here is what I did with mine after riding along as a co-angler in a tournament and seeing it installed on his boat. Take your check stick and screw it to the floor under console against the area below your seat. This location provides a safe place for your check stick so that it is not stepped on by accident. Also with the check stick under the console you wont lose fish that may get loose while being measured. If the fish gets out of your hand then there is no place for it to go.

Want to know what I would take to any given lake not knowing the current conditions, water temps, or anything else about a given body of water? Well here they are:

1. A black , blue and purple jig with matching trailer

2. A 1/2 oz black buzzbait

3. Shad pattern Bandit 200 series crankbait

4. A 1/4 oz shakey head jig with a 6 inch green pumpkin straight tail worm

5. A black and chrome chug bug

6. A texas rigged watermelon candy brush hog

7. Shad pattern 1/2 once spinnerbait with a silver willowleaf and a gold colorado blade

8. A Caroline rigged green pumpkin centipede

9. A weightless jerkbait either a zoom fluke or a sluggo in a shad pattern or simply solid white

10. A 3/4 once green pumpkin Football jig with twintail grub

Not all of these baits are going to work on all bodies of water. But, armed with all ten there shouldn’t be much water anywhere that you cannot at least get a good start on figuring out the fish. Does this mean I keep ALL of these handy all the time. Not necessarily, but if I am going to a new body of water and starting from scratch then you can bet I will have all ten and possibly tied on and ready. So if you are starting from scratch some where start with these and good luck.

OK before I want to say I have fished with many many different types of reels. Furthermore, I have no problem in general with Bass Pro Shops products. I do like their fluorocarbon fishing line, some plastic baits and several other items. Now to the beef of this post. This reel was very very disappointing. I like Rick Clunn I believe he is one of the greatest fisherman ever, but this reel just did not perform at all. I received a new BPS Rick Clunn series super high speed reel for Christmas this year. I went on two very short fishing trips using the reel. The first trip lasted about an hour and I pitched a jig for the bulk of that hour with the reel. I did not even hook a fish with it. Second trip I went to a bigger lake and was casting some big body crankbaits. After about 30 mins of chunking and winding, the reel made this wild grinding noise when I casted and the spool did not spin properly causing a beautiful bird nest. After five mins of picking it out I casted again and came up with the same results. After 3 casts I gave up. Alright no biggie right, BPS has a one year warranty. I took the reel back and they exchanged with no fuss. I took the new reel out fished about 5 trips with this one maybe 15 hours of fishing time total on this reel. Same thing happened again. I don’t know what is the problem with these reels but I do know I will be returning this reel and getting a Shimano instead. I have had 49.99 Shimanos that held up way longer than these reels. Furthermore I don’t have the time to keep exchanging reels every other time I go fishing. I expect when I spend 99.99 on a reel I will get some good use out of it.

Some people skimp on their fishing rods and pay way too much for other items. I can’t emphasize enough the importance of a good quality fishing rod. A rod needs to be strong and sensitive. I used to have trouble with rods myself. In fact I have a notorious reputation for breaking rods, on the hookset no less. I once borrowed a rod, made three casts, and hooked a fish and snapped the rod. In fact I have caught the blunt end of many jokes about it. I finally found the answer a good rod with a good warranty. I now have more than one Shimano Crucial series rod. These rods are extremely sensitive and strong. The waranty on these rods is also very good. They have an over the counter exchange policy for the life of the rod. This means if the rod breaks under normal fishing conditions they will swap you a new rod at a Shimano dealer. A cheap rod will sacrifice certain important factors either sensitivity, strength or both. If a rod is not sensitive enough you will certainly miss valuable bites. On the other hand if a rod is not strong enough it will most likely not hold up to the strains of fighting a good fish. Next time you are rod shopping save up a little bit more money and splurge on a better rod you wont regret the choice.

If you are like me, you can’t always run to a Bass Pro Shops or Cabelas and put your hands on what you want. Ordering online just makes sense a lot of the time. While Bass Pro Shops and Cabelas both have e-commerce capabilities, sometimes it is a nice change to work with a dedicated fishing supplier or vendor.

The Internet is full of places to order bass fishing products from and Ebay has been a good resource for me. I want to use a little space and provide some coverage for those going up against the big guys and just may need your business. I had a tournament this past weekend and my schedule didn’t allow me really to drive to my closest Bass Pro Shop. By the time I had a break from work, I drove and hour and went to two different places . only to not get what I was after and wound up buying impulse items I thought I had to have. I SHOULD have not procrastinated and ordered online sooner. Needless to say I didn’t have want I wanted for the tournament. So today I decided to go ahead and order a few things. Well, Robert More (author here) is always sending me links of items on a website, so I figured I would go ahead and order and post the experience here. So today’s Bass Fishing Products Supplier is Tackle Warehouse - located at www.TackleWarehouse

Well I found Tackle Warehouse’s online catalog nicely broken into categories and everything I was after had a nice image and description. The other cool thing was a real time inventory readout so I knew right away if something I wanted was in stock or not. All areas of the site loaded nicely, no broken images or 404s. It was really a nice experience. The shopping cart system was common and easy to use. On the checkout, I found I could use PayPal.  So I checked out and paid via PayPal and out of all of the shipping options, I chose the free FedEx shipping. As soon as I paid and returned from PayPal to Tackle Warehouse’s site, I had an email in my Inbox confirming the order. While I know this is basic auto responder, it was nice to know they started a line of communication. Another part that has me happy is that about an hour later, I got an email saying my items had shipped. I found that very cool. So, for now I would highly recommend Tackle Warehouse. I intend on adding a follow-up to this when my package arrives. I may even tell you what I ordered :-)  so check back.

If you have bass fishing products vendors you love or hate, please post them and share the information for all of our readers.

There are many types of crankbaits. Each of which has their time and place. One very important type is the square billed crankbait. Some of the most popular square billed crankbaits include, Bagley Balsa B, Lucky Craft RC series, and Mann’s Baby one. There are also two main types of materials for these crankbaits and each has it’s own unique characteristics. The wood crankbaits tend to have more sporadic action, higher buoyancy, and usually a more unique action. A lot of people really like the wood cranks because each one has it’s own unique action. Unfortunately, these baits are a lot easier to tear up and sometimes you have to search through a few to find just the right action you want. The plastic crankbaits are more durable and tend to track more true. They also usually have good textures to them which allows them to have extremely good paint jobs such as this fine custom paint job by Casey Sobczak. Square billed cranks are usually used for power fishing through rock or wood cover. The square bill and the wide wobbling action allow the bait to come through some really thick stuff. I witnessed this first hand from the back of Takahiro Omori’s boat on red river a couple of years ago. Tak broke out three rods all rigged with Bagley Balsa B II’s and proceeded to pound them through all kinds of treetops and even through a duck blind. Square billed crankbaits usually draw a reaction strike from fish hanging close to cover, and they don’t hang up or snag very easy. This allows you to fish where the big fish hide. However, they do not work real well through vegetation. They have a tendency to bog up with grass. These crankbaits are a good choice anytime bass are holding close to shallow wood or rock cover.  If you have any other questions about these short fat works of art feel free to ask.

A bass jig is known as a big fish bait and for very good reason. I catch a lot of good fish on a bass jig. And you can catch fish pretty well any time of year on a jig with only a few adjustments. A jig is a difficult bait to learn and one which requires discipline. I am sure if you have asked anyone there is only one way to learn to fish a jig. Take a few jigs to the lake and go fishing. Here is a basic jig in the most common color.

For a basic start I would go with a 3/8 oz. This is a good medium weight jig, good for suspended fish who catch the bait on the fall of for crawling it slowly across bottom. You will have to play around with different weights until you find the right fall the fish want. I mostly fish a 1/2 to 3/4 because I like a reaction bite. The faster the jig falls the less time a bass has to decide if it is going to eat it or not. More often than not a bass will eat the bait because they are opportunistic feeders. Sometimes you have to fish a lighter to fish higher in the water column or to get finicky bass to hold it longer. As I said sometimes you have to play with the weight to get it right. If you are only getting bit a little or not at all then you adjust.

Alright let’s discuss color a bit. There are only a few basic color schemes you need. First, a good black and blue. This is your basic color scheme which will get you by in most conditions. Second, you need a good green pumpkin combination. Third, a good natural red/brown. These colors are generalized and you will eventually find your own color schemes.  I base my color choice dependent on the type of forage the fish are eating or would most likely eat if available. This is why most color schemes revolve around bluegill or crawfish.

Where do you suppose you should put that jig? How about anywhere……… J/K almost. A jig is a very natural presentation and a strong power presentation as well. You can pitch and flip a jig for fishing close and accurate around cover or you can cast a jig and crawl or hop it along bottom. I think jig fishing in the south usually entails pitching and flipping and  in the north I believe they do a bit more dragging.  To fish a jig across bottom simply slowly drag the bait along or hop it along bottom basically the same way you would fish a Texas rigged worm. For pitching and flipping try to get the bait as close to cover as possible and try to let the bait fall on a slack line so it will fall straight down and end up closer to the cover by the time it hits bottom. If you don’t get bit on the initial fall I usually hop it a couple times then reel in and pitch again. Most bites will occur on the fall.

One last thing to mention about jig fishing is learn to watch your line. The hardest part about fishing a jig is detecting the strike. A bass usually inhales a jig and sucks it up when they bite. Most times you will not feel the strike at all. Watch the line as your jig falls and look for anything out of the ordinary. Some times the line will jump as if the line is flinching. Some times it just doesn’t sink as deep as you know it should. Some times it will swim off  or straight at you. If you are not watching your line you would miss all three of these bites. Sometimes the bite just feels like the jig got heavy or soggy feeling. I have a sayings “Set the hook fish don’t have hands” And “Hooksets are free” Anytime you hesitate you may have just lost the fish of a lifetime. So don’t miss that opportunity and set the hook often. Now get some jigs and get after the big fish.