I just had the opportunity to head over to Toledo Bend for a day of fishing and filming for Fishing and Hunting Texas, and what a day it was! We left Austin at 2am Monday morning and got there about 7:30. My brother and I were like kids in a candy store about being there! Our enthusiasm waned just a little at first when we were greeted on the lake by gale force 30 mph winds. If you’ve ever been to Toledo Bend, it isn’t much fun running those boat lanes in wind like that. But even with that wind, we ended up having a phenomenal trip, catching one over 7, another over 5 and probably would have weighed in 23 plus pounds had we been fishing a tournament. Most of the fish we caught were on a Strike King Flipping Tube. We also caught a few on a Strike King Rage Bug and on a swim jig. What’s incredible about Toledo Bend is how dynamic it is. You go in one area and there are pads and buck bushes. The next area has hay grass and timber, and the next has submerged hydrilla, and all of it holds bass. If you haven’t been over there in a while, I encourage you to go check it out soon. What a lake!
Strike King Rage Blade
The Strike King Rage Blade is a new bait to me this year, and I have had the opportunity to fish it on a number of lakes this Spring. The cool thing about this bait is that you can work it much more slowly than other jigs to get the same level of vibration. When you look at the bait, it looks a little odd, but the big bill in front seems to help it not get hung on wood cover as badly. For me, it’s going to become a go-to bait for those times when the fish are lethargic but still want something moving. My biggest fish with it so far was an eight pounder, and a buddy just caught a 9-4 on it. When I got that fish in, the bait was almost down its throat. He just ate it! I don’t make any modifications to that bait – ust tie it on straight out of the package. I really like the twin-tail trailer. It has an erratic action, especially if you speed it up at all. I’m putting it into my tournament arsenal, and feel like I will throw it a lot! Good fishing!
Jig Trailers
How do you pick a trailer for your jig? There are just so many options. There are flapping trailers like the Rage Craw; chunk-style trailers like the KVD Chunk; boot-style trailers (which are really swim baits) like the swim-n-caffeine shad; or grub-style trailers like the Rage Grub. All of these have their place, but how do you know which one to use.
For one thing the number of colors available for trailers are amazing! Literally, anything you can think of can go on the back of your jig. Personally though, I keep it pretty simple. If I’m flipping a Hack Attack jig, and the water is under 60 degrees, I will go with a KVD Chunk. If it is over 60 degrees, I prefer a Rage Craw or a Rage Chunk trailer. On a football head I throw the KVD Chunk more often than not, and if I’m throwing a finesse jig then I like a Baby Rage Craw. As far as colors go, green pumpkin would be my favorite, but when the water is warm, I might think a little more about adding some different colors. On the Hack Attack heavy cover swim jig is where it gets more complicated. The Rage Craw is probably my favorite, but I also like the Swim-n-Caffeine Shad from time to time. If the water is really cold, like in the 40’s, then I like the Rage Grub. All of these trailers will work very well. You just have to fish some of these and develop some confidence in them. One thing is for sure; they can help you catch a ton of fish!
Transition Time
As our days get warmer and warmer and there are fewer nights in the 30’s, we begin to prepare for spring bass fishing – the time when bass start to transition from their winter haunts to where they will spawn and the feeding frenzy that happens as they move. I love this time of year because bass change on a dime, and though you may be having a great day, you have to be ready to change every hour of the day. What you are looking for as a bass fisherman is those little windows where bass get active and you can capitalize on it.
What I like to do this time of year is always be in a practice mode. In other words, even if you are getting some bites, you have to keep trying other patterns and baits because you never know what may become available to you as a fisherman. You might be catching them on a slow moving bait, and then the wind starts blowing and the fish get more aggressive. You would then want to shift to faster moving baits. Or it is really warm and the fish are biting a Strike King spinnerbait , but they start to move to the beds. Then you want to try an Ocho or flipping. But always, always, always be ready to change. This time of year it often will.
One Big Fish
Fishing on tournament days can be so different than fishing in practice. In the recent FLW Tour event at Lake Okeechobee, I had a good practice – caught a lot of fish, shook off a ton of bites and thought I found some really good places. The tournament rolled around and though I caught fish all day long, I just couldn’t get a good bite. I caught fish after fish, but at 3:30 only 8-9 pounds, which if you checked the standings would have been way down on the leaderboard. Then at 4:00 with about 30 minutes before I needed to check in I got a big bite. Bad thing was I lost it in the heavy cover. I had the chance to turn my whole day around and couldn’t get it in the boat. I stayed with it though and could sense they were biting. Five minutes later I got another big bite. This time I landed it and had to hurry to make it to weigh in on time. In Florida, a big bite can really make all the difference. For me it saved the day, and I ended up with 13 pounds 9 ounces, good enough for 30th place after the first day. I couldn’t get that bite the second day though and ended up in 37th for the event. Not great, but a good start for the year.
The First Tournament of the Year
I always look forward to the first tournament of the year. Hunting season was great this past year, but as soon as we get to the first of January, I start daydreaming of catching big stringers of bass.
This year’s FLW tour schedule starts at my favorite Florida lake, Lake Okeechobee. It’s hard to want to leave Texas, but in January, South Florida is definitely not bad. Okeechobee is a great first tournament. It’s an enormous body of water. It’s dynamic, has big fish and can be real tough if you have a cold spell. Literally, the tournament can be won anywhere on the lake, which makes it a challenging and fun tournament, and you know that any cast could be a ten pounder! Best of all, when I return home to Texas, the fish will be getting ready for the spawn there as well. It should be a fun spring!
My New Cabela’s Ranger Z520C!
One of the great things about being a professional bass fisherman is that every year at about this time I get to buy a new boat, and I always know that when it comes, everything will be right on it.
First of all it is a Ranger Z520C. Without a doubt, Ranger has a reputation of building the best bass boat on the market. The thing I love the most about my boat is the attention to detail. Everything is rigged with the fisherman in mind – from the perfect layout to more than enough room for all my gear! As bass fishing has evolved over the years, we have seen an increase in the number of techniques and technique-specific baits, and rods and reels that a fisherman needs to carry in his arsenal. With my Ranger, I can put 20 plus rods in the rod locker (and I do!), and there is more than enough room for all my tackle boxes. In the back where the batteries go, there is also plenty of room for everything needed to run the boat. I am really blown away with how much I can store.
Secondly, my dealer, Cabela’s Ft. Worth rigs the boat out to fit my specific needs. There is no doubt when I pick it up that it’s going to be right, including all of my Garmin units installed exactly where I need them. Again perfect!
My wrap has changed just a bit for this year. It now highlights some of the great products I use from Cabela’s. I think it looks really good. Check it out!
Pre-spawn Clear Water Bass Fishing
It seems to me that over time our lakes and rivers are getting clearer and clearer. And when it comes to fishing early in the year – the pre-spawn – that means you have to downsize and finesse a little. Years ago it seemed like we were dealing with muddy water, high water as we went for those big pre-spawn bites. I mean it’s the time of year that the fish are at their heaviest, and they should be gorging themselves in preparation for the spawn. But now (I don’t know if it’s the number of fishermen or just the clear water) you often have to downsize and use finesse to fool those finicky bass.
The first trick in fishing clear, pre-spawn water is determining what the bass are feeding on. Figuring out whether the fish are feeding on crawfish or shad will go a long way in determining your technique. If it’s crawfish, the fish will usually be hovering near the bottom. If it’s shad, then usually the fish will be suspended. Sometimes it can be a combination, but regardless it is a key in catching pre spawn bass.
If you determine that bass are feeding on crawfish, the first bait I would pick up would be a small Strike King finesse jig. I would choose ¼ to ½ ounce on the size depending on the depth, current and wind. Basically, you need to be able to feel the bait. Natural colors like green pumpkin or watermelon would be my go to colors. I would also put a Strike King Baby Rage Craw trailer or a grub on the back of the jig. I would typically start deep, probably 15 to 25 feet and work my way shallow depending on how warm the water temperature is. The warmer it gets, the more shallow the bass will come. I like to fish that jig on light line – anywhere from 8 to 12 pound test fluorocarbon. It’s actually an easy bait to fish. You basically hop or crawl it on the bottom. My next choice would be a jig head worm or shaky head. This bait can also be crawled around the bottom. Since we are trying to imitate crawfish with these two bait, I like rocky areas if possible. Many times points or Bluffs can be the best.
If you determine the fish are feeding on shad, then oftentimes they will suspend either on bluffs, treetops, or anything else from which that they can ambush prey. If the fish are suspended this time of year, my first choice would be a suspending jerkbait. I prefer a Strike King KVD J200. This bait has many hooks and gets hung up easily, so I always try to throw it near cover, rather than right in the middle of it. Your retrieve with the jerk bait is usually erratic and depending on water temperature can be very slow. The bait works really well for lethargic bass that aren’t moving quickly. The reason this technique works so well is that shad are oftentimes very lethargic and easy prey for these pre spawn bass. Other choices would be swimbaits and small crankbaits. I really like the Strike King Shadalicious swimbait rigged on a Strike King Squadron Swimbait Jig Head when the fish are suspended in deeper water, and I like the Strike King Lucky Shad crankbait when the fish are relating more to the shallows.
If the fish are feeding on shad, my color preferences this time of year are typically natural shad colors. If they are feeding on crawfish, then as I mentioned earlier green pumpkin is a great place to start, but I wouldn’t be afraid to add some red to my bait, especially this time of year.
The last key component to catching fish this time of year is to have patience. These bass are feeding and getting ready for the spawn, but when the water is cold they don’t eat nearly as often. It seems like I often have to work the bait very slowly to get bites. Try different cadences and retrieves to figure out what the fish like.
This may be a simple approach to pre-spawn bass fishing in clear water, but I’ll promise you, on many lakes and rivers around the country, you can catch a lot of bass with these techniques. Good Fishing!
Emily’s Hunt
At the end of last year’s hunting season, I decided to get my girls bows for Christmas. After hearing great testimonials about the Cabela’s Instigator and having a couple of friends who had that bow, the Instigator seemed like the perfect bow for them. When we went in to Cabela’s to have the bows set up, the outfitters were extremely helpful and even spent a little time with them on the range working on their form. With both girls in college and my schedule pretty full, I knew there would not be time for me to hunt with both girls, so we focused this year on trying to get a deer for Emily.
The Instigator bow has a big range and can be adjusted from 30-65 pounds. Emily started at around 40 pounds but with a little practice got up to 50 pounds pretty quickly. So that part of the hunt was no big deal. The challenge came from trying to get a shot at a big buck. The hunt started in October and Emily, being a senior at Texas A&M, didn’t have a lot of time to hunt. The first weekend we tried, she saw a nice mature buck and almost got a shot, but there were other deer around and just as she was about to draw, they all took off. Then the rains came, and every weekend she was able to come, it rained …. and rained! We hunted in it, but it was so bad the deer didn’t even move.
Finally we came down to the last weekend she had a chance to hunt. Three hunts or end the season empty handed, but we finally got a break. The weather was great, and with all the rain our oat fields are really awesome this year. We hunted a ground blind and had a perfect wind. Then the deer started piling into the field. There were several mature bucks but one had double brow tines and was really cool looking. My brother Scott was our camera man and tried to talk her into shooting a doe, but she said no I’m waiting to get a shot at the double brow tine. None of us thought it was going to happen. I had a limb in my way, so I couldn’t even see the deer. She asked Scott if he had the deer in the camera and drew. My heart was racing and when she let the arrow go I heard a loud whack. I stood up immediately just in time to see the deer running out of the field with an arrow sticking almost all the way out its right side. She almost had a clean pass through at 25 yards.
We didn’t have much light so we hurried to the spot where the deer left the field, and we could see it just on the other side of the brush line. She could not contain her excitement, and as we approached it, she couldn’t really believe she had done it. But she did! She showed great perseverance and determination to get the deer she wanted, was a great hunter throughout, and ended up making a perfect shot. Truly it was WAY better than if I had shot it. I’m really proud of her. What a hunt!!
Rain
When you are an outdoorsman as I am you constantly check the weather. Not only do you want to know the conditions in which you will be hunting or fishing, but what’s going to happen to the places you hunt and fish long term. It has been a wet couple of months and I can’t tell you how much that impacts everything we hunt and fish.
As far as the lakes go, the spawn is greatly impacted when there is cover in the water. I am anticipating a banner spawn this year due to higher than normal rainfall totals. In the short term it may really mess up a certain bite, but long term it is great for the fishery. And for areas like where I live in Central Texas that have been suffering from extreme drought, the rain is filling up the lakes, which means boat ramps are re-opened and the water is getting into the bushes, which will make for great fishing all around.
The impact of a wet fall for wildlife cannot be overstated. Deer will be healthy through the winter, which will yield great benefits, both in fawn production and antler size next year. It doesn’t just stop with deer though – every species benefits. The ground cover will be better for nearly every species.
So even though these rainy days can be a bummer when you are out in it, we have to thank God for the rain!
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