The July/August 2009 edition of the Indiana Bass News E-Mag has just been posted to their website for viewing. This issue has all the Top-8 tourney particulars from around the state including individual as well as team weights. Find out who made the State Finals cut and who didn't when you check it out. Also be sure and see the Big Indiana Bass ad on pages 26 & 27 while you're there.
Just got the full report from Waveland and the news was good. All the 'schooling' paid off today when KVJ and partner went out and slammed the door on a 33 boat USA Bassin' field out at Waveland, taking the win by nearly 2 pounds. "The Apprentice" and his partner Mark slid under the radar screen and went unnoticed until it was time to hit the scales. Their sack of nearly 16 pounds also had the 2nd biggest bass of the tourney, which Mark caught. The best part was that they had almost all their weight by 10:30 and only had to burn 2 holes to get it. After that they went shallow and played around and were able to check out a bunch of shallow stuff, as well as do some graphing. That resulted in a couple new spots for the arsenal, including a hole which produced their largest bass later that day.
Water temps have dropped by about 5 degrees from last weekend, but color was still pretty good. Some bass are starting to chase shad schools which will be a sign of things to come. All the storms and rain, along with the coolor water temps have changed the graph picture some as fish start to show up a few feet deeper than they were a week and a half ago. Also starting to get a good enough mix of weeds and algae in the shallows to start bringing on a frog bite.
I might be in self-proclaimed tournament retirement, but I still struggle constantly with just how much information to provide on the site, more directly with tourney "secrets" or stuff I've learned or figured out over the years. This topic is one such occasion, and I've decided to "spill the beans" if you will. Are you ready?
All Bandit crankbaits are NOT created equal!
There, I said it, now what in the hell do I mean by that. First, fill up a sink or tub with water. You won't need a ton, about 7"-8" worth. Next, go yank the crankbait box out of your boat and bring all your bandit crankbaits inside with you. Don't let the wife or girlfriend see you doing this. Next, the easiest way to see this one for yourself is to take a little 1/16-oz. crappie jighead and one by one, hang the crappie jighead off the front trebles of your Bandits, setting them in the water and then tapping them on their back like you're trying to get the bait to sink into or under the water...then pay attention.
What you'll see is that some Bandits are faster risers with lots of buoyancy and really struggle against your prods to stay on the surface. They even have a slightly different angle at which they lay at rest on the waters surface. Yet other Bandits are slower risers with much less buoyancy and can easily be pushed under the waters surface with a good prodding. I've never figured out exactly why. Could be a difference over time with the plastic formulation they've used to mold them with. Perhaps a change in design or weighting. Doesn't matter whether you're testing 100's, 200's or 300's. Some will pop right back up and some just take their sweet little time. They tend to align to a certain degree by color pattern, but this certainly isn't an absolute either.
Regardless, if you were to look in my crankbait boxes, every Bandit in them will either have a tiny black dot on the throat or it won't. That way I know at a quick glance which ones are the high floaters and which ones aren't. Why does this matter? It matters tons at times as the buoyancy rate can be used to make these baits way more effective when paired to certain situations. For instance, in the spring and late fall when I'm fishing over newly growing or recent dieback vegetation in cooler water, a slow riser allows me to keep the bait down with a slower retrieve right in the strike zone. Same with cranking rock banks in the early spring. Tick, tick, tick as I can really slow the bait down and work it right along the rocks with added twitches and pauses and yet maintain depth. To make this even more effective be sure to add a couple Suspenstrips or similar to your slow risers. You don't really want them to suspend, just to rise slowly under their own accord. A little extra weight similar to the test using the jighead helps.
For your fast risers, these get the bulk of the work in the late spring or summer when burning baits over vegetation and ripping them through weeds. When fish have a faster metabolism and will react to a bait that pops up quick out of the vegetation. Another situation would be when cranking around wood where you want a bait that will back up and rise quick after running into the cover, often triggering a bite. Don't add any extra weight to these.
Chances are you have both styles of Bandits in your boxes right now, but never even realized it. It's also a good bet that if I've ever fished against you in a tourney, I've probably made a donator out of you a time or two because of this "trick". After all, my partner and I didn't give our Bandit cranks the nickname "Mr. Money" for no reason.
If you've paid attention to tourney reports on the major circuits over the past several years, you've probably heard a lot about the shad spawn bite. It was again a big factor in the recent Beaver Lake tourney, and will be happening on our waters very soon. What you may not have heard is some of the specifics surrounding what it actually is and why/how it occurs. I've assembled a small list of links to various articles and research pieces that will give you a much better perspective on the phenomena after you've finished reading.
For those who like to follow what is happening with the Indiana Bass Federation, you might not have realized they've started an online E-mag version of their publication Indiana Bass News. There are a couple advantages to the new version. One is that anyone can access this new format (Yudu) from the Internet as opposed to the largely members only print version which was mailed out. Another is near instant availability, as the May/June issue is already accessible. Yet another is that the online version has much more colored print as opposed to the black and white physical version.
Check out the link above to see the first 3 issues of 2009, and be sure to look for the "Big Indiana Bass" advertisement in the May/June issue as shown in the pic above!
I've never fully understood the way most people prefish and practice for tourneys here in Indiana. I'm betting most guys are guilty of it, or have drawn someone who was. Hey, I started out doing it too, just because that was the way you did it. You know the routine by now. Head down a day or two before the tourney, running around the lake "checking" areas out. Then you tell me how you whacked them in practice when we draw out together, and if only your fish hold we're going to be in good shape. Problem is, your fish usually don't hold up. Many will tell me they "shook them off", leaving them right in the same spot, waiting for our return the next day. Give me a break. Might work for some, but I don't like it. I've seen this system fail way too many times.
Is there a better way? I don't know about that, but there is a different way. This is what I came up with over many years as the best system for me. My routine is always the same, barring some extended off-limits period. I go 4-7 days before the tourney, preferably on a Tuesday or Wednesday (3-5 days before), in part, because those days usually have the least amount of boating traffic and/or other practicing competitors on the lake. I stick anything and everything I want regardless of bait, believing that fish stuck that far in advance are recovered and wiling to bite again by the time I get back down to the lake for the tourney. I want to know numbers, size, etc., as well as how they're eating the bait, which color is producing the most or the largest, yada, yada. If I can whack them, I do. In practice I simply want to find as many areas as I can that are holding keeper bass.
Then, the day before the tourney I sleep in and get a good nights rest. No getting up at some ungodly hour to drive to the lake or any extra hotel costs for being down there early. I have a good breakfast, take my time loading everything up and then arrive and launch late morning. After getting there, I just run around for half a day looking over all the good areas identified in practice to see how much pressure they're getting by "day before" prefishers, how the water conditions have changed, as well as any other observations I might see, even in areas that looked good but where I caught nothing (things might have changed for the better water wise). Regardless, I never cast a bait that day.
That night I get as much detailed information about the weather for the next day and then combine that with my draw and everything else to set my game plan. I wake up in the morning, check the weather forecast and radar again and adjust if necessary. Otherwise, I run the game plan and adjust "on the fly" based on what the fish and current conditions at that moment are telling me. I "fish the moment" if you will.
Part of what makes this system effective for me is I'm not relegated to fishing 'spots' over and over. I may have killed them in practice on jigs flipped to particular laydowns because my practice day was sunny and post-frontal. If I show up on tourney day and have clouds and drizzle, I'm certainly not going to be pitching those same laydowns with jigs again, at least not initially. I'll be chunkin and winding a bait I may have practiced very little with (chatterbait, spinnerbait, buzzbait) because that's what the conditions call for. The fish see me and my baits once during practice days before the tourney and then never hear from me again until the actual day of the tournament. If I get more than one practice day in, I never duplicate water I have actually already checked, instead continuing to search new areas.
People frequently ask if I ever get concerned about whether my fish will still be there when I come back since I didn't actually check them (read "hook" or "shake") the day before. I really don't even worry about it, unless it was literally the only spot I could catch fish from on the lake in practice. My experience with the waters around here is that bass in most cases don't leave the general area over the course of a few days or a week unless something drastically changes. I'll see that "drastic" when I check things out the day before if it has occurred. Otherwise, I've already established one or more confidence areas and have a darn good idea how many and what quality is in the area. I just then have to figure the bite out in those few areas the day of the tourney. During transition times for instance (prespawn/post-spawn) I know fish will either be heading shallower or deeper, so if they're not where I left them I can usually tell which way they are headed and make the adjustment. Same with current or water level changes, especially on rivers, knowing to move in or pull back.
As the pros I have interviewed keep pointing out, fish change daily, and in many cases hourly, so even getting a bite the day before is no guarantee that you'll get that same fish to bite in the same spot the next day. What if you checked him and got a bite you shook at 2PM? Do you still go to that spot in the morning or do you wait until later? What if it was sunny when he bit in practice and now it's cloudy? Is he still tight to that stump waiting on you to feed him that jig again? How do you know that someone else didn't come along 2 hours after you and stuck that fish while they were practicing? If you shake a bite or two off, how many more are still there and how long will you keep fishing that area trying to find out? How many times have you heard a pro mention that he didn't realize the potential of his spot until it was too late to make a winning charge at the leader?
I don't have to worry about any of these things with my approach. Like I said, it may not work for everyone, and it's not always possible due to off-limits periods, but it has served me very well over the years. At the very least it might get you thinking a little more about your practice routine and whether or not you are getting the most out of your pre-tourney time.
NOTE: I've turned this post into an article and added it to the 'Articles' sidebar menu (left) for future reference, along with another (Poor Bass Fishing? Don't Blame the DNR).
Quite possibly the most outspoken angler in Indiana, banned from more forums than I can count :) but a moving water smallie 'Whiz Kid' and a pretty potent green fish angler also. Want a no BS opinion on anything fishing? His years of practical observation and questioning has led to an uncanny simplicity that is also incredibly effective. If you're easily offended, read no further. But if you want an uncensored, 'no-holds-barred' view of bass tackle and bait approach to Indiana waters, and you can take a little PG-13 language, then sit back and enjoy an interview that could only occur on this site.
BIB - Let’s get right down to business. Bait prices keep escalating with the improvements in technology. How many of these “high dollar” baits do you own?
JM - Well this question actually made me think a little, uh oh. So, I went to the boat and decided to count my "expensive" lures and found out I have more than I thought I did including 8 still in the package. Between Lucky Craft, Splash-Its, Ricos and Sumo Frogs I found that I have 37 combined. I know of 3 that I have lost in the past 7 years, given away 4 and broken 2 in that time. That makes the total tally of $10+ lures 46 that I have bought.
But the question is do they make me a better fisherman? Hell no! The only thing that makes me better is time on the water and knowledge of my quarry. Those are priceless, and worth more than any lure out there.
BIB – What about high dollar tackle, rods and reels? You loaded down?
JM - I have been more than happy with St. Croixs cheap ass rods, the Triumphs. For 70 bucks I get a ton of bang for my buck and I don’t crap myself when I step on one or jam the tip in a stick pile getting my jig out. Big deal, they make them overseas, so are all the reels most people drool all over including myself. I’m pretty tuff on my crap, and have replaced more high end rods than most folks have owned in their lives.
Bottom line is those cheap St. Croixs are well worth the $$$$ and you can get two or three of them for the price of a decent Loomis. But then again, I’m sure I'd be more successful on the water if I dusted off the $200.00 rods sitting in my rack and used them again.
BIB – Don’t you worry about missing bites with your $70 sticks? They can’t be as light and sensitive as the fancy $200-$300 rods I was checking out at the Boat Show last month.
JM - Sensitivity is not slightly over rated, its waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay over rated. People these days are far too concerned with what they have when they should be concerned with what they can do! I see it all the time, rows of 500 dollar outfits and the guy holding them can’t fish his pecker outta his pants.
I agree that it is nice to have good equipment, and trust me I own plenty of it from 200 dollar rods to 250 dollar reels, but it does NOT make you any better on the water. You might feel better, and you might have some pre-conceived notion that you will feel more bites and catch more fish, but the simple fact is that if you suck at fishing you are still gonna’ suck at fishing with a high priced outfit.
I’m a line watcher, always have been and too many beginning fisherman these days rely on feeling bites rather than seeing them. They miss fish, and a lot of them due to being strapped to this "touchy, feely" genre we have been overcome by.
I can guarantee that my cheap, 50 dollar sticks will catch just as many as a custom tuned, custom wrapped, hand picked rod that so many are fond of. Now for some insight.
I have had two split gripped handled rods, couldn’t stand either one of them and I fully understand the concept thank you very much. It’s fancy crapola to me. Sorry, that’s just the way I see it. One rod was built for me and it was a Rainshadow, I gave it away. The other was a spinning rod, same deal, built for me on a Shikari blank and it was a pile of crap too. I see no need to have so little handle, and no need to have no fore grip either. It all boils down to who is using the rod, not how well the rod performs, that’s a plain and simple fact.
BIB – Moving on, line options are getting more technologically advanced also. What are your thoughts there? Are you a braid or fluorocarbon user?
JM - As much as it pains me to say this, braid is good for topwater plugs as it floats and gives your bait good action compared to mono. I have recently used it for frog fishing and it has its place there. There the "no stretch" does have an advantage over 20 pound mono. I still hate how it handles and hate how it sounds and hate how it casts, but I do like getting the fish to hand in that nasty cover, but that’s the only place for me for sure. For ANYTHING else pertaining to fishing, braid is as useless as tits on a boar hog.
As far as this casting thing goes, any swinging dick can toss a 3/8 ounce bait out there a country mile. I want to see the guy who can cast my favorite little crankbait 1/2 as far as me with casting gear. I’m guessing that 95 percent of you can’t, and that 75 percent of you can’t cast it as far with spinning gear. I'd rather be on target than long, but with the crank longer is sometimes better.
BIB - What about other terminal tackle?
JM - Only Gamakatsu hooks I use are the trebles. Only Owner hooks I use are the super braid hooks for frog fishing and super heavy cover fishing. I’m sold on the Hookerz right now, great price and a great hook. I used to use the XPS hooks from Bass Pro as they were quite cheap, but over time I have realized that I’m not sticking the fish well enough so those are done with me. I’m not a fan of G-Locks or any other hook that has that design; those are a hindrance when it comes to sinking a hook. I do like the Mustads, and they are a good price also.
BIB – Lets move on to baits, but not the real high dollar hardware stuff. I'll name a bait and you give me your thoughts. A little psychology test. Jigs...
JM - Jigs! Yup. Big, ugly ones. What do I fish them on? Easy, 7 foot rods and casting reels spooled with rope, errrrrrrrrr, 20 pound test. I fish for smallies with the same setup also, but back down to 15 pound line for jigs IF the water is fairly clear. Spinnerbaits are also a go to for me, same rods and reels and same line.
I throw a lot of different baits, but jigs and spinnerbaits get the nod most times. And I’m quite fond of high, discolored water which is common in Indiana as you know most of the year anymore. But these days the brown bombers take a backseat to their green kin, more of a challenge for me and I need that challenge in my fishing. Now come June I revert back to my flows and smallies, but for the rest of this month I’m all about green.
BIB - Senko’s...
JM - I drink cheap beer, and there’s always enough $$ around for a 12 pack of PBR. In fact, a 12 pack of PBR on sale is $4.99 and even at the regular price of $5.99 is a complete bargain compared to a bag of stinkos. But I digress.
I am the proud owner of 6 fresh bags of over priced Gary Scrotomoto’s stinkos. I have two sizes, big and small in solid black and green pumpkin. I plan on flipping grass at a local reservoir with them, and fishing big rock flats on the river with them. I feel like I have just been raped.
BIB – LOL, I think the only thing that falls apart about as fast as a Senko is a Paca Craw.
JM - Yes, the Paca Craws are pretty frigging fragile also, the bastards breathe on them and the pinchers fall off. But I'll tell you what, I can catch bigger fish on them than a stinko and they aren’t 7 bucks for 10 of them either. They are also a killer trailer for a Chatterbait.
BIB – Frogs...
JM - The best frog out there BY FAR is the Cane Toad by Gambler. A close second is the Ribbit frog by Stanley, fish eat them better than a Zoom type frog. Both are excellent frogs, and can accommodate a 5/0 Owner hook.
Another good frog no one talks about is the Sizmic Poppin' Toad, it’s a totally different technique as it is a cupped faced frog that will float with any hook in it. It’s a good bait to fish around grass as you can damn near pop it in place and it has a sexy little splash.
BIB – You’re not a huge fan of having more than a few colors in any particular bait either, are you?
JM - All bass fishermen are color freaks just because we beat ourselves to death trying to outsmart a pretty dumb creature who really doesn’t care if the crawdad has red flakes, or an orange top shell, he just cares what it tastes like. Well placed casts and knowledge of your water is the most important factor, and then you can concern yourself with color. Find them and they will eat.
Bass fishing doesn’t make a lick of sense because most anglers make it that way. There is way too much emphasis placed on color, size and looks when the emphasis should be placed on seasonal behavior and lure presentation. I have been just as guilty of this when purchasing new baits in the past, but those days are over.
Bass are stupid critters. Bass fisherman are even more so. Bait companies rely on our willingness to buy just about anything, and they market lures for us rather than for the fish. And they are getting rich by doing so, and I couldn’t be happier for them.
BIB – OK, a couple more. Buzzbaits...
JM - Ooohhhh, buzzzzzzzzbaits are killer! I make my own, and give them hideous names like "BIG BLACK" and "SQUEAKY SAM". Or my all time favorite, "THE PBR PROBE"! All are big with big ass blades, and I like black a lot in the fall.
BIB – Cranks...
JM - You can keep your Bandit cranks, and yes I have tried them over and over and over. The only one that has had a glimmer of hope is the 100 series in pearl w/ red eyes and it caught fish smaller than my other cranks in the same situation did. I have a couple of special baits that have been working for well over 12 years now and will outfish any bandit out there hands down. And the Lucky Craft cranks, especially the RC series, are friggen good baits for newer cranks, kind of similar to the old school Big-O’s as far as how they run and deflect off cover.
Some lucky kid got about $100.00 worth of Bandits from me last week; he was pretty stoked so they must work for some of you!
BIB – I’ve seen your boat and until just this past winter, you never even owned a depthfinder. I’m guessing you probably don’t have a water temp gauge either then? That’s usually considered a critical “tool” in the spring.
JM - I have dismissed water temperature as part of my fishing, and rarely if ever check the water temperature these days. I can tell what the fish are doing by simply observing the environment surrounding the water, how far along the trees are, what the under growth looks like, what kind of insects are active and so on.
I have seen fish on beds in 50 degree water, and I have seen fish on beds in 75 degree water. So that right there tells me that as long as the conditions are stable without prolonged periods of high and dirty water the fish are going to spawn no matter what the water temperature is.
And as for depthfinders, I’m primarily a shallow water fisherman. One foot, two foot, too deep!
Elite Series angler, graphic illustrator, antique lure collector, salt water specialist and marketing guru, Bernie Schultz is one of the most well rounded anglers in the sport. With nearly $600,000 in B.A.S.S. winnings and another quarter million in FLW earnings, Bernie is recognized as one of the most consistent anglers on tour. We reached Bernie at his home in Gainesville, Florida and posed our series of 10 questions to him.
Q - Specialist vs. generalist – do you see yourself as one style or the other technique wise?
BS - Generalist...I like many techniques, and most have the potential for yielding big bass.
Q - In practice, better to cover lots of water or learn an area intimately?
BS - It depends on many factors, including time of year, weather, fishing pressure, etc. I prefer to learn any areas I plan to fish thoroughly. But most often I'm running lots of water to establish a pattern.
Q - How long do you try a pattern without a bite before abandoning it?
BS - Same as above...many factors will determine this. But confidence in a particular pattern will sometimes override other variables, such as weather, fishing pressure, etc. I try to keep an open mind while devloping any pattern, then be patient enough to establish the right pattern.
Q - Easier to win a local one day (BFL, etc.) or a 3-4 day regional/national?
BS - It's very difficult to remain consistent over the course of three or four day events.
Q - How much practice time do you believe is optimal for you to be able to compete effectively?
BS - Three days are usually enough. Any more and I get burned out, or the competition finds the same fish...
Q - How critical is bite timing (i.e., finding "afternoon" fish, "morning" fish, etc.) versus fishing your fish all day -- don't leave fish to find fish?
BS - Many times the bite is brief and may come early or late. That's usually determined by water temps. In early spring, I prefer afternoons. In late spring-early summer, I like the early hours. There are exceptions, but this is a good guideline to start with.
Q - In practice do you stick 'em or shake 'em?
BS - Stick very few if possible. Fish can be very territorial...so don't shoot yourself in the foot by wasting them in practice. I usually only stick enough to get an idea on size. And if I can determine that without sticking them, so much the better.
Q - Bank beating vs. structure fishing – do you prefer to comb large amounts of shallow water or drag fewer specific deep spots?
BS - I'm a shallow-water angler by nature. But that doesn't exclude expansive flats away from the shoreline, that are reasonably shallow.
Q - Any thoughts on making daily adjustments to your fish patterns (how critical)?
BS - Very critical! Always be open-minded. Things can change quickly, so be ready to adapt or you'll fall behind, making it difficult to catch up.
Q - Favorite big fish technique?
BS - With the exception of deep cranking, I like it all. Topwater, jerkbaits, spinnerbaits, sight-fishing, and shallow cranking all rank high in my approach to any given body of water.
You could see this one coming, at least you could if you've been paying attention to some of the boards this past year. An about to be published study entitled Voluntary Ingestion of Soft Plastic Fishing Lures Affects Brook Trout Growth in the Laboratory documents the rate of ingestion and the affects of that ingestion of soft plastic lures (SPL's - you got to love scientists and acronyms) on growth of brook trout.
I hear ya'. You say brook trout, so what? "So what" is the direct inference to bass angling as the primary contributor of these soft plastics in the report. If you can access the full article you'll find these statements:
So that should be warning enough that we'll be hearing a whole lot more on this subject in the coming years. If you want to get a quick brush up on the subject from a variety of sources, here are several you can read.
Hailing from Virginia and known as a pitching/flipping specialist, Curt Lytle has amassed wins at every level of competition. With nearly half a million in winnings from FLW Outdoors events, including 3 BFL wins and 2 Stren Series wins, along with another $175,000 from B.A.S.S. and a Missouri Invitational win to his credit, Curt has proven he has the skill to compete on any water in the country. Big Indiana Bass caught up with Curt after this Spring's Guntersville event to get his answers to our 10 questions.
Q - Specialist vs. generalist? Do you see yourself as one style or the other technique wise?
CL - I've been a flipping specialist for the majority of my career but in the last two years I've diversified especially toward more finesse techniques, which are needed on my pressured waters.
Q - In practice, better to cover lots of water or learn an area intimately?
CL - In a good pattern lake such as Kentucky Lake, Buggs Island it's much better to cover a lot of water but in a more area-specific water such as Okeechobee, Guntersville, or rivers it's better to learn an area intimately.
Q - How long do you try a pattern without a bite before abandoning it?
CL - If I'm confident of being on the right pattern I'll try it all day long, but try tweaking it constantly with different baits or presentations until it clicks.
Q - Easier to win a local one day (BFL, etc.) or a 3-4 day regional/national?
CL - Always easier to win a local one day event because there's no concern about qualifying for a championship and you can gamble on getting fewer but bigger bites.
Q - How much practice time do you believe is optimal for you to be able to compete effectively?
CL - I've competed professionally for 12 years and I've found that 3-4 days of practice is ideal except that a summer or winter pattern is harder to fine-tune and might take more time.
Q - How critical is bite timing (i.e., finding "afternoon" fish, "morning" fish, etc.) versus fishing your fish all day -- don't leave fish to find fish?
CL - The timing of feeding fish is absolutely critical. I will always leave non-feeding fish to go look for feeding fish.
Q - In practice do you stick'em or shake'em?
CL - I will stick fish that aren't on a specific piece of cover - but not excessively. If they're on specific visible cover I won't even throw a lure with a hook in it. I keep tackleboxes full of lures with all of their hooks cut off just for practice.
Q - Bank beating vs. structure fishing? Do you prefer to comb large amounts of shallow water or drag fewer specific deep spots?
CL - Far more fish live in large areas of shallow cover as compared to specific spots in deep water.
Q - Any thoughts on making daily adjustments to your fish patterns (how critical)?
CL - Fishing patterns don't just change daily - they change hourly. Sometimes just a couple of clouds, or some wind are all that's needed to change some part of the pattern. The entire pattern won't fall apart, just some part of it.
Q - Favorite big fish technique?
CL - Of course my favorite big fish technique is pitching a big jig because the little ones generally will leave it alone, and that means that most bites will be big ones.
*photo by Brett Carlson
