Archive for category Fishing Blogs

As serious anglers, all of us can forget sometimes that it’s all for fun! Serious tournament anglers can get wrapped up in the competition and forget the true purpose of the recreation. Fishing a very limited tournament schedule I try to take advantage of the freedoms that life should be all about. For many years I have been fishing with Ernie and Ken Pate who are well known in the area to be two of the best bass tournament anglers that the area has to offer… bass experts if you will ! Regardless of who you are fishing with, we all can learn things from each other, but the experience and privilege to fish with two of the best is truly a great experience. I’ve learned a great deal from the Pate’s over the years and always look forward to another day on the water with them. I’ve taken several trips to Lake Erie so far this year on their boat and the fishing has been phenomenal as Erie is known. Taking traditional bass tackle and simplifying the bait and presentation to a natural form is their forte. For many years they have been doing this around the area and country and are always at the top of their game every time they head out onto the water. Between the three of us in our trips we have landed literally several hundred bass using their time tested techniques and persistance in search of our favorite gamefish. The trips are always entertaining and very productive and a real experience for both the serious angler and weekend angler alike! Here’s some video of underwater camera shots on the big water!!

As fisherman we all know, or have heard of, the term “search bait”. Most lures in your box can be catagorized as search baits in the right condition, but you have to be aware of when and how to apply the tool. Traditional search baits, such as spinnerbaits, chatterbaits, and crankbaits are not only primary weapons, but also can be used to determine bottom contour, find fish, and determine where you should be and what you should be doing to catch the fish. This time of year in clear water Smallmouth Bass conditions, I like to use a Shad Bait to search. When the sun is out and the wind is down, it’s most likely that the spooky bass will not aggresively hit a faster moving bait. A Shad Bait, such as the Jackall Soul Shad 68SP, can be used to probe the waters, find the right bottom hardness, and tell you where the fish are at. Now that the Smallmouth are spawing on the great lakes, I like to cast the Soul Shad on spinning tackle, run it down in about 4 to 6 feet of water to feel the bottom and find the beds. The smallmouth will hit the bait on the pause, but most of the time you have a follow in, short strike, or you actually see the bass turn on the bait without hitting it. At this point, I pick up a spinning rod with a light tube, small jig, fluke, etc., to give the bass a slow vertical presentation… and that’s when they eat it! Time on the water is limited for all of us and one of the main keys to success is eliminating dead zones. Cover water with a horizontal presentation to find the key ingredients, and then follow up with a vertical presentation to catch the fish. I like the Jackall Soul Shad 68 SP for the high quality, perfect balance, action, size, and castability in this situation… not only is it a perfect search bait in the shallows, but also a great “catching” bait as well when the conditions call for it. www.skinard.com

Serious anlgers spend more time on the water than most. Because of this fact we are more prone to on the water accidents that involve sharp objects! The most common accident for fisherman is getting a sharp hook in the hand. Knowing what to do in a situation like this is important, not only for your health, but also not to cut your day on the water short by having to rush to a hospital or seek medical attention. To be prepared for accidents some good items to keep in your boat are: pliers, sharp wire cutters, clean sharp knife, gause, bandages, and cleaning alcohol. The best way to remove a hook that is stuck in places where it shouldn’t be is to bring it back the way it came in. The problem with this is that most of our hooks have barbs on them. Once the barb has penetrated the skin, it is not coming back out very easily! If your lucky, the hook will have gone clean through the skin… if not, you must push the point and barb all the way through until the barb is exposed (that’s the tough part). Once the barb is exposed, you are now able to use your wire cutters and snip off the hook point and barb. Slide the hook back out the way it came in and allow yourself to bleed out the wound a bit. Your not home free yet though! … Hooks can be rusty and a wound like this can get infected very easily. Flush out and soak both ends of the wound in alcohol and cover it up so it says clean. If you fish allot, you “must” be current with your tetnis shots as well! Use this tip when you are on the water. I put at least one hook through my hand every year so the best thing to do is not panic! Just cut it out, clean it off, and you should live to fish another day. www.skinard.com

The spring of 2011 in Western Pennsylvania can be summed up in weather terms of “cold and very wet”. There is not doubt that the unusual weather has set all the lakes several weeks behind schedule as far as transitions. With water still hovering in the mid to high 60′s in early may, the Largemouth Bass are now approaching one of their “transitional periods”. This transition is the pre-spawn. After the ice out, when the water is still cold, the smaller males will invade the shallows looking to make the spawning beds for the coming spawn. The smaller males will congragate around wood cover, rock, and anything that holds the heat while they await the warmer temps when their bigger females will join them. Once the water temp reaches the upper 60′s, the females will transition from being suspended on the drop offs and deeper weedlines up onto the spawning ares of lakes. As all transitions, this can be the best time to catch a true trophy Largemouth Bass. The biggest females will move up to the spawning areas first and well ahead of the time that most anglers think. Not all areas of a lake will be golden to find this transition though. Time on the water and knowledge of the area will help eliminate many areas where the bass will not be. When looking for a pre-spawn transition area, look for the flats that are near a deeper drop-off. Points and pockets make great areas to try. Look for the harder bottom areas with sparse weeds, stumps or laydowns. Ideally you will be looking for all the cover mentioned but the bottom must be a harder silt and sand with pea gravel or small rocks in water anywhere from 6″ to about 4′ depending on the lake and water clarity. Many anglers focus on the shorelines looking for these areas, but the true transitional spot for me will be off shore a bit where all of the factors exist while being hidden a bit from the anglers looking for an easy find. Although in shallow water, as always, your electronics can help identify the bottom hardness. Another “old fashion” way to determine bottom hardness is to simply stick a pole in the water. If it comes up with mostly mud, then move on. On recent trips, i’ve done well with smaller bass using shad baits such as the Jackall Soul Shad. Now that the big ones are starting to get active, I prefer to cover water with shallow running crankbaits (Backstabber Lures 0′-4′ Stabber) and homemade Chatterbaits. The areas I have been hitting are a bit stained in water color so the Chatterbait, with it’s erratic actions and incredible vibration, has been producing well. In this transitional phase, time on the water and knowing the factors of where to find the bass in transition will help increase your catch in both numbers and weight.