The Dean : Fishing Forum Posts

Some guys use additional split rings on suspending jerkbaits. This allows the baits to slowly sink and also causes the lures to suspend nose down. That allows for extra depth and also mimics a dying shad. Check out Mike McClelland's seminars on Jerkbait fishing. Good luck.

Not surprised to hear that. Water temp will often win over other conditions. Warm incoming runnoff will draw the bait and the bass this time of year. Good call going against the norm and finding some frog fish up the creek.

I love deep cranking!! I like the tripple grip and EWG style hooks for my cranking as well. Great input Matt. One of the things you can listen to is the last Bass U live with Ike and I. There was a small segment that Ike reveled a top secret solution to suspending cranks. Many of the pros are drilling holes in the cranks between the lip and the first hook mount. Filling the cavity with vegetable oil. They seal the hole with silicone. This does two things. First it makes the bait quieter and second it brings the bait closer to neutral buoyancy. An added benefit is that it makes the bait heavier witch helps in casting distance. This will help get the bait down a little deeper. bassu.tv/live

Smith lake as a special place. 14 feet is a huge rise. I have found that the most important force regarding the spawn is the length of day. In order to secure a good spawn the bass will wait until the days are longer and the weather is stable. I have also found that rising or falling water will hold up the spawn. Bass instinctual know to wait until conditions stabilize before they start to spawn. That doesn't mean that you wont find an occasional bass produce a bed. It just means that the majority of bass in a lake will wait until conditions are favorable.

Thanks for the kind words about Bass U. Maybe we will see you at the Gadsden class in a couple of weeks. thebassuniversity.com.

I can't say exactly how long line will last. You are storing it properly. I use line regularly that is 3-4 years old. A lot of line sitting on the shelves at some tackle stores is old. I always test the line I'm spooling by wrapping around my hands and pulling. This is a crude test, but line that has been compromised will fail with little pressure. I have seen 20# test break like its 6# test.

Interesting questions. I've never fished around blue dye before, but here is how I would attack it. First I would try to match the hatch. Try to figure out if the bass are feeding on shad, bluegill, crawfish etc. Once you get a look the bait, try to use lures that resemble the colors found on the bait. If your lures look like the bait the fish are feeding on, the blue hue of the water won't matter as much. Why is it blue? Is that weed control chemicals?

We have a call line that we use more and more on the live show. Most of our real time questions come through instant messaging. We do send out email reminders on all our live show. Might be a good idea to check that our emails are going into your inbox and not going into a junk file. We definitely will keep you posted and look forward to seeing you guys on the show.

Hey Chad, Thanks for the question. Below is a line chart for the line a use most of the time Gamma Edge. You can see the difference in diameter from 10# to 20# test. Its about 40% larger in diameter. You can expect to pick up several more inches on a full spool with 20# over smaller diameter. I use 20# a lot for this reason. Allows me to burn crankbaits when I want to.

Line Diameter 6lb 8lb 10lb 12lb 14lb 16lb 20lb
Inches .010 .011 .012 .013 .014 .015 .017

Great question. When pitching my goal is to have the spool control and magnets down to zero. This allows me to have maximum distance and accuracy when pitching. If there is tension on the spool during this cast, the angler really has to muscle the cast to get the bait where he needs it. Lots of bad stuff can happen when you have to muscle the cast. Loud splash upon entry, accuracy diminishes and distance drops off.

Its takes a lot of practice to turn all your spool controls off so don't try to do this right out of the gate. It should be your goal to work toward free spool when pitching. I will warn you that if you are punching with very heavy weights like 1-1.5ounces, you will need some spool control in that situation. The heavy weight demands some spool control but I try to use the minimum.

7PM on Monday the 12th is our next show.

Cold muddy water is the most challenging conditions to face. If the incoming rain is warmer than the main lake this can be a good condition and look for the warming creeks to be good. If the incoming rain is colder than the main lake, then you are going to want to stay out of the incoming creeks. In that case I recommend looking for the warmest, clearest water you can find on the lake. This will usually occur down toward the dam.

You can almost always find bait fish and bass moving shallow when the water levels come up. Even in the winter. Thanks for the question and good luck!

Hi Louis, This is a really an interesting question. I completely understand your situation and admire your drive to shoot for you dreams. The average age of Classic Winners is in the low 40's. As you said, VanDam continues to win and he is now in his 50's. Just a few years ago we saw Rick Clunn win an Elite tournament in his late 60's. The key is being in good enough physical condition to endure all the physical demands of professional fishing. A lot of pros start to fade as they get older due to nagging back, shoulder or arm injuries that happen after decades of professional fishing. Denny Brauer and Larry Nixon fall into this category. They are both still a threat to win any tournament, but have injuries that hold them back. I am 51 now and still love this sport and have the drive to win. In addition, I feel my years of experience are a real asset for me. The physical demands challenge me sometimes, but I can't turn off the fire.

To answer your question, NO! Its not too late. Good luck and keep us posted here at Bass U.

Rick, The IM option on your phone is live right under the steam. You will have to scroll down to access it.

Regarding the MLF change. Clearly BASS lost most of their top named pros. FLW lost about ten to MLF and BASS recruited about ten more top pros from FLW to replace their losses. Most of the top pros are now with MLF. BASS still has the largest platform to promote the sport. FLW still has the biggest participation from tournament anglers. I really don't know what will happen. It all depends if MLF can successfully reach the broad audience they are targeting with their events. I'll be watching all three.

What I am looking for are the new names coming out of the Opens that have qualified for the Elites. These are not open invites. All of these qualifiers have battled a tough Open tournament trail get in. I don't know all of them yet. Greg Dipalma made it in this year and I look for great things from him. I'm also interested to see if Jay Yelas can get back to the top. He was one of the anglers that could really go toe to toe with KVD when he was at BASS. It will all be fun to watch.

Great point Nitro. My goal with sponsorship is to promote products that I truly believe in. There are times that pros are forced to use products from certain companies due to contract obligations. I can tell you this, If there is something out there that will help me win a tournament, I'm using that product.

Hey Loran, The brand TruTungsten isn't around anymore. Below is a link that you can copy and paste in your browser. This is the style of weight Pete was talking about. I love to fish the Carolina Rig!! Good luck.

https://click.linksynergy.com/deeplink?id=c1UQEdGla5o&mid=38416&murl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.tackledirect.com%2Fvmc-tungsten-slider-weight.html

I love to fish a spinnerbait. So does Jorden Lee. We just filmed his spinnerbait vs chatterbait seminar this past weekend. Look for it to be released in a few weeks. Typically I fish a spinnerbiat without a plastic trailer. In the early season I love to add those big trailers like a swimbait. The big prespawn females often look for the large profile. If the trailer is causing the bait to roll, you will have to downsize the trailer or step up the weight of the spinnerbait. A couple of my favorite tips for fishing a spinnerbait are using colored blades. A white bait with white blades has tremendous triggering ability over standard gold and silver blades. Another color I was introduced to by JT Kenney is a black spinnerbait with black or purple blades. You can see me using it when we filmed live with Ish Monroe. I was able to trigger the biggest bass of the trip. Paste this link in your browser and start watching at minute 57. https://bassu.tv/bass-fishing-video/ish-2-hour-5-bass-challenge-frogging-flipping-in-florida

So many baits are good when bass are in the pre-spawn position. Once the water temps break the 50 degree mark in the spring look for all of the lures in your tackle box to work well. I really like to fish with large baits this time of year. Big jigs, spinnerbaits, chatterbaits and crankbaits. The larger baits give me the best chance of catching some of those big pre-spawn females. Big swimbaits are also one of my favorites for the pre-spawn.

Cold muddy water is the most challenging condition in fishing. The baits that have the best chance of triggering strikes in this condition are lipless crankbaits, slow moving big colorado bladed spinnerbaits, Chatterbaits and big jigs. Next, you will want to look for the clearest/warmest water you can find. This can usually be found closer to the Dam. Look for creeks and coves that don't have big creeks feeding them. The creeks are bringing cold muddy water into the lake. Coves without big active feeder creeks will be cleaner and warmer this time of year. Good luck!

SAshmore39. I hope your tournament went well on the 9th. Some of my most effective tools this time of year are big jigs like the mop jig, lipless crankbaits and suspending jerkbaits if the water has some decent clarity. In spotted bass lakes, those deep brush piles can really hold good bass this time of year. The key for me would have been to identify where the bait is. This time of year the bass is never far away from the bait. If the bait is deep and main lake, that will be the brush that I attack. If I find the bait moving in the creeks or shallow, that's when the lipless crankbait can be the ticket. Let me know how it turned out for you.

Great question William. Sometimes when you drive directly over the structure the fish will hide tight to the cover or scatter away from the range of you sonar cone. Either way you won't see them on 2d. If the cover is in a good position and you see bait in the area, I will make a few casts. If it really looks good to me I will stop back later and give it another shot. So my answer is yes, I will sometimes still fish the cover even if 2d doesn't show fish.

Great tips Derek. I personally use Gamma Torque. Its green/olive in color. It looks like the grass I'm usually fishing a frog around. I believe that line color invisibility is always something to factor into my fishing.

Hi Jimmy D. I love fishing in Canada. The seasonal patterns are about the same as the rest of the country, except the happen much faster. Almost as soon as the ice melts the fish start exhibiting per-spawn behavior. They will feed heavy on the bait that is grouped up this time of year depending on the waterway you are fishing. Once you see the water temps approach 50 degrees look for the smallmouth and largemouth begin pre-spawn behavior. May is generally when you'll see pre-spawn behavior, Late May into June will be the spawn. It will happen fast. Late June early July will be post spawn. Smallmouth will start and end the spawn phase about 1-2 weeks before the Largemouth. I have seen the largemouth still spawning in early July in southern Canada waters. The further you go north you can add a week delay on this process. After the spawn its all about the feed. Both species will go to where the food is. Depending of if they are feeding on gobies or other bait fish, the bass will go to where the bait is. As July turns to August, look for the smallies and largemouth to be around current and food. The fall will see a shallow water movement before the fish retreat to the deeper wintering areas. This is lot to cover and everybody of water has its own personality. Good luck this year.

Every Pro Angler that I hire for the Bass University uses one. The most common location for the speaker is in the shaft of the top of the trolling head or on the shaft of the trolling motor.

This is a great question Nitro. I have spent some time fishing those bodies of water in northern Arkansas and southern Missouri. Endless miles of the same shorelines and points and timber. Here are few things I have learned about those bodies of water. Follow the bait. The bait moves frequently in those lakes and it will pull the bass with them where ever it goes. So as an angler you will always need to be on the move following the bait. Water color is also a big player in those waters. Rain events will bring stain/off color water to sections of the lakes and its common for the bait to move to the stained water to feed on the runnoff. The stained water also makes it easier to catch clearwater fish. Another big factor in fishing those lakes is transitional areas. Places where the bank cover changes from rock to gravel to sand. This transition areas can be on the bank and can be on deep points or ledges. Transition areas are a big key that will hold bass on these lakes.

Great question Derek. When largemouth fishing, I almost always want to contact the cover. There are some situations that fishing off the bottom is effective. Some are mentioned above. Schooling fish is the most common time I fish off the bottom with cranks. I will run the crankbaits through the bait or just under the bait to trigger strikes. Some times I burn a crankbait or lipless crank off the bottom to use speed as a trigger.