The Dean : Fishing Forum Posts

I'm organizing my garage, installing shelving and peg boards. Putting in some cushion flooring and a work bench. Redoing my tackle storage system in my boat. Converting everything over to Flambeau. Won't be long and the ice will be gone and I won't have any time to do this kind of stuff. Hope I can get it all done by Spring. We need to head south for a few weeks Rich and hang out with Hillbilly in Texas.

When it comes to rod selection, there are a ton of options. To keep it simple I recommend a few all around rods that can help you be successful until you are ready to make the leap into lure specific rods. I recommend using a 7' casting rod in medium heavy action. This can be used for spinnerbaits, texas rigged plastics, jigs, carolina rigs and spinnerbaits. I recommend this rod - Cashion M8437 Elite. The spinning rod I use for Senko's, shakey head, and for a drop shot is the Cashion P8437s elite. I use both of these rods a lot.

As far as line goes. I use braid a lot too. I almost always use a fluorocarbon leader on my braid. I really believe line visibility matters.

Good luck on your next tournament. Its interesting that you caught one in the morning and another late in the day. That is often the situation in the early spring. No matter how cold it gets, there is often a morning bite. And there is almost always an afternoon bite in the early part of the season as the sun warms in the afternoon.

Jason is right about cranking. Its weird how with all those hooks, crankbaits are the hardest lure to keep a fish hooked. Cashion has a great series of cranking rods. I use flourocarbon only when cranking.

Hey Thomas, I have fished oxbows off of the Red River and the Ouchita Rivers that are silted in partially. In the pre-spawn I looked for bass to relate to the mouths of the Oxbow's where they connect to the rivers. There is often rip-rap jetties and shorelines in these areas that the bass will feed on prior to entering the oxbow to spawn. Some other great habitat to look for bass during these seasons are standing timber/stumps that exist in these areas. Bass will suspend on the timber and relate to the stumps. There always seems to be lily pads in these areas too. The root systems and stalks are excellent places to look in the pre-spawn and bass will go to the mature pads in the post spawn to feed.

Thanks for the feedback Warren! We are constantly working to bring the best instructional content to the program. Thanks for being part of Bass U.

Thanks for being part of our program! You are moving to one of my favorite parts of the country. Pickwick is an awesome lake. Has giant spots and smallies in addition to largemouth. It will be a lot different from the Ozark lakes, but lots of fun. Good luck!

It has been exciting to see all the tournaments available. The new live products from BASS and MLF are great. Its hard to get any work done with all this going on during the week. lol.

Thanks for all you do as a med-evac pilot and thanks for your army service!!

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.

We did a lot of filming with Paul Mueller this past fall. He shows us how he uses his Panoptix. If you watched the his recent Bassmaster win on Lake Lanier, you saw him use his Panoptix to win that event last week. Copy and paste the following link to watch Panoptix in action. https://bassu.tv/bass-fishing-video/winter-finesse-swimbait-fishing-for-smallmouth-mueller

Bass Ranger, I love these kinds of questions. Tightly spaced contour lines are often the best places to locate bass during the summer and winter seasons. These seasons are when bass are often located at their deepest depths on any particular lake. I think its important to note that depth is relative. Some lakes bass will never be deeper than 10 feet. While other lakes its common to see bass as deep at 40-60 feet like we just saw during the Bassmaster Elite on Lake Lanier, Ga. I have caught smallmouth as deep as 100'. The big question is why are bass located in these deep areas. The answer is always bait. The bait seeks deep water during this months for food and safety. The bass will always be around the bait. The vertical lines allow bass to move vertically as well as offer ambush opportunities to trap bait in deep water. So generally speaking, I first am concerned with finding the depth the bait is located, then I look for good habitat in this depth zone.

You heard correctly Kenny. Seth Feider swaps out his split ring on his blade baits and crankbaits with braided line. This give the hook better rotation and more consistent hookups. If you are loosing fish cranking this is a solution to help. The main con I can see is the time it takes to remove the split rings and tie the the loop knot. I good winter time project. Another problem I can foresee is changing out the hooks when a point gets dull. I have not used this yet, but plan to this year. Especially with blade baits and lip-less cranks. I tend to loose more fish with these baits than any other and I think this can help.

I used to have this problem a lot. Once I switched to the improved clinch knot it solved the problem for me. One of the keys to knots is a simple one. You have to tie a good clean knot. If you get line overlapping or the knot doesn't cinch up nice and tight, retie the knot before you fish. It doesn't hurt to practice tying knots. I also test my knot a lot during the day. I use a simple test. I wrap the line around one hand and hold the lure firmly in the other and pull hard. If there is a problem with the knot or an abrasion the line will break in your hands and prevent a failure during fishing. A lot of things can impact a knot during fishing that has nothing to do with the knot. Wood, rock, sand, gravel and muscles will all wear on a knot. Its so important to constantly check you line and knot often. Especially if you haven't caught a fish for a while. You also want to look at your hook. Sometimes the line can get caught in the part of the hook eye where the metal is bent around. There are some sharp edges here that can cause a failure unrelated to your knot. VMC makes hooks that have this are welded smooth so there are no edges. I have also settled on Gamma flouro. It has proven to be the toughest line out there for abrasion in my fishing. You are tying the right knots. I hope these tips help you get through this and good luck on your next trip.

I understand you point of view Hydwilla gowilla and we agree. Love the name by the way. We are currently working on a program to reward our subscribers. Look for these rewards this spring. Hang in there with us. Good things coming.

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.

I have not spent much time with this rig. It seems to be effective at fishing around soft bottoms and I'm starting to see more and more guys talking about it. Copy and paste this link from Gerald Swindle. He uses it ledge fishing on Lake Guntersville. https://bassu.tv/bass-fishing-video/gerald-swindles-summer-ledge-fishing-lure-line-up

This is the rod I recommend. It's a great all around spinning rod that will help you accomplish a lot in shallow and deep water. https://click.linksynergy.com/deeplink?id=c1UQEdGla5o&mid=38416&murl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.tackledirect.com%2Fcashion-icon-spinning-rods.html - Cashion Model iAP7MFS.

This is the reel that I'm using - https://click.linksynergy.com/deeplink?id=c1UQEdGla5o&mid=38416&murl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.tackledirect.com%2Fshimano-stradic-fl-spinning-reels.html. Size - 3000. Shimano has lots of lower priced options in the same size.

This above Cashion rod is a medium action. Depending on the brand you choose. Medium or medium/heavy is right action for most applications.

West Point lake is where I grew up fishing and the spotted bass have consistently gotten bigger over the recent years. Target the lower end of the lake, the long points with clay and rock and humps will hold them nearly year round. Another place that’s a consistent spotted bass hang out is the bridges on the main lake. They tend to hang around the cleaner, deeper water areas. Baits like jerkbaits, small swimbaits, neko rigs, Ned rigs and finesse jigs will catch them every time! - Rob Jordan

I use medium actions rods on baitcasting gear to fish crankbaits and small topwaters. The medium action helps me keep the small treble hooks pinned. Gear ratio is between 6-7:1. The higher speed reals will help you land more fish.

I understand your concern Douglas. A lot of states protect the spawn by not allowing tournaments during the spawning season. My opinion is this-On the busiest of fishing days, around 5% of a population of fish are caught. That leaves most fish untouched to continue their spawn. I have seen studies that show fish returning exactly to where they were caught after being weighed in.

Our fisheries management over the years in addition to catch and release practices have lead to bass catches to be at their best. Record catches are being reported all over the country and Canada. As a fishing community we are doing an amazing job with bass.

I'm interested in seeing this product. What company is working on this?

Some states don't allow fishing during the spawn.

I don't have much experience with this fish. The idea is to have a fish that will get large like a Florida Strain and not be so sensitive to weather conditions like the Northern Strain.

https://bassu.tv/bass-fishing-video/how-to-fish-a-topwater-prop-bait-jt-kenney. JT is the best!!

That's a great find. I have seen when the water warms so fast that fish are still lethargic. They also seemed to be keyed up on the prospect of catching a few herring when they come through the ladder. When fish get so dialed in on a certain bait, it can very challenging. You seamed to have tried several of the techniques that I would have tried. Move back an forth from ultra finesse to large power baits like the glide bait. The silver buddy is one technique that can turn a fish in 40 degree water. However, my best advice is to wait for conditions to change or stabilize and come back. Often when calm days turn windy or sunny days turn cloudy you can have a small window to trigger some strikes with the change in conditions. You may also find a school of herring coming over the ladder that will get those fish active. Good luck.