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Have you ever had a buddy tell you he “whacked them” on this place or that place?  Have you ever watched someone else pummel fish in an area or on a place and then when you tried it - nothing, zippo, zilch?  Well, everyone probably thought this was going to be a tirade about folks watching or following others and then moving in on those fish, but its not. Many times I have tried to help out others by telling them where the fish were and later hear that they struck out or only caught one or two. I think that there are a couple of factors involved in this: confidence (a lack there of) and changing fish. Here’s a good example: I had a friend tell me that the fish were eating a whacky rigged worm skipped under docks. I tried it, spent several hours trying different docks in different locations and only managed a couple of fish. I abandoned the pattern because I didn’t have the confidence to stick with it. Fortunately, that weekend we were fishing different tournaments.  He finished the day with almost a pound more than I managed on that day. He caught most of his fish on the pattern he told me about and in many of the same areas I had tried it in. My point is this: if you don’t find the fish yourself or witness first hand the catching, you probably won’t have the confidence to go to those fish on your own and find or catch them. I’m not saying that you can’t; it’s just not as likely. Another factor in this equation is that fish move! A school can move while chasing bait or [...]

As I sit and watch all the FLW and BASS Tournament shows, it amazes me to see the “Elite” and the “Superstars” of our sport make some of the basic mistakes that they make. Granted they are where they and many of us would love to be competing at that level. They are obviously skilled anglers but watching their mistakes makes me wonder what could have been. Surprisingly most of the mistakes I see these guys making are when they are pitching/flipping. Some may think who am I to point out their mistakes, they are already where I wish to be, well I use their mistakes as lessons not to be repeated by me when I get there and maybe some of you can benefit from my observations. It was a year or so ago at Clear Lake, Skeet Reese missed or lost four fish. Last year’s Amistad tournament Ish Monroe almost gave away the tournament by loosing a couple of big fish. At the Potomac River last year Steve Kennedy finished third, who knows what would have happened had he not lost that one good bite he had. There are a couple of common factors between all these anglers and the situations where they lost the fish. They were all in contention to win the events.  They were all pitching/flipping, using right hand retrieve reels and holding their rods in their right hand. All the bites came shortly after the bait hit the water. The anglers were not in a position to set the hook and take up line/move the fish. Pitching/Flipping is an essential tactic for bass fisherman and for a tournament fisherman; I can’t even begin to quantify the value of the [...]

We all want to get rich quick; it’s the American dream. In fishing, deep cranking is probably the fastest way to get rich. If you have found the right school of fish in practice or come across them during the tournament day, you can get rich quickly by bringing that big crankbait through that school of fish. There are a lot of conditional statements in that sentence, you had to have found the “right” school of fish and bring your crankbait through them, not as easy as it sounds. Looking for schools of fish or the “right” school of fish takes a lot of time. I have spent countless hours idling around watching my electronics, looking for fish. The real looking begins at the house before you ever get on the water. A topographic map is essential to this type of fishing and studying the map before you go to the lake will make your time on the water more efficient. What kind of structure am I looking for on a map? Contour changes, rocks, old road beds, long points, humps, creek channel edges and old river channels. I want to find places where there are significant changes in the bottom contour, besides the change in bottom these places will also be the most likely to have additional cover(i.e. stumps, rock & brush piles so forth and so on ). Now that I have identified these places through map study, I need to go study them with my depth finder. While I am idling around looking at these places, I drive the boat   in a zigzag pattern. This helps to keep me focused on what I think should be the key area/depth. Whenever possible I [...]

I’ve been thinking a lot about this subject and my tournament performance in general over the winter. A lot of my successes have come when I’ve been able to put a flipping stick in my hand and go for what I know. With that in mind, I’ve tried to put myself (in tournament situations) in the mind set that I’m going to try and spend as much time as possible with a long rod in my hands. I have a ton of confidence that I can and will catch fish on a jig, Well I’m sure everyone out there has that one technique that they feel this way about. I began to think about how this could apply to everyone/anyone. We each have a technique or bait that we always feel like we’re going to catch fish when we use, we have confidence in it. What does having confidence in a bait/technique do for us? It puts us in the mind frame that we can or will catch a fish on any cast. So we’re more attentive during the retrieve, we’re more precise with our presentations, in short, we focus on catching fish! We are not questioning whether you’re working the bait correctly or making the proper presentation. So, I say to you: When it matters the most or when you really want to catch a fish, put away all those other rods and baits, get out the ONE that you have the most confidence in and go to work! Now, I’m not suggesting that you shouldn’t learn other techniques or become familiar with other baits. You must be versatile, because there will be days when they (the fish) will bite other baits or presentations [...]

It’s that time of year again, the leaves, air and water temperatures are all falling and the shad are migrating to the backs of the creeks and pockets. Where the shad go, so do the bass, the bass follow the bait as they put on their feed in preparation for the winter. This can be a time of feast or famine for fishermen. Often the bass will have the bait pushed into tight balls and feeding on them aggressively, sometimes on the surface and there for the viewing. It’s entertaining at times to watch the shad scatter as bass streak through the school. It can be equally frustrating when they’re feeding all around you and you can’t catch them. Here’s how I approach this time of year; generally I don’t go searching for schooling (fish aggressively feeding on the surface) fish. I fish in the areas where I know the bait and fish are. I am typically fishing targets, looking for fish that are relating to cover/structure with my confidence/search baits. I find this to be more effective as bass are ambush predators and presenting bait in their strike zone usually gets me bit. If they come up schooling, I’ll throw bait their way and see what happens. I’m watching to see the quality of fish in the school, if there is a defined “kill zone” and the size of the bait they are feeding on. If they’re small fish, why bother? An identified “kill zone” can make the catching a lot more efficient. By “kill zone” I am referring to a particular spot where the fish are consistently coming up feeding. Many times the kill zone will be related to some cover or structure, [...]

For most of the year we are after fish that we rarely see, but for about six to eight weeks in the spring we can actually watch and look at the fish we are trying to catch. It’s really exciting! A lot of fisherman will say that they can’t catch fish on the beds or that it takes too long. Well both can be true but I hope to shed some light on the situation. First and foremost I will say that bed fishing takes some practice/experience to get good at. You have to be able to find the fish, judge the fish’s mood/state and then catch the fish. When I am looking for fish, I commit to looking for fish. That means I’m not casting another rod as I’m going down the bank, picking my nose or anything else that may cause me to overlook that big fish I’m looking for. So, trolling motor on high (water clarity affects the speed I can go), going down the bank, I try to stay out past the limit of visibility and keep the sun behind me. As I am looking there will be an angle or view into the water that will present the best view, it may be in front of or behind the boat but that is the area where I focus my attention. I learned long ago that the fish will almost always make their bed in or around something to mess the fisherman up! So I look very closely at stumps, trees, boat docks or anything else I see in the water. I will go through an entire cove/pocket, I don’t want to stop on the first fish I come to, look [...]