Month: February 2010

Jeremy Anderson: Back from Bassmaster Classic 2010

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The Zen Master and I.

Jeremy Anderson reports from the Bassmaster Classic for us. Jeremy is co-owner of Black Dog Baits.

Well, what can I say? The Bassmaster Classic is the most amazing show/tournament I have ever seen.

It is literally awe-striking to see all the professional anglers in one place. Opportunities to meet Hank Parker, Bill Dance, Ray Scott, Rick Clunn and so on abound. These guys are absolutely pleasant to speak with. I felt like a little kid. I got in line for a hot dog and stood next to Paul Elias. I pinched myself several times to make sure I wasn't dreaming.

Meeting other lure manufacturers is always a huge pleasure as well. Grant Koppers from Live Target lures has a beautiful line up of baits and his attention to every aspect of the business is incredible. I picked up some of the crawdad rattle baits, a big 5 inch perch crankbait that runs 12 feet, and a little shad crankbait. The baits scream of quality with a strong Japanese-like inspiration. The finishes are very detailed and executed perfectly. No detail is overlooked from the gill detail all the way to little hairs on the craw rattler. I cant wait to toss these around the river!

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Andre Moore of Reaction Innovations has some interesting new designs in the works along with a few colorful stories that put me in tears. He currently is fishing saltwater tournaments for reds and kingfish. Sounds like a fun way to fish that presents a whole new challenge. As usual, his plastic sales were excellent at the show. His following back East is as big or bigger than the West.

Lonnie Stanley and his crew are some of my boyhood heroes. My first jigs were all Stanley jigs I bought from K-Mart. Anybody ever heard of "Hales Craworm"? John Hale is a plastics pioneer from way back. He showed me some new ringed plastic baits with special air pockets to create extra balance and action. The capabilities of these baits are endless. Ken Cheaumont showed me some new jigs and spinnerbaits with some wicked colors. They also had an awesome double frog hook for the ribbits.

I'm not quite sure in 3 days I saw everything there. The new boats were awesome along with the new outboards. The Sho from Yamaha was massive but the 3.2L 300xs stroker from Mercury was love at first sight! WOW!!!!

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Baddest motor ever!!!!!!!!!!  3.2 LITER!!!!!!! Yamawhat??????????? Evincrude???????? FAIL

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This motor is missing a crown for its regal status.
 

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The Gambler Sterling….. Words cant describe this boat.   

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Cockpit not console.

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New Jaguar. Giant badass cat! Beautiful boat and great people!

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Bandit coon. This just made me laugh.

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The city was beautiful and oozed old southern charm. I could easily move to Alabama.
 

The real wow was Kevin VanDam. We are lucky to be able to witness such an unbelievable dominant angler in our lifetime. I'm not sure there will ever be an equal of his. His third classic win along with the angler of the year title. What a stick!

Welcoming Black Dog Baits to the Wired Angler

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We're no stranger to the allure of Black Dog Baits around here at the Wired Angler, so we'd like to give a welcome and thanks to them for joining the site as an advertiser.

Jeremy Anderson and I have swapped baits for custom paint jobs, and I've been lucky enough to test drive some of his baits before they hit the market.

The classic Lunker Punker is one of my favorite lures of all time, and we're really excited about the new 5" inject Punker that's just coming out. We got our hands on some samples and we'll be featuring it more in the coming days and watch out for a sweet bait giveaway.

Check out some of our past posts on Black Dog Baits:

First Look at the New 5" Punker

First Crack at the New Mini-Shell Cracker 

Pimp Your Punker

Black Dog & Vagabond bait Co Join Forces

Where Have All The Trout Gone?

Friends, if you frequent many of the fishing forums you have probably already caught the buzz regarding trout stocking in the state of California. I have been watching this issue with a casual nonchalance for quite some time. I am here to publicly apologize for that! This issue is not something to shy away from. At this time we have systematically lost stocked trout in the state of California! The long-term effects on trout fishing, bass fishing, the California fishing industry, as well as small trout fishing communities remains to be seen.

 Though some of us have failed to act prior to this moment,  a select group of anglers has already begun to step up and take action. They have been working diligently behind the scenes and will continue to do so in the future. I encourage each of you to join this group of anglers! An action plan has been set in place, we are not too late, there is much to be done! Rob Belloni is currently heading the organization and his email is available is available at the bottom of this post.

I have re-produced the following with the permission of Rob Belloni.

Writing to bring you news about what is going on with trout stocking in California. It's a confusing thing so I'm writing this to break it all down and help everyone understand what is happening.

The Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) is an environmental group. Their goal is to protect native species. In 2007 they sued the California Dept. of Fish and Game (DFG). They said that stocking trout in California is bad for native species. They said that stocked trout eat native frogs. They said stocked trout eat insects that native birds could have eaten instead. They said that stocked trout could breed with native trout/steelhead and mess up the gene pool.

They sued under an act called the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). This act says that any time the state government does a project, they have to take in to account the environment. In 2007, the CBD didn't win outright but they won a lot. They made the DFG go and evaluate trout stocking through a formal process. They also got a judge to rule that certain places where trout are stocked shouldn't be stocked any more while DFG went and did their evaluation. That's why a lot of places haven't gotten stocked with trout for the last few years.

This year DFG finished their evaluation. They put out a new set of rules to determine if a place gets stocked with trout or not. I've reviewed these rules and talked with the important people at DFG about how these rules will work in real life. These are pretty good rules. They're pretty reasonable. They're not perfect, but they're a great start. Most people at the DFG want to stock trout, but they also want to protect native species where it's reasonable.

The CBD looked at these new rules the DFG put out and they said they are bad. They said the rules are too vague. They said the rules don't provide enough protection. They didn't sue again, but they filed something with the judge in the case called a Writ of Mandate. That's a fancy way of telling the judge that the DFG did such a bad job that the judge should give the DFG a big slap on the wrist and send them back to do their evaluation over again and make new rules – rules that the CBD likes.

The judge has to look at this Writ of Mandate and decide what to do. I am working hard to see how we can convince the judge that the DFG has done their job already and shouldn't have to do it again. I don't have all the answers yet, but I'm forming a group to keep the CBD from going too far. A rough draft of what we believe in is below.

There are a lot of reasons why trout stocking is important to us fishermen. I'm worried that without trout, many lakes will close down because not enough people will come to fish. I'm worried kids won't get their start in fishing because they won't have trout to fish for. I'm worried the CBD will go too far to do things that sound good on paper but are bad in real life. I'm worried about letting people who don't really understand fish be in charge of the fish.

I want to get the word out to the fishing community about this topic. That's why I'm posting this. I need help from lawyers especially, so if any of you are lawyers or know lawyers who can help, drop me a line. If you just want to write to talk about the issue, that's great too. 

Rob can be reached at swimbait@gmail.com

I can be reached as well regarding this topic at fish4biz@gmail.com

Fishing Flooded Lakes For Bass In The Grass

We've had a good amount of rainfall here in California this year and a lot of small lakes are full already. With each passing storm some are even flooding for short periods of time. This is a luxury we have not had for a number of years and it gets me really exited about going out and shore fishing.

Bass start gravitating towards the shallows whenever there is a high water. High water means food, as all kinds of small forage will get up in the grass and other vegetation that has had a chance to sprout up during the low water period. I really watch the weather this time of year. Whenever there is a stormy, balmy day I will drop everything to go spend a couple hours fishing from shore.

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Bass fishing in grass – tackle recommendations:

For the most part I am burning a spinner bait, swim jig or chatter bait. The water clarity is usually not too good but the fish are up feeding and will key in on a fast moving bait. This is a technique I also use fishing out of my boat as well. I will usually wake the bait, otherwise I keep it in the upper six to eight inches of water.

The strikes are usually pretty voracious this time of year. A lot of times you will be watching your bait wake and you will see another wake rise up behind or to the side of your bait moments before you get crushed. Color selection is simple as well: I go for white, chartreuse, a combo of the two, or an orange color scheme.

There is going to be a lot of different forage up in the grass this time of year. Bass will be chasing bluegill, shad, crawdads, worms that have been washed in, salamanders and a number of small prey. Look for coves and areas where water is running in and you will find the highest concentration of fish.

My favorite baits include a Revenge Spinner Bait or Viberator in 1/2 ounce, Black Dog Weedslinger, or a Dirty Jigs No Jack Jig with a small swimbait trailer. The trailer on the jig or spinner bait can resemble either a craw or a small fish. Sometimes they seem to prefer one over the other. I suggest trying the red or orange color scheme as well as the chartreuse or white set up. Sometimes they also like one color over the other.

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Not a big fish but this was one of nine in two hours

So there you have it, when everyone else is either fishing deep still or not out fishing at all. You can be out in a crushing bass in the middle of winter in the shallows.

Video: Weekly Dose of Canadian Bass Fishing Humor

Found via the TackleTog blog over at TackleTour:

Canadian comedian and competition bass angler Dave Mercer has launched a weekly bass fishing show on YouTube. Says TackleTog: 

"Dave is an awesome angler, proven by his success on the Canadian trail, but his comedy is even better. . . Only Dave and his semi-twisted mind could come up with something like this and I think you’ll all like what he’s done."

Tackle Tog


Facts Of Fishing You Tube Channel

How to make a Swimbait Surgery Box

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We've all been there: shredded our favorite baits while on the water and had no back up plan.

Well, how many of you actually went home and said "this will never happen to me again"? Probably not too many of you. I have devised a plan for my baits in peril – it's called the Swimbait Surgery Box.

Having a bait first aid box like this can save a ruined day and turn it into one of the best days of fishing you have ever had. The beauty of it is that you don't need another full size box to build one. I just used some cheapo small box I got in a tackle giveaway at a tournament or something. I started by thinking of all the little things I might need to modify or fix a bait on the water. Here's whats in my Surgery Box:

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Save your baits: contents of a good Bait Surgery Box:

  1. First and foremost a bottle of Mend-It. If you have not used this on your soft plastic baits yet you missing out for sure. I have brought baits back from the trash pile with this stuff.
  2. A small bottle of thick gap filling hobby shop Super Glue. This will fix anything – it's the next best thing since Duct Tape, but that's in a different box on my boat.
  3. A sharpening stone. Kinda old school, I know, with all of these chemically sharpened super hooks we have now. Just trust me on this one.
  4. Various needles and thread pullers; time to man up and go to the craft store. You would be surprised at how many different tools there are that can be used for bait surgery next to the knitting needles.
  5. Some bobber stops. These can be used for many many things.
  6. Some suspend dots for crank baits.
  7. Various split rings and split ring pliers.
  8. Some extra stinger hooks.
  9. Small pieces of wire, you never know.
  10. Some pieces of plastic tube for running treble hooks to secret locations.
  11. Some nail weights.
  12. Extra lead weights for stuffing into the bellies of your baits.
  13. Some extra line-through lead sinkers for pro-rigging swimbaits.

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These little basics can really save your day on the water. 

New Site Advertiser: Dirty Jigs

Dirty Jigs
I'd like to welcome Dirty Jigs to the Wired Angler web site. Dirty Jigs puts out some of the toughest jigs I have ever used. Curt, the owner, is downright compulsive about putting out the best product he possibly can. You have seen them mentioned in some of our past articles here on the Wired Angler. Be sure to check out his full line of jigs here: Dirty Jigs>

Over the last few weeks we've been working on joining up with some of our favorite companies, and we will be posting up ad space for some of these new sponsors over the next month or so. So what's in it for you? Well lets get down to it: we will be doing periodic product giveaways and contests. Who doesn't like a shot at some free stuff? All of these new sponsors are really going to help us keep bringing you all the great info you have been enjoying over the last couple years so please help support them when ever you can.

 Dirty Jigs blue   Dirty Jigs orange

Here's a 10.1 pound fish Matt Allen caught on a No-Jack Flippin' Jig:

Dirty Jigs Matt Allen

Dirty Jigs Tackle>

How To Straighten Bent Swimbait Tails

Over on Twitter, I recently had a few requests to do a post on how to straighten swimbait tails. I find this happens mostly in the summer time when rod lockers heat up. The next thing you know half of your swimbait box looks like a drunken Twister game.

The process of straightening is very easy: all you need is a pot with water and a stove. Soft plastic swimbaits are made of materials that turns into liquid when heated. Boiling water is just under the temp that will remelt the plastic into its liquid state. Once you have heated some water to the boiling point on your stove, simply dip you swimbait tails for about 10 seconds at a time. Most of the time they will straighten simply by their own weight. Sometimes they will need to be bent in the opposite way slightly – just be careful in doing this to avoid breaking the tails.

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To avoid bent tails from happening, what you have to do is try and keep your swimbaits in an orderly fashion in the first place. I am not a fan of hanging swimbait boxes. I think they are a waste of time, money and space in your boat. I realize swimbaits are expensive but come on! I think if people spent half the time fishing these baits as they do looking at them. . .  ok I'll stop right there! My favorite swimbait box is actually from OSH Hardware it is a from a company called Akromils (part number 74-090). I use this to store almost all of my bigger baits, hard and soft.

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