Author: Josh St. John

And the Lucky Lunker Punker winner is…

Congratulations to Kevin Stoughton, who got the most correct answers to Jeremy's killer bass fishing trivia questions.

We'll be sending him a 5" Lunker Punker for his troubles.

Here are the answers to those tough questions from Jeremy Anderson:

1. What was the bait that Rick Clunn called "the perfect bait" that he used to win the 1986 U.S Open?

ANSWER: A Stanley spinnerbait that sported the first transparent skirt with metal flake added.

2. How many VERSIONS of original Castaic wooden trout were made?

ANSWER: Trick question – A LOT

3. What is a "Weller's Classic Minnow" and "Simplex Wiggler"? What
years were they produced?

Wellers
ANSWER: Circa 1925 These were being made as early as 1921. Patent granted in 1926. The Weller company produced wood lures from 1921 up until 1942. (Source: Old Fishing Lures And Tackle by Carl F. Luckey)

4. I design Ferrari parts for a living but build the finest quality of tackle for fun. Who am I?

Bigz
ANSWER: Yuki Ito of Megabass and Ito Engineering. The most prolific popular tackle artist of our time. His advancements in tackle technology range from beautiful lures to unreal rods, reels, and samurai swords. Quality is Megabass's motto and their products range from astounding to beyond
mind blowing.

5. What lure designer spent countless hours underwater researching the sound frequencies of his lures in order to duplicate the sound of live bait?

Lure
ANSWER: Bill Lewis inventor of the world famous Rattletrap. One of my favorites.

6. What extremely popular lure company started their production by hiring whole families to handcraft its lures in their homes?

ANSWER: Rapala. Families in Finland were hired to handcraft the first Finnish minnows in their homes. Lauri Rapala and crew trained and provided materials.

7. What lures originally came to the USA from Japan in businessmen's briefcases and sold for up to 100 dollars each? Note: this is before eBay.

Michael
ANSWER: The Michael. This is better known now as the Rico Popper that Lobina Lures now distributes. They originally were named Michaels with the name painted in gold or silver on the back. These came over in the early 90s and were the rage for their fish catching prowess and tournament wins. I have two that a friend gave to me that are in great condition that I will always cherish. When I was 15 I was lucky enough to own 3 of them. They are all in trees somewhere in the back lakes of Shadow Cliffs. The performance or finish was no different than the Splash Its, Ricos, or Yellow Magic poppers. Right now the best is by far the Rico as far as fish catching and finish go. So if you have – or find – an original Michael hold on to it and keep it out of the trees!

8. How did "Bone" become such a popular color?

ANSWER: Anglers discovered that their "chewed up" lures produced better than their new ones. They promptly pulled out their pocket knives and began scraping the paint off of their new baits. The chrome finishes came off the easiest. The color of the molded plastic was an off white color similar in appearance to that of – well, a bone. The  lures most prone to the pocket knife were the Rebel Pop-R and the Bill Lewis Rattletrap.

9. Who arguably designed the first topwater fishing lure for black bass?

Heddonfrog
ANSWER: James Heddon (Source: Old Fishing Lures by Carl F. Luckey)

Heddon
I love this one! It never ran and was supposedly a joke. Still funny none the less!

Congratulations to Kevin, and thanks to everyone who entered. We'll be having more bait giveaways soon!

(By the way – if you'd like to sponsor a Wired Angler contest, drop me a line: wiredangler@gmail.com)

New 6″ Nates Bait Trout

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 Nate Lambrecht from Nates Baits is at it again, I just recently got one of his new 6" Trouts from him. This is going to be a great little spotted bass bait. Not a big bait by any means but a cool little one.I am not sure when these baits are going to be available. May be awhile as I know Nate likes to field test everything first. The action is similar to his 8" trout.

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Shown here next to an 8" Nate's Bait Trout. Here's a link to more info on the 8" Trout on his site: Nate's Baits

BaitSmith Fishing Report from Diamond Valley Lake

Ed Proulx of BaitSmith lures sent in this report from his trip down to Diamond Valley Lake in Southern California where he landed this beauty.

Ed
I just returned home from a long weekend trip to Southern California
and was able to get out on Diamond Valley Lake Monday 3-15-10 and had a
great day fishing with my nephew Mitch. It was my first weekend trip
ever to Hemet and Diamond Valley and I was very hopeful to catch some
nice fish in a warm place away from the snow and cold at home in
Northern Idaho.

We started the morning out with a 5.5 pounder that was
on the shoreline. She ate the soft plastic stick bait without
hesitation. I then told Mitch that by the way she bit we can find them
they are going to eat today. We continued to search the shore for
females for a short period of time but could only find scrubby males who were spooky, so we made the decision to set ourselves away
from what everyone else seemed to be doing and get further away from
shore.

Soon we found a school of 4.5 to 6 pounders suspended and hooked
and landed five of them in short order with soft plastics. I continued to
throw the BaitSmith 9.5” Magnum Light Color Trout and Mitch threw an
assortment of BaitSmith Original 6” colors and the 5” BaitSmith
Threadfin Shad. We ran from spot to spot looking to duplicate our
pattern and caught several more fish from 4 to 5.5 pounds – but on the
soft plastics not the swimbaits.

At about 2pm the water had warmed up
to about 63 degrees and I continued to throw our BaitSmith Magnum as a
search bait when we came across a classic swimbait spot. That is
when my Magnum got bit. I yelled for the net and continued to crank my
Calcutta. As the fish got close to the net she managed to shake her head
hard enough as I cranked her towards the net to shake the bait free.  She had eaten the 9.5” Magnum clear up to the eyeballs, but I allowed her
to get enough stretch in my line to shake her head and the bait . . . big
mistake as we watched her swim away! She looked to be a 10 or better but
I cannot say for sure BECAUSE I didn’t get her into the net to weigh
her, we just know she was a bigger fish.

As I tried to calm myself down,
I repositioned the boat and began to cast to the same area at the same
angle and depth, on the fourth cast the Magnum got bit again this time,
same drill, except there was no mistake like I made the last time. When
the fish made it into the net we high-fived each other, took some
pictures, and released the fish (shown above in the picture above) that weighed in just over
8.10 pounds.

I caught another fish on the Magnum a little later that
weighed just under 5 pounds. I capped a great day of fishing on a great
body of water with one of the people in my life I always enjoy spending
time with. 

Bass Jam 163
BaitSmith Magnum shown in blue trout pattern

Baitsmith Swimbaits>

Top 10 Popular Posts on the Wired Angler

I've just gone through and updated the list of most popular posts on the Wired Angler from the last six months. It's pretty interesting – mostly newer stuff but that "10 Ways to Rig a Basstrix" is still a winner after all these months.

You can always find this list in the sidebar, but I thought I'd put it up here today for quick and easy clicking

Top 10 posts on the Wired Angler:

Bass West Interview with Josh St. John

Joshstjohn
Bass West Magazine (westernbass.com) has just put online Andy Parson's article from last summer about getting the Snack Size swimbaits launched. We went out for a day of fishing on Clear Lake and talked about the process of getting into lure making, and what went into creating the first JSJ baits.

I've just re-read it and I think it's really well done:

Swimbait Start Up – JSJ Baits

Welcoming Black Dog Baits to the Wired Angler

Black Dog 063
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

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.

Photo

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.