Field Junky

Field Junky

Duck Shack

Fishing Fun This Fall

6 lb bass on paddle tail swim bait

For this angler, fall is the best time for catching trophy bass. If you like fishing  the spring spawn from March through May, fishing in September and October is like hitting the replay button. A lot of the same productive tactics used during the spring can also be used during the fall. I am a power fisherman by heart. I love constantly having my reel engaged and making casts. With more active fall fish, I can play to my strengths and not worry about being a patient finesse fisherman. Here are a few techniques to try this fall for a productive day of bass fishing:

Square Bill Crankbaits

These little guys are some of the most fun you can have on the water. The KVD 1.5 and KVD 2.5 by Strike King are my first choices when I’m on the water in the fall. The goal with these lures is to punish them. Crank into stumps, docks, limbs, rocks or any other obstruction you can. If the bill is still smooth at the end of the day, you haven’t done your job. Most fishermen are worried about hanging them up and losing them. However, most strikes occur off of a deflection or after the lure gets “unstuck”. I prefer the KVD square bills with the rattle, but on slow days, I’ll downsize to the KVD 1.5 or switch to the model with no rattle.

When selecting the color of your square bill crankbaits, keep two things in mind. The first is the shad in the water you will be fishing. I’ve fished some bodies of water where the fish will bite Tennessee Shad all day long and others where they won’t touch it. The good thing is, Strike King has enough colors to match your local shad. The second thing to consider is water clarity, if you’re fishing stained water, move away from the shad patterns and instead choose a color with orange or chartreuse in it. Chartreuse black back seems to be really popular this time of year.

Gear Selection: If you have a rod reel combo made for deep cranking, put it aside for square bills. More often, you’ll need short, very accurate casts into cover. Think of your setup for square bills more like a spinner bait than a crank bait. I prefer a shorter rod 6’6” to no longer 7’0” in a medium-heavy to heavy power. The Rick Clunn rods are a great option. The S-Glass design gives the perfect action for managing deflections and hooking fish. I pair these rods with a 6.3.1 Lew’s Tourney Pro reel and 12 lb Berkley Trilene XT line.

Be sure to vary your retrieve speed on each cast and to cast into the same cover 10 times or more to trigger a strike. Your goal with this lure is to anger the bass into a reaction strike. You are invading their home and you want them to fight your little square bill. This is much different than feeding them a worm. When you catch an angry bass with a square bill, you’ll sure know it!

Paddle Tail Soft Swim Baits

I have a paddle tail swim bait rigged up at all times and these lures are especially productive on warm, sunny fall days when the fish scatter from cover. Depending on the depth of the water, I will rig them with a ¼ oz belly-weighted hook or weightless texas style. I still want to throw these baits towards cover, but with less aggression than the square bill. You can cover a lot of water with these baits in a short amount of time and really find out where the fish are. I drive around looking for shad on my fish finder. When I locate shad, I stop and start fan-casting the area at varying reel speeds. One deadly retrieve involves letting the bait fall for 5 seconds with a weighted belly hook, then aggressively start retrieving the bait and abruptly stop and let it fall again. Reeling too slow will not give you the action the bait is intended to have. A fast paddle tail wobble drives the fish crazy and triggers powerful strikes. I’ve caught some of the biggest bass of my life on these baits.

My set-up for paddle tail swim baits is a 7’0 Medium power Abu Garcia Veritas rod with 10 lb 100% Fluorocarbon Trilene. I pair this with a 6.4.1 Abu Garcia MGX reel. This setup is incredibly light-weight, and gives me the casting distance I need but also the ability to control my casts in cover. When selecting lure colors, I try to match the local shad color, but in stained water I’ll always fish a junebug color. The Bobby Lane Grass Pig by Berkley Havoc is a great choice. Pick up a few different colors to find what works best. I’ve had days where the fish won’t touch shad colors, but cast into the same spot with junebug and they hammer it. Make sure you rig these baits perfectly straight from nose to back, or they won’t swim as they are intended.

The paddle tail swim baits are perfect for grassy areas that hold tons of bass during the fall. When rigged texas style, they glide through the grass like a normal shad would and trigger awesome strikes. The square bill setup is better for docks and timber and tends to get hung up in grass taking away from its effectiveness.

If you’re looking for two great ways to have a ton of fun on the water this fall, rig up a square bill crankbait and a paddle tail swimbait. I promise you’ll have a great time working these baits. We have the gear to rig you up for these styles of fishing. If you have any questions, feel free to ask your questions below or email us at sales@fieldjunky.com.

Adam Marley

Field Junky, co-founder

Preparing Now for Success Later by D.R. Harrison

 One of the most important keys to killing mature bucks consistently is doing your homework. A mature whitetail 3 1/2 years old or older is a totally different animal and you have to stack the odds in your favor in order to have a chance at getting him within bow range. For me, preparation is 365 days a year, from scouting, to hanging tree stands, monitoring trail cameras and strategic entrance and departure from hunting areas as well as food plots and land management. All of these are crucial if you are to consistently harvest mature bucks year after year. This time of year is one of my favorite times of the year. I love watching the bucks reach there full potential and being able to pattern them with the hopes of letting an arrow fly in the early season. I promise you, if you put in the time, do your homework, work hard and take into consideration everything I have mentioned here, you will consisitently have the opportunity to harvest a mature buck.

 
Happy Hunting and FEED IT!
D.R Harrison

How to Become a Tournament Angler

By: Ryan Collins


I can still remember my first real bass fishing tournament. I was 16 and felt that I had conquered shoreline fishing. When I was younger I remember watching the Bassmaster Elite Series as well as the FLW Tour on TV and was always amazed by the atmosphere and competitiveness that surrounded bass fishing. I was always a competitive kid growing up playing almost every sport possible until I finally landed on bass fishing, knowing that’s what I wanted to do the rest of my life. So when I got a phone call from my dads friend who is a well accomplished bass fisherman who needed a partner for that weekends club tournament.

I was ecstatic for my first tournament and couldn’t wait for the weekend to roll around. When we met in a parking lot at 4 a.m. and I saw the 21-foot Skeeter roll up with a 250 Yamaha on the back, I no longer felt tired but rather nervous and excited at the same time. When we finally made it to the boat ramp after what seemed to be the longest 2 hour drive of my life and saw 30+ more boats at the ramp as well, the nerves grew to a whole new level. Once we got on the water and the boats were released and the fishing began I really began to calm down and really focus. I began to really zone in hitting all the spots that I wanted to hit. After we got the first couple of fish in the boat I began to feel the competition kick in, not knowing what all the other boats had in livewell and wondering if what we had was enough or if we needed one more kicker fish was killing me.

After the 8 hours of fishing had concluded and we headed to the weigh in, which was all new to me, I began to wonder again if what we had was enough after noticing some of the other anglers weigh in bags. We ended up placing 3rd in that tournament and from that point on I knew that becoming tournament bass fisherman was something that I wanted to do for the rest of my life.

Three and a half years later my aspirations have not diminished in the slightest. I still fish many club tournaments but my sights have greatly increased as for the past year I have been traveling to many different states fishing much bigger tournaments. No doubt that those first 2 years of so of fishing many local club tournaments gave me the experience and confidence I needed to step out to the much larger scale to pursue my dream of becoming a top end Bassmaster Elite series pro. So if you want to become the next Kevin VanDam or you just want to get out and fish with a great group of guys with some money on the line, start out with local club tournaments. Club tournaments are extremely fun and are a great starting point if you’re looking to advance your fishing career. Local bass fishing tournament clubs can be found at:

http://www.bassresource.com/bassfish/bass_fishing_clubs.html

 

If you love the sport of bass fishing, I would highly suggest entering some local bass fishing tournament clubs, have some fun, and go on from there.

 

Ryan Collins

Field Junky Pro Staff

Ryan.collins@fieldjunky.com

Bass Fishing is like golf “65% mental 35% physical”

Learn to Use a Baitcasting Rod and Reel

Learning to Use a Baitcasting Reel

Most serious fisherman use two types of reels, a baitcasting reel or a spinning reel. A spinning reel is pretty intuitive and fool-proof. Spinning reels rarely tangle and are easy for beginners. They are also better to use for lighter tackle that baitcasting reels sometimes struggle with. If spinning reels are so dependable, why go through the trouble of learning the technique of using a baitcasting reel? There are three main benefits of using a baitcasting reel:

Advantage #1- Accuracy: Serious fishermen know that accurate casting is crucial for catching fish. Big fish are often times found in tight spots, between branches, rocks, weeds, channel points, or other obstacles that could lead to disaster. The open spool on a spinning reel does not lend itself to accuracy, but the targeted spool and tight guides on a baitcasting rod and reel let you pin-point and pick apart cover where big fish live.

Advantage #2- Feel: With a spinning reel, the rod is not an extension of your arm like it is with a baitcasting rod and reel. Today’s low profile baitcasting reels fit in the palm of your hand and are incredibly light. This lets you feel the lure and most importantly, the fish’s mouth.

Advantage #3- Speed and Maneuverability- The feel of successfully using a baitcasting rod and reel is incomparable to a spinning reel. The angler can make hundreds of casts more over the course of a day using a baitcaster. When money or victory is on the line, using a baitcasting reel is crucial.   

How to Use a Baitcasting Reel

Using a baitcasting reel can be a frustrating experience at first. The dreaded birds nest can monopolize your time on the water and cost you money in expensive line. Here are some tips on successfully getting started with a baitcasting reel:

1.       Buy a High Quality Reel, Rod and Quality line- It all starts with a quality reel, rod and line. Reels in the $100+ range cost that much for a reason. Features like anti-backlash, magnetic brakes, more bearings and lighter weights will lead to a better overall experience. I know this is coming from the guy who sells fishing gear, but trust us, we would rather sell you one high quality reel than several lower quality ones.  Good line is also important. One spool of quality fluorocarbon line will result in smoother casts and fewer backlashes. The line also has less memory than monocarbon, which means when you fix a backlash, the line memory doesn’t tell itself to backlash again on the next cast. Look for a rod with coated Fuji guides, uninsulated metal guides will fray your line over time which creates resistance and therefore backlashes.

2.       Start With Heavier Lures- Backlashes and bird nests happen when the spool is still feeding line, but the lure isn’t traveling further in distance. Heavier lures advance the line with greater force and therefore make it more difficult for a backlash to occur. Casting with heavier lures (like jigs, 1 oz spinner baits, larger crankbaits, Carolina Rig Plastics, Texas Rigs, etc.) will greatly improve your feel for the motion of baitcasting. This is why I recommend a fisherman’s first baitcaster should be a pitching and flipping set-up. Casts are short, braided line has no memory, and lures on this setup are heavier. 

3.       Don’t Cast into the Wind- Casting into the wind will devastate your chances of failure in the beginning. Wind resistance slows down the lure speed. When the line is coming off of the spool faster than the lure is traveling, a backlash is the result.  On windy days it’s important to set your brakes (the dial on the side of most reels) to a higher setting and also tighten the spool dial. This will prevent the spool from flowing freely. The result will be shorter casts, but you will avoid backlashes.

4.       Keep a Tight Line During the Cast- If the lure and line are not stiff when you cast motion goes to follow through, the line will be traveling faster than the lure, the result, yet again, is a backlash. Watch the pros cast. They have a vicious back motion to get the lure and line tight with no slack before they rip through the cast. This isn’t done to show off, but to keep the line tight. Tight line also leads to more accurate casts. It’s easier to shoot a laser beam than a cooked spaghetti noodle.  Also, don’t be afraid to use your thumb to slow the spool before the lure hits the water. Your thumb is the ultimate backlash control.

5.       PRACTICE!- Michael Jordan didn’t dunk from the free throw line on his first jump. Fishing, despite what naysayers claim, is an athletic sport. Build the muscle memory in your eyes, shoulders, arms and torso to create a repeatable and successful motion. Ask Kevin Van Dam how his muscles feel after 3000 casts in a day of tournament fishing! In the winter or days off the water, go in your yard or open space and tie a ½ oz egg weight to your line, or take the treble hooks off of an old crankbait. Set up targets, buckets or spray-paint a circle for target practice. Call a buddy and make a competition out of it. Playing corn hole is getting old! You may even film each other’s casting motion and give each other tips on how to improve.  Practicing on dry land will also help you know the distances you are able to cast your next time on the water.

With these tips, I have confidence that you will learn how to baitcast in no time. Learning how to properly cast is equivalent to a baseball player’s swing at the plate. Practice is the ultimate tip, but developing feel and a proper technique is an important foundation. Listen to our pro staff’s recommendations for gear you will be on the road to baitcasting success.