Innholdsfortegnelse for March 2014 i Bassmaster

Basketball players have it easy. The ball they play with is round, consistent and offers very little resistance when directed toward a hoop. Bass anglers aren’t so lucky. Even though we sometimes have a partner shifting that net toward our shot, a bass is inflated with 10 kinds of fury for having to deal with a hook in its face. This particular largemouth offers a whole new definition of jump shot. Perhaps the only foul taking place is the type of language being used by the angler who simply wants this fish to be in the livewell. And if this bass throws the hooks before going in the hoop, this net man might be ejected from the boat.…

“The fish like to get close to something that would collect heat, like dead grass or mats.”— Elite Series pro Keith Poche CAST TO THE EDDY How can you achieve the best presentation of a jerkbait while fishing in a sit-down kayak? Jim Simpkins Jr., Ohio Elite Series pro Brandon Card The best presentation would be to use a Power-Pole micro on the back of your kayak, so you can put the pole down to anchor yourself in the current and then cast the jerkbait back up into the eddy. Sitting down you’ll have to have a short rod, like a 5 1/2- to 6-foot rod, and then jerk the jerkbait to the side, not up and down. SCHOOLING UP What baits should I use when the spotted bass are…

It’s time to catch big spawning bass in the Deep South, but for professional baseball players, it’s also time to get to work. The two worlds collide every March in Florida when the Grapefruit League kicks off spring training smack in the middle of some of the country’s best bass fishing. Many major league players spend downtime fishing some of the area’s great bass lakes. Bass fishing baseball fans would be hard pressed to find a better place to be this month. Detroit Tigers Lakeland, Fla., is the springtime home for the team that made it to the 2013 American League Championship Series. Where: Joker Marchant Stadium, 2301 Lakeland Hills Drive, Lakeland, FL 33805 Tickets: 863-686-8075; www.tigers.com Fishing potential: Lake Parker is adjacent to the stadium grounds. Polk County is…

Since its discovery in U.S. waters more than a decade ago, the invasive northern snakehead has made headlines for its potential to harm native species. It’s also been reviled for its appearance. But lost in the negative headlines is the taste of snakeheads. In their native Asia, snake-heads are considered a delicacy. Some U.S. anglers have vouched for its taste, but its appearance hasn’t made it a popular dinner guest. Maryland’s Charles County is offering a solution: a contest to rename the snakehead. Charles County commissioners say the contest’s first phase, which invited citizens to submit names at the county’s website, ended in February. Early suggestions included “Potomac Trout” and “Nanjemoy Sea Bass.” The second phase, in which votes can be cast for three names selected from online entries, runs…

Whether it feels like springtime in your locale or not, there’s a good chance that the bass are moving shallow if they’re not already there. Prespawn fish are beginning to roam skinny water in search of suitable bedding real estate, while others are in the act of spawning, and fish way down south are already guarding fry. Elite Series pro Takahiro Omori acknowledges that patterning bass in March can be challenging in certain regions, but he’s tailored his arsenal to just about any lake type or phase of the spawn you might encounter. “It’s all about location now, and that location is likely shallow,” he says. “Pinpointing what they’re doing now can be hard, but for the most part, all of the fish are on the bank for one reason…

TO COMPETE SUCCESSFULLY on bass fishing’s biggest stage, the Bassmaster Elite Series pros must be versatile. These anglers have mastered an arsenal of lures that allow them to catch bass wherever they are fishing and under any conditions. But, what if the pros were limited to a single soft plastic bait in one color for an entire year? Which lure would they choose, and how would they rig it and fish it as the seasons change? We posed this question to nine Bassmaster Elite Series pros. Here are their responses. CASEY ASHLEY Lure: 6 1/2-inch Zoom Trick Worm, green pumpkin Spring: Rigged weedless on a homemade 1/8-ounce shaky head jig and fished with spinning tackle and 8-pound Hi-Seas 100 Percent Fluorocarbon. “I always have one tied on. I’ll fish it…

FISHERMEN ARE WELL armed with excuses for their failure. Cold fronts, rising water, falling water, moon phase, east winds and other vagaries of Mother Nature make convenient explanations for an empty livewell. But at some point this year, many waters across the country will awaken to a “lake hangover,” a sorry state of sickness characterized by ugly surface rot and the smell of dead organisms from the lake bottom suddenly floating on top of the water. It’s a common condition your local university’s doctor of limnology (aka, lake scientist) will diagnose as “turnover,” and it may take the lake several days to a couple of weeks to recover, depending on weather conditions and other variables. A lake’s turnover and recovery timetable rests not only on the local weather, but also…

Although a lot of bass anglers don’t employ slip bobbers, they are a killer way to target suspended fish. Just ask the float-and-fly guys who land world-class smallies on the setup. If you’d like to try the technique, no need to go out and buy the specialty bobbers. Simply create your own. 1 You can use a coffee stirrer or the top piece of an old, broken rod. Cut off a 3-inch section near the tip. You want the smallest possible diameter so your bobber stop will catch. 2 Sand down the sharp edges so the slender tube doesn’t cut your line. 3 Push the tube through a wine cork. 4 Use glue or epoxy around the edges of the rod blank so it will not slip through the cork…

“The ironic part of that right there is that both of his thumbs are in my mouth, like I’m a fish. We have done these tugs numerous times, but he had me like a bass.”– Boston Red Sox outfielder Jonny Gomes on Red Sox first baseman Mike Napoli, who tugged Gomes’ beard after he hit a home run in Game 4 of the 2013 World Series All right, bassmasters, it’s your turn to write a cutline for your favorite magazine. Become a B.A.S.S. Facebook fan (www.facebook.com/bass), comment with a clever caption on this cartoon that will be posted on our page on Feb. 26, 2014 . If your caption is chosen, it will be printed in an upcoming issue. Last Month’s Winner: You guys said you were going to eat…

MOST SMALLMOUTH EXPERTS agree that prespawn is prime time to whack a trophy bronzeback. They’re moving shallower and putting on the feedbag big time after a long winter, and those big females are getting a serious attitude as their bodies bulk up with eggs. When, where and how you catch these gorillas depends on what region of the country you’re in, so we’ve called on two veteran smallmouth guides — Michigan’s Chris Noffsinger (www.northern adventuresfishing.com) and Tennessee’s Jim Duckworth (www.jimduckworth.com) — to share proven prespawn strategies and patterns for their respective regions. Their input, presented in their own words, should put you on big smallies regardless of which side of the Mason-Dixon line you’re fishing. NORTHERN PERSPECTIVE: CHRIS NOFFSINGER Up here, smallmouth spawn on sand flats from June into July,…

“In early March, I’ll start fishing the points and 45-degree sloping banks that are closest to the mouths of pockets. I’m talking about bank structure that typically falls off into 30 or 60 feet of water.” Now Lester is the one laughing, or at least grinning from ear to ear. That’s because in March, this 25-year-old begins fishing his rookie season on the Bassmaster Elite Series trail. Lester qualified for the “major leagues” of pro bass fishing by finishing first in points on last year’s Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Southern Open circuit. Starting in mid-March, he’ll be fishing head-to-head against anglers he idolized during his formative years. Speaking of which, Lester cut his fishing teeth on Tennessee’s Tims Ford Reservoir, a typical upland lake with deep, twisting creek arms and…

Sick centipede There are zillions of soft plastic bass lures on the market, but not many of them are made to imitate a live centipede! I make my own centipedes using a straight-tail plastic worm and strands of living rubber removed from a spinnerbait or jig skirt. I’ll take a sewing needle with a fairly large eye, thread a strand of rubber through the eye, run the needle sideways through the worm body, then pull the rubber strand through the worm until it’s centered. I’ll repeat this process up and down the length of the worm, creating living rubber “legs” that writhe enticingly with a twitch of the rod tip. Trust me, when a bass grabs this lure, it’s not going to let go! Leon Bowen Jr., Illinois Buggy solution…

THE ROADS I’M taking lately tend to end at boat ramps descending into waters so fertile the only thing greener than the grass is the water. You know the ones I am talking about — a seemingly permanent algae bloom and grass growth that starts at the water’s edge and extends all the way out to the first break. It wasn’t that long ago that I would cringe when facing these waters. Rooting out fish from the heavy weed growth is tedious, and with weedlines that extended as far as you can see, finding them took way too long. My go-to presentations were usually heavy jigs or pegged plastics flipped to holes, or stickworms fished over the weed tops. Spinnerbaits, topwaters and swim jigs were also part of the arsenal,…

THE CALENDAR TELLS us when it’s supposed to happen, but weather often crashes the shallow-water party that is the bass spawn. As warming temperatures, lengthening daylight periods and key lunar cycles trigger the instincts of roe-laden females, the shoreward movements are pretty predictable. However, during the latter edge of the prespawn period, a late-season cold snap can scramble the deal. Such interruptions prove confusing and discouraging. Success, however, comes through understanding how the fish react and how to adjust your game. Elite Series pro Greg Hackney points out that, because the prespawn range is usually significantly deeper than the shallow spawning areas, late-season cold snaps generally prompt changes in disposition, rather than position. Whether it’s the mouth of a southern Louisiana canal, a scattering of isolated cypress trees, an outside…

Jerkbait — “Deep, clear lakes may still be in the low to mid-40-degree range in early March,” points out Elite Series pro Mike McClelland of Arkansas. “Bass will be suspending around primary structures like long points and steep channel banks; they won’t chase down a fast-moving lure, but they’ll clobber a jerkbait suspending in the water column.” McClelland urges newcomers to jerkbaiting not to overcomplicate their retrieve. “Just make a long cast, wind the lure down five or six turns, pause a few seconds, then snap the rod tip twice so the lure makes a couple of short, quick jerks. Reel up slack line, pause, jerk-jerk and repeat back to the boat. Most strikes will occur on the pause.” Jig — “A jig is my go-to [for] those early March…

LV Mouse Primitive in appearance, the LV Mouse — also called the Root Mouse — was manufactured around 1946 by L.V. Root of Michigan. A shallow diver with flat sides and an aluminum lip, the wooden mouse has a cloth tail and tandem treble hooks, front and rear. Not many of the 2 1/2-inch baits still exist. Gray with a white belly, the LV Mouse weighs about 3/4 ounce and is valued at about $75. Spinning duo I bought a really odd and old rod-and-reel combo and was wondering if you could tell me anything about it. The red metal reel is a cross between a spincast and a spinning model. The reel hangs down underneath the rod handle like a spinning reel, but it does not have an open…