Walleye Shad Lure for Cool-Water Bass

 

The Bandit Walleye Shad was created primarily for targeting walleye, which is evident by its name. That said, I’m convinced that this relatively new crankbait has diverse value for a variety of fish species and fishing situations. Most notably, I expect the Walleye Shad to excel as a bass crankbait from late fall through early spring.

The Walleye Shad has all the characteristics of an excellent winter bass crankbait. Flat sides create a narrow profile that make it look like an easy meal, and a very tight wiggle suggests the movements of winter chilled forage.

Another feature that provides huge winter appeal — and one that is uncommon in crankbaits — is that the Walleye Shad was designed to suspend when it’s not in motion. Like with a suspended jerkbait, you can pause it at any point in a retrieve, and it will hold irresistibly in the zone.

Winter chilled bass won’t waste calories chasing, and baitfish naturally hold in place when the water is cold, so the having the capacity to pause a crankbait in key areas provides a huge advantage for winter bass fishing.

The Walleye Shad cones in four sizes, meeting a big range of situations, and a good mix of colors. A handful are the ultra-bright colors that walleye trollers favor and that I don’t really see as bass colors. However, about half the colors are natural forage imitations that I’d consider very good options for bass fishing.

I haven’t been in the right setting to prove my Walleye Shad theory yet, but I have little doubt that I’ll do so again and again. Maybe once I’ve tallied that real experience, I’ll post a fresh blog that shares models, colors, locations and presentations that have worked best for me.

Kind of makes me want to go fishing!

Week of Bass Fun

Last week's travels landed me in Fort Smith, Arkansas, which was the jumping off point for fishing trips to Arkansas' Lake Ouachita, an Oklahoma stretch of the Arkansas River and Lake Tenkiller. My company's office is also in Fort Smith, so I slipped in an office visit between fishing days.

At Ouachita we spent a bit of time crappie fishing because of some photos I'd hoped to get. The crappie bite wasn't really happening, though. So we mostly fished for bass, and that was fun. I hadn't done a lot of dedicated bass fishing for a while.

At Ouachita, the fish were looking up, so we caught quite a few spots and largemouths on Spooks and other surface lures. When they wouldn't come up, we went down after them with dropshots, C.C. Spoons and live crawfish, with the of those being a locally popular and extremely effective approach during the fall.

The Arkansas River fishing was all up tributaries and all about cranking. We tried a bit of spinnerbait fishing and a little topwater, but crankbaits were the ticket. Our top producer was a Bandit prototype that I can't show a photo of... Yet!

Tenkiller, which is deep, clear and rocky, offered a nice blend of topwater fishing and cranking opportunities with Bandits and Normans, with a nice mix of smallmouths adding to the fun. I had a big time for a while throwing a small BOOYAH Boss Pop, which is probably my single favorite topwater lure.

Next stop is Santee Cooper, where it'll be back to mixed-species fun!

Here, There & Everywhere

It's sort of like a fishing/photo tour. Between Wednesday and Friday of next week, I'll spend time on the water in at least four (maybe five or six states). The difference is that there's no real flow to the path. Instead of a tour, so to speak, it's a series of quick-turn around trips in different direction.

Tomorrow night or Wednesday morning, I' drive north toward Center Hill Lake in Tennessee to do a quick photo shoot for Bandit Lures with legendary guide Jim Duckworth. Depending on when I go, what I get done between now and then and water conditions, I might do other fishing in Georgia or North Carolina along the way, which is where states five and six could come into play.

I'll be home by Thursday evening and on Friday I drive to Atlanta to fly to Arkansas to spend a couple of days bass fishing and shooting Norman Lures photos in Oklahoma with Eric Porterfield and a day in Arkansas with Chad Warner.

I fly home from Arkansas next Tuesday and leave the next day for Mississippi to spend a couple of days fishing and doing Bandit photo work with Pete Ponds.

That's a lot of running in a different directions for nine days, but I expect there will be some good fishing action mixed in, and I have no doubt I'll gather loads of fine material because all the guys I'm fishing with are great at what they do.

I suppose I'd better start going on stuff around here so I'll be ready to go when I need to later this week!

Walleye Quest

I arrived in Cleveland today and will spend the next couple of days walleye fishing on Lake Erie. I'll be riding with folks who can really teach me a lot about trolling lures, rigs, locations and more, so I'm looking forward to learning and shooting photos almost as much as I'm looking forward to catching fish.

We'll mostly be fishing Walleye Bandits and Rogues, I think, and I'm especially looking forward to seeing some of the newest Rogues in action.

Of course I just like the idea of getting out on Erie. There's something unique and wonderful about spending time on any of the Great Lakes, and I haven't done so since last May.

Footloose Fun

"Be ready at the end of each pump," Pete Ponds told me. "That's when they're hitting it."

The words had barely escaped his mouth when a bass proved him right by walloping my Footloose crankbait just as I finished a rod pump and began reeling to take up line. I leaned into the fish just enough to set the hook and realized quickly that it was a pretty chunky largemouth.

I'd been catching some bass, but Pete had been spanking them on the Footloose, a small Bandit crankbait that swims barely beneath the surface and that I'd never fished. It looked too fun to not try, so he's rigged me one as well.

Some anglers fish a Footloose extra slow so it stays on top, as a wakebait. Others crank it quickly and steadily to draw reaction strikes. Pete works it with sideways pumps so it swims just beneath the surface and hesitates and pops up slightly each time he reels to take up line. That's when the fish most often strike, and that certainly was the case when we fished together.

I couldn't tell you how many bass we caught on the Footloose. I just know it was a bunch and that we had a bundle of fun. I also know that I've discovered a new tool for when the bass are shallow and aggressive but won't quite commit to a topwater lure.

Southbound Today - Sniffing Out the Coolest New Stuff

Mistaken Identity color patterns, new from Bandit

Friends think I'm a little wacky (or maybe more than a little) when I head north during the winter to fish through little holes in the ice. Pointing the car toward Florida in the middle of July somehow seems even worse, but that's exactly what I'm doing today. I'll spend the better part of today driving toward Orlando for ICAST, which is the industry trade show where tackle manufacturers from across the industry reveal all their new stuff for the following product year to retailers and wholesalers and to the media.

If you've paid attention to fishing website or follow fishing companies or pros on social media, you've undoubtedly gotten peeks at some of the new stuff, like Bandit's expansion of the hugely popular "Mistake" color pattern, which, despite many stories that bounce among bass fishermen, was never a mistake. The original Mistake color scheme was actually was the idea of a retailer and a special order. It drew immediate interest and was quickly expanded and has long been on the most popular colors of Bandit crankbaits, so Bandit has decided to build on concept with three new color schemes of the same sort.

Watch on this page and especially on my Facebook fishing page and other social media outlets for updates. I'll share live photos and reports as I see stuff that strikes me as extra cool.

Most of this week will be spent within the walls of a giant convention center, walking the show floor to look at stuff and talk with folks. Beyond seeing new products, it's my best single opportunity to reconnect with folks from so many companies to stay on top of things they've been doing and to talk about stories I might be working on now or in the future. Tomorrow, I'll actually be outside, though -- even fishing for a few hours.

ICAST has added an outdoors element as a kick-off. It begins with an informal bass tournament, which I'll be fishing with Dan Dannenmueller and Michael Range from Garmin. Dan is a tournament crappie angler, and I won't deny that my main interest is seeing what is new from Garmin and getting material from Dan for future crappie stories. That said, I have a couple of bass rods packed, and you can trust that I'm not going to ride around Lake Toho all morning and not make a few casts!

After the tournament, I'll get to check out some of the new stuff in more of a real setting at a new event called "ICAST on the Water." The actual ICAST show doesn't open until Wednesday, but Tuesday includes a couple of preview events. ICAST on the Water, held on the banks of Lake Toho (same site as the tournament blast off and weigh-in) will provide an opportunity for buyers and media to actually see baits swim, cast rods and reels and otherwise check out new stuff in a much more real fashion. It's a new event, so I don't know exactly what the structure will look like. Then, on Tuesday night, the New Product Showcase on the main show floor will be open for a few hours for a media and buyer preview.

Come Wednesday, it's onto the main show, and that will be going on for the next three days. Stay tuned!

 

Asher's Fine Season Start

Yesterday I shared that the boys had gone off to the pond in pursuit of bass and that I was eagerly awaiting a report. The blog was barely posted when I got a text from Nathaniel with a picture of the fine bass Asher had landed. Asher's fish, which Nathaniel estimated to have weighed about 3 pounds, easily bested anything Nathaniel or I have caught so far this year, and it was Asher's largest fish of any kind to date.

Asher actually caught two bass yesterday. Both hit a Bandit Shallow Flatmaxx over a flat, a little bit off the bank. Nathaniel hooked one fish on a shaky head, but it got off. The day was dark and fairly mild for early January.

Nathaniel, Asher and I all have matching 2015 species lists: largemouth bass and bluegill and all from the same pond. I hope to add a trout or two to that list before the week is over. Before the month is over I'll almost certainly expand it a little between planned trips to fish the Pennsylvania ice and to fish for trout in Missouri.