Thursday Tips: Hands-On Approach

When the B'n'M Poles pro team of Kevin Jones and Billy Don Surface slow troll, they always hold their hands so that at least one finger is touching every rod.

"I'll feel a lot of strikes that I would never see," Jones said. "And I usually feel the strike before I see the rod tip move."

If either angler feels anything, he sets the hook. Sometimes that means coming up empty, but with slow trolling, you simply drop the bait back into place so nothing is lost, and they catch a lot of fish that they otherwise would have missed simply by staying in touch with their rods.

If you watch the hands of top anglers, you'll notice similarities in casting and jigging approaches. It might be a fingertip on the rod blank or on the line or something about their hand positioning that aids sensitivity. For some, it's highly intentional. For others it's more intuitive. Either way, it's something worth considering and imitating in many situations and something that can help you catch more fish.

Unrelated to this specific tip, I sort of forgot about Thursday Tips and intend to regain consistency with posting a specific fishing tip once a week.

Thursday Tips: Believe the Fish

When I fish in current with a Road Runner Original Marabou or Pro Marabou 2.0, I almost always let the current do the bulk of the delivery work by casting to the upper ends of runs I want to fish and either twitching the rod as the bait drifts downstream or keeping the rod tip high and reeling just enough to keep the bait from dragging bottom. Not surprisingly, that was how I began fishing my Road Runner this week on the Nantahala River.

Sometimes I'll let the lure drift past my position and then tighten the line and let it swing in the current downstream -- and occasionally a trout hits it on the swing. Most days such hits are bonuses and make up a small piece of the action. It took me a while to notice yesterday that most of my strikes were occurring duringdownstream swings and longer to begin shifting the angles of my casts. It took even longer to truly believe the fish about their preferences and to mostly abandon the normally productive upstream casts.

Yesterday's specific presentation isn't as important as the often-stated but too-seldom-followed idea of truly allowing the fish to dictate things like casting anglers, color choices and presentations speeds. I still ended up catching quite a few trout, but I believe I would have caught quite a few more had I done a better job of following advice I sometimes give and often hear stated by pros and guides. It's one thing to listen to the fish. It's another to believe what they tell you and evidence that through the way you present your baits.

Thursday Tips: Consider Trout Mouths

Trout eat some tiny stuff. I'll acknowledge that. In fact, trout eat a lot of minuscule bugs, and when they get keyed in on pinhead-sized midges, it can be tough to trick them with any offering that doesn't appear unreasonably small. That's why fly-fishermen drift No. 24 midges.

Those hooks are small because the flies that match the insects are small, though, and I think that trout fishermen tend to carry the "small" notion too far and become apprehensive about using jig, spoons, plugs or even flies that have fairly large hooks and that flash large profiles. The truth is that trout have pretty-good sized traps, and unless they are locked in on little stuff or are just being fussy, sometimes they'll go after a bigger offering than you might expect.

With bigger hooks, when the trout do get hooked, they tend to stay hooked. I've found that I enjoy a far higher landing percentage when I can get trout to eat a lure that has maybe a No. 2 hook on it than when my hook is a No. 10 or smaller. Don't get me wrong. I'll gladly go micro if that's what the trout want, but if I can get away with a large offering that I can cast farther and that will land me more fish, that's the direction I'm likely to go. Of course, bigger offerings also tend to increase your chances of tempting bigger trout, but maybe that's another story!

Thursday Tips: Finding Fish that are on the Move

Fall is a transition time.

How many times have you heard that? It gets said a lot because for many kinds of fish it is true. But what exactly does that mean to you as a fishermen, and how do you use that truth to help you catch more fish? The simple answer is that with the season changing, the fish are moving from one place to another, so you need to be wise about searching for them.

With bass in reservoirs, as an example, the early fall move often is from main-lake structure up creeks and onto flats, usually behind shad, which are also on the move. Other fish might move up rivers, move from deep holes to shoals, move from the beaches to inside water, or make other types of moves.

Your job as a fisherman is to learn enough about the fish's behavior to know where they are leaving and where they are headed and then identify the highways in-between. Often the highways are either breaklines, which follow creek or river arms and offer access to deep and shallow water, or points, which bridge deep areas and shallow areas, proving structure at the whole range of depths in-between.

Once you've figured out the highways the fish are apt to be using, you just have to figure out where they are along those roads, which can be accomplished by riding and searching with electronics, using fishing strategies that allow you to cover water and search with your lures, or, for the best of both worlds, you can troll or cast fast-moving search lures while keeping the boat in motion AND keep a constant eye on your electronics.

Whatever strategy you select, where you find one fish, you're apt to find many more because fish on the go commonly travel in packs.

Thursday Tips: Remember Back Angles

Watch a pair of anglers casting to a bank as they work along it by boat, and you'll most likely see both fishermen oriented 45 degrees forward and toward the bank. It's natural to look ahead as you fish and to aim for cover and structural features as the come within casting range. And anglers who fish together frequently, especially as tournament partners, tend to get pretty good at alternating targets so they aren't just fishing the same stuff.

The problem with that approach is that roughly half the cover and structure along many banks is better suited for fishing from the opposite angle. Whether you're talking about trees that slant direction the boat is traveling and out from the bank, the back sides of points or boulders or the opposite sides of little shoreline cuts, many features can be fished more efficiently by angling 45 degrees back instead of 45 degrees forward.

If you're in the back of the boat, stay on the lookout for back angles and prioritize such casts over casts that angle forward. Let your partner aim forward and collectively you'll fish the bank much more thoroughly. Even as you fish alone, though, don't forget to look back. Be intentional about looking for and making back-angle casts, and you'll catch fish that otherwise would never get a good look at your lure.

Thursday Tips: Find the Thermocline

B.A.SS. Elite Series pro Brian Snowden
with a late-summer largemouth from Table Rock.

By late summer, many lakes and reservoirs around the country have stratified. Oversimplified (to accommodate my own very limited understanding), a cooler layer forms on the bottom, with a warmer layer on top. In-between is a narrow middle ground known as the thermocline, and that layer generally offers the greatest interest to fishermen.

The bottom layer tends to get too low in dissolved oxygen for many sportfish and baitfish. while the top layer commonly gets to warm. Fish move in an out of any of the layers, but they spend the most time in the middle, where both dissolved oxygen levels and temperatures are moderated. Although not exactly a "best of both worlds," the middle layer does offer the "least bad of both worlds" through the hottest days of summer. Even fish that are tolerant of warm water spend quite a bit of time near the thermocline because it holds big concentrations of food.

In lakes that stratify, finding the thermocline with electronics typically isn't difficult. The most obvious clue is that much of the bait and many larger fish will concentrate in the same depth range. Beyond that clue, though, the layers themselves each have a little bit different appearance on most graphs, and the thermocline often is easy to recognize.

If you know what depth range is likely to hold the most fish, you only have to figure out where they are within that zone. That part depends largely on the target species. Stripers, walleyes, trout other species that roam open water often will be suspended over much deeper water and roaming quite a bit, so the key to finding them often is to locate schools of baitfish. Look for seagulls resting or circling in an area. Usually baitfish are nearby.

Cover-oriented species like bass and crappie often will relate to cover or structure at the depth of the thermocline, so if you figure out that zone is 20 to 22 feet, start looking at points, humps and channel edges that offer good structure within depth range. If you can find stumps, boulders or a brushpile atop structure in the key depth range, that's even better.

Whether you locate specific fish to target or search as you go by trolling or drifting, set your lines so that your baits stay at the thermocline or slightly above it. Most fish are more likely to move up than down to fish.

Finally, continue to watch our electronics for more clues as you fish, and take note of every detail any time a fish bites.

Thursday Tips: 5 Keys to Mid-Summer Bass Success

It almost seems odd giving mid-summer tips this year because serious summer has been nearly non-existent in North Georgia. Today is August 22, and I don't even need a fan running in my house right now. I know, though, that everyone hasn't enjoyed such mild weather. It has been sizzling in Louisiana, where I was last week, and news reports have suggested that they've had some very hot weather in the north this year. Even around here, I'll bet it has been warm enough that the bass are feeling fairly toasty and that summer tips apply. So with that in mind, here are five:

Go Early - Obvious as that sounds, this is a critical point and one that too often gets missed. Plan to be launched and in your area BEFORE first light, and don't forget to allow for unexpected delays. The 1/2-hour you miss by tarrying around the coffee pot or getting backed up at the boat ramp might be the best fishing you would have enjoyed. Late in the summer, bass tend to bite even better at daybreak than close to dark because the water hasn't been baking all day.

Head Way Up a Creek - Often you'll find slightly cooler water in the extreme upper ends of a reservoir's creek and river arms, and cooler, more oxygenated water commonly translates into more active fish. Go as far as a boat will allow you to go and look for moving water and overhanging cover.

Keep Topwater Handy - Even if most fish are suspended or on the bottom and you're fishing primarily with a spoon or drop-shot rig, keep a Zara Spook or a popper handy all the time. Bass sometimes push shad to the surface very unexpectedly this time of year. When they do, if you have a topwater rod within easy reach your likely to be rewarded. Poppers also work great tight to banks for fish that are feeding on bluegills.

Tap the Night Bite - An alternative to fishing early is to head for the lake just before it turns dark and to fish on into the night. Beyond the fact that bass often feed well at night during mid-summer, you'll find far less competition from pleasure boaters, and it tends to be much more comfortable. Use jigs, big ribbontail worms and single Colorado blade spinnerbaits, all in dark colors.

Wade a Stream - My personal favorite way to fish for bass during mid-summer is to abandon big reservoirs completely and hit streams that I can wade. Light spinning tackle. Small topwater lures. huge fun!

Thursday Tips: Match Hookset to Situations

"You must be a bass fisherman."

I've heard the same comment many times after someone set a hook too hard. Usually it has come from a guide who mostly targets trout, crappie or walleyes, and occasionally the words have been directed at me. I wouldn't characterize myself as a "bass fisherman," although I certainly do enjoy fishing for bass. I'm an everything-that-swims fisherman. More likely than not, on trips when I've gotten overzealous with my hooksets, I'd just finished trips where I'd been pitching soft-plastic lures for largemouths or maybe fishing for big catfish with J hooks.

Without question, the hookset is a critical part of most kinds of fishing, and figuring out the best timing and type of motion for a given situation will help you catch more fish most days. The "given situation" part is the key, and it's also the tough part. The best hookset varies enormously based on the species you're after, the size of the bait, the type of line, the size and diameter of the hooks you are using and the way fish are taking baits, among other things.

With so many variables, there's no magic answer. A big soft-plastic offering rigged weedless for largemouths calls for a bit of pause to let the fish fully get the bait in its mouth followed by a hard, hookset with the rod moved a long distance. At the opposite end of the spectrum, when a trout takes a micro jig that has a tiny hook, the hookset must be immediate and should be nothing more than a snap of the rod. A walleye taking live bait, meanwhile, sometimes requires a long delay -- as in several seconds -- followed by a slow sweep.

Consider the variables and how the fish are taking the bait and to be intentional about how you set the hook. Experiment and pay attention to what works, both for you and for others who are fishing near you.

Of course, at times the toughest hookset to get right is the one you're not supposed to make. Circle hooks usually get pulled out of fish's mouths if you set the hook, but they do a great job of hooking fish if you simply tighten the line and let them turn into place. When a catfish rattles a rod in it's holder or a bass smashes a soft-plastic lure, NOT setting the hook can be mighty tough to do, but if you want to catch the fish you have to learn the right response for the situation at hand.

Thursday Tips: Convert Misses into Catches

It might be the hardest thing in fishing. A fish blows up on a topwater plug, throwing water in every direction, and you have to act like it didn't happen. More often than not, jerking a bait away or stopping it in place will deter a fish from hitting again. If you don't feel the fish, it probably didn't get the lure, and your best reaction in almost every case is simply to keep working the bait at the same cadence that prompted the initial strike. That's easier said than done, especially when a largemouth blows grass everywhere to attack a frog or a striper or redfish delivers and absolutely explosive attack. If you can keep your cool and keep working the bait, stay ready. The follow-up strike, if it occurs, will probably be less vicious but more efficient.

If no follow-up comes, you often can get the fish to bite again on a subsequent cast. Don't throw the same lure, though. Keep a follow-up lure rigged and nearby at all times, and use it. For open water settings, a soft-plastic stickbait or jerkbait rigged weightless tends to work well. For such an offering, cast directly to the spot where the hit occurred, let the bait fall and watch for the line to jump. Another good option is to cast a lipless crankbait or other shallow subsurface offering past the initial point of attack and swim it quickly through that zone, keeping it just beneath the surface.

If you're working over cover with a frog or a buzzbait when a fish hits and misses, follow up with a weightless, weedless worm or jerkbait, cast past the spot and worked with quick twitches of the rod.

Then, if they don't take the follow-up lure, try your original offering one more time before moving along.

One of the most frustrating things about topwater fishing is the fish's propensity to hit and miss, but if you learn to react properly and to make good follow-up presentations, you'll up your catch rates substantially on some days.

Thursday Tips: Selecting Lure Colors

If you fish, it's almost a given that you've done it many times: You've stared into a box and pondered what color of plug to tie to your line, worm to put on your hook or body to put on your crappie jig. And if you're anything like me, you've occasionally second guessed that decision before the lure even got wet. Picking colors is simply part of fishing with lures, and I'd contend that it's more of an art than a science.

One real benefit of my job is that I get to spend a lot of time in a boat with guides and tournament pros -- folks who fish for everything from bluegills to big saltwater fish -- and I get to ask a lot of questions. I often ask questions about color theory, and I definitely hear some of common themes.

Although every angler has his own take on applications, important deciding factors typically include the color of the water, the brightness of the day and the type of forage the fish are apt to be eating. Dirty water usually calls for bright colors, very dark colors or a combination of a dark color and a bright color. Extra clear water dictates natural, translucent colors. Generally speaking, anglers like darker colors on dark days and lighter colors on bright days. Matching forage speaks for itself. Even in stained water where a highly natural offering would disappear, bright orange might work better than an equally bright chartreuse for bass that are relating to reddish crawfish.

As much as I hear the same ideas about which color types go with which conditions, I hear two other ideas. One is that of "letting the fish decide." Use theories to make good starting picks, but experiment and pay attention to what colors draw bites. The second -- and this is the one I hear more than anything else -- is that the best color is one you can fish with the most confidence.

Thursday Tips: Start Small with Bait

"Let's start with small pieces of herring and see if we can get a good bite going," said Kevin Davis of Blacks Camp. "Then, if they start biting well, we'll go a little bigger to see if that gets us a bigger fish."

A multi-species fishing guide and co-owner of Blacks Camp on the Santee Cooper lakes, Davis commonly applies a "start small" strategy whether he's casting lures for bass, dragging cut bait for cats or dangling minnows for crappie. There are exceptions. Occasionally when Davis knows the fish he's targeting are eating big stuff, or he's specifically targeting colossal cats or extra big bass, he'll begin big. Usually, though, Davis finds that he gets more early action by erring on the small size of the bait range for whatever he is doing, and that helps him to locate fish and figure out patterning details that help him present the bigger baits more effectively later in the day and increase his changes of finding big fish for his clients.

Of course, at times he stays small. If there has been a mussel die-off, for example, and the blue cats are all eating little pieces of meat from dying mollusks, it's hard to get even he biggest cat to bite a big piece of cut bait. And while Davis will occasionally drop a big minnow or even a live herring for crappie, he has caught far more serious slabs on small minnows than on bigger baitfish.

Lots of variables come into play, but the short answer from Kevin Davis is that when you're talking about bait, bigger isn't always better.

Thursday Tips: Rise & Shine

An early-season tip posted on this page suggested sleeping a little later on fishing days, letting the sun do its warming work and focusing efforts on the afternoon hours. Well, that was then, and this is now. With spring solidly in place and summer just around the bend, it's time to get up before the cows and to be on the water and in casting position by first light. As water temperatures rise, most kinds of fish feed more aggressively at first light. Last light is the next best daytime period, but given the choice, go early.

Along with feeding more better, most fish are more apt to take topwater lures early in the morning, Their surface feeding behavior, in addition to offering big fun, provides locational clues that can help you pattern the fish later in the morning, after the fishing becomes more challenging. Of course, if you're fishing public waterways with significant pleasure boating activity, getting out early helps you beat the skiers to the water. And as summer progresses, it helps you beat the heat of the day and be more comfortable.

Stepping beyond the practical, it's simply nice being on the water when while the fog lingers, the sun hang slow and the frogs, bugs and birds trade choruses.

Thursday Tips: Made in the Shade

Today's pattern was as simple as it gets. The fish were in shallow shade. Bass and bluegills alike were lurking in the shadows, and the farther up into the shade Nathaniel and I cast or pitched, the better are chances became of getting bit. Cover type or even the proximity of cover didn't seem to be much of a factor. Good stumps and grass on sunny banks held no fish. Barren shores with trees overhead held fish.

As spring progresses and eventually gives way to summer, shade will become more and more of a factor, with the fish using it just like they use hard cover and structure. Whether lurking in the shade is cooler or more comfortable for bass or whether it simply provides the best ambush point is a matter of debate among anglers. More important than knowing why, I think, is to acknowledge that the fish will use the shade and to be intentional about putting baits in shady places and working shady edges.

Remember that all shade is not created equal. When you do focus on shade, think about whether an object provides very temporary shade or hours of shade. (The latter is usually better.) Also know that the pattern normally is a little more complex than what existed on the pond day. Think about shade as a factor, but also think about bottom depth, structural features, cover and other factors within shaded areas to figure out which ones will hold the most fish.

Just don't forget about shade. It isn't as obvious as hard cover, but sometimes it is a very important factor.

Thursday Tips: Swing Low

For river fishing, I usually like to allow the current to aid my presentation by casting or pitching an offering upstream of a likely fishing-holding spot and letting the river bring the bait past boulders or branches to fishing lying in ambush position. That's true whether I'm casting a micro jig in a trout stream or pitching a tube in a bass river.

The biggest exception to this basic presentation comes when a fairly strong current sweeps over boulders or ledges in the middle of a river and fish seem to be scattered in the current. In such cases I'll commonly cast straight across the river and let the flow carry my lure downstream against a tight line so that the lure swings out into the river as it travels downstream until it ends up straight downstream.

If fish are active, I like a wide-wobbling crankbait for swinging in the current, and my No. 1 pick for trout and smallmouth streams is a Rebel Wee Crawfish or Teeny Wee Craw. If the fish are a little less active, I'll often opt for a Road Runner Marabou Pro 2.0. With the Road Runner, I'll initially allow it to drift on a free line so that it can sink a bit. Then I'll close the bail to cause it to sweep out into the current and either just hold it still or add subtle rod tip twitches.

The swing seems to attract a different group of fish than the more traditional drift, and on the days it works best, I often don't catch much the other way. Some days the fish don't want a swinging lure at all, but it always is worth a try when you are fishing in current.

Thursday Tips: Observe

Read tournament reports about how the leaders caught their fish and one thing you'll read about again and again is that top finishers "noticed something" during practice or during a competition day that clued them into what they needed to do. And that's true whether you're talking about bass, crappie, redfish, walleyes or any other species.

Sometimes that "something" is a patterning understanding that is based on which bait or presentation triggered a strike. Often, though, it's an external condition or other observation. Other fish following a hooked fish; birds circling in an area; a water color change along a wind-beaten bank; a creek flowing hard; a landed fish spitting up a certain type of baitfish; a water temperature change in a particular cove...

The list of stuff you might notice could go on and on, and most don't come with a single obvious answer as to what to do about them. The key is to pay attention to EVERYTHING around you, to think about what effect that could have, and to note how conditions seem to correlate with the fish's behavior. Observe, experiment and repeat any experiment that seems to work, and the end result will be
catching more fish overall no matter what kind of fish you like to target.

Thursday Tips: Get Sneaky

Watch Nathaniel "put the sneak" on a beaver pond backwater bass. For more videos, please visit our YouTube channel.

As spring progresses and fish of various kinds move shallow, stealth becomes important in many waterways. If the water where you fish is even somewhat clear, it doesn't take much to spook the fish. Stealth doesn't call for fancy refined skills or specialized equipment; just an awareness of the fact that if you make the fish aware of you they are far less likely to stay in place and to take your offerings.

Consider likely fish positions as you approach a piece of cover or structure and plan your attack. Don't make your first cast to the outer edge of a great piece of cover, where fish will see it from a far and get a good look. Identify the very best spot and cast just past it so that the first time the fish sees your offering it's right there in the fish's dining room. When possible, stay back from the spot you are trying to work, and for really clear water dress in drab colors, avoid abrupt movements and consider lighter line or a fluorocarbon leader.

Of course, being sneaky doesn't necessarily mean using finesse. A buzzbait, a big flashy spinnerbait or a hard-kicking shallow crankbait might be the best bait to draw reaction strikes. Simply avoiding extra boat banking or holding the boat downcurrent so the fish face away from you can make a huge difference in your success rate. The key is to consider your position and movements and how your lure should cross a flat or come down a bank for the best chances of the fish seeing it within the ambush zone before it otherwise detects your presence. Do that, and you will catch more fish.

Thursday Tips: Fish in the Rain

I'll keep this week's tip short because the photo says it all. The 40-degree high and 100 percent chance of rain in today's forecast could have kept us out of the creek, but Nathaniel's sure glad we went fishing. With the river rising and the water off-colored, the trout didn't bite quite as well overall as they did yesterday or the day before, and a many of the best runs were blown out. That said, I think the same conditions made this big brown trout more aggressive than normal and willing to come out from between the boulders to ambush Nathaniel's lure.

The higher water also positioned the fish, making us better able to target our attacks, and it allowed us to use bigger lures with bigger hooks, which hold the fish better. Nathaniel caught his fish on a Rebel Tracdown Minnow with the trebles removed an replaced with a No. 4 Daiichi Bleeding Octopus Wide Hook on the back.

If there's lightning, stay home. If it's only going to rain, go fishing. Consider how the conditions could impact the behavior of the fish you are after, and then try to use that to your advantage.

Thursday Tips: Really Wrap Your Rods

We all know that we never should lay our rods in the boat or in the truck with lures hanging loose or simply reeled to the tips. Hooks or lures need to be hung in a hook-holder, onto the reel or through a low rod eye, and the line should be wrapped around the rod. In fact, at day's end, it doesn't hurt to remove lures or to put covers over lures and/or rods. So today's tip isn't about how to do those things. Today's tip -- and it may be more to Jeff Samsel than anyone else -- it simply TO do those things. Properly hanging a lure and wrapping a rod only takes a moment, and it spares so many problems caused by lines tangling, lures grabbing one another, hooks finding truck seats or raingear...

Of course, the more rods you use, the more important the wrapping becomes and the more essential it becomes that you use a good system. No one know that better than a crappie fisherman who uses spider rigs, so I asked Crappie NOW co-publisher TJ Stallings for his input about effective rod wrapping. Here's what TJ had to say:

Thursday Tipless

With apologies to anyone who had hopes of finding anything worthwhile on my blog today (or yesterday as a Thursday Tip), it's not going to happen. Running around has gotten the best of me for the past two days, and tonight I'm in a hotel room with such a bad wifi signal that I'm thumb-typing on my phone instead of fighting the computer.

My intent is to make up for this week's shortfalls with really good stuff fresh from Gaston's White Rivet Lodge next week!

Thursday Tips: Use Bigger Crappie Jigs

It's a theme I hear repeatedly from top crappie tournament pros and guides. As often as the guys who catch crappie every day say it, though, many fishermen have trouble believing that anyone really uses 2-inch grubs, 1/4-ounce jigheads and even crankbaits for crappie fishing. In the video pasted in below, crappie expert Todd Huckabee explains why he uses 2-inch baits and 1/4-ounce heads and demonstrates that such an offering truly isn't very big for even an average-sized crappie.

To see more fishing how-to videos, check out our YouTube Channel.