Midday Rally

The Chickamauga bass bite was tough. No way around that. An occasional chunky largemouths would blast a frog or take a flipped Biffle Bug, but the fishing was generally slow. So when I learned that Don Lamb, a tournament angler from nearby Ringold, Georgia, had found a mixed school of black and white bass, I was eager to get in on the action.

The white bass were small, Lamb warned, but he noted that schools of largemouth were in the same area and feeding on the same shad. Largemouths or white bass suited me, and I didn't really care if they were small. I just like catching fish, and when you're around eating fish, you never know when a good one might surprise you.

Lamb was working the schooling fish with a Little George, which he'd let sink to the bottom and work with lifts and drops. I caught a couple of white bass on one of his baits, but then I got thinking about the Gene Larew Rally Grubs I had in my bag. They have a great swimming action, and I figured they probably were about the right size to match the shad. The Bobby Garland Mo' Glo heads I had were a little light to cast with my baitcaster, a 7-2 medium heavy Lew's Custom Speed Stick, so I tied a tandem Rally Grub rig, spacing thing jigs about 15 inches apart. Beyond doubling the casting weight, a tandem rig suggests shad swimming together.

The white bass schools weren't as thick as when Lamb had been in the same area that morning, but the fish we found definitely liked the double Rally Grub rig, and I ended up catching several white bass and largemouths, plus one spotted bass in only a couple of hours of fishing.

The Rally Grub's name stemmed from the fact that it was designed to produce a rally when you need a burst of action, and it sure lived up to it's name last week.

Birthday Outing & Big Brother's Bonus Bass

Nathaniel says he got the present when he took his younger brother Asher on a bass fishing outing for Asher's birthday. In truth the outing itself was a great gift for Asher, now 9, and he did catch a bass of his own, which he unhooked by himself with just a bit of brotherly coaching. And Nathaniel even let Asher drive the boat a bit for added fun.

Nathaniel did get a gift of his own when a big bass decided to eat a little worm and served up a pretty serious tussle on 8-pound test and medium spinning gear. The boys estimated Nathaniel's bass to weigh about 8 pounds, and having looked at several photos, I think that's a good guess. It had a huge mouth and was thick bodied and well conditioned.

The fish hit a 4-inch Green Pumpkin YUM Mighty Worm, rigged on a Jewel Squirrel Head and fished on a Lew's Laser SL Speed Stick combination and 8-pound-test line.

As soon as Nathaniel hooked the fish and realized it was a good one, he slipped the camera off his neck and gave it to Asher (which I appreciate), and Asher did a nice job of documenting the fight, along with getting some good hold-up shots of Nathaniel with the fish before they slipped it back into the pond. Since I can use some of those photos with my stories, you could say that I too get a present from Asher's birthday bass fishing outing, and I wasn't even there!

Gear: Mr. Crappie Jigging Reel

I ran into Wally Marshall, Mr. Crappie himself, at the Forrest Wood Cup outdoors expo, and he showed me the new Mr. Crappie Jigging Reel that Lew's just came out with. It looked ideal for the rod-in-hand jig fishing it was designed for and also for ice fishing -- and at a really good price. I asked Wally if he could share a little about the reel on camera, which, of course, he was happy to do.