Man today was a tough day on the water. The bass just wanted nothing to do with anything I threw at them!” Well what did you throw and how did you throw it? Did you throw what you needed to throw or did you throw what you wanted to throw? More times than not, the answer to that question is the latter of the two. Fishing for negative bass can definitely take people out of their comfort zones. If an anglers strength is power fishing or chucking and winding cranks and blade baits, switching over to a finesse rod and just barely crawling small plastics along the bottom can be as boring to them as watching grass grow. But if the bass aren’t chasing baits, making this important switch is the best way to avoid having to say the first 2 sentences of this article. When the realization sets in that what you’re doing isn’t working and that your day is going to have a grim outcome unless you make a change, this is when you need to break out your box of “panic plastics” along with your bag of patience. For me, I keep my box of panic plastics simple. It consists of 3.5” Craw D’oeuvres, 3.5” Food Chain Tubes, 3.6” Hammer Shads, and 5” Finicky Ticklers in a small variety of basic color hues along with the terminal tackle needed to rig them (jig heads, small tungsten weights, small hooks and stuff for drop shotting). I choose these 4 baits for a couple reasons. First, they’re all down sized baits with very subtle actions which plays the key role in sparking a negative bass’s interest . Second, I can rig them all on the same terminal tackle to make things even easier on my patience. For example, if I’m fishing in or around cover and need a weedless presentation, I can tie a 2/0 ewg hook and an 1/8 oz tungsten weight on a single rod and be able to Texas rig any of these baits on it. This goes for drop shotting, Shaky heading and split shot rigging all of these baits as well. This way I can easily alternate between baits and colors until I figure out what color and profile the bass are responding best to without having to constantly re-tie.
How you work your bait is just as important as the bait choice itself when the bass are negative. Forcing yourself to “soak” your bait during a cast can make all the difference in the underwater world. Getting into the habit of letting your bait sit in one place for 30 seconds after the initial fall is where it starts. If an angler starts working the bait directly after the initial fall, 99% of the time the angler will pull it out of the negative bass’s “interest zone” before the bass even makes the decision to come inspect what just fell through the water column. After the initial soaking, the rest of the retrieve should follow suit. Little shakes, tiny hops and a lot of long pauses in between those movements. If you make the bait appear as an effortless snack, you’ll raise your odds of getting that bass to expend the slight amount of energy needed to acquire that simple snack. Think of a negative bass as really lazy people sitting on a couch watching TV. They won’t get off their butts to get themselves something to eat, but put a bowl of their favorite candy within arm’s reach of them and see what happens.
Just like anything else, practice makes perfect. Once you gain confidence in soaking finesse baits, your box of panic plastics will soon become your security blanket every time the bite gets tough. It will also help you through the winter months when the water temps drop below 45 degrees. Contrary to what many anglers think, bass can definitely be caught on plastics in the frigid temps…as long as you know what to throw and how to throw it.
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When most people think of drop shotting, 4 to 8 lb line, tiny hooks and small baits come to mind. But drop shotting doesn’t have to be as “finessy” as most think. Granted the technique was originated as a means to catch pressured or negative bass, but the actual drop shot technique is just a method to present your bait so that it hovers slightly off the bottom. The rule book never stated “Your bait and hook have to be tiny!”. So what if you’re in a situation where you have negative fish that are either buried in or close to snaggy cover such as thick brush, stacked laydowns or standing timber? Tossing an exposed hook and light line into the cover can be a recipe for disaster. So what do I do in these situations? I go in after them…but I use the correct gear to get them out. My set up for fishing this way consists of a 7'3" Medium action spinning rod and a reel spooled with 20 lb braid topped with a 8 foot section of 12 lb Fluorocarbon leader. This combination gives me just enough strength to successfully work (not horse) the bass out of the wood. As for the business end, I opt for a Sick Stick in green pumpkin with purple flake for two reasons. 1, because it’s a very natural looking color and looks like a fat night crawler to the bass. 2, with subtle movements of the rod I can make the offering appear as a super easy meal to catch, and eventually tease the bass into submission. Now for the hook and rigging for this type of cover; I tex-pose the Sick Stick on a 2/0 EWG regular wire hook and make sure the point of the hook is buried well into the bait to prevent getting hung up in the wood. I use the same knot you would use for standard drop shotting (Palomar knot then run the tag line back through the eye). The 2/0 EWG hook gives me a deeper hook set plus it also allows me to set the hook much harder so I can get the bass’s head facing in my direction to give me a jump start on getting them out of the cover. I generally start with the hook about 12 to 16 inches above the drop shot weight.
So let’s move forward to “working” the bait. Remember, we’re after negative or pressured bass that have a strike zone that’s very small (small as in an arm’s length away). The only way you’re going to get the bass to strike is to keep the Sick Stick in the strike zone long enough for that bass to finally break down and eat it. Soaking the bait (motionless) in the same spot for minutes at a time followed by a couple really slow, lazy twitches, and then soaking again will make the temptation too irresistible to pass up. With enough persuasion, the bass will eventually move up and engulf the bait. But if you work the bait out of the strike zone too quickly, you just blew your opportunity on a catchable fish. And this is where Hog Tonic plays a major role in this game. I don’t just want the bass to strike the Sick Stick, I want them to lock onto it. So every bait I throw has been marinated in Hog Tonic for several minutes if not hours before use. A lot of the times in these situations the hits will be extremely subtle and I want the bass to hold on long enough for me to detect the fish and have time to rear back on them. So now the fun begins! Once I give them a stout hook set, I keep my drag set just heavy enough to give me just the right amount of power to more or less “guide” the fish out the cover with authority vs trying to horse them like I had my flipping stick in my hand. The heavier line definitely allows me to put substantial pressure on them while the long 7'3" medium action rod has enough play in it to prevent me from bending out the hook during the tug-of-war in the cover. The technique is definitely rewarding if you can discipline yourself to do so (see the attached video which was filmed in 20 ft of water in standing timber…out of a kayak!).
So at the end of the day, what’s the moral of the story for all of this? It’s simple! Keep an open mind and think outside of the box! Get out of your comfort zone and tweak techniques to suit the situation and conditions your dealt with even if it means going against the grain. Don’t be the person that says “Hey, I wish I would have thought of that”. Be the creative one and beat the fish at their own game! A very wise and experienced angler once said “The fish are always there. If you didn’t get bit, that just means you weren’t smart enough to figure them out that day”. So don’t let the fish outsmart you. I mean, after all…they’re just fish right?
]]>The first thing to realize about Wacky rigging the Sick Stick is that the Sick Stick is not designed like the hundreds of other stick baits out there. In other words, fish it like a Sick Stick, not like other stick style baits. The Sick Stick was specifically designed with a square core, round ribs, and neutral buoyancy for specific reasons. There are multiple different ways to fish the Sick Stick, but when it comes to Wacky rigging it, there's a method to the awesome madness. When rigged correctly on a weighted Wacky Head with the corner of the square core facing downward (see diagram below), water deflects off of both sides of the square core as the bait drops which creates a unique pulsing thump that bass feel on their lateral lines. The pulsing thump combined with the seductive wobble it creates turns bass into slobbering fools. The neutral buoyancy of the Sick Stick allows the angler to easily adjust the rate of fall and action to suit the mood of the bass as the day progresses.
Create a super slow drop with a subtle wobble to a quick drop with an erratic wobble, all by simply changing the weight of the Wacky Head. Pretty cool right?
There are a lot of different Wacky Heads on the market but we designed our own because we don't like the weak little hooks that come on the majority of them. Plus we also prefer a more stout weed guard so we can Wacky fish in and around cover without getting hung up. That's why we came out with our Jacked Wackers…not just to be able to cast where the fish like to hang, but to be tough enough to get them out of what they're hanging in.
Here are some general tips to help you decide which size Jacked Wacker to rig your Sick Stick on to suit the conditions.
3/32 oz: Slow fall / tight subtle wobble. Great for dead calm days with little or no winds, or when subtlety is the key to getting bit. Shallow water (5 ft. or less). The slow fall allows the Sick Stick to stay in the strike zone longer during the drop which is crucial when targeting lethargic bass.
1/8 oz: Medium fall / wider wobble. Great for when fishing in 12 ft. or less. An all-around versatile drop rate and action to help you key in on the mood of the bass.
3/16 oz: Fast fall / erratic wobble. Great for fishing deeper water, covering more water more quickly, and targeting active bass or going for a reaction strike.
A personal trick I like to do is put a small drop of PRO's Soft Bait Glue on the hook of the Jacked Wacker after I rig the Sick Stick on it. It keeps the Sick Stick exactly where I want it to sit on the hook so I know I'm always getting the best action possible.
The Sick Stick and Jacked Wackers were made for each other. Put the two together, rig them correctly, and you'll be a bass's nightmare. Just cast it out, let it drop, if you don't get hit on the initial fall, raise your rod tip and let it drop again, repeat until your Sick Stick gets crushed. It doesn't get any easier than that.
]]>What do all three of these bass have common? Well the obvious answer is that they’re all big (and who doesn’t love catching big bass?).
But aside from the obvious, all of them were caught by punching through matted grass, they were all caught on the 4.5" Bully Grass Devil, they were all caught by clients of Mike’s Guide Service, and they were all caught in the same week. Coincidence? Not hardly.
As a full time guide in northern PA, Mike Lionetti from Mike’s Guide Service makes a sound living at putting people on fish on a daily basis. It’s what he does…as a matter of fact, it’s all he does (which is why he’s so damn good at it). Everyday he’s either putting clients on piles of smallmouth on the beautiful north branch of the Susquehanna river or taking clients lake fishing for lunker largemouth. A “win win” for anyone seeking a great fishing experience regardless if your choice in bass is brown or green.
Anyway, I called Mike this morning to get the run down on how he’s putting his clients on these slob largies and here’s the reply he gave me; "This is the time of year when the grass mats get thick on my lake so the big fish are really easy to find. Bass love to hide in the shade below the matted grass. Not only is it cooler for them, but there’s a lot of forage lurking around in the grass so it makes it an excellent place to ambush prey. So when a meal comes busting through the matted vegetation, it’s lights out and the battle is on!“ Mike states. "It’s definitely one of my favorite ways to fish in the summertime plus my clients fall in love with the technique the very moment their bait gets thumped and they pull a pig out of 10 pounds of salad. And if my clients are happy, I’m happy!
My bait of choice for punching mats is the Bully Grass Devil because it slides through the grass with ease, not to mention the big fish seem to love it’s profile. To get through the mats and get bit, we rig the Bullies on 5/0 EWG Superline hooks topped with pegged 1 ¼ oz weights. Even if the mat is super thick, a couple shakes and the bait slides through. To drag the bass out of the mats, we use 7 ½ foot heavy action casting rods along with 50 lb braid and of course a vicious hook set. It’s a simple technique to do when you have the right gear to do it. Even my clients that are "newbies” to the technique are punching like pros an hour after I teach them how to do it. As with anything, practice makes perfect and the more you do it the better you get at it". Says Mike.
If you’d like a lesson on punching mats, book a day on the river with Mike’s Guide Service and he’ll gladly take you on his private lake and give you a free lesson on punching mats the evening before your trip. Before you know it, you’ll be holding up bass like the ones in the pics above!
To start, let's go over the rod, reel and line for the 7 techniques. Everyone has their own personal preference for all 3 so I'm not going to preach to you on which brands you should use. I'll just tell you my personal set up for simplicity reasons, and from there, you can just apply your own favorite brands of rod reel and line. My personal set up for the 7 techniques is the following; Rod - 7'3" Medium action Omen by 13Fishing, Reel - Shimano Stradic CI4 3000, Line - 20 lb. Spiderwire Stealth, Leader line - 12 lb Yozuri H2O Fluorocarbon. The knot I use to attach Fluoro to Braid is called the Crazy Alberto knot.
to watch a video on the Crazy Alberto knot. I use it because it's one hell of a strong knot and it goes through rod guides with ease.
Now that we have the basic set up out of the way, the first technique I'm going to go over is finesse Texas rigging (I'll save the obvious Wacky rigging for the last of the 7 part series). Now most of the time when I'm fishing the Sick Stick I'm doing so because I want to give the bass a slow and simple presentation to drool over. Therefore, when I'm finesse Texas rigging, I keep my weight light (1/16 - 3/16 oz.) and my hook small (2/0 EWG) to get the slowest rate of fall I can get away with depending on the winds. I also use a bobber stop but I don't peg the weight to the top of the hook. Instead, I set the bobber stop about 5 inches above the hook so that the bait has a natural unrestricted fall, but yet the weight stays close enough to the hook if I happen to come through brushy cover.
Working the bait; Make a long cast and let the bait slowly free fall to bottom. Let it sit for 10 to 30 seconds, or even longer when the bass are really negative, before you begin to work it back to you. Working it back to you should consist of a mixture of slow short drags with pauses, little hops with pauses, and a couple sharp snaps of the rod tip (and yes, each snap is followed by pauses). Fishing the Sick Stick rigged like this is super easy, it's virtually snag proof which means you can fish it in various types of cover, and most importantly, it's extremely effective. As a matter of fact, when I'm teaching complete newbies how to fish, this is the rig I set them up with because you really can't mess it up (unless of course they work the bait too quickly). But it'll catch them fish and I don't have to spend time trying to get them unhung from snags…it's "win win" for both parties!
So that's it! The 1st part of the 7 part series is in the books. Soak it up, apply it, and go stick some bass with this easy technique. You never know, it might just become one of your favorite ways to fish the Sick Stick…It's definitely mine.
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1) You double your chances of catching fish on every cast with two baits tied to your line (that’s a no brainer).
2) Offering bass both a Shakey head and Drop Shot presentation on the same line allows you to target bass that are hugging the bottom and bass that are suspended slightly above the bottom.
3) Using two different baits that mimic two different types of prey will help you identify which kind of forage the bass are responding best to.
4) You can simultaneously experiment with different colors to find out which shades are triggering the most strikes.
5) This is the coolest thing about this technique! If you’re dragging a bass out of a pack of fired-up schooling bass, often times a second bass will crush the other bait on your line and you’ll land two bass on the same cast. Two for one never gets old!
Now onto the rigging…For the top bait, tie a basic Palomar knot (as if you were drop shotting) leaving the tag end about 2’ long, then run the tag end back through the eye of the hook so the hook sits in an upright position. You can opt to fish the top bait nose hooked (hook point exposed) if you’re in an open water situation or you can Tex-pose the top bait with an EWG hook to prevent snags if you’re fishing in or around cover. At the end of the tag line, tie on a Shakey/Stand-up head so that the jig head is about 12" to 20" below the top hook. Here’s my personal set up for Double Rigging; A 6'8" medium heavy spinning rod, 30lb braid topped off with a 6 foot section of 15lb Fluorocarbon leader (this might seem like overkill but when you hook two 3 pounders on the same cast and you’re near cover, you’ll appreciate the extra backbone). I always use a craw imitation for the bottom rig and a bait fish or worm imitation for the top rig. The bass pic above shows my “go to” craw and bait fish combo for the Double Rig. A 3.5" Craw D'oeuvre rigged on a ¼ Stand Up head for the Shakey presentation on the bottom and 3.6" JP Hammer Shad Tex-posed on a 2/0 EWG hook for the drop shot presentation above it. If I’m fishing a worm on the top hook, I’ll Tex-pose a 5" Finicky Tickler on a 1/0 hook. Once you’re rigged up and ready to hit the water, fishing a Double Rig is super easy. Simply cast it out, let it hit the bottom, and SLOWLY work it back to the boat (or bank) with a combination of tiny shakes, short hops and frequent 5 to 15 second pauses. It’s really that simple. The Double Rig is very effective for fishing near docks, rock piles, wood/brush, points, humps, flats and beds. There are times when the top rig will out fish the bottom rig and vise versa, but normally you’ll catch an equal amount of bass on both. So if you’re looking to add a winning technique to your arsenal and double your chances of catching bass with each cast, give the Double Rig a try and you’ll find out why the anglers who use it keep it a “well kept” secret.
]]>Here's the best way to describe the action of the Scrounger; put your arm straight out in front of you with your thumb pointing straight up at the ceiling (imagine your thumb would be the hook). Now take your hand, rotate it counter clockwise 90 degrees, then back up to center, then 90 degrees clockwise, then back to center. Do that about 5 times per second and you'll get the visual. Because of this unique action, laminate colors like Money, Slam Shad, Perch Fry, Smoking Minnow and Tasty Tilapia are perfect for the back of a Scrounger because the contrasting colors add a tantalizing element of flash to every rotation. What you end up with is a perfectly sleek 4" baitfish presentation that combines flash, wiggle and a pulsating" thump" that's unlike any crankbait or swimbait out there.
This combo can be fished shallow, deep, around all kinds of cover and in current and it’s excellent for all species of bass (and a multitude of other species too!). It’s extremely effective in any water temps 50 degrees or above but will also put them in the boat in water temps as low as 45. A 6'6" to 7' med action spinning rod with a fast tip rigged with 10 or 12 lb Fluoro is all you'll need to toss this set up and bury the Scrounger hook into a basses mouth. As far as retrieves go, a standard "chuck and wind" retrieve is very effective. But getting creative with different retrieve speeds, or adding quick snaps with your rod tip or brief pauses during your retrieve will help you dial into what the bass are responding best to.
So if you're looking to add a simple yet deadly technique to your box of skills, rig a 3.6” JP Hammer Shad on the back of a ¼ oz Scrounger Head and start bending that rod!
Weightless: When the bass are responding best to a slow presentation, rigging the Swinging Hammer on either a 5/0 or 6/0 EWG hook (preferably with a screw lock) and ever so slowly reeling it just beneath the surface creates a seductive “waking” action that is perfect for drawing strikes in shallow water, especially if you’re doing it over submerged grass. Or, slow reeling near the bottom can be equally effective when fishing it weightless in less than 4 ft. of water for drawing massive strikes from big fish. Remember, true pigs (we’re talking big girls folks) don’t want to burn excess energy chasing down a meal, so when you’re Swinging Hammer comes to a crashing halt, set the hook hard because it’s not a tree!
Weighted swimbait hooks: Weighted swimbait hooks come in all shapes, weights and sizes. When choosing a weighted swimbait hook for the Swinging Hammer, make sure the hook is at least a 5/0 and no bigger than a 7/0 and preferably with a screw lock (starting to see a pattern here?). As far as weight choices go, that all depends on depth, wind, water clarity, and mood of the bass. Having swimbait hooks with multiple weight options in your terminal tackle box will keep you covered for any situation. We personally keep a variety of 1/16, 1/8, ¼, 3/8 and ½ oz weighted swimbait hooks in our boxes so we’re ready for anything. Also, any time we’re threading the nose of the Swinging Hammer onto the screw lock, we always put a drop of Pro’s Soft Bait Glue on the threads before twisting the nose all the way up. Bass hit this bait with a vengeance so this will definitely increase the amount of fish you catch per bait before the bass totally destroy it.
Chatterbait trailer: The amount of action and vibration the Chatterbait/Swinging Hammer combo puts off is just ignorant and it drives the fish nuts! If you’re fishing in stained or muddy water and you want to make sure they hear your bait coming, this combo will send tasty chills down their lateral lines and they’ll be able to find your bait blindfolded. Again, put a drop of that glue on the hook shaft of the Chatterbait before you slide the Swinging Hammer up it because the bass are going to try to rip the rod out of your hands.
Spinnerbait Trailer : When you see this combo in the water you can pretty much rule out any small fish. If you’re fishing a double willow blade Spinnerbait with a Swinging Hammer on the back, it looks like 3 bait fish swimming together waiting to get engulfed. We recommend either a 3/8 or ½ oz Spinnerbait with a big hook and of course do the drop of glue trick on the hook shaft before sliding the swinging Hammer up it. Rigging a Swinging Hammer on a spinnerbait brings the average spinnerbait presentation to a completely different level…the kind of level that pigs love. Can anyone smell bacon?
Swim Jig: Don’t even get me started on this topic! Bite about ¾ of an inch off the head of the Swinging Hammer and rig it on a swim Jig. Wham! Pair either a Kitchen Sink or a Green Pumpkin Light Blue Swirl Swinging Hammer with a green pumpkin or gill colored swim jig and you have the perfect bluegill imitator (don’t forget about biting off ¾" to create the stockier profile of a bluegill). We all know how big bass feel about having bluegill near their spawning areas, so throwing this combo is like throwing a chunk of meat at a wild Pit Bull! Definitely make sure you have a stout hook on your swim jig!
Alabama Rig: If you haven’t seen 5 Swinging Hammers on an A-rig then you haven’t lived yet. You’ll call bass in from 5 states away with this bad boy! If you have the shoulders to hoist this rig all day, then you have the shoulders to carry the winning bag to the scales. It’s all about the turbulence peeps, it’s all about the turbulence.
]]>So if you can't muster up a reaction strike, plan "B" should include breaking out the spinning gear, downsizing, but more importantly, slowing your drop. A smaller, more subtle presentation that stays in the strike zone longer will definitely up your odds of getting your rod bent. A neutrally buoyant 5"Sick Stick rigged on a 1/16oz Wacky head has a lazy subtle wobble and painstakingly slow fall that allows the bait to stay in the strike zone much longer than baits that are loaded down with too much salt. And when the bass are shut down, that extra time in the strike zone during the drop plays a crucial role in getting bit. Another excellent choice for negative bass is a 3.5" Craw D'oeuvre Texas rigged with a 1/16oz tungsten on a 3/0 light wire hook. This again will give you that super slow drop which you can then top off with an ultra-slow crawling retrieve combined with long pauses. A small craw fish that's barely crawling along the bottom appears as easy injured prey to a bass, which makes it a very difficult meal for them to pass up regardless of their mood. Granted, finesse fishing might not be the most exciting way to fish after great days of power fishing. But recognizing the situation at hand and having the discipline to make the proper changes will get you the results you need. Many times we have to do what we need to do, not do what we want to do.
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