bass fishing

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Got out on the water with awesome Everglades guide Captain Shane Procell! Shane is a topwater connonsieur but he wanted to take a look at some of the close quarters flipping applications we use up on Lake Okeechobee to bust thru heavy cover. Fish being pre-spawn and moving to some the heavy stuff it was a great opportunity to punch some mats and canopied vegetation.

All in all a great day – check Captain Shane out on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/captainshane100/featured or if you’re looking to book a trip for a true Everglades experience http://www.floridaevergladesbassfishingadventures.com

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probably the most fun i’ve had in a long time out on the lake. hanging out with my boy, the girl netting fish (she even caught one…cause i made her hahahah), and schools of bass on an absolute tear running thru shad schools.

bait selection: walk the dog type baits, poppers, alabama rig

tackle: 7′ MH berkely lightning rod, shimano citica 6:2:1, 50# braid

 

 

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things are chillin out, the grass is dying, and the shad aren’t too far behind – schooling up for a final rally.  from fall thru early spring – especially on lakes with decent shad populations – one of my standards is a square bill style crank.  there are a bunch out there and they all have their own little nuance but in general i separate them by those that have a truly “square bill” and those that are slightly rounded at the tips.  my overall favorite falls into the rounded tips category: the lucky craft bds.  the rounded tips tend to give the bait a tighter wobble and a better ability rip grass.  although they work reasonably in wood, if i’m mainly fishing stumps or docks etc i’ll move towards the old rc 1.5 or 2.5 that provide a more cornered bill (it just deflects off the cover better and provides a bit more protection from getting snagged).

i tend to fish them in a sort of a fused trap/spinnerbait type approach.  for me they fill the gap of a finesse style ripping bait as well as a finesse style  spinnerbait that i’m able to pull thru some fairly thick cover even with trebles.  there are a variety of ways to toss it but if i had to pick one setup for most of my applications i’d go with a 7 foot medium glass rod, a 6:2:1 geared reel, spooled up with 15# flourocarbon.  there are obvious exceptions to the rule however, say for instance if you were throwing to bank laydowns you’d probably want to shorten and stiffen up the rod a bit (go to a 6′-6’6″ graphite rod – maybe even switch over to mono to float the bait up more).  in general however the glass combo increases hook ups on those more subtle bites (as you’ll see in the vids below) and the flourcarbon slows the baits rise slightly as well as offereing a bit lower stretch which can be integral when it comes to post-frontal/cold water fish.

here’s a playlist of square bill fish from winter thru spring.  if you watch all the vids you’ll see a bit of a pattern, nearly all the fish come off a reaction  bite – usually after ripping the bait off grass or wood.  some of the best water for this applications are grass/wood/stump flats adjacent to a drop/river channel.

 

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i got some new toy’s to play with from d&m custom baits so i had some fun and took a few pics before i could get on the water – looking forward to mixing these things up with the fish.

punching jig
impact factor:  targeting sparse reeds to thicker reed heads as well as blind flipping hard grass bases (maidencane, cattails, bulrushes, etc.) as well as holes/pockets for bedding fish – the mat rat.
d&m custom baits flip n spin
impact factor: a bi-winning swim and pitch jig to cover the flats between reed heads as well as the tossing to cover, no need to switch rods – the flip’n spin.
d&m custom baits punch craw
little need be said about this classic, a mat machine that provides a streamlined body to slip thru the roof   without any hold-up. the punch craw delivers a hefty body in comparison to your average beaver-style baits however the cylindrical shape syncs perfectly with 1-2oz tungsten allowing for an ease of punching thru that is nothing but pleasantly surprising.
d&m custom baits mat rat
features/tweaks: line tie at the nose makes it more workable in grass. comes with a punch skirt style skirt however i like to experiement a bit with banded skirts as well. it seems the punch skirt is ideal in bang bang heavy cover flipping. for a little more subtlety and overall “flaring”, the banded skirts seem to hold the throne – the mat rat.
d&m custom baits flip 'n spin
doppelganger: try fishing the flip’n spin just as you would rip a trap around grass/wood.  the blade allows you to keep contact with the bait  and gives it a drag and vibration very comparable to a 3/4 oz lipless crank.  thread it up with a booted swimbait  or a grub and string-up with 30-50# braid.  make sure to rip it off the grass – treat it like a hard bait.

check out the whole line of d&m products at their website:
www.dmcustombaits.com

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the world is tiny – which is cool – and most people like to fish.

 

my best friend came down from Wisconsin for what’s becoming an annual 3 day peacock fishing trip in the mixed bag junkyards of the Miami airport canals.  among one of the evenings of crown and coke mixed with peacock footage we found it necessary to re-up on pop-r’s and rapala x-raps which the fish had simply been shredding.  made the trip down to my local dick’s sporting goods and grabbed what we needed.  as we were about to check out a guy comes up to me and asks “hey are you mikeybalzz….” – i was sort of shocked; in a metropolitan county of nearly 2 million people a dude recognized me from the vids on youtube ahhahahahah!

pieter's big bass on lake okeechobee
big toad special – “fish was just there…” (got it in on vid too, look for it on youtube in next month)

chance has a funny way of shaping things.  we ended up talking a bit and I told Pieter  – who fished a lot of the canals down here in south florida that we’d hit The Lake one weekend.  well, we hit The Lake a few weeks later – and things couldn’t have worked out more perfectly, got a taste of a monsoon and a drink of this 7+lbs truck on a buzzin toad!

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Not all of the best quality – but I think they get their point across!  Below you’ll find a vid collection of the “slounches”  from the past 3 years:

10 pounder caught flipping punch skirts pre-front on Lake Okeechobee – popped among 3 guide boats.  D&M Punch Skirt and Flippin’ Craw paired with a 1oz tungsten weight.

Probably one of the 2 biggest fish I’ve ever  caught – only bite that day on Rodman Res., water temp never broke 55 degrees.  3/4oz Red Eye Shad.

A better look at the above fish.

Lucky to have gotten this girl to the boat – instant anti-reverse went out on the reel but she stayed buttoned after a flopped hook set.  Flipping mats with a 1 1/2oz tungsten weight in North Central, FL.

No doubt the most audiologically pronounced giant to ever make contact with me – this fish made the boat shake and probably ingested 2 full gallons of water to take the bait in.  Rage Tail Shad – weightless.

First pure giant on Lake Okeechobee after the move south.  Pre-spawn staging fish tucked in the mats – post-front and she still thunked it on the way down.  1 1/2oz  D&M Custom Baits Big Mama

Among some of the oldest vids I have – never saw her but I assume this girl was on a bed and I simply placed the bait in the right hole in the grass.  1/2oz lead and a Zoom Ultra-Vibe Craw.

Another oldy but goody – caught 3 in the 8-10lbs class in 2 consecutive days.  Flipping a 1/2oz lead weight and Zoom Ultra-Vibe Craw.

Sadly the I ran out of juice for the catch on this fish but was able to at least get a vid image of her – absolutely dogged me.  Pulled a 15′ jon boat straight into the grass like it was nothing.  1/2oz lead Gambler Lil’ Otter.