With a couple of clicks on a keyboard or remote and you can access the latest, hottest information on absolutely any aspect of bass fishing. However, using exactly the same technology, you can also as easily access the latest hype, ear hustle or disinformation just as fast.
So where do you find the groundwork for this popular game? Where is the field-proven methodology? And where can someone go to ask the questions that will make sense of it all?
Brent Ehrler of Redlands says he knows. And it didn’t just happen when he joined the staff of The Bass University, setting up campus Jan. 9-10 in Sacramento. (click here)
No, today’s #1 bass angler in California and the #2 pro in the Bassfan.com World Rankings was sold on the program years ago. “I heard about Bass University [in its earlier form] and when I was 11 years old my Dad took me to the seminar,” he recounted yesterday.
“Rich Tauber, Don Iovino and Jimmy Houston were in it. Those are the ones I remember. It was a big deal for me to be there, I got to ask Jimmy Houston about spinnerbaits.” Then he added, “When I was 12 years old, my Dad hired Rich Tauber on a guide trip and that’s what really got me started in bass fishing.”
Clearly, getting close to the pros in an environment of advanced learning puts the “student” in the perfect position to get better. But even though the latest incarnation of The Bass U, developed by touring pros Mike Iaconelli and Pete Gluszek, is truly a school of higher learning, it is full of things that can make a difference in anyone’s bass fishing.
As Brent noted, “Everybody wants to catch fish. If you can learn a few things… if you can just learn one thing that matters to you or opens things up for your approach, you can really use that.”
As for his specific part in the curriculum, Brent will hit a couple of key topics in his two seminars on Saturday. “I want to talk shallow crankbaits,” he said. “No one on the West Coast thinks the shallow crank is much of a tool out West [but I've been doing very well with them]. Actually on tour,” he added, “I hope they don’t get into them too soon.”
Specifically, he’ll be talking Lucky Craft with the lipless LV500 (“A standard lipless bait’) and a couple of square-billed cranks: the BDS3 (Big Daddy Strike with a wide wobble) and the new Skeet Reese MR (“with a real tight wobble.)”
His second seminar will be “more along the lines of shaky head and wacky head fishing,” he said. “Everyone has had enough of the drop-shot stuff.”
Given Brent’s California roots and his incredible 5-year ascent to the top of the sport–all beginning by attending an early Bass University–this just might be the best-ever investment you put into bass fishing.
Photo courtesy: Brandon Oursler
Cool George. You always have great posts and info. Just like me. lol