Back in the day, all the rods were made of fiberglass, reels had 3:1 gear ratios and sonars were portable. There was no tungsten, no stainless steel and certainly no fluorocarbon.

But bass anglers are never satisfied. New methods create new necessities and new technology allows for the creation of new products. And while there was a time I never thought I’d need a faster reel, a lighter rod, or more transparent fishing line, the fact is I use them all now.

So how about this deal? I sure didn’t see them coming (and maybe that’s the point), but I just discovered you can actually get transparent “hardware.” (more…)

You don’t have to tell me. I know you’ve been hoarding Megabait spoons since the company went out of business and your collection of custom-painted ice jigs is the coolest in three states.

But not every day is the same out on the water. With an extra layer of clothes and a lot of adrenalin going, we don’t always sense the changes in conditions. But down there, those marks on the color graph–those are living creatures that are facing another winter day of survival.

True, some days they are hot to go, rising up in the water column to catch your bait as it falls. Other days they like that slide-and-glide look from Norway. And then there are a lot of other days, when bellied down in the mud or silt, they need a real good reason to get up and move even a foot or two. (more…)

UPDATED: Okay, it may be an issue of bass fishing eras, but I’ve been sitting on this lure for awhile–just because I knew the water would start to cool down, and around here, there are still places with shallow cover.

Yes, all singles and tandems work fine in the brush. But I’ve been around long enough to know that the first dual-bladed spinnerbaits were actually twin-spins. A lure that has a blade on either of two spreader arms, allowing for a slow fall–like a parachutist, (more…)

Had a nice morning of casting and even a few tugs on the end of the line today. And wouldn’t you know it, the Jackall wacky jig (and cola-colored Flick Shake) was just as effective as it had been earlier in the spring. (And see that 5.8-inch bait down in the maw of this dandy.)

Still, as I looked at the rig (a worm draped on a weedless jig head) I thought back to the days when we were all paranoid about the fish seeing the hook, the sinker or an unpainted jig head.

Jim Emmett, a friend and partner since my club days in the 70’s, likewise, said as much. As a mold maker in his working days, he produced some interesting creations over the years, but almost always with the thought of small hooks and light sinkers–as he reminded me, “As light as I can get away with.” (more…)

TroKar, the new super hook just introduced yesterday at ICAST is, in fact, one very sharp piece of steel. When my sample arrived (just in time so I wouldn’t show any images until the day the trade show opened) I went to pull one out of the foam holder, and barely escaped without needing stitches.

I have yet to fish them, but I’m pretty sure there was enough field work preceding their release that we can safely say, “They stick ‘em.” And while I have no equipment to measure the amount of flex in the wire, they do not appear to be dramatically different in comparison to other premium hooks of the same approximate wire diameter.

Yet looking closely at the samples, reading the press information and factoring in the suggested retail price, the biggest decision that angler/consumers are going to have to figure out is “are they worth it?” (more…)

Bass fishermen are kind of funny. They’re so much like that guy sitting in the back row, wise-cracking after every critical point in a presentation. Or if not that, ungraciously accepting the results of uncommon problem solving, as if those solutions grew on vines.

Robo’s Greg Stump knows something of the feeling. Speaking of his sophisticated EZ Shad he said, “We finally perfected the technology to make these things three colors, to inject three colors consistently–that took a long time.” (more…)

I’ve kicked around a lot of ideas about what works and what doesn’t in catching bass. And I would probably have some real firm answers—if it wasn’t for those fish that break just enough of the rules to keep me guessing.

Line visibility (plus all the other issues related to bass vision) makes me wonder a lot. I’ve seen untold number of situations where say, 15-pound green mono beats the heck out of 8-pound clear, and also those days where a 6-pound tinted mono got bit just as well as 6- or 8-pound fluorocarbon.

Furthermore, we’ve all heard the arguments related to the color red (as in hooks, line and bleeding bait imitations). Proponents of the color’s visibility or invisibility are so diametrically opposed; it makes you wonder what the heck they are looking at in those laboratories. (more…)