It's Summer Transition Time

The azalea blooms are gone, Memorial Day has passed, the days are getting long, and it's just plain hot. For the past two months, it's been relatively easy to pick bass off stumps, riprap and other shallow cover. But spawning season is now over and the bass are heading back deep.

For many anglers, the lake becomes intimidating this time of year. There are several reasons for this. Part of it is pleasure boat traffic. For lakes like Chickamauga and Guntersville, grass adds thousand of acres of extra cover to take into consideration. And finally, there are the deep fish and the fact that you're no longer exclusively target-casting to anything on the bank that looks fishy. Those shallow tricks seem to quit working as soon as the sun gets up and the mercury rises.

This is the time of year when certain anglers flourish, the ones who have confidence in fishing deep -  the ones who trust their electronics and head out to the ledges and creek channels - the ones not afraid to mop the lake floor with a jig and dig trenches with big crankbaits.

I'm admittedly not up to the highest offshore confidence level yet, but last summer I found some success away from the bank, and I want to share a few things I learned that may help those struggling to find their way away from the shoreline.

1. When there are large grass mats, imagine the area without them. If it's not an area you'd fish when the grass isn't there, it's probably wise to move on. There are certain areas like transitions, points, humps, channel swings, etc that you'll focus on any time of the year. Fish use these areas as ambush points and thoroughfares with or without the presence of grass. Keep going to those same areas and if there is grass there, consider it a bonus. Find the edges, which could be as far as 8-12' down depending on water clarity and go to work.  Frogs and flukes are great for topwater action, and a big worm or swimbait can hammer them deep.

2. Your favorite shallow water baits can work in the summer - you just have to learn how to apply them in deep water situations. Usually it requires a slight adjustment. Plastics you may throw shallow weightless, or with light weights, in the spring may need to be upsized to 1/2-1 oz weights to help the bait get down to the strike zone quickly and add additional feel along the bottom, especially in wind. A Texas rig or shaky head may need to be traded for a drop shot to keep the bait visible along the top of grass and deep brushpiles. Heavy spinnerbaits can be slow-rolled down points and dropped along bluffs and ledges. Put the square bills away in favor of deep diving crank baits, and dig a trench with them down the points and humps, and off the tops of the ledge. If topwater is your thing, a spook or Sammy can be your best friend when you're around an active school and the bass are chasing baitfish.

Here's an example of one of my favorite techniques translating from shallow to deep: Last summer in a tournament, I was looking for a third fish to fill out my limit. It was getting late in the morning and the shallow bite had all but shut down. After working over some good docks and seawalls, I paddled out to this point on the inside of a creek channel bend. The point had a huge grass mat on it until about 10-11' of water where it tapered out to gravel bottom and dropped into the channel. I set up on the edge of the grass using my Lowrance, fan-casted the same 1/4 oz shaky head I was using shallow earlier, and landed a nice 16.75" bass to fill my limit.  As you can see from the scale, I was sitting 150 feet from the bank and casting toward the middle rather than beating the bank.  The channel marker was a perfect reference point as well.

3. Look for bait.  All during the summer, bass will set up in the depths below bait.  Finding the bait on a ledge is a good way to eliminate bad water when there are miles and miles of ledges like on Kentucky Lake and other Tennessee River impoundments. Look for the fish in a "haystack" formation or streaking through the bait clouds on your graph.  These are active schools and can make for a great day of fishing.

Image source: scout.com

Try these tips when you're out on the lake this summer, and you may be pleasantly surprised with your results.  I hope to hone these skills myself. If it fails, go skip some docks for a while and try again until you figure them out. Tight lines, y'all.

It's All About to Change

As I write this post, it's Tuesday night and I'm sitting in a motel room in New Johnsonville, TN, near the shores of Kentucky Lake.  I drove up here earlier today for KBF National Championship weekend.  This is what all the obsessive studying, video watching, reading and fishing over the last year has led up to.  Now I get a couple of days to practice for the Big Show.  I finished  91st out of 230 anglers last year, and I'm ready to try and make a big improvement this year.

I have chosen to enter the HOW Big Bass Brawl and the KBF Open as well as the Championship.  The Big Bass Brawl runs from practice, starting tomorrow and going all the way through Saturday.  The Open and the Championship run concurrently Friday and Saturday.

If I were to win these events, I'd probably be cashing checks totaling somewhere near $50,000.  In most peoples' books, including mine, that's a life-changing weekend.

But whether I cash a check or not, my life will definitely be changed in an even bigger way in the upcoming weeks.

This is not so much a post about fishing, but about perspective and priority.  Winning here would be a huge deal, and something I've thought about every day since I left Kentucky Lake last year.  But bringing a child into the world is even bigger.  And although it might surprise some people, it has dominated my thoughts lately.  I'm not sure how to put into words the gamut of emotions that hit me daily.  Love, excitement, fear, anxiety, happiness...it's hard to focus on anything without thinking about that precious little life that is getting closer and closer to making his appearance.

After last year, I feel like I'm prepared for just about anything that Kentucky Lake decides to throw at me. And for these four days, I'll be laser-focused on these little green fish.  But I have no idea what this kid is going to throw at me, and that's scary as hell.  But I'm excited to find out, and can't stop thinking about it.

Lastly, I have some thanks that are due.  I use social media mostly for fishing and promoting ANGLR, and I need to give a heartfelt, long-overdue public "thank you" to my wife, Solitair.  Thank you for proving every day that even though the baby isn't here yet, you're going to be a great mom.  Thank you for understanding how important fishing is to me, whether I'm cashing checks or just unwinding on the river.  Thanks for your patience and understanding when I'm in the office until 4am studying maps, archiving fishing reports, and graphing weather trends.  Thank you for trusting that I will be a good dad when it seems like it's the last thing on my mind.  I promise, it's not.

Specializing Your Rod, Reel and Line for Kayak Fishing

Everyone knows kayak fishing can put you in many situations that are different from fishing from a larger boat. Therefore, kayak anglers don't always need to adhere to some of the rules of thumb that have been shared in various instructional articles and videos you see from tour pros and other experts.  While the baits and techniques usually apply across the board, the gear used to employ them sometimes does not.

The main reason for this discrepancy is because a kayak becomes an integral part of the drag system when catching a fish, from the bite, through the hookset, all the way to the moment when you (hopefully) land that lunker on the other end of the line. The shallow draft and smaller coefficient of friction cause a different effect in each part of the catch than a heavy and deeper-hulled bass boat.

Does this mean that a person switching from a bass boat to a kayak has to sell off all their gear and start all over?  Absolutely not - there are minor adjustments that can be made to fit the situation.  We can break it down into the three components of a conventional fishing outfit - the rod, the reel, and the line.

There are some common problems kayak anglers face when they are not using the optimal equipment for fishing from a small plastic boat.  Keep reading to explore five of these problems, and see how to get your rods, reels, and line working in harmony to catch more fish from your kayak.

2016 Year in Review and Lessons Learned

By far, the most popular post of in the short history of the ANGLR Blog was the 2015 Year in Review post.

Before I focus on my New Years Resolutions, it's time to take a look back at the 2016 tournament season - the successes, failures and lessons learned.

I have already published a separate post on the first tournament I participated in for 2016, the River Bassin' season opener in the Florida Panhandle, as it turned into a longer adventure.

So we'll start the official year-in-review with the KBF National Championship.

Tackle Warehouse Unboxing

My first unboxing video!

How I Keep My Phone Dry and Afloat

Last summer during a Tennessee Valley Kayak Anglers tournament on Chickamauga Lake, I caught a nice smallmouth to fill my limit in the tournament.  The fish would have secured 3rd place and a cash payout.  Instead, I fumbled my phone over the side of the kayak and had to start over.  Here's a little tip that will prevent that from ever happening again!


 

On Visibility and Contrast

Last week, I went fishing on Lake Burton with Jim Ware and Greg Wood, both of Rome.  At one point in the early afternoon, Jim and Greg fished about halfway back into a creek, then headed back out toward point off a large island.  I had caught my first fish of the day while making my way into the creek, and wanted to explore the creek further back, so I continued to pick it apart dock-by-dock.  Not exactly a winter pattern, but it was the only thing that had worked so far.  When I came out of the creek about 45 minutes later, I began to look for the others.

Off in the distance, I faintly spotted two sets of yellow paddle blades churning.  Jim was wearing a bright orange PFD, and Greg's was bright blue.  But the only signs of the two kayakers I could see were the four blades.  Using my Navionics app, I figured them to be about 530 yards away.  That doesn't seem like all that much distance, but it was a windy day with a lot of chop on the water, and it was tough to discern what was taking place on the surface.

Me, Jim, Greg, and our yellow paddles on Lake Burton

The boat traffic on Lake Burton was about what one would expect for a Thursday afternoon in mid-December.  There were a handful of other fishermen running around, but rarely would we feel that all-familiar rock of a boat wake across our bows.  It was quite peaceful and the fishing was slow.

Soon enough, though, spring will be here.  The winter solstice has passed, and the days are already getting longer.  We'll get a couple of late February warm fronts, and the bass will snap out of the winter doldrums and strap on the feedbag for mating season.  And the mass exodus of fishermen will descend on lakes across the South looking for big prespawn bass.

From this point, all through the summer and well past Labor Day, kayakers will have their head on a swivel.  After the spawn, the pleasure boaters and PWC's come out to play as well.  The lakes will be full of people.  Usually, this is when I head to the rivers, but I still like to get in some practice on the lake every now and then.  Visibility becomes more important than ever during the summer.  Most serious kayak fishermen are familiar with products like the VisiCarbon Pro, and other 360º lighting products.  Some anglers have LED strips mounted on their hull.  Both of these are great for visibility in low light situations.  

But the observation I made on Lake Burton the other day, is that if you want to be seen in broad daylight, the name of the game is CONTRAST. 

There's a reason why most states' DNRs require deer hunters using rifles to wear blaze orange for safety.  If you see something moving in that color, there's no reason to shoot. Other than on a particularly brilliant maple tree in the fall, blaze orange is one of the most unnatural colors you'll find outside.  In the photo above, Jim's orange PFD contrasts well against the water, but may not always contrast well against Georgia red clay or fall foliage.  Greg's blue PFD does not contrast well on the water, but would be quite visible against a dark tree-lined bluff. And his dark clothing provides a stark silhouette in the morning light. However, those yellow paddles we have contrast well against everything, and they are moving a lot.  There's no need to go out on the water in your coat of many colors, but several different colors ranging from light to dark on your rig, paddle, and body should provide enough of a contrast to keep you visible throughout the day.

Stay safe out there, and tight lines, y'all.