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We are at one of the greatest times of the year to catch both smallmouth and largemouth bass. Water temps are dropping and bass are schooling up. Shad are moving and migrating back to the creeks that feed most lakes and the bass are targeting them. So this is when a lot of the shad baits are working like suspending jerkbaits, A-Rigs, crankbaits, swimbaits and of course spinnerbaits.

Shad Bait Wins

The nice thing about all these baits is that they are power fishing baits: just chuck them out and reel them back. These lures allow you to cover a lot of water and fish in the wind, rain, sleet, and snow without having to sit still and wait for a bite. I hope you caught that, we need to cover a lot of water this time of year. "Here today gone tomorrow" is what you hear all the time. Fish are moving so these lures allow you to take advantage of that. Sleep in a little, this is the time of year you can take your time getting on the water. Some days it takes a little sun on

As summer comes to a close and the brutal heat slowly subsides, the best time of the year for fishing begins. Now, those big bass come out of the deep and start cruising the shallows for easy meals. Bluegill, Shad, and Sunfish are the main course for Smallmouth and Largemouth bass. They will still stick to green vegetation due to the abundance of oxygen and structure such as rocks where Rock Bass inhabit. With these bass being overly aggressive in order to eat before winter, you will have success if you include these baits in your arsenal!

Crankbaits

First, crankbaits. Regardless if you prefer lipless or squarebill, both have their strengths. During this time, you need to locate the fish as quick as possible. Lipless cranks do a great job of this because you can make long casts and cover a lot of water in a short period of time. You can also work them through light cover to help draw reaction strikes. When it comes to lipless cranks, I will keep my rod tip high and

Bass fishing at the flats continues to be incredible this season. Following the spawn, large sacks of largemouth bass were being hooked in the grass beds. However this is often when carp start to spawn inside the grassy regions. Those carp trigger a serious uproar and lots of people believe that they scare these fish away from the grass , however this is not correct! The thrashing will produce a large amount of disturbance as well as muddy the water, nevertheless don’t allow that to move you from the grass. As a result of my personal experience I've discovered the breeding carp may actually assist the largemouth bass fishing. Just how can that come to be?

Understand that having success anytime you are bass fishing requires the ability to observe the food chain and influencing the food chain is precisely what these carp do. During the spawn a substantial amount of carp eggs basically adhere to the grass stalks and canopy. This is going to attract all forms of baitfish to

I ventured up the Susquehanna on Thursday, January 12, with a good friend. In five hours or so we caught well over a 100 Yellow Perch. Fish ranged in size from 4" to 9". All small, which is not what we have experienced the last few years. This year the temperatures have been warmer than usual. Last year we were breaking ice to get out and this year, and as of yesterday the water temp was still at 41-42 degrees, air temp 62. I think this is still too warm and this means the bigger fish are still scattered in shallow water, possibly out on the Flats. Also there are too many commercial fish traps in the area to count. They were not present last year.

The fish we caught were as shallow as 15 ft and as deep as 53 ft. The best location was along the Perryville side of the river, from the Amtrak bridge up river to the north end of Garrett Island. The best method is to rig a common bottom rig or a drop-shot rig with a Pan Assassin, 1"-2" twister tail or a small tube attached. Chartreuse

If there ever was a fishing winter wonderland it would be on the Upper Chesapeake Bay in Joppatowne, MD. At a time when most boats are all snuggled in the garage or living under the confines of their strapped down tarps for the winter, Jerry Sersen's boat has been seeing daylight on a regular basis. Of course it has been a mild winter (so far), but Jerry says that has been holding the perch bite back a bit. “The colder water is better when catching yellow perch”, says Jerry, “and this year it is taking a little longer to get things going with the warmer than normal temperatures. But the water temperatures are starting to settle down to where they normally are and I expect the Yellow Perch bite will be on fire real soon. In fact next week I'll be up at the Susquehanna River where I've had times of catching up to 200 perch in a single day.”

You don't need a big boat or lots of horsepower. In this cold weather you'll only use idle speeds. Just make sure you

I installed a new Lowrance Elite DSI-5 on my boat a few days ago and I just had to put the boat into the water to check it out. Of course I had to take a rod or two with me, and boy I am glad I did. What a GREAT decision. I was able to boat 22 rockfish in 2 hours, and some fish were up to 20 inches on the Bush River. The fish were staged on every rock pile I pulled up on. I was using a Stillwater Lures Clatter Shad in the 1/2 oz size and color #31, and that was really doing the trick for me. I had to get the bait to bounce off the rocks and when the bait would jump erractically they would slam it. If there was no bounce in my bait, then there was no fish. The water temperature was still at 50 degrees, but I'm not sure how long that will last. The Striper fishing should be good until water temperature gets down to 45 degrees. Just remember you may have to slow down the retrieve as the water cools. Oh, by the way the new Lowrance unit works great. Down-Side-Imaging is unbelievable!!!!!!!

EXO - The Exoskeleton Design

Quantum releases the EXO PT baitcasting reel, where EXO stands for exoskeleton. One look and you will notice the skeleton type look of the reel. You'll see that the body of the reel is not solid, but instead has cut-outs at various points giving it a skeleton like appearance.

But the trick is to make sure the cut-outs are in areas that do not come under stress. What a concept and wow, does it ever work! By using a high-grade aluminum on the load bearing parts of the reel, and a composite material where as much strength isn't needed, and cut-outs in the rest of the areas, Quantum brings us a baitcasting reel that weighs in at just 5.9 oz.! But it is extremely durable. In fact a video on the Quantum web site show the reel put in a vice with over 1,000 lbs of force placed on it without breaking or damaging the reel. In a second video a 1/2 ton pickup truck runs over the reel without damaging it as well.

It doesn't stop at Lightweight

Rods tested: RC71MHXF and RC74HF

I was able to put some time together to enter the Everstart event on the Potomac River. It wasn’t a hard choice for me as this is one of my all time favorite destinations and the end of September generally finds fish gathered in bays near creek mouths and in the creeks themselves. Usually you’re in for a big catch and the big river lived up to expectations.

My plan included fishing grass with aggressive presentations such as spinnerbaits, chatterbaits, and swim jigs. I put the RC71MHXF to work with a few different War Eagle spinnerbaits and the Revenge Viberator. I rigged this rod with a Shimano Chronarch and 50# Power Pro. The baits I was throwing ranged from 3/8oz. to 1/2oz. and with the braid I was able to cleanly pop them free from the milfoil. When St. Croix says extra fast action they mean it. The tip flexes in a very tight arc in a true extra fast taper. Very impressive. I also switched reels to a Curado spooled with

Becky Gore carries a true love and passion for our youth along with the great outdoors. She has successfully brought both of them together through the years impacting the lives of our young generation who've gotten involved with her efforts. A school teacher for close to 4 decades, this wounderful woman has coached softball and arranged bass clubs and tournaments for our youth, not to mention taken various awards including the Orange County Youth Advocate Award, Teacher of the Year and Coach of the Year, only to name a couple. In addition, she is the Virginia Director within the Fishing for Kids Organization. Becky will once more be giving her time and initiatives on October 2, 2011 as Tournament Director during the Joseph Thomson Memorial Tournament.

Becky explains the objective of the Joseph Thomson Memorial Tournament is to raise scholarship money in the memory of Joseph Thomson, a youthful college man who was killed in a tragic vehicle accident in 2006. Joseph had been a

We thought it would be good to post some information that folks can use to voice their opinion through the proper channels concerning the possibility of the Susquehanna River being closed during the Spring.  As you may know, the river was recently made catch-and-release only.  Now there is a movement to have fishing for bass on the river closed completely during the spawn in the Spring.  This is being done to help the dwindling smallmouth population.  Although we are for efforts that would help solve this problem, these actions will have no effect on the problem which is basically caused by pollution.

If you feel strongly about your rights to fish during the spring then write to Senator Brubaker who is Head of Fisheries.  You may also write to the PA Fish and Boat Commission, but we feel that because Senator Brubaker oversees the commission this is a better route.  Here are some addresses:

Senator Mike Brubaker

District Office