Inside the lure painting booth

Fishing and the outdoors have been a passion of mine for my whole life. Art is in my genes and I have been painting and drawing my whole life. I am able to actually combine two passion I have in life. Fishing and Art. When I am not on the water I am either with my family or in the paint booth creating lures. I get to work with other fisherman to make them the perfect custom lure or paint them a pattern that is no longer available. I have a lure testing pond right next to the shop so I can even test all my lures after they are painted and rigged with hardware. At the end of the fishing day there is nothing like catching a fish on something you created! Then thanks to a loyal following and customer base I can keep creating these killer custom baits and send them all around the world for people to #gethooked and send back some cool pics. I have my box filled with all my customs and usually don’t fish much else. They just produce fish for me and I have a ton of confidence in them!

Plans vs. Reality

Recently made a trip to Lake St. Clair to cash in on the huge numbers of large smallmouths in pre-spawn mode. Spent some time in the boat the day prior rigging rods with what has worked in the past and assuming what would be my primary rod choice based upon what bait was tied on.

Got to our first waypoint location and found the water to be very stained from the high winds the day prior. Had less than a foot visibility and my primary plastic bait I had tied on was nearly invisible. Fished this location for only about 20 minutes and noticed a mud line out further into the lake. Drove past the mud line and definitely found clear water but did not find fish. We believe the fish were in the mud eating up what was churned up the entire prior day but we did not think they could see our offerings. Tried several darker colors for contrast but finally gave up on our primary spot and went to waypoint number two.

Upon traveling to our second waypoint, we crossed over some extremely muddy water and was worried it would continue all the way to our next stop. Upon getting within a quarter mile of the waypoint, the water cleared and we also spotted a large raft of boats already near our waypoint. We slid in on the left side of the pack and started fishing with our preferred methods again. We saw a couple small fish caught in the pack but only caught a large silver "white" bass in our location. It was then that I really studied the pack of boats. It appeared they were mostly aggressively fishing jerk baits and that would make sense based upon the water clarity, but we assumed they did not see what we drove through so we treated the entire location as a "tough bite" location even though it appeared to be in perfect condition.

Tied on a light brown goldish tube and added about 2' of fluorocarbon leader as well. The action was never fast but we did put some nice fish in the boat to photo and release. The best method turned out to be a very slow drag of the tube on the bottom almost like an old school Carolina rig. When we felt something on the bottom like rock or last years weed bases, we slowed down even more and kept the bait in those areas for a long time. As the tube "popped" off of this structure it would trigger the strikes from these fish that were mostly lethargic. The fish also seemed to be following the bait without eating as well, since we had several finally eat the bait very near the boat.

We learned to adjust on this trip and to also pay attention to the conditions and our surroundings. Without the adjustments we made, we would have not have been as successful as we were on a tough bite type of day.

Get out on the water and give some new methods a try, especially when tough conditions present themselves.

Kevin

Slow Down And Finesse Fish Or Go Big And Power Fish?

Ok so imagine you are out fishing and feel like you have thrown every bait in your boat or bag and you cannot even get a nibble. We have all experienced days like this and you can either pack up and go home or attempt to buy a bite from utilizing one of the two extreme approaches in fishing. So what kind of fishermen are you? Do you dig into your tackle and find the smallest bait you can find and then fish extremely slow and then slow down some more? You may perhaps throw a Ned rig, Neko rig, or a dropshot if you decide to fish on the finesse side of the spectrum, which is an Aaron Martens type of approach. The other choice is to dig out a spinnerbait, a crankbait, swimbait, or some other type of fast-moving bait where you are trying to trigger a reaction strike, which is a Kevin VanDam type of approach. There is no right or wrong approach here and your day could turn around using either one of those scenarios. Also what worked one day for you in the past during an extremely tough day may not be the answer on a different day. So how do YOU break it down? Here is my approach.

I tend to start with the Aaron Martens style of fishing. I will get into my tackle and locate my three best finesse baits. I usually start with a ned rig and I will try at least two of my small confidence baits for 10-15 minutes each. If this is unproductive, I will then try either a drop shot or a neko rig depending on the depth I am fishing. I give each bait at least 10-15 minutes to assess if any could be productive. How do I know if any of the baits I chose will increase my chances of landing a fish or which technique is going to work best? If I get a fish or even get bites, then I will continue with that bait and that rig for a little bit and then reassess. If I start getting nips from bluegill, then I will also give it longer (shhhh, this is a “trick“ I’ve learned)! I’ve had many days where I made a choice on my bait because of the behavior of bluegill. If they are nipping (tap tap tap is what you usually feel) or grabbing it like they stole something and speeding away, then more often than not, eventually the bass will take the same bait. In this situation, I feel like the puzzle has another piece and I will be patient with that bait. If I’ve gone through all of this and I still do not have any bites or fish, then I will try to get a reaction strike.

When I make that decision, I am usually going to grab a couple of different crank baits that I have confidence in and also either a spinnerbait or chatterbait depending on the water clarity. If it is muddy then I will go with a chatter bait and if it is a little murky to clear then I will go with a spinner bait. However, I do prefer a crank bait because of the versatility with colors, action, and depth. I will burn them and try to get them to bounce off of wood, rocks, or any other type of structure. Hopefully by this time I will find another piece to the puzzle. If I still cannot get a bite or a fish after trying a multitude of reaction baits, then I will refer back to finesse fishing with another few of my favorite small baits/ jigs.

Sometimes repeating this process will help to turn the day around. On the other hand, there are definitely days where it seems like the fish have moved to a different county hahaha! The more you fish then the more you will experience days like this. However, do not let it get into your head because we ALL have been there! When Mother Nature flat out turns off that switch, those fish are extremely obedient! So just try to make a mental note of the things you’ve tried with the conditions of that day. It may help you too figure things out faster in the future if things did not work out. Then the next time you have a day like this, you can try some of the other baits too. I have found that sometimes throwing a bait the fish may not have seen before can sometimes help, especially if you are on a really pressured body of water. No matter what, at least to be thankful that you had the ability to enjoy the day outside. Fishermen are the eternal optimists. You will head home knowing you are going to slay them the next time you are out! Hahaha! Tight lines and Bends and Beasts baby!

BassingGal Barbara “The Stinger”