outdoors

A month or so ago I received a email from friend with a link to an article titled, "Dispelling Snell Knot Theory?", by Hale White with www.FishStrong.com.

I quickly opened the link to see what kind of foolishness this was as I've learned from the best of the best touring pros that this knot is far better than any traditional knot that ties directly to the eye. To catch up any readers that aren't familiar with the snell knot that me get you caught up.


The snell knot is a knot that goes through the eye of a straight shank hook and then wraps and fastens around the actual shank of the hook. There is numerous reasons why anglers would choose to employ this particular knot but its greatest use would be for heavy flipping and punching. The selling points for this knot is unless you use straight shank hooks that have wielded eyes your guaranteed to loose a fish or two because the knot will eventually find its way through the seam. However the main attraction to this knot is its ability to kick the hook out when using a heavy pegged sinker.

After hearing all the buzz from pros and seeing the "kick out" myself I instantly made the switch. The snell was a bit difficult to learn to tie but like with anything practice made perfect. Soon I was teaching all my buddies how to tie the knot.

I'd say my hook up ratio did get a bit better while flipping all the milfoil that we have scattered across our Minnesota lakes, though I can honestly say that it was my worst hook up ratio out of any other form of bass fishing.

I didn't really give it anymore thought until I read Mr. White's article. I just assumed that it was a true combat style of fishing and that lost fish was part of the norm. I'm not going to get into to much detail as to why his article stuck into my brain so much as I'd prefer you visit his website and read the article for yourself, snell knot theory.

What I will tell you is what I read got my wheels spinning, which is exactly what the author wanted. Every theory made sense and in fact showed far more support for why the snell doesn't work than any so called proven facts of why it does.

This past month I ran a series of tests myself. I stopped using the snell knot and instead just tied a good ole' palomar knot directly to the eye of the Lazer Trokar Flippin' Hook (TK130), the baddest straight shank on the market. I was honestly surprised by what I found, I fish 5 days a week and my hook up ratio went up from 50% to an easy 95%. I've been using the same hook and same setup for over two years now, the only difference is the knot. Why would I take away from the advantages of the Trokar Flippin' Hook? Instead, I now will let the hook do its job, what it was made to do, kick bass ass!


As I said, I did notice a slight better hook up ratio once I started employing the snell, though in hindsight it was the switch to the straight shank hook that helped not the knot. The snell was actually working against me.

With this I leave you the same as Mr. White left me. I hope to not convince you but instead make you think, try for yourself and see what works better for you. For me it's a no brainer, the snell knot is a not!

Our recent weather forecast has made it more than obvious that summer is surely upon us. Temperatures spiking to over a 100 degrees is becoming the norm, making most of our local lakes temperatures soar up to the mid 80’s.

As a general rule of thumb, I start to look toward deeper water haunts to find stacked schools of largemouth bass, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t plenty still in the shallows and finding these shallow fish can be easier than one would think because they set up in pretty obvious places.

Think like a bass for a second, it’s a 100 degree, scorching hot summer day with not a cloud in the sky. You find yourself standing in the middle of a large field. There’s nothing out there except a small clump of trees and an old picnic table. Where are you going to spend your day, in the middle of the sweltering heat or would you take shelter amongst the trees or under the picnic table? You would most likely seek out the shade and a bass is no different. As long as there is food and an ample place to call home bass will be present. You just need to think like them.

Looking for these shallow bass I’d first find a larger flat, your flat is the dinner table and provides an abundance of all kinds of aquatic life, most importantly forage. This time of year I’m always going to search out cover such as laydowns, mats of vegetation, boat docks, lily pads or anything that will provide protection against the sun yet still provide ample ambush opportunities.

Fishing this type of cover requires the right setup and is definitely not for the faint of heart. I ALWAYS try to go with the heaviest setup I feel I can get away with. Generally I’m going to employ a flip, pitch or skipping presentation. Most of the time I use a 7ft. heavy action baitcasting setup with 17 to 25 lb. Seaguar Abrazx Fluorocarbon or 50 to 65 lb. Seaguar Kanzen Braid.


Lure selection is very important here, generally and I do mean generally, I shy away from typical reaction style baits and tend to favor crayfish style baits such as the Biovex Vex Jig, tubes or other various soft plastics. Anytime I’m using soft plastics I use a traditional texas rig setup that includes various Lazer Trokar Hooks, a Lazer Tungsten Weight and I always peg the weight using a Eagle Claw Bobber Stop. The bobber stop is ideal for preventing the weight from sliding up and down on your line yet doesn’t compromise your line like toothpicks can.

Some of my favorite soft plastics for shallow cover would be any beaver style bait, tubes and senko style baits. Wisconsin’s own Pro Tour Baits, makes some of the best plastics available. The Craw Tube and Flippin’ Tube get the general nod and both of these baits get paired with the Lazer Trokar 4/0 Tube Hook. The size weight I use depends of several variables like, water depth, wind and vegetation but I tend to go as light as I feel I can get away with. Most of the time I opt for the ¼ oz. Lazer Tungsten weight and if the wind is really kicking than I may bump up to a 3/8 or even a ½ on some occasion.

When I approach the cover I quickly survey a few things before making a pitch, I look for the shaded areas and also make a quick scan of where the sweet spot is. A sweet spot could be where there is a tire under a dock in the shade or where there is a small batch of lily pads in the heart of a laydown tree. Anytime your fishing shallow cover it’s imperative that you are as quiet as possible, which means your bait should enter the water as finesse-like as possible.

I always use a baitcasting setup up for this but depending on how gnarly the cover is this could be a very advanced technique that would require much patience and practice to enjoy. The reason I went through all the frustrations of learning this cast was because you simply can’t provide the stout backbone in traditional spinning gear and once you’ve got it down a casting setup is more accurate than a spinning one.

If you opt for a spinning setup as I did when I first starting banging boat docks it’s essential that you use braided line, on a medium heavy 6’6” spinning rod and I’d be hard pressed to use any less than 30lb. Seaguar Kanzen Braid. Probably the number one bait for this would be a weightless 5” Pro Tour Baits Trick Sticks and a 4/0 Lazer Trokar MagWorm Hook. This presentation is slick and skips across the water like a dream, yet the braid and the medium heavy action rod should be enough to get a big bass out of the cover.

A jig is another lure that works very well in this type of cover and just this past weekend I got to put the Biovex Vex Jig to work and was very surprised by what I found. The smaller profile and the unique shape of the head make this jig skip like nothing I ever seen. I could put this bait so far back under boat docks and from some 30 feet away! The smaller profile and shape of the line tie make this come through the nastiest of the cover virtually snag free, a quality very hard to find in other baits.


Back to the reaction factor, I generally shy away from reaction style baits for several reasons, the main one cause they’re usually not as snag free and they tend to not be as efficient at pitching and skipping way up underneath the cover. The other reason is that I’m a firm believer that when you pitch a tube or jig into this type of cover that you’re actually getting a reaction strike anyway. These fish aren’t used to something coming flying into their home and pounce on it. With that said, there’s always an exception to the rule. There are times that I may fling a square billed crankbait, a swim jig or even a swimbait. This past weekend when I ran out of jigs I started skipping around a ½ oz. Biovex Kolt Ridge Tail Swimbait. I was very pleased just how effective the bait was at skipping. I’d skip it way up underneath pontoons and docks and slowly swim it out and as soon as the bait was about to swim completely free of the cover it would get absolutely smashed! I definitely found a new way to cover water and find productive areas before tournament time.

Here’s a recent video I shot from northern Minnesota where the bass where very abundant under the boat docks yet the rest of the fisherman where having extreme difficulties locating bass in the deeper water. I found that the bass were very eager to jump on my bait as soon as I put it in front of their face!
 

For more, please check out my website at www.JoshDouglasFishing.com or feel free to email me direct at Josh@JoshDouglasFishing.com.

Being an avid tournament bass fisherman, the competition that I face on a day to day basis is overwhelming. I'm always looking for that new product whether it be tackle, line, electronics, whatever can promise me that edge over my competition.

Over the years I've seen things introduced to the fishing world that promises success and guarantees the buyer that they'll catch more and bigger fish. Whether the product does just that is up to the fisherman, we definitely don't all fish the same and our styles leave the door wide open for something to be coveted by one angler yet waste away in another ones garage.

When I was first getting into the competitive side of bass fishing I admit I was one who would look for that bait or that product that would cash me paychecks. Most of the time I just ended up a little more broke in the checkbook and carrying a lot more junk in the boat. See the product itself was probably great but my skill at using it wasn't. I recall a time that I went out and bought a fiberglass rod because I heared KVD preaching the benefits of using these rods when throwing crankbaits. I remember hitting the lake with it and wouldn't you know I didn't catch anything. Insulted, I shoved the rod back into my rod locker and I swear it sat there for a better part of six months.

Gimmick? Well had you asked me that then I would have said yes, without a doubt. Ask me that now and the answer would be not at all. See the truth to the matter is I wasn't seasoned on the technique of deep water crankin' and just because I buy that specific style of rod doesn't give me all the inner tools needed to master the technique. Though now that I've spent countless hours practicing the technique of deep crankin', I can wholeheartedly see the benefits as to what KVD was talking about.

There's a million examples one could come up with very similar to the one I just shared. Though from time to time a company will introduce a product that will set a new standard. A product so useful that it rewrites the way fishermen fish. You can't fine tune a presentation if you can't find the fish and the products put out by Navionics are meant to do just that.

Out of everything I own fishing related, what couldn't I live without? That's a really tough question to answer and one that was emailed to me by a fisherman looking for some solid advice. My first answer would have to be my boat, I can't compete or even fish without it. Second would have to be my electronics. Without these I wouldn't know where to fish. That's when I got to thinking, my electronics are very important but without my Navionics data cards showing me what is under the waters surface I wouldn't know where to begin. Even the new addition of Side Imaging is known as a game changer but it wouldn't be nearly as useful if I didn't know what structure was underneath me. To be able to just show up and fish a body of water and have all the lake information at the tip of my finger is essential to my and every other anglers success. My Navionics chip is what breathes life into my electronics!

Now Navionics has stepped up there game once again and introduced a new App for both Android and iPhone. This state of the art and already award winning product can now be at anybodies fingertips even if you don't own a boat. For around ten dollars anyone who owns one of these phones can download Navionics and see exactly what I can see from the deck of my Ranger. Not only can they see but they can follow along with the GPS as well as save waypoints. Talk about a truly good deal, for a ten spot you can turn your phone into a hand held unit? Now were talking about a good deal!

Another key introduction to the Navionics App is the User Generated Content, better known as UGC. This function empowers Navionics customers to modify navigational aids or points of interest on their charts and instantly share it with an entire community of users! Simply input your UGC via your Smart Phone App or PC App and you will join others in creating the best and freshest localized charts available.

No matter your skill level, Navionics offers a product that will benefit you the instant you hit the water. Like any other sport, practice develops your skills. To catch fish you need to be able to think like one, invest in Navionics and take the guess work out of your time on the water. From the crankbait rod to the crankbait itself, it's all useless if I don't know the structure that I'm throwing it to. That's were Navionics gives me my edge!

For more information please contact me via email at Josh@JoshDouglasFishing.com or contact Navionics directly at www.Navionics.com.

Addiction - the fact or condition of being addicted to a particular thing, activity or substance.

Relapse - a deterioration of one's state after a temporary improvement; to return to a worse state.


It's been a whole four months now since the day it came crashing into my life and filled me with such a rush, something that I had never before experienced and one that I truly had a taste for. That first cast, what a feeling. It was like I was doing something wrong but everything felt so right. The sound of the bait smashing the water and creating the most enticing ripple, exactly the same sound as feeding bass when their boiling up on bait. The slow and painful yet methodical retrieve of the six inch morsel as it just barely quivers through the water column, looking and acting as natural as can be duplicated without the very hand of God. Slowly pulling the bait through the thickest of vegetation clumps and just as the bait slides through that last clump of foil it gets hit like a freight train, knocking slack into your line just as forceful as one can only imagine.


As you reel down to try to catch up with the chaos that has occurred under the water you set back to penetrate the hook and every muscle in your body restricts as your impeding on nature's most severe course. The feelings that start flowing in your brain are a blur as your body starts releasing endorphins leaving you in a sedated state of mind. These heightened emotions quickly become frantic fear as you see the mouth of a fat five pound largemouth break the surface with nothing but a single hook of the Weedless Huddleston Swimbait lodged in her mouth. Sure you've fought thousands of bass before but none like this, the amount of energy a five pound slonch puts into destroying a six inch swimbait is nothing like anything you've experienced before. The brute strength of such an impact is as addicting as it gets.

Finally, as you reach down to lift that fish into the boat, all that emotion comes to a head. What a feeling! Insane to say the least. As you reach your hand all the way into that fishes mouth to pop free your Hudd, you can't help to let out a scream! You dive to hug your fishing partner like you just caught the game winning pass in the Super Bowl. As you lift nature's trophy into the air for the picture, your smile shows the evidence of a truly affected soul.


And then it starts. As you lean over the boat to release the fish you feel more like your releasing the moment. As that brute swims back into the darkness your left with that unsatisfied feeling, the urge to want more.

Like I was saying, it's been four months since the weekend I spent being introduced to the real advantages of throwing large swimbaits. That weekend I learned a lot. There is truly a time and place for those baits and there's not a body of water in the country that they will not be effective on in the right conditions.

Since then I'll have to admit that it left me in a different state. I refer to swimbait fishing in my experience as one does to an addiction. To some I may be throwing that word around a bit loosely but really I'm pretty spot on.

Ever since that weekend I've wanted nothing more than to relive that but never found the opportunity to do so, or at least never had the kahunas to actually trust in it when the money is on the line. When my same buddies asked me to come up over deer hunting opener and cash in on that late fall bite, I was all in!


My good buddy Eric made the trip with me as he was wanting a taste of the dark side himself. As we dumped in on Saturday morning we were met with a stiff cold wind and temps in the mid 30's. The water temp was floating around a chilly 42 degrees and all the trees in the area were vacant of their leaves. You could see the blaze orange spots in the woods where deer hunters were sitting in their stands.

I couldn't have made more than a few casts when I felt that unmistakable rush, that very same feeling that I yearn for. As I flipped that giant into the boat Eric's eyes light up like a christmas tree as he tripped over the seats desperately trying to get to the swimbait I had given him to tie on.

Just like that it was back, I'm telling you one fisherman to another, there's no better way to catch them. The thrill itself is so rewarding that I bet a guy can easily remember every swimbait fish he catches. Heck, I can't get rid of the vision when a big one loads up on the bait and gets off. Talk about being punched right in the gut. It's utterly painful to endure. The "what if's" that flow through your mind.

After missing a few bites, my buddy Eric fashioned a stinger hook that was really quite impressive and one that I'll use 100% of the time I'm throwing these particular baits. In fact, the little invention quickly rewarded him with his first swimbait fish, a bass barely shy of six pounds caught by the stinger! The Hudd strikes again! Let me ask you, do you think he dropped that bait again? Another statistic to swimbait fishing.


For those of you that think swimbaits are just for California and wouldn't work on your tournament pressured lake, your wrong. It's weekends like these that prove this theory, I never got bit on any other bait the entire weekend. These baits attract big fish. Before winter freezes up your honey hole, get out and see what your missing. Come and play ball on this side, where the grass is always greener!

See you on the water!

For more please check out my website at www.JoshDouglasFishing.com

The past couple weeks between tournaments, I've been out putting in work doing guide trips and testing new sponsor products. One of my favorite things to do when out doing this is to practice and sharpen my skills. There's a few examples of this and I'm a firm believer that anything I can do to better myself and my fishing will eventually payoff when the money's on the line.

One is always to be looking for new water. This has got to be one, if not the best way to become a better fisherman. This is a skill that the best have and it shows by continued success at the scales. Bottom line is fish move and you need to be able to move with them. Sure we all have spots that seem to always produce no matter the time of year but that's very rare. Usually you need to be able to follow the fish as they transition through the seasons. Every time I'm on the water I attempt to find something new or learn something about what the fish are relating to. Even if the lake your on isn't a big tournament lake, it teaches you to always keep an open mind and how to fish different types of water.

This brings me to my next point. When I'm out on the water and I'm not practicing for a tournament, I try to use baits and styles of retrieve that I don't have much confidence in. Sometimes I'll use baits that I do have confidence in to find fish holding areas but then try to switch baits and see if I can trigger them to bite. This is what builds confidence in new tactics and makes me more of a well rounded angler.

The past week or so I've had the opportunity to do just that and let me tell you the end reward is far more satisfying then accomplishing the norm. Recently I had a guide trip, I had decided I would meet the client in the city he was staying and fish a lake that is right within minutes of his hotel room.

I had been to this lake before but very rarely ever this time of year and if I was we basically just threw frogs at all the abundant vegetation that makes up this lake. This is a solid pattern on this body of water but it is also the most obvious.

I had been getting bit on lakes in the area fishing deeper and thought that if I could find some nice deep structure I could provide some awesome fishing for my client. I was very happy when after about a whole 5 minutes of Humminbird Side Imaging work along with studying my Navionics Mapping Chip, I located a nice point that had some scattered hard bottom along with some patchy weeds. The target area itself sat in about 14 feet of water. On my first cast with a hand tied 1/2 oz. Picasso Football Jig I landed a chunky 5.6 pound largemouth bass. Awesome!

My client and I went about 4 for 4 each on consecutive casts after that both catching bass no smaller than 3 pounds. Already a good trip and we haven't been on the water for more than 15 minutes!


I continued this pattern around the lake and located 6 or 7 different spots that all had some of these similarities and also had the same end result. We boated giant after giant in what finished out as one of the best outings I had all year. No joke, we boated a 6 pounder, multiple 5 and 4 pounders and our fair share of 3's. In fact, I don't think we caught but 1 that went under 3 and all came on some of my favorite baits, a football jig and an Outkast Tackle jigworm. The kicker was we ended up spending about 2 hours frog fishing the slop without a single blow up. Huh? Things to think about.


Leaving I was obviously excited. I had provided an awesome experience for someone and also got to jack up on some toads. Even better I had challenged myself to find something new and the result was overly rewarding. Still though the competitor in me wanted more so 5 days later I was right back there with a buddy to do some sponsor photos with the many big bass that where available for the picking.

My confidence level was through the roof, I mean these fish were really making it easy on me. I was throwing baits that I have nothing but confidence on, in areas that gave me more confidence then I knew what to do with. We only had 4 hours to fish as my buddy had to be to the Minneapolis Airport by noon. 4 hours? No problem!

I took my buddy to the first spot and gave him the quick rundown, handed him a Picasso Football Jig and told him the technique. I thought I'd just sit back, tie up a couple rods that I was going to need for an upcoming tournament and get ready with the camera. After about 1o minutes with nothing I decided it was time to get up and show him how it's done. Nothing. Not a bite. OK, OK hold up here. This is a fluke, I mean they were jumping in the boat days ago here, they gotta be at the next spot.

Well after about 2 hours without a bite, my confidence went way down and the new word to describe me would be embarrassed and humbled. Maybe now it's time to revert back to old faithful and get to the slop with ole' Kermie.

After about another hour of no bites, no hook sets and just a whole lot of talking, I figured we needed to get back out to the main lake, they had to be there now. We worked all these spots on the way back to the boat ramp and continued to throw the jigworm and football jigs and couldn't buy a bite. Now I was going from the outing of the year to the first skunk in the past 3 years! Unbelievable!!

On our very last stop, which was also our very first stop this morning, I was accepting defeat. I mean I couldn't get a bite on spots that where holding giant sacks just days ago and I was throwing baits that I had nothing but confidence throwing. As I was putting my rods and tackle away I saw my new bag of Biovex Deep Runner Crankbaits. This ate at me even worse because I was hoping to get to use these and catch a few nice bass with them so I could send some quality pictures back to Biovex.

Deep cranking is not a strong suit for me, in fact it's probably the worst technique in my repertoire. I just never had much success with it and really never tried to hard to make it work. Just always kind of had the impression that if they'll bite a deep crankbait, they'll definitely bite my jig, carolina rig or worse case a shakey head. Even though I knew this was a invalid and biased opinion some habits are just to hard to break.

With only 10 minutes left before we had to load up and bail out, I decided to tie one up and see how they run. They are a brand new bait released by Biovex and look absolutely amazing, I'm sure they run even better than they look. I took my first cast and had to make just a slight tweak to the line tie and had it running perfect. The bait got down quick and ran nice and tight without to much drag which results in less fatigue to the angler. It took me another cast or two to find the hard spot and about on my third cast I was grinding the plug into the bottom right through the strike zone. Just as I was thinking how cool it would be to one day find this crankin' bite and 'WHAM", my rod loads up on a giant 5+ pound largemouth. That was insane and extremely addicting! I was grinding the Deep Runner over the rocks and the fish just inhaled the bait.


After a couple pictures I released the fish and was immediately overwhelmed with happiness because that was probably the first true deep crank lunker bass I've ever caught. I thought I may have activated the school and maybe now I could catch another one and we both started throwing our football jigs and Carolina Rigs, and yet again, nothing. Just then I started thinking it must have been just one solo fish that happened to show up right as my plug came ripping through. Curious I picked up the crankbait and chucked it back across the point and wouldn't you know it, as soon as it hit the bottom I was instantly whacked and again boated another lunker going an easy 4 pounds. On my next 5 casts with the Biovex Deep Runner I went 4 for 5, all going over 3 pounds. Now if that's not an eye opener I don't know what is!


Unfortunately for the both of us we had to get off the water but again similar to 5 days ago when I was leaving this lake I had a smile on my face. Sure we struggled hard, really hard for 95% of our outing, but the last 5% will never be forgotten. One, I now have a ton of confidence in a bait that before just got tucked into the bottom of my boat and two, found that it can be a better option than good old faithful. Those fish didn't just show up that last 10 mnutes, they were there the whole time and just had no interest in what I had to offer. They were on a reaction bite and wasn't fooled by the old ball and chain or by dragging a big jig. Again, even though I knew this to be true, I mean there's a reason crankers like Kevin VanDam have made millions on top of millions throwing this bait, sometimes the only way to truly buy into it is to actually accomplish it. Good for me, once again I had reason to have a smile on my face! There is no such thing as perfect, but hard nosed preparation will get you the closest thing to it.

Up next I'm outta town practicing for the last stop of the Silverado Pro Tour held on the Horseshoe Chain of Lakes near St. Cloud, MN. You think I'll have a Biovex Deep Runner tied on?

Today I got the honor of representing myself, Tru Tungsten and the rest of my sponsors by helping out at the Cabela's Kids Fishing Event. At first I didn't really know what to expect from this and actually had a little bit of anxiety toward it. This definitely struck me as odd because I've done numerous fishing events and have never had a problem, in fact I'm actually pretty good at them. My years of experience in the hospitality industry as well as my true love for fishing makes gabbing about it quite easy, though the idea of entertaining children was actually a little intimidating. Not all these kids get the opportunity to get out and fish and I really wanted to be sure they had an awesome time. They are the next generation of our sport and enthusiasm starts now.


The Cabela's, located in Owatonna, MN, has two private ponds that are stocked with both bluegills and largemouth bass. Cabela's provided all the rods, reels, tackle and bait as well as a free lunch for all the children and family. My job was to walk around the ponds and help out in any way I could, mostly by taking fish off, retying rigs, untangling lines and of course putting nightcrawlers on hooks.


I couldn't believe how many kids showed for this opportunity and better yet just how many fish were caught. I'm talking more slab sunnies than I could imagine and one little girl even caught close to a 3 pound largemouth bass, her first to say the least.

I stayed more than busy and really truly enjoyed myself. There is nothing better than watching kids become hooked on fishing right in front of my eyes. So much of my fishing career is selfish and all about me and how I can be better. It is far more rewarding watching kids fall in love with fishing than to cash a check at a big tournament. It reminded me of when I was a kid and how much I purely loved fishing before the money, sponsors and reputation got involved. To be honest it was humbling and I am very blessed I got the opportunity to be involved. Hats off to Cabela's for providing this free event, here's a company that truly cares and stops at nothing to give back to the outdoors.


Next year when this event comes around again, I'll be sure to do a better job of notifying my followers on my site, via Star Tribune's Outdoor Page and both Facebook and Twitter.