Upon arriving in Prairie Du Chien, WI for a very nice, long relaxing weekend on the Mississippi River I had three goals in mind:

  • RELAX and have FUN
  • Catch some bass
  • Practice techniques that I needed to improve on

Well needless to say when I'm on the river catching bass and soaking in the sun, I was able to accomplish the the first two goals very easy with in minutes of my arrival! Now on to the last goal of improving on some key bass catching techniques.

The first technique that I wanted to work on was fishing a Shakey Head. This technique has become a staple in many angler's tackle boxes and I've not had as much time as I would like to work on fishing this simple, but effective lure. One morning I pulled up on a rock point and knew there was a pile of fish there, so instead of going to my staple lures I grabbed my 7' 2" Wright & McGill Tessera Series spinning rod rigged with a 3/16 oz. Picasso Shakedown jig. I used various sizes and colors of finesse worms on my jig and quickly became very comfortable letting my jig sink down to 5 to 8 feet of water and just barely moving the jig. By practicing my Shakey Head fishing I was able to put 30 bass in the boat in a short amount of time!

Fishing a Fluke style bait has always been one of my downfall's as an angler. Friends of mine always tell me how they whacked em on a Fluke, well my history with them has been less than stellar. So once I located the feeding bass on main river points, I tied up a Tru-Tungsten Depth Shad in white and rigged it on a 5/0 TROKAR extra wide gap hook. I had several hits right away on the shad imitating bait and missed them. Just as I was ready to put down this rod, I hooked up with these largemouth. It was important for me to watch my Seaguar Inviz X as the bait slowly fell because I would just see my line jump, count to two and then set the hook!

Walking the Dog is a very popular retrieve for angler's to use when fishing topwater baits such as Zara Spook's, Sammy's and my favorite a Yo-Zuri Sashimi Pencil. I've had some luck fishing these baits in the past, but I still I wanted to increase my confidence in them. With the extremely warm spring, the bass had already moved to certain summer locations and were feeding on shad, so this was a perfect time to throw out my topwater. Within a few casts I was able to hook up with this very nice 3 lb. smallie! To aid me in my ability to walk the dog and to get the bass to the boat I finally got to use my 6' 8" Wright & McGill Tessera Series Topwater rod.

Now that the bass season is open here in Minnesota I urge you to get out on your favorite body of water, select a few lures or techniques that you want to improve on and work on them. This will help make you a better angler and grow your confidence in not just the lures or technique you are working on, but also the confidence you have in yourself as an angler overall.

My first tournament on the Minnesota lakes is next Sunday when I head north to the Horseshoe Chain for the first Big Bass Bonanza event. I'll have a detailed report on my tournament day next week.

Good Fishin and to see more information on my tournaments, check out www.fishglenn.com