With a weekend off from any tournaments or pre fishing, it felt great to just hit the lakes and go catch some bass! These open weekends as I call them are a great way to relax and hit various different lakes and practice several different fish catching techniques.

Right now I've been able to fish both deep and shallow for bass and the quality has been tremendous in both areas, so it has been nice to continue my development as an off shore angler, while at the same time get reacquainted with my shallow water game, before I head down to the Mississippi River next week for three straight tournaments.

Looking for a weed/rock mixture in deep water has been producing very well for me and has yielded me my two biggest bass of the year. These two bass hit a deep diving Biovex crankbait and weighed in at 5.12 and 4.86 lb's and came on back-to-back casts! These crankbaits are plain awesome, their action, colors and noise are making it one of my favorite crankbaits, they'll soon be available in the US!

It is very important to rely the combination of your electronics, marker buoy and landmarks on shore to make sure your casts are hitting that sweet spot on each and every cast, because a few inches to either side and you won't get bit.

I've been eagerly wanting to go fish for bass shallow, since I've gotten my Minn Kota Talon and this weekend was the perfect chance to go throw frogs, swim jigs and flip plastics around docks and shallow vegetation. The Talon allowed me to effectively fish for these shallow fish once I found them grouped up, because I could deploy it and not have to worry about the wind blowing me into or away from my spot.

Covering a lot of water was required to find the bass grouped up in the shallow cover, but once I found them I was able to hook up with several quality bass. The keys that made certain areas better than others, was a little deeper water and the water had to be a little bit cleaner than the rest of the lake. Fishing around this dense vegetation allowed me to try out the new braided line from Seaguar, the Kanzen is incredible! It casted extremely smooth and held up to some nasty, very abrasive fish holding cover!

To help me stay cool and avoid a nasty sunburn, I relied on two things: suntan lotion and my long sleeve jersey from Rayjus. Many anglers avoid sunscreen because they do not want to get that smell on their hands because it will get on your lure and scare the fish away. I agree that the smell of suntan lotion on your lure isn't good, which is why I found and have been using the Dead Down Wind Odorless Hand Sanitizer. This allows me to lather up throughout the day to protect my skin and then clean my hands of that unwanted smell. The Hand Sanitizer also comes in handy after filling up your boat or truck with gas. What makes my long sleeve jersey from Rayjus so helpful during this heat is that it cover my whole upper body, but yet it breaths so I don't get over heated.

Be sure to also pack a lot and I do mean a lot of cold water to help keep you hydrated and cool! As the temperatures continue to stay warm, the bass bite continues to be hot as well!