Tide Means Everything

You can put a price on all the tackle you buy to use on the Nanticoke river. You can price the boat you use and the license you are supposed to have. But you just can't put a price on fishing the right tide. Just last weekend I had a youth tournament there with my son. We started off just after dead low so I realized I would be fishing the incoming water all day long. Or at least until the end of the tournament. I figured an incoming tide left nothing to chance so I decided to keep the run time down to a minimum by staying within a half mile or so of the ramp. We spent a good amount of time fishing Walker's creek and picked up one for the bucket. My son caught a short fish on a drop shot rig right where I thought they would be. But nothing else. Why is that? I knew what the water was doing, the weather was predictable (stable) and you could almost guarantee that plenty of bass were located in the area. It seems like they are always plentiful in Walker's.

Regardless, there wasn't much time to boat 4 more as the water was getting higher and higher every minute. The DuPont feeder creek finally filled in to the point you could actually get in there. I told Andrew "This is where it can happen for us really quick, so stay on your feet and just keep on casting". I was wrong of course as we left without so much as a bite. In the end, he was happy to just catch that one short fish. As it turned out, nobody did exceedingly well that day with the winner bringing in 4 fish for around 5 pounds.

Add it all up and this is what you get on a crappy ass tide. The water gets high and the fish spread out up into places you can't cast to, as well as the fact that I think it turns off the bite too. These fish here live a strange life that is so dictated by the tide that thier catchability changes from night to day in the few hours it takes for the tide to change. That's why you can't put a price on when the tide is right.

Potomac Indian Giver

I know, I know. It's been many moon since you have seen an updated article and you have been tired of logging in only to find the last age old writ popping up on the page. Truth is, I have had way too much going on at work and fishing every chance I get so far this season to be worrying about blinging up this blog. But some interesting things transpired over the weekend that I want to share. But first I'll fill in the huge gap spanning since my last post.

First I'll admit that I DID in fact fish the DBFN Open at the Wicomico river. Little results were brought to the scales and only one limit showed its self. Everyone else either zeroed or had one fish in supply.

The day started out with my good friend and Bass Fury pro staff member Josh Wich picking me up at my flat at about 5am. We headed south to Salisbury, MD with good hopes rolling off our tongues left and right while his truck dragged the boat steadily down U.S. 13. Josh explained his plan in sound execution as I ate up every word. After all, just last year I saw him clean up there in a club tourney with 5 for 11.36 pounds. My thoughts were, since he knew where some good fish were, the both of us working toward the same goal could really do some serious dammage to the scales. Turned out that this was not the case. We both threw everything we had in the area he had pulled a great bag from before, only to come up with a would be limit of short fish. Then we made a run to some muddy water that did'nt make any sense to fish so we turned around and headed back. By then, the tide had gone out far enough to fit under the draw bridge in town that we could then pass under, to fish the upper stretch of the river. The entire length of the area is walled on both sides with a wooden retaining barrier with pilings placed out away from the walls every 30 feet or so. At the end of the bridge piling retainers was another piling wall with some water tucked in behind it. I just dropped my Stike King Red Eye Shad vertically down beside the piling, and out from the depths came Mr. Largemouth. That was number one. Try as we did, niether of us could hook up on another single fish. At the end of the day only one team had a limit and most everyone else had 1 or none.

The good Ol' Potomac. I jsut love this place. Miles and miles of productive water born from sound management. Our 2 day club tournament here was very important for me to do well in. This time fishing against Josh lent me the opportunity to build up some major points in the angler of the year rankings. The weight is out there, you just have to catch it.

I played my cards very carefully in preparing for this tournament. Thinking that good fish would be south I braved very high winds to fish Nanjemoy Creek a week prior and only came to the conclution that I should eliminate that location as a rpime suspect. I practiced agian the day before game time around Mallows Bay. Great place for fish to congregate due to the large wrecks lined up like a parking lot in there. Being careful of your fiberglass is rule 1 naving this area because IT IS NASTY with a capitol N. I turned up some decent action there so I figured it would be a good start. From launch, I made a B line for that bone yard and immediately began tossing the buzzbait targeting little sparse pockets of grass among thick pockets. It wasn't working. I switched to my wooly bug rigged for flipp'n and started punching the thicker areas of grass and nailed a undersize fish while reeling back in. This is where I caught on to the pattern I would use for the rest of the tournament. I put down the flipp'n rod and started trying my YUM Money Minnow swim bait in the less dense grass. I would roll it over the tops and let it drop down into the bare spots. Boom! Got one! Shorty again. This was recognizable of the day prior. It was few and far between for keepers so I decided to move on. I swung back in to Mattawoman to an old friend of mine; Grinder's Wharf. I began with the same pattern as I was using at Mallows and before long I had a good keeper. After that, it seemed to shut off. I moved out and decided to make a run up river to clearer water to one of my 'secret' spots. The tide was moving out which makes this are on fire. Any other time it's not that great. I just could not get bit here on the swim bait though. I opted for somthing a little more stationary so I pulled out the shakey head. I figured, if I'm going to pull a 4.5 or 5 pounder out today, this is where it will be. Everyone knows I like giant sized worms so I put on the 9 inch YUM Paddle Worm in black and blue; swung it under a dock. Instantly got bit... short fish. Tried again... nicer fish this time but still short. The next one might have been a keeper, but got off before I could bring him aboard. Well, I said to myself I think I should move on. I wasn't getting bit anymore and the sun started getting high in the sky. It seemed like I was getting some more agressive action in the clearer water so I decided to move up to Pomonkey Creek. I switched back to the swim bait and just started plastering the place. Before I knew it I had 2 more keepers in the boat and that's how day one ended for me. 3 fish for a little under 6 pounds. I really thought I was such an under cut at this point that I prepared myself to be in 5th or 6th to avoid disappointment. At the scales though, things turned out differently. I was leading after day one!

Okay so this could still be in my hands. I just have to come in with a limit on day 2 for sure. I knew there was no way that Josh of all the characters in my club, were going to come up shy on the second day of our tournament. I cycled over all the information I had gotten from day 1 and came to the conclution that Piscataway Creek was the place to go. Long run but I'll hack it. I spent most of the first half of the day in Piscatataway with no fish that would measure to show for it. I had this voice in my head saying 'Your'e in real trouble now Bob'. I needed to make a move. I knew of a GIGANTIC grass bed in the mouth of Little Hunting Creek that was really popular. I figured it's the only chance I've got. I stayed right on the edge where the grass stops growing and worked the swim bait. I keep getting hit but they keep coming off. Good fish too! I'm sooo frustrated at this point with the fish, not to mention the wind keeps blowing me off target. Short strikes is all kept getting. I happend to look back behind me and what do I see? There's Josh fishing the next bed out from my location. I though, no matter. At the end of the day, that would not be the case. He ended up with 5 fish weighing in around 14 pounds. All from the spot right behind me. Some guys just get lucky I guess.

Pleasant Surprise

The groundhog told us another 6 weeks of winter. After all that snow, this looked to be true. But here we are in early March and spring has sprung. The past week has been in the 50's and 60's with nights falling to around the mid 30's. Though that is cold, I see a trend working to the angler's favor here. That trend would be the warming type. Naysayers have told me that we'll dip back into the low 40's during the day later in the month, but I'm not buying it. This is an El Nino year and the same thing that gave us hell in the winter, will give us some bad ass fishing weather this spring and summer.

Was up at Bass Pro in Baltimore this past weekend with my dad. I could not help myself from purchasing some YUM money minnows. This off season I have been reading a lot of info on using swimbaits. Ya know; the when, where and how stuff. I have seen pretty good fish come on swimbaits and I would like to duplicate that this spring, before the spawn starts and I have to start throwing right at their faces.

I upgraded my jig arsenal by grabbing up a load of Explosive Tackle jigs in various natural and quasi natural colors. I love their Brown Shaka Brown color. It has an almost bronze glint to it that I think will make it contrast just enough with similar surrounding objects to collect a lot of attention. I had some other custom colors made that I'll be keeping secret until season's end. You can't expect me to divulge such information before I even have a chance to pound the scales with it, can you?

As I mentioned in another article about power vs. finesse fishing, I noted my lack of ability to perform the latter and how planned to remedy the shortfall. Enter Powell Rods. This west coast rod maker has already established it's self as a bass fishing mainstay in California and is peeking it's way into the Delmarva Peninsula angling public and could easily become a go-to brand all over the east coast, and for good reason. I have a sweet tooth for G Loomis rods. Understandable right? They are light and ultra ultra sensitive. They react nicely to the handler's direction so you can be precise with putting action on your lure and they are usually in the $250.00 range. Hold on, you just said $250.00! That is where G Loomis pales in comparison to Powell. The biggest number you will ever see on the price tag of a Powell rod... $170.00. And yes folks that also comes with all the cool accolades of the king Loomis. But if you like giving your money away for the sake of just a name, be my guest. But when I can feel that same hair drift past my line that you did, but at half the cost; don't whine like a biatch.

The New Power: Powesse

I used to always [like] to think of myself as a versatile angler who takes advantage of all the pros in all styles of fishing. It was not until this last season I realized I wasn't really taking advantage of anything most of the time. I guess I need to detail this a little to understand what I mean.

If you look at a bass angler that builds his/her style around "power", they are covering a lot of water in a relatively short period of time. Like KVD does with a spinnerbait. If you fish in a "finesse" inspired strategy, you are giving much more subtle presentations of your lure, much more accurate casts and usually spending a much higher amount of time between casts, thus covering less water but focusing tighter on one specific area. Most anglers I know will say that these are the two different personalities you will see in bass fishing. Both have their place in varying conditions. Some pros have become masters of both which has made them very dangerous weapons on tournament days. But what if you could harness the power of both and employ them simultaneously?

Power and finesse. Two styles on totally different sides of the fishing spectrum. That is until you fold the fabric of space and time and combine the two. Just use a finesse type lure and fish it faster right? Nope. Not what I had in mind. One of the things I have noticed when fishing with others in my circle is how much they miss and pass by when full out power fishing. It never fails. They are racing the tide trying to pluck as many bass as they can on a short time span of a low tide and they miss or just pass up a prime little nook because they are in a rush. How hard would it be to drop the crankbait and pick up the drop shot rig for one cast to that bush hanging in the water? Or of more concern, how much time would that take? I assure you the possibility of a keeper is well worth the 2 minutes. In my opinion anyway. I mean, so a crankbait didn't get you hooked up on that rock pile but if you run a tube through there it might make something move! You never know.

Sometimes there is such thing as being too focused and I think that this is the reason spots inside spots get left alone. Now let me be honest here; anytime i find those [spots inside spots] they are usually sub legal fish, but I do find them. So if I have only learned one lesson in meditation this off season, it's that a major key is to absorb all surroundings, be attentive to EVERYTHING and if you can't get the lure you are fishing into that cubby hole, you surely have another bait that will get in there. And I call that... Powesse fishing.

Water: It's Not Just For Fish

When water falls from the skies and stays on land, that means it's snowing. Otherwise it is rain and readily seeps into the ground or flows into available bodies of water. So what happens when you get about 5 inches of frozen rain? Answer, 2 or 3 feet of snow. Which as I mentioned before, does not go anywhere until it melts. Thus the situation here in Delaware and the surrounding area. Over the last week and a half we have accumulated the equivalent average of 36 inches of snow. All of you from around here know that this is NOT normal. The snowiest winter in recorded history for this area has occurred and of course in the following paragraphs of this article I will speculate how this could/can affect fishing this year.

Temperatures will not stay below 32 degrees all summer long. I can promise you that. Not even through spring. If you just thought of the word "melt", you know what I am getting at. All that snow will be melting at some point. How quickly is the important question. Worst case scenario: We get hit with yet another heavy to moderate snow before the temps start to rise for spring. This area is famous for rapidly changing seasons and temperature patterns. So following our frozen tundra like environment we get warm, heavy spring rains which rapidly melt the 36 inches of snow which blanketed the entire Delmarva peninsula and beyond. You would see flooding in ways one does not ever want to think about. This type of flood would devastate our Nanticoke fishery here in DE and in MD. Homes would be taken and bridges would be destroyed. All the stars would really have to align, but when you think about it; haven't they already?

Now the scenario I would prefer, though it would still slow down fishing, is none the less the least destructive. If the temperatures warm and cool for a period long enough to melt the snow gradually, we would see water temps staying cold for a much longer into the spring. This could put an arrest on spawning untill much later in the season than a more typical occurring spawn. I would also expect to see post spawn patterns be a little off as well. And when I say "off" that could go either way if you think about it. The fish are on a timer. They only have the length of the growing season to spawn, feed and grow fat to prepare for the cold winter. So in theory, if the fish know they are a little behind schedule because the water was a little late to warm up, they know that. It could cause a big blow up of activity after they finally do get to spit the eggs out. But Bob, the fish wouldn't know the difference if the water stays in winter mode for longer into spring right? No. That is incorrect. Anyone with seasonal depression knows that this syndrome runs on the great clock in the sky. The sun. So as the days get longer but the water temps stay cold enough from snow melt to put stop to spawning, believe me SON! The fish know it!

Let's all just hope and pray that the temporarily impassable roads are the worst we get from all this snow fall. I would really hate to see this come around to bite us in the rear later down the road with drastic consequence. This has happened in other parts of the country where it took years to rebuild top notch fisheries from terrible floods. Right now as the snow continues to mount, it's impossible to say how it will all go away but one sure bet is that it will. Let us just hope that when it does, it's in a calm manner.

Zillion Series Gets A Zillion Stars

Since I have been fishing, which has been since I was about five, I have used all different kinds of reels and other gear. Some good, some bad. Some durable, some fragile. Before I started bass fishing as my primary mode of fishing, I didn't like to buy really expensive gear. I was fishing, at the most, 2 to 3 times a month and you do not need high end rods and reels to catch big carp and catfish. I don't have to tell you die hards out there that good gear comes with a not so good price. When you dive into the realm of catching bass on a maximized, consistent basis, the better your gear, the better your results. I remember a strange affection for carp fishing I had in my teenage years. I went out and bought a pretty cheap ultra light combo with tiny 6 pound test line and started casting night crawlers and corn, out to the huge carp in the lake I lived on as a young man. What addicted me was what would transpire after hooking up on a humongous fish. The fights would last so long and a lot of the time, the fish would just snap the line before I could ever get a chance give it the initial reel down. What never occurred to me then was that fishing for bass would be twice the vigor.

Now days I can't afford the line twist, payout, laggy drag systems of cheaper reels. When my money is on the line, I want the best to be in control of my line. In my search for the best [I could afford] I found the Daiwa Zillion series. These reels offer up the best all around performance for the money, in any reel I have ever seen. Just holding these reels, cranking the handle, spinning the spool, you can just feel the quality. The power in one turn is amazing which translates to better control of your fish, in a big fight. The drag reacts precisely and is adjustable the same using a star type knob behind the cranking handle. Another wonderful attribute is that they come in different speeds. The 4.3:1 Crazy Cranker is great for medium to deep diving crankbaits. The slow speed does not allow an over speed retrieve and gets the lure down to it's running depth faster. The 6.3:1 is a time honored classic, great for general application. And the 7.1:1 for burning buzzbaits and rolling spinnerbaits. Recently released for all you saltwater guys and gals is the Zillion Coastal. Basically, it's a 7.3:1, corrosion resistant, saltwater reel that is just perfect for all kinds of inshore species. It's a tiny bit heavier than the freshwater versions but the trade off is null in comparison. If you are in the market for good gear, these are the reels you should look at.

Why We Write

For some anglers, fishing is enough. Getting up and making it to the ramp just as the sun starts to rise and untying from the dock to try a new spot, is just enough to keep them reeling. But in my own mind, what's the bother if you don't tell about it? Well, maybe not everything but enough to brag... or in my case complain about falling short.

Some get after me about writing. I divulge to much about the proprietorship of "secret" spots or techniques. My simple opinion is, if it's not the day before a tournament then there is no conflict. If I am telling other competitors where I am going to fish the in the days prior to competition, that's just stupid. But if I talk about an area totally unrelated to an event or after the event is over, no damage done. Guys can be stingy that way. They don't share any information, anytime. My stance is that if I throw a bone once in a while, I'll get one back when I really need it. I notice a lot of anglers make the mistake of thinking they can just do it all on their own. Nothing I have ever accomplished has been done solely off of a hunch. All done by educated decisions made from things I have learned from other people in some form or another. For those who keep tight lips sealed, my secrets will stay just that... a secret (from you).

I also write because it helps me remember things I have done. Things that worked, and all the stuff that didn't work. All of it is so very important to keep for later reference. If you are fishing to do what I am trying to do, then you are fishing enough to forget plenty of what you have done wrong in the past, to make the same mistake twice; or pass up a great opportunity to use a killer technique you stumbled upon. Don't forget about bragging rights too. I can tell you from personal experience that getting my tail whipped at the scales leaves me wishing I could repay the favor someday. Retribution does happen on the rare occasion and when it does, I let the world know it by posting it here. I guess you could say it lifts my spirits to keep me fishing. Otherwise I would have curled up in some corner of my house and quit by now. So as for good advice for the mediocre anglers among truly skilled anglers getting the short end more often than not; don't give in, keep on pressing. And when you get the goods on tournament day, you need to reward yourself. It's okay to brag about yourself, especially when you have managed to fare well or even win in an event you know you are the underdog in. Rewarding yourself in these situations, to me, is imperative to future success in a mental capacity.

Don't go overboard with it. If you know my columns well, then you know I am moderate with my writing and I never bash others. Talking smack in writing can sometimes be taken the wrong way, and if you aim to be vindictive, you may find yourself a target out on the water later down the road. Say enough to talk yourself up and gain confidence in you and that's as far as you need to go. Extra banter about how bad Joe Bragger did, does absolutely nothing but start battles. You are already battling the fish. Why create yet another opposing force?

In this sport, you are your own coach, which is unique to bass fishing. You have to be supportive of yourself at the same time being realistic with a good sense of sportsmanship. If you boil it down, this is what writing is all about for me. It reminds me of dos and do nots. So I guess you could say it's more for me that it is for the people that read. Although I suppose others could gather from what I know or think. But don't take my writing for it. Try it yourself.