Lake Havasu News

High-brightness 4″ (10.2cm) diagonal Film SuperTwist LCD

Highly visible 240V x 160H pixel resolution

Amber LED backlit screen and keypad for night or low-light viewing
Transmits NMEA 0183 data

Complies with Digital Selective Calling (DSC) requirements for transmitting position, time, and date to DSC equipped VHF marine radios

Simplified keypad with Menu and Pages keys

Overlay Data feature displays GPS information over sonar screen, and sonar information over GPS screens

Space-saving case design with adjustable tilt, quick-mount/release convenience – Lake Havasu

We are looking for regional editors!

Please Contact Us if you are interested in submitting news from your area. – Lake Havasu

Yes, forevermore, your place will be out in front. At SKEETER, we had a growth spurt with the all new 21’10″ ZX300 powered by the Yamaha VZ300 engine. This powerplant produces a class-leading 300 horsepower engine combined with the largest bass boat ever in the SKEETER lineup…with thoughtfully planned, over-sized casting decks, extra tackle and gear storage, plus a 64-gallon fuel tank for those long runs to your favorite fishing hole. WARNING! You may have to stop for water on the way to your seat. – Lake Havasu

Give your home that feeling of the great southwest with authentic Navajo rugs.

Browse our selection of Authentic Navajo Rugs and Zapatec Rugs from Mexico online at Taos Trading Post. – Lake Havasu

Lake Houston – January 30th

Lake Houston Marina – Lake Havasu

ATHENS, Texas — Texas anglers received an early holiday gift: 50,000 red drum, donated by the largest commercial red drum farm in Texas. Texas Parks and Wildlife Department stocked the 10-14-inch fish into Lakes Braunig, Calaveras and Fairfield, and Victor.

“We are in the business of producing redfish for the retail market,” explained John Turner, managing partner of Lonestar Aquafarms, Ltd., of Palacios. “We have to produce fish of a certain size, and sometimes we have a surplus of a particular size. If the community at large can benefit from having them, I think that’s a really good deal.”

In 2002, while Turner was managing another aquaculture operation, he donated about 100,000 6-inch red drum fingerlings to TPWD.

“We really appreciate Mr. Turner’s continuing support of our programs to provide quality red drum fishing in several of our lakes,” said Phil Durocher, director of TPWD’s Inland Fisheries division. “When a commercial grower is willing to donate part of his production to the state, it is a direct benefit to the anglers who fish these lakes and a great assist to our stocking program.”

Although red drum is a saltwater species, TPWD stocks them into selected lakes to provide increased angler opportunity for this popular sportfish. Lakes stocked with red drum are power plant lakes, which have the warmer water temperature the fish need to survive.

“The fish Mr. Turner donated in 2002 did really well in the lakes,” said Todd Engeling, TPWD’s hatchery program manager. “Lakes Braunig, Calaveras and Fairfield already have redfish, and typically we stock them every year. These freshwater red drum fisheries have become very popular, and the fish stocked this week will probably be legal to catch a year from now.” All three lakes have a 20-inch minimum length requirement, no maximum size limit and a daily bag limit of three fish.

Turner said Lonestar Aquafarms sells about 25,000 pounds of fresh fish per week. “Sometimes survival is higher than expected, and we also stock our ponds to make sure we have plenty of fish. We take the risk to produce more and give them away, because that’s better than not having them.” – Lake Havasu

AUSTIN, Texas — The Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission voted Nov. 3 to approve the Jasper County bid to host a new East Texas freshwater fish hatchery for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. The commission vote completes the new hatchery site selection process, confirming a recommendation made last month by the private, nonprofit Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation.

More than a dozen elected officials and community leaders from across the region came to the commission meeting to express their support for the hatchery, including several communities that bid for the project but were not selected.

“I’m reminded of the Caddo and Coushatta tribes that lived long ago in deep East Texas,” said Jimmie Cooley, mayor of Woodville, which had teamed with Tyler County to submit a hatchery bid. “Those tribes knew no county lines, and we know no such boundaries with our neighbors in Jasper. We will share our resources to make this a successful project for all of East Texas.”

“Tyler County submitted a proposal and fought hard for this project,” Tyler County Judge Jerome Owens said. “We gave it a good fight, but we are here to let you know that we support the Jasper proposal and will do all we can to make it a truly regional hatchery.”

Jasper County officials welcomed the participation from Tyler County and invited neighboring counties and communities to make the hatchery a regional project.

“We know that the location of this hatchery in East Texas will be a great benefit to the citizens of the entire region and to all the people of Texas,” said Joe Folk, Jasper County Judge. Officials with the Deep East Texas Council of Governments and other communities expressed similar sentiments.

“We deeply appreciate the spirit of regional cooperation that is developing around the new hatchery project,” said Joseph Fitzsimons, TPWD Commission chairman. “There were many fine proposals by local communities, and it was a difficult decision. We fully support the concept of making this a venture that will benefit the entire region.”

The Jasper County proposal was valued at approximately $28 million over 50 years, $4 million higher than the next highest bidder. It offered the largest land area at 200 acres. And it was also the only hatchery proposal that would require minimal water pumping, and with water delivered by gravity flow during parts of the year. The site is well-suited for hatchery construction, and will be cleared at no cost to TPWD.

The Jasper County proposal will locate the new hatchery near the Sam Rayburn Reservoir dam on property owned by Temple-Inland. The site is currently a managed forest logging operation.

Other partner offerings in the Jasper County proposal include water and financial support from the Lower Neches Valley Authority, a new county road to the site with possible assistance from the Texas Department of Transportation, and additional support from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The new hatchery will replace the present Jasper Fish Hatchery, which was opened in 1932 and has had no major renovation or modernization since the late 1940s. The primary funding source for the new hatchery and for improvements at other hatcheries in the TPWD system will come from a new $5 freshwater fishing stamp that was required beginning Sept.1, and from community and corporate support.

Fish hatchery production, along with fisheries management, regulations and law enforcement, helps sustain the high quality of fishing in Texas, an important part of the state economy. Freshwater anglers in Texas generated $1.49 billion in retail sales in 2001 based upon data collected by the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service. This angling activity generated $733 million in wages and salaries annually.

There are still major sponsorship opportunities available in connection with the new hatchery. For sponsorship details, contact the Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation at (214) 720-1478. – Lake Havasu

Members can post bass fishing photos to the Photo Gallery.

Login, browse to the 2004 Gallery, near the top right of the browser screen you’ll find a drop down menu, choose add photo, locate your photo on your computer, add a caption and you’re done! – Lake Havasu

Water stained; 1.27′ low. Black bass are fair on perch colored spinnerbaits and small crankbaits. Striped bass are slow. Crappie are fair on minnows. Catfish are good on shrimp and stinkbait. – Lake Havasu

Fish & Anglers Getting Hooked On Beer Caps

By Tom Daykin

Knight Ridder

Norm Price is on a crusade that has two goals: Help fellow anglers catch more fish, and recycle millions of discarded beer bottle caps from bars and restaurants throughout North America.
Price is the Canadian inventor of the bottle-cap lure, a beer bottle cap pinched together with tiny ball bearings inside, and a hook attached to one end. The rattle of the lure’s steel bearings, and its shiny, colorful finish, can cause an unsuspecting lunker to strike faster than an angry Teamster, he said.
The lures are catching on with anglers throughout Canada and the United States, said Price, a fishing and hunting guide in Sherbrooke, Quebec, who has sold nearly 100,000 lures over the past five years. He now hopes to persuade major brewers, including Milwaukee’s Miller Brewing Co., to sponsor a contest that would award cash to people landing big fish with his bottle-cap lures. So far, though, Miller and other big brewers aren’t taking the bait.
Brewers “spend hundreds of millions of dollars a year on ridiculous marketing campaigns,” said Price, owner of the Bottle Cap Lure Co. “In this case, where you can help save the environment, why wouldn’t they participate?”
That hasn’t discouraged Price, who couches his plans to make a buck with pronouncements on battling the global menace of bottle-cap pollution.
“I don’t know how many times I go fishing and see bottle caps on the bottom of the river,” Price said. Recycling those caps from litter to lures “could happen all over the world,” he said.
Price fashions his lures from whatever bottle caps he can scrounge. His “six-pack” of lures – which sells for $35 at www.bottlecaplure.com – features a half-dozen popular brands: Miller High Life, Miller Genuine Draft, Budweiser, Coors Light, Molson Canadian and Labatt Blue.
The brewers of those brands haven’t given Price written permission to use their caps – something he regards as a technicality. Along with the Web site, Price also sells the lures in more than 100 sporting goods stores, bait shops and other retailers throughout Canada.
“I’ve had brewing companies tell me I don’t have a license to do this,” Price said. “I’ve basically come back and said, ‘In your face. I don’t need a license to recycle your trash.’ ”
Montreal-based Molson Inc. doesn’t care if Price uses its caps, as long as he doesn’t use the Molson logo on the packaging for the lures, said company spokesman David Jones.
Molson has invited Price to submit a written proposal for his fishing contest idea, Jones said.
But Jones said fishing contests aren’t a major marketing venue for Molson. He also expressed some weariness in dealing with Price.
“Norm calls every couple of days,” Jones said.
The three largest U.S. brewers, Anheuser-Busch Inc., Miller Brewing and Adolph Coors Co., haven’t threatened to sue Price for using their caps. But they haven’t exactly rushed to sign up as sponsors.
Pittsburgh Brewing Co., however, is in hook, line and sinker.
Pittsburgh, which sells mainly in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia, is paying Price to produce 1,000 to 3,000 lures with caps featuring the Iron City Beer logo, said Tony Ferraro, vice president of sales and marketing.
Pittsburgh Brewing plans to distribute the lures as promotional giveaways in 2005, Ferraro said. A lot of beer drinkers, he said, also fish.
That’s exactly Price’s point.
His unwavering confidence that the big brewers will see the light stems from the surprising success of the bottle-cap lure concept.
Price was drinking a beer one night when he took the bottle cap and bent it together, indulging a longtime habit. He nonchalantly tossed it on to a table next to some fishing hooks and lures. He was then struck by the similarity in shape between the tools of his trade and the distorted cap.
Price decided to create a lure. He then went with a fishing buddy to a nearby river, and promptly caught a big brown trout. When his friend
told Price that it was a fluke, he cast again. This time, Price caught a nice rainbow trout.
Price, then living near Calgary, Alberta, later moved to Sherbrooke to be with his girlfriend. His company now has about 30 employees, mostly college students working part time.
The bottle caps – his main raw material – come from local bars and restaurants, which provide them for free.
Price expects sales to jump thanks to a recent spate of media attention, including a feature that ran several times this month on “CTV News,” Canada’s national television news show.
Meanwhile, Price still seeks sponsors for his fishing contest, which he dubs the “battle of the brands.”
He envisions anglers using lures fashioned with Miller Genuine Draft caps competing with those favoring Budweiser lures, and other such stunts.
It’s an idea inspired by God, Price said, and will help clean the environment and put people to work – as well as sell a boatload of bottle-cap lures.
“Beer and fishing have always gone hand in hand,” Price said.
This is why he is now bringing this to a whole new level. The Original Bottle Cap Lure Company Ltd. Is going to sponsor the largest fishing contest in the world. It makes sense too. they are starting The Battle Of The Brands Free Fishing Contest. Inspired by Andy Vander Ploeg the 3 time Canadian Sport Fishing Champion. Norm asked Andy what bottle cap works best. Andy replied I don’t know. I haven’t used a lot of different caps, however Molson, Coors, Labatt, Budweiser all work well
– Lake Havasu

Water stained; 62 degrees; 824.80′:

Largemouth are very good on creek points and rip rap along seawalls of bays and pockets using white/chartreuse 7/16 oz. Terminator tungsten
spinnerbaits (www.terminatorlures.com), greenbug Photon crankbaits (www.photonlures.com) and Texas rigged black-blue flake Whacky Sticks
(www.cremelure.com).

Stripers are fair at first light under birds around Lighthouse Point using Snap Back jerkbaits rigged on Bait Jerker Hooks (www.falconlures.com), topwater walkers and Rat-L-Traps (www.rat-l-trap.com).

White Bass good at daylight along 20′ channel breaklines on 1/8 oz. Tiny Traps, Spoiler Shads or white grubs and Shad Raps fished through schools of whites.

Crappie are good to on docks with brushpiles and bridge pilings using 1/32 oz. Curb’s crappie jigs, blue/silver Tube jigs and live minnows.

To book a guided fishing trip w/ the only fulltime professional guides fishing LBJ for over 40 years contact JR’s Guide Service(www.jrguideservice.com). Call (830) 833-5688 or email: jimfish@moment.net. – Lake Havasu

Tell us about upcoming tournaments, marina openings, boat shows, safety concerns, environmental issues, tournament results, your favorite chow stops, big fish, new motels or any other news you think might interest bass fishing members.

Compose your ews offline in your favorite word processor. Spellcheck it and proof read it before bosting.

Follow the Submit News link in the Main Menu. – Lake Havasu

Water gin clear; 62 degrees; 909.50′:

Largemouth are very good early to 6 lbs in 6′-12′ on transition points & at the mouth of feeder creeks on Rat-L-Traps ( www.rat-l-traps ), green pumpkin Whacky Sticks (www.cremelure.com) and 7/16 oz. white Terminator tungsten spinnerbaits ( www.terminatorlures.com ). Upriver, working flats in 2′-8′ along channel turns with stumps and stickups using Pop R’s, 1/8 oz. Tiny T buzzbaits and wacky rigged plastic stickbaits like a 4″ watermelon-red Whacky Stick rigged on a 3/0 “K” Wacky Hook all produce.

Smallmouth are good over rock piles in 5′-14′ on white Photon crankbaits (www.photonlures.com), smoke-red Snap Back tubes on jigheads and 3″ smoke grubs.

Stripers are fair to 25″ under birds at daylight on the surface in open water trolling Hyper Striper jigs, vertically jigging silver Pirk Minnows and cranking big Shad Raps and plastic swim baits.

For area information, accommodations, or to book a guided trip w/the most experienced, Fulltime, professional guide service fishing Canyon for 40 years contact JR’s Guide Service (www.jrguideservice.com). Call Jim at: (830) 833-5688 or email jimfish@moment.net. Your most convenient bait and tackle dealer to the upper end and Guadalupe River on the south side of the lake is Canyon Bait House, 15695 Cranes Mill Rd., (830) 899-9747. – Lake Havasu

The skateboarding scene in Arizona is amazing. It offers boundless street spot’s and has a wide variety of free parks for everyone to enjoy. Summers are really hot but if you can’t take the heat get out of the kitchen. The winters offer an excellent twenty four hour a day session. Beutiful weather and down to earth people. So if you are ever out this way don’t be afraid to come see how the locals get down. – Lake Havasu

The fact that Lake Conroe lacks vast amounts of aquatic vegetation requires us to extensively use our electronics to find fish. Fish live on structure, therefore, we fish structure whether it be dropoffs, creek channels, roadbeds, pond dams, humps, rocks, or standing timber; these are the areas that you will find concentrations of fish.

Taking into consideration that most of these structures are underwater and are not visible from the surface means that to locate them and fish them effectively a graph is a necessity. The graph is a very crucial tool when fishing Lake Conroe. This is the only “window” that you have to figure out what is going on underwater.

Understanding how the graph works and what you are looking at when you view the screen is one of the most important attributes to using the graph to your advantage. The unit(graph) has a transducer that is mounted somewhere in the hull or off of the transom. The transducer is what sends out a beam and receives back the information that is relayed to the unit. The beam is the shape of a cone and anything that comes into the cone appears on the screen of the graph. To get a better understanding of this completely forget about water for a minute. Picture yourself standing in a field at night, it is pitch dark. Now picture a helicopter hovering at twenty feet above the ground just out in front of you. The helicopter has a Q-Beam pointed at the ground and the only thing that you can see is what comes into the beam of the light. This is exactly like what happens on the water when you graph the bottom. Your boat is like the helicopter and the transducer shooting beam from the boat is similar to the beam of the Q-Beam from the helicopter.
Also the information is put on the screen as if you were looking at from the side. What goes on the screen of the graph is a profile of the cone(beam).

To get the most accurate reading when locating fish program the unit in the manual mode. This will dis-enable the unit to put the little fish symbols in where the unit “thinks” that there is a fish. Fish will show up as inverted V’s. The longer the taper from the inverted V the bigger the fish. Also the size of the inverted V is an indication of the size of the fish. Bait fish in large school will show up as a cloud or ball on the screen. Individual or small schools of bait will show up as specks or small dark areas on the screen.
Finding underwater structure is the key to catching fish on Lake Conroe and a good understanding of the graph will make you more successful. For more information or a guide trip booking call me at (281) 380 8222. Good luck fishing.

Bill Cannan – Professional Fishing Guide – Lake Havasu

Last month on the first competition day of the Texas Invitational I encountered some rough water that I believed only existed in the Gulf of Mexico. Sure I have been on Toledo, Livingston, Conroe, Rayburn, and Richland Chambers when they have gotten profoundly rough due to high winds. But this first day of the tournament at Rayburn was a bit beyond that. When we left out early that morning the wind was blowing about fifteen to twenty miles per hour, rough but manageable. Six hours later the wind speed had doubled and we now had five to eight footers rolling from the south end of the lake.

Well my partner and I were up the lake some twenty miles and had to drive south right into the wind to get back to Twin Dikes Marina. The waves in the middle of the lake were monsters ready to swallow any bassfisherman and his bass boat whole, so the middle of the lake is no place to be when the wind is blowing that hard.

When the wind blows up or down a lake, the main lake channels the wind up the middle and so running one bank or the other is usually going to be the safest, most protected place to be. Running behind any point that extends out into the lake and breaks the wave action will work for some of your run back. When you run out of protected water you just have to power through the big stuff taking it nice and easy, one wave at a time. Tacking back and forth will keep you cutting the waves at angles and allows you less of a chance of spearing or submarining into a wave.

Picking one side of the lake or the other can be tricky when the wind blows like it did that first tournament day. Once that day, I came around one of the mainlake points where the waves were so big that I could not make much progress. Three miles across the lake I knew of a point that extended out into the lake and I knew if I could get across the lake that I could run behind that point for a couple of miles. So I turned the boat across the wind and headed across the lake. This move would not pay off until I reached the other shoreline but then I could turn downlake and continue towards weigh in.

Playing the wind is tricky because the wind can curl around the points and into coves, but utilizing the mainlake points is one tip to remember when running big water on our massive lakes. Keeping your cool and being patient also increases your chances of conquering big water. Although I must admit that in that big water the first day it was as if I could not hear anything at all and fear was creeping in. I could not hear the wind or the water I could only feel the aloneness that Mother Natures fury forces on you when shes almost got you, it is the loneliest feeling in the world.

Hopefully you will not ever be caught in this type of situation, but if you ever do utilize some of these tips and I promise they will help you to survive the storm.

Bill Cannan
Professional Guide and Tournament Angler – Lake Havasu

I recently was talking to Pat McCarty (the editor of this magazine) about some of the emails we receive concerning fishing. We both get a good bit of email from people who are beginners or have never fished and they want to know where to fish, how to fish, and so on.

Normally in my column I am discussing topics that will broaden the horizons of a very experienced angler and its usually cutting edge information that I have learned and in the process of developing further. In fact most professional fishermen that write articles are writing them on high tech topics.
Well if you are an experienced fishermen this article may not be for you but it is your duty to the sport you love to give it to someone who is a beginner or to a youngster so that they can use this article to learn more ways to fish and more places to fish.

If you are a beginner fisherperson or a youngster and are looking to learn more about fishing you have everything in your favor. There are a great many opportunities for you. There are numerous magazines about fishing, TV fishing shows, articles in the newspapers, internet fishing sites, internet fishing chat rooms, internet fishing reports and local guides a phone call away.

One of the biggest questions for a beginner is where do I go to fish?

There are many answers to this question: Farm ponds, golf course ponds, creeks, and reservoirs. You may not have a boat so the first three are going to apply to you more than the reservoirs will.

Farm ponds and golf course ponds. Maybe you don’t know someone with a farm pond or someone who can give you permission to fish a golf course pond. You have to ask permission. The worst they can do is tell you no and more than likely they will grant you permission. If they grant you permission make sure not to leave area clean and you will probably be able and come back again.

Ponds and creeks usually have bass, bream, and catfish. Some of them even have strong populations of crappie(white perch).

If you are going to fish for bass, fish with small baits. There are usually more small bass than big bass no matter where you go and if you are a beginner you want to catch as many fish as you can to gain the most experience from each outing. Small baits catch small bass but the chance to catch big bass is always there no matter what you are throwing. When I say small bass I mean fish less than 2 pounds, when I say small baits I mean small spinnerbaits like beatlespins 1/8 and 1/4oz sizes, Stanley Baby Wedge spinnerbaits, small plastic worms(4 inch), and small crankbaits 1/4oz sizes. Bass live around cover: stumps, logs, aquatic vegetation, bushes, or any object in the water. Cast your baits to these types of cover for bass.
The easiest way to catch bream or perch is to use a small long shanked bream hook, put a small spiltshot two inches above the hook(about 1/16oz) and a small cork about a foot and half up. Bait the hook with a cricket, grasshopper, pinch of earthworm, piece of shrimp, or small doughballs. Always make sure the hook points is covered, you will get more bites if you do. Cast the cork and bait out and let it sit. If there is a stump or log in the water cast nearby.

Catfish are bottom feeders. They can be caught in just about any body of freshwater. Rig up a hook and about a ¼ ounce weight and bait the hook with prepared dough bait, chicken liver, shrimp, an earthworm, a junebug, or a minnow and cast it out and let it sit on the bottom. If you let it sit there long enough a catfish will smell it and come bite it.

Your local sporting goods store clerk can help you with selecting some of the baits mentioned and can also give you tips on fishing them. They are there to help you and are usually fishermen themselves.
If you have already experienced pond and creek fishing and you want to move on, you may want to join a bass club. You don’t even have to own a boat to be in a bass club. One or two weekends a month the club meets at a lake, the club members with boats bring their boats and the non-boaters fish with them. Joining a bass club is one of the quickest ways to learn about bass fishing, you usually fish with different fishermen and you will see many different techniques and approaches to the water. Always share the expense of the fuel with the boat-owner and maybe a little extra for oil and you will be a welcomed partner anytime.
These are some very inexpensive ways that you can enjoy the sport of fishing. Now is a perfect time of year to get out and fish. Good luck fishing.

Bill Cannan Professional Fishing Guide – Lake Havasu

For the last few weeks I have been gearing up for the upcoming 97-98 BassMaster season. Fishing fifteen B.A.S.S. events in one season is going to me a new experience for me. So in preparation for this season one of my top priorities is to get my boat perfectly organized. I am pretty well organized now but every now and then you have to go through everything and take a little inventory .

I am no perfectionist on this organization topic and have even been called sloppy and unorganized by my fishing partners at times but in an instant if something tells me to throw a certain lure, whether it is a lure that I haven’t thrown in years or days I know right where it is in my boat and can be fishing that lure in moments.

This all goes back to the “little things” that I refer to. If you constantly strive to do the little things they will eventually all add to up to catching more fish and being more successful as a fisherman.

If you have an intuition to throw a bait and you know the bait will work in this little situation, whatever it might be, then you have to put that intuition into action. If the exact location of that bait that your mind is telling you to throw is unknown and it would take you five minutes to find it, the timing of the intuition is thrown off and it is lost. Your frustration of not knowing where the lure is overpowers the intuition and the feeling is wasted and unfulfilled. You might not even take the time to look for the bait if you don’t know exactly where it is and the same thing happens. You cannot fish instinctively to your maximum potential if you don’t know where all of your baits are.

There are certainly plenty of other reasons to be organized in the boat , however, this is one of my main reasons for being organized, so that I can act upon an instinct in an instant.

I keep most of my crankbaits, topwaters, rogues, hooks,weights, and some plastics in clear plastic boxes. The boxes are labeled: shallow cranks, mid cranks, deep cranks, worms, craws, french fries, soft jerk baits, hula grubs, topwaters, rogues, diving rogues, etc.

The labels are all in plain view and facing up at me when I open my deck lid in my boat. It takes constant maintenance to keep these boxes organized. All of the baits you use in a day have to be put back where they came from at the end of the day to keep up with this system. After a while you will memorize the location in each box where every single lure lies and this will even speed up your lure location when you need one.

Bill Cannan Professional Fishing Guide – Lake Havasu

Last month I fished the Alabama BassMaster Eastern Invitational on Lake Guntersville. I had never been to the lake but I knew that it had aquatic vegetation in the form of milfoil and coontail. Driving to Alabama I was putting together some possible seasonal patterns for mid-May. Topwaters, buzzbaits, spinnerbaits, and Carolina rigged french fries all fished around the grass. New feathering, underwater grass points is what I was going to definitely check out.

I started practice on Monday with the rest of the competitors and ran up the Tennessee River which feeds Lake Guntersville. I pulled into a big bay with several major creeks feeding it called Seabold. I had studied it on the map and liked the layout of the bay. I ran to the biggest point in the whole bay and shut down, jumped on the front deck and hurled a buzzbait about forty yards over the top of a shallow grassbed not yet to the surface. The bait was on retrieve when it hit the water and if there was a fish around it would have to bite my bait, everything was perfect- a slight breeze, overcast, and it was real early. I made about six turns on the handle and a three pounder came up and smashed my lure. I boated the fish and saw some shad getting busted while I was releasing the fish. I made a cast across the action and I had another one on.
This went on all morning and by noon I had caught about fifteen bass. I picked up a Zara Spook at noon and began working it over some deeper grass edges. About twenty minutes went by as I worked the bait and finally one came up and crashed it. My topwater pattern was getting stronger and stronger as the day went on.

I fished the buzzbait and Zara Spook exclusively for three days of practice and caught fifteen to twenty-five bass each day and between eight and fourteen fish a day were over the fifteen inch minimum length. Pretty solid pattern right? Wrong!

The weather has never been more stable during any B.A.S.S. event that I have fished. Being that these tournaments are six days long you sometimes have to adjust to major weather changes. The weather was overcast and foggy the first morning of the tournament with the air temp the same it had been all week- mid seventies.

I arrived to my fish early Thursday morning with a high level of confidence in my buzzbait pattern only to not have a bite on it by eleven. I was in shock and realizing that I had not backed up my buzzbait pattern with anything. I had caught fish on the Zara Spook but they did not want it either. The Zara Spook would not qualify as a back up pattern being that it is a topwater bait also.

What had happened is that the surface temperature had warmed up enough through three warm practice days that the fish were going to come off of the strong topwater pattern. It just so happened that they came off of it during the tournament and they came off abruptly. Usually this is a gradually declining bite and the fish don’t usually come off of this pattern overnight.

PREPARATION
To compete in bass tournaments and be successful in every tournament, you must be prepared. Having one primary pattern with no back up plan does not qualify for being prepared. A backup plan is a must in every tournament you fish, never count on one pattern no matter how strong it is. When the fish change to another pattern you have to anticipate that change and be ready to change with the fish to the new pattern. So get yourself a couple of patterns for your next tournament and don’t get yourself sent to “the school of hard knocks” like someone else you know did.

Bill Cannan Professional Fishing Guide – Lake Havasu

So many of the “little things” in bass fishing are overlooked by anglers. They still catch bass because they do enough things right to overcome the things they may not do completely right. Over time a bass fisherman develops a confidence in his productive methods and fishes himself into a rut. Gaining a particular confidence in a technique is one of the keys to successful bass fishing but to limit experimentation because of having confidence in one successful method will inhibit your maturity as an elite angler.
An elite angler is a bass fisherman who has mastered all of the seasonal patterns and has a combined knowledge of the scientific and spiritual sides of bass fishing. I am certainly no elite angler, however what I have learned through experience is that the experience itself is the way to becoming an elite angler. Bass fishing is very similar to golf. A guy who can shoot scratch consistently but cannot shoot a 68 or 69 is a great golfer but he is no where near the golfer who can post a 60 or a 61. Here’s what separates the two golfers. The first golfer is a great golfer but has played himself into a rut because he has developed confidence in a style and will not experiment further for fear of losing his game, the second golfer has the added confidence in the success he has achieved through his continuous experimentation. The principle is same with fishing. The fear of not catching fish keeps fishermen from experimenting and enhancing their proven techniques.

Little things are what set elite anglers apart from great bass fishermen. Little things that elite anglers learn through countless hours of trial and error on the water, hours and hours of tournament competition, and fishing through many changing weather conditions are what separate them from great fishermen. After a while all of the little things add up to a specific style and understanding that is unique to that fisherman. His perception of a situation includes all of his senses and his knowledge becomes a series of confident actions.
In the next few months I am going to be targeting some of the “little things” and how to experiment and develop yourself to the next level and towards the goal we all strive for which is becoming an elite angler. Meanwhile be aware of the “little things” that you may do that define you as a fisherman, just being aware is a step in the right direction.

Bill Cannan Professional Fishing Guide – Lake Havasu