March Madness Road Trip

Just returned from another great road trip filming shows for Extreme Angler TV season Eleven thru the south west U.S. beginning in Tennessee, thru Mississippi and onto South Carolina catching a variety to species including Crappie, shellcrackers, bream and largemouth bass.

Camera crew and I first landed on the 19th in Memphis TN and we`re met by the owner of Blue Bank Resort, Mike Hayes who picked us up and made some stops along the way thru the country side (for some fried chicken and hush puppies) on route to Hornbeak and world famous Reelfoot lake, home of the slab white crappie.
Got out for a few hours after we first arrived and got some nice fish to start the trip...(I really could not wait until tuesday to begin filming)

Filmed a show spider rigging amongst the stumps of Reelfoot and although we didn`t get any monster slabs, we sure did put a beating on the big white slabs the lake is famous for with Strike King crappie rage grubs at scattered depths ranging from 3-5 feet below the surface, tightlining with 1/8th ounce jig heads.
The weather turned a bit nasty on Wednesday with high gust winds pounding the lake.
But, the show is called Extreme Angler TV, so off we went with Strike King crappie pro staffer Jackie Vancleave in his customized 19 foot camo johnboat, bouncing off stumps and setting out lines until we found the larger crappie in shallower water close to shore, which made for some exciting moments and plenty of double headers.
I have had the opportunity to share the boat with some of the finest Bass anglers in the world, and can easily say, these Crappie pros are just as intense and serious about their trade, they leave no stone unturned in preparation and execution "dead serious", just the way I love to fish.

After wednesday`s fish with Jackie, we hooked up Tim Blackleys Harley Davidson wrapped Ranger boat to the matching big diesel pick up and headed to Mississippi to fish on one of the worlds finest slab crappie lakes, Lake Grenada on thursday and friday.

We were met with high, bright sunny conditions and calm water, perfect for shallow water slab hunting in the off color water and stump filled spawning flats.
Once again, these giant pearl white fish did not let us down.
The bite was quick with plenty of 10"-12" smaller males (which are considered small compared to the "average" crappie in this lake)
We fished slow and methodical and used Tim`s vast knowledge of crappie hunting and began hitting the larger female slabs this lake and state are famous for.

Words alone cannot describe how "wild and powerful" these big white slabs really are.
Granted, we we`re using medium light action rods in the 14 foot range with light jigs and 8-lbs test lines, but when you set hook into one of the giants of this lake, all "heck broke loose" as the fish would make fast, powerful runs every which way but loose!
And as mother nature designed these awesome fish with paper-thin mouths, if you did not hit the meat on your hookset, they would pull free or come un-buttoned after splashing on the surface before we could get a net under them.
We got two shows entitled "Land of the Giants" on camera and had a great time in the deep South of Mississippi.

On the third stop of this road trip, we headed back to a familier location in Charleston South Carolina to hook up with our good buddy Patrick Crawford who operates Allure Fishing Charters and is sponsored by ReserveFishing.com for a variety of salt and fresh water adventures.

This time we launched his Ranger flats boat onto Santee Cooper lake in search of some Largemouth Bass in thick matted vegetation.
I have to admit, I am addicted to Bass and bass fishing, but when I can fish for bass in March, in shorts, sandals and light shirt, I don`t care how many bass I might actually catch, or how big they might be, the simple fact this northern boy can have the opportunity to be pitching soft Strike King perfect plastics into thick matted weeds in 80 degree, sunny weather, I`m happy!!

We didn`t locate or hook any true monster Bass, but boated 8 decent fish in the heavy stuff and saw some amazing wildlife including 10+ foot Alligators that swam a mere boat length away from our rig under the mat and out to open water when we got to close to them. Now, that was "extreme" and captured some incredible close up footage of these beasts on their turf.

All in all, it was an amazing road trip that lasted 9 days thru amazing country and once again met some great people and caught some real nice fish along the way.
Can`t wait to return to the good ole` south!

Road Trip to Warmer Climates & Huge Fish!

Well, I just got back from one of my most enjoyable road trips of all-time filming shows for Extreme Angler TV Season 11 in Charleston South Carolina & Sarasota Florida, and let me tell you, I am honestly bruised up and have some minor muscle aches fighting all those awesome fish!

Here`s one of the big Amber Jacks boated on Day #1 with Outrigger Sportfishing Charters out of Sarasota Florida.
Camera crew and I landed in Charleston SC last sunday afternoon and we`re met at the airport by our good buddy Patrick Crawford of Allure Fishing Charters who was kind enough to take us to our accomodations at the incredible Charleston Harbour Resort & Marina situated right on the ocean.
Big thanks go out to Patrick for setting this up for us.

Here`s the view from my room overlooking the ocean...breathtaking!

We headed out early on low tide on the 23rd in anticipation of locating the very abundant schools of redfish, some of which are in excess of 300+ fish per school!
Arrived a bit early and fished until the tide was right, then just like that, we started to see the small ripples and wakes made by the schools of travelling redfish. It sure didn`t take long to hook up with these hard, drag pulling redfish with the aid of Strike King glass minnow saltwater baits rigged onto an inshore jighead.

I fished with both Patrick and Clayton Crawford of Allure Fishing Charters who really put a lot of effort into their passion and career`s making sure all the equipment is in tip top shape and attract a lot of customers from across the U.S. to fish for these scrappy redfish and many other salt and freshwater species in the South Carolina area.
I brought along my trusty St.Croix legend xtreme and legend elite rods matched up with Ardent Fishouflage spinning reels loaded with 20 lbs braided lines and fluorocarbon leaders.
We all took turns hooking Red`s all afternoon with too many fish hooked, caught and lost to even count, but the many laughs and memories will last a lifetime.

Here`s a shot of Clayton & Patrick Crawford and I having a blast!
It sure made for one heck of an exciting show.
On the next day, we hooked up with Clayton`s dad, Gene Crawford and fished out of his extra large custom rigged pontoon boat witch has an enclosed driving area complete with propane heater, chesterfields, coolers, electronics and anything else you might need when you go fishing for huge Arkansas Blue catfish on Santee-Cooper Lake.

Here`s me and Gene with one of the big gals we caught on this day, man do these cats ever pull hard!
We fished with cut bait off bottom on a rig similar to a carolina rig keeping the bait off bottom with small in-line floats on the line below the heavy sinkers needed to get the baits down 50+ feet to where the big cats we`re positioned.
I fished with both Patrick and Gene for the entire morning and boated enough big hard pulling cats to film another action packed show with many hooksets and awesome looking catsfish.

Then we caught a flight to Sarasota Florida to hook up with my good buddy Bruce MacDonald how owns Olive the Lake lodge in Northern Ontario, but spends his winters in sunny warm florida, lucky dude!

Here`s Bruce and I with a great big red grouper he caught. What a awesome fight!

Again, we we`re fortunate to have good friends on this trip who picked us up at the airport and took us to the accomodations. In florida, we stayed at the very nice Hyatt Regency Sarasota, which rolled out the red carpet for us big time.

Another great place situated right on the water and close to many great restaurants and shopping opportunities. They Hyatt took care of all our needs including meals, docking, preparation and a very special dinner on the dock with the hotel chef preparing our fresh caught fish right in front of us and served at waters edge, awesome!

Here`s a peak at the fresh fish we had for dinner....

A pretty nice spread don`t you think?
They made us feel like millionaires!
Take a peak at the view from my room...very special indeed;

We fished two days with Outrigger Sportfishing Charters out some 30-50+ miles into the Gulf of Mexico with Capt Ryan and 1st mate Tom and once again, these guys are as professional as they come. The boat was rigged to the max with the latest in gear, electronics and specialized equipment to hook and catch the oversized fish available out of Sarasota florida.
The fishing was so good, we managed to film 2 action packed shows.
One show with the hard fighting Amber Jacks.
I have to tell you, these fish are POWER PLUS! They almost wore me out!

And on the second day, we fished a little further out into the Gulf for a chance at a Goliath Grouper and some Red, black grouper and possibly red snapper or mangroves.

Needless to say, the sights and experience will stay with me forever.
Before we even arrived at the "spot", we say fish jumping ahead of us, and upon a closer view realized it was a school of about 40+ full sized "flipper-dolphins" greeting us by jumping clear out of the water and racing around the boat at full speed, which was all caught on film, absolute amazing footage and experience!
We rigged up our pre-caught baits and as soon as they hit bottom, double header with hard fighting red grouper! Once you set hook on these fish, you have to pull up as hard as you can while reeling in as much line as you possibly can so they do not go back into the rocks they are hiding in, easier said then done!
We lost countless numbers of BIG fish, due to the sheer fish weight, size and brute strength down 160+ feet of water.

Fished for approx 2+ hours of non-stop hooksets and fish caught, broke off and lost, then decided to fish for some of the giants of the seas and baited up with bigger bait and almost instantly hooked up with the HARDEST fighting, most powerful fish I have ever had on a line, a monster 275+ pound goliath grouper. To be fair, Capt Ryan hooked the fish, and once he was wore out and lost about 10 pounds of sweat, it was my turn to fight the beast to the surface.
Words cannot describe the experience...you`ll have to watch it when it goes to air.
Just seeing that beast rise up in that Aqua blue water was breath taking.

All in all, it was a great way to start the new season filming shows in the sunny, warm climates of Charleston South Carolina and Sarasota Florida, but what made it even better, was being able to share it with my close buddies, Bruce, Patrick, Clayton and new friends Ryan and Tom of Outrigger sportfishing.
Time to re-group and get set up for the next road trip.
Stay tuned.
KK

Never Retire from Fishing

I recently read an interesting article in a popular Men`s Fitness magazine while travelling on an airplane with my family on route to our annual winter holidays, a place a bit warmer than Ontario during the Christmas break.
The focus of the article was about when certain athletes should retire from their respective sport or activities and it struck me that the one thing that WE as anglers have going for us is longivity.

I don`t mean we live forever like vampires for hundreds of years...lol, but instead our sport, passion, hobby and/or career can span from the first days of holding a fishing rod to our last days doing the exact same thing, holding a fishing rod and waiting for a fish to bite!

It does not matter if your eight years old, or eighty years old, the enjoyment of fishing just never goes away.

Fishing can also mean so many different things to so many different people.

You could be competing on the highest platform of tournament fishing on the BASS or FLW tours, or participating in weekend club events or buddy tournaments with your wife, girlfriend or best friend, operating a charter business inshore or offshore, or a lodge owner with vast amounts of dollars invested in equipment and operating expences.

You could be the CEO of a company trying to break into the high-dollar game of stakes, risk & smaller monetary reward within the fishing industry as compared to other athletic or professional sports.
You could be content just getting away every other weekend with your family or buddies just looking for some peace away from the rat race of phone calls, emails & text messages that usually fill our every waking moment.

It doesn`t matter how you look at it or say it, just mentioning or seeing the word FISHING, can fill a persons mind with all kinds of pleasant memories, aspirations or excitement.

For me personally, I know I have been blessed to be able to do what I do for a living, career and hobby.
I know when the camera`s get turned off many moons from now and I slip away from the spotlight of the mega media platforms, internet & television screens, I will continue to just "go fishing".

I love being an ambassador for the sport and I`ll always be a competitive angler, even if it means just competing against myself and those fish I choose to pursue.
I will always take the time out to talk to people who approach me about fishing.
I will always share my love, passion and experiences with anyone who wants to listen or learn more about fishing.
But, I will NEVER RETIRE from fishing!!

Fishing has afforded me many pleasant memories in the mind vault from my earliest childhood to my adult life, not to mention, it has also afforded me to provide for my family and travel to some great places and fish with even greater people along the way.

I get to use some of the best fishing equipment known to mankind thanks to my sponsors and supporters. Equipment that I know I could have never afforded back in the day.
I only dreamed of using such rods, reels, lures or electronics.

Heck, when I got my first boat, a small twelve foot tin banger, I couldn`t even afford an outboard on the transom, so I begged my father to buy me a tiny electric motor and single twelve volt battery so I could use it on smaller ponds close to our house.
The boat was so small, I could lift it onto my car`s roof racks by myself, and I can still remember how proud I felt driving down the road with MY OWN BOAT....going fishing... independence at last!

And now, I just have to go out into the garage and stare at my pimped out bass boat and gaze in amazement knowing this old tug of a boat is MINE!
 It`s all wrapped up with flames, graphics and this big gas guzzling outboard on the back end, but got a huge overall a few years back so she can keep on floating my butt for years to come.

Having my own bass boat was not even in my dreams back when...it was just too much to even comprehend. She may not be new, she may not be perfect, but she sure helps me get the job done in a big way and she is MINE!

Fishing is what I LOVE, what I was born to do, what I was born to promote, teach and share with the people in my life... during my life... and after my life.

I have never stopped fishing and neither should you.


If I can give you one small piece of advice, its this: NEVER retire from the things you believe in. Keep fishing the good fight!

Split Shot Smallmouth

This week on Extreme Angler TV, Season 10, Episode 13, "Search & Destroy Smallmouth"

Even with the snow on the ground and sub-zero temps this afternoon, I can close my eyes and recall the awesome day I had this past summer in cottage country chasing big fat brown bass with Strike King spit n kings and bashing them silly with strike king KVD finesse worms as a follow up presentation.

Now, remember this was a perfect warm, calm summer day. The smallmouth SHOULD HAVE been all over my topwater presentation right?
Wrong!
From my very first cast in the early a.m., I witnessed one of the laziest smallmouth topwater bites I have ever encountered.
These big fat brown bass would roll over by bait, they would toilet flush under my bait, they would jump over my bait, they would suspend inches below my bait. Do everything except eat my bait!
Instead of screaming and letting frustration set in, I decided to alter my approach before I started to go nuts.
I slowed my presentation down to a crawl. Same results.
I let my bait sit stationary for the longest of times. Same results.
I worked my bait quickly and changed the cadence to inspire a bite. Same results.

I finally tricked a few fish to strike, but they too we`re so lightly hooked, once they jumped, they broke free. Boated a few, but not nearly enough to film a show or enjoy my day.
So, instead of complaining about what bite I wasn`t getting on this day, I decided to change it up a little and give these fish something a little different to hopefully inspire them to bite.
Enter the Strike King KVD Finesse worm.

Instead of rigging the worm on a traditional shakey head, I rigged up one of my favorite set ups for lazy day bass with a tiny split shot placed approx. 18-24 inches above a small Daiichi finesse worm hook and threaded the finesse worm onto the hook, over the hook eye and up onto the line so the hook would come thru the worm almost half way down to hopefully increase any potential strike to hook up ratios.

I knew the bass we`re in the locations I was fishing, but they decided they would not commit to my topwater presentation, but locating bass is half the battle won, now I just had to figure out how to make them bite, hence the change up to the finesse worm, split shot rig.

I continued to work my topwater bait over similar locations we`re I had found the fish and once a SINGLE fish was located, I would put down the topwater bait and pick up my spinning outfit and begin making long casts with the spilt shot rig and altered my cadence to include long and short drags, slight lifts and drops, short sharp twitches and then let the worm settle on the bottom.
From my experiences with smallmouth bass, find or locate one single fish, and chances are, more will be present or not very far away.
Finally, a presentation that worked.
Over the next few hours, I repeated the same formula by using the topwater bait to locate the bass then change up to the finesse worm/split shot rig to inspire these thick brown bass to eat the worm.

These bass we`re in such a non-aggressive mood, that even with the small, slender finesse worm, these smallmouth found a way to tear or rip off my bait and ate it so softly that almost every second fish hooked either jumped off on the first leap or pulled the hook free from a soft spot in their yap.
Thank goodness for numbers of fish, or I would have certainly gone crazy with the amount of fish I saw, hooked, caught and lost on this day.

The moral of this episode?
Fish the way you like. Fish in a way that you enjoy.
But, if the fish DO NOT want to co-operate the same way, remember what you read here and what you`ll see in episode 13 this week on Extreme Angler TV, have a back up plan and don`t hesitate to use it to put more fish in the boat next season.
Even you lose half the fish you hook, at the very least, you will still feel better knowing you still found a way to make them bite, which is a lot better than giving up and putting the boat on the trailer too early.
Please consider to release the big ones and enjoy every day on the water.

Dead-Stick Surface Smallies

I got such a good response from one of my blog posts on topwater fishing for Bass that I thought I would answer a few questions people had for me regarding how I decide what cadence to use on any given day for smallmouth bass.

When I decide to fish for smallmouth bass with topwater baits, I usually have a good assortment of baits tied on and have a system based on the conditions I`m faced with on any particular day.

As for baits, I`ll tie on two totally different colored Strike King Spit n Kings, one in a natural baitfish and the other in a totally opposite tone like firetiger or bright gold with orange belly.

One another rod, I`ll have a small three to four inch walking style bait that creates less noise and can be worked very slow or very quickly depending on the mood of the fish.

My fourth rod will have a bigger profile walking style bait that has rattles inside and creates a big splash, moves alot of water and is a big target for larger fish to zero in on. I`ll use this bait if the water is slightly choppy or if I`m fishing in the rain. Louder is better, sometimes!

On the next rod, I`ll have a "back-up" bait tied, rigged up and ready in case one of those big bad brown bass decide to roll on my topwater bait and won`t commit to eating the topwater, but instead want a sub-surface bait that they usually take a shot at. This rod is usually rigged with Strike King Zero in either bright bubblegum tone or a green pumpkin/red flake on a 2/0 wide gap Daiichi catch & release hook, which is very similar in shape and design to a circle hook.
Nine times out of ten, they will eat the Zero.
Find them with the topwater, catch them with the stickworm.

Now when it comes to choosing a cadence to start my day, again I`ll look at the conditions I`m faced with at that moment. Is it ultra calm, overcast, high bright sunny conditions, choppy, it all plays a part in my decision on which bait to throw first.
I`ll usually start with the spit n king in the bright colored tone and see if the fish are aggressive and smash my bait. If that doesn`t produce the strikes I am expecting, I`ll change to the natural tones in the spit n king and alter my cadence to try and provoke a strike.
Still no action?
This tells me two things. Either the fish are not in the area I am expecting them to be, or they want the bait and/or presentation slowed way down. Its up to you as an angler to figure out what your next course of action will be.

I`ll put down the spit n king and pick up another topwater bait, only this time, I`ll go with a smaller profile bait like the walking style, mini-cigar-shaped bait and make longer casts to potential areas and slow down my approach to an almost dead stop and leave the bait sit stationary for long periods of time, up to thirty seconds at a time if the bite is super slow.

Changing baits and altering my presentation speed usually will result in a strike, boil or hook up if the fish are in the area. They simply cannot stand a bait that stays in their strike zone for long periods of time, before one of them decides to take a swipe at it. Its basically in the DNA of smallmouth bass, very similar to cats, they have to investigate every single thing that enters their domain and sometimes that leads them to more trouble than they can handle.

This do nothing, dead-stick approach is exactly what I had to do while filming a show this past summer for season ten. I had an awesome looking location, with ultra flat conditions, warm water and still the smallies made every effort, NOT, to eat or smash my topwater baits if they we`re moving.

But, once I let the baits sit in one spot for longer periods, the bigger fish made the decision to "suck the baits" down from the surface without moving very much water. I had to watch the bait like a hawk, signalling the soft, pull down inhale of those bigger bass.
The bites we`re so soft, I thought the first bite was maybe a perch inhaling my topwater lure, but once I leaned back and the tiny treble hooks found their mark, all I could feel was weight!
An awesome feeling.

Next time your out on one of your favorite lakes, rivers or ponds and you decide you want to have some fun catching smallmouth bass on top and they decide they will drive you bonkers by swiping, rolling and bumping your bait instead of eating the topwater baits, try the "do-nothing, dead-stick" approach to provoke more bites.
It takes patience and a strong will not to move that bait once it lands.
But, trust me, when you start hooking up with those lazy, moody smallmouth when everyone else is complaining about the lousy bite, you`ll thank me.
Slow it down, fish with confidence, focus on what your doing and you`ll catch a lot more and possibly bigger smallmouth bass on top next season, good luck and fish extreme!