Head for the Ledge

Don't get me wrong I like to flip shallow bushes and docks as much as anyone but I have way more fun probing off shore structure and locating large schools of bass. Right now we are heading into prime time for fishing away from the bank. Most of the bass are finishing up spawning and are starting to head out to their summertimes haunts as they follow the baitfish. During the post spawn on into early summer you will often find bass at their deepest because the thermocline hasn't set up yet on most lakes and there is oxygen all the way down. As the water heats up and the thermocline starts to set up the fish will tend to move to shallower structure where oxygen is present in relation to deep water.

A lot of anglers struggle with having the confidence to fish sometimes three or four cast lengths out off the bank but with some practice they can become just as comfortable fishing a deep water hump as they are a shallow laydown. A lot of anglers that I've fished with say that they would like to learn how to be a better deep water fisherman yet they fail to spend time practicing it and they just keep throwing at the bank when it's not producing. You can't learn to fish deep structure unless you give it a try. Learning to fish deep water structure can take a different amount of time for everyone but with modern electronics it's a lot easier than most people think.

Before you get to the lake you can get a good idea of areas to search just by taking a look at a contours map or your gps. Your gps will be able to show you humps, long points, and where the creek channels bend as well as dropoffs. After you find some spots on your map that look promissing get out and spend some time graphing those areas. What you are looking for are rocks, brush, where the bottom changes from big rock to small, as well as slight depressions or rises. These irregularities on structure are often where you will find the hot spot. The only way you can locate the hot spot is to take the time to search with your depth finder and by fan casting the point with a variety of lures.

Once you hook into a fish out on structure you will want to kick a bouy over the side of the boat to mark your boats position. This can be very critical when you are fishing crankbaits because you need your bait to hit the zone pefectly a lot of times in order to get bit. Once you determine where the fish are located try and triangulate your position with something on the bank. This will help you locate the spot when you return during your tournament or future outing. Gps units are great and can get you within a couple of feet of your position but triangulating will put you right on target. If you use this method you can hit one rockpile 9 times out of 10 and spend a lot more time having your bait in the strike zone. When you catch your fish at a certain depth change take note. A lot of times you will be able to run around the lake and catch fish off similar structure. A depth change doesn't have to be great in order to hold fish. I found fish at Kentucky Lake two weeks ago relating to a 9 to 12 dropoff almost everywhere I went. Whenever I could find a similar dropoff I would get bit. Gps allows you to follow the break lines as easily as if you were going down the bank. I like to be able to use the split screen gps with the fish finder because it keeps me at the right depth and headed in the right direction all the time.

The type of baits I use on deep structure are a lot different than the ones I will throw to the bank. Having the right baits to fish off shore structure makes a big difference. One of the best baits to have in your box for locating and catching fish offshore is a deep diving crankbait. The great thing about a crankbait is that you can get fish that are not feeding to react to it. A lot of times the hardest fish to catch off structure will be the first one and once you catch one you can ignite a whole school into a feeding frenzy. A deep diving crankbait will allow you to cover a ton of water too so you will be able to locate that sweet spot on your cover. When it comes to line throw your deep divers on ten to twelve pound test line for the best results. Heavier lines just drag too much for the right presentation. Also use as long a rod as you feel comfortable with because it will allow you to make very long casts and cover more water.

Other productive baits for probing deep structure are heavy football jigs. OMEGA Custom Tackle makes a couple of jigs that excell on deep structure. The Pro-Mega was designed by Roger Fitzpatrick who is a well known Lake of the Ozarks structure fisherman for probing deep water brushpiles. The jig comes through brush really well and it has a great hook in it which keeps fish pinned all the way to the boat. Elite Series angler Derek Remitz designed OMEGA's football jig and it's great for when you are fishing rocky points and shell beds. I will typically use a 1/2 oz to 1oz jigs for probing deep structure. They make staying in contact with the bottom really easy and they get down fast. In the summer when there is a lot of boat traffic throwing a heavier jig will help you with feeling the bite. Start out crawling your jigs along the bottom or sweeping them and if that doesn't work you might have to hop them up off the bottom to trigger reaction strikes. For these big jigs make sure you have a 7 foot or longer heavy action AiRRUS rod for the best presentation. I will throw 20lb test fluoro on my structure jigs because of rocks and brush that will knick the line.

If the fish are still there but they are not biting you can't beat an old school worm on either a shakeyhead or a texas rig. OMEGA has a newer shakeyhead out called The Shakey Foot. It's a football style head with a flat side that makes your worm stand up. Rigging a 10 inch worm on the Shakey Foot can sometimes out produce your texas rig. A lot of the FLW Tour guys do this on the TVA lakes when they visit them. The trick is to not get in a hurry when you fish this bait. A lot of times you just want to have it sit and give it a couple of small shakes. It's a great set up for inactive bass or for fishing behind other boats. I like twelve pound line for this rig but you can throw a lot heavier line on it because it has a great hook.

The old school texas rig is just as good for catching inactive bass sometimes. The trick is to not get in to big of a hurry and move your worm a whole lot. You want to try and create as many falls on the retrieve as possible. If you are moving your rod more than 8 or 9 inches you can pull the bait from the strike zone too quick. When I work a texas rig worm on structure a lot of times I just give it a short hop and then let it fall back towards the bottom. A trick for the texas rig is to use a hook with a keeper like the new Honey Hole Hook. You won't have your worm sliding down and you will be able to spend your time fishing instead of rigging your worm. For throwing my worms ten to twelve pound test gets me the most bites. I just upsize my line with the cover.

13th Place finish at Kentucky Lake

This past weekend I fished the National Guard FLW College Fishing tournament at Kentucky Lake. The weekend prior to the tournament Kentucky Lake was closed due to very high water levels. A lot of us were sitting around wondering and hoping that we were going to even have a tournament. A couple of days before our tournament they started dropping the water and the lake was finally opened up and our tournament was a go.

Going into the tournament I was a bit unsure of how we were going to catch our fish because there were a lot of different varibles to consider. The water was really muddy for Kentucky Lake and they were pulling a lot of current. Prior to the flooding I wanted to fish the ledges and get out on the main lake but I didn't know how the muddy water would effect that bite. Also I was debating on making a run over into Barkley Lake as I know the layout of the water a little better. After I analysed how the Stren pro's were catching their fish though it seemed like the ledges and structure were producing. The guys that went to Barkley said they wish they hadn't which helped me decided on what lake to fish. I noticed that the guys who were flipping in the stren had an okay first day but their bite died off and their bags were getting smaller during the tournament and this was because the water was being sucked out of the bushes. Whenever the water is falling big fish will pull out off the bank and suspend or out out on the points because mother nature tells them that if they don't they will get stuck. The guys in the stren that were structure fishing were throwing up good weight every day and their bags were getting a little bigger. So with all the current in the lake I decided to focus on ledges and points.

All I had on the rod deck to start the day was a variety of deep running crankbaits and a couple of 3/4 oz OMEGA football jigs in black and blue tied up on my AiRRUS Rods. We had a late boat number and headed on down to the first point that I wanted to fish. I was marking a lot of bait on the point and some arches and it just looked like the perfect post spawn point for the fish to move up on to put on the feed bag. I fished around the point for about an hour catching a couple of short fish and studying the dropoffs until I finally hung a 4lber on my crankbait. The fish surged and put up a good fight but was scooped up by my partner Ed Kennedy with the net. It was a good way to start the day. After I stuck the fish in the live well I got back up on the front deck and made another cast to the exact spot and quickly caught another fish around 4lbs. I was feeling good and we all shared some high fives. A couple of casts later I caught another 3lber in the same little spot on this point to get my three fish limit.

The hotspot where I snatched up my fish was where the point had a nice drop that went from 9 to 12 feet. Whenever I would put my boat into about 15 feet and throw it up on the bank and bring it through that little box they would smash it. All the fish were hooked really good and had the crankbait sucked down by their gullet.

Now that I had my limit by 9:30 am I needed to get my partner his fish because you can only weigh 3 fish per an angler in college fishing. I took my partner around the point and he was able to boat a bunch of short fish. We ended up catching about 50 fish on the day. I had picked up a black and blue skirted OMEGA football jig with a black and blue flake paca craw at this point and just threw it out into the deep water off the point and I caught a 4th keeper that went about 3lbs. The fish hit the jig good and swam off with it like it didn't want to ever let it go. I caught a couple more shorts crawling the football out in 25 to 30 feet of water trying not to throw to the first drop off.

We kept on fishing hitting a couple of more spots and it was about noon we decided to run to Duncan bay and look for some more fish. We were both cranking structure at this point cause we were trying to cover water and find them. We pulled up on a hump and caught a couple of shorts and then we made our way back to fish a transition point where on my first cast I caught a 7 pounder that was my fifth keeper. The fish made a couple of good surges but I finally tired her out. While it was good to cull out a 3 plus pounder with a 7 pounder my partner still didn't have any fish. We ran out of time and had to make it back for our weigh in at 1:30.

The bite was on for a lot of people that were covering water with a crankbait and a jig. The tournament took 24lbs with 6 fish to win and 19lbs to get into the top five to make a check. I had over 20lbs with my 5 keepers and would have easily been in the top 5 but my biggest 3 went 13lbs and 9ozs to give us 13th place out of 40 colleges. I wish they would change that rule so that you could just weigh in your five biggest bass for your team. It's a funny rule because it's not very often in partner tournaments that you both catch the same amount of keepers during the course of the day. One guy might carry a team one day and then the other guy the next day in regular team formats but College Fishing does truly make it a tournament about whose TEAM peforms the best on that given day or has a little more luck with getting their partner hooked up with some fish.

Right now the fishing is on fire down at Kentucky Lake and I suggest that there's no better time to make a trip to that lake. It's just nuts how good the fishing is down their right now as the water continues to drop making the fish very active. If you are heading down to Kentucky Lake make sure you pack your crankbaits and bring some OMEGA football jigs with you! It will be a blast!

Tackle:

7 Foot Medium Heavy AiRRUS Copperhead Rod, 12lb mono, deep crankbaits

7 Foot Medium Heavy AiRRUS Co-Matrix Rod, 20lb Fluorocarbon, OMEGA Football Jig.

I think one of the keys to my performance was using the right tackle for the job. The Co-Matrix is just an awesome jig rod that gives you a lot of power as well as sensitivity for throwing jigs. I didn't have to hold anything back when I was powering these big bass to the boat and the AiRRUS Copperhead rod was great for throwing those big crankbaits a long ways. I added a couple of rattles to my jigs with the Naked Bait Co skirt expander and the skirts I was using on my jig was a hand made black and blue that had a little bit of purple in it to help it stand out in the muddy water.

Guide to Vandalia Lake

Vandalia Lake located in Vandalia, IL is a 660 acre lake with about 12 miles of shoreline. It's about an hour and a half drive from St. Louis and is easy to find as all you have to do is get on hwy 270 and head east. The little lake offers some of the best bass fishing around for both numbers and size. Fish in the four to six pound class are pretty common and some fish around eight to nine pounds show up during the course of the year. I've spent some time on this lake and typically it will take eighteen to twenty four pounds to win a tournament. Two years ago a five fish limit of twenty nine pounds was weighed in late fall! You won't find weights like this on practically any other Illinois lakes that doesn't have a power plant. In order to fish the lake boaters are required to pay a launch fee but it goes to keeping up the lake and to the stocking program. The lake has a marina which offers licenses, gasoline, snacks, and bait.

The lake fishes fairly big for it's size because there are a lot of coves and points. The lake has a good amount of docks while it also features a lot of wood and rock to fish. The lake is a power fishermans paradise and big bass can be caught shallow as well as deep.

Right now with all the unseasonal cool weather we have been having I would imagine the fish haven't moved really deep yet on Vandalia. I would start with a black or white buzzbait or a frog and fish the lakes shallow grass lines. One of the best follow up baits to have on the deck if you miss a fish is a texas rigged sweet beaver with a 3/0 honey hole flipping hook. The lake always has a real good buzzbait bite this time of the year if you get cloud cover. If you don't get bit on the buzzbait pick up a square bill crankbait and head to the wood or rock. The key to getting bit is to bang your bait off the cover. The fish on the lake will either be in the grass or on the wood or rock you just have to experiment for the shallow bite. While the lake has docks the bigger fish don't seem to use them as much. If you are pounding the shallows on the lake and you are catching two to three pounders it's time to get out off the bank.

Vandalia Lake gets fished shallow to death by the local crowd. The shallow bite can still be productive but once the shallow bite dies and only two to three pounders are showing up I love getting out on the lakes main lake structure to start whacking on some big pigs. When you get to the lake you will see all the shallow cover but if you spend some time looking at your depth finder you will be amazed with the amount of off-shore structure the lake has to offer. You will stumble upon old tree lines, sunken brushpiles, humps, and rocks. The best ways to go about fishing all these bass hide outs is to tie on a big crankbait and a big football jig. I've caught a lot of five plus pounders hurling 3/4oz to 1oz black and blue OMEGA Derek Remitz Signature Series Jigs to off shore irregularities out on Vandalia. For the jig trailer one of the best for getting the big fish interested is a Zoom Super Chunk in black blue flake. For some reason I've caught way more bigger fish on that trailer than a paca chunk. I don't get a lot of bites but I will usually average four to five pounders on that jig and get 5 to 6 good bites a day to put me in contention to win a tournament on that lake. One last thing to try is to carolina rig a big lizard or centipede. I haven't ever done good on the lake with a 10 inch worm.

When it comes to tackle on this lake bigger is better. On this lake I rarely fish anything less than 20lb line. If I'm fishing shallow brush, rock, or grass I will spool up with 65 pound braid for most of the baits I throw. When I throw my jigs it is always on 20lb test. If you try to get away with 14 or 17 you will have your heart broken on that lake. This I can promise you!

Going Post Spawn

One of my favorite times to be on the water is during the post spawn. On any given day you can catch them on anything from a topwater up shallow to a big football jig out deep. If you are a versatile fisherman that likes to fish a lot of different baits and catch a lot of fish then it's a good time to be on the water.

One of the first things I look for if I want to get in on the shallow bite is to look for the fry. I don't know how many times I've caught fish throwing topwaters like buzzbaits into pods of fry up on the bank to just get it smashed. During the last BFL on Truman Lake the bass were up guarding fry and I was able to snatch a 3lber up doing this that ultimately helped propel me onto a 12th place finish in the tournament. A lot of times a topwater will be better than something else like a spinnerbait or a crankbait in this situation because the spit you get out of a topwater creates a lot of havoc on the surface and gets the fry to dart triggering strikes. When you a fishing a buzzbait do not forget to have some sort of follow up bait ready on another rod at your side. If a bass blows up and misses your buzzbait you can almost always pick up another rod and throw back into the boil and get the fish to bite again. The key is to be prepared. One of the best follow up baits for me has been a texas rigged Sweet Beaver.

If you don't want to hit the shallows take a look at the points at the mouths of the spawning pockets and structure next to spawning areas. A lot of anglers will continue to pound the banks because there will be fish up there but if you can get out off the bank and use your electronics you can get into big schools of fish that will eat almost anything. A good fish finder is a must for exploring long points, humps, and creek channel bends in search of bait. When the fish finder lights up that is when you need to drop the trolling motor. A lot of times these fish are very hungry and it doesn't take long to load the boat when you find them. As far as baits go start out throwing a deep diving crankbait making sure to bump the structure. After you catch the active fish off the spot you can slow down with a big football jig or a shakeyhead and milk the area for fish that didn't want to chase down the crankbait. A carolina rig is something that I hate to throw but make sure you have one on to finish up because there will be times when they want something hovering a little off the bottom. For crankbaits I really like the Strike King Series of crankbaits, the Norman DD22's, and Smack Tackle's Gizz 4. When it comes to football jigs the OMEGA Pro Mega Structure Jig as heavy as 7/8th oz and the OMEGA Derek Remitz Signature Series football jig in 3/4oz work great! An OMEGA Shakeyfoot with a Senko is another great set up. On my carolina rigs I usually have good luck with lizards and brush hogs.

Stick Them During the Shad Spawn

Keying in on the shad spawn can be a great way to put a couple of keepers in the boat during the early morning hours of your tournament once your water starts to heat up. When the water temps reach around 70 the shad start to spawn. Shad will run up on banks with hard surfaces like rip rap, clay, and sometimes sea walls to lay their eggs. If you are observant often you can spot shad jumping out of the water as they make their way down the bank laying their eggs. The fish will be right up on the bank so your bait selection is fairly limited because you are looking to run and gun and catch active fish with this technique as it is best during the low light morning hours.

One of the best baits to have tied on is a spinnerbait. If you have clear water try one with double willow leaf blades and a white skirt to start. This will give you a lot of flash and let you fish it very quickly through areas getting those active fish to strike. I like to take the spinnerbait and burn it and then kill it. A lot of times when you kill it they will smash it. My rod of choice is a 7 foot Medium Heavy AiRRUS Co-Matrix Rod with a high speed 7.1 reel.

My second bait of choice would have to be a shallow running square bill crankbait like a Lucky Craft Rick Clunn 1.5 or a Smack Tackle Gizz 4. As far as colors go I pretty much stick to a white with a black back to imitate the shad. I try to get the bait to hit off the rocks and I fish it very erratic mixing in some twitches here and there. My rod choice is a 7 foot Medium AiRRUS Copperhead Rod with a 7.1 reel.

One last bait to have tied up is a swim jig. I will throw white to try and imitate the shad but but I've had a lot more success on a black and blue swim jig. I think the whole key behind it is the fish don't get as good a look at it. What I do with the swim jig is I throw it parallel to the bank and give it some twitches on the retrieve back to the boat. It can work better than a spinnerbait some days because it doesn't have as much flash. Check out the OMEGA Revelation Swim Jig for your jig swimming. For my swim jig fishing I use a 7 foot Medium Heavy AiRRUS Co-Matrix Rod with a 7.1 burner reel.

Fishing the shad spawn is an often overlooked pattern that happens on every lake. Shad are already starting to spawn on some of the lakes down south. A couple of my buddies down at the lake have seen the shad getting up on the bank already so now is the time to get out. Good Fishing and God Bless!