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Orange Lures Work Well for Early Spring Bass Fishing
March is mostly affiliated with St. Patty’s green, but among serious bass anglers, orange is the color that should never be overlooked in spring’s chilly and rain-stained pre-spawn waters. In fact, a fast glance at the 2016 Bassmaster Classic competitors’ lure choices revealed orange to be hugely popular.
Like many of his competitors, Team Toyota’s Mike Iaconelli leaned on an orange crawdad colored Rapala Shad Rap at the 2016 Classic, and too many Classic anglers to mention cranked orange/red shallow squarebills.
Last year’s winner Casey Ashley leaned on a jig with orange strands in the skirt, and this year’s $300,000 winner Edwin Evers included a spinnerbait with the once secretive orange/red front kicker blade in his three-day arsenal.
The goodness of orange is certainly not limited to Grand Lake o’ the Cherokees. Anytime water surface temps are in the 50s, and stained to muddy, orange will likely be the most productive color you can tie on, and the variety of lures containing the beacon hue is a vast one.
Rapala Shad Rap – Some choose the #5 size – others choose the #7, but few leave the dock without this orange/brown bait in early spring. Consider upgrading the hook size to make this light as a tater chip lure cast easier, and suspend a little better in the face of lethargic bass.
Orange Soft Plastic Pinchers – There are virtually dozens of different crawfish species throughout the United States, and most feature orange pinchers. If you’re going to tip a bulky jig with a soft plastic craw – utilizing one with highly visible orange pinchers in off-colored water simply makes sense.
Storm Wiggle Wart – Arguably the best pre-spawn, wide-wobbling, commotion causing crankbait in history has deep roots to the color orange.
“Gary, Bill and Dick Storm actually talked to Missouri Department of Conservation biologists in the late 1960s to research crawfish colors,” remembers Jim Morton, a former B.A.S.S. pro who worked closely with Storm for 31 years. “They learned there were 26 different species of crawfish in the White River drainage basin around Table Rock, Beaver, Norfork and Bull Shoals and most of them had orange on their pinchers, and elsewhere on their bodies.”
“That’s why the earliest and most popular V62 and V63 green crawfish and brown crawfish-colored Wiggle Warts were painted with orange paint on the diving bill,” explains Morton. “The Storm brothers also learned that instead of leaving the belly of the lure white, that adding orange to the bellies triggered far more bass to bite.”
Lipless Crankbaits – When aquatic vegetation is present, few lures catch more pre-spawn bass than orange/red shades of lipless crankbaits. The key is to ‘tick’ the tops of the submerged vegetation with the lure, to trigger strikes. Fish it too slow, and you’ll bog down in the salad, fish it too fast and you won’t get as many bites. Use a rod with plenty of backbone to help you jerk the lure free when it does bog down, yet with a soft enough tip to keep these easily shaken lures hooked as well as possible. Quantum’s TKVDC6106F is a great 6’ 10” stick for lipless cranks.
Spinnerbaits – Replacing the traditional sliver or gold front blade of a spinnerbait with an orange/red kicker blade was largely a secret among anglers in Oklahoma, Arkansas and Missouri, until the success of top regional spinnerbait assaultants like Ron Shaw became hard-to-hide.
“It was pretty much a secret when I started throwing it in the early 90s, and then I shared it with Ken Cook, and eventually it became a big part of the product line that Hart Tackle Company offered back then,” remembers Shaw.
“Ken always said it was an all or nothing lure – either they’d hardly hit the orange/red kicker blade – or you’d wear ‘em out on it. And I agree with him – but when the water temps are in the low 50s, I lean on it hard. It’s always a go-to bait for me in stained to dirty water in early Spring,” says Shaw, a retired Moore, OK firefighter that now represents Skeeter Boats.
Certainly, the uniquely colored blade is no longer a secret. Nearly 25 years after Hart Tackle Company made limited numbers of them, several 2016 Bassmaster Classic competitors used one made by various brands, including winner Edwin Evers.
Squarebill Crankbaits – Perhaps the most popular lure of all at the 2016 Bassmaster Classic, because cold water, rocky banks, and orange craw colored crankbaits make for a hard-to-rival early Spring equation for success.
Brady Winans, a Toyota Trucks Bonus Bucks pro staffer, whose name is often at the top of the standings in Texas events, admits he has a bit of a crankbait obsession – especially orange ones in early spring.
“When the water temps range from 50 to 55 degrees you can crush ‘em on a new bait called the Movement 80X from 6th Sense Lures, in a color called Wild Lava Crush,” says an enthusiastic Winans. “That bait hunts hard, and vibrates likes a #7 Colorado blade on a spinnerbait.”
“Now, once the water temps hit 60, they favor shad patterns, but in the lower 50s they crush those orange colors like Wild Lava Craw and Lava Treuse,” concludes Winans.
Black Cats and Grab Bag en Route to Bassmaster Elite
Tulsa International Airport currently has more construction than 400 miles of Interstate 40. Parking is at a very high premium – which will cause a spikey haired marketing guy to bust into a cold sweat as he begins to feel late for his flight, and circles like a buzzard on a roadkill skunk at 5:00 am, looking for a place to land his Tundra.
Finally a nice Native American man on a golf cart saved my bacon and escorted me to a ‘secret’ unmarked spot on the upper deck. But first a black cat crossed in front of me.
I told a soldier in uniform “Thank You for your service” as I walked across the dark parking lot with roller bag in tow.
Once inside, the flight was delayed by 20 minutes – because the sucker had hit a bird on its way into Tulsa late last night.
A bird had to be cleaned from the bird.
I had one carry on – I put the little red airport issued tag on it next to my ‘Outdoor Channel TV’ luggage tag that houses my address card, gave it to the good man at the end of the jetway, and sat down in 21A next to a beautiful crying baby.
We touched down in Charlotte and my bag was missing.
Panic.
Here … some old fart (and y’all know I truly love old guys) decided he liked my bag better than his. After 27 new grey hairs, a couple cuss words, and a giant Thank You to the single co-pilot that saved the day – we tracked the guy down – I got my bag back – and said thank you twice more to the co-pilot.
So grateful – because me in Palatka, FL all week with one pair of boxer shorts would have been a bad deal for all involved.
Lunch was one of those ‘fresh’ 37-hour-old turkey and cheese sandwiches from the porta deli in the middle of the airport.
And y’all wonder why guys like James Overstreet and myself would rather drive 14 hours to a Bassmaster event – than fly 4 – any day.
“At the baggage claim, you got a lot of luggage in your name. When you hit the ground, check the lost and found -Cause it ain’t my problem now. I can’t carry it on, I’ve got a lot of troubles on my own. It’s all over the yard, in the trunk of the car, I’m packin’ it in, so come and get it.” – Miranda Lambert
Thrift Catches 30 Pounds, Wins FLW Series On Santee Cooper
MANNING, S.C. (March 12, 2016) – FLW Tour star Bryan Thrift of Shelby, North Carolina, weighed a monster five-bass limit totaling 30 pounds, 7 ounces Saturday to win the Costa FLW Series Southeastern Division event on Santee Cooper presented by Frabill with a three-day total of 14 bass weighing 79 pounds, 15 ounces. For his win, Thrift earned $48,200 and a new Ranger Z518 bass boat with a 200-horsepower Evinrude outboard engine.
“It’s really nice to get a win after the terrible start that I’d had to begin this season,” said Thrift, who earned his eighth career win in FLW competition and pushed his career earnings to more than $1.75 million. “The two poor finishes at Okeechobee were a pretty big monkey on my back. I had no idea how I’d do in this event after my practice, but it was a fun tournament and I brought in the biggest bag that I’ve ever weighed today.”
Thrift estimated that he caught 10 fish on day one, just four on day two, and around 20 today, the third and final day of competition. He junk-fished throughout the week, catching fish on a green-pumpkin Damiki Mamba jig with a Damiki Knock Out or a Zoom Super Chunk, a Damiki DC200 crankbait, an unnamed frog and a Rat-L-Trap.
“I’m pretty sure that I caught fish in all three phases of the spawn,” Thrift said. “The key for me this week was my signature series 6’9” Fitzgerald Skipping Special rod. It has enough tip to get the bass out of the wood but is still small enough to be able to skip a jig into areas that a longer rod can’t.”
Thrift lived up to his nickname of “Smoke on the Water”, as he fished both Marion and Moultrie lakes in all three days of competition and estimated that he used 30 to 35 gallons of gasoline each day.
“I guarantee that I ran faster and farther than anyone this week,” Thrift said on stage. “My Ranger and (Evinrude) G2 ran flawlessly. I didn’t re-visit any of the same spots and ran all new water every day.”
The top 10 pros on Santee Cooper were:
1st: Bryan Thrift, Shelby, N.C., 14 bass, 79-15, $48,200 and a Ranger Z518 w/ 200-horsepower outboard
2nd: Pat Fisher, Colbert, Ga., 15 bass, 76-2, $19,500
3rd: Glenn Browne, Ocala, Fla., 15 bass, 71-3, $14,000
4th: Bradley Dortch, Bay Minette, Ala., 15 bass, 70-14, $12,000
5th: Preston Clark, Eagle Lake, Fla., 15 bass, 69-2, $11,000
6th: Tim Malone, Gatlinburg, Tenn., 14 bass, 61-0, $9,000
7th: Jay Kendrick, Grant, Ala., 14 bass, 57-9, $7,800
8th: Todd Smith, Summerville, S.C., 15 bass, 56-9, $6,800
9th: Rob Digh, Denver, N.C., 12 bass, 52-13, $5,800
10th: Zach Crider, Tunnel Hill, Ga., 11 bass, 49-15, $4,400
Complete results will be posted at FLWFishing.com.
Levi Christianson of Nisswa, Minnesota, caught the biggest bass of the tournament in the pro division Thursday – a largemouth weighing 9 pounds, 15 ounces to earn him the day’s Big Bass award of $300.
Todd Walters of Summerville, South Carolina, won the co-angler division, $6,100 and a Ranger Z117 with a 90-horsepower Evinrude or Mercury outboard motor, with a three-day total of 15 bass weighing 55 pounds, 11 ounces.
The top 10 co-anglers on Santee Cooper were:
1st: Todd Walters, Summerville, S.C., 15 bass, 55-11, $6,100 and a Ranger Z117 w/ 90-horsepower outboard motor
2nd: Sean Lewis, Baskerville, Va., 10 bass, 39-8, $6,000
3rd: Gerald Bozeman, Sylvester, Ga., nine bass, 35-13, $4,850
4th: Patrick Cook, Johnsonville, S.C., 10 bass, 33-10, $3,900
5th: Kyle Parks, Albany, Ga., seven bass, 32-8, $3,400
6th: Jeff Rikard, Leesville, S.C., eight bass, 28-15, $2,900
7th: John Duarte, Middle River, Md., nine bass, 28-14, $2,400
8th: Randol Stone, Marianna, Fla., nine bass, 27-12, $1,950
9th: Nick Cupps, Chattanooga, Tenn., nine bass, 27-4, $1,580
10th: Lonnie Drusch, Sumter, S.C., eight bass, 27-3, $1,330
Jeremy Cianfarano of Greenville, South Carolina, caught the biggest bass of the tournament in the co-angler division Thursday weighing 8 pounds, 9 ounces to earn him the day’s Big Bass award of $200.
The Costa FLW Series consists of five divisions – Central, Northern, Southeastern, Southwestern and Western. Each division consists of three tournaments with competitors vying for valuable points that could earn them the opportunity to fish in the Costa FLW Series Championship. The 2016 Costa FLW Series Championship is being held Nov. 3-5 on Table Rock Lake in Branson, Missouri.
The Costa FLW Series on Santee Cooper was hosted by the Clarendon County Chamber of Commerce. It was the second Southeastern Division tournament of 2016. The next Costa FLW Series tournament will be the Central Division opener, held March 31-April 2, on Lake Dardanelle in Russellville, Arkansas. For a complete schedule, visit FLWFishing.com.
For complete details and updated information visit FLWFishing.com. For regular updates, photos, tournament news and more, follow the Costa FLW Series on Facebook at Facebook.com/FLWFishing and on Twitter at Twitter.com/FLWFishing.
About FLW
FLW is the world’s largest tournament-fishing organization, providing anglers of all skill levels the opportunity to compete for millions in prize money in 2016 across five tournament circuits. Headquartered in Benton, Kentucky, with offices in Minneapolis, FLW conducts more than 235 bass-fishing tournaments annually across the United States and sanctions tournaments in Canada, China, Mexico and South Korea. FLW tournament fishing can be seen on the Emmy-nominated “FLW” television show, broadcast to more than 564 million households worldwide, while FLW Bass Fishing magazine delivers cutting-edge tips from top pros. For more information visit FLWFishing.com and follow FLW at Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Periscope: @FLWFishing.
Sprig Choices from Molix
Elite Series pro Carl Jacumsen talks about a few Molix baits he plans using at the next few spring tournaments he will be fishing.
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Follow Carl on his Facebook page.
Find out more about Molix here.
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Top Tips: Action Shots
Under Armour and Strike king Pro Jamey Caldwell shares some tips on how to capture fishing action shots on the water.
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