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Tackle Tuesday is Back
“Tackle Tuesday” is back! One of my favorite ways to catch smallmouth bass is with a Strike King Coffee Tube. Add it to your arsenal and you’re sure to catch more bass.
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Get all the products Keith uses here.
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Stetson Blaylock: Add Primetyme CB 1.5 to Your Fall Arsenal
As cooling waters and changing baitfish patterns start to influence bass fisheries around the country, Team Livingston pro Stetson Blaylock has some advice for anglers looking to take advantage of fish transitioning out of deep waters: “Get yourself some Primetyme Coffin Bill 1.5s”
Blaylock has some well-documented hands-on experience with the Primetyme family of crankbaits in general – he finished sixth at the Lake Toho FLW Tour event this season thanks to a Gold Shad PrimeTyme SQ 2.0 – and has always been fond of the CB 1.5 as a search bait. This time of year, though, the CB 1.5 becomes especially handy in tracking down wolf packs of bass as they follow baitfish up into the shallows.
photo : FLW
“You can cover a lot of water with that bait and locate those schools of fish that are moving around in a lake looking for shad,” Blaylock advises. “The CB 1.5 casts really well. You can just put your trolling motor on high and cast it as you move.”
The biggest advantages of the CB 1.5 this time of year, though, are the bait’s size, and the power of Electronic Baitfish Sounds (EBS) MultiTouch™ technology.
“Fish are feeding on little bitty shad this time of year, and the PrimeTyme CB 1.5 imitates a small shad really well,” Blaylock says. “You have the biggest difference-maker possible with EBS: I’ll set it on EBS Shad™ or EBS Original™, both of which are the sounds of actual shad, and get into the backs of creeks as fish move up to feed on shad. I’ll throw the CB 1.5 in Real Shad, XXX Shad, Clearwater Shad or one of the other Livingston shad colors. There are a bunch of good ones to choose from.”
Terminal setup: Blaylock throws the PrimeTyme CB 1.5 on a 7-foot medium heavy 13 Fishing rod, 10- to 20-pound line.
Pros Choose One Lure for Fall, and Offer One Football Scholarship
Three top Bassmaster Elite Series pros were asked to choose just one lure to fish with this fall.
And then, just for fun, here in the heart of football season, they were also told to pretend they were the head coach of their favorite college team, and had just one scholarship to offer. The one catch – the ‘scholarship player’ had to be chosen from the current roster of their fellow Elite Series pros.
Jordan Lee – “Man, fall is the perfect time for hand-to-hand combat fishing on the grass edges,” says Lee, who finished a highly admirable 9th as a rookie in the final standings of the Toyota Bassmaster Angler of the Year points race.
“You gotta go big with this style of fishing, so I’m choosing a Texas-rigged Strike King rodent with a ¾ ounce weight, tied to 65-pound braid on a large-spooled Quantum EXO 200 reel,” says the 24-year-old Guntersville resident.
Lee, who was dominant as a Carhartt Bassmaster College Series angler at Auburn, chose a fellow Alabama pro as his scholarship recipient. “I’m picking Gerald Swindle, and he’s going to play quarterback,” says Lee. “Swindle’s 6’ 4” with big hands – all great quarterbacks have big hands, right? Plus, he’s smart, a motivator, a former athlete that still trains hard, and he’s a huge believer in leading with a positive mental attitude.”
Jacob Powroznik – “The thing I love about this time of year is that bass get shallow again, and they’re eating,” says Powroznik. “They get on shallow laydowns, shallow docks, and shallow vegetation – and my top pick for just one lure would be a 3/8-ounce V & M Cliff Pace Flippin’ Jig on 15-pound Hi-Seas fluorocarbon line, spooled on a 7.3:1 Quantum EXO reel,” says Powroznik.
“With a 3/8 ounce flippin jig, you can swim it to look like a bluegill or baitfish, or drop it more vertically, to act like a crawfish – either way – they’ll bite that jig around all kinds of shallow habitat,” explains Powroznik.
Somewhat surprisingly, Powroznik, a Virginia resident, chose Clemson as his favorite college team. His scholarship offer goes to Russ “Big Daddy” Lane. “Russ is a big dude. He’s got a big upper body, but fairly slender legs. So I’m thinking he’s got plenty of size, but also enough speed to be my linebacker. Plus, he was a former college baseball pitcher, so I know he’s athletic.”
Greg Hackney – “Can I answer that my favorite lure for fall is a 300 Weatherby?” asked the quick witted 2014 Toyota Bassmaster Angler of the Year, who is obviously an avid whitetail hunter too.
“Man, that’s a tough question – just one lure – wow – I guess I’d say a ¾ ounce jig in a color called blue craw,” decided Hackney. “I’ve caught a ton of bass on a heavy jig in the fall.”
“Now, one tip I’ll give you, is that the water is typically pretty clean and clear in the fall, so instead of using braided line, I’ll use 16 to 20 pound Gamma fluorocarbon,” explains Hackney. “If I’m throwing the big jig on deeper structure, I’ll use a 7’ 6” Quantum rod, but if I’m pitching grass with it – I’ll beef up to a heavier 7’ 10” rod.”
As far as Coach Hackney’s pick for a football player to join his beloved LSU Tigers – no surprise, he again was thinking outside the box. “Give me Carl Jocumsen – all those Australians are good kickers – he’s gonna be my kicker – I bet he’s good at it.”
Fall Fishing Tips with Fat Cat
Here is some Monday humor from Fat Cat. Self proclaimed bass pro Fat Cat Newton shows how to adjust crank baits for any depth and how he preps his lures for fall fishing.
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Daytona State College Wins Conference Championship on Pickwick Lake
FLORENCE, Ala. (Sept. 27, 2015) – The Daytona State College team of brothers James and Thomas Oltorik, both of Deland, Florida, won the FLW College Fishing Southeastern Conference Championship on Pickwick Lake Sunday with a two-day total of eight bass weighing 35 pounds, 2 ounces. The victory earned the club $4,000 and qualified the team for the 2016 FLW College Fishing National Championship.
After bringing a 25-pound, 14-ounce five-bass limit to the scales on Saturday, the Daytona State brothers had a commanding lead and started day two with a 5-pound, 1-ounce advantage. However, lake conditions changed drastically on Sunday and the duo only managed to catch three keepers. It turned out to be enough as they narrowly edged Clemson University by a slim 5-ounce margin.
“Yesterday we caught all of our fish in a 100-yard stretch of grass that we had found in practice,” said older brother Thomas, a senior majoring in Business. “They were pulling water and there was quite a bit of current, which was very important. We caught eight good keepers, and left the area around 1:30, to try to save some fish for day two. Today the water levels had dropped a foot and the conditions were totally different. We caught quite a few fish that were short, but we only managed three keepers.”
The Daytona State club said that they caught the majority of their fish flipping the grass with a Texas-rigged junebug blue- or watermelon-colored Bitter’s B.F.M.
“Saturday was a lot of fun,” said James, a sophomore also majoring in Business. “We caught a seven and a half-pounder and a six and a half-pounder within five minutes of each other, around 1:45. We were definitely nervous this afternoon, but we stayed in the same area all day long and saw a lot of the other teams doing a lot of running. We knew that the conditions were really tough, so we were hoping that our day one lead was going to be enough to hang on and get the win. We’re pumped that it was.”
The top 10 teams that advanced to the 2016 FLW College Fishing National Championship are:
1st: Daytona State College – James Oltorik and Thomas Oltorik, both of Deland, Fla. (eight bass, 35-2, $4,000)
2nd: Clemson University – Ross Burns, Columbia, S.C., and Isaac Nesbitt, Aiken, S.C. (10 bass, 34-13, $2,000)
3rd: Georgia Highlands College – Eric Fisher, Kennesaw, Ga., and Jake Akin, Powder Springs, Ga. (10 bass, 32-14, $1,000)
4th: University of North Alabama – Dawson Lenz, Peachtree City, Ga., and Andrew Tate, Florence, Ala. (10 bass, 31-3, $1,000)
5th: Auburn University – Mitchell Jennings, Auburn, Ala., and Timmy Ward, Sylacauga, Ala. (10 bass, 29-15, $1,000)
6th: Gadsden State Community College – Josh Oliver, Anniston, Ala., and Colby Smith, Jacksonville, Ala. (seven bass, 28-9)
7th: Western Carolina University – Tyler Thomasson, Whittier, N.C., and Josh Cannon, Waxhaw, N.C. (10 bass, 27-10)
8th: Auburn University – Ethan Hayes and Garrett Roberts, both of Cullman, Ala. (10 bass, 27-1)
9th: University of South Carolina – Chris Blanchette, Irmo, S.C., and Hampton Anderson, Anderson, S.C. (10 bass, 26-10)
10th: University of Alabama-Birmingham – Matthew Oliver, Gardendale, Ala., and Justin Woodruff, Pelham, Ala. (10 bass, 26-7)
Complete results can be found at FLWFishing.com.
The FLW College Fishing Southeastern Conference Championship was hosted by Visit Florence.
FLW College Fishing teams compete in qualifying tournaments in one of five conferences – Central, Northern, Southern, Southeastern and Western. The top fifteen teams from each regular-season tournament qualify for one of five Conference Championship tournaments. The top ten teams from each of the five Conference Championship tournaments will advance to the 2016 FLW College Fishing National Championship.
College Fishing is free to enter. All participants must be registered, full-time students at a college, university or community college and members of a fishing club recognized by their college or university.
For regular updates, photos, tournament news and more, follow College Fishing on Facebook at Facebook.com/FLWFishing and on Twitter at Twitter.com/FLWFishing. Visit CollegeFishing.com to sign up or to start a club at your school.
ABOUT FLW
FLW is the industry’s premier tournament-fishing organization, providing anglers of all skill levels the opportunity to compete for millions in prize money nationwide in 2015 over the course of 240 tournaments across five tournament circuits, four of which provide an avenue to the sport’s richest payday and most coveted championship trophy – the Forrest Wood Cup. FLW tournament fishing can be seen on the Emmy-nominated “FLW” television show and is broadcast to more than 564 million households worldwide, making it the most widely distributed weekly outdoors-sports television show in the world. For more information about FLW visit FLWFishing.com and look for FLW on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.