THE LATEST NEWS

Mountain Home, AR– Premium rod maker Denali Rods has announced the signing of Bassmaster Elite Series “rookie” Chad Morgenthaler of Coulterville, IL to their National Pro-Staff. A Rookie in name only, Morgenthaler qualified for the Elites by winning the Bassmaster Classic Wildcard event held on Lake Okeechobee last December and has amassed over $500,000 dollars fishing FLW Tour, BASS, and PAA events.

Morgenthaler is known for being detail oriented, a trait that led to the partnership with Denali. “I’ve been looking around at different rod companies for a few months and had the opportunity to stop by the Denali offices after the Table Rock event. Once I got my hands on their rods I was immediately impressed by their level of detail, quality finish, and feel. I also hit it off really well with Scott and the rest of the team, so we started working on a deal right there.”

Fishing heavy cover is one of Morgenthaler’s passions, and he is really excited to debut the Denali line at the upcoming Toledo Bend derby. “Fishing in the thick stuff is super tough on a rod. One of the things I love about the Denali rods is their use of high quality components like heavy duty ceramic guides. Most problems with rods occur at the guides, and ceramic inserts are the deal. Toledo Bend has some big fish and lots of heavy cover, so I’m really excited to get down there and start fishing.”

Denali president Scott Estes is also excited about the addition of Morgenthaler, saying “In this business, it’s important to make sure that the anglers you align yourself with represent similar ideals and are willing to help grow the brand. Chad is a great human being and fits that description to a tee. He has been a consistent and tireless force on the tour and in the media for many years, and we look forward to helping Chad succeed.”

Founded in 2009, Denali has seen a rapid rise in sales and exposure despite a tough economy. That is a testament to the company’s dedication to quality, product development and customer support. Denali offers four complete lines of quality rods starting at $79.99 and their rods come with a limited lifetime warranty against material and workmanship defects. For more information about Denali Rods, go to www.denalirods.com.

Unless you live in one of the northern states, you’re probably pretty safe in thinking that spring is officially here. That’s a good thing too, because I don’t think we could take any more cold, nasty weather, and especially no more of that awful white stuff.

Enjoy April!

Scott Estes

President, Denali Rods

Denali News:

Murphy Takes 3^rd at Smith Lake BASS Open:

Continuing the trend of outstanding finishes in major tournaments, Denali pro Michael Murphy parlayed a three day catch of 47.15 into a third place finish at the BASS Southern Open held March 6-8 on Alabama’s Smith Lake.

Murphy relied on the combination of an umbrella rig and an Ima Flit jerkbait to pull chunky spots and largemouth from the lake’s abundance of docks and shallow cover. About the finish, Murphy said “It was a really fun tournament. The fish were biting well. Anytime you can catch pre-spawners that are feeding aggressively it’s a blast.”

Under current BASS rules, the top 5 in angler of the year points from each of the Opens divisions will qualify for the 2015 Bassmaster Elite Series. After his third place finish at Smith, Murphy sits comfortably in 20^th place in the points, well within striking distance of Elite qualification. The third and final Bassmaster Southern Open will be held on North Carolina’s Lake Norman, a lake only two hours away from Murphy’s Columbia, SC home. Read More

Sloan Wins ABA on Tyler:

Staffer Drew Sloan brought in a tournament best 13.81 pound stringer to win the second event of the East Texas division of the ABA Weekend Series held March 15^th on Texas’ Lake Tyler. Sloan’s win was good enough to net him a cool $2056 dollars. Read More.

Watson Tops Eufala BFL:

Patrick Watson wrapped up the co-angler title at the March 8^th BFL held on Alabama’s Lake Eufala. Watson caught a five fish limit that weighed 13-15; better than 134 other anglers on the non-boater side. For his victory, Watson earned $2,305 and valuable points toward a spot in the BFL St. Johns River Regional, which will be held October 9-11. Read More.

Denali Pros Pick Pre-spawn Favorites:

April is a time of transition for bass anglers across the country. Except for those located in the Deep South, bass across most of the country will be moving out of their winter haunts and beginning the annual migration to their spawning grounds. This transition can make locating bass a little tricky, but once found they are usually hungry, because they need to eat as much as they can before beginning the stressful spawning routine.

Because of the aforementioned need to feed, pre-spawn bass fishing can be some of the most exciting fishing of the year for both numbers and size, as heavy spawn-laden females come to the scales in almost every pre-spawn tournament.

We have quite a stable of great springtime sticks on the Denali Tour-level staff, so we thought it would be a good idea to check in with several this month for their favorite pre-spawn techniques. You may want to give a couple a try while out on the water this April.

Charlie Evans – Go Wacky

Denali and FLW Tour pro Charlie Evans has been fishing tournaments competitively since 1971. During that time he has been fortunate enough to fish some of the best bass lakes in the country, often multiple times over his career and during all seasons.

After fishing that many places at that many times of the year, Evans has out of necessity become a huge proponent of techniques that catch fish everywhere he goes through the course of a tournament year. “I like to keep it simple, and use things that catch fish from coast to coast because we don’t have a ton of time to practice for Tour events. During the pre-spawn, there’s nothing that catches more fish than a wacky worm.”

Pre-spawn fish may hold on a variety of structures depending on where you are regionally, but they generally all have one thing in common, they are shallow. The wacky worm is a killer in shallow water, and Evans has caught so many fish on it that he never leaves the dock in the springtime without one on his front deck, saying “I’m not sure what it is about that thing, but they can’t resist it. I’ve seen fish come from 20 feet away to eat a slow shimmying wacky worm.”

Evans targets cover and structure in close proximity to spawning areas as well as the actual flats themselves. “I like to cover a lot of water and throw that worm up next to anything I come across. It doesn’t have to be much, sometimes just a little stick is enough to hold a giant bass. The wacky worm casts well and also skips a mile, so you can efficiently target just about any type of cover or structure.”

Gear

The wacky worming setup Evans uses is, just like the technique, pretty simple. He starts with a Denali Noirwood 7′ medium power spinning rod paired  with a 2000 size Team Lews Gold spinning reel spooled with 6 or 10lb Tuff Line Supercast braid. About the rod, Evans thinks that throwing a wacky rig requires a specific action that the Noirwood model has in spades. “When you’re throwing a wacky rig, it’s very light so you need a flexible enough tip to make long casts. You’re also usually fishing around cover so you need the rod to still maintain enough backbone to get a big one turned. It seems like that Noirwood rod was designed specifically for wacky worming and I’ve caught tons of fish on it.”

At the business end of his setup, Evans ties a 1/0 Gamakatsu straight shank hook to which he hooks an original Zoom Finesse Worm or Trick Worm depending on the size of the fish in the waterbody, and the water color.

As far as bait colors go, Evans jokingly maintains a pretty complex scheme, saying “I use a bunch of colors for my wacky worm, as long as they are all green pumpkin.” One detail that he does integrate however is to always dye the tail chartreuse, dying an inch or two in dirtier water and just a little tip in clear water.

Another rigging tip Evans offers regarding wacky worming is to use a split ring the same way a lot of anglers use o-rings when fishing Senkos. “I use a split ring just slightly smaller than the diameter of the finesse worm and slide it onto the egg sac. Hook your bait through the split ring and you can fish one worm most of the day.”

Rich Dalbey – Make it Chatter

Hailing from Texas, FLW Pro Rich Dalbey knows what it is like to catch big bass during the pre-spawn window. The Texas reservoirs he calls home are notorious for pounding out big bass after big bass each spring. Being that they are almost all lowland impoundments, they also feature mostly shallow contours and an abundance of timber, both in stumps and standing timber.

The pre-spawn bite on lowland reservoirs revolves around the concept of drains. Drains are little ditches and channels that cut through expansive flats; giving bass natural corridors for traveling shallow from deeper water. Dalbey’s favorite pre-spawn tactic is to fish drains with a vibrating jig, something he has employed to great success over his short career as a tournament pro. “Drains are bass magnets in the springtime.” Dalbey says, continuing “Every fish that comes out of deep water is going to follow one back to the spawning flats and stop on little pieces of cover or grass along the way.”

Typically, Dalbey  will identify a likely drain using his contour map or sonar, then start fishing it from deep to shallow, throwing a chatterbait along the edge and around any grass or timber that is present. “The ditches I’m fishing in the spring are usually only a couple feet deeper than the surrounding flat, and since they were once creek channels before the reservoir flooded, they have timber and rocks all along their length. In lakes with grass, the grassbeds often grow right to the edges as well, providing great cover for incoming prespawners.”

Dalbey likes the vibrating jig to target drains because it comes through cover well, works in a variety of water colors, and triggers bites from extremely big bass. “When you are fishing pre-spawn fish around drains, you are trying to trigger the big females that may be laying up in the ditches waiting to go and spawn. A vibrating jig has the commotion to trigger aggressive feeding strikes even in dirty water, and it comes through grass and wood very well.”

Gear

Dalbey’s vibrating jig setup starts with the 7’2″ Kovert Heavy power rod paired with a Lews Tournament Pro reel spooled with 17lb fluorocarbon. Dalbey thinks that the heavy action rod is a necessity for pre-spawners, saying “A lot of times you’ll be catching five plus pound fish, and if you don’t have a heavy enough rod, those big ones can get you up on the flat and wrap you around some timber. The Kovert heavy action rod has plenty of backbone to turn even the biggest fish.”

Life in the vibrating jig business has been pretty interesting lately and by the time you find one that you like, it’s probably no longer available. Dalbey has used several different models, and has one such discontinued model that he prefers, but he thinks that just about any vibrating jig will work. The key he says, is to “make sure it comes through cover well and has a strong hook, because those big pre-spawners will blast it.”

Most of the time, he uses a green pumpkin jig tipped with a 4″ Lake Fork Tackle Live Magic Shad to try and emulate a bluegill, which is what most of the pre-spawn fish are feeding on.

Michael Murphy – Throw a Blade

In the lakes and reservoirs around the South Carolina home of veteran pro Michael Murphy, there isn’t nearly the grass, vegetation, and cover that can be found in other places. The bass are still there in big numbers though, and when they move up to spawn Murphy’s favorite way to intercept them is by throwing a spinnerbait.

“There’s just something special about an old fashioned spinnerbait.” opines Murphy, continuing “When they start moving up around here it is one of the most efficient and fun ways to cover water to quickly locate them.”

Murphy thinks the best time to target pre-spawners with a spinnerbait is about two weeks before the fish actually begin the spawning ritual. Once the water temp climbs into the mid 50′s, Murphy starts fishing 45 degree banks, rip rap, rocks, and docks near well-known spawning areas. “The first areas of hard cover close to spawning areas are where the fish will hold all the way up until they go to bed. I start hitting places like that pretty early, even while I’m still fishing winter stuff, because you want to know precisely when they start loading up, because it’s a blast. You’ll also often notice that the weights start to dramatically increase at local tournaments once it starts, because all of a sudden everyone will start smoking them.”

Gear

Murphy fishes spinnerbaits primarily on the Denali 7’4″ Medium Heavy Mark Tyler Signature Series rod paired with a 6.4:1 Lews BB1 Pro baitcasting reel. About the setup, Murphy says “I think one of the most important things about spinnerbait fishing is to be able to make long casts and have an action just slow enough to allow the fish to really get the bait. That 7’4″ Signature Series rod is absolutely perfect. It launches spinnerbaits a mile even in the wind, and when a fish loads on it doesn’t pull the bait away from it. A lot of the strikes are visible this time of year, and I love that slightly slower rod so that even if I jerk early, the hook still connects.”

Murphy’s favorite spinnerbaits are made by Hildebrandt, and 99 percent of the time, he throws a half ounce model in either white or white/chartreuse. He also almost always adds a trailer of some sort, either a single 5″ Kalins grub, or an Optimum Victory tail soft jerkbait, saying “I think adding a trailer gives the bait a more realistic profile, as well as a better target.”

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – April 28, 2014 – Bassmaster Magazine’s third annual ranking of America’s best bass fisheries has been announced, and there is a new champion. Lake Michigan’s Sturgeon Bay beat out the hottest fisheries in the U.S. to take the No. 1 spot for 2014. Texas and California tied for the states with the most entries on the list; both have eight lakes ranked in the Top 100. Some stalwart lakes fell out of the rankings completely, new lakes were added, and Lake St. Clair, last year’s No. 1, fell out of the Top 15.

Months of research, catch-rate data and countrywide polling by the publication’s staff created the ultimate bucket list for anglers looking to fish the most productive waters in the nation.

“The Bassmaster 100 Best Bass Lakes project spawned from our desire to not only identify traditionally good bass fisheries, but also to spotlight lakes that are red hot right now,” says Bassmaster Editor James Hall. “Our goal is to make the annual rankings as objective as possible by using the most current data available from state wildlife agencies, current tournament data and expansive polling of the B.A.S.S. membership.”

This year, Bassmaster not only asked each state’s wildlife department to list their best lakes, but also asked the department to rank the lakes and offer reasons for each ranking. All the B.A.S.S. Nation presidents and conservation directors ranked the lakes they frequent as well. And to make sure no lakes were overlooked, the 580,000-plus Facebook fans of B.A.S.S., as well as a 3,500-member panel of avid anglers, chimed in.

“Our master list included more than 180 great bass fisheries. Once we had this foundation, the real work began,” Hall says.

Phone calls to area guides, Internet research and angler interviews brought the cream to the top. After identifying the Top 100 fisheries, the rankings were sorted by a blue-ribbon panel, including bass pros, outdoor writers and fishing industry insiders.

Although many rankings were debated by the panel, the top spot was not. “Sturgeon Bay is absolutely on fire right now. It is beautiful. The smallmouth here are giant — nobody even blinks at 6-pounders. And it’s not unusual for an angler to catch 60 bass per day. That’s what it takes to be named America’s best bass fishery,” Hall says.

Lake Amistad, once ranked in the Top 10 on this list, no longer makes the cut. “We aren’t sure what’s to blame for Amistad’s poor production lately, but this typically awesome fishery is struggling right now,” Hall explains.

Although several new lakes are now ranked in the Top 100, California’s New Melones Lake made the biggest splash among the newcomers, earning an inaugural ranking of 51. “This lake has become a world-class spotted bass fishery, and the current pending world record spotted bass caught there in March (10.48 pounds) puts an exclamation mark on that statement,” Hall says.

For a complete listing of Bassmaster’s 100 Best Bass Lakes, visit Bassmaster.com.

About B.A.S.S.
B.A.S.S. is the worldwide authority on bass fishing and keeper of the culture of the sport. Headquartered in Birmingham, Ala., the 500,000-member organization’s fully integrated media platforms include the industry’s leading magazines (Bassmaster and B.A.S.S. Times), website (Bassmaster.com), television show (The Bassmasters on ESPN2), social media programs and events. For more than 45 years, B.A.S.S. has been dedicated to access, conservation and youth fishing.

The Bassmaster Tournament Trail includes the most prestigious events at each level of competition, including the Bassmaster Elite Series, Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Open Series presented by Allstate, B.A.S.S. Nation events, Carhartt Bassmaster College Series, Bassmaster High School Series, Toyota Bonus Bucks Bassmaster Team Championship and the ultimate celebration of competitive fishing, the GEICO Bassmaster Classic presented by Diet Mountain Dew and GoPro.

With the spawn is full swing across the country, the time is near for topwater popper style baits to be effective around beds, bass guarding fry, and visible structure.  Think about it: recent spawners will be hungry after procreating, and fry guarders will attack everything that they deem a threat. Bass are apex predators; anything and everything that moves in the water that can fit in their mouths is seen as a tasty treat. The question then becomes: what popper do I choose?

Bassmaster Opens Pro Michael Murphy (www.michaelmurphyfishing.com) spelled out his philosophy on this task a few years ago when I had the opportunity to pre-fish the Northern Open on the James River with him.  Michael’s formula was the essence of simplicity:  if the clouds are out, throw a popper with natural, more subdued coloration. If fishing in full sun, throw a popper with a metallic sheen.  That’s it.

My first thoughts on his take were “it can’t be that simple”.  Then I watched Michael employ his tactic around the James River successfully time and time again.  Following Michael’s advice on topwater fishing should have been a no brainer, since I was fishing with his signature topwater Rosewood Series Rod from Denali Rods, but the fact that he employed the tactic successfully over several days of practice really hammered the idea home. Since then, I only carry two types of popper: one metallic, one natural, and I have had quite a bit of success employing his strategy on the water.

                  My first tournament employing Michael’s strategy produced these fish

Topwater poppers are typically equipped with treble hooks, and like crankbaits, require a rod with a softer tip to avoid yanking the bait out of the fish’s mouth on hook set.  Ideally, since you are targeting cover and small target areas, a shorter rod is used to increase accuracy, which is why I use the Michael Murphy Signature Rosewood Topwater/Jerkbait rod from Denali Rods.  I will use 22# Toray Bawo Finesse Braid with a two foot section of 16# Toray Bawo Superhard Premium Plus Fluorocarbon leader.  For reasons why I employ this set up, check here: www.murphangler.com/front-deck/murphys-law-topwater-tip/.

Decision-making during a tournament is hard enough for most participants, narrowing choices down and employing the K.I.S.S. principle (Keep It Simple, Stupid!) allows the tournament angler to concentrate more on reading changing conditions, and less on tackle selection. Chris Murphy

Get more tips from “Murph” on his website and Facebook page.

Are you a fish head? Do you live and breathe it? We found some awesome fishing ringtones for iPhone users to help the day pass until the next time YOU get to wet a line!!