There are many ways to target bass during the late summer and the fall transition. Recently, I’ve been spending a lot of time acquainting myself with the Berkley Gulp! 5-inch Jerk Shad. While this bait isn’t the newest bait on the market, I’ve been trying to work it into my repertoire. During this season I was able to figure out some great ways to catch bass in the spring and summer with the Gulp! Jerk Shad. Now that fall is around the corner, I’ve come up with two more applications.

But first, back to this whole concept of a bass fall transition. There are lots of theories as to why bass make major movements in the fall, but I’ve always considered two things to be the most important reasons. The biggest factor is the shortened daylight period. The second and more variable reason is the cooling of the water temperature from cool nights, cold fronts, rain and other reasons. Bass are like a lot of creatures in that they tend to be more active feeders in the fall with the approach of winter. Plus, this year’s shad crop, by now, has reached bite-sized stage. This year’s sunfish hatch is also growing and likely to venture away from the shoreline and into deeper water, making them easy bass targets.

Like they do during the rest of the year, bass will make their fall transition movements along contour lines and structure. But not all bass begin this shift at the same time. The two things that I am looking for when determining where the bass will migrate is the presence of shad near the top of the water column (either seen with my eyes or on my electronics) and the presence of structure. These two elements are the keys to successfully using a Gulp! Jerk Shad in the fall.

There is probably no better bait to use on schooling fish than a Jerk Shad. So when I find bass busting the surface on shad (or other baitfish), it’s the first thing I throw. My set up for schooling fish includes a 6 ½-foot medium-heavy Fenwick Techna AV rod and a high-speed Abu Garcia REVO STX spooled with 12-pound Berkley Trilene 100% Fluorocarbon (in open water) or 15-pound Trilene 100% Fluorocarbon (near cover). Using a 5/0 extra-wide gap superline hook, I rig the Jerk Shad either Texas-rigged with the hook barely piercing the bait or with the hook exposed – depending on the amount of cover in the water. Most of the time I throw it weightless, but if wind or other conditions call for a weight, I use lead tape on the hook to give me the extra casting distance and a little quicker fall. The lead tape allows the bait to fall horizontally instead of nose first, like it would with a bullet weight.

For color selection, I use bright colors in the early morning or on overcast days to give fish the contrast they need to see it. The Gulp! formula is spreading through the water, giving them a scent to key on, but it never hurts for them to see it, too. If the day is bright and sunny, I will go with more natural colors like Watermelon. I just cast the bait in or near the schooling fish; let it fall for a second and being twitching the bait back towards me. After a few twitches, I let the bait fall again to simulate a wounded and dying fish. The big 5/0 hook gives me better hook up ratios and the scent of the Gulp! Jerk Shad can make a schooling situation like this very fast paced and intense.

When the schooling bite goes away and the water is clear, my other go-to fall tactic with a Jerk Shad is skipping docks. If water clarity is more than three feet, this tactic works well. The shape of the Jerk Shad and the prey that it represents is ideal for skipping. Using 10-pound Trilene 100% Fluorocarbon with an Abu Garcia 803 spinning reel on a 6 ½-foot Fenwick HMG rod, I rig a Jerk Shad weightless on the same 5/0 extra-wide gap superline hook.

Wooden docks, metal docks, floating docks, boat slips – any area that bass might be holding to as they migrate along the lakes contour lines on their way to deeper channels will be a good place to skip the Jerk Shad. Just

skip it like you would any other bait and use the same method of alternating between twitching and sinking until you get a strike. With normal lines, you might want something bigger than 10-pound test, but the Trilene 100% Fluorocarbon is super tough and abrasion resistant, plus the smaller diameter gives the Jerk Shad more movement to entice a big strike.

Early fall can be a great time to catch bass. For the most part, the weather is still comfortable for those of us sitting in the boat all day and the lakes aren’t as crowded with pleasure boaters and personal watercrafts. Plus, these seasonal bass migration patterns give us a great starting point to focus our fishing efforts. With a bag of Berkley Gulp! Jerk Shads, there’s no reason why you can’t go catch your biggest bass of the year in open water or around structure.

Answer: The fins of baitfish like bluegill look chartreuse when the sun hits them.

Have you ever looked at the array of colors of bass plugs and worms available to a fisherman? Walk into any sporting goods store and the walls are full of bright splashes of color ranging from red to chartreuse and all kinds of combinations of colors. And those are just the plugs!

Brown plugs look like crayfish, and those with red in them look like crayfish at times in their life cycles and also can remind fish of the red gills of bait fish. But what in the world does the color chartreuse look like to fish and why do they want to eat it? I have wondered about that for years.

At my pond several weeks ago I had that question answered. I throw out floating catfish food and the bream have learned to come running when I put it out. Watching them swim around when the sun is bright, I see flashes of chartreuse in their tails. It looks exactly like the tail of a worm that has been dipped in chartreuse dye as it waves and wiggles as they feed.

When bass see an artificial bait flashing that color, I bet it looks just like a bream, one of their most common foods, swimming by. Their natural instinct has got to be to eat it.

I have a lot more confidence in chartreuse now, and dye the tails of my worms anytime I am fishing where I think the bass might be feeding on bream. It has worked the last two tournaments for me.

Watch for bream swimming around the next time you are on the water and try to see that chartreuse color. I have seen it three or four times at my pond now, so I am sure it is not my eyes playing tricks on me.

Lake Sidney Lanier has an abundance of big spotted bass that have discovered the benefits of eating lots of blue back herrings and some swimbaits that resemble a blue back herring. For a big bass, she can do quite well eating just a dozen blue back herring per month. Using this knowledge, a serious bass hunter can take advantage of the fishes eating habits. You can catch large numbers of fish, but the ones you do hook will be in the 3+ pound range. So let’s crank up that Nitro 901CDX and listen to that Mercury 200HP Optimax sing as we cross the lake headed to our first spot.

Now let’s look at some of the tricks to making the swimbaits catch more fish for you. I firmly believe that you need a large diameter fluorocarbon or monofilament fishing line to catch big fish. I use Bass Pro Shops fluorocarbon on the soft and hard body swimbaits. The fluorocarbon is for the hard body baits like the new 4” Tru Life swimbaits (slow sink and fast sink models) from Tru Tungsten. The larger line will allow you to reel theses new small baits slower. Don’t waste your money on buying braided line, all you will do is tear up your equipment and baits will not run correctly, because the braided line floats.

You have to forget about the shoreline now and fish in the middle of the lake. Get away from the bank and look for the river channels, deep drop offs and isolated brush. If you can find humps near the channel, even if they’re 40 to 50 feet deep, concentrate on those areas, the fish live here! So your baits need to be getting wet right there in that area. From early summer til late winter I like to use bait that is 4 to 5 inches long. When it gets hot the herring get in groups and that is when you need to using a swimbaits. Your arsenal must include a heavy rod (Bass Pro Shops – Nitro series) with a big and wide reel. I like using the Oceanmaster 4000 from Bass Pro Shops, because of its wide spool it cast baits farther.

The winter months are my favorite time to use swimbaits because the blue back herring are in shallower water. When the sun is out it is like stocking day in the river near the local trout hatchery. All that big spotted bass wants to do is eat, eat and eat some more. During this time of year I keep several rods tied up with swimbaits. I’ll definitely have the new 4 inch Tru Life Swimbait on one. All swimbaits have a different purpose and you’ll find you will have to change your approach each day depending on the conditions.

When the big spotted bass are on the bed in the spring, just drop the bait close by and then slowly move it on top of the bed and be ready. Many times the really big fish will come unglued and just engulf the bait. At other times, they will just try to pick up the bait by the tail or head and move it out of the bed. If you use the 4 inch Tru Life swimbait you will not have this problem. Because the treble hooks will bite this fish hard and hook up really well.

Rod selection for swimbaits is crucial all year long. You are going to fight some big fish and many times in heavy cover. I never use anything less than 14-pound test line on the new 7-foot Bass Pro Shops Nitro Series rod on the swimbaits; you’ll work yourself to death trying to throw the big swimbaits on a flippin stick. You need a rod that can handle the weight easily and has a long handle on it so you don’t over exert work yourself. The reel should be a very high-speed reel to keep up with the fish, or they will pick up the bait and run right at you. You have to catch up to the fish to get a solid hook set. Also a wide spool on the reel works very well when casting the big size line with bigger swimbaits.

If you are in a tournament situation I would go and get a limit of fish on that Tru Tungsten Stinger worm and then go looking for that one, two or three big bites with the new Tru Life 4 inch swim baits. I know that if I get five bites on the swimbait, I will finish at the top. Look for the new 4 inch Tru Life swimbaits in a retailer near you in December 2008.

So, don’t think that swimbaits are only for one time of year. You can catch trophy-sized spotted bass (aka spotzilla’s) all year long.

Tom Branch, Jr. is a full time Lieutenant with the Gwinnett County Fire and Emergency Services in Georgia and the Prostaff Manager for Fish Harder Companies. He has fished all over the country. He and his wife Kim live outside of Atlanta, GA. Tom, Jr. is sponsored by Bass Pro Shops-Outdoor World in Atlanta, Ga, Tru Tungsten, Picasso Lures, Nitro Boats, Mercury Marine, Lowrance Electronics, Navionics, Keel Shield, Tuff Skinz, and Pro Line shoes.

To watch the average bass tournament, often the outcome is so often decided on who finds the best stretch of bank. But what happens when the shallow bite isn’t there? Where do you go when the fish have closed the bank?

These days, I see lots of anglers – good anglers – who are seemingly chained to the bank. There’s a whole lot of water that these anglers never touch, water that holds plenty of big bass. The secret to catching these big bass isn’t really a secret at all. All it takes to go deep for big large and smallmouth bass is plenty of practice with electronics, knowing when to abandon the bank and knowing where to focus your efforts.

Before we get to all that, I think it’s important to explain that “deep” is a relative term. Fish are conditioned to their environment, and, as such, they require an angler to determine what “deep” really is. For the most part, though, deep water to me is anything over 22-25 feet. From there on down is what I consider to be “deep water.”

For me, the best time of year for really establishing a deep-water bite is in the fall when the lakes turn over and water starts cooling down. When we start getting those cold nights, fish start grouping up and using that outside deep water that’s available. Depending on where you are, of course, this starts probably in mid September and runs through parts of November, December and January. The second-best deep-water period for me happens right after the spawn in certain fisheries. I’ve found that especially lakes with a lot of big fish, by the early part of June I can catch fish deep. They haven’t gone into a full summertime water situation at that point, but they do go deep right after the spawn. This is when deep-water cranking can be really good. Just look for depth variations at 20-22 feet.

If I don’t know the lake very well, the first thing I do is a lot of Internet research. Once I’m there and I launch my boat, I turn on my electronics and go across a main portions of the lake: a river arm, a big bay or cove something that has a defined creek channel in it and just run a straight line from bank to bank. In a very short period of time you will start noticing the information on your electronics is really starting to direct you to a depth of the activity zone. For example, if I launch at Table Rock Lake and idle across the main portion of the lake, I might see balls of fish at 45 feet and nothing above those depths or below those depths. Then my mind starts trying to look for contours or structures that break or have some kind of features on them at that 45-foot depth. I rely so much on my electronics – they really do become my underwater eyes.

In order to develop good deep-water patterns, I have to have relatively clean water. For some reason, I don’t have good luck fishing deep in water that is really fertile or really dirty. I feel like a lot of techniques I’ve developed over the year are for fish that are feeding by sight. In clean water, fish have a tremendous field of vision. Even at extreme depths, fish can see 20 feet. That’s why with the techniques I use like a drop shot and cranking, you don’t have to be precise with the cast, because the fish will come to the lure as it sinks in the water column. Without a doubt my favorite drop shot bait is a Berkley PowerBait Hand Pour Finesse Worm. I use a lot of both the 4- and 6-inch sizes. I fish a lot of shad patterns in deep waters and some earth-toned colors and greens. To me, the lure presentation, not color, is most important when fishing a drop shot in deep water.

A drop shot is probably the best artificial rig I have ever fished in deep water. The drop shot is definitely a key technique, especially when the fish are below the depth of the cast when you can’t use a crankbait. If I’m casting jigs or fishing drop shots or a plastic worm deep, then I pretty much use all fluorocarbon line. For a drop shot, I try to fish 6-pound Trilene 100% Fluorocarbon because you get more bites with it than 8- or 10-pound line. But if I am near cover or catching better fish I will use 8-pound and sometimes 10. The new Trilene 100% Fluorocarbon is without a doubt one of the finest lines that has ever been introduced – I’ve gone nuts over it.

Don’t be afraid to try ice jig, spoons, and big football-head jigs as well when fishing deep. Just don’t forget to do your homework and learn how to use your electronics and you can catch fish when the other people are still glued to the bank.

Skeet Reese is the 2007 BASS Elite Series Angler of the Year and an 8-time Bassmaster Classic qualifier. Reese lives in Auburn, California.

From Boyd Duckett

There’s no luck involved in being consistently good

There’s one thing about competitive fishing that a

lot of people don’t get. It’s a simple idea that probably seems logical to people not involved in our sport – but the idea is wrong.

The misconception I’m talking about is that there’s a lot of luck involved in winning a fishing tournament. And that’s just not true. I’ll admit that occasionally luck comes into play, as it does in all sports. Every now and then, for example, an angler hits a small golden spot, one of those great holes that just keeps on giving – and he gets there in time to have it all to himself. But really, how many times does that happen?

I’ll answer that question: it almost never happens.

I dreamed about finding those sweet spots 20 years ago when I was learning how to be a tournament fisherman – and I guess I still do. I dream and I search. But the reality is that when I find a super sweet spot, someone else usually finds it, too. Because there are a lot of outstanding, smart

anglers on our tour, I won’t be the only angler that wants those fish. That’s why one sweet spot is never, ever enough.

Success at competitive fishing – and I mean consistent, top-of-the-pack success – isn’t luck. In fact, I would argue that in terms of who wins and who regularly does well, fishing offers more consistent results than football or baseball or pretty much any sport you can name. With football, one fumble or one interception can throw a whole team out of rhythm. A couple of serious injuries to Tom Brady and Randy Moss, and the New England Patriots aren’t so powerful. It’s the same with the other sports.

But in fishing, I can usually tell you how anglers on our Elite Series Tour are going to do in a particular tournament, and it’s not rocket science. I can predict who’ll do well because of this fact: the anglers who have the combination of skill, determination, experience, versatility and smarts on the water are going to be near the top over and over.

Another reason is that college and pro football games, without an overtime, require an hour of action: four quarters at 15 minutes each. Baseball games last nine innings unless the score is tied.

We, on the other hand, fish all day for four days. It cuts down on the luck factor.

My point is that it’s no great surprise that Kevin VanDam has always got a chance to win or finish in the Top 12, just as in golf Tiger Woods is a good bet to win any golf tournament he plays in. KVD is a great angler. Skeet Reese will always be at the top. Mike Iaconelli is a consistent threat – always. Alton Jones has reached a level now where nobody is surprised when he leads.

Why are the good ones so good?

So the question is: Why? … Why are KVD and Skeet almost always in the picture? … Why do the same guys, with a few exceptions here and there, make the Classic every year?

And the follow-up question is this: If it’s not luck, what makes these guys so good?

I’d like to offer one important factor that sets the top anglers apart. The great anglers are versatile; they know how to fish in different conditions and different waters. They know how to change when change is required, how to leave their natural comfort zone and still find a way to be comfortable.

Knowing how to fish a muddy river as well as a clear lake

At local lakes and rivers across America, there are favorite players and top teams. Maybe one team is unbeatable in the spring, when the water is high. Another team is strongest when it’s hot and the water’s low. Some teams are strong in the fall when they’re chasing bait. Don’t get me wrong. There’s nothing wrong with having strength in some areas, and it’s always good to be able to go to your strength when the time is right. But the problem is that seasons change, water levels rise and fall, and fish have patterns that can be tricky to follow. The Red River in Louisiana doesn’t fish anything like Lake Martin, near where I live. But it’s just as important for me to know how to fish the Red River as it is to know how to fish Martin.

In fact, let’s take a quick look at our BASS Elite Series schedule this year. In order, we fished:

• The Classic on the Red River, near Shreveport . It was a muddy river with shallow backwaters. Most of the time I was fishing in 1.5 to 2 feet of muddy water, with heavy cover. I was pitching and flipping the first day and led the tournament.
• Lake Amistad , Del Rio, Texas , was next. It was gin-clear water, with a lot of standing timber. I found my best pattern to be in about 45 feet of deep water, and I was throwing a 6-inch swimbait.
• Lake Dardanelle in Arkansas , was the next stop and we were back fishing in a mudhole, 1 to 2 feet of water. It was post-spawn, and the fish were mostly in super shallow, grassy areas.
• Wheeler Lake, in Alabama was next. It is also a river system, but it’s deep water. It turned out to be pre-spawn, and before the tournament was over the fish were stacked on shallow ledges, they’re not in the flats.
• Smith Mountain Lake , in Virginia , was next. It was another gin-clear lake and it was pure sight fishing. Total finesse.
• Guntersville Lake , back in Alabama , followed Smith Mountain . The fish were in milfoil grass beds, and it was pure power fishing. If you didn’t have 25 pounds a day, you might as well not go to the scales.
• Kentucky Lake was next, and it was another giant-weight tournament. The fish were primarily on main channel ledges, with the ledges dropping from about 10 feet to 40. Deep cranking.
• Then we went to the Mississippi River in Iowa . If you describe that water as muddy, you to use need two or three U’s and a couple of D’s: muuuddy. You couldn’t see a thing. KVD actually had a zero day, his first in about 20 years.

And we’re not through. Now the tour is going north to Lake Oneida, where we’ll fish for smallmouth. By the way, the same guys are back on top.

Personally, I’ve had a decent season. Not great, but pretty good. I had two extremely bad days this year and they hurt my season. But if I do reasonably well at Oneida , I’ll make the Classic for the fourth year in a row. And a lot of outstanding anglers miss the Classic cut. But my season has been pretty good because I know that I’m going to have to do something different just about every day on the water. Nothing stays the same and you’ve got to adjust.

Suggestion: Try something different

I’d like to suggest something fun and exciting that I’m confident will improve your skills as a tournament angler. When you’re on your home lake, try something different. Find fish somewhere you don’t usually fish. Even though you think your lake has one recipe for winning, it’s not true.

It amazes me at Elite Series events and at the Classic how the local anglers are pretty sure they know the formula for success on their lake or river. And invariably, the champion will have found a different path to the title.

Two years ago, at Smith Mountain Lake , I finished sixth in a tournament that Casey Ashley won. I led two days of the tournament and the local anglers said they couldn’t believe I was catching fish that way. It’s because I caught them with a drop shot, and everybody knows Smith Mountain is a jig lake.

As the old saying goes, there are several ways to skin a cat. And to catch fish.

And the best anglers know almost all of those ways. If you want to become the best angler in your area, learn the key to success: versatility.

There are many ways you can save gas and keep fishing. Don’t let the high cost of gas keep you from going fishing.

Fish Close To Home

Plan your fishing trips so you don’t have to drive far. Do some research on local ponds, rivers and lakes you can fish. Check with local bait and tackle stores for fishing opportunities close to where you live so you don’t have to use much gas in your vehicle getting to the fishing spot.