2012 Classic

It's been a year since I've posted, maybe longer, and I wanted to say a few things about this year's Classic. Mainly, I wanted to say how glad I am that Kevin Van Dam is not at the top of the leader board. That may sound a bit spiteful but really I just want to say that it's nice to see someone else get the chance. I have nothing against KVD at all, but seeing as how he has done everything anyone could want to do in bass fishing, multiple times, I think it's only fair that someone else get to live that dream. As exciting as it is to see someone do things for the first time and make history I think that since we've already witnessed history to this point what difference is it if we wait another year to see a record go down. Granted, this is the only chance he has at winning three in a row (at least for now!)--but I think there is an ironic sort of apathy that can develop towards a sport if one representative is constantly in the headlines. Posterity will have its chance at dissecting what made KVD so special--right now we seem to be caught up in superlatives like "one-of-a-kind," "never before," and "class-of-his-own." Yet when all is said and done someone will take a very close look at what is was that made him so successful. At this moment we are reaping the benefit of watching another group of anglers with a different set of particular talents take advantage of a set of conditions that befits their style of fishing. One day we will be able to understand how reaction baits and power fishing can be applied to most situations with success. But for now we are seeing another set conditions let other anglers fish for spawning bass in ways that will also teach us much for years to come.

Welcome Back!

Well, it's been nearly a year (maybe 9 months) since I've posted here. So what have I been doing? Working, a lot! Last year was a very busy year for me personally, for which I'm grateful despite responsibilities taking time away from fishing. But I did fish and did catch a few decent ones, including a personal best smallie of about 2 1/2 pounds while fishing from the back of Mike lytle's boat during a tournament on Winnie. (Mike was featured in the pages of Bassmaster magazine a few months ago in an article about his club, Bass Finatics, which specializes in family-oriented tournaments.) Last year was, on the whole, a disappointing year, mostly for personal reasons that became a huge distraction. It's odd how personal stuff can get in the way of fishing, since we often go to it to get away from stress. But try as you might the stress somehow stays with you and keeps you from catching fish. My biggest obstacle was losing my car in an accident, which kept me from getting my boat on the water until about late July. Really, if I had some money saved I would have been able to get my boat out, but the expense and time taken in finding a new vehicle (more on that later, since it has to do with fishing) was a great hindrance. I also had to do some work on my boat's trailer, but it was a fairly small matter.
So as for my new vehicle, it's a Ford Explorer and it does have a lot of towing capability. In fact, just after I lost my car I told myself that it was almost a blessing, especially since I wasn't injured in the accident. But my plan was to buy something with towing capability with a mind for buying a bass boat this year. I don't think a boat will happen for me that soon, but I was able to get the tow vehicle.

Tough Season Continues

The weather has been better through this point in the year than ever, but I continue to have a tough early season. A lot of the difficulty has been due to outside concerns, mostly work. This week, however, a major blow was struck, as I was in a car accident that luckily left me uninjured but without a car. The worst part was that I lost the battery for my boat's trolling motor and two rods, as well as having to take on a new car payment in the future. The odd and surprising thing has been that fishing with fewer rods (and thus fewer options for changing baits quickly) has been fun and informative. I lost two spinning rods, and until now I never really knew how much I relyed on them. I did a lot of my fishing with spinning rods that until now I didn't know would be better done with baitcasting gear. In short, I used spinning rods for light-weighted plastics, topwaters, jerkbaits, unweighted plastics (including soft-plastic jerkbaits), drop-shots, and just about anything else that seemed to work on line 8 pounds or less in weight. That's a lot! I fished for a few hours today, all from shore, and found that most of my presenations could be covered with baitcasting gear, and with better control. So why did I use spinning rods so much until now? A few reasons. One is cost. Baitcasting reels in particular can be expensive, and seemingly for good reason. The first baitcaster I used was a Daiwa Megaforce, and at the risk of sounding like a bitter person I will say that it nearly ruined me to the whole experience. As you will find in earlier posts here I was not happy with this reel. The big reason was the lack of a centrifugal brake. Centrifugal brakes control the cast at the very beginning, which in my limited experience is when most backlashes occur as it is when most of the spool's momentum is generated. All Daiwa reels, until recently (I think) are made with this set of free-spool brakes, and for that reason I can't see using them. At any rate, a lot of baitcasters that have centrifugal brakes are expensive, and for that reason I avoided them. And when you think of it, spinning reels can handle many of the things that baitcasting rods can handle. There are a few drawbacks to spinning reels: line twist is the most obvious, and heavy line also poses a challenge. Because line is no allowed to lay onto the spool as evenly as it is on a baitcaster it's forced to twist over itself and tangle more readily, and when you twist heavy line you create even bigger problems. For most anglers, however, these matters rarely come into play, so the choice is obvious. Where baitcasters excel, in their accuracy, is also a concern that most casual anglers don't need to take into account. Pitching and flipping are not only where baitcasters are at their best, they're also where they've had their greatest influence and in applications that most weekend warriors wouldn't think twice about tournament competitors concern themselves with casting accuracy to the point of near-obsession. Clearly there is nothing wrong with either approach, but each serves their purpose and nothing more. So why would someone who fishes 4-5 times a month buy a baitcaster over a simpler, more affordable spinning outfit? No one knows, NO ONE. Most, if not all lures can be thrown with some kind of a spinning outfit, and all spinning rods can throw lures with accuracy. Pitching is maybe the one technique that baitcasting rods can do that spinning rods cannot. But for most of us that isn't a loss.

Worst Early Season Yet

This has been the worst early season I've had yet. I've only caught four fish, and considering that we've been fishing for five weeks that isn't good. Three have been pickerel, which is also not good if you're fishing for bass. My last came today, and it was part tragedy and part comedy. The funny part was in how I was trying to unhook it. It inhaled my lure and wasn't going to give it up. So I went to my car (actually my mother's car, since mine was in the shop) and got a set of pliers. It still wasn't going without a fight, and by this time it was bleeding all over the place. So I figured it was dead and that I would just keep it. Except I didn't want to put it in the back of my mother's car and have it make a mess. I found a plastic bag from a grocery store and figured I could put it in there, but when I went for it a bunch of half-smoked cigarettes came flying out all over me. So there I am covered in slime, fish blood and cigarette ash, holding a half-dead pick. So I just cut it off and threw it in the trunk and went home. I killed it pretty quickly, which made me feel a little better until I cut it open. It was FULL of eggs. So I killed a healthy, breeding fish. Which seemed about right, since the rest of the day was not much better--my car cost me about $600 to get fixed.

First Fish

Today marked the first fish of the year for me. It was only a pickerel (not too desirable to a bass fisherman), but the satisfaction after what always seems to be an ever-longer winter was indescribable. So much of what that first fish of the year feels like is something that is both new and familiar. I spend a lot of time in the winter reading about fishing and trying to arm myself with the best information I can to increase my catch when spring arrives. Once the weather warms and the ice melts I've built up enough anticipation and imagination of what it will again feel like to catch a fish that it is, in a sense, a moot point. It WILL happen, and I do my best not to let it worry me. Yet once you do catch one, especially when it is as early in the year as it is this year, not much can do away with the surprise and joy.
At any rate, it was an interesting day, since I drove to a number of local ponds in search of a bite. I ended up at a lake very near my house, with a small area of access just off a fairly busy road. Part of the lake has a diversion under the road and into a "back" pond area, with rip-rap built up along the banks. I've done enough reading to remember that a lot of people say that areas with rip-rap are great early spring spots because the rocks retain heat, which attracts fish. A lure that works well in those conditions is a suspending jerkbait, according to the experts, so that was what I was throwing. It took a good 20 or so casts and a few changes of spots and angles, but finally the fish took it and swam away. Not a hit, so to speak, but once it did hook itself (I did little to make it happen) it put up a good fight. It's pretty satisfying to know that SOMETHING would hit a lure at this time of the year, even if it isn't a bass, especially considering there are NO fish visible from shore (well, except one baby pick I saw at another local pond, just sunning itself near some grass, in a few inches of water). They're probably still deep, and if the water temps of the "big" lake in NH are any indication (about 39 degrees today) they'll be there for a while longer.

Fluorocarbon

Fluorocarbon line seems to be one of those tackle innovations that has become standard equipment, and with its growth in popularity has come a number of different versions with differing prices. Like many anglers, I've been wary of buying some for fear of it ending up a tangled mess to the tune of $30. I found out that a lot of the negative rumors about fluoro are just rumors, at least to my inexperienced eye. I bought 15# Vicious fluoro, mostly because of its price but also due to its USA roots, and so far I am one of the fluoro converted. I haven't had very many chances to put it to use, as we're still pretty cold in New Hampshire. There are a few small ponds already iced out, and I couldn't resist trying the stuff out. All the news about its sensitivity is 100% true. Fishing a jig with fluoro is proof of its worth, especially in sensing changes in bottom composition. Weeds feel smooth to the touch, where rocks or other hard surfaces feel like tiny snags. I haven't caught a fish on it yet (remember, it is still the second week of March and I am in New Hampshire), but I am certain that detecting strikes with this line will be much easier than it is with mono. Another thing I'm surprised about is memory. I'm using it on a baitcaster, which makes it more managable than it would be on a spinning reel. But despite a few nasty overruns I can say that the line is MORE managable than mono. It seems like mono has the advantage of being very supple and long in stretch, which makes it a better line for hard strikes that require a certain forgiveness. But because of its stretch I get the feeling that it holds its shape longer than fluoro, which means a more slinky-like coil over extended periods of time. Given that it is pretty cheap, anglers, especially casual anglers, are more likely to leave it on their reels, which means more memory and more fouled casts, translating into weaker line. As for fluoro, all I can find as a mark against it is its price, which is too bad considering that its performance is so much better. If it is, as some say, too stiff to stay on a reel for a prolonged period of time then it would seem that a cheaper fluorocarbon, like Vicious, would be the obvious choice. Fluoro also has a reputation for being a bit more brittle than mono, which means anglers should check and re-tie as often as possible. With all that re-tying and stripping of old line it makes sense to replace the line more frequently, which means a cheaper line is more beneficial. The more involved I get with fishing the more I find that being good at it depends on one's attention to detail, and I think that fluoro affords you that kind of advantage. If you're fishing anything on or near the bottom, fluoro is the best bet since it transmits the vibrations from the lure best. Yet considering the long-standing popularity and affordability of mono I find it ironic that the best all-purpose line might not be mono. A lot of anglers are now resorting to mono for a single, simple application: topwaters. Mono doesn't sink, stretches well and absorbs hard hits well, and isn't as visible as braid. It also isn't as tough as braid, which is why anglers like Dean Rojas use braid in weed-choked areas where topwater frogs are successful. But mono is a cheap, managable line for most. It holds knots better than any line, including fluoro. Knot strength seems to be the only disadvantage to fluorocarbon.

Classic

Well, the Classic has been over for some time now, and I chose not to write about it until now. The decision was based partly on laziness, partly on wanting to let the whole thing settle down, and partly on a number of miscellaneous things. I'll start with what I wanted to let settle down: my reaction, which was that I wanted to see someone other than KVD win. I have no problems with him at all, but I just wanted to see someone else do it. But with that said the question remains: just how much greater is his legacy with this win? In my opinion, this elevates it to a degree we might not yet be able to understand. In the history of B.A.S.S. there have been two great anglers who seem to have made their reputations on either the Angler of the Year title or the Classic, but not both. Roland Martin won 7 million Angler of the Year titles (actually nine, I think), and Rick Clunn won four Classic titles. To win either seems impossible to the casual angler. To win either more than once seems ridiculous. To win both multiple times IS ridiculous. And now KVD has won both enough times to be mentioned alongside the best to have done either. He might not be knocking on Martin's door just yet, and to win another Classic is a lot to expect. But he is still in his early forties, is currently fishing the best he ever has, and he has NO pressure to prove himself. Could anyone ask for a better position to be in?
Of the miscellaneous things on my mind is something Charlie Hartley wrote about in his blog on bassmaster.com. He said that from what he heard Iaconelli had something like 18 bites the entire tournament and boated 17 fish. By his measure that meant that Ike was never on a reliable pattern and was just struggling his way to the top. How do you muster the confidence to finish in the top ten when you know you don't have a pattern going? Ike himself said he was catching fish on his favorite grub with spinning tackle, something that obviously came out of his panic box. To leave so much up to chance at the most important tournament of the year is pretty admirable.
Another thing that amazed me throughout the coverage was just how many guys were fishing in the same area. This is old news by now, but it does raise a number of points. For one thing, how can a tournament like this be held on a lake where the entire outcome is decided in such a small area? Yes, there are matters of etiquette to observe, but in a field of 50 anglers how fair is it to hold a tournament on waters that are so clearly loaded in one area? It didn't seem like the advantage was a secret, since a number of people were commenting throughout the tournament about how Beeswax Creek was a popular release point for local tournaments. Nonetheless, you have to ask yourself how KVD was able to key in on such a spot as he did. He had a small area all to himself, according to a number of reports, and he was able to find a few creek channels that were key. He seems to have that sixth sense to finding the best spots, as well as an ability to fish them well. I think this is what Rick Clunn meant in the latest Bassmaster when he said that KVD's best weapon is his mind. He seems to be able to put together details in a way few ever could before.