In spring and early summer the Roaring Fork is a big, brawling river, but even then there are opportunities for wade fishing. Look for trout along the edges of riffles and in shallow water along the bank. Photo Landon Mayer

The Roaring Fork River was once known to the Ute Indians as the Thunder River, and its fishing is no secret to serious Colorado fly fishers. Dropping fast in elevation from its headwaters in Independence Pass, the river widens after receiving tributaries like the Fryingpan and Crystal rivers. With a mix of private and public water along its 70-mile journey to the Colorado River, there is plenty of water to target trout by drift boat, making it the most popular float-fishing river in the state. As a result, many people overlook it as a wading destination, and prefer nearby foot-friendly rivers like the Fryingpan because of the Fork’s sometimes intimidating size and intermittent access.

Another peculiarity is that while a full-blown Gore-Tex hatch often breaks out during Green Drake time (first week or two of July), other hatches go relatively unnoticed. The thrill of seeing a heavy trout gulp down a mayfly with wings you can spot from across the river is hard to beat, but other hatches bring different thrills—often with better results. Massive swarms of caddis in the spring, early spring and late fall Blue-winged Olive hatches, and Pale Morning Duns from June through late August produce outstanding fishing during almost every season, leaving the Green Drakes as only icing on the cake.

Three Rivers

Colorado 82 parallels most of the river from Independence Pass north to Glenwood Springs. Most fly fishers break the river down into three sections: the upper river from Aspen to Basalt, the middle river from Basalt to Carbondale, and the lower river from Carbondale to Glenwood Springs, where it finally meets the Colorado River.

Upper river. Mimicking a small mountain creek above the city of Aspen, the headwaters of the Roaring Fork have good populations of brook trout at higher elevations, with rainbows and brown trout up to 14 inches as you move downriver. The section from Woody Creek Bridge upstream to McFarlane Creek was the first water in the state designated as wild trout water. Today that label holds true, and there is plenty of public access along the Rio Grande Trail and through Jaffee Park.

The river is also open to the public well upstream in White River National Forest (Difficult Creek to Independence Pass) for about nine miles. This intimate setting is not known for large fish, but for its endless action with attractor drys, and for wild aggressive trout. It is a great break in the heat of a summer day to hit this section of the Fork, which is always cold from its high-elevation origins.

High-stick the pockets and seams with Fat Alberts, Puterbaugh’s Caddises, and Mini Hots. Remember to think small (#14-16) so the trout can actually fit the attractors into their mouths.

Middle river. Possibly the best area to wade, the river between Basalt and Carbondale is narrow enough in many sections for walking anglers to cover most of the water effectively, and the fish are bigger.

The Fork has some of the slickest rocks in the state, so use caution, a wading staff, and metal studs to stay on your feet in this area.

At the confluence with the Fryingpan River in Basalt, the river gains flow, nutrients, more quality holding water, and better hatches of midges, caddis, PMDs, BWOs, and stoneflies. This abundance of insects in the long riffled runs and tailouts can keep you busy with trout for hours in just one 100-yard section. So don’t get stuck in a glory hole—give yourself the chance to explore the many miles the middle section offers.

The north side of the river in Basalt has three miles of public water between the upper and lower bypass bridges off Colorado 82. Parking for this section along 2 Rivers Road is obvious. Farther downstream, Hook’s Bridge provides a short stretch, with the parking off Willits Lane, as well as a 1.5-mile stretch off Valley Road. Both areas have north shore access only.

Reach Blue Creek Ranch Access and Catherine Bridge Access by turning left (as you travel downstream) at Catherine’s Store Road and parking at the parking lot. If you decide to float, a good put-in is at Hook’s Bridge, and the takeout is the Carbondale Bridge. By raft it is approximately 12 miles—drift boats are not recommended.

Lower river. From Carbondale, the addition of the Crystal River creates ideal water for drift boats, although wading is still productive along the edges. By boat there are numerous runs where you can spend time doing laps, and there are areas where it’s best to concentrate on rocks, eddies, seams, and tailouts.

With both resident trout and seasonally migrating fish from the Colorado River, the lower river has the largest rainbows, cuttbows, and browns averaging 14 to 18 inches, and numerous fish beyond 20 inches. If you are looking for bigger fish, this is the place to do it.

The best floats are from Carbondale to Westbank Bridge (8 miles), or Carbondale to Two Rivers Park on the Colorado River in Glenwood Springs (14 miles). During prime caddis season, it is worth the trip to Two Rivers Park, as the lower reaches have excellent evening dry-fly fishing.

Four Seasons

Spring. As the winter days gradually disappear, quality fishing blooms on all three sections of the Fork. The water near Glenwood Springs warms first, and most hatches begin there and travel upstream. Typical flows pre-runoff are 400-600 cubic feet per second (cfs) in Glenwood, 175-350 cfs below Basalt, and 100 cfs near Aspen.

As the snow melts and the flow increases on the Crystal and Fryingpan rivers, as well as smaller tributaries, it does not take long for the river to blow out. This typically occurs during May, but can change from year to year with Colorado’s unpredictable weather.

As the days get longer, the hatches intensify with Blue-winged Olives, small black stoneflies, and a massive caddis hatch before or during spring high-water events. The so-called Mother’s Day caddis hatch actually begins in the Colorado River in April and proceeds upstream into the tributaries in early May.

Somewhere there is a massive caddis hatch on Mother’s Day, but you need to do some detective work to find out where, and consider yourself lucky if the water is clear enough to find rising trout.

In the spring, many rainbows migrate upriver from the lower Roaring Fork and the Colorado River. Don’t wade or fish in shallow riffled tail-outs where wild rainbows may be spawning. The future of the fishery depends on successful wild trout reproduction.

Instead, concentrate on deep water below the riffles, meaty runs, and pocketwater to target hungry browns and avoid interrupting spawning rainbow trout. I use streamers in the spring to hunt for large browns that have traveled up from the Colorado River, following the rainbows and the moving spring hatches. Some great patterns are Autumn Splendors, Slumpbusters, Will’s Stinging Sculpins, and Lawson’s Conehead Sculpins (#6-10).

For a nymph rig, start with an egg as an attractor, and trail a midge or Blue-winged Olive imitation such as an STD or BLM (#18-22).

John Barr’s PMD Flashback Emerger is a deadly imitation of a rising and emerging Pale Morning Dun. Use it as a dropper below a highly visible PMD Sparkle Dun to catch suspended trout gorging on the midday hatch. Photo Landon Mayer

Summer. For those familiar with the Roaring Fork’s Green Drake hatch, there’s no need to explain what a spectacular sight it is to see size 10 to 14 mayflies engulfed by aggressive trout. It is truly one of Colorado’s epic hatches—if you hit it just right.

However, many people are disappointed every season due to the short seasonal duration of the hatch, and the often brief daily time frame—typically late evening into darkness. (The hatch in theory can begin as early as noon on gloomy, overcast days, but on regular Colorado bluebird days you’ll probably have to wait until dark.) The Green Drake hatch can make you feel like you are chasing a mythical insect if you are not there at the right time or else stick around until after dark.

The opposite is true of perhaps the most productive and underrated hatch of the summer season—Pale Morning Duns. PMDs hatch on sunny days from midmorning to early afternoon all through July and into August some years.

While you do not always see fish rising on the surface, you can be effective at every water level from top, to middle, to bottom throughout the day during the PMD bite. One of my favorite ways to rig for this sunny event is using a dry such as a #16-18 Mathews PMD Sparkle Dun, with 3 feet of 5X dropper tippet attached to a beadhead Barr Emerger or Juju PMD slightly weighted to reach suspended trout.

You can also swing soft-hackles like Craven’s PMD Soft-Hackle or a soft-hackle Hare’s Ear to target trout focused on emerging PMDs.

Local experts like Will Sands of Taylor Creek Fly Shop know firsthand the results of concentrating on this sometimes overshadowed mayfly. “What separates the PMDs from other mayflies is how long the hatch lasts most days from late morning into the afternoon,” he says.

“PMDs on the Fork often do not provide great dry-fly action because so many days are bright and sunny, but suspended fish crush and chase nymphs or emergers recklessly. You can often sight-fish to suspended fish or see many of the subsurface strikes. But the PMDs hatch for so many hours of the day the fish really get keyed on them and in the right conditions they will take the duns as well.”

The PMD hatch is generally heaviest from noon to 3 P.M., and spinner falls can occur any time of day from early afternoon until evening. Look for clouds of spinners hovering over the riffles, and carry #14-16 Rusty Spinners for the evening rise, which can be complicated by simultaneous spent PMD spinners, hatching caddis, Green Drakes, and occasionally Golden Stones.

Fall. September and October in the Roaring Fork Valley supplies some of the most breathtaking scenery in Colorado. With a steady population of rainbows, and migrating brown trout and whitefish from the Colorado, the fishing can heat up to where many anglers refer to this season as “Bugger Time.”

With flows near Glenwood from 450-800 cfs, you can pursue trout by foot or boat, but the most effective tactic is to float and throw streamers toward the banks. This allows you to cover more water, trigger more strikes, and find the most aggressive fish in the river.

Sands says the dry-fly fishing in late fall can also be outstanding. “Blue-winged Olives and midges dominate the fall season, but there are also sporadic October ‘pumpkin’ caddis hatches that can produce fast and furious surface activity,” he says.

“Egg patterns are also effective as the browns and whities spawn during the fall. Prince Nymphs, Autumn Splendors, and Stinging Sculpins are my favorite patterns for this season.”

Whether you are nymphing, using streamers, or looking for dry-fly fishing, fall is a good opportunity to practice all three disciplines in comfortable weather.

Winter. With low flows throughout the system from December through March, some areas are accessible by foot where it would be impossible during high flows.

The river drops below 400 cfs in the cold season and the fish move out of the shallow and fast water, increasing the concentration of trout in the deep runs and wintering holes. Crowds are at a minimum and on an overcast, snowing day in March you can experience solitude and unpressured rising fish feeding on midges and Blue-winged Olives.

The best areas on the coldest days are from Basalt to Carbondale, where the influence of the Fryingpan is the greatest. The upper river toward Aspen is usually frozen.

For nymphs, consider small Pheasant Tails, BLMs, STDs, eggs, and stonefly imitations like Prince Nymphs or 20-Inchers. My starting rig is often a #14-16 Prince Nymph trailing an emerging midge like a #18-22 Rojo Midge. Adjust the color of your midge, if needed, throughout the day or swap it for a Blue-winged Olive.

When trout are confined due to low flows, deep pools are great areas to find concentrations of trout. The slow water is perfect for spotting tiny midge drys during hatches that typically occur on cloud-insulated days.

It’s these late winter dry-fly days that close the loop, making the Roaring Fork a true four-season fishery, and one of the best freestone rivers in the state. Whether it’s PMDs in the summer, streamer fishing in the fall, or massive caddis hatches in the spring, the Fork has something for everyone.

Landon Mayer (www.landonmayer.com) is the author of three books. His newest is Colorado’s Best Fly Fishing (Stackpole Books & Headwater Books, fall 2011).

The “good old days” for many crappie anglers are right now, especially for those living in the northern portion of the crappies’ range, in states like New York, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Manitoba.

Black crappies in this region have never been more plentiful, have never grown bigger and have never enjoyed such a bright future. This is curious, because crappies are supposed to be “good ole boys,” relishing warm southern impoundments and flourishing in places like Arkansas and Mississippi.

Indeed, if you were to draw a line of latitude, from east to west through Kentucky, you’re more likely to associate crappies with flooded tree-filled reservoirs, spider rigs, dusty coveralls, and grits, than natural northern lakes with cabbage weeds, slipbobbers, fleece-lined pants, and Red River cereal.

So what in the world is going on? Is there no respect for tradition?

Northern Expansion

“Black crappies are one of the best indicators of climate change,” says Dr. John Casselman, Adjunct Professor of Biology at Ontario’s prestigious Queen’s University. For almost 40 years, prior to his retirement in 2008, Casselman was the Senior Research Scientist in the OMNR’s Lake Ontario Research Unit. The same year he retired, the American Fisheries Society honored him with its Award of Merit for his lifetime of scientific achievements. It was only the 40th time the Society has deemed a member worthy of such lofty recognition.

“Black crappie populations are expanding exponentially,” he says. “We’re seeing it in our electrofishing surveys. The fish are seemingly coming from nowhere and they are big, beautiful, and abundant.”

Scott Smithers echoes Casselman’s observations. Smithers is the OMNR’s biologist in the Kemptville District, situated in southeastern Ontario along the north shore of Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River. Black crappies are native to this part of the country, but Smithers says new populations have been popping up everywhere over the last two decades.

“Until about 1990,” says Smithers, “if you mentioned black crappies to most anglers around here, they’d look at you like you had two heads. But now, crappies are expanding their range, exploiting new ecological niches and anglers are enjoying unbelievable fishing.”

Some of the crappie range expansion is natural, with the fish migrating into adjoining lakes and rivers via interconnected creeks and canals. But much of the movement is also surreptitious, not to mention illegal, courtesy of the “bait bucket brigade.”

“Anglers have access to the Internet,” says Smithers. “When they read about a desirable fish, they start transporting it to new lakes. That’s not wise. We’re seeing crappie populations springing up, even in lake trout lakes far removed from any natural crappie waters. There is only one way the fish could have found their way in.”

Regardless of how black crappies reach new waters, the fish are finding the new northern digs to their liking. They’re flourishing, despite a perception that crappies only prosper in warm, lush, southern habitats. So what is occurring?

“What happens,” explains Casselman, “is that the first few fish to find their way into a new system grow extremely large and do so quickly. After three or four years, they mature and start contributing additional year-classes. Recruitment explodes and young-of-the-year fish move into connected waterways. And warm El Niño years give them a boost.

“Whenever that first crappie year-class explodes in a new lake, it is gigantic. There are also more nutrients and prey available in the system during these climate events. So, the first fish grow large, reproduce successfully and explode in numbers.”

Even more to the point, Casselman notes that having “space” between the strong El Niño year-classes, as opposed to the fish pulling off successively strong hatches, benefits emerging crappie populations. More space means less competition for food and healthier, more robust fish.
overlooked populations

Smithers notes that anglers, through their fishing habits, and resource agencies, by their management strategies, have unwittingly aided blossoming crappie populations. “Outside of a few weeks in spring, when the fish are spawning, most northern anglers haven’t traditionally fished for crappies. Nearly all of our lakes are natural, heavily structured, contain large areas of cabbage and coontail, and have complex fish communities with walleye, lake trout, muskie, northern pike, yellow perch, and largemouth and smallmouth bass. Unlike in the central and southern U.S., anglers haven’t yet discovered how to catch crappies consistently in the summer.

“What is also interesting about crappies,” Smithers adds, “is that they’re not a species you’re likely to catch by accident. You don’t luck into many great crappie catches. They’re a fish you need to specifically target. So they’re basically untouched all summer.

“In fall, steelhead runs are underway, bass fishing is hitting high gear and hunting season is opening, so another peak crappie bite is often overlooked and the fish continue expanding since harvest is light.”

If you’re a crappie angler, all of this good news is enough to make your head spin, but it gets even better. In places like southern Ontario’s Kawartha Lakes, the famous string of walleye, bass, and muskie waters east of Toronto, fishing pressure during the open-water season has historically been high enough that winter ice-fishing season has been closed, until new panfish regulations were implemented last year. Combine these factors with a steadily warming climate and it’s little wonder that black crappie populations are exploding across the North Country.

Still, it begs the question: If crappie anglers are routinely catching 13-, 14-, 15-, even 16-inch-slabs, and crappie populations are flourishing in parts of the continent where lakes and rivers freeze for much of the winter, have we been wrong all these years, thinking black crappies are “warmwater” fish? The answer is “yes.”

Growth to Maximum size

“When it comes to fish reaching maximum size,” says Casselman, “slow and steady wins the race. In conditions that are warm, fertile, and almost too perfect, they grow quickly, almost burn out in a sense and achieve a smaller ultimate size. On the other hand, if the water is too cold and there aren’t enough nutrients, they grow too slowly to reach their maximum size. We see this in lake trout populations in the extreme Far North. Fish with a moderate growth rate and moderate food supply tend to reach maximum size. This is true for muskies and it may be true for crappies living in the northern half of their range.”

The dynamics of fish growth is a subject Casselman has spent much of his life exploring, studying data gathered by observing under a microscope the cleithrum bones of muskies from across North America. The pioneering research he carried out with his friend, the late Dr. Ed Crossman, is for many in the science community, the definitive word on the subject of fish age, growth, and ultimate size.

In a nutshell, fish are cold-blooded, growing best within a narrow range of optimal water temperatures. When those temperatures remain warm and constant throughout the year, fish like crappies grow quickly, continuously, and mature early. But all of that growth comes at a cost. The fish die of old age—burn out—early.

When cooler optimal temperatures prevail, fish like crappies grow more slowly and mature later in life. Cooler water and slower growth allow the fish to live far longer. But despite a long lifespan, crappies still don’t achieve maximum size. Somewhere between these two extremes lies the quintessential moderate growth that Casselman says allows the fish to live to their maximum life expectancy, and thus achieve maximum size.

It’s important to note that the two divergent growth strategies don’t necessarily involve north-to-south geographical differences. Two lakes can literally lie across the road from one another, if one is a shallow, warm, eutrophic environment, and the other a deep, cold, oligotrophic ecosystem.

The potential for a body of water to produce numbers of fat, platter-size crappies appears to be dependent on water temperatures and fertility that allow them to flourish and grow at a moderate rate.

“It could be,” says Casselman, “what we’re seeing in New York, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Ontario is that with climate change, water temperature has increased just enough that crappie growth rates have been stimulated enough that the fish are now reaching, or almost reaching, their maximum age and ultimate size.”

What’s the Downside?
While crappie anglers living in the northern half of the crappies’ range can be excused for pinching themselves to make sure this isn’t a dream, they might also reasonably ask, what’s the downside? And will phenomenal fishing continue?

“Of all the fish that make up the warmwater community in the Great Lakes basin,” says Casselman, “crappies are the most prolific. When conditions are ideal, they can produce huge year-classes. But like any invader, the first year-class tends to explode because there’s no competition.

Eventually, the fish seem to outdo themselves, subsequent year-classes compete with one another for food and space, and the population eventually stabilizes. That steady-state population is usually considerably lower than when the fish first arrived.”

While it’s true that anglers can expect to see a leveling off of crappie populations in the future, Casselman is quick to point out that climate change isn’t going away soon. Indeed, he refers to the massive bank of data he and his colleagues have collected over the years that shows even a 1°C increase in water temperature can have a dramatic impact on black crappie recruitment and year-class strength. Given the black crappie’s status as a recent invader, it’s likely we’ve only scratched the surface in the northern half of the range, in terms of witnessing the fish’s eventual full impact.

Smithers can hardly believe his eyes every time he lifts a sampling net. “Crappie populations are exploding in southern Ontario,” he says. “The number of fish in places like Rice, Sturgeon, and Cameron lakes, and the Scugog River is amazing. And it seems every time we turn around we discover another new fishery.”

The same thing is happening across the northern half of the black crappie’s range. Existing populations are spreading and colonizing interconnected waters. Traditional fisheries are producing more consistent year-classes, and once-marginal crappie fisheries are now yielding trophies. “These are the days,” says Smithers, “we’ll be telling our grandkids about.”

In-Fisherman Field Editor Gord Pyzer is a former resource manager for the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources. He lives in Kenora, Ontario.

Bullheads are unlikely to win a beauty contest, but they can provide plenty of fun for anglers of all ages. Photo by Polly Dean.

By Polly Dean

Bullheads are low on the list of favorite species for many catfishermen. It may be due to the fact that they don’t grow to the size that other cats do, or maybe because of the muddy waters that they can inhabit, or just because they are plain ugly. They also seemed to have gained the reputation for not being good table fare.

On the other hand, bullheads are among the easiest fish to catch. These dependable cats bring back fond memories to many anglers as being their “first fish.” The bullheads cooperative nature has sparked an interest in fishing and accounted for lifelong addictions in many a Southern angler. Also those that know better have found the “undesirable” bullhead catfish can be quite tasty.

Bullhead catfish are common in our lakes and streams. Most anglers are familiar with the brown and yellow bullhead species and maybe even the less common black bullhead.

Bullheads are most distinguishable from other catfish by their rounded tail. Channel catfish have a deeply forked tail. Small flathead catfish are often confused with bullheads because they have somewhat of a rounded tail that is slightly notched, but flatheads are easy to recognize by their flattened or “shovel” heads. Also, the lower lip of a flathead extends beyond the upper lip, but on the bullhead it doesn’t.

Bullheads tend to have a thicker or rounder shape, with the head taking up a greater proportion of the total body than other catfish species. Bullheads don’t get as large as other catfish species. They rarely exceed 3 pounds and most are less than a pound. The largest current world record for any of the species is a black bullhead that weighed 8 pounds. It is likely that larger bullheads may have been caught, but were confused with other catfish species.

Distinguishing between the three largest bullhead species of black, brown and yellow can be a little trickier.

The brown and yellow bullheads can have a similar mottled coloring of brown to yellowish. Brown bullheads have dark-colored chin barbels, whereas yellow bullheads have light-colored or white barbels. Yellow bullheads lack spots on their body and have more anal rays. Both the brown and yellow bullheads have serrated teeth on the rear edge of their pectoral spines.

The black bullhead is darker in color — usually black or dark green — but also can be a yellowish green. The barbels are dark and the rear edge of the pectoral spine is smooth. Also the black bullhead has a chubbier, deeper body than its cousins at the “shoulders.”

Bullheads can be found in a variety of lake and stream conditions, from slow to fast moving water, down deep or in the shallows, and in clear to the muddiest of waters. Black bullheads seem to prefer silty conditions and are tolerant of very warm temperatures and industrial and domestic pollutants.

Brown bullheads prefer deeper weedy areas of lakes and slow-moving streams. Though not normally favoring muddy water they are known to be found in soft muck and turbid conditions, but usually over sand and gravel beds. Yellow bulls are most commonly found in shallow areas over soft bottoms.

Bullhead catfish are not the most selective feeders. They are omnivorous, eating most anything they find on the bottom.

As far as baits are concerned the most popular and, arguably the most successful, are redworms and nightcrawlers on a No. 2 to 1/0 long-shanked hook. Other baits to try are leeches, minnows, liver, doughballs, stinkbait or crayfish, used whole or just the meat of the tail.

Since bullheads do feed on the bottom, bobbers aren’t necessary when targeting them. Also bullheads don’t bite so lightly that you won’t feel them when they take your bait.

The key element in fishing tackle when targeting bullheads is to not use weights directly attached to the line. Bullheads abandon a bait if they feel weight attached to it. The best tactic is to use a sliding sinker. This allows the line to slip through as the fish takes your offering.

Bullheads can make a good meal as well. They are excellent fried and make great catfish fingers. The key is to eat only those that come from clean, unpolluted water and, as with all fish or game, put them on ice as soon as possible.

Dancing Lizards:

Cast the lure and let it sink to the bottom. The weighted nose stays down; the tail with the hook in it stands straight up. Now, if you shake your line a little, the tail dances, attracting the attention of any smallmouth that’s nearby. The lure looks more natural because the weight is hidden in the nose and the hook is small. So wary bass are more likely to strike. Nine times out of ten, the bass will grab the tail of the lure first. With conventionally rigged lizards, you’ll miss these short strikers. But with the hook in the tail, you’ll connect more times than not.

Slightly bending the front blade of a prop bait gives it new action. Photo by Keith Sutton.

by Kieth Sutton

If you’re like me, you love learning easy ways to trick out your tackle and make your bass fishing more productive and enjoyable. For example, a friend showed me how he dips the head of a plastic worm in fish attractant and slides it into the open end of a 3-inch tube bait to create a new lure with different action and bulk. He mixes worm and tube colors to create a variety bass-catching enticements.

Another fishing buddy showed me how he uses a bit of Super Glue to stiffen the weedguard on a jig when fishing heavy cover. This reduces hang-ups even more, and increases his catch rate.

Helpful tips like these can work wonders to improve angling success and reduce tackle problems. Here are more you should try:

BUZZBAITS
Buzzing With A Minnow
Give a buzzbait a different look by removing the skirt and putting a soft-plastic minnow on the hook. The lure will look more like natural forage, and you may get more strikes.

Add A Trailer Hook
If the bass after your buzzbaits are striking short, add a trailer hook to the buzzbait hook. This destroys the lure’s weedlessness, but if you’re fishing
relatively open water or where cover is below the surface, a trailer hook won’t pose problems and you’ll hook more bass.

CRANKBAITS
Dress It In A Skirt
When you’re fishing small crankbaits and the bite is slow, try this. Remove the back treble hook on your lure, place a crappie-tube skirt on the hook’s shank, then replace the hook. The skirt works just like the feathers on some topwater plugs, giving the lure more action.

Hook Replacement
You may catch more bass if you remove factory hooks from lipless crankbaits like Bill Lewis Lure’s Rat-L-Trap and replace them with XCalibur Rotating Treble Hooks in sizes number 2 or 4. When a bass strikes, rotating hooks turn and penetrate more easily than standard hooks.

JIGS
Brush Buster
A great combo for bass in thick brush is a jighead with a built-in weedguard tricked out with a 6- to 8-inch plastic worm trailer. Few bass ever see this unique configuration, making it just the ticket for persnickety fish.

Bass Activator
Want to activate inactive bass when jig fishing? Sometimes all you need to do is add a chunk of minnow to the hook. The smell and taste of the bleeding bait prompt strikes when there were none before.

RODS & REELS
Line Keeper
Squeeze a split shot on your line’s end after removing a baitcasting reel from a rod for storage or travel. This keeps the line from slipping through the guide and prevents tangles.

Cork Protectant
Coat cork rod handles with Armor All Original Protectant to keep them soft and clean. Apply two coats, buffing lightly with fine sandpaper after each.

SOFT PLASTICS
Split-Ring Rig
Here’s a good rig for top-schooling bass. Add three small barrel swivels to a large split ring. Tie an 18-inch dropline to one swivel and a 12- inch dropline to another. Tie a small, soft-plastic jerkbait, rigged weedless, to each. Use the third swivel to tie the main line. Cast to surfacing fish, and you’ll often catch two bass at a time.

Scent Holder For Tubes
When using bass attractant with tube lures, insert a piece of cotton or packing foam through the bottom and push it to the top of the tube before rigging. When the hook is inserted, this material stays in place. Attractant then can be applied inside, and the scent holds much longer.

SPINNERBAITS
Just Like New
White paint chipping off your spinnerbaits? Don’t toss the lures. Freshen the finish with white appliance touch-up paint that comes with a brush applicator.

Modified Spinnerbaits For Down-Under
Modify a small spinnerbait for deep-water, slow rolling by adding a Water Gremlin Rubbercor sinker. Remove the sinker’s rubber insert and slide the lead onto the lower wire near the spinnerbait’s head. Then pull the rubber insert from each end to elongate and narrow it, and slide it back into its slot. The lure now sinks faster for fishing deep structure.

SPOONS
Silver Minnow Sweetener
Many anglers add a pork frog or eel when fishing a Johnson Silver Minnow weedless spoon. Another sweetener is a 4-inch, curly-tailed grub threaded onto the hook and secured to the spoon’s butt with a dab of Super Glue.

Spoon Fix
Concave casting spoons often twist line. To combat this, use a high-quality ball-bearing swivel above a leader to which the spoon is tied, and if necessary, use a snap swivel to attach the spoon.

Spoon And Jig
You sometimes can increase the effectiveness of jigging spoons by tying a 12- to 18-inch monofilament leader to the treble hook and then adding a small jig. Bass that strike short and miss the spoon often will hit the follow-up jig.

TACKLE-BOXES
Hold-Tight Dividers
Movable dividers in tackleboxes sometimes slide up, allowing small tackle items to get combined. To prevent this, put some silicone sealer on the bottom of each divider to hold it in place. You still can easily remove the divider to redesign or clean the tacklebox.

Lure Compartments
Use clear videotape boxes to organize your soft-plastic lures by color, size or style. The boxes are wormproof and transparent so you can quickly find the lures you need.

TOPWATER PLUGS
Bend Your Blades
On prop baits such as the Smithwick Devil’s Horse, bend the front and rear blades forward to reduce the distance the bait moves forward with each twitch. This allows the bait to stay in the strike zone longer.

Trailer For A Chugger Plug
When casting to surface-schooling bass feeding on small shad, try tying a white or silver jig to a short mono leader tied to the rear hook of a topwater chugger plug. This provides casting weight and creates a tantalizing surface disturbance, increasing the effectiveness of the jig.

This is a Biffle HardHead with a Biffle Bug bait in Sooner Run color. Photo by Jeff Samsel.

by Jeff Samsel

I guess I should have thrown this at Smith Mountain,” said pro bass angler Tommy Biffle with a smirk. He twisted his hook out of the mouth of his fourth bass in as many casts.

The rig consisted of a Gene Larew Biffle Bug — a lure of the veteran pro’s own design — matched with a unique jighead that sported a hinged worm hook on a football-shaped head. A friend had been making the specialized heads for Biffle, and he had used some previously but had not combined one with a Biffle Bug. That was about to change — in a big way!

Biffle had told me about the head and noted that he had rigged it during the most recent Bassmaster Elite Series event at Virginia’s Smith Mountain Lake but had not picked up the rod. A Biffle Bug had been the pro’s lure of choice during that tournament, but he had relied on Pearl Pepper Biffle Bugs, Texas rigged, and had pitched them to spawning fish that he could see.

Those four consecutive fish and a handful of others caught later in the same short afternoon gave Biffle real confidence in the rig, which he was dragging across the bottom at a semi-slow but steady clip. He liked the way it felt and the way the offering danced when he swam it just beneath the surface for observation. Most importantly, he was impressed with the way it caught fish. Biffle soon began to fish with rig more often, and every time he played with it, he gained more confidence. It ended up producing every fish he brought to the scales during the Elite Series event at Kentucky Lake.

But the breakthrough came at the Sooner Run in Oklahoma.

Biffle won the Sooner Run, which was moved to his home waters of Fort Gibson Lake because of flooding at the original venue. He caught all his fish by “bottom-buggin’” — a nickname coined by BassFan during its daily coverage of the Sooner Run. Later the term was adopted by Biffle and Gene Larew.

A couple of weeks after that, Biffle won a Professional Anglers Association event on Tennessee’s Cherokee Lake using the same color of Biffle Bug, partly with the bottom-buggin’ technique

Biffle’s pair of wins created such a buzz that Gene Larew decided to mass-produce the specialized jighead, releasing it last summer as the Biffle HardHead. The win also prompted the release of the custom color of Biffle Bug that Biffle had been throwing under the name “Sooner Run.”

A REEL DRAG
Biffle’s bottom-buggin’ technique falls somewhere between tube-dragging and cranking cover. He drags the lure across the bottom, probing every nook and cranny, but he moves the offering with his reel, not his rod. He employs none of the rod pulls and pauses normally associated with dragging techniques for football jigs, tubes or Carolina rigs. The lure stays in motion — albeit slow motion — all the time as he cranks.

“I’m holding my rod at about an 8 o’clock position and cranking the Bug so that it’s dragging and bumping everything it comes in contact with along the bottom,” Biffle said.

The technique allows Biffle to feel the bottom constantly, so if he ever loses contact, even for a moment, he immediately sets the hook with a sideways sweep of the rod. Often, there will be no distinctive thump. The rod tip will simply stop jiggling for a moment when the fish lifts the lure off the bottom. An angler who waits to “feel” more a stereotypical strike will miss many of the fish.

Biffle has used his crawling technique both shallow and deep with similar effectiveness, fishing everything from washes in the backs of pockets to offshore humps. Anytime the bass are holding near the bottom it is apt to work.

TOURNAMENT TECHNIQUE
The bottom-buggin’ technique has great tournament applications.

The bait is always moving, so it’s a great way to cover a lot of water and a broad range of depths. However, it’s also very precise, and the exact cast that produces a fish can be repeated and often will produce more fish that are relating to the same structure. Bottom-buggin’ also provides a great feel of the bottom, which is extremely helpful for understanding a lake and refining a day’s pattern.

THE RIG
The football-shaped HardHead creates a lot of commotion along the bottom and allows the rig to traverse very rough terrain, following uneven contours and rocking free without getting hung frequently. The hinged worm hook allows for straight weedless hooking and tremendous lure mobility. The HardHead comes in four sizes that range from 3/16-ounce to 11/16-ounce.

The Biffle Bug is a 4 1/4-inch flat, creature-type lure that Biffle originally designed for pitching. Its curled and paddle-tipped back legs dance wildly.

The Sooner Run color is a watermelon red flake with a dark back that Biffle believes causes it to imitate a crawfish. He soon proved that the bass also liked this color.

Re-Tie Religiously
One thing I couldn’t help but notice while fishing with pro Tommy Biffle is that he ALWAYS re-ties after his bait gets hung in the rocks — even if only for a moment. In fact, he doesn’t even finish the presentation. He doesn’t want to risk hooking the big fish when his tackle is in less-than-perfect condition. Instead, he quickly reels back the bait, snips it off, clips off the last couple of feet of line and re-ties.

Biffle and other pros fish for their livelihood, sometimes with thousands of dollars on the line. It helps encourage good habits. You can be sure that many pros have learned some lessons the hard and expensive way. However, these same lessons can help every angler catch more fish, whether you’re fishing for fun or in your local club tournament.

On a recent fishing trip, Tommy and I had no tournament pots on the line. We were just fishing. But if Biffle has a rod in his hand, he’s doing everything he can to put fish in the boat, and that means re-tying any time there could be a weak spot in his line.

Because Biffle re-ties so frequently, his knot only takes a moment. He hardly misses a beat. And when he does hook a fish — which he does often — he lands it.

– Jeff Samsel is a veteran outdoor fishing writer whose work has appeared in more than 100 publications.

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