Socal Slugfest

Good music, hard hook sets, and monster bass, does it get any better??? By now nearly all of the members of the Tactical Bassin community recognize Adam Hinkle when he submits a video. For those of you who don't, Adam is a regular contributor and his work is much appreciated. Some of his recent pieces include Beating the Bank for Giants, Fall Jig Madness, and Mapping Your Approach. Adam Brings a unique perspective and a whole different style to the Tactical community.

True to form, Adam is smashing fish in Southern California. Lucky for us, we get a front row seat to the show. These fish were caught on the 8" Huddleston Swimbait in both ROF 5 and 12. The rod you see is a Dobyns 795 MLSB. Adam's approach to swimbaits is quite a bit different from my own. He uses 20 lb mainline and smaller hooks to draw the heavily-pressured Southern California bass into the open. It just goes to show there isn't always a right and a wrong way to catch these big bass. Its important to experiment and develop confidence but always stay open to progression.

Also, for those of you who are confined to smaller boats and are drooling over the net they keep sliding out of the rod locker, that is a Hiber-Net by Frabill. Its quite a bit different than what I carry but after watching how nicely it stores I may have to check it out myself.

Giant Bass Crushing Swimbaits

What is it about the "tick" of a swimbait bite that keeps us coming back for more? There are a lot of other more productive things we could be doing but we find ourselves day after day, week after week, year after year, chasing big green fish around oversized ponds. Why? I don't know what it is for you but for me its got to be the hookset and the impact. In that moment I don't know if its a 2 lb bass or a 15 lb bass, it could even be an over-zealous catfish. But for that second, as I swing that rod up and to the right with all the force I can muster, I pray as fast as I can that when that rod loads up the fish will absorb the impact and pull back with equal force. That for me, is what its all about. Catching the fish, the photos, the videos, is all great but the thrill of the hookset is where all the adrenaline peaks.

There is nothing like slamming a hookset into a fish and feeling like you just hooked a brick wall. A fish so strong that you have to stop and look at the rod tip to make sure its not a snag. Then and only then does she start to shake her head and slowly make her way to deep water. For those that haven't experienced it, your turn is coming. For those that have, you know exactly what I'm talking about.

This video is dedicated to that moment of impact. These fish did exactly what I'm talking about. They bit hard and they battled harder. I hope you enjoy watching a bunch of big fish choking down swimbaits because that's what you're about to see. The main bait used to catch these fish was the 8" huddleston Deluxe. As always, the reel was spooled with braid and a 30 lb mono leader. The Rod was a Dobyns 807 Mag. These may seem like huge components to the average angler but look at how hard the fish are flexing the rod, its all about having the right tools for the job.

Alabama Rigs Are No Joke

After months of requests the time has finally come for me to chime in on the topic of Alabama Rigs, generically known as "Spreader Rigs" or "Umbrella Rigs". Obviously I'm months behind the hype. Most of you now own rigs and have had some experience with them. Some of you are probably having a blast catching fish on them while others of you have already retired them to a plano box where they will soon be forgotten.I would have chimed in months ago but I wasn't willing to speak out until I felt I was speaking from a place of experience.

For those of you that have been living under a rock, the "Alabama Rig" gained huge notoriety when Paul Elias won a major event last fall. It is a smaller, "freshwater" version of the old saltwater spreader rigs.

The video was shot on Clearlake in mid-april. While the fish in the video is by far my largest fish on the "A-rig" my clients and I have been catching big fish on it all spring. As you watch the video you will notice there are a handful of details that I failed to cover. I apologize for the oversight, but Jeff and I were in a hurry to get back to fishing. The day ended with 5 fish for 44.05 lbs, only one of which (the smallest) was not caught on a Spreader Rig.

Feel free to respond with your thoughts and questions. I'll film a follow up video with more of the technical details in the coming weeks and will answer as many of the questions as possible at that time.

Topwater Mayhem with a Lunker Punker

Don’t you just love those winter days when the sun comes out, the wind lays down and for a few brief moments it feels like Spring? Despite the ice cold water you can almost imagine fish starting to head for the shallows and begin to feed near the surface. You know the days I’m talking about; you’re in full winter gear all morning but by early afternoon you’re wearing just a sweatshirt and for a few minutes you even give the T-shirt a try. Nearly a month ago now I was enjoying one of those very days. I was with a client and he was on a school of fish that that wouldn’t leave a swimbait alone. During a lull in the mayhem my mind started wandering to warmer places and despite the 50 degree water temps I started digging through the lockers looking for a topwater. Wouldn’t you know it, down in the bottom under all the winter tackle I found a lunker punker. Without a doubt, the punker is my favorite early-spring topwater bait.

I tied it on for kicks and began firing it around the boat haphazardly. What I didn’t expect was that after just a few casts, a fish would roll and miss the bait. As I continued slowly walking the bait to the boat I could see the fish following behind working side to side as she tracked the bait’s movements. It seemed to go on forever but realistically, she was probably behind the bait for 15 to 20 seconds before finally inhaling the bait on the side of the boat. It wasn’t the biggest fish ever but a 5 lb topwater bass in early March is a sight for sore eyes.

As soon as I got home from the lake I started searching for my lunker punker footage that I could share with the Tacticalbassin community. The following video was put together in 2 days of epic fishing on one of my favorite fisheries.

The bass in this area were keyed on large prey and the punker was the perfect tool to do the job. There was a lot of fishing pressure but most anglers missed the opportunity to step up the size of the baits and specifically target the larger fish. Its important to realize that this can be applied to your local waters as well. These larger baits don’t just catch big fish, they catch 1 and 2 lbers as well. Some of these same fish might have eaten a smaller topwater but the bigger fish would have passed them by. By using the right tool for the job I was able to catch more of the fish that were in the area. We were literally catching MORE fish because we were using BIGGER baits. That is a concept that a lot of anglers fail to realize.

There are some simple modifications I make to this bait to help increase my bite to hookup ratio. While I don’t have time to cover them right now, get a punker or two in your hands and in the next couple of weeks I’ll shoot a follow up video to show you exactly what hooks I use to make the bait do what it needs to do as well as the tackle I’m using when fishing the bait.
Though I throw both sizes of the wood punker as well as the full range of injected baits, this video was shot with the 6″ Injected G2 Lunker Punker with Rattles. Here is the direct link to the bait I was using: Injected Lunker Punker