Do You Want to Catch a Giant Bass?

Matt was invited to do a seminar at this year's International Sportsman's Exposition. His topic was the same as last year, but it came with a twist. Instead of giving a demonstration people had already seen Matt broke it into two seminars in one. The first focused on FOOLING a trophy bass, the second focused on TRIGGERING a trophy bass.

For those that weren't able to see it in person, Tim was able to video the entire seminar. This Tacticalbassin exclusive video gives you a front row seat to the entire 46 minute seminar covering both topics. Enjoy!

In this video you'll discover that targeting trophy bass is easiest when you separate them based on what they eat and target them accordingly. In other words, you don't throw the same baits for a bass that primarily eats trout that you would for a bass that primarily eats bluegill. Additionally, you throw different baits if you want to fool them than you throw if you want to trigger them.

The baits that are going to be broken down in this video can be found below...

Natural Baits to FOOL a trophy bass:

-The Huddleston is a great swimbait that is widely available and has fooled countless trophy bass.

-The Jig with Beaver Trailer is another deadly option for targeting trophy class fish

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-The JSJ Hitch 6 Softbait is a new swimbait that perfectly mimics a baitfish, great for getting those monster bites!

-The California SwimJig has been catching giants for years, if you haven't added it to your arsenal yet the time has come.

REACTIVE Baits for Trophy Bass:

-S-Waver 168 and 200 are both GREAT options for triggering a trophy!

-The Flash Pointer 115 or Vision 110 both put trophy bass in the boat when used properly.

-The Magnum Fluke is an overlooked bait that puts monster bass in the boat!

The LV-500 Lipless crankbait is a western secret to target monster bass. This isn't a regular lipless and we don't fish it like you'd expect.

We hope you enjoy the seminar! If you have questions for Tim or Matt feel free to leave us a comment and we'll get back to you. Thank you for your continued support! Though it isn't yet on the website, we have hats and hoodies available for purchase. Please email Tim at tacticalbassin2@gmail.com and he will get you the details. Until next time, good luck out there!

Rate of Stall

Most anglers are familiar with the concept of "Rate of Fall". In case you're not, its a measurement of how quickly a bait sinks through the water column on its way to the bottom. But what is "Rate of Stall"? The first time I heard the term it came from Matt Peters in a discussion about how quickly baits move, in the words of Peters, "From East to West".

The idea is that most anglers pay a lot attention to how quickly baits sink and how that effects the fishing but very few pay attention to how quickly their baits are coming back to the boat. If a slow falling jig catches fish better than a fast falling jig on a given day it stands to reason that swim jigs, crankbaits, spinnerbaits, etc... might also have different catch rates based on how quickly they move through the water.

Its easiest to visualize this concept with topwater baits. As an example:

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 Let's say you're walking a super spook and catching fish non-stop. You return the next day but find the bite has completely disappeared. Its possible that the topwater bite has shut down completely but the odds are much higher that the "rate of stall" the fish are responding to has changed. Instead of giving up on the topwater bite you pull out a 1/2 oz buzzbait (faster) and a small popper (slower). By experimenting with baits that have different rates of stall you discover that the topwater bite with the buzzbait is actually better than the day before, you just had to choose a bait that was going faster.

The next time you're on the water be cognizant of the speed your baits are moving and make adjustments in retrieve speed, lure weight, etc... until you've fine-tuned the pattern to get every bite that you can. Good luck out there!

Swimbaits Part 1: Getting Started

For some anglers swimbaits are nothing new but for many, its still a mystery. Sure, if you live near a trout-infested Southern California fishery you have been seeing swimbaits fly for 20+ years. What about the guy in Arkansas or Tennessee, in some of these places the bass have yet to see a single swimbait. For years anglers have believed that swimbaits simply wouldn’t work in their local lakes.
Using such a big bait was surely reserved for Texas, California, or Mexico. Time (and tournament results) are quickly proving that this simply isn’t true.
For those of you who still have yet to see great success with a swimbait these next few videos are for you. We’re going to take it from the ground up. This first video discusses the mindset you will need and the equipment you should take out on your first day. For step 1 (getting the bait in the water and gaining some confidence) I really don’t recommend buying new equipment. Use what you currently have available to you for the time being.

As this week rolls on check the website regularly for the next few videos in the series. I’ll be discussing where to fish, when to fish, and how to take care of the fish once you get them in your hands.
There are still a handful of videos to be filmed in this series so if you have questions that you would like addressed please offer your suggestions. Afterall, the purpose of this site is to answer YOUR questions and to help YOU catch more and bigger bass on your next trip to the lake.

Swim Jigs in Action

To follow up on our earlier post on swim jigs, here’s some on the water footage of swim jigs in action. We were fishing swim jigs along weedlines in clear water, about 6 ft deep, and the bite was on!