Saving Smallmouths Caught in Deep Water

During the summer and winter months, bass, especially smallmouth bass call deep water (> 30') cover and structure their home. 

When catching smallmouths from their deep water haunts, their swim bladder inflates making it almost impossible to swim upright. Since the smallies have no way to evacuate the bladder on their own, knowing how to properly "fizz" the bladder is key.

Take a moment and watch as bass conservationist Barb Elliot demonstrates proper fizzing technique...

The is another method for other bass that involves using a large fizz needle that enters the bladder just above its crushers at the back of the mouth that can be accessed via the link below:

Alternative Fizz Method

Is This The Perfect Weightless Soft Plastic Bait?

I love fishing plastic baits weightless when working many types of shallow cover. It all started many years ago when I used 6″ Boone worms to fish weed-beds, docks, over-hangs and other shallow bass havens.

When Boone stopped producing the worms, my use of weightless plastics slowed or at least it did until Yamamoto Custom Baits created the Senko.

As much as I love fishing the Senko and other knock-offs in shallow cover fishing situations there is always a desire to have greater variety to offer our finny friends, especially the finicky ones.

I have tried other salt-laden or dense baits…

Some with success; others not so much but one style of plastics always seemed an issue when trying to go weightless… tube baits.

Today I came across a video (embedded below) demonstrating a weightless set-up of a heavy, salted tube bait manufactured by Kietech, the 4.5″ Salty Core Tube…

Fishing Deep Crankbaits for Big Bass

Do you struggle when attempting to fish deep crankbaits through offshore structure? I know I do!

Take a moment and watch as bass pro Chris Zaldain as he demos what it takes to hunt and catch big bass from offshore structure on deep crankbaits:

Wow can you believe what he had to do to get that fish in the boat?

Pretty impressive!

What Is a Rocket Shad?

What is the Rocket Shad?

At first glance, a minature spinnerbait that doesn't look like much but in certain situations it is pure bass catching dynamite as bass pro Shaw Grigsby describes in this video...

Very interesting and makes me wonder how it might work when "video game" fishing for suspended bass in vertical cover?

Hmmmm

Selecting the Right Topwater Bait

Given the plethora of topwater baits on the market today, how do you which type to select on any given day?

Noisy?

Quiet?

Prop or not?

Confused?

Take a moment and hear how the folks at Bama Bass decide which topwater to use for the conditions faced when on the water...