Pro Staff Dan Galbincea's
Fishing Articles

When a professional angler takes to the water they are fishing for bigger fish. They have to if they are going to finish high in the standings. You soon begin to realize that fishing for bigger fish requires a different attitude and many times it requires different techniques.

An example would be a national walleye tournament I competed in on Lake Mille Lacs in Minnesota. During the practice days many of the anglers were looking for big fish suspended near deep structure. They were trolling crankbaits, which is a highly touted big fish technique. Few big fish were caught.

Some of the pros reasoned that if the big fish weren't deep or suspended they must be shallow, and they were right. Up on the rock bars the perch and shiners were creating a smorgasbord and the big walleyes were fattening up on this forage.

Casting crankbaits seemed to catch some real bruisers, but the depth these fish were in was two to four feet and snagging was costing the anglers a lot of lures. Some of the competitors were trying slip-bobbers but the perch and small walleyes would devour this bait as soon as it settled in the water.

Having plenty of experience on big rock reefs scattered about Lake Erie I decided to experiment with a traditional Erie Dearie, the original weight forward spinner. With this lure you can count it down to a depth and retrieve it at a speed that keeps it there.

Soon after employing the technique I caught a 29-inch walleye, one of the biggest fish in the tournament. Since I'm not very good at keeping a secret it wasn't long before others began using the lure successfully. The winners of the weekend team event utilized the presentation as well. The pro I was fishing with encouraged me to try the lure and it paid off. He won the tournament and I placed high as an amateur. He sought out the big fish and between us we came up with a few techniques that worked to catch them.

I've learned that pros don't just go to a spot and sit there waiting for the fish. They search them out and try a lot of different approaches until they nail down the one that is most effective. The pros are always modifying their presentation until they discover what is the best, the very best, possible combination of cover, structure, bait, lure, speed, action, and once they do make that connection they will capitalize on it.

How does this relate to the average angler? Like the pro the average angler should take to the water with no preconceived notion of where the fish will be and what they will bite on. If the things you're doing aren't working try different locations and techniques until you nail down a pattern. Once you begin to catch fish make minor adjustments in the presentation until you find the combination that works the best.

There are other tricks the pros use. For instance, whenever another angler or two has joined them in the boat no one will be using the same technique until they have discovered that perfect presentation. They might all be jigging if that's what's called for, but the jigs are different styles, colors, tipped with different baits, whatever, until they figure out the combination that works best.

The pros will realize if an area gets congested with anglers because a bite gets hot there, that this is going to push the fish out to the fringe of that spot. They will make a modification in their tactics to target these fish and will still be catching while everyone else is wondering what happened to the fish.

One last trick that the pros do that should be used by every angler is that when the fishing is tough the pros gear their techniques towards two types of presentation. One is finesse and the other is reaction. Finesse requires the angler to slow down and strain an area with live-bait rigs or slow lure presentations. Reaction requires the angler to speed up to a point where the fish reacts and hits the lure. You're trying to trigger a bite by trolling or retrieving a lure at a fast clip, or using a bait with a very erratic action.

The thing to remember is that while the average angler may give up if they can't find fish or figure out the pattern, the pro believes there are some aggressive fish somewhere and they won't give up until they find them and figure out what they want.

Crankbaits work great, but they have to be worked slowly. That is a key this time of year. The speed. The slower you work the lure the better. Some of the neutral-buoyant crankbaits are phenomenal right now because you can cast them out, reel them down to the right depth and then let the lure sit motionless in hopes a big bass nearby has seen it. A super retrieve for the neutral-buoyant crankbait is a twitch-and-sit retrieve. The fish sees the lure quiver and then hover, quiver and hover. This is often too much for the bass to resist.

In the summer months, where you catch one fish you will often find more. Such is not always the case in the fall. Sometimes you get lucky and find there are a few fish working a small pod of forage, but more often it's just one or two bass working a tiny group of minnows. With this in mind adjust your presentation to fit the conditions.

Hit and run. Make a lot of casts. Don't spend too much time in one place, even if you've just caught a fish there. You have to come to a compromise that entails a slow retrieve with the need to be covering ground. It can be done. Spinnerbaits work well in the fall, but the heavier, bigger-bladed baits have to be pulled to fast. You can use a smaller spinnerbait in the half-ounce range. Something with a small Colorado-style blade. You should also try the AmBASSadear. It's a lure made by Erie Dearie for bass fishermen. The tiny twin-spinner blades will rotate with very little retrieve speed and the larger profile of the skirted body looks like a nice-sized meal. It's the perfect fall bait.

I just talked about the size of lure resembling a good-sized meal. Fall bass are feeling the change in water temperature and something is triggering a need in them to fatten up for the oncoming colder water temperatures. Because of this the big bass should be feeding actively and will hit a bigger bait.

Also consider that the forage base has had all summer to grow, so naturally the minnows the bass are chasing will be bigger in size. Once again, try to match the hatch.

When the water is calm, you just have to go with a topwater approach. The shallow feeding bass are going to ambush a struggling meal splashing on the surface and will come from some distance to hit a Zara Spook or a Hula Popper.

Keep the retrieve slow, even letting the popper or spook sit for a few seconds after a few pulls. An easy meal for a bass this time of year is just what that fish wants to see and if you show it to them, they will most certainly bite. That lure just twitching and hovering on the surface is a nice easy meal.

Late-season open-water bass fishing is one of those pastimes that require anglers to put out some special effort. The fall hunting seasons are in full swing and the short evenings make getting out after work tough. But the rewards are there. Bigger bass, the kind you take a picture of and show all your jealous friends are there now for the catching. This is one of the best times to be out on the water for obtaining bragging rights. Figure out a way to get there.

I think I know why this situation exists. It's because walleye anglers always troll live-bait rigs or bottom-bouncers near the bottom and when they get into any shallow cover or vegetation where you have to accurately cast, they're not confident in the approach.

On the other hand, bass anglers are making precision casts into shallow vegetation all the time, but when it comes time to slow down and drag a lure around in the deep water, the bass anglers just don't enjoy doing it. Truthfully, the bass guys could learn something from the walleye guys, and vice-versa. The best lesson I learned was taking some walleye techniques and using them for catching deep bass.

Except for the early season months when bass are shallow and spawning the bigger fish are generally in a deep-water sanctuary. Some bass like deep weedlines, some like rock piles on sunken islands, and some even suspend. I like to key on the fish that are relating to something. Suspended bass are tough to locate and tougher to catch.

For weedline bass I use a medium-diving crankbait or a spinnerbait. With the crankbaits you want to use baits that strain the zone. What I mean by that is make sure you are using a lure that reaches depths that will be productive. I might strain an area that has a weedline that ends at 12 feet by incorporating a lure that gets down to six and then make another pass with a lure that goes to 11 feet. Too many bass anglers tie on a lure and throw it without considering whether it's getting too deep for the fish or maybe even not deep enough. Add a few more options to the game plan by using more than one crankbait to strain the water.

Spinnerbaits are great for working heavy weeds at mid-depths, but they can be super for those deep weedlines as well. The key here is to allow the lure to get down to the fish. You see it all the time; an angler makes a cast, the lure hits the surface, and immediately the reel is engaged and the lure is burning in at a few inches under the surface. This works great in shallow vegetation, but it will be a bust in deep water.

Cast the spinnerbait out and let it sink completely to the bottom and then yo-yo it back. Make a few quick turns on the reel and then let the lure settle a couple of seconds and do it again.

I like spinnerbaits with tiny blades or small Colorado blades for this technique because then the lure is always working. I use AmBASSadears most of the time because they have a set of twin spinner blades and when the lure is dropping, those small blades are spinning and the lure is attracting fish. Let the AmBASSadear hit bottom and then make a slow retrieve or yo-yo the lure back. It's a super technique. Be sure to keep an eye on the line and if it twitches or stops before it's supposed to (one foot drop per second), then set the hook. This countdown factor is very important.

The biggest impression the walleye guys made on me was how to be more efficient with my Carolina Rig. The Carolina Rig is the same as a walleye angler's live-bait rig, only the bass guy uses a plastic lure on the hook instead of a leech or minnow.

Instead of casting and reeling this lure in try making a slow drift and leaving the rig on the bottom. You can really work a weedline with this rig and I've discovered it's extremely effective.

Use a heavier egg sinker instead of a cone weight. Put a couple of beads on the line between the swivel that keeps the sinker from sliding down to the hook and the sinker. The beads add a little sound.

Drift the weedline or use the bow-mount electric motor to move the boat and rest the sinker a few inches off the bottom. You can rig the worm with a buried (weedless) hook or expose the barb depending on how much vegetation you have to get through. When the bass hits the bait set the hook immediately. If you wait a split second too long the bass might take the plastic lure too deep.

These are just a few of the things I've learned from fishing with walleye guys, there are plenty more. You can learn a lot when fishing with guys that will cross over to other species. Keep your eyes open and be willing to experiment.

There's nothing more fun than getting into a big bed of cabbage and ripping a Rattling Rap or Rattle Trap past the big bass that are using the plants for cover. I just love bouncing a spinnerbait off of the branches on the edge or skim the top of the weeds for big bass.

A Rattling Rap/Rattle Trap is a narrow-bodied lure that can slink around the branches and stalks of that cabbage and entice bass with the flash and noise. Occasionally you get hung up. You should be using a fairly stout rod and heavier line. When the lure gets stuck just give it a good rip and pull it free.

Bullrush is a favorite hideout for bass. I work the edge of this emergent vegetation by tying on a number-nine floating Rapala and casting it parallel to the clump of stalks. You can twitch, pop, jerk, and reel this lure back to the boat, creating some of the hardest hits you've ever experienced. These shallow bass always seem bent on destroying anything that crosses their path when they're in the bullrush. The presentation is pretty close to a topwater experience, which is great fun in anyone's book.

Coontail can be a mess when it's thick, but a great way to get to the bass in this vegetation is to run a spinnerbait right over the tops of the weeds. I'm always experimenting and I've discovered you need to work all the angles when attacking a bed of coontail.

First, I cast to the shallow side of the coontail and let the lure drop into deeper water. The spinnerbait will follow the deepening contour of the bottom as it drops slowly into deeper water on a soft retrieve. It works great where there's a nice long tapering bottom.

When working the tops of the coontail you want to mark the top of the weeds on your depthfinder and maintain that depth. Use a countdown spinnerbait that will run right above the stuff and as long as you don't go shallower and get hung up or deeper and lose the weeds, you'll have bass rocket out of that coontail and pummel that bait as it zips over their head.

One of the best countdown spinnerbaits around is the AmBASSadear. It drops one foot for every second so if the tops of the weeds are at five feet you just count off four seconds after the lure hits the water and you are a foot above the weeds. It works great.

When I'm working weeds I like to put the lure on a rig that's spooled with a four-pound diameter superline, like Fireline or Spiderwire. The line is very sensitive and you can feel every little movement. This is great when working weeds because if you get a little piece of floating vegetation on the lure you can feel that, reel it in and clean the stuff off. If you hit a strand of coontail and the lure gets stuck, you'll know if there's any vegetation on the lure after you rip it free because the action will change. This line lets you know that the lure is working.

One nice thing about milfoil - if there is such a thing - is that it creates a distinct weed edge. On cabbage and coontail you can find edges too, but they may not be as distinct. Work whatever edge you find with the crankbaits and spinnerbaits. The deep-diving crankbaits can be cast or trolled along the deep edges and used to hook any of those bass that are close to bottom. The spinnerbaits allow a more precise presentation when working the sides and tops of the weeds.

Of course that was in June and this is September. The water is only six inches deep where the lure lands and it's high noon. That six-pounder came a half-hour after the sun set in this shallow sand-covered basin. My guess is: that fish had a serious case of stupidity and was on that spot for no apparent reason, but since this guy caught a big one there, every time he fishes this lake he tests that spot. It's called fishing memories.

The problem with fishing memories is that you waste a lot of time in unproductive water. Sure, you might get lucky and catch a bass, but you have much better odds in a high-percentage area. In a place where the fish are supposed to be at that time of year under the conditions you are fishing.

The big bass of early season can be found shallow, relating to inside weedlines and boat docks. As the water warms the bigger fish move in to deeper water and relate to mid-lake structure like humps, rock piles and deep weedlines. In the fall big bass may move shallow again in search of the forage that migrates there when the water cools.

At night, any time during open water, a shallow presentation should be used. I learned this from Department of Natural Resources (DNR) biologists who electro-fish to get a sampling of a lake's bass population. The darkness gives a big bass confidence in the shallows and they move up at night to feed. A well placed topwater lure, spinnerbait, or shallow-running crankbait can generate some of the biggest bass of the season if worked over a prime location at night. One of my favorite presentations at night consists of casting an Erie Dearie AmBASSaDear right up to the edge of the shoreline and slow-rolling the bait back to the boat.

The reason the AmBASSaDear works so well is that the lure covers all the depth zones if you reel it just fast enough to allow it to slowly sink. The tiny blades on the AmBASSaDear will spin at even the slowest speed so you can crawl the bait back and let it drop as the shoreline tapers out into the deeper water.

Leave the skirt on the AmBASSaDear and also add a two-inch twister tail body for some additional action. This combination with a slow retrieve will guarantee some bass in the boat after the sun goes down.

Vegetation is a huge factor when fishing bass. Most of the lakes I fish are choked with milfoil, cabbage, or coontail and this requires a vertical jigging presentation to get to the bass that are buried in the middle of this slop. A lot of bass anglers dislike fishing in the slop, but they know they have to if they are to catch fish so they are learning.

They are learning that the vegetation creates good cover and big bass lurk under the mats of milfoil, in the stalks of cabbage and under the sprigs of coontail. A well-directed live-rubber jig with a scented plastic trailer pitched right into the thick of the vegetation is the right combination for success.

You don't really cast a jig when fishing the heavy vegetation. What you do is pitch the jig just a few yards out away from the boat. Pitch the jig into pockets and tiny openings in the thick growth and let it sink to the bottom. The mat of weeds or thick clump of cabbage is only heavy on the surface. Near the bottom it's much less dense and big bass love this cover.

Raise and lower the jig a couple of times and then twitch it a few seconds before reeling it in and starting over in a new spot. Bass often hit the jig as you drop it and when you feel this set the hook and get the fish out fast. You need heavy line and a stout rod, but going toe-to-toe with a big bass in the heavy vegetation is a real experience.

Fishing memories might be necessary for some anglers that feel lightning will strike twice in the same spot, but if you want consistent success figure out where the big bass are and feed them what they want.

Eight times out of ten when you hook a big bass it will turn and run for deep water. It's those other two times when they head for the thick weeds that you want to have a rig with heavier line that lets you keep the fish out of the vegetation where it can come unbuttoned from the lure. I prefer a medium/heavy spinning rod and a reel spooled with a limp line in the 12 to 20-pound test range. The reason I don't use a baitcaster is I like to toss lighter lures at times and the spinning setup works great for both big and small lures.

The first thing you must do is assess what depth the weeds end. On bodies of water that are very clear you may have a weedline at 20 feet deep. On lakes where the water is turbid the weedline might be at eight feet down.

On a deep weedline you have a lot of water to cover. You need a few different lures to do a good job on a deep weedline. On a shallow edge a couple of lures can do the trick.

Let's start shallow and work deeper. Start with a topwater lure, a chugger like a Hula Popper, or a dog-walker like a Zara Spook. Work this lure right on the inside of the weedline, just a foot or so, where the weeds top out. Any bass high in the water column will hit this lure.

After you catch a few fish in a spot on a topwater, if the action on that lure stops, switch to a diving crankbait. Choose your next lure to run about half way down the side of the weeds. If the bottom edge is at eight feet, pick a crankbait that runs from four to six feet deep. Line up the boat so you can cast parallel with the weedline and start tossing that lure.

Another great lure to use when straining the water column on the edge of the vedge is the AmBASSaDear. This is a countdown lure so if you want to work four feet of water cast out the AmBASSaDear, count off four seconds and begin a slow retrieve. On the next cast count off six feet, or six seconds to get it down to that depth. Instead of changing crankbaits every time you want to move deeper you just make the cast and count it down.

Anglers don't always work the bottom edge of a weedline and that's a big mistake. Watching bass on a weed edge with an underwater viewing camera has shown me that big bass will lay right inside the weeds, belly to the bottom. If a little perch a crayfish comes scooting by the bass pops out and inhales the easy meal. Knowing this means you can catch those fish too.

Take an eighth or quarter-ounce jig and thread on a plastic worm, plastic craw, or plastic grub. The best jigs are the ones with a plastic weed guard. Cast the jig out parallel with the weedline and let it sink until it hits the bottom. You know it's there when the line goes slack.

Here's the secret. Drag the jig about two feet before you hop it off the bottom. When the jig settles back to bottom let it sit there for about a four count and then drag it another two feet before you hop it. A lot of times all you see is the line twitch and then start moving to deeper water. It's time to set the hook.

Bass love hiding in vegetation. The big bass love the edge of the vedge. It provides them with great feeding opportunities and it provides you with catching opportunities.

When chasing weed-oriented bass there are times when it would be a definite advantage to have the triggering capability of the spinnerbait coupled with the bottom hugging ability of the jig. To have the weedless properties of the spinnerbait integrated with the erratic hopping and popping action of the jig. Combine these forces and you will have the ultimate presentation when bass are in a neutral or negative mood and using vegetation as cover.

The problem with using the standard spinnerbaits like a jig is they have a tendency to drop too fast and provide little blade movement when falling. You need a spinnerbait that uses small blades and has a half to five-eighths ounce maximum weight. A twin-spin or two-armed spinnerbait is great because when the spinnerbait is resting on the bottom it will be leaning on one arm while the other blade dangles and turns and continues to provide some attraction. There are two spinnerbaits that fit this description. One is the AmBASSaDear by Erie Dearie and the other is the Gopher Twin Spin.

The best time to use the spinnerbait like a jig is when you've been flipping jigs in the vegetation and working the edge with plastic worms with no success. The mood of the bass is negative so they will lie on the bottom just inside the edge of the vegetation and unless you can catch the fish's attention or trigger a strike you don't have much of a chance.

The setup requires you to position your boat or float tube right at the deepest edge of the vegetation, what is often called the weedline. This allows you to cast the lure parallel to the weeds instead of into them.

You cast the spinnerbait as far as you can. You will discover it is a big advantage to have the bait a long distance away from you when you're dealing with finicky biters. Flipping the bait out to the weedline just doesn't get the reaction from the bass that you need.

Let the spinnerbait sink completely to the bottom. You know you're there when the line goes limp. As the lure drops, those tiny spinners on the bait spin fast and create some great flash. Those bass tucked into the weeds will swim out and take a look when they see this.

After letting the lure sit for a couple of seconds give the rod tip a good steady pull and whip that spinnerbait off the bottom. The blades will be flashing, the rubber skirt will be pulsating and the bass will follow the lure.

When the rod tip reaches the 11-o'clock position drop it quickly and reel in any slack keeping a slight amount of tension on the line. It's almost always when the lure is dropping that the bass takes it. It's a reaction strike. The bass thinks there's a big minnow chasing some smaller minnows and figures he's in for a light snack.

The key is to be a line watcher. When a bass takes the bait it will try to run back into the weeds. You don't always feel the bite, but you will see the line twitch when they inhale the lure or you see the line begin to move sideways in the water. Better be setting the hook.

The scene was a 500-acre lake in Iowa, but it could have been anywhere in the country. There were two of us in the boat. A cold front was on top of us, the skies were mile-high blue, and the air had a slight chill to it.

My fishing partner and I were flipping jigs right in the heavy milfoil with no luck. He was controlling the boat and moved us out to the weedline. He began casting plastic worms and I went after the bass with an AmBASSaDear. When the score was Me-8 bass and Him-1bass, he started calling for a lure like mine. I have proven this time after time that fishing a spinnerbait like a jig when weed-oriented bass are in a neutral or negative mode will always be the most productive presentation you can use.

But it actually goes farther than that. The next time the bass smells a salt-impregnated plastic worm, it might balk at trying to eat it. The next time the bass sees a chartreuse jig it might swim away without touching it.

The conditioning factor is why new lures become hot and old lures cool off. Luckily a new generation of bass comes along rather quickly and the old lures can get hot again.

I've been experimenting lately and have discovered some old lures as well as brand new ones that fall into the "hot" lure category.

Two crankbaits, one old and one new are really going to be productive in the year 2000. One is the Frenzy by Berkley and the other is the Lazy Ike. The Frenzy has all the right characteristics. The colors are awesome, the action is well designed and the rattling sound chamber is a big plus. These lures run good right out of the box and really catch fish. Fish have yet to be conditioned to the body design and sound of this lure.

The Lazy Ike is a crankbait with an old design that creates a wide wobble in the water. Few, if any lures are capable of duplicating this action. Bass became conditioned to the action and the lure "cooled off," for awhile. From indications resulting in my research the bass are still very fond of the action of the lure and will hit it with reckless abandon. It's a prefect time to incorporate one of these finesse crankbaits into your program.

Bass become conditioned to spinnerbaits easily. They see the flashing blade, feel the vibrations, key on the live-rubber skirt. Even changing colors doesn't always spawn a more productive pattern. Yet, many anglers love to present a spinnerbait into cabbage, coontail, grass, milfoil, and other heavy vegetation. It's can be a productive lure in thick cover.

While it's difficult to modify a spinnerbait there is one you have to try in 2000. The AmBASSaDear. This little twin-spin really catches bass. Lots of them and big fish as well.

I was bass fishing with some good anglers on a 600-acre lake in the upper midwest. The temperature dropped that morning by about 25 degrees and no one thought we were going to catch any bass, even on a lake that is typically very productive.

The lake is rimmed with bulrush and mats of cabbage and coontail. My friends used crankbaits and spinnerbaits. I used the AmBASSaDear. The first hour I caught six fish, my partners had none. The second hour I caught four fish, my buddies had one between them. The third hour we were all using AmBASSaDears and catching fish.

A week later on a small reservoir in Iowa and one of my angling friends was using a jig/worm and working shallow rock and stumps. I was using an AmBASSaDear. After I caught a dozen bass and he caught two he was asking me for a lure like the one I was using. I had one more and he borrowed it. After he caught up to me in numbers I realized I'd never see that lure again. The lure has small spinners, a jointed head setup, and bass are not even close to conditioned by this spinnerbait yet.

As anglers we get into a groove where we use the same stuff over and over because we have built up confidence in the bait. Even after the lure's production capacity wears thin, we still have a tendency to stick with them. This year make it a resolution to discover some new "confidence baits," and improve your success ratio.

The way to do this is look for something new that is similar to what you're comfortable with, yet modified enough to take the conditioning factor out of the equation. It just takes a little exploring and some effort on the water.