April 12, 2012

Stiffy Push Poles

The guy has a Stiffy!!! Great day on Okeechobee, sight fishing, poling around some good areas, taking it slow and stealth, and it paid off.

I have a 14 foot fiberglass Stiffy Push Pole.  It works great.  You need a push pole for many reasons, especially for hunting big bed fish up shallow in places like Okeechobee and Seminole.  The Stiffy Push Pole I have is two pieces, it screws together and can be stored in two 7 Foot sections.   The size of 14″ is a good size for me, the size of the boat and how deep of water I’m sitting.    I seriously like having either 7 foot sections or one long 14 foot section of strong fiberglass pole in my boat when I run around Okeechobee.  Between snakes, gators, birds and who knows what else, you never know when you need something to keep the critters away.   Also, getting stuck, high centered, overheated, lost or otherwise in a bad situation, a push pole is quite a useful tool that I find myself using often.   I imagine guys on the California Delta or Potomac, with the tidal nature of those waters, and for sure the river rats that duck into backwaters and ponds and need to push up and over shallow bars and structures, could use a good push pole.   Click HERE to see us fishing on Lake Okeechobee, where we show the 14 foot fiberglass Stiffy Push Pole in action.

Something about a push pole is just cool. You get back to slowing things down, and taking the stealth approach. Don't kid yourself, it's way physically exhausting to push yourself and a 20 foot fiberglass boat around. It takes time to get skills and even get your boat pointed the direction you want to go.

Stiffy makes other push poles and accessories too.  You can get the high end (and much lighter weight) graphite Stiffy Push Pole.  There are multiple piece/modular push poles and also single piece.  Just talk to the them if you have any special requests, they are good and can work with you to get the right length, material, and modular setup for your boat, and have the accessories for storage and mounting the push pole to your boat.

Stiffy storage on my Ranger Z520. I wrap the cord around it and secure it to my step, works great. Run that thing right down the center of your boat seems to be a good way to store it,when you plan on using it a lot and want to keep it as one big long piece.

Posted by on April 12, 2012 in 3:16 Lure Company, Big Hammer, Kaenon Polarized, Marine/Boating, Polarized Fishing Glasses, Sight Fishing and tagged , , , , , , , , , , .

Leave a Comment

April 11, 2012

Fishing with the Kaenon Y35 (Yellow) Lens

Kaenon is based in Newport Beach, CA and has a ‘waterman’ DNA, where they strive for excellence in eyewear that meet the demands of the surfing, sailing, boating, paddle boarding, swimming, and fishing lifestyle.  They make a family of stylish and functional frames, that can be fitted with excellent grey, copper or yellow polarized lenses.   The lenses are a high end SR-91 composite material, which is their own high tech composite material–not glass, which means they are light weight and durable, yet they are quality, extremely high quality  lenses, so they are awesome to look thru.   They are light weight and sporty, and are a great compromise of function and fashion.  They are fun to wear, especially on calm days, warming trend, somewhere between the North Shore and Indian Prairie!  There is no reason to not experiment and try new things with your sunglasses and lenses and see what works and what fits you best and see if you don’t find something you like or something that works better.   Kaenon’s are available in 3 vibrant and distinct color variations, that are polarized of course:  Yellow, Copper, and Grey. I show you how I use the yellow (Y35) lens in the above video.      I’m going to introduce you to my world viewed thru various Kaenon sunglasses with the various lenses in separate projects, starting with the yellow lens.  The Y35 Kaenon Hard Kores are my choice for fishing in the black water of Okeechobee.

To understand why the Yellow lens helps ‘add light’ and brighten up the dark water of Florida, and brighten up cloudy and grey days for sight fishing, you have to understand the basics of ‘light transmission control’. The simple is, Yellow lens technology allows more light thru the lens. It blocks less sunlight, so you are gaining light vs. grey or copper lens (with the exception of the C50 which has my curiousity!). Go ahead and get yourself some yellow lenses and try them out. I bet you don’t take them off all day (in Florida anyway).

The Y35 Lens is amazing what it does to brighten up and ‘electrify’ an otherwise grey and gloomy day.   When you mix in the black tannin water of Florida, the Y35 has a whole new meaning.  These things pierce thru that clear black water we all strain our eyes to just see a little further, a little deeper, and detect a fish or a bed that much further away.    Here are the advantages to a Yellow lens:

  • Added light:  Great for seeing in black water, grey days, and cloudy conditions, especially when you are sight fishing.  Yellow lenses allow more light thru, and are a tool of serious sight fishermen.   Serious anglers have multiple sunglasses and lenses to approach certain situations, and these yellow lenses from Kaenon will be something you will appreciate and use regularly in your fishing.
  • Added contrast and detail:  You can detect beds further away (light spot in dark water) or dark fish tail against light spot better.  Or when it comes to detail, you can make out the shape and/or color of a fish better (vs. confusing it with grass or moss).   Think about competition skeet and trap shooting.  Those guys where yellow lenses, and I’m guessing it’s just for many of the same reasons.  I find even on the bright bluebird days of Okeechobee, yellow lenses work just fine middle of the day, not just the low light and grey days.   With the dark water of places like Okeechobee, the yellow lenses of my Y35 Kaenon Hardcores just work all day long, rain or shine, to give me added edge to see better.
  • Electrify your eyes:  I find the Kaenon Y35 lens a lot like being in a room with a black light.  Your eyes take a minute to adjust, but once you get the feel for them, the darks and lights really stand out and contrast each other. It’s like playing with the color levels of a digital photo editing tool.  Adding light or otherwise taking away/filtering out darkness, can make a photo come out great, whereas natively, it might have been really too dark to make out whatever you took the picture of.   Editing software makes it possible to make digital photos come out best.  Use this same mentality to choose colors of lenses to match the water and lighting of your fishing spot.  Yellow lenses electrify your vision and add contrast and detail you wouldn’t otherwise get.   Again, think sight fishing where you are looking for the black tails on the fish, lateral lines,  the white belly of a fish nosing down on your bait, looking for light spots out at the edge of your horizontal range, where you can best anchor down/setup on the bed to assess if a fish is there, and all the things you strive for perfection when sight fishing.   Yellow lenses are just an aid to help your vision to see more fish, beds and better see your bait and “the bed fishing theater” while sight fishing.
  • Seeing your bait:  It is no accident the colors of 5″ Big Hammer swimbaits (bright white, chartreuse/yellows really stick out with Y35 lenses on) I tend to throw at big bed fish ala the 5″ Big Hammer Sight Fish Rig, tend to contrast nicely and be highly visible with the Y35 lenses.
  • Boat Driving:  There are plenty of occassion to wear your Y35 Kaenon Hard Kores when operating your boat.  Morning take-off, and just any grey/cloudy dark conditions are ideal for using the Y35 lenses to add some light and just give you better visibility driving in the exposed outdoors at 65-70 MPH.
  • Hipster Alert:  You can wear your Y35 Kaenon’s out to nightclubs and trendy bars!!

Yellow? You hear me? Kaenon Hard Kores with the Y35 lens are a key tool to my bed fishing, especially in Florida. The fish, your bait, and the beds all tend to contrast in the dark water better with a yellow lens.

I definitely recommend getting yourself into a yellow lens for fishing the dark water of Florida and just to have as a tool in grey/cloudy conditions and perhaps for driving your boat.  I wear the Kaenon Hard Kore frame, because I find it incredibly light weight, sporty, and comfortable. I can wear them all day and don’t feel the fatigue of the nose or ear pieces on my head.   You have a few frames to choose from from Kaenon that offer the Y35 lens.  Here are the others frames that have the Y35 lens:  The Arlo, The Kanvas, and The Rhino.

FishStrong published a review of the Kaenon Kores with the C12 (Copper) lens.  Yellow lenses are a specialty thing, and definitely a tool to have, especially if you like “lookin’ at ‘em” .  But copper lenses, as Hale White from FishStrong explains, are the most universally useful.  Take a look at  FishStrong’s write up HERE.    You can expect us to be back with our own take on the copper and grey lenses, and expect more collaboration with us and FishStrong too.

Sight fishing is like anything else, you need a system. Yellow lenses are part of my system and I encourage you to give it a try in the black water especially.

Posted by on April 11, 2012 in 2012 Tournament Fishing, 3:16 Lure Company, Big Hammer, Kaenon Polarized, Marine/Boating, Sight Fishing and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , .

2 Comments

April 3, 2012

Shaye Baker’s 2012 Lake Seminole FLW Everstart Tournament Insights

The winning pattern on Lake Seminole was the shad spawn bite first thing in the morning.  Brandon McMillan capitalized on it for the win and so did a few others in the Top 10.  Shaye Baker, from Reeltown, AL, is no stranger to shad spawns and was thinking right with his approach to Lake Seminole.   The above video clip gives you some insights into how Shaye parlayed an early morning shad spawn bite into a topwater bite later in the day.    His shad spawn bite on Day 2 wasn’t so strong, but he had a back up game plan and it payed off and got him into the Top 10 cut.  He came back on Day 3 with another solid bag, anchored with shad spawn fish.  He had his first fish in the boat, a solid 4+ kicker,  four minutes after takeoff.  Think about that.  He wasn’t running 30-45 minutes in the morning.  He used that early morning time to fish and had a spot near the take off so he could be fishing while the shad were spawning up along hyacinth mats and the quality bass were feeding on ‘em.   That is fishing smart, and having a back up gameplan (the Bowstick/top water bite) was insurance and helped him make the cut and ultimately finish 4th place.  Nice work Shaye.   Shaye is a success story from the world of FLW College Fishing, where he had a colored career fishing for the University of Auburn, and is part of a class of recent grads that are killing it at the Everstart and Tour levels.

Shaye’s Weapons of Choice:

Jackall Bowstick

1/4 oz. Netbait Paca Swim Jig (Glimmer Shad) with a Baby Paca Craw Trailer

Homemade “Team Baker” (Shaye and his father make their own spinnerbaits) spinnerbait, tandem silver willow leaf  blades and blue glimmer skirt

The guys on the shad spawn bite got into some quality fish in a hurry. Here's is Shaye with two nice ones from Day 3, before most had even shut down their engines from their morning run.

Posted by on April 3, 2012 in 2012 Tournament Fishing, Small Bait Fishing, Spinnerbaits and tagged , , , , , , , , .

Leave a Comment

April 3, 2012

The 5″ Big Hammer Sight Fishing Rig

The Big Hammer Sight Fishing Rig is part of a system. It's a system that involves using finesse baits and bigbaits to aggravate a fish into biting. The swimbait is fished as an 'intruder' and provides a power fishing approach to big fish, the female kind usually, but also good for the better than dink males you might need in a tournament situation.

We shared this rig in Southern Trout Eaters.  We have been getting asked a lot of questions about it, and Spring has sprung, so here goes.    Think of the 5″ Big Hammer Sight Fishing Rig as a workhorse bed fishing bait, geared for ‘bigger’ fish.   The one rod you have rigged up in case you come up on or purposely hunt big fish on  beds.   We’ve had a few years to validate this rig, in the mountains, and in the grass of Okeechobee and Seminole.  I credit my friend and trophy bass hunter from the Bay Area, Rob Belloni, for sharing the fundamental of his Big Hammer Texas Rig with me. I’ve sorta dumbed it down since I’m usually not hunting double digit fish with it, most of my world, 4-9 pounders are king, with chances at double digits for sure though.    I’ve made my own adjustments and have made it a staple in my sight fishing system.   Rob has fooled giants, I have now fooled quite a few 4-9 pounders with it in multiple Southern States.   This is a great trophy and tournament style of sight fishing, and it points out the need for a knock out punch in your bed fishing arsenal.

The 5" Big Hammer Sight Fishing Rig. 5" Big Hammer, rigged flat side up. Just bury your hook point enough to keep the bait weedless and free from snagging the fish, but able to sting one that just barely grabs it. Peg your weight, pitch and hop this thing around larger bed fish and see what happens.

The 5″ Big Hammer Sight Fishing Rig:

Bait: 5″ Big Hammer Swimbait  (colors:  Pearl, Invader, Glowbug, Silver Phantom, Chartreuse, Fire tiger)

Sinker: 3/4 to 1 ounce Picasso Tungsten Weight or Pro-Metal Weights (since you just need ‘weight’ high performance tungsten not 100% necessary.)  (pegged)

Hook: 5/0 Owner Wide Gap Offset Worm Hook

Line: 25# P-Line CXX Xtra Strong w/ Palomar knot

Glasses:  Kaenon Hard Kore Y35 or C12 Lens

Reel: Shimano Curado CU200G6

Rods: Powell 7’10″ MH (7105) Flipping Rod or Okuma Guide Select 7’6″ Heavy Casting (761H)

This 7'10" Powell Flipping Rod is a favorite all purpose 'heavy pitching' rod, for baits >1 ounce but not more than 1.5 or so. ie the Medlock Jig, 5" Big Hammer Rig, pitching 3/4 -1 ounce creature baits in grass, and light punching. The rod has guts. I think of it as a heavy pitching stick. I have whipped some nice fish with this rod. The short handle makes it handle and fish nicely, but long enough for leverage.

When you look at the trends in where bed/sight fishing is going, you will notice certain swimbaits and softbaits have flat sides or can be rigged flat side up are doing the most damage out there.  More cutting edge, more geared towards targeting bigger fish or a better mouse trap for fooling weary pressured fish.   The Dean Rojas Warmouth,  and the Jackall Clone Gill 2.5 and the Mission Fish are all part of the big picture of modern sight fishing.  All have wild variations and secret rigging and tricks I’m sure. I know the Hammer and Mission Fish best, both part of my toolkit.  Believe me when I tell you I use a drop shot a lot when sight fishing.  You need a big knock out punch and you need finesse, so I use the Mission Fish and Hammer as my big knockout punches, and drop shot/wacky and light texas rigs like the Warmouth and Clone Gill as my finesse approach.  I thought it important to note flat side up  or just flat sided bed fishing baits, have something about their swagger.  Flat sides, square/boot/slight swallow tails, realism, perch/bluegill profiles, buoyancy, weedlessness, unique vortex, and big fish attraction.   The Lateral Perch from PowerTackle is a derivative here, and likely a bed fishing bait for someone out there, but too has the this flat side up profile and swim, and is worth noting. I cannot speak to how well the Lateral Perch catches fish, but all of the other named baits I’m 100% certain catch fish on beds really well, and have too much in common not to connect the dots.   They all fish differently, but in the grand scheme of sight fishing, you better have tools that can be drop shotted, pitched, weightless/wackied, hopped, swam, and texas rigged if you want to be competitive.   Don’t just limit yourself to white tubes, craws and creature baits.  Be thinking perch/bluegill too.

The Okuma 7'6" MH Rod getting it done too. You need some 7'6" and shorter than 8' rods for fishing baits like the Mission Fish. This is an even beefier style of pitching stick vs. the Powell, but it takes the conversation to more like 2-6 ounce baits no problem. I liked using it for the 5" Big Hammer rig too. Lots of power and fished very nicely. The rod still has good feel even though my rig was under weighted for the rod, and it just worked for me.

The 5″ Big Hammer Sight Fishing Rig is an excellent sight fishing system.  You can see your bait very well in the black Florida water, and it shows up well fishing a bed fish in >8 feet of water in clear water.   The rig has ample weight involved, which means you can ‘rapid fire’ and harass a fish with the bait, pushing the fish around, and firing them up into biting.  The bait hops really well, and has the square tailed flap on the way back down to the bottom.  It’s more of a hop hop and slight drag and shake style of  bait.  The fish love to ‘catch’ the bait coming back down to the bottom, with a well placed and timed hop.  The 5″ Big Hammer gets bigger bed fish to bite and has an excellent hook-up and land ratio.  There is very little risk of foul hooking or snagging a fish, with the Texas rigged nature of the bait, which also opens up the ability to bounce the rig off of the side, head and tail of the fish, making them eat it.   You can expect to see a sight fishing production from us in the near future, highlighting this rig.  We gave a sneak peak of the bait underwater in our Lake Seminole FLW Evestart Preview video, in case you missed it.

Posted by on April 3, 2012 in 2012 Tournament Fishing, 3:16 Lure Company, Big Hammer, P-Line, Polarized Fishing Glasses, Rigging, Sight Fishing, Themes from our Southern Trout Eaters DVD and tagged , , , , , , , , , .

1 Comment

March 29, 2012

Southern Trout Eaters Soundtrack and Music

At home in Capo Beach, Fall 2004. Notice WON BASS and Anglers Choice tournament trophies, my girlfriend at the time's halloweeen costume, Rago Trout and 3:16 Armageddon, stacks of fishing junk, much of which I still have. Southern Trout Eaters was being developed before I ever left California, I just didn't know it.

At home in Capo Beach, Fall 2004, a few months prior to heading to GA. Notice WON BASS and Anglers Choice tournament trophies, my girlfriend at the time's halloweeen costume, LA Lakers ticket stub in corner of San Onofre painting, Rago Wood Generic Trout, 3:16 Armageddon decorations, 7" MS Slammer tied on, my first swimbait rod (top) I hand wrapped and made, stacks of fishing junk, much of which I still have. Southern Trout Eaters was being developed before I ever left California, I just didn't know it.

Here is the music we licensed for Southern Trout Eaters:

The Sweet Sunny South (Garcia/Grisman, Shady Grove) –Opening Menu
Shady Grove (Garcia/Grisman, Shady Grove) — Intro
The “C” –(Montana Slim)–Blue Ridge Hudd Breakdown
Friday Morning 9:30 (The Muses, Penny) — Freestyle
Angel Band (Old&In The Way, That High Lonesome Sound) -The Huddleston Triad
Pig in a Pen (Old&In the Way, Old&In the Way) Triple Trout Stomp Part 1
Working on a Building (Old&In the Way, Breakdown)  Triple Trout Stomp Part 2
Santa Maria (The Muses, Sinners Waltz) –Closing Credits

If you could listen to my iTunes library, you would hear music from the Civil War, the old West, Latin America, Hawaiian traditional tunes, sea shanties, reggae, country, bluegrass, and classic rock.   About the only thing I knew about Southern Trout Eaters, from it’s early conception, was that bluegrass would be the music that would be used (assuming I could figure out how to license the music).    Since I could not afford to license Bill Monroe’s music, I thought it was terribly fortunate that Acoustic Disc was accessible, super aloha, and worked with me to figure out licensing.

Old&In The Way and Garcia/Grisman are both bands that Jerry Garcia played in. His music outside of the Grateful Dead.  It reminds me of wanting to focus on bigbaits and chasing trophy brown trout, and still trying to do tournament fishing.  Different worlds, but all still very much fishing (or music) in Jerry’s case.  There are many things about the lifestyle choices of Jerry Garcia that are not to be copied or celebrated.   However, when it comes to music, Jerry’s depth and ability to capture the original intent of song is second to none.  The richness of music in real life. I enjoy the Grateful Dead, but I really really enjoy Jerry’s solo work, where he plays in old time, bluegrass, country, and various Americana style bands.  Jerry literally would learn tunes that were hundreds of years old, and get together with David to arrange them, and that is what always resonated with me.  They sounded really good too. Simple songs.  Simple music.  Again, that simplification being the ultimate sophistication thing.    It reminds me of taking a break from the tournament world of fishing and going after a big fish, or focusing on night fishing or exploring new water.  When you do something for the love of doing it, like playing banjo in a bluegrass band, you are forsaking money and financial gain, and you are just doing it because you love music (or the sport of catching fish).   Jerry has a knack for unearthing tunes you never heard of, that are hundreds of years old in many cases, and playing them really really well.  Great tunes, tunes that otherwise would likely be lost for generations and generations.  Do young mothers sing hip hop or heavy metal tunes to their children these days?  Do teachers bring acoustic instruments into classrooms anymore? Am I the only guy that likes to hear musicians play stuff around campfires way out the woods without electricity?  The Garcia/Grisman style of bluegrass was born in the early 90s in San Francisco (David Grisman was a member of Old&In the Way, and Jerry and Dave are just lifelong friends thru music who got back together in the early 90s to record music they both enjoyed.   David kills the mandolin,and together with Jerry, they formed their own style of bluegrass (called “grateful dawg”  the ‘grateful’ from Jerry’s contributions and the dawg from David’s mandolin style) , clean and acoustic, yet loose and fun).     I heard the original Garcia/Grisman album because my brother, who was then a freshman at Standford University, played it for me and my sister while he was home for a holiday one time.  I was blown away.  It resonated with me immediately.  Friend of the Devil and cover of BB King’s Thrill is Gone just rocked, and that sent me on my way to explore and connect the dots in all things that style of music when I was a freshman in high school.  If you want to watch a killer DVD that pretty much summarizes and better explains everything above check out Grateful Dawg.

"I ain't broke, but brother I'm badly bent". Southern Trout Eaters is a journey. Move across the country or somewhere you haven't been 2000 miles near, by yourself, not know a single person and try to blend in and get along. Summer of 2005 was some of the craziest exploration and weekend trips I have ever taken. Try driving thru Western NC and North GA with California tags on your truck and boat sometime. I was pulled over and inspected 5 times in 3 months! Just part of the journey. This photo was in 2006, but I still was learning the hard way... was trying to back down a long driveway, I high centered the trailer because I got too far to the right. Was stuck and had to have a wrecker un-stick me. Guh, fun times.

I was having dinner with my 2 college roommates in Morro Bay, upstairs in a killer beach house we had rented across from Morro Strand, we had been surfing that evening, when on KOTR, the local radio station played “Whiskey in the Jar” from the then newly released Shady Grove album.  This was the first Garcia/Grisman album that was released after Jerry’s death in 1995.  This was approximately late 1996 or early 1997.   There is something about the clean acoustic sound that Jerry and Dave put together that just strikes me to my core.  I think I probably played the Shady Grove album in my college days about 10,000 times.     I went to college at Cal Poly SLO.  San Luis Obispo is the Central Coast of California, and among other things, has a huge agriculture scene.  The Central Valley is nearby, and the Central Valley of California is where the biggest and baddest farming and agriculture goes down that I’m aware of.   Where I’m going with this, is there was a huge cowboy and cowgirl population at Cal Poly.  My favorite times at Cal Poly usually had to do with rodeos, Thursday nights at McClintock’s in downtown where even a goof ‘surfer dude’  like me could find a cowgirl to dance with, partying with a great crew of guys and gals that were decidedly non fraternity/sorority in nature, surfing and fishing (WON BASS and Anglers Choice). Cal Poly was a wonderfully diverse place where you would be in class sitting next to a cowboy from Bakersfield, a surfer from La Jolla, a snowboarder from Mammoth, and a computer whiz from Palo Alto.

August 2005 Trout Eaters. This was a special day. 30 pounds in August makes the heat a lot more tolerable. That Southern heat was something (it still is). I went out and caught 5 studs by the time the wake boards ruined the lake. A nice fellow saw me catch #5 and I still had #4 in the box, and he took this picture for me, from his dock. I was absolutely eaten up with it all. I had no friends, no girlfriend, nothing to do outside of work but fish. So I fished. Weekend warrior to the max. I probably fished 40-45 of the 52 weekends in the year. Only deep cold winter could keep me off the water.

When Southern Trout Eaters was coming together, you have to understand the personal journey that the film encompasses to appreciate why Shady Grove was so perfect for the film, as far as I was concerned.  Shady Grove is the album name, but also, a song name, and the tune Shady Grove was my #1 favorite from the album and if you ask anyone of my college friends, they will tell you I would play Shady Grove while suiting up and getting ready for a surf every time.   Shady Grove is a traditional courting tune, played in Appalachia for centuries.  I’m 100% sure I’d never had heard the song if Jerry hadn’t introduced me to it.   So, when I found myself years later, in the Appalachian Mountains in the middle of a pretty awesome swimbait bite, bluegrass is what I played in my truck.  I have spent many many days and nights alone in the woods in Appalachia, especially the early years, exploring and fishing, and about the only thing I can remember besides the fishing is rocking out to Bill Monroe, Garcia/Grisman, and Old&In The Way on the way to and from the lakes on my weekend adventures.  It’s one of the rituals you get into. I have certain music I play based on where I’m going or what I’m doing, and bluegrass is usually being played with 8″ Huddleston’s and 10″ Triple Trouts are involved.    Then came Monday;  back to forecast updates, software, venture capitalism, and Atlanta.

Appalachia isn't my home. I'm a guest, traveling thru. I know and love bluegrass. To me, bluegrass pays respect to the mountains, the people and the heritage, and that was my attempt to 'tip my hat' or extend some 'aloha'. Some people understood. Some did not and never will. Some will learn. I hope at minimum, the music we used exposes younger people to styles and tunes they otherwise would have no chance at being exposed to in today's world. Music is nowhere near as important as the content itself. I am proud of the music and the content.

Posted by on March 29, 2012 in Culture, Southern Trout Eaters DVD and tagged , , , , , , .

Leave a Comment