Early spring can be a spectacular time to fish for bass, IF you choose the best approaches. Learn the lures Jason Christie considers essential for this time of year.
Early spring is Jason Christie’s favorite time of the year to fish. The bass tend to be shallow, and the pre-spawn is an outstanding time to catch big bass. Conditions can vary substantially, though, so it’s important to be equipped for the vast range of situations that might be encountered.
We asked Christie to share his top early spring bass baits. As importantly as revealing specific lure choices, Christie shared why he chose each of his top early spring bass baits and discussed the situations that call for each, along with sharing insights on fishing these lures for pre-spawn bass.
YUM Bait Company is releasing 25 custom YUM Dingers colors that the fish have never seen. Learn more!
Sometimes a wild looking soft plastic color gets the nod, especially during the spawn. The answer for this equation is the new pattern Jello Shot. This delicious looking color features a deep red tint with added dark blue and black flake to cause any wayward bass to stop and stare.
Money is money, right? Right! This baby looks just like freshly minted green money, which is exactly what you will earn if you toss this Dinger in a tournament one Saturday morning this Spring.
Jello Shot and Money are two of 25 YUM Dinger custom colors that have been created by YUM Bait Company and released on Lurenet.com. Custom colors fill situational niches and allow you to show fish something they’ve never seen. The custom soft plastic bait program is beginning with the 5-inch YUM Dinger, YUM’s most popular bait. Rest assured, though, that more fabulous colors in other YUM baits will follow.
Bandit Lures’ newest walleye lure opens a once-secret strategy to every angler and provides a highly valuable walleye trolling lure, especially during the pre-spawn period.
A lure designed for trolling, but also engineered to suspend in the water column? With trolling being a generally steady approach, it might seem like those concepts contradict one another.
In truth, a suspending lure is critical to innovative strategies used secretly for many years by select walleye anglers in the Great Lakes Region and Zander anglers in Europe. Until now, these anglers had to custom weight their favorite Bandits to suspend, which is a touchy process when lures must remain properly balanced and true running to be effective, and it is not something most anglers would want to take on.
That’s why in-the-know anglers have been begging Bandit for suspending version of their favorite trolling lure and what led to the development of the Bandit Suspending Minnow. Let’s take a closer look.
We called on Bobby Garland pro staffers, and they promptly delivered with outstanding holiday shopping ideas that would make any crappie angler happy!
Does the accelerating Christmas countdown find you still scratching your head over what to get your crappie angler, either because you don’t have a clue as where to start or because you think he or she already has everything?
“No problem.” That’s the word from a handful of folks who are familiar both with the intimidating task at hand and who have crappie-fishing expertise. We asked for details, and they provided some outstanding last-minute gift ideas, which offer quick and easy solutions that are sure to be a hit with any crappie angler, from beginner to pro.
We’ve gathered great crappie recipes from friends of Bobby Garland Crappie Baits in anticipation of the excellent crappie catching opportunities that always arrive this time of year.
Don’t go too big with that bird! You don’t want to be overloaded with turkey leftovers. Thanksgiving unofficially kicks off the winter crappie season in much of the country and always delivers some of the best fishing of the year.
Every angler knows that crappie are delightful on the table and can be prepared many ways. It’s easy to just fall on our old faithful ways of cooking fish. To do that is to miss out, though, so we asked some close friends of Bobby Garland Crappie Baits to share some of their favorite ways of cooking crappie.
This new spoon from Lindy Legendary Fishing fills an important spot in your ice fishing lures box. Learn why it was created and how to use it for everything from bluegills to walleyes.
At times, subtle action is critical for finding good ice fishing action. At other times sound is important for calling in fish and prompting strikes. Sometimes both are true, which is why Lindy introduced the Rattl’n Quiver Spoon.
The slow fluttery fall of a Lindy Quiver Spoon has made this lightweight ice spoon a multi-species ice fishing favorite for the past few winters. At times, though, the fish need a little help finding a bait before they can be coaxed into biting. The Rattl’n Quiver Spoon uses the same shape and light metal construction as the original Quiver Spoon. However, a rattle built into a protruding eye delivers the sound that is sometimes needed to call fish into range and finish the job of prompting strikes.
Whether you target walleyes, panfish or some other species, it’s important to be equipped with the right lures when you hit the ice.
If you’re an ice fisherman, few things are more agonizing than the wait for safe ice. You’ve been wearing out your weather app, hoping to start seeing crazily low lows in the 10-day, all the while dreaming and scheming about where you’ll hit the ice first and how your hard-water season will progress.
Wishing won’t ready the ice sooner, though, so you might as well make the best use of the wait time. One way to do that is to prepare your ice gear, getting all in good order and making certain you have the tackle needed when you finally get out on the ice. With such planning in mind, we’ve put a great selection ice fishing lures on sale throughout November. Everything on our Ice Fishing Lures page will be automatically discounted 15 percent in the cart through Nov. 30.
Also to aid your preparation, we’ll look at some of the lures that are important to have ready if you want to start your ice season right!
Baits that light up the night do more than just look spooky. Learn to increase your catch rates with glow-in-the-dark or illuminated lures.
Glow baits are cool. Simple as that. And when they light the night, there’s an undeniably spooky quality that goes with October.
Novel appeal only goes so far with fishing lures, though. Functionality is far more important. Thankfully, lures that hold a glow or are otherwise illuminated offer practical benefit. Namely, when used in the right situations, they help you catch more fish.
Glow offerings come in a broad range of sizes and in baits designed to work all parts of the water column and for many kinds of fish. Popular applications include night-fishing, ice fishing and working dirty water, but opportunities don’t end there.
Enjoy the benefit of Jason Christie’s expertise and tap into the season’s best bass fishing action.
Late fall can be a very fun time to fish for bass, with the fish often eager to feed as they prepare for leaner times. It’s also a season of major transition, though, and quickly changing weather and water conditions trigger changes in bass behavior.
Having the right assortment of late fall bass baits at hand can be critical to finding the best fishing action any given day. With that in mind, we decided to leave nothing to chance. We tapped into the expertise of Jason Christie and got his top late fall bass bait selections, specific to size and color.
Making a good thing even better, we’re going to give you 15 percent off Jason Christie’s featured late fall bass baits. See below for details.
Why guess at the best lures to use when you can call on the expertise of one of the world’s most accomplished bass anglers?
Early fall bass fishing presents challenges. The fish stay on the move and can be in many different types of areas. With changing conditions, they also can be a bit moody. That said, if you understand seasonal bass behavior and use lures and approaches that capitalize on that knowledge, fishing can be very good this time of year. With that in mind, we talked with Jason Christie and got his picks for the 10 best lures for early fall bass fishing.
Learn about the most recent addition to Bobby Garland’s Itty Bit series and its unique offerings for crappie fishermen who want to downsize.
Bobby Garland’s highly popular Itty Bit series of crappie baits just got bigger. Not the baits, of course. They’re still Itty Bit at only 1.25 inches in length. Instead, the series has grown with the introduction of the Itty Bit Slab Hunt’R.
The Itty Bit Slab Hunt’R has a different profile and action than the Itty Bit Swim’R or Slab Slay’R, two already proven baits for when conditions demand finesse or match-the-hatch approaches for success. All three are down-sized but full-featured versions of longtime Bobby Garland producers.
Sticking with a bold plan, but making key adjustments was also critical for Christie, whose four-day catch totaled of 43 pounds, 15 ounces and gave him his sixth Bassmaster victory.
Christie posted his best effort on Day 1 with a second-place limit of 15-1. He took over the top spot on Day 2 by adding 13-14 and held that position on Day 3 with a limit of 6-12. He closed the deal with a Championship Sunday limit that weighed 8-4.
All four days, Christie committed most of his time to a narrow creek about two hours upriver from takeoff, working cover with his Covert Series Spinnerbait.
