Mark Hicks

Frank Scalish shares secrets from a lifetime of targeting smallmouth bass on the Great Lakes and large inland lakes.

When Frank Scalish competed on the Bassmaster Elite Series tour, he was known for his ability to catch smallmouth bass. He did especially well with this species on the Great Lakes and on large, inland, natural lakes, such as Lake Champlain. A lifetime resident of northern Ohio, Scalish has never lived more than a short cast from Lake Erie, one of the nation’s premier smallmouth fisheries.

He has fished Erie regularly throughout his adult life and has the equivalent of a PhD in finding and catching Erie smallmouth. He is especially erudite about how glaciers created the rocky bass habitat on the lake’s bottom. This knowledge has helped him catch big-water smallies wherever he casts for them in North America.

Learning more about crawfish colors based on region, conditions and season can help you catch more bass.       

Former Bassmaster Elite Series pro Frank Scalish, who now designs baits for Norman Lures and other brands available on Lurenet.com, is fanatical about matching the hatch. An artist with an airbrush, the Ohioan obsesses over paint colors and schemes that precisely mimic whatever forage the bass favor. Scalish’s attention to every detail and deep experience make him the ideal Bass Fishing 101 instructor on the topic of crawfish colors.

When Scalish creates crawfish colors for crankbaits, he becomes especially dogmatic because he strives to replicate the various crayfish species in different regions of the country.

“Certain crayfish dominate in certain parts of the country,” Scalish said. “For example, crayfish in Texas and Louisiana are all variants of red. The rusty crayfish is native to the Ohio River Basin. It has rust or orange-colored makings on its sides. The rest of that craw is green pumpkin or an almost blackish green pumpkin.”

When the water starts cooling during late fall and early winter, crankbait bass fishing gets hot. Learn the strategies of two expert anglers.

Thanksgiving leftovers are a memory, and you’re looking ahead to the Christmas holidays. Bass fishing is on the back burner, partly because there’s a serious nip in the air and the water temperature on your home lakes is dropping. The bass are too sluggish to bite anyway. Right?

The reality is that early winter bass fishing can be exceptional, provided you cast the right baits into the right places. This is the time to wind fresh line onto your favorite cranking rod and break out a variety of crankbaits.

For the past seven years Ohioan Frank Scalish, a former Bassmaster Elite Series pro and Bassmaster Classic qualifier, has been fishing earnestly during the cold months to find how specific crankbaits perform in chilly bass waters. He designs baits and colors for several brands offered by Lurenet and is currently focused on Norman and Bomber lures.

A drop shot rig is highly effective for catching bass during summer. However, the best specific rigging and presentations vary by situation. Read on and refine your summer drop-shotting game!

During the summer months, former Bassmaster Elite Series pro Frank Scalish always has at least one rod on his boat’s deck rigged with a drop shot. It matters not where in North America he happens to be fishing nor whether he’s after largemouth, smallmouth or spotted bass.

Summertime drop-shotting consistently keeps Scalish in touch with bass, especially when more aggressive tactics strike out. However, his drop-shot rig and how he works it vary depending on where he is fishing and the species of bass that swim there.

If you learn the times, places and strategies to capitalize on the shad spawn, spring bass action can be spectacular. Here’s what you need to know.

The bass spawn may be over but don’t head for deeper water yet. On lakes that team with shad, one of the best shallow fishing opportunities of the season happens when these baitfish spawn. Anglers who take advantage of this phenomenon to catch spring bass, such as Alabama bass guide Jimmy Mason, refer to it simply as “the shad spawn.”

“I start seriously looking for spawning shad in the spring when the water temperature stays above 70 degrees at night,” Mason said. “Here in northern Alabama that usually happens around the last week of April to the first week of May.”

The best time of year to catch trophy largemouth bass is when they transition from their winter patterns into the pre-spawn phase. Egg-laden lunkers are pounds heavier at this time than they will be after spawning. Plus, they stage in predictable places and chow down before moving onto beds.

Bear in mind that bass are sluggish during the early pre-spawn because the water is typically in the 40s in most parts of the country. They will bite, but you must select the right lures and fish them effectively in the places where bass hang out prior to spawning.