It’s not really all that complicated; first you have to understand why fish do certain things and when they’ll do it!

What you need to do is to think like a fish.

In order to understand fish, you first need to understand the senses a fish uses to survive.

One of the most misunderstood senses of the fish would be its lateral line.

A fish’s lateral line is made up of a bundle of nerves whose projecting hairs is enclosed in a gelatinous substance located on either side of the fish.

The lateral line is sensitive to changes in the water pressure and as the pressure changes either by a change in depth or an approaching fish or creature causes the hairs to vibrate, sending signals to the brain allowing the fish to detect movement that they may not have see.

The lateral line also helps fish to swim in tight schools with out running into each other.

The eyesight of a fish is similar to that of we humans, they’re able to detect both brightness and color.

Fish that roam the shallow water, such as bass have excellent eyesight.  In bright light, bass see many of the colors that humans are able to see.

Other species of fish won’t have the full line of color perception that humans do.

Since water filters out colors, fish located in deeper water can’t detect all the colors that shallow water cousins can.

Walleyes for instance see primarily orange and green, with all other colors appearing as different shades of gray.

Fluorescence hold their color longer in deeper water, what this means is that the fish are more apt to see a florescent colored lure better in deeper water.

Fish that feed in deep water aren’t able to distinguish the different colors so instead of responding to color, they respond to vibration and the flashes of light coming off predators, prey fish or your lure.

All species of fish have an excellent sense of hearing.  Part of the reason that a fish hears so well is because water conducts sound better than air.

Fish don’t have ears like other animals; they pick up sound through the bones located in their head.

The way one species of fish will relate to sound varies from one species to another.  The vibration made by an angler walking along a bank can spook trout, but panfish don’t seemed to be bothered by noise.

I can attest for this first hand as a few years ago, we were SCUBA diving in Lake Francis Case, most of the fish in the area that we were working, moved away when from the bubbles coming from our gear.  The panfish weren’t afraid at all and came closer with the more racket we made.

Taste is another sense that fish have.  Taste is not one of their primary senses and not many fish rely heavily on just this sense when feeding.

The exception to this rule is the bullhead and catfish family.  They have very poor eyesight and rely heavily on the taste receptors located on the outside of their mouth in their barbells or whiskers to help locate food.

The sense of smell is excellent in most species of fish.  As they move through the water, their sense of smell is continually being used, checking out the surrounding body of water.

While swimming through the water, the water passes through the nasal sac located in the snout.  The water enters through the front openings, passes over nerve endings or receptors located inside the head and then flows back out the rear openings.  The receptors send messages to the fish’s brain letting the fish know what’s happening in their aquatic environment.

The sense of smell varies from one species of fish to another.  Larger fish generally have large openings and more receptors making their sense of smell much better than that of a smaller fish.

The species of fish with the premier sense of smell is the salmon family.  When it’s spawning time, they use their sense of smell to travel hundreds of miles back to the stream where they were born.

Since fish have five senses that they use to locate food, it makes sense that we as anglers should use bait that arouses as many of those senses as possible.

In dark or stained water, the sense of sight won’t be as important as other senses such as their lateral line, smell or hearing will be.

When fishing dirty water, I’ll use a noisy, flashing lure with some type of live bait or attractant.  The noise or vibration given off by the lure will let the fish zero in on the bait using its lateral line and hearing.  The flash will help the fish to pick up any light changes coming off the lure and the live bait will not only add to the vibration but it will also be giving off a scent trail that the fish can follow.

In clearer water conditions, I’ll tone down the flash, as a bright flash in clear water is more apt to spook the fish.  If I’m using a spinner and crawlers, I’ll go with a lure that has smaller blades.

By knowing how the fish is going to hunt for food, you can use bait that will arouse more of the senses and lead the fish to your offering

Think like a fish and you’ll find that your fishing will become more enjoyable as your fish catching increases.

Reprinted from the Sioux City Journal

WEBSTER, S.D. — Our plan was to hit two lakes a day and take full advantage of the variety of fishing to be found in the Glacial Lakes area of northeastern South Dakota.

Mother Nature threw us a curve, however, and rather than fight 25 to 30 mile-an-hour winds, we fished mornings and motored off the water pounding against a spray of white caps each afternoon.

The first morning was the worst.

A south wind was blasting at 20 miles an hour by 10 a.m. We parked at the boat ramp on Reetz Lake, just south of Webster.

“We won’t last long, out there,” I said to Fran. “We might be able to get out of the wind along that west shoreline.”

I had not planned to fish Reetz. Less than a month earlier I had fished it and caught several walleyes over 20 inches there. But, with the wind I thought our chances were better here on a lake where all walleyes under 28-inches have to be released.

We lasted about an hour and a half and boated two nice walleyes on bottom bouncers and spinners fished in 12 to 14 feet of water.

The rest of the afternoon we spend prospecting other lakes and checking out boat ramps for the next day.

With the wind forecast to blow again, we launched the next morning on Enemy Swim Lake, long one of the northeast’s glacial gems.

It’s a beautiful lake. Clear water, wooded shorelines and a couple of islands. It’s 2,150 acres with a maximum depth of 24 feet. All bass between 14 and 18 inches must be released with only one over 18 allowed in the daily bag. That just about guarantees good bass fishing and that is just what we found.

We started on one of the main lake points casting crankbaits and spinnerbaits in water nine feet and less, but never brought up a bass. We moved deeper on the same point and switched to bottom bouncers and spinners with crawlers.

Again, nothing. Only perch.

We left that spot and headed for a small rocky island nearby and that’s where we found the bass.

Smallies were laying in the shallow, boulder-studded water and were more than willing to take our Big O crankbaits.

We worked through that area and moved down towards some pencil reeds and banged the biggest of several largemouth we took that day.

We fished some other good spots and then, tired of casting, we put on slip bobbers and began looking for bluegills adjacent to pencil reed flats.

We found some nice ones, but surprise, surprise, we also found more smallmouth.

Tucked into heavy coontail growths, the smallies smacked our worm-baited hooks just as willingly as the bluegills and I was soon casting a shallow diver crankbait and taking them on that, too.

We were able to hide from the 20 mph west wind and play with these weed fish until late afternoon.

We pounded through the surf back to the boat ramp and over dinner that evening planned our next day.

Crappies had been biting well on Pickeral Lake, a 981-acre lake just a couple miles north of Enemy Swim. Although the bite had faded from what it once was, we decided to go there. It was, afterall, on our list of lakes to fish on this wind-plagued trip.

The next morning found us leaving the boat ramp in a stiff breeze out of the northwest. I had no idea where the crappies might be, but I suspected there would be some along deep water weedlines or maybe others suspended over deep water.

We found a long, underwater point on the west side at the south end of the lake.

We started out drifting one-eighth-ounce Road Runner jigs tipped with a crawler fished under a 1/16-ounce mini jig tied about 18 inches above the Road Runner.

We found the crappies grouped on an inside bend at the very tip of the bar, but it was tough to hold on the area in the ever-increasing wind. Bottom bouncers and spinners worked as well. We caught perch, crappies, bluegill walleye and smallmouth on that point, but as the wind grew our enthusiasm dimmed.

“We’ll come back again,” we decided. “Maybe the wind won’t blow.”

(But I wouldn’t count on it.)

ISLE Minn. — “Inch for inch, pound for pound, the gamest fish that swims.”

That’s a quote from Dr. James Henshall’s “Book of the Black Bass.”

Dr. Henshall’s book was published in 1881.

That was 129 years ago.

And you know what? It still holds true today.

The smallmouth bass is, without question, the gamest fish that swims.

Dr. Henshall, a midwestern medical doctor and devotee of bass fishing was writing at a time when trout was the kingpin of angling endeavors throughout the populated East.

Fly fishing was the method of choice and native brook trout was the quarry. German browns were soon to take over the limelight, but they were not stocked in any numbers until 1884.

Henshall’s book was the measuring stick of all books written about the black bass through the nineteenth and most of the twentieth century.

But trout fishing held sway until the mid 1950s when another writer, Jason Lucas, angling editor or Sports Afield magazine, finally swayed public opinion towards the black bass.

In the South, largemouth bass is king. In the North, the walleye holds sway.

We have excellent bass fishing up here for both largemouth and smallmouth, but for most anglers the walleye is where it is at.

That just may be why the best smallmouth bass fishing ever seen on this continent is happening right now.

And one of the best places to tangle with “the gamest fish that swims” is Mille Lacs Lake in north-central Minnesota.

It’s no accident that phenomenal bass fishing exists here.

This 132,000-acre lake (that’s slightly more than 200 square miles) has scores of shallow rock reefs adjacent to deeper water which provides an ideal home for smallmouth bass.

It is also, basically, a catch-and-release lake. All smallmouth under 21 inches must be released immediately and the possession limit is one.

Every time I get on this lake I try to spend at least part of a day fishing smallmouth. And, I have never been disappointed.

Gary Howey, Hartington, Neb., and I were there a few weeks ago fishing walleyes.

We were guests at Hunter Winfields Resort (hunterwinfields.com)

Mike and his wife Margie own and operate the resort and Mike spends a lot of time guiding guests for the great walleye fishing that exists here.

But he also has a soft spot for smallmouth and we were soon on a large rock reef at the southeast corner of the lake. We began throwing topwaters and plastics, but the bass soon told us they wanted their food on top.

We fish a half dozen reefs that morning, all within easy boating distance and caught several bass, topped by a five-pound-plus lunker that ate Gary’s topwater.

More often than not, we’d observe a bass rolling on the surface chasing minnows and we’d cast there. Usually, the bass would strike.

If you’ve never caught a smallmouth, be prepared for a strong, dogged runs powering for deeper water and explosive jumps which will send water droplets over 20 feet away.

Most smallmouth will jump several times and not quit fighting until they are in the net.

If you haven’t fished Mille Lacs, you should. Walleye fishing is fantastic right now.

Hunter Winfields is located in the southeast corner of the lake and many excellent walleye reefs and humps are nearby as well as rocky reefs, marked with buoys, for smallmouth.

Charter boat fishing is also available here.

There is excellent fishing for northern pike and muskie as well, and largemouth bass frequent the bays and weed beds.

Maximum depth is 43 feet.

I’d highly recommend getting a Lakemaster chip for your depthfinder’s GPS for this lake. It will put you right on the spot of spots.

The walleye may be king here, but “pound for pound” it is the smallmouth that rules.

High water with heavy flows following a rain makes for tough fishing.

These seem to be the norm this year as there’s high water everywhere, coming down every creek, river as well as in all the ponds and lakes.

The bad side of this is that all the water running into the lakes and rivers, muddies up the water, making it hard to fish without getting your crankbaits, jigs and livebait rigs all gunked up.

The old wives tale, “with every bad there comes some good” is very true in this instance as water flowing into any body of water means the fish will start will be on the move.

It might take a few days for the water to settle down and the swift current to subside, but you can bet when there’s a rise in the water level, with water being released downstream the fish will become active.

The reason for this is pretty basic; the influx in water will bring new food sources down stream.

Worms, insects, zoo plankton as well as the baitfish and fingerlings that were tucked safely into the creeks and backwaters are now being flushed downstream into the rivers and lakes, bringing a smorgasbord to the fish that will be moving towards the incoming water on their way to see what’s on the menu.

In the river, sandbars and vegetation that were once high and dry will now become flooded and the insects and other material that was lying in these areas are now in the water.

In a river, this influx of water and new food sources will attract the fish to the slack water located behind sandbars and points.

Fish, both big and small will move towards the incoming water to feed on what’s being washed or forced downstream.

The biggest benefit of high water in reservoirs located on the Missouri River will reach capacity and water will need to be released through the dams.

Some of the deepest water in the system with the most hospitable water temperatures is located directly above the dam and because of this, there will be large concentrations of fish in these areas.

Once the gates are open to release the excess water from the lake a tremendous amount of water is released, flushing thousands of gallons of water and fish through the gates into the river system below.

On the Missouri as well as on other river systems, our dams are used for generating electricity and in order to drop the elevation of the lake, excess water may need to be run through the turbines of the dam as well, drawing fish on the upstream side through the generators, down into the river.

Fish sucked through the turbines can be cut up or injured and then deposited in the fast water down stream, dumping new fish into the river as well as adding a new food source downstream.

As the water levels rise and currents increases, the fish will move upstream into the more oxygenated water to feed on what’s being washed through the dam.

When water is being released, the fishing below generally improves, as numerous species of fish will have been relocated below the dam.

It’s always good to keep an eye on the information that the local paper has as far as the amount of water or CFS that’s being released through a dam, as a large increase is usually a pretty good indicator that there may be new fish coming through the turbines.

You never know what you might catch once new water has come into the river, as this is when anglers will start to pick up numerous varieties of fish, some which may not have been common in the area before the water release.

Prior to high water releases, the fishing below the dam may be slow, but several days after high water releases fish will become active.

When fishing below a dam that has released new water, you’ll want to keep your tackle pretty basic, as you won’t need anything fancy to catch fish during this time.

Try to use a light of weight as possible with a simple live bait rig consisting of a hook, split shot or lightweight sinker tipped with a crawler, leech or minnow being a good bet when fishing after water releases.

Some anglers like to use heavy weights to hold their bait in the current, keeping it on the bottom.

Unfortunately that may be where your rig stays as the heavy current can jam the weight tight into the rocks and other bottom obstructions where it may become part of the bottom structure once you’ve snagged up.

The lighter rigs will drift along with the current like the baitfish that have came through the dam, eventually settling in the slack water pockets where the game fish will be waiting for lunch to arrive.

No matter how you fish, be in from boat or shore, the next time there’s a big water discharge, give the fishing down stream a try as there’s bound to be fish moving up to see what all the fuss is about.

As we approached the buoy, the huge boulders and rocks deposited there by the glaciers started to appear below the surface.

Many were larger than our boat, extending out from a point into the lake at a depth of 12 foot, giving the smallmouth excellent hiding spots from which to ambush bait fish.

Team member Larry Myhre and I have been frequent visitors to Mille Lacs as it is an excellent fishery with good numbers of trophy size walleye, smallmouth, musky as well as numerous other species of fish.

We’d arrived the day before, hoping to have the opportunity to film a couple of our Outdoorsmen Adventures segments, if the weather didn’t force us to change our plans.

Mike strategically maneuvered the boat through the shallow water, positioning us within casting distance of many of the larger submerged boulders.

We were on the water early, trying to take advantage of nice weather hoping to beat the many fronts that would be coming through the area during the next couple of days.

Since we weren’t sure what the fish would want this morning, all three of us in the boat were rigged with different baits, allowing the fish to tell us which bait they preferred, once they did, we’d all switch to that bait and hammer on them.As we worked our way around and through the submerged rocks, a smallmouth smacked something floating on the surface off to our right.

I quickly switched from my crankbait to a surface popper propelling it in the general direction where the fish had risen.

After several cast, I could see a big smallmouth come up from behind one of the hundreds of boulders to take a whack at my lure.

The bass must have been far sighted or I was a little to anxious to boat a fish as he made a pass at my popper as it neared the boat, hitting ahead of the bait as I reared back on my rod, propelling the bait into the air.

Not to be deterred, I immediately cast right back into the same general area, only to pull the bait away from the bass once again.

This happens a lot in clear water, as the depth the fish is in can be deceiving and you’ll see the fish come up and jump on your bait, which can result in short strikes.

On my fourth cast, I had my hook set down perfectly and a battle ensued.

Smallmouth bass, known as “Bronze Bulldogs” are one of the most powerful fresh water fish you’ll find, diving deep, fighting hard and often going airborne or doing a tail walk across the top of the water, testing the gears in your reel as well as the line it’s spooled with.

The fish, a nice three pounder, gave me all I wanted, then coming into the boat for a few pictures, before being released back into the water.

Mike was the next to connect as another three pounder inhaled his bait right beside the boat.

Since their mouth is much smaller than that of their cousin thee largemouth bass, choose similar bait you’d throw for largemouth only in a more compact size.

Some of the best baits for smallmouth bass would be tube jigs, small crawdad imitating crank baits, smaller worm rigs and livebait.

Smallmouth are an extremely aggressive fish and will attack almost any bait pitched at them, so it’s very easy to fish them out of a certain area.

This is one of the reasons that many bodies of water that hold holding these fish have such stringent slot limits on them.

Smallmouth can grow to large size with the Minnesota state record being an 8 pounder, Nebraska’s record a 7 pound 4 oz. fish with the South Dakota state record smallmouth coming in at 6 pounds 9 oz.

Our morning excursion for smallmouth was a good one as we landed four nice fish one of which was over 4 pounds.

WEBSTER, S.D. — It was early morning, but there was no sunrise.

We sat in the parking lot at the boat ramp on Bitter Lake, my boat still on the trailer.

Across the western horizon an angry mass of blue clouds hung like a curtain, and sharp streaks of lightening occasionally ripped across its dark tapestry. So far, the rain was light and most of it would move north, but we waited.

It was afternoon before we felt safe enough to venture out. Les Rowland, a local, and longtime friend, had joined Gary Howey, Kyle Nickolite and me for this morning adventure.

We dragged bottom bouncers and spinners across a sunken bar and I took a 17-inch walleye right off the bat. But, that was it.

We fished three more hours without a bite.

Would tomorrow be any better?

It was.

No rain greeted us the next morning and we launched the boat on Reetz Lake just south of town. It’s a small lake with restrictive walleye limits. In fact, only one walleye over 28 inches may be kept.

That means there is a lot of walleyes in the lake, and we gambled that high numbers would result in more fish in the boat, but not the livewell.

We were right.

We started banging good walleyes right off the end of a cut bank on the west side. I could see the fish on the depth finder between 12 and 14 feet, lying right on the bottom. We caught a couple, but it wasn’t until the wind came up sending two footers into the shoreline that the real action began.

We quit at noon after boating a bunch of walleyes from three to five pounds on spinners and crawlers. We also bagged a couple smallmouth and big perch.

There are numerous was to find the fish, unfortunately, most of these take a lot of time and we all know that there’s never enough time to go fishing.

One method to help you to locate the fish and to catch the more aggressive fish would be to use crankbaits.

What exactly is a crankbait, well, it’s a bait that needs to be trolled behind a boat or cast and retrieved, as this is how the vibrating side rocking action is put into the lure.

The action of the bait depends on the bill or lip of the bait, the large the bill, the deeper the bait will dive.

There are numerous versions of when it comes to crankbaits, there’s the floating, sinking as well as the suspending baits.

Crankbaits come in several sizes with the size 5 and 7 being the most popular.

The come in every color imaginable, natural to almost bizarre colors, some are jointed while others aren’t.

A few of those that I carry in my bait box include0 Shadling, Shad Rap, Thunderstick and the Flicker Shad.

I prefer a floating or suspending crankbait in a size 5 as the bodies of water that I fish, aren’t all that deep and a size 5 gets down to the depth that I want to fish.

The depth a crankbait will dive is directly related to the diameter of the line you’re using. Heavier lines will have more resistance when being pulled through the water, so a crankbait snapped to tied to 10 pound test monofilament won’t dive as deep as one tied to 6 or 8 pound test.

The diameter of the line you’re using when fishing crankbaits is important, that’s why I pull crankbaits using 14-pound Fireline as it has the strength of 14-pound line with the diameter of 6 pound, allowing my bait to dive deeper than it would if I were using standard 14-pound monofilament line.

The depth your baits runs is one of the most important things, as a bait that’s up too high or too low won’t be seen by the fish.

It’s best to put your bait above the fish, since their eyes are on the upper part of their head and their best vision is above.

Crankbaits run at different depths, with the size of the bill, line diameter and speed the bait is trolled or retrieved the things that influence the depth your bait will run.

To know exactly how deep each crankbait will run on different line weights, you can learn by taking them out on the water and test them while fishing, which generally costs you a few crankbaits or you can pickup Mark Romanack’s book Precision Trolling.

Mark’s book takes all the guesswork out of trolling crankbaits as it lists all the popular crankbaits along with the most popular line weights that you might us, including both monofilament and super lines.

It will tell you just how much line you’ll need to put out while trolling a certain bait in order to get it down to the depth you want to fish the bait.

As the weather warms up and fish patterns change, you can use them behind Off Shore planer boards or push them deeper by adding Off Shore Snap Weights or use them with lead-core line and downriggers.

They can be fished in numerous, catch most species of fish and will work year round, so crankbaits are a win, win situation and once you start using them, you may not want to try any other methods.

I don’t think you want to become a one-method angler, relying on only crankbaits to catch fish, as there are times when fish location makes it impossible to put a crankbait in front of the fish.

Crankbaits aren’t super bait, but once you’ve become familiar with them, they’ll help you to up your fish catching percentage.

And we did just that for two days last week. In the boat were grandson Eric Fluharty, wife Fran, daughter Teri and Teri’s husband Patrick.

Patrick, Teri and Brandon live in Phoenix, Ariz., and do get a chance to fish in some of the ponds in parks around their home.

But it is not like climbing into a boat and fishing some of our Missouri River oxbows.

We put three spinning rods in rod holders out the back. One to the port side, one to the starboard side and one right out the back.

We were pulling my number one, go-to lure for this kind of fishing on any of our oxbow lakes, a Rebel F-77 Teeny Wee Crawfish. It doesn’t dive more than about three feet and if you shortline, it will go even less.

It’s one-and-a-half inches long and has a strong wobbling action that calls in any gamefish.

We used them in Chartreuse/Brown Back, Chartreuse/Green Back and Cajun Crawdad, a sort of neutral brown.

Most of the time there doesn’t seem to be a strong preference for color on the part of the fish, but on the second day, it was clear that the rod with the Chartreuse/Brown Back lure was getting all the action.

Eric ran the bow mounted trolling motor keeping our speed at about 1.5 miles an hour.

When one of the rods bent, Brandon grabbed it and landed the fish.

I’ve always been amazed at the Wee Crawdad’s ability to catch a wide variety of fish.

During the two days, we caught crappies, largemouth bass, including a couple of dandies, perch, channel catfish, white bass, bluegill and freshwater drum.

We also lost a very big fish which we think was a northern pike. The 10-pound-test line was either cut by the fish’s teeth or broke at a bad spot. I tend to think it was a northern, probably in the eight pound class.

We lost another big fish which straightened out our hook. That, I think, was probably a bass.

We released most of the fish, keeping only a couple crappies, a couple bluegills and a nice perch for a fish dinner.

We also fished Brown’s Lake for a couple of hours, catching a nice bass in the three pound class, a channel cat and a freshwater drum.

But the action was slow so we packed up and headed back to Snyder’s.

The hooks on a Wee Crawfish are size 14 which is very small. But don’t let that fool you. Small hooks dig in deeply and hang on like a bulldog.

Sometimes, however, I will replace the front hook with a quality size 10 or 12 treble, especially for walleyes.

Most of the time fish are hooked on the forward treble. The bigger hook does not seem to bother the action and if you only change out the forward hook it will not tangle with the back one.

That’s about the only adaptation I will make on this plug and a lot of the time I don’t even do that.

I tie the monofilament line, usually 8- or 10-pound test directly to the split ring provided at the lip of the lure.

The lighter line will ensure you get the greatest action from this little crankbait which weighs only 1/10 of an ounce.

It is a lure which is designed for ultra light fishing. If you are casting and cranking a 5- to 6 1/2-foot light or ultralight fishing rod with appropriate reel spooled with 4-pound-test line, that would be just right.

I’ve written about trolling with the Wee Crawfish before, but here’s a tip I have not revealed until now.

Late each fall rainbow trout are stocked in Crystal Cove Lake in South Sioux City and Bacon Creek Lake in Sioux City.

If you haven’t tried a Wee Crawfish for trout, make sure you do.

It’s been years since I first discovered how effective this little crankbait can be. I used to cast it to the shorelines on Storm Lake in April and Early May and wracked up stringers of pre-spawn walleyes.

Don’t get the idea that this is a miracle lure, however. There is no such thing.

But for a lot of our fishing the Wee Crawfish comes as close as any.

When we headed north for Devils Lake in mid-central North Dakota, we had no idea as to what we were in for.

It could be three days of good weather, poor fishing or poor weather and good fishing.

As anyone who does an outdoor television series can tell you, it’s not very often that you expect it to be excellent weather and great fishing.

Well, that’s the way it happened last week when Team member Scott Ulrich and I along with cameraman Kyle Nickolite made the trip north to the big lake.

When I say big lake, I mean big lake, as Devils Lake is 177,100 surface acres, covering about 208 square miles and growing.

Not good for the landowners in the area, but great for anglers as it creates miles of new water for us to fish and structure beyond belief as there are flooded roads, railroad tracks and acre upon acre of flooded vegetation.

We met up with our guides the folks from Perch-Eyes Guide Service www.percheyes.com around 2:30 that afternoon and were on the water by 3:30 looking for areas where the wind was pounding into the flooded vegetation.

Since the lake is so clear, the fish were attracted to the mudlines and the warmer water temperatures in those areas.

The plan was to pitch Lindy Shadling crankbaits and X-change jigs up into the shallows of these areas, hoping to entice the fish to bite and bite they did!

Our guide on day one was Jason Feldner who knew the lake well and had us on fish shortly after we reached the north shore.

Because of all the flooded vegetation in the lake, the northern pike population has done well, so any bait that we tied on had to be accompanied by a light leader.

While Scott and I cast Shadlings, Jason probed the shallow water along the cattails, connecting with a pike on his third cast.

Not a giant, one around 10 pounds, but one that thought it was larger than it really was, as it went around the front of the boat as well as under it before it was landed and released.

Shortly there after, Scott’s collected the dollar for the first walleye when his Shadling was inhaled by a nice 2-pound walleye, one of the many taken during the first day of our trip.

After five hours of pitching Shadlings and X-Change jigs, our arms were sore as we’d landed northerns up to 10 pounds, white bass over 2 pounds and walleyes over 4 pounds, not a bad day in anybody’s book.

On day 2, our guide would be Kyle Clifton who would take us to a new area where we’d start out using slip bobbers and leeches.

We started fishing the ultra clear water in the flooded timber, unfortunately, it was early in the day and the water temps in the timber hadn’t reached that magic 59-60 degrees needed to turn the fish on.

After several moves with no luck slip bobber fishing, we started looking for the warmer water while pitching our Shadlings and X-Change jigs up shallow.

Once again it was our guide, using an X-change jig connected with our first fish of the day, another nice pike.

It was my turn to collect the dollar of the day for the second walleye, by the way, which I never received, when a nice 18” fish tried to tear up my Shadling while ripping my rod out of my hand, taking the bait right at the boat.

The warmer dirtier water was the key as we hammered walleyes, white bass and pike almost continually.

Before long, all three of us in the boat were pitching crankbaits up shallow with our best bait on this trip being the number 5 Lindy Shadling Redtail and Golden Shiner.

Two to three fish on at a time was a common occurrence and after a while all you heard was “Fish On.”

By the end of our second day my cameraman was earning his pay, jumping back and forth trying to catch all the action of the fish being caught,

With the sun was setting in the west; we were pitching cranks up into a windblown cattail bed when I had a jarring strike, one that I couldn’t gain ground on.

I managed to move the fish away from the shoreline, but then thought that it had ran into a snag, as I couldn’t budge the fish.

Our guide backed off on the trolling motor, allowing me to work the fish towards the boat.

By the head shaking that was going on, I didn’t think it was another northern and slowly moved it towards the net.

When the fish came up, it was pure bedlam as it was a monster and seeing the boat made a desperate dive to shake loose the Shadling in it’s mouth.

Finally I managed to get the fish’s head out of the water while our guide Kyle worked it into the net.

The walleye had engulfed the entire Shadling, weighed in over 9 pounds and was the biggest fish of the trip.

But it didn’t end there as shortly after we took photos of the fish, Kyle connected with another big fish, this one over 8 pounds, another picture fish.

What a trip, as in less than 15 hours of fishing, we’d boated over 200 fish, an extraordinary trip, and one that won’t be forgotten.

If you’re looking for a great place to fish, a lake that offers a smorgasbord of fish species, you’ll want to give Devils Lake a try; it’s well worth the trip.

If you’d like more information on the Devil’s Lake area you can go to www.devilslakend.com

It’s safe to say that no one lure revolutionized bass fishing as much as did the plastic worm.

I remember when the first plastic worms, much like those we use today, hit the market.

They were manufactured by the Creme Lure Company. While Nick Creme started his business in 1949, cooking worms in his kitchen in Akron, Ohio, word of this new invention really didn’t reach Siouxland until about the mid 1960s.

The Creme Scoundrel was the original worm and it is still incredibly productive today.

I remember the first time I rigged a Creme worm weedless, Texas style and used it on one of our farm ponds. I simply couldn’t believe how productive it was.

Today there are so many worm manufacturers and styles of worms that the whole thing is pretty confusing.

But, suffice it to say, the soft plastic worm catches a lot of fish.

It is almost impossible to rig a plastic worm wrong and over the years many, many methods of using worms have evolved.

Let’s look at some of them.

The Spinning Worm

This method of fishing plastic worms originated in Florida years before the curly-tailed worms became popular. It was fished with a Creme Scoundrel (a night crawler look-a-like). I favored black or purple.

The worm is rigged on an Eagle Claw style 186A 1/0 or 2/0 baitholder hook. The worm is threaded down the hook until the eye is reached. Then the tip of the worm is pushed over the eye and onto the line. The point and barb are then pushed through the worm, leaving a big “hook” in the worm. This is what causes the worm to spin.

About 15 inches up the line you must tie in two size three ball bearing snap swivels. They prevent line twist and add casting weight.

The worm is fished just like a crankbait. Cast it out, let it sink a bit and then reel it in slowly. When a fish hits, don’t be too quick to set the hook. Lead him along for a bit and then set the hook.

Spoon Worms

Probably the easiest way to incorporate a spoon and a plastic worm is to hook a 6- or 7-inch worm to the single hook of a Johnson’s Silver Minnow spoon. Yet, there are many other small spoons out there which will provide just about any kind of action you want.

Simply remove the treble hook from the back of the spoon and attach a weedless bass hook to the split ring. Then thread on your worm.

This presentation is good in open water, weedbeds such as cabbage or slop weeds.

Popping Worms

Sometimes you just can’t beat a plastic worm fished on the surface.

Get your hands on some styrofoam ice fishing floats, they are often painted in bright colors, and thread one on your line before tying on your hook. Attach the hook, thread on a 6-inch or 7-inch plastic worm and dance this rig over any type of bass holding cover. The results will be explosive.

Wacky Worms

If you haven’t fished a plastic worm “wacky” style, you owe it to yourself to do so.

Rigging a wacky worm is simple. Just hook a short-shanked, wide gapped hook into the center of the worm and start casting.

It’s an extremely effective way of fish.

But the first thing you will notice is that you will be going through a lot of worms and some of the baits we fish wacky style are pretty expensive.

So here’s a solution the pros have come up with.

Buy some “O” rings and thread your worm into them. Put the hook through the “O” ring instead of the worm. You will be able to catch several fish on one worm. Another trick is to add weight to one end of the worm. There are small lead nails manufactured just for this, but if you can’t find them, simple insert a short carpenter’s nail into the worm. It will provide enough weight for some interesting action.

There are many, many other ways of rigging plastic worms, but these are some of my favorites.

If you haven’t tried them, add them to your bass fishing arsenal this year. I’ll guarantee your catch rate will go up.