I got home this morning driving back from Icast that was held in Orlando, FL  with my friend Warren just before 1am. We had a great time and had a blast hanging out with my local tackle shop (Nature’s Tackle Box) owners family Christie Lester, David, Kohl and good friends  Gary Dobyns, Grant Olguin (Black dog baits), the Tackle Tour guys Cal, Zander and JIP and Ben and Travis from the BassEast.com site..

I thought I would put some overall thoughts and observations together on some of the trends that I saw in the industry while I was there.

Rods:
Lots of companies are offering lower price point rods in the $100 range. With this economy I think this is a smart thing to do to help the mfgs float through the year. Companies like Falcon, Lamiglas, Croix and a few others have all came out with a lower price point line of rods ($100 range).

I also saw quite a few NEW companies from overseas bringing their offerings to the states as well.. Most of them seem to be JDM style (Japanese domestic market) rods that have a high end look to them and most of them had a medium type price point say $200 range from what I saw.

Lures:
Biggest things I saw was and was no surprise was the popularity of smaller “cute” swimbaits. Quite a few companies have come out with a smaller version of one of their already popular swimbaits. BBZ has a 6 inch BBZ trout style bait, Tru Tungsten has a 5 inch swimbait not, Strike King came out with a smaller version of their King Shad, Black Dog with their billed Shell Cracker (nice bait by the way) just to name the few off the top of my head. Of course I brought out my 5 inch Bull shad version as well.

There is still alot of apprehension from alot of guys on throwing the bigger baits not only in the South but all over. I think this small swimbait trend will get bigger over the course of the next year. Besides they are great fish catchers and you can’t deny the fact that they sell well.

Another trend I saw was alot of different wacky heads coming out. To be honest there are only so many ways to design a wacky head but several companies came out with their own version of this trend forward technique. I suspect you’ll start seeing some more creativity in wacky style worms to rig onto your wacky head in the near future. I really think worms like the Rein style worms and beyond will be a trend in the future. Just a hunch that I really have, with no reason for saying it.

REELS:
I would make more detailed comments on reels but I think the tackle tour guys pretty much summed that one up already with alot of companies coming out of the works offering more JDM style looking reels to their lineup. On a sidenote I did see quite a few overseas companies that were new to Icast offering reels from overseas (non asian companies) at a pretty good bargain. One particular company was from Italy and I saw some reels that offered a Daiwa Zillion looking reel for way less than $100.00 (more like closer to the $50 range). Quality wasn’t that bad and had a 1 year warranty, but the quality is the unknown but they seemed to fish good on the showroom floor.  I suspect that these type of companies will increase over time and make the reel market even more competitive especially during these dire economic times.

So in a nutshell the fishing industry is reacting to the economic conditions. Overall I thought the show was OK. I don’t think it was the caliber of the shows in the past few years in terms of originality and really cool stuff. But the show itself was sold out and full. The crowds I thought were as busy if not busier than the Las Vegas show. Don’t take me wrong there were some interesting products it just seems like the last few years have been better. But to be honest it seems like every 2 years or so it is kinda lull in originality then comes on strong the following year. I hope this is not taken as a snap at mfg’s because there were some good products and originality out there that I saw.

I will say this for those mfg’s that I talked with and including the ones I am heavily involved with they stated that the show was outstanding as far as the interest and deal makings. That did catch me off gaurd with the current state of our economy. I am definitely blown away by that fact. It was a great opportunity for some of the smaller east coast companies to make their presence and quite a few took advantage of that opportunity.

Another observation that I made in comparing a Orlando Icast vs a Las Vegas Icast was there were a little more saltwater booths at the Orlando show. Which is really no surprise because Florida is a huge saltwater venue with alot of companies based out of Florida. But hey it’s ICAST and not just a freshwater show and is open to all fishing venues and YES Cal it was DISNEY.   I am looking forward to Icast next year in 2010 at Las Vegas July 14-17th.

Dropshotting is getting pretty popular here in the SE. It took a good while for it to hit mainstream. I still think the Shakey head is still probably the most used technique here in Georgia. Great technique but it’s just not my cup of tea. I can do it well but there really is no talent to doing it but I give it credit it’s a great limit catcher. I book a lot of trips on clients wanting to learn how to fish the dropshot since it’s a little more technical. For some reason anglers make it harder than it needs to be. The equipement can be pretty technical, but it is quite simple once it’s shown to you. But most people have the hardest time with the “reel set” ie hooking the fish part. If your like me and you use those small tiny dropshot hooks like the owner mosquito or the gamakatsu splitshot/dropshot hook I think the reel set instead of the hook set method is far superior. Now if your using Texas style rigging then thats a different story.

The biggest complaints I get from the dropshot newbies and even some guys that have been fishing it awhile is that they miss the fish or lose them after hooking them. There are 2 culprits on why this happens and it usually lies within using the wrong rod for the technique or its your hookset or in my terms the “reel set”. The term reel set is just what it is you set the hook with the reel versus the rod. I first heard the term reel set when I read about it in an article written by dropshot guru Terry Battisti. Terry by the way was one of the first guys that used the dropshot technique as it came to us overseas from Japan so I kinda like to listen to those that have more insight than I do. I had a tough time like most people to not set the hook right away and to let the fish load that rod tip up then start reeling without using the rod to set the hook. So if your having trouble in the category of losing fish or missing fish while drop shotting try this reel set method with the dropshot and see if your ratio improves.

PS now that it’s snowing I’m getting the urge to go fish the Float N Fly . hmmmmm I’m gonna go stick my head out the door.

Here’s the video I tried to make it a click start deal but somehow this BLOG program doesn’t like my HTML or lack thereof. So here’s the link..

Reel Set Video

Being a southern swimbait enthusiast I get a lot of emails from folks east of the mighty Mississippi on how to effectively fish for Trophy Fish with swimbaits.  Let me first say that I consider a trophy fish the top 5% of the fish in your lake.  Meaning a 5lber might be a trophy fish in some lakes while in others it might be a teen fish.  It all depends on the body of water that you fish,  but the swimbait approach is very much the same with a few possible twists in my opinion.  A good way to find out what a trophy fish is on your local pond is to look at tournament standings and find out what the big fish weights look like.  I would take the biggest big fish winner over the last few years and try to beat it by a pound or so and do it as often as you can.  Keep your standards HIGH at all times and DO NOT settle or fall in that GOOD fish rut.  If 8lbers are a trophy fish don’t be satisfied catching 6 and 7lbers.   As a trophy hunter you want to shoot for the biggest of the biggest bass that lives in your lake and continue to raise the bar even higher. 

The biggest mistake I see by anglers is they think that they are PIG hunting because they are throwing swimbaits.  Just to make things perfectly clear I catch BIG fish not because I use “swimbaits”.  I catch BIG fish because I use BIG swimbaits.  To be brutally honest with you I will almost NEVER throw small swimbaits (smaller than 7 inches (more like smaller than 8 inches)   It’s cute…  You might as well be throwing a crankbait or a spinnerbait as you can accomplish almost the same thing.  

I call 6 inchers (or smaller)  a swimbait with training wheels because I do think you need to start off small to gain confidence in swimbait fishing as it’s part of the deprogramming process that you have to go through that  I will talk about later.  We all have to start somewhere and work our way up and eventually take off our training wheels and upgrade to the bigger baits.   The 4 and 5 inch baits are just “best sellers” size wise and that is why alot of manufacturers are making these baits.  They are great fish catchers, but there are better baits to trophy hunt with.   

In my opinion to become a true Trophy Hunter you have to go through a deprogramming process.  Everything you think you know about BIG BASS and BIG Baits you need to wipe the slate clean.   It’s  a very painful and long process and it’s certainly not for everyone.  Swimbait fishing is by far the hardest, most grueling technique in all of bass fishing.  It’s the iditarod of bass fishing techniques in my opinion and there is not close 2nd place in terms of difficulty.  You go weeks, sometimes months without a bite. But that one BIG BITE is what drives you and keeps you going.  One of my good swimbait friends told me one time that you will learn more about trophy fish in a month throwing BIG swimbaits than you will in 5 years throwing anything else.  I find that to be extremely true and valid.  You have to be a different breed to play this game and you have to be willing to sacrifice the time, shed the tears and blood to learn where and when to use these tools.  You cannot be afraid to bagel and you can only teach and learn so much by reading about swimbait fishing, but the true learning of the concept comes from actual time on the water. 

The analogy of GO BIG or GO HOME is my motto that you hear about often and most trophy hunters like myself have that same mindset.  Big to me is 8 inches +++ I throw baits up to 14 inches long and catch dinks on it OFTEN.  I don’t care what size of bait you are seeing or what you think the size of the forage on your lake has or how small of fish you think your trophy bass is.   I will still throw big swimbaits.  You are fishing for the biggest fish in the lake and If anything your big swimbait separates itself from the rest of the bait that is already there and gives the big bass something bigger to key in on.  A 2lb fish will  eat 14 inch swimbaits and they do it  often.  My question to you is does your home lake have 2lb fish?  If so you need to lose the “that bait is too big” mentality.  I am trying to weane off the 3, 4 and 5lbers to get to the 8’s and 9lb trophy fish in my lake.   A follow of a 5lber is no big loss if it’s not a trophy status fish. 

Take this analogy in  for an example. I have a jar of baby food on one table and a T bone steak on another.  Guess which table will get the adults??  Same exact thing with swimbaits.  Big baits do at times weane off smaller fish, but big fish often times  come in packs of big fish.  BIG bass are not efficient feeders.  They are lazy and they want their lunch to be BIG and worth their while and easy if they are going to exert that much energy to eat.  It’s all about reprogramming what you “think” you know about big bass and big baits.  You have to totally clean your hard drive and pretend you know nothing about big bass.  That is the hardest thing to do when learning how to fish big baits. I hear it all the time while  guiding “that’s too big”, “You fishing for whales”,  “do you need a gaff”  They can laugh all they want, but when they look at the big bass that I and my clients catch out of the so called DEAD SEA (moniker of my home lake) they know they can’t argue with my track record in trophy fishing out of a lake that most think is dead and full of dinks.  I’m not trying to be cocky or arrogant here, but you do have to have some kind of arrogance to psych yourself up for the task at hand because there is nothing easy about fishing for trophy fish.  You have to KNOW and have the confidence that you are going to catch that Trophy Fish. Because if you have any doubt you will not stick with the big bait program for long. The Trophy Fish get big because they are smart but you have to play things smart to be successful. 

If your dead set on throwing 6 inch swimbaits you might as well tie on a spinnerbait and a crankbait as they will achieve the same exact thing.  It’s the size of the bait that makes swimbait fishing what it is.  This is not to say you can’t catch big fish on cute baits, but I would argue very strongly that you could have achieved that same fish with almost any other lure.  The drawing power of a 8 inch bait is 10 fold the drawing power of a insert your favorite 6 inch or enter smaller bait name here ________.  Those trophy fish are laughing at us when you throw them a toothpick sized lure.  The trophy guys here in the South are at a huge advantage.  We don’t have alot of anglers throwing swimbaits like our western counterparts.  While most of our anglers downsize when things get tough there are a select few of us that upsize our offerings because everybody else is still stuck in that year long dink pattern.  If your new to swimbaits you just got taught 10 years of knowledge in 5 minutes and I will leave you with this last motto for you to ponder over.

“If you do what you’ve always done;  you will catch what you’ve always caught”

If you want to catch BIG FISH you need to ask yourself… Is it time to make a change in your fishing style?  Is it time to take your game to the next level?  Are you that lucky one or two fish wonder?   Don’t ever be complacent with trophy fishing or you’ll always be in a rut.

“T” Bubba