Happy Monday Spacefish!

So you are probably wondering what the heck is this guy talking about with fast food and Bass fishing? I’ll go ahead and address it… Recently I told my two sons that I would take them out and get them a new toy of their choosing as a reward for their performance in the Spring concert and their awesome work at the STREAM expo. If you are confused about STREAM it’s basically STEM but add Religion and Arts to it. Anyway, they did a great job with their Science, Engineering, and Art projects and I told them I’d buy them a new toy. They both wanted to go to Bass Pro to get their new toys. They have pretty cool outdoor themed action figure sets there, I feel like we have most of them at this point. Side note, ole Dad enjoys playing with the Kayak Bass Fisherman set.

Before we went into Bass Pro, we decided to grab a bite to eat together, and my oldest suggested Arby’s. As many of you know, the cost of living has really gotten high over the past few years. The price of a Large Beef & Cheddar Combo for me, and two kids meals came out to $27.53. So I decided that on our way home from BPS we would stop at Strike Zone (That’s my toy store) and we would get select Bass lures for a price that had to be UNDER a Father, and 2 sons meal at Arby’s.

Recently I have seen some Instagram posts of people talking about low water levels, and experiencing challenging inshore fishing conditions. One of the things I have always done after going through a dry spell inshore, is mix it up and hit the sweet water. One of the biggest misconceptions about Bass fishing is that it is totally different from inshore fishing, and vice versa. It CAN be, but it doesn’t HAVE to be. My goal in this challenge was to prove that a person could go out and spend less than a typical fast food meal and get what they need to catch 20+ Largemouth Bass using the same rods, reels, lines they would use on an inshore fishing trip.

There is one caveat, my 4 and 5 year olds picked the lures, my only input was steering them towards budget friendly stuff to maximize efficiency in shopping.

Keep It Simple, Stupid

So here is what we got at Strike Zone…We were able to get 4 packs of soft plastic baits. Strike Zone sells “Bitter’s” a local Central Florida Bait & Tackle super store that makes their own in-house soft plastics, the best thing about Bitter’s is that all of their soft plastics sell for $3.99, or you can get 2 packs for $7. So I was able to get 4 packs of Bitter’s and a Gambler Popping Frog for $26.74.

The breakdown of baits is this:

• 1 Pack of Bitter’s Skip Shad (Fluke-Jerk Shad) – Houdini
• 1 Pack of Bitter’s Buzz’n Gator (Buzzing Toad) – Watermelon Red Pearl
• 1 Pack of Bitter’s Vibe (Speedworm) – Okee Candy Gold
• 1 Pack of Bitter’s Salty Sling (Stick Worm) – Xmas Blue Tip
• 1 Gambler Popping Frog – Purple Flash

Regarding the setups, I am fishing my 3 rod/reel setup I detailed last week. If it can subdue Snook and Tarpon, it will work on Largemouth Bass in almost every situation. I know that a big Bass in heavy cover can be tough, but you can go out and catch a good number of fish with your inshore gear. I dropped the leaders down to 15-pound test on the two spinning combos and used straight 20-pound braid on the bait caster I talked about last week. I used H20X 3/0 Superlock EWG Worm Hooks from Academy. Back in December, I bought a pack of 50 for $8.99, I am still using them. I love soft plastics thrown weightless and weedless when inshore fishing, and its even better in the world of Bass fishing. I know that the Tackle Industrial Complex shoves a wide array of Bass gear down our throats. Most of it’s cool, also – most of it is unnecessary. I don’t mean to insult any hardcore Bass guys out there, but you can certainly go out with 2-3 rods set up for inshore fishing, grab 2-4 packs of soft plastics, a pack of 3/0 EWG Hooks, and go out and whack em.

In fact I’ll go a step further and say that if you’re more of a saltwater angler, and want to occasionally dabble in freshwater Bass fishing, I think you’d be better off keeping it simple with a small selection of tackle and focus on fishing the styles and techniques that pay off for you inshore, and making as many casts as possible to maximize the catch rate and have the maximum amount of fun.

Fish Catcher #1 – Bitter’s Skip Shad (Houdini)

So let’s break down the set-up and performance of the Bitter’s Skip Shad – Houdini. I used my Ugly Stik Inshore Select paired with the Shimano Nexave. 10 Pound test Bass Pro Shops generic braid and 15 pound test Yo-Zuri Fluorocarbon “disappearing pink” leader. For those that like Gambler the Houdini colorway is almost identical to the Copperfield Gambler produces and it’s a great color. It catches the eyes of fish, anglers, and 5 year olds. The water in the chain of lakes I fished was really clean and clear and this color did very well. It was my best presentation of the day, and it produced 15 Total Bass.

I used soft plastic jerk baits a ton inshore, and the “fluke” has probably been the number one producer of Bass catches for me in my Florida Bass fishing career outside of the Speedworm. Even rigged weedless/weightless it casts super far, and can be skipped really well under trees & docks. As far as action goes it has an erratic darting action and if fished slow with sharp twitches it will produce lots of bites throughout the day. I fished a lake with lots of docks, overhanging oak trees, lotus pads, and eelgrass. This bait does a great job in all of those types of cover and structure, but it does really well getting through grass. One of the best ways to get bites is to let it drop into eel grass or hydrilla and quickly jerk it out.

Pictured below is one of the smaller ones caught. This one was caught in super clear water in the Genius Canal that links Lake Virginia with Lake Mizzell. I included this picture not because it’s a brag worthy-sized fish, but because it’s a beautiful fish, caught in a beautiful place.

Fish Catcher #2 – Bitter’s Buzz’n Gator (Watermelon Red Pearl)

So let’s break down the set-up and performance of the Bitter’s Buzz’n Gator – Watermelon Red Pearl. I used my Berkley Amp Saltwater paired with a Penn Pursuit IV 3000 Series Reel. 8 Pound test Bass Pro Shops generic braid and 15 pound test Yo-Zuri Fluorocarbon “disappearing pink” leader. As mentioned earlier, the water in the chain of lakes I fished was really clean and clear and this color did very well. It was my 2nd most productive presentation and produced 8 total fish on the day.

Much like the Skip Shad this weedless/weightless presentation is easy to assemble and can be fished pretty much anywhere and everywhere. I have found that it doesn’t matter much what the color of this bait is, I have caught them in several different colors over the years but a lighter belly seems to do well in cleaner water and the “Mardi Gras” colorway seems to do well in darker waters.

One of my all time favorite baits for Largemouth Bass has to be the soft plastic buzzing toad. Bitter’s takes on a bit more creativity with their model, which they have dubbed the “Buzz’n Gator” – which is pictured above, after doing it’s job and finding itself in a large bucket mouth. Pictured below is a nice one caught on the Buzz’n Gator after making a skip cast under the shade of an oak tree.

Fish Catcher #3 – Bitter’s Vibe (Okee Candy Gold):

I caught 23 total fish on the two baits above. My challenge was complete essentially on two baits that cost $7 combined. Despite the immediate success found on the top 2, I had to at least try the others, and I sure do love my speedworms. I ended up catching 3 on the Bitter’s Vibe. I’ve always been a big Watermelon Red/Junebug Red guy, but the color my kids picked out was Okee Candy Gold and it looked really good in this water. I was finding fish in eel grass and lotus pads. I caught 1 by buzzing the worm over the pads, and caught 2 from slow rolling it through the grass. But here’s the thing, it doesn’t buzz as well as the Buzz’n Gator, and slow rolling it through the grass doesn’t get as many bites and jerking it through and out of the grass so it just wasn’t as good of a bait on this day.

Every Bait Has It’s Day

Two of the baits on the list produced zilch. To be fair, I didn’t really use them. I had the Gambler Frog tied on and I started the morning with the hollow body alternating every 4-5 casts with Buzz’n Gator. Once the Gator started to produce I stopped using the Frog. The Purple Flash color will likely do well on lakes where Junebug/Blacks & Blues colors do well.

The Xmas-Blue Tip color of the stick worm also would kill it in darker/tannic water, but on this trip I never even used it because of how well the other baits were working.

I know that I have been silent on giving out locations, but that is because I want to do a separate write up on where I fished, which will come soon. On this one I really wanted to focus on the “fast food challenge” breakdown and results.

Conclusion

The Tackle Industrial Complex has taken the sport of Bass Fishing and really made it seem complicated. To be fair all the things sold for Bass fishing theoretically work. But they work because the Largemouth Bass is an aggressive, hardy fish that exists in every state in the continental US. This is a fish that has been exploited by marketing teams full of people that have never fished to make a profit for corporate CEO’s we will never meet. It’s a sport that seems really complicated and expensive to the outsider looking in. I know because I’ve been there. I have fallen for and blown a lot of money on stuff I don’t need because of how well this stuff is marketed. Like my 4 and 5 year old getting to go toy shopping as a reward for their hard work, I have never outgrown the thrill and enjoyment of toy shopping. Bass tackle is my toy shopping.

Let me be perfectly clear about something…there is NOTHING WRONG with buying nice gear, and stock piling an arsenal of tackle. What I’m trying to do is cut through the noise of the industry and inform people that you don’t HAVE TO have all of this specific gear, high end price point products and a tournament angler’s array of lures to go out and catch a bunch of Largemouth Bass. Bass fishing doesn’t have to be complicated to enjoy and to all of the hardcore saltwater anglers looking to try something new, or novice anglers looking to get into the sport, it can be really affordable to get started! This weekend I went out and caught 26 Largemouth Bass on less than a fast food meal’s budget using the rods/reels I had been using for inshore fishing.

Thanks for taking the time to read this report, and thanks to Kayaks By Bo for being our Paddle Partner for our weekly adventures. If you are looking for any gadgets, gizmos, a new kayak, or comfortable gear for your on the water experiences make sure to shop at the Space Coast’s premier Kayak shop and support a local family owned business!

Stay safe, be happy, and go catch fish! Until next time!