Greg Keefer Expert Guru
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Do Your Homework Before You Go

Would you like to up your odds for that trophy fish? Calling ahead during the planning stage of your next fishing trip may be the most important thing you can do. Searching the Internet will give you a wealth of contact information for people who can save you time and money. Start by calling a state fisheries biologist who will be able to give you an overview of the fishery and what you can expect to catch. Your second call during the trip planning should be to a local bait shop. If the staff can't answer your questions they'll at least know who the local experts are and be able to put you in touch with them. Local sportsmen's clubs and travel bureaus can give you ideas for inexpensive lodging, the best boat ramps and what baits are hot. Best of all, this information is free for the asking!

Catching Pressured Bass

Many of the bass in heavily fished waters have been caught again and again. The result is often a lake full of bass that seem impossible to catch. Studies have shown that bass can be come “educated” and avoid the bait they’ve been hooked on, sometimes up to a year after being caught. I proved this to myself by using a standard chugger across the top of a pond, landing two small bass as I went. Once I’d walked the entire shoreline with the chugger I started over again with a floating crankbait. I used it as a topwater, dipping and bobbing with a completely different action than the chugger created but still on the surface. This time around the pond resulted in eight bass. Though not very scientific, my experiment convinced me that bass pass up many angler offerings, not for lack of angler skill but rather for lack of angler creativity. Try something different, present a standard bait in a unique way or simply invent a new cadence or presentation for an old lure. You'll start catching pressured bass.

Crappies On the Edge

Crappies relate to all kinds of edges and if you’re interested in finding them, that’s where you’ll have to look. Edges are breaks in the underwater habitat and can include weedlines, fallen trees, docks, deep rocks, old creek channels and even where clear and muddy water meet. Called papermouths, specks and speckled bass, these sleek panfish will relate closely to wood or man-made structures. Throughout their seasonal movements, living on the edge plays an important part in the crappies’ behavior. During those rare times of suspending in open water, crappies can be found with an electronic fish-finder. Otherwise, look for the edges!

Try hybrid stripers for fast sub-surface action.

Try hybrid stripers for fast sub-surface action.
The ocean-run striped bass are originally a marine fish that was landlocked interior rivers were first impounded. Fisheries biologists found that though they could survive in fresh water, warmer summer temperatures on big fish led to high mortality. A cross between the native white bass and the ocean striper resulted in a hybrid that was a hardy, deep-bodied fish that routinely topped 12 pounds, or more. During the summer, look for seagulls pointing the way to fleeing shad. The hybrids will chase the shad up to the surface during the summer months. As the hybrids close in the shad will flip out of the water in an attempt to escape. Casting small baits into the fray means taking a hybrid on nearly every cast. Most hybrids are taken on crankbaits of one kind or another, especially Rogues or Rapala Husky Jerks. Half-ounce to three-quarter ounce Rattle Traps are also killers. Small in-line spinners and spoons tossed into the feeding frenzy also take plenty of fish. If it looks like a shad, it’ll probably work.

Lay a Scent for Big Catfish

Lay a scent for big catfish if you want to increase your catch of cats. Most of us plop a stinkbait or chicken liver onto the river bottom and let the fish take it from there. You’ll increase your chances for a big, lazy cat if you try a simple trick that tournament anglers have discovered. Lay a scent trail by moving your bait. After you’ve dropped it and haven’t had any action for about 20 minutes, move it about 10 yards or so and let it rest again. If you still haven’t had a bite, move it again. Your bait is laying a water-borne scent that is giving your bait a lot more exposure than it would otherwise have. In the current, simply toss the bait downstream and keep moving it back to you. Hungry cats will get a whiff of the bait and start moving to locate the source of the scent. By moving your bait upstream you’ll be intercepting the cats and make it easier to find.

Catching Iced Walleyes

Frigid temperatures and thick ice can make walleye angling more of a challenge, but if you know how to approach them, you can take home a stringer full. Winter walleyes can be finicky and the bite can be light. The cardinal rule for catching winter walleyes is finesse. Walleyes will spook easily and their sense of caution makes them over sensitive to overhead noise and vibrations on the ice. A snowmobile passing by where an angler is catching fish can end the bite as easily as a cold-fingered fisherman dropping an ice awl. Make sure your tip-up reels runs smoothly so that walleyes won’t feel any resistance when they pick up the bait. Using a lightly-hooked minnow with only a split-shot or two is a good rule of thumb. Try artificial baits like a Bay De Noc Swedish Pimple, a small Eppinger Cop-E-Cat or a Luhr Jensen Crippled Herring. Tip one of the hooks on your lure with a minnow or part of a minnow to make it even more tempting. Keep line in the 8- to 10-pound test range in the shallows. For deeper water graduate to a braided super line for greater sensitivity to a light bite.

Muskie Bait Wisdom

Muskie baits can be a huge surprise, especially at the checkout counter. Most muskie baits range from 6 to 12 inches and cost anywhere from $8.00 to $20.00. Lots of muskies are taken on those bruiser-sized lures, but muskies are also taken on smaller baits, as evidenced by the occasionally surprised walleye anglers who hook a muskie on a tiny jig. Don Weaver is the former President of the Ohio Huskie Muskie Club and has boated over 600 muskies in his fishing career. His secret weapon? A 3-inch minnow imitator crankbait in Tennessee Shad, Firetiger and Blue Shad colors that runs about $5.00. Over 70 percent of the muskies he’s caught have fallen for this little crankbait.

Dog Days Bluegill

Dog days bluegill can be tough to find. July and August seem to usher in fishless days as worms under a bobber and small jigs are left untouched. Many of us just hang up the rod and reel until the hot weather breaks. The secret to fishing for bluegills in the dog days of summer is to go deep. Try a cricket or nightcrawler in up to 30 feet of water around rocks, bridge pilings, wood and other deep structure. Most of the bigger bluegill have abandoned the shallow weedbeds they were frequenting in the spring. If you can locate a thermocline be assured that the big 'gills will be right on top of it.

Reduce Fish Mortality with a Conservation Hook

Catch-and-release fishing is a tremendous way to preserve our fishing resources, but if you kill the fish in the process of releasing it, you haven’t accomplished much. Conservation hooks are an easy way to remove the hook. The lack of barb allows the hook to easily back out of the hole that it made while being set, and if you keep pressure on the fish while fighting it, your conservation hook won't be tossed. Just pinch the barb on your barbed hook with a pair of needlenose pliers. The biggest advantage to using a conservation hook is that it'll come out of you more easily, too.

Don't Forget the Thermocline

Many lakes experience what is called a thermocline. You'll also hear anglers say that a lake stratifies. On some lakes, the warmer, oxygenated water rises during the summer and leaves the cold, less-oxygenated water in the depths. Fish need oxygen to survive and will seldom venture below the thermocline. Without expensive equipment it is impossible to determine if a lake has a thermocline and, if it does, how deep the dissolved oxygen can be found. It’s been said that divers can feel a drop of several degrees in water temperature when they move below the thermocline but that doesn’t help the rest of us who are still up there in the boat. Locating fish who are holding just about the thermocline is all trial and error. Try fishing shallow and work your way down. When you start connecting with fish on a hot afternoon, they're probably holding at just above the thermocline. Most of the fish will be right at this depth.