Wilks: Spring makes everything new again

(Editor's note: "Catching Bass with Dustin Wilks" airs four times per week on the Sportsman Channel – 6 a.m. Tuesday, 11 a.m. Wednesday, 10 a.m. Sunday and 4:30 a.m. Monday (all times EST). The six-time Bassmaster Classic qualifier provides BassFans with additional insight about each episode in these submissions.)

The first quarter of the year is always exciting for new fishing shows, new products and new enthusiasm for fishing. If you had a chance to watch the first episode of my show “Catching Bass with Dustin Wilks” on the Sportsman Channel, you saw all of the above.

The show was shot in the springtime with the water temperature around 65 degrees and bass were in all three phases of spawn, but most fish had finished the reproduction ritual.

The day started out cool, but warmed quickly and the early morning hours had me chunkin’ a spinnerbait trying to get as many easy fish as I could before the challenge of spawning fish as the sun came up.

The action came quick, as a spinnerbait is one of the most effective baits at covering water and is especially good in spring and post-spawn as fish begin their transition to picking off shad that are spawning themselves.

If you were big into fishing in the late '90’s and early 2000s, you will have noticed and recognized I was fishing the original Glamour Shad spinnerbaits. They are back exclusively by the original manufacturer at www.glamourshadstore.com. He had been selling them unadvertised to a few all these years, but now they'll be available to all. (I will have a follow up story about this great company that dominated spinnerbait sales in the mid-Atlantic states during this period).

The main pattern of the fishing day shifted quickly from spinnerbaits to target fishing with another brand new bait called the Culprit Shakin’ Neko Craw.

If you watched, you saw a lot of quality fish being caught with tips along the way, but what I’d like to point out is the speed.

I had the trolling motor wide open all day as the lake I was fishing didn’t have too many shallow targets. To find them quickly, I fished fast, covering crazy amounts of water while just visually looking. Once I saw a target, I cast the Shakin’ Neko Craw fitted with an Eco Pro Tungsten 1/16-ounce Nail ‘Em weight. It falls quicker than you'd think, but not overly fast, just the perfect speed to get noticed. Then, once it is twitched lightly one time, it's over – if there was a bass around it was caught! The fact the cover and stumps were so scattered made the likelihood of a bass being present higher.

Spinning gear is a must in this speed situation as it allows a vertical fall with the spool open with minimal resistance. I prefer a 7-foot medium-action Falcon Expert with 15-pound Yo-Zuri braid and the new Yo-Zuri Super Fluorocarbon leader material in 12- to 20-pound. I like the heavier leader around cover. The new material is so clear the fish can't see it and the way the bait works, it is not an advantage in shallow water to go light.

The way the Shakin’ Neko Craw “folds over” when twitched screams crawfish and gets hammered by nearby bass. I now consider it among my best weapons while target fishing in the spring. It is just so different than all the other presentations out there.

I designed this bait for Culprit out of a desire to have a crawfish imitation, but with the fall characteristics of a straight-tail worm so often used with Neko-rigging. So it is basically a streamlined crawfish with a molded-in spot to secure an O-Ring. This allows for the correct pace for rapid target fishing. If too slow, then you’ll end up spooking the fish with the boat in warp speed. Of course, you can slow down if there are lots of targets and be stealthy; then it would be a good time to experiment with fall rate by adjusting the weight.

I hope you got a chance to watch the show and pick up some new and exciting ideas about bass fishing for the coming year.

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