Howzit fellas – between the shop, lesson schedule, Cal Bass Craft, and Jig Monster, I haven't had much time to write so this one's gonna' be short and sweet (arguably I've never done anything short and sweet).

You know from a previous post that we've finalized the colors for the "Phantom Bluegill" and "Brazen Bluegill", now we're just waiting on the production materials. Also, we've chosen our hook (the most important part of the bait)  for our custom Swim jig that we're designing and having custom made for us. It looks like the Jig Monster swim jig that I've had in my head for so long is finally happening, and it's probably the jig series I'm most excited about out of all that we have in the works.

On another note, we just put up the (H)eavy Baitsmiths in all colors including the brand new Spring Hitch. Also, got Zombie Gill in stock. According to Ed up at Tackle It in Lakeport the new Spring Hitch Baitsmith is outfishing almost everything up at Clearlake this week and I have to admit it's pretty awesome, granted I haven't fished it yet, but throwing it in the pool and getting reports from the locals has got me sold.

Anyways – short and sweet. I'll try and post again tomorrow.

We have the Snack Size Swimbaits from JSJ Tackle in stock! We just got our inventory from Josh yesterday and they are awesome. Josh hand makes each and every bait - he's been developing his design to perfection for 2 years and his work has really paid off - this bait is beautiful and the swimming action is sick. Click Here to see them on Jig Monster.

Soft Stick Baits are probably the most effective saturation bait or non-reaction bait an angler can throw. It's also in my opinion the single best throw back or follow up bait ever made and works great as a follow up bait in all but the muddiest waters. The bait is thought of as nearly magical due to its uncanny ability too elicit bites from highly pressured fish that seemingly have lock jaw. The "magic" is actually quite simple and to understand it you have to look back to its history.

The very first plastic worms were made in Akron Ohio by the Creme brothers in 1949. These first worms were made of vinyl and were made from a mold that had been crated using a real night crawler. The way these first worms were rigged was with a lead head jig with no weed guard. These baits were great and changed history, but they still had flaws.

The main problem was the open hook which was prone to snagging and especially in the shallow muddy waters of the south-east. At this point Southern bass guys began to make their own worms, most notably Tom Mann and his jelly worms. These baits were softer and they had highly active curly tails that kicked as they fell.

These same guys came up with a way to fish these baits that would allow them to put the bait where the fish quite often are, heavy cover. They took lead bullets and drilled a hole through the center allowing them to thread the sinker onto the line and then tie it to a long shank wire hook which could be rigged such a way as to bury the hook point making it weedless. They called it the Texas rig. For 25-30 years this was "it" for worm fishing and caught more bass than any other bait around at the time.

Now for us here in the west we have to deal with more pressure than the south east as we don't have anywhere near as many lakes and the lakes we do have are crystal clear and very deep. Because of this the initial success of the Texas rigged worms has not continued as much as in the south east. The fish just weren't feeling this bait after a while. The main problem was that the fish became conditioned to avoid stuff that falls straight down and tails that are too active, i.e. Action Tails.

Gary Yamamoto was the first to crack this conditioning dynamic when, inspired by the shape of his ball point pen, he solved the issue of vertical fall by replacing the lead casting weight with a quantity of salt that was heavy enough to take the bullets place and because unlike lead weights, with sale he was able to spread the weight out across the length of the bait. This solves the vertical fall issue as it makes the bait fall horizontally. As far as crazy tails soft stick baits, whether Senkos, Big Bite, or Aces, all have subtly tapered tails that wag.

Here are my favorite ways to rig these "magic" baits:

Howzit - It's good to be back. A few days off with my fiancé Emily (no phone, no fax, no computer, no clients) is just what I needed to recharge for this busy and exciting time of year ahead of us.

Awaiting my return were reports from Gary Philips who took 3rd place at a recent 1 day event using our beloved ODZ jigheads and soft stick baits, and from my buddies at Clearlake who report that the bite is finally picking up and that guys are sticking two or three 10 pounders every week and guys fishing swimbaits like Baitsmiths, Mavericks, and Huds are reporting 12 lb-15 lb females being caught consistently by blind bed fishing the big baits in  8-10' of water.

I guess all the pressure on those fish after last year's BASS tour stop and all the press that goes with it. And that brings me to my next point: anyone and everyone who has fished Clearlake this spring can tell you "the pressure sucks". Guys who were upset about finding 2-3 boats on all of their spots last year are finding 5-8 boats on the same spots this year. And everyone is throwing swimbaits. At time it seems that with the amount of money at stake at these events these days, sportsmanship has taken a back seat.

But, back to here in Marin. I can't wait to get out and do some fishing as I missed my shot last week and conditions are good. I have got to make some phone calls and see what I missed - or better yet you guys are welcome to post comments here.

The day before I left (Sat.), I had the opportunity to help out a Bass Derby at Lake Stafford, put on by Parks Service on behalf of Western Sport Shop. The turnout could have been better but I think the parks understand that when we do the next one it needs to be better marketed. However it was till fun and the people who turned out, both kids and adults, seemed to have a really good time. I spoke to the parks people after the event about putting on another one soon, so when we get the dates set I will post them both here and on CaliforniaBassCraft.com so we can step this event up a bit.

Lastly, I have seen the first Generation of the 7" Snack Size Trout jointed swimbait hand made by Josh St. John on http://www.thewiredangler.com/ and they look awesome. We will be carrying them at JigMonster.com.

Later today I will be posting a new How-To for rigging Senkos and other soft stick baits.

Lesson: ALWAYS have a camera at the ready when fishing.

I'm still rattled from catching my new personal best Sunday and not having a camera with me. I keep thinking I should have tied it off and left it in the custody of one of the guys that were watching me land this fish, so I could drive to a store and buy a camera, not to mention just having the *!@ camera with me at all times.

I dragged that stupid camera all of the place and then the day I forget I catch my new P.B. Well, there is no point in crying over spilled milk. I should be thankful for the fish and for having a scale and many witnesses….buy my god! How a grown man can't sleep over a fish like a little kid on Christmas eve.

Anyways, I'm gonna' keep this short because I desperately need to find the right materials to finish my new bluegill jigs before the spawn is finished here in California.

Last Sunday I had a great day fishing a couple of local lakes for numbers and for size throwing the Maverick Float-O in Grape Blue Neon on a Red ODZ Wacky jig and the Maverick 8″ Shaker on the same red wacky jig.

Since then, all week long guys have been coming into my work (Western Sport Shop) and getting advise and tackle on their way to the same local lakes I fish. All week long I felt sick due to the fact that so many guys were hitting my favorite local spots and under good warm/stable weather whilst I was stuck in the shop helping these guys learn how to catch "my" fish without me.

I was supposed to fish with a 1st year pro friend of mine up at Berryessa when my day off finally arrived…and what happens? Murphy's Law! A nasty cold front pushed its way in causing the Berryessa trip to be cancelled.

When my alarm went off at 5 AM yesterday morning my choices were go fish in these lame conditions or sleep in, and I chose fish. When I finally wet a line it became clear that it really was a nasty frigid cold front and I couldn't get a bite to save my life. I was even bitching about how I should have slept into the few anglers I did bump into and I hate it when people bitch about conditions or whatever their excuse is for not sticking fish.

When I was getting ready to leave I started throwing a floating BBZ-1 just to practice bit bait lure control when all of a sudden a massive boil erupted under the bait. I kept waiting to see a bird pop up but none did. After a few more casts I had another big oil on the same spot and seeing as how it was a full moon the previous night I figured that the spot was a deeper bed and so I dropped the big stick and pitched my favorite confidence bait at the moment, my magic bullet consisting of the Float-O and wacky jighead rigged on 6 lb. fluorocarbon.

I don't know how I thought I would land a fish but I just didn't care and flung the light bait anyways. I snagged up on tulle roots, or so I thought until the bend in my rod started to throb and a heavy fish surged down in to some tulles. I stood on my tip-toes with the rod up as high as possible and as soon as I found an exit from the tulles I said a prayer and put pressure on the fish to take this exit and the fish jumped clean out of the water and it was HUGE!

After a desperate struggle to land this beast on 6 lb line in heavy cover, I lipped and weighed the biggest fish I've ever caught while in possession of a scale, and it was almost 12 lbs. with the digital scale showing 12.1 and an onlooker with an old spring scale weighing it at 11 lb. 12 oz.

I could almost stab myself in the eye for not having a camera as anyone in the bass fishing tackle industry should ALWAYS be prepared. Fortunately I did have a good scale and a bunch of witnesses, one of whom also had a scale.

That fish was beautiful; still pre-spawn and just clean. I don't even think it's been caught before. And as I always hard time customers about catch and release no matter what, I released the fish within 8 feet of its hidden nest.

I don't know what else to say - my hands are still shaking. Oh yeah, I almost forgot - next time good number fishing gets shut down by cold fronts don't even think about sleeping in, or you could miss the fish of a lifetime.