Stinger Hook Options

Stinger hooks are truly miserable. I hate them on swimbaits, I hate them stuck in the net, my hand, the fish, and the bottom of the lake. I hate them bending and failing. I hate that fisherman have had it ground into their brains that they need them! I HATE STINGER HOOKS!
Since everyone seems so dead set on using them you might as well know how to do it right. Believe me, if you can rig a stinger hook the wrong way and find out by losing a big fish, I’ve done it. I’ve had knots fail, wires break, crimps pull loose, and even eyelets rip free from the bait. But I’ve also learned how to make the connections strong, how to keep fish hooked, and how to get them in the boat without any failures.
If you’re going to use stinger hooks this video will benefit you. I cover the four main stinger connection options that I believe are viable. They are, in no particular order, braid, wire and crimps, single strand wire, and heavy monofilament. After you’ve watched the video please share your thoughts. I’d love to hear what you think.

Some of these options are very common but others are not. Which do you use and which do you like best?
And in case you missed it in the beginning, I don’t condone the use of stingers. I honestly believe they kill higher numbers of fish than a single hook rig does and in almost all circumstances they really aren’t necessary.

Winter Swimbait Retrieves

So you’ve decided its finally time to throw a swimbait. You head to your local lake and begin casting the bait around your favorite haunts. You visit a point or two, that break you caught those jig fish on last week, but its been 2 hours, 14 minutes, and 3… make that 4 seconds and you STILL haven’t had a bite!
In the back of your mind you start wondering if you’re doing it right. Maybe you have the wrong bait, Maybe the fish moved, maybe the fish in this lake don’t eat swimbaits, WRONG!
Odds are you simply aren’t fishing the bait slow enough. Welcome to December! If you want to throw a swimbait in December (and you should) there are two kinds of retrieves. The first retrieve is slow, the second is so slow it hurts.

Big bass are inherently lazy. (Thus the belly that helps them get above the 10 lb mark) In most cases they aren’t out roaming around hunting food, least of all in the Winter months. If you want to play the odds go back through the places you just fished and start slowing down. You may be surprised by what happens next!

My 17 lber... the untold story

Every successful angler sets goals to help stay on track but somewhere out there in the distance, even farther than the tangible is the intangible. The intangible consists of things too far fetched to even be called goals, they are left in the realm of dreams. One of my dreams was to someday log on to bassmaster and see a picture of me holding a giant bass. Thanks to Dan O'Sullivan I got to see one of my dreams come to fruition. Thank you DanO for doing a great write up and telling the untold story of my biggest bass. A lot of people know that I caught her but even some of my close friends didn't know the details of the catch. I'd like to think I've come a long way from then but then again, maybe not. Afterall, I've hooked a lot of big bass with a rod and reel but none as big as her. DanO wrote it best when he titled the article "Help From Above." There is no doubt in my mind I was meant to catch that fish. I did everything wrong! From the single size 1 treble to the light line, to the light action rod, I couldn't have made poorer decisions but it just goes to show you that when its your time, there is no stopping the inevitable. All I can say is while I did everything wrong, I still managed to be in the right place at the right time, during the right feeding window. Bassmaster.com Article Check it out, I'd love to hear your thoughts! And yes, I assure you the story is true.

Swimbait Sink Rates Explained

Does anyone else remember when swimbait fishing was simple? Not only were you the only guy on the lake throwing a swimbait but you only had 3 or 4 legitimate options when it came to choosing a bait. Now there are so many brands and models that it can get really confusing knowing what bait you need. Let’s say you finally made the decision to buy an 8″ Huddleston Deluxe and you even chose the color. You would think all the decision making would be over but its not! Now you have to choose between 4 different sink rates, also known as “rates of fall” or “ROF”.
Multiple people have been asking about these different sink rates as well as about the rigging options for each model. I hope this video sheds a little more light on the subject. My personal rule of thumb is to fish the lightest model available that still has a molded in jig hook protruding from the back.