2020: MY FISHING YEAR IN REVIEW

 

Good Lord 2020 has been a whirlwind. 

From the dark clouds of Covid pandemic, to the unprecedented hurricane season, to the closures of stores, restaurants and social distancing, there wasn't a lot good to say about the year.  A dark cloud hung over everything and it seemed like it would never disappear.

Friends and family, teammates and co-workers... we all knew/know someone who has lost someone this year or at the very least was sick with Covid.    

When a person stops to think about how everything-society and culture- changed and what we''ve lost, not only is it sobering, its downright depressing.

It was with this thought in mind I started thinking about my year in particular.  Instead of focusing on negatives, I  wanted to highlight the positive aspects of the life I lead now.   It most certainly had its ups and downs, but the ups outweighed the setbacks as my life has finally begun to truly follow the path I've tried forcing it along for decades.  

I would be remiss if I first didn't bring to the forefront, the very person who made all of this possible in every sense of the word...a very loving and supportive drop dead gorgeous wife who allows me the freedom to fish every day I wanted to and there was no way I couldn't have had a year like this year without her understanding and support.  She is amazing and while I tell her this everyday, I don't think she realizes how much I really mean it.

I don't think she necessarily approves of my fishing all the time, but she certainly has no qualms about eating any of the fish I bring home.  I have made a standing offer of taking her along on any trip I go on, but she doesn't care to fish, just eat them.    Additionally, she is not a huge fan of any trip I go on where it takes 4 hours or more just to get to with the exception being to Pactola.

So is it a win-win situation?  Maybe, but I will say I do miss her an awful lot while I am away.   She's damn near perfect....just that pesky not liking fishing part...

Anyway...lets get to the core of this post.

So for some statistics.  I kept track of a lot of things this year once I got going.  Played around with the idea of keeping track of a lot more items, but eventually narrowed it down to these.  

I was going to post what seemed to me to be "peak or optimal hours" on the waters I fished but decided I really didn't want any more people down there fishing during "happy time" lol... so here goes...

2020 stats

• Fished 187 days in a row
• Fished 257 total days
• Average trip Time: 2.41 hours (Trips/hours=average trip time)
• Total hours -700+ hours
• Totaled 290 trips
• Average Fish per trip 7.067137  (2000/290)
• Average Fish per day:  7.782            (2000/257)
• Miles Traveled. 3000+
• Used 2 miles of monofilament to spool and respool my rods (11 330 yd spools)
• Roughly 2000+ fish caught
  
• 15 different species of freshwater gamefish

As a result of those stats, the following result statistics came into focus:

•  41 Master Angler/Proud Angler Fish  Catch and Release-(Nebraska or South Dakota)
• 14 master Angler Rainbow Trout (20+") -Pactola
• 1 Chinook (31" )                                      -Oahe
• 7 White Bass (17-18"")                            -Lake Sharpe
• 2 Smallmouth Bass (20")                         -Oahe
• 1 Northern Pike (38")                               -Oahe
• 2 White Crappie (16")                              -Skyview
• 13 Largemouth Bass (20-21 5/8")            -Skyview
• 1 Saugeye (26")                                        -Gavins Point tailrace
  
  

So whats this all mean?  It means persistence pays off.  I'm in no way anywhere close to being a "pro" in any sense of the word.  I know at least a dozen or more guys that could fish circles around me on any given day...I'm just persistent to the point of being ridiculous.   I just wore the fish down into mercy biting my baits.

All kidding aside, lets look at all this from a numbers standpoint. The stat I am most proud of:  The Master Angler catch

I came up with a nice way of figuring out an average between MA catches.  Days total fished /MA=255/41=6.22 trips per each MA fish.  Thats just an average.  

In real life, things didn't work out that way.  I found big fish at least a few times a month but I can guarantee you it was not every six trips.  And when I did find them, the trend was that I caught more than one...in effect it boosted those numbers up quickly.  

Sidenote:  All but 4 of those MA fish were taken from the shoreline.  Absolute fact! And the Largemouth and Crappie MA's came out of the aforementioned city lake.
 
I came close a bunch of other times throughout the year.  And for this I kept track of fish that were within 2 inches of a catch and release MA.  

• Near Miss MA/PA-Catch and Released (Fish within a 2" margin for a C&R MA)
• 32 Largemouth 19-19 7/8 inches                   -Skyview
• 42 Largemouth 18-19"                            -Skyview
• 1 channel catfish 28"                                -Skyview

75 fish that were just short of MA status. All released to grow more over the year.  All out of one lake.  Albeit a lake I spent about 90% of my available time fishing because it was incredibly close.  

Looking over those stats, I'm  happy.  Ecstatic.  Those numbers are freaking incredible.  Its been the best year I have ever had fishing.  And its already got me thinking how to up my game and numbers for 2021.

I did change a few things up, made an effort to master a few new techniques, but the key to all this was simply tenacity.  In my way of thinking, more time on the water meant more opportunities to put my bait/lure in front of more fish, thus increasing the big fish count considerably.  Was there skill involved?  Probably a little.  I would attribute that aspect of all this more to knowing what to throw when and where, understanding what type of water I am fishing and where to start looking.

But there is some more info I am willing to divulge, primarily, the top five lures I used to catch fish all year.

#1  BERKLEY GULP  MINNOWS AND VARIOUS JIGHEAD SIZES

So this came as an absolute surprise to me but numbers don't lie.  The simple combo of threading a Gulp minnow onto a plain round ball head jig scored over 50% of my fish for the year and managed to accomplish this in only 4 months.

To be clear, there was no clear cut retrieve that out produced any others over the long term.  There were also no clear cut  locations or time periods that outproduced others. Indeed, as the season progressed it became painfully obvious the fish wanted variety.  Also, fish in every body of water I visited found this combo tempting.  I caught a ton of fish on this no matter where I went.  

The combo also produced 5 of the Master Angler Largemouth Bass and over 2/3 of my largemouth 18-20".  Impressive enough for me to make sure I had a rod rigged and ready to go each time I hit the water.  Impressive enough to make damn sure I will have a rod rigged up  with this and ready for 2021.

This marked the first year I seriously made an effort to include this technique in a meaningful way in my arsenal.  Don't make the mistake of thinking its simple jig fishing.  Nothing about fishing it the way I did this year was easy.  It was down in the trenches  eating mud brutal, but it was obviously worth it. 

#2 BERKLEY FLICKER SHAD

2020 is the year that will go down for me as the year I finally became a firm die-hard believer in the magic of the Flicker shad.  

This bait was a prime producer over the course of the year but fizzled out midseason with the availability of forage.  That said, I caught some seriously big fish on these lures.  This lure was responsible for my personal best walleye, which I popped out of Chamberlain SD. 

Their hunting action was nearly unmatched by all but one lure.

Retrieve speeds obviously varied per water temperature and color selections and preferences changed almost daily, but once the fish locked in on it, this bait was exceptional.  So much so, I have purchased about 50 of them over the course of 2020.  Bigger channel catfish pounded the hell out of this bait, smashing at least 4 into total un-usability.

I will say this.  I really questioned the way it ran through the water when I first started to use them.  Seemed too erratic, but that shad profile being what it is,  is a huge dinner bell for a lot of fish and as a result, popped me quite a few walleye this year.

#3 STORM HOT-N-TOT

Absolutely one of my favorite crankbaits.  This is the one lure I made reference to in the Flicker Shad portion.  I caught some absolute pigs on this bait. The way it hunts in the water is more aggressive than the Flicker shad and it offers a chunkier yet similar sized shad profile.  You can really feel it thump on a steady retrieve and its a proven (4 years straight) producer.

There were certain colors that worked best for the lakes I fished, but water clarity was ultimately the deciding factor.  Natural colors dominated this year for me with the bait.  

I used this from shore, from the kayak, from the boat....I cast it, trolled with it and drifted with it...it performed exceptionally well a good chunk of the year, with the exception of the Summer and Summer peak periods. I do not go anywhere anytime without having at least 1-2 of these baits with me.

#4 JOINTED RAPALA

The Venerable Rapala #11 or #13.  Quite possibly the epitome of jointed lures, its action often duplicated but never matched.

 Honestly it put more bass in my hand than all the other lures except the Berkley Gulp Minnow.  Slayed a few bigger Channel catfish on them this year too, including a 28 incher, A 26" and a 25".  

The only downside I had with this was its success rate was sporadic throughout the course of the season and seemed to be successful on only 2 of the bodies of water I frequent.  

The jointed Rapala has been around for a very long time, and the reason for its longevity is that it works.  If it didn't you wouldn't see it on the store shelves.  Another must have lure when ever and where ever I go.

#5 JOINTED SHAD RAP

Another lure from Rapala that gave me some big fish sporadically throughout the year.  With it I did manage to catch a lot of 18-21inch walleye, but there was no consistency to its success.  It was feast or famine, due in large part to the nature of flatland/lowland reservoir walleye

The shallow version definitely outperformed its deeper brother for me and it only seemed to be a twilight lure, meaning almost all the fish I caught with it were in that magic time between sunset and full darkness.  

In years past, this lure has been exceptional for me.  2020 saw it as performing well enough to get into the top 5, but not nearly as productive in situation it should have exceled in.  Now whether that come down to my color choices is a topic for further discussion.  

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

• MISTER TWISTER SASSY GRUBS IN PEARL COLORS
• NED RIGS
• BOGSTALKER GRUBS (CUSTOM COLOR FOR 1 LAKE)
• SENKOS
• SALMO HORNETS
• MOXIES
• HUSKY JERKS
• RATTLING ROGUES
  
  

Starting next year, I am thinking I might start keeping lengths  and possibly weights on everything I catch.  Should also keep track of color patterns, lure types, water temps etc to see if I can get some more definitive patterns to emerge.  

It ought to be a more interesting year, as I plan on trying to cut down the shore fishing and get more boat fishing in, especially during the colder parts of the year from October to first ice.  

Looking ahead, you will  see me expanding my range and fishing different lakes and different classifications of reservoirs and water bodies.  You will also see me targeting new species and hopefully being successful at it.  And along those journeys, I will strive to detail how and what I did, and why I chose to do it.

I'll be putting more emphasis on techniques I've chose to ignore in the past like bottom bouncing, dipsy diving, etc.  The reason is that since I have ignored them, I need to now learn how to use them to ascertain their potential application to the bodies of waters I do fish.  Or that they are boat-centric and I am still getting the hang of fishing with my Tracker I've affectionately named "The Mistress" or "High Plains Drifter."

There will also be a sharper focus on some aspects of live bait fishing even though I am not a big live bait fan.  Hate trying to keep bait alive or lugging it around with me when I'm shore fishing.  Total pain in the ass.  But with focus upon total improvement comes sacrifice. Like the old saying goes...No pain no gain.

From the blog standpoint, I want to begin to incorporate a bunch of new items, but only as time allows.  My overall goal is to help people catch more fish or at the very least, inspire them to get off the couch and catch spend more time outdoors. Suggestions could be helpful and much appreciated.

One thing I have always embraced was that life is or at least should be, about adventure. The level of adventure can and should vary depending on finances, health and/ or passion for the sport.  Every outing should be looked upon as a blessing and cherished as a memory.  A simple outing can turn into the adventure of a lifetime.  That's the beautiful thing about the outdoors and on the water.  You never know what the day is going to bring

Keep those lines wet, those hooks sharp and the fish afraid.

.

THE HONEST TRUTH ABOUT PAINTING YOUR OWN CRANKS

 

For me, one of the highlights of any fishing trip is stepping into a local tackle shop and browsing their selection of lures.  Gets me absolutely giddy with excitement.  Been that way with me since the moment I first stepped into one at the ripe young age of 5. 

Not going to lie.  I was definitely hooked.  The colors and shapes, hell even the packaging...more tempting than a kid in a candy store for me.  I step foot in a new one, odds are high Im coming out with a sack full of stuff. For me and my bank account, they are infinitely more dangerous than strip clubs..

A few years later after that first trip into a bait shop, I started coming across fishing shows on Saturday morning TV.  Mostly Bill Dance or Roland Martin, but occasionally I'd run across Jimmy Houston, Babe Winkelman, Tony Dean....the list of legends and masters could go on...

One of the things that I always paid attention to were the lures they were using.  Most of the time, there were crankbaits involved.  Cotton Cordell, Rebel, Rapala, Rat-l-Trap, Lucky Strike, etc etc.  Sometimes the colors were outrageous, especially during that dark era  of fervent adherence to the gospel of the Color-C-Lector.  Like looking through fashion magazines that came out in the 1970's...shudder

Somehow, during these brief edited glimpses of professional fishermen's lives and adventures to lakes and waterways I knew I knew I'd never see, I developed an obsessive fondness for fishing lures of all types, but mostly crankbaits. I had unwittingly become a Bait Junky...

I tried a few times to carve my own, tried rattle canning paint jobs and other ill advised methods to get something to honestly catch fish.  Other than trout flies and an early version of the little known mayfly rig for walleye, I had no success with my lure creations.  I remember trying to weld plastic worms together with a bic lighter.  Nothing like burnt fingers and  plastisol patches on my clothes.  Had a hard time explaining to my mother why I ruined another pair of pants....

So here we are, a couple  of decades later and in the interim, I succeeded in learning how to make inline spinners, walleye spinners.  Felt like it was time to focus on crankbaits.  Thought it would be easier than making the other types of lures....

Let me tell you, I was wrong.  Dead wrong.  Painting them is easy enough once you get the hang of the airbrush.  Sealing them isn't that bad either.  Its getting them to run even remotely close to the lures they are supposed to be replicating that is my main issue.

Take for instance the Megabass Vision 100 Knocks offs.  The real Vision 100 and its siblings are typically 25.00 bucks apiece.  Its no wonder that a whole slew of vendors from across the globe chose to get in on that action with their visually similar yet infinitely inferior knock offs.  And I will be the first to admit that  I was struck by the allure of getting my hands on about a hundred of them and painting away to my hearts content.

Enter reality and the old proverbial axiom of getting what you pay for comes to mind.  

I could paint them strikingly similar to the Ito paint jobs, seal them very well, but compared to the real thing, they not only feel different when retrieved, they definitely do not respond remotely close to the real thing. Ergo, the success rate with these baits is smaller than with the exquisite engineering of the original.  Getting them to run as close as possible to the original bait is often a long game of try it and see.  

This alone is the main premise as to why I have refused to sell any of the baits I paint.  I cannot possibly guarantee any of those lures will catch fish like the original.  Money is hard to come by for a lot of folks and I'll be damned if I "con" it out of them simply by presenting a lure that looks like the original.  I don't have it in me to do that to people.  

Make no mistake.  I've had enough people ask me to paint lures for them that I could have probably bought a bigger boat.  But integrity has to come into the question.  I wouldn't want some joker selling me a knockoff that performs poorly.  

My only option then from this point forward is to paint the real thing.  I won't be buying those baits to use as blanks unless its for my own personal stash.  If I did, the price of these baits would be ridiculously high.  Better to have someone bring me the exact baits they want painted and then go from there.  Should keep the prices reasonable.

I do give some people lures I have painted.  A lot of the lures I do paint have caught me some pretty nice fish.  But my personal confidence in the final product always needs to be addressed.  If I send or give people baits, its because I feel they will work and that I have already caught fish using the same blank or paint scheme.

So why do I keep painting these blanks if they don't work quite like they should.  

Thats the sticking point right there.

You see, I have had some success with some blanks I have come across.  The Flicker shad blanks, some of the Shad Rap blanks, some topwaters and a select few others.  I don't want to sound like I am bashing on the vendors/producers of these blanks.  Some make much better products than others.  Just like anything else. You have to buy them and try them to figure out what you got, where you buy or don't buy from.  

One also has to look at purchases from vendors like this as warm-ups and a way of honing your painting skills.  It takes the sting out of having hundreds of blanks of questionable quality you may have bought on faith.

Paint them, slap on the right hardware, make alterations like adding suspend-dots, or different hook sizes to make the lures you paint run the way you want.  Its a slow laborious process but the patience and persistence in getting it right will make you glad you took the time.

In closing, I want to say a few words on sealants or finishes and I need to be clear about this.  No lure sealant is going to be anywhere as close to being as lightweight as factory finishes, unless you have the facilities to use automotive grade sealants.  If you do, you are fortunate because that alone will boost the price of those painted baits considerably, due to product cost and cleanup costs.

For the rest of us, there are other options....KBS, Diamond Kote, cement sealer etc.  I personally use Alumilite UV (100 bucks for a 2 pound can) and warm it up before I dip the lures and let it drip off for no less than 10 minutes.  Then after that, I apply the drip stick, put them in the UV box and let them cure for 20 minutes.  

The goal with all of this effort before they go into the UV box  is to get the sealant as thin as possible to add the least amount of weight to the bait.  By striving to do this, you end up with livelier artificials that run much better than a bait with too much sealant on it.

Another thing you should consider before picking up this hobby.  Cost in equipment and supplies add up.  You need a good airbrush, a nice selection of paints, blanks, a spray pot, UV lights and Box, possibly a lure turner,  small heaters or a heat gun to help set the paint, cleaning fluid, q-tips, an airbrush holder, a paint box, lights, forceps, tapes, hooks, split rings, split ring pliers etc etc.  You see where I am going with this.  Painting cranks is and becomes a huge investment in time and materials. Don't make the mistake in thinking you'll start small.  It balloons much quicker than you imagine.

Will I stop doing it?  Doubtful, if only to keep pushing my painting skills as far as they can go.  If I am going to be painting original baits rather than knock-offs, better to use the knock offs for practice runs.

It is a fun and relaxing hobby, but I've seen far too many people get into it without realizing how much it actually costs to do it.  Everything seems cheap, but it isn't.  But for those that do decide to try it out and spend the cash, I will be doing some tutorials in the future on painting crankbaits so visit often.  You never know when I am going to put those articles out.

Until then...

Keep those lines wet, those hooks sharp and the fish afraid.

 

BOGSTALKING AND THE FORGOTTEN ART OF HIGHLY MOBILE ANGLING

If anything this year has shown me as a shoreline angler, it is the absolute need for mobility.  When the fishing slows down, its time to move.   But a lot of people don't get it...they'll sit in the same place for hours and wait...and wait....and wait...

Not me...There are only so many hours in a day and life is too short to waste time waiting for fish to come to me to bite. No sir. 

 If I find myself in that situation, its s time to kick it up a notch and bring the heat..

Call it spot hopping, puddle jumping, or a bayou boogie .., for me its always been Bogstalking .

The overall premise of Bogstalking is all about searching for active fish, pinning down their location and searching for anymore active fish in the area before moving on once they stop hitting your presentations. No need to waste much time trying to coax neutral or inactive fish into biting.  

This also isn't about trophy fishing or lunker hunting, although you will find over time Bogstalking that you will run into far more bigger fish than you would have sitting and waiting for them to come to you.

It isn't just a warm water technique.  I use it year round albeit it, aggressive in terms of fish behavior is a relative term that changes throughout the day and season.  

Throughout my travels, I've come across a few anglers who have adopted this angling lifestyle on their own terms and are extremely successful at it.  

I have mentioned my friend Sheridan a few times in the past and for good reason.   He has taken Bogstalking  to a whole new level; stalking the shorelines almost every day of the year, he has become an apex predator of sorts along the shores of Lake Sharpe and Oahe, catching limits of fish, primarily walleye,  in all manner of ungodly extremes of weather and temperatures.  He has raised Bogstalking to an art form, taking it even further than I have ever been able to. He has set the bar high and relays his success through social media.

I used Bogstalking just last week on a night trip to the Missouri River below Gavins Point dam.  I knew from past experience up there this time of year can be feast or famine if you are fishing from shore.  

This trip around proved no different.  But this time I had prepared and done my homework and went up early to get started combing the shoreline.  I opted for what I've been hearing in some recent fishing reports, a barometer of true activity from guys who are out almost every day along the entirety of the Missouri River system.  I fished areas normally not highly pressured and eventually found my active fish...all the result of Bogstalking. It took hours to comb the shoreline but when I found them it was in a very non-descript little eddy off the main current.  A spot I normally might have walked by.

One point I really want to immediately clarify about Bogstalking is that for an angler, looking for aggressive and active fish doesn't necessarily translate into fast aggressive retrieves.  Sometimes just slowing down beyond the norm can be the ticket.  A jig can be fished slowly and yet as aggressively as any jerkbait and sometimes draw in more fish and provoke them to strike.

Bogstalking is also about finding new spots, holes or areas that are bypassed by others simply because they don't look fishy enough or don't raise the proverbial "stop and fish this spot" signs.

Key point to always remember...Our eyes aren't especially suited to see any real depth into stained water (-the norm where I typically fish) so while we might think we have a general idea of what lies below, often we are are being mislead about our ability to read water or what think we are seeing.   Our minds direct us to move on and "ignore".

Keep in mind that spots do change from one year to the next for all manner of reasons. The fish will always adapt.   Someone may plant a few brush piles in the area, the primary weed type may change, the weeds may thin out...there are a host of spot changing events.   The hot spot last year, may or may not be as hot the following year.  Stalking and actively fishing from the shorelines helps identify these little nuances and allows you to make adjustments.

Walking long lengths of shoreline necessitates packing light and only taking what is necessary.  This is key to a more enjoyable experience.  Why lug a huge tackle box around a lake if there is no need to do so?  Especially when the bulk of your fishing is going to probably going to be you using a select few lures.

I typically use my Cabelas club bag as a pro tempore stalking bag.  Its big enough to accommodate a few trays of lures, a stringer, forceps, clippers and a few cans of soda.  All that will only weigh a few pounds if that.  Packed correctly, there is hardly any weight to it at all and I am geared up to walk miles with little to no discomfort.

But what to take for lures?  That is the rub right there isn't it?

Part of knowing what to take is to do your due diligence on seasonal factors affecting the water your fishing.  Water temps, cover, structure, available forage, looking over topo maps for key areas, prevailing weather patterns, water body type etc etc...you get the idea.  

But for those of who aren't quite grasping what I am implying, here is an example...

I am currently moving towards more removable Plano trays and organizing and labelling them by the standard Calendar developed by In-Fisherman and by species type.  

I base the selections filling those trays on water temp, fish type obviously, and the areas I will be looking for or fishing.  When I decide to hit the lake and fish for walleye or bass, its often just a simple matter of  taking a few  trays out of the bag and adding new ones.  You might think this all sounds like overkill but I am  telling you, organizing your tackle this way eliminates a lot of unnecessary baggage, headache and/or mystery.  It is worth the effort.  

The more you know, the better you can prepare and hone down what you are going to take with you.  And as I have stated in a previous article, (Failing to Plan is Planning to fail), the better you plan, the better your success rates will be in general.

There are other challenges you will come across.  

No matter how well you plan, you will come across areas where you will wish you had brought something else that might help you fish the area better.  That is normal and something you need to make note of for your next trip out.  

You might also come across areas of rip rap which tend to be a little hard to maneuver through, especially in the dark.  The last thing you want is to try and wind your way through that maze of sharp shifting stone while trying to maintain your balance with a tackle box that weighs more than a toddler. Try that and you will likely get hurt. A light source is definitely a must.  I prefer headlamps rther than lanterns or flashlights but do what works best for you.

You will likely come across areas that might not necessarily be holding a lot of fish now, but through your past angling experiences, you'll recognize might be the best place to fish in a few days, weeks or months.  You will come across areas that hold a lot more fish than you suspected and yet will be overlooked.  Time and experience will guide you if you let them.

If you aren't actively stalking the shorelines at least several times a season, you aren't maximizing your opportunities to pop fish, learning or discovering  seasonal habits or taking advantage of adding more spots to your go to list.  

We as anglers tend to get stuck in certain ruts and go to the same spots over and over and over...regardless of times of year.

Dont get me wrong. Some bodies of water don't necessarily have a lot of options available for shoreline fishing.  This is when the little things you find on your spotting trips during the day can translate into bigger and more fish at night. 

Every lake has community holes, like I have mentioned above.  Fish do adjust to the level of angling pressure in many ways.   Getting away from the crowds, even just a little bit or fishing off hours can put more fish on your stringer. 

Observation, continual fishing education, time on the water and awareness are the four cornerstones of sustained success.  Proper gear, thinking outside the box, and a sense of adventure through Bogstalking can and will help pave the way to greater opportunities than you imagined.

Keep those lines wet, those hooks sharp and the fish afraid...

EULOCA RECHARGEABLE CREE XPG2 R5 LED SPOTLIGHT

 

Back in March of this year, I was in the market for a combo spotlight/lantern that was reasonably powerful, extremely light-weight, waterproof and long lasting.

So like everyone else on the planet, I started doing some looking for it on amazon.  Took me about 3 days to narrow down my search to 2 different units.  Since I couldn't really decide on either so I ordered both.

This unit was the one that won out in head to head use.

For starters the CREE XPG2 R5 LED was right on target in the lightweight requirement.  Weighing in at 0.95 pounds, its the lightest lantern/spotlight I have ever used.  

Its like it is not even there its that lightweight.

But don't let its lightweight stature fool you.  This little guy packs some punch.  It has a max brightness of 650 lumen, 6000k daylight white brightness and provides that brightness over a beam of 1640 ft.  Definitely bright enough to aid in whatever you might be doing in the dark but not blindingly bright.  There is also a switch to where you can use a 300 lumen setting to conserve your battery power.  

Part of me was initially skeptical of its lightweight because in order to help achieve that light weight, cheaper plastics are often used.  And cheap plastic often equates to broken equipment and as an outdoorsman, broken equipment is the last thing I want or need anytime, home or the water.  

I've always been an adherent of the adage, "if you take care of your equipment, your equipment will take care of you".  

I knew that I'd be putting this lantern/spotlight through its paces over the course of this year and can honestly attest to its resilience after nearly 9 months of use, its held up amazingly well.  

Which brings me squarely to the next part of this review.  

Its long lastingness.  I've only had to charge this unit twice in 9 months.  

Really.  Granted, the time actually spent using it

amounts to mere minutes of use each day, that is still a pretty decent length of time to go between recharges.  My understanding of this unit was that it was manufactured for people living in hurricane prone areas and for use when the power goes out.

The searchlight has a built in 2600mAh 18650 battery which you can charge by USB port, with a supplied USB cable, a variety of different  ways as portrayed in the graphic to the right.

The battery also serves as power bank for your smart phone of other mobile device in the event of an emergency.  

There are 4 blue LED's on the back of the unit that indicate the power levels when the unit is turned on.  When the last indicator is left alight, its time to recharge the unit.  That simple

So far, it has seemed to me that the charging process is actually pretty quick.  Usually only takes an hour or so to charge the battery via USB connections through my computer, so while I am doing my blog articles, I can charge it and have it ready for evening use.

The next aspect of my requirements for a spotlight/lantern were it needed to be waterproof. 

 I cannot say I have actually had this unit completely submerged, but I can say I have had it in use during heavy rainstorms out on the lake and its performed like a champ.  No issues whatsoever.

The only real cons  or issues I have with this unit is that its almost too lightweight.  A good stiff wind can and will blow it across the ground or dock/pier.  

I quickly found out that I needed to keep it close to or attached to something heavier to prevent it from blowing around.  

I have used the supplied strap and and secured it to my tackleboxes via a d-Ring or an S-ring if the wind is howling.  

Is this a piece of equipment I would recommend?

Absolutely. So far, its proven to me that it is up to the tasks I put to it and has not yet failed in delivering or meeting my expectations.  If I lost this for any reason, I would get another to replace it without batting an eye.

Is it the best on the market?  Couldn't say and would not go so far as to claim that it was.  But it does what I need it to do at a reasonable cost without me having to worry about its reliability....So definitely get one for your vehicles, your boat, you garage etc... well worth the cash

You can BUY IT HERE.  And no I don't get any kickbacks other than the satisfaction of being able to recommend a product that I believe in.  

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REVENGE OF THE BOGSTALKER or "HARD TELLING NOT KNOWING"

So Sunday night I celebrated fishing 180 days straight by going to the local lake and getting blanked.  Not just blanked, but ugly blanked.  

Normally, I can say with all honestly I at least had a strike on whatever I was using at the time, but that night, the lake literally gave me the middle finger.  Two hours into the trip, there was not a bite to be had and even the obnoxious family of muskrats were conspicuously absent.  

It was an ill omen from the start, but I stayed at it anyway for another hour before finally resigning myself to the fact it was not in the cards for me.

Part of me wanted to admit that the recent warming trend the last week has no doubt sent the walleye and bass scattering, as it is the beginning of December, its a flatland lake and its a well known fact that such circumstances in lakes will result in fish behavior and patterns getting thrown way out of whack.  

The other part of me said that's all fine and good, but it was my timing that was lousy.  And I will admit to that readily. The last few weeks have seen the walleye population begin their trek to the deeper haunts of the lake and only coming in shallow to feed in the late afternoon.  Prime time was long past but the old adage states that fish are always biting somewhere and its our job as anglers to make sure we're there on time.  Early bird gets the worm type of thing.

I didn't go out until about eleven o'clock hoping to ambush one of the bigger walleyes I know are in the lake.  Since it would also be classified loosely as a metro lake, the fish have adapted over the years to feeding when there is least amount of angling pressure...night time. walleyes tend to feed more in low light conditions like dusk and the bigger fish in these types of lakes, I've found over the years, tend to come in even later than that.  Throw into the mix that typically this body of water is stained to murky, night bites for most people don't usually happen.  

I knew it was going to be a long shot but I have caught bigger (for me) walleye in cold water periods on this lake around midnight this year so it wasn't altogether that hair brained of an idea.  

I had originally planned on that outing to be the last day of the streak I had been cultivating since June 9th.  I wanted to go out in style and bring a few fish home for the wife.  She has been on a tear here lately, plowing through the fish in the freezer like a bear fattening up for winter.  A few more fish in the deep freeze wouldn't hurt.  Would save me some time in the shop painting cranks, pouring soft plastics, and tying various assortments of rigs for all manner of freshwater gamefish.  Like always, life stuck a stick in my spokes.

I had no intention on going out on that note, letting my streak die with a zero and a whimper.

Enter Plan B;  or as I like to call it, the Last Chance at Redemption. Or as everyone else refers to it as Gavins Point Dam.  

Gavins Point Dam is the last of the great Missouri River dams just west of Yankton, it is also probably the one that gets hammered on the hardest all year, especially when the walleye bite is on.   Its relative proximity to 4 sizable population centers all within an hours drive makes it a popular destination.  Given its size, when the run is on, its not uncommon to see up to 50 boats milling around below the gates on any given day and the shoreline full of anglers nearly elbow to elbow.  

Its not and never has been what I would call a high percentage big fish spot for me. 

When it came to walleyes and sauger fishing below the dam, I've only caught a few over 20" there,  my share of keepers but  way too many below limit size.  The population is there but after 2 decades of fishing for them from shore mostly, I had given up on ever popping a really nice one out of there. 

But this trip wasn't really about popping a big walleye.  It was about getting a few keepers with some heft I could take home to momma, since the local lake hadn't been kicking any keepers out for me for a while.

So I load up the Squatch 2.0 (my 2017 candy apple red Silverado) and make the hour long drive just after sunset.  On the way up, I'm mentally going over my game plan, what presentations I will probably use based on where I am going to start and alternate options...I want to be as prepared as I can be because I have no idea what to expect.  

I finally arrived at 7:15 p.m. under the shroud of increasing darkness and a clear star filled sky and am greeted by a sight I am not used to seeing.

There is no one there.  Literally no one.  No bank fishermen, no boats.  No cars lining the parking areas along the bank, no lanterns shining like beacons across the river.  All I could hear was the gentle lapping of water along the shoreline and the whisper of a west wind through the naked trees.

My first thought is "Crap.  How bad does a bite have to be to keep everyone but me home?"  Fall is usually one of the best times of year to catch walleye and sauger

That thought burrowed its way deeper into my head as I dug my rods and tackle bag out of the truck and turned my headlamp on to try to find an easy path through the rip rap along the shoreline.  Where I anticipated the waterline to be and where it actually met the shore was a matter of feet.  

"Looks like I wasted some gas" I thought to myself.  Drawdowns are not unusual in the fall.  Fairly typical actually.  I hadn't however, seen a drawdown of this magnitude for a very long time.  But given the drawdown, the warmer weather pattern prevailing across the region and lack of any general info from my "recon network" regarding the status of the bite, any optimism I had was quickly fading.

As I approached the waters edge to make my first cast, the water erupted in an explosive burst.  An entire swathe about 20 yards long by about 15 yards wide were churned to a froth by the school of invasive Asian Carp that had taken offense to my encroachment.  They bolted towards the safety of deeper water, leaving the water to churn angrily in their wake

Nothing like alerting any other fish to my presence.  I fumed.  This could be tougher than I had anticipated.  

I fished fruitlessly for an hour and a half, casting jerkbaits, minnow baits,  bladebaits and paddle tails, pitching jigs, tossing Lindy rigs...moved to a new spot and repeated the whole process.  Same story here as it was back at the local lake.  Nada.  I was starting to get the feeling the whole trip was going to go down in flames.

While I am normally as stubborn as an old mule, over the years I have practiced and preached the key concepts of mobility to search for active or semi-neutral fish.  I knew I had to move to a different location.  The bite wasn't  going to happen where I was at that time and by now it was a little after nine. 

I trekked back to the truck, loaded up my gear, cracked open a cold coke and headed across the river to the north shoreline.  Looked at the thermometer in the Squatch while I was making the trip across the dam.  The current temp was 37 degrees.

I drove along the north side of the river, stopping occasionally to look at the way the current flowed.  The moon was nowhere to be seen but there was enough ambient light from the streetlights and dam to cast a pale blanket of luminescence across the surface.  I knew what I was looking for but was terribly unsure at this this point that I was going to find it.  

About 20 minutes later, I spied a small area I thought might work.  With the reduced flows and the cold water period in full swing, I felt it was a high percentage area to find some walleye.  

The only real caveat to this line of thought was this was the first year I had ever seriously fished for walleye, so while I felt my decision was a step in the right direction,  I didn't have the time on the water nor the experience to accurately judge. Time and techniques would tell.  Or as a co-worker so eloquently stated one day in the break room, "Hard Telling not knowing".

I unloaded my gear again, consisting of my 7' Fenwick HMX paired with a Mitchell 308 Pro spooled with 10lb Trilene XL, a Cabelas Club Bag I use as a  makeshift Tackle bag, all lightly packed with the barest of essentials.  Some jerkbaits, jigs, soft plastics, hooks weights, a few long minnow baits, bladebaits and paddletails.  Mobility and simplicity...Nothing crazy and as light as I can make it.  That makes a world of difference when trying to play mountain goat and walk through and on the uneven shoreline rip rap.

I made my way down to the waters edge, unhooked the jerkbait from my rod eyelet, flipped the the bail, and let it fly into the darkness of the night.

A muffled splash and the gentle tug of the current filled the rod tip up with tension.  Halfway through a slow retrieve filled with twitches and pauses, I felt it.  A light tic, akin to hard plastic brushing against river rock as it tumbles through the current.  

My instincts kicked in and I swept the rod tip and set the hook.  Instantly the rod doubled over and I felt the sluggish weight of a decent fish tug.  She stripped the line from my Mitchell for about 10 seconds, then proceeded to do the tell tale head shake of a bigger fish. I lowered my rod tip as it felt whatever it might be was coming up towards the surface.  I kept constant pressure on her and let her run when she wanted and when she tired, I started finessing her in.  

As I started gaining ground on the fish, I still couldn't tell what it was.  I figured as in times past, I had inadvertently snagged either a small paddlefish or an Asian carp.  The fight the fish was putting up was lackluster at best, no doubt a result of the cold water temps.   As I turned my headlamp on, the unmistakable glow of an eye became readily visible in the 13000 lumens beam.

It was definitely a saugeye and it was a pretty nice one at that.  

I would love to tell you there were a few more powerful surges and runs quick enough to peel the line off my protesting reel so quickly I worried about the drag failing, but that wasn't the case at all.  There was one short lived burst towards freedom and then she gave up.  About a minute later, I had her beached on the shoreline, jerkbait fully engulfed almost to her gullet and tangled in her bleeding gills, which quickly explained her willingness to give up so quickly.

It was only after I dug the hooks out of her gills , put her on a stringer and got her back into the water to see if she would make it that I noticed she had pretty much bled out.    I had every intention of releasing that fish back into the river, but fate wasn't having any of that.  So while I managed to finally pop a nice fish, the sad part of it was I couldn't set her free and realistically expect her to survive.

All in all, I was very glad I took the chance to head up north and try my hand at winter walleye and sauger fishing in rivers.  As has been relayed to me through other "recon" sources the past few days,  there have been a lot of fish taken this size and bigger below the dam so far the last two months.  Me posting this picture to my facebook account kind of let the worm out of the container.  

The fish are there.  Just don't expect a lot of rapid or long lasting action.  Its a crap shoot fishing from shore on any given day, at any given hour.  But from now  until spring, the walleyes will be making their way upriver to stage for spawning.  If you want a good shot at some really nice fish, dust your gear off and get your butts out there.

Keep those lines wet, those hooks sharp and those fish afraid...

BOGSTALKER

FISH WITH GARLIC BUTTER SAUCE

 A sublimely simple yet essential fish recipe for every campfire cook and kitchen commander to have in their repertoire.  Quicker than most traditional fried fish recipes and requires only a minimum of ingredients to make a mouth watering meal. 

I've also found the garlic butter sauce to be divinely suited to dip fried potatoes in so if that is a side dish you are also planning to make, then make extra sauce.

Everything is better with butter.

As for the cooking oil, that too is a matter of preference, but my personal favorite is corn oil. 

 INGREDIENTS

FOR THE FRIED FISH

• 12 oz. firm white fish fillets:
• salt
• ground black pepper
• 3-4 dashes cayenne pepper (depending on your personal preference for heat)
• 2 tablespoons corn starch
• 2-3 tablespoons cooking oil
• lemon wedges

THE GARLIC BUTTER DIPPING SAUCE

• 1/2-2/3 stick salted butter, melted (4-6 tablespoons)
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1-1 1/2 tablespoon chopped parsley

Cut the fish into smaller pieces as you'll be frying them.  Season the fish fillets with the salt, back pepper, and cayenne pepper to taste.  Coat fish with cornstarch and set aside.

Make the garlic butter dipping sauce by combining all the ingredients together then set aside

Heat up skillet at a medium temperature setting and add oil.  Once oil is hot, gently add the fish pieces in a single layer.  Fry each side until it is a gently golden brown. When removing from oil, be careful not to break the pieces.

As with all fried fish, it is always best to place them on a paper towel and allowed to drain any excess oil. 

At this point, you can either use some of the butter sauce and toss the fish with it, or you can simply dip each fish piece into individual garlic butter sauce served in separate bowls. 

NIGHT SHIFT IN THE ARCTIC OR JERKING AROUND THE ICEBERGS

Without fail, I typically find myself the only guy at the local lake fishing after Halloween.  Usually its before even that.  If I do see someone else fishing, they almost always call it quits as the sun sets and the cold comes calling.  Something about those first chilled autumn breezes and lots of anglers shrivel and retreat back into their winter dens.

The ones who do stay and fish near me after sunset don't seem willing to brave much past 7 pm, regardless of how much I iterate that the fish don't typically move into the shallows until after that the first part of fall.

So far this fall I can't count the number of times one of these guys has picked up their gear, made the short trip to their vehicle and loaded it up and before they are even out of eyesight, I'm setting the hook into some gravel lizards or bass.

Make no mistake.  Night fishing in freezing weather is almost always a little sucky no matter how well you dress.  I cannot say its fast paced or even action packed most of the time.  No.  Recalling my military service years,  night fishing in the cold is more akin to forced long marches across grueling terrain.  Its a grind, mentally and physically.  Numb stiff fingers, frosty cheeks, feet like ice blocks, heavy clothing hindering movement.  Throw in some freezing rain, snow and a nice stiff 20 -30 mph wind and you got yourself a literal suck-fest.

But the fish are still biting.  Really they are. 

These days, I'm not much of a live bait kind of guy.  Know it works and could probably save me some time fish-wise, but trying to keep it fresh and alive is not a hassle I even want to consider.  Heresy to most walleye guys but  its not very cost effective from my point of view.  Nor do I want to sit on shore and try to watch a rod tip at night with any amount of wind blowing.  I'd sooner watch paint dry.  

Nope.  I'll stick to the jerkbaits, long minnow baits, jigs and shad raps.  Throw in a few blade baits and some plastic moxies and I'll be a happy angler.  Keeps me active and focused and it makes it easier (but not impossible) to ignore the cold.

Right now, a day after Thanksgiving, the lake still hasn't froze up yet, but the temperatures are getting closer to that fateful and utterly inevitable day.  Maybe another week or two and I'll be scrounging for open water to fish during the daylight hours.  

In the meantime, I'll keep prowling the shorelines for "biters".  Hunting for active fish that have almost forgotten the pressure they had put on them during the warmer months.  

I use the word active fish but its relative to the season.  Active in this case means fish willing to hammer a jerkbait or jig without much cajoling.

Under the cover of darkness is the best time of the day to really pull in some big fish. I've found over the last few years that the adage is certainly true.  Throw in the colder months and fish trying to fatten up for winter and there are definitely nights that will make you forget about the cold.  

So if you do decide to venture into the icy darkness of your local fishing hole, here are some definite things you must consider.

• Make sure to venture into the area doing the daylight hours.  Make some casts to identify snags and other structure and orientate yourself to know where they are at.
• Dress warmer than you need to.  Once the sun drops, so does the temperature and usually pretty fast.  You're also on the waters edge and any wind is going to cut through your clothing pretty easily.
• Use a headlamp.  Forgot about lanterns.  This is stealth guerilla style fishing.  And when you do use your headlamp for something, make sure your back is to the water to prevent its light from shining out over the water. .  Why?  The water has already started to clear due to the cooler temps, the plankton and algae have nearly disappeared.  Any lights that are nearby, the fish have become accustomed too.  Anything out of the ordinary or unusual will send them back into the depths and your fishing spot for the night is compromised.  Note however, this is not usually a problem fishing rivers.  Moving water refracts light differently and you can get away with it in my experience
• Hand warmers of any type are a godsend.  You haven't lived until you've tried to tie good knots with frozen fingers. Good times....good times...
• Heavy or warm waterproof boots.  The ground is usually frozen or close to it.  Standing on it in the darkness can numb your feet quicker than you realize.
• Be prepared for long stretches of no action....none...zip...nada.  When these fish come in, its usually in a short quick lived spurts.
• The moon can affect their behavior, especially its brightness during the fall.  The air is crisp and so is the moonlight.  I've usually had better luck this time of year when the moon is non-existent.  Especially fishing jerkbaits.  The fish seem to home in on the rattles better.
• Grow a beard.  Seriously.  They help keep your face warmer.  
• Travel light.  A few rods, a stringer perhaps, maybe a net.  You don't need your whole tacklebox.  A few removable trays in a small lightweight duffle-bag is really all you need.  Figure out what you need to fish the areas you choose and then minimize as much as you can.  
• Be prepared to clean your rod tip of ice build-up.  Its going to happen and will hamper your casting ability.  As my friend Sheridan pointed out, use rods with large eyelets especially on the rod tips.  This helps prevent the ice from building up so fast.

No doubt many of you have read the articles on wading at night in the fall for big walleyes.  I won't disagree that its an  extremely effective tactic, but its not something I am willing to do.  

I am older now and my balance is crap.  The last thing I want or need is to slip or fall over and have my nuggets immersed in a cold bath of lake water and then having to get the waders off and making my way back to the warmth of my truck. before I get hypothermia.  

I urge caution when considering that option.  Especially if you have little knowledge of the areas you intend to fish.

All in all, night fishing in the fall is very rewarding.  Especially when your effort pays off.  The fish tend to be bigger and thicker, and when they do bite, they are not usually shy, they tend towards aggressive.  

Above all, be safe, use prudence and be stealthy.  The fish are there.  Closer than they have been all year.  All you got to do is brave the cold and go out after them.

FAILING TO PLAN IS PLANNING TO FAIL

So I have a ton of things on my mind going into the holiday season.  Not holiday shopping because I'm pretty sure Lana and I both have ours done already.  Thank heavens because as much as I love Christmas, don't think I'm risking this Covid-blizzard anymore than I have to.

My thoughts are starting to turn the direction of lure creation again. As well as a lot of research into salmon fishing, downriggers, walleye and trout behavior, trip planning and some other minutiae most of which no one but me wants to understand anyway. 

I look for natural baitfish patterns and try to put my own creative spin on them and try to plan when and where I plan to use them.  Matching the hatch so to speak.  Not always a great option, but as I've learned over the years, those patterns stay fairly consistent. 

I'm a firm believer in planning.  Lure creation, research and trip planning are no different.  Its the planning aspect of angling in general I feel gets lost in the excitement of getting on the water.  When anglers don't feel the need to do some homework on new waters before they even get into their vehicle and drive to it, the odds of a "skunking" increase greatly.  And really who needs that?

So here I segue towards the meat of this little article.  Don't know about some of you, but I'm pretty damn happy when plans come together, especially on a lake I've never fished before.  While the trip might be amazing, for me it loses a little luster if I go and get skunked.  Scenery and camaraderie don't fill up the frying pan or send your heart racing as line peels off your reel.

Think of each trip, each lake as a puzzle.  In order to successfully complete that puzzle, it would be helpful to have all the pieces.  

Now having all the pieces before hand is never going to happen to most anglers.  I've been fishing for

almost 50 years and I'm still waiting for it to happen.  

But what does happen is that I take the few pieces I have, put them together and extrapolate several possibilities to try and complete it.  In other words, to catch nice fish.

Here's where it should get interesting for folks.  

Failure is usually looked at in a negative manner.  Indeed, the whole premise of this article is to encourage people to plan to avoid failure.  But sometimes, no matter how much we may plan, conditions happen which make failure a certainty.

This is where we all have two main options:

• Roll with the failure and forget about it
• Analyze the failure and try to learn something from it

The first option, for me, is unacceptable.  I'm a result-orientated person when it comes to angling.  I keep very few but I love catching a bunch of them. I,m also an opportunist and failure is an opportunity to improve my "end game".  Not going to let that pass me by.

So, with that in mind, I understood fall and spring were the worse times of year for me even though they are typically noted as being the best times to catch big fish.  They are usually close to shore and accessible to shore anglers.  But there are some drawbacks to these seasons. 

 For spring fishermen, most of us are coming out of that winter "funk" and getting on fish can and often does take some doing.  You may have a few honey holes you've found over the years and know just exactly what choices you have regarding presentations and if fish are going to be there or not.   Still doesn't mean you have all the pieces, but its a fair start.  But what if the options you decide upon net zero fish? Refer back to option #2...

I can tell you from experience, especially when it came to walleye fishing, that I had to ask myself some hard questions about what I was doing, where I was doing it, what I was using and a whole slew of other questions.  I basically had to retrain my way of thinking to find the correct "mode" and I am still not sure I've totally got into the groove.

So after the last few skunkings last year I opted to get serious for walleye and salmon seriously this year. 

I dug up old articles dating from the late 60's through today from my fishing magazine archive, did my research, analyzed my particular lakes of choice and made some decisions on what to use where and when.  This was another reason for the continuous days.  I needed to see and to learn the hard way, to verify results and failures because Im a firm believer in experience being the best teacher.

End result?

I did catch more walleye than I ever have out of a lake I hadn't caught a walleye in for almost 14 years.  Got me a 25 incher, a 23, a bunch of 21's and a host of smaller keepers and unders.  Had some really good days at Oahe and Chamberlain.  Not too shabby but still plenty of room for improvement.  

The salmon.  I put 2 in the boat , lost 2 chinooks at the boat, and popped a 30 incher from shore..  Not exactly the results I was hoping for but still better than the year prior so it is improvement.  

Why the difference?

Lots of reasons.  For starters, the days I can salmon fish are fewer and farther between given the distance I have to travel to get to the fishery.  Second,  there aren't exactly a lot of articles pertaining to fishing salmon on the upper Missouri Reservoirs.  There are some applicable methods used on other fisheries but not much.  The Dakota reservoirs are not the great lakes or the Pacific Northwest coast.  Additionally, the guys that are successful tend to be a little tight lipped.  There were a lot of days spent fishing for salmon with "zero" at the end of the day...a bitter pill to swallow especially when you drive 5 hours one way to fish for them.

Contrast that with the trove of walleye information available on the Dakota reservoirs and reservoirs in general to those who want to learn to be more successful by angling pros.  

And still I plan. Month after month, if I am not out on the water or crafting lures, I'm digging through that archive of information, pouring through older notes, putting together multiple strategies and then ultimately putting them into action to see how they work.

Bottom line?  Put in a bit more effort and you'll see your success rates on the water improve.  Time and experience are the best teachers but observation and research are your best friends.  Use them all to your advantage.

See you on the water

COLOR RECIPES FOR SOFT PLASTIC BAITS

 

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Just stumbled across this gold mine of  information in an old folder on my laptop.  Came across this list of soft plastic color recipes a while back on a lure making forum and saved them for future reference then conveniently forgot all about them. 

Once I finally took the steps I needed to buy the molds, colors, plastisol etc, a few months ago I started looking for this file. 

Need some better file organization.  

Since these have come from anglers and bait makers all across the globe, you are going to see some discrepancies in measuring, naming and definitely see some differences in brands of plastic and coloring.   

Use what you have on hand, or if you have a color wheel, you can do some research and see if you can match the called for color with what you have on hand and go from there.

Be safe with that plastisol, the stuff is no joke and will burn the hell out of you if you aren't careful.  Above all, enjoy

Berkley Camo 
1 cup plastic
4 drops of moss green
3 drops of watermelon 
2 drops oxblood 
now the key I found to give it the brownish effect was the brown Fleck and the gold fleck added into it. I only had .035 and it should be fine fleck 

Berzerk Berry
8 oz Plastic
6 drops White Pearlescent
5 drops Black Grape
4 drops Purple
2 Drops Red 
Add the pearl before heating...Mix Colors in thoroughly.
I like green and blue flake in this one...The color looks crazy in the water, it works well when the sun is up.

Basic Green Pumpkin
4 ounces of plastic
6 drops watermelon
6 drops pumpkinseed
desired amount of medium black flake

Bluegill
Plastic : 1-2 ounces of plastic
Mix : black color-add 1 drop of color to plastic until you get a light to medium shade of smoke.
.035 black glitter
.035 gold glitter 
.035 blue glitter 
put the same amount of black and blue glitter in the plastic. 
put only a very light amount of gold glitter in the plastic. 

Bubblegum
6 oz plastic
5 drops red
10 white,
Turn this into cotton candy by adding red and blue glitter

BLUEGILL

4 ounces Plastic
1 Drop Black (smoke)
Just a touch (or desired amount) of the following glitter: small blue, medium black and gold, large green. Use less large green than the other flakes. 
Another version:
Same as above, but drop the blue flake and pour a light blue vein instead.

Bubblegum
Plastic : 1/2 cup @ 4 oz. 
5-6 drops Florescent Pink
2 drops white 
Notes : The florescent pink must be added before you heat the plastic.

Bullfrog

1 cup plastisol
20 drops yellow 
2 drops black 
fine green glitter 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon
large black glitter 1/4 teaspoon 
fine black glitter 1/4 teaspoon 

Cotton Candy 
Plastic : 4 ozs. 
1 drop pumpkin
1 drop red,
green, red, black, & blue glitter.

Culprit Red Shad
1) black color (with or without red flake) with some red Hi-lite powder mixed in...this is the dark back 
2) strawberry, again with the red HL powder mixed in, usually some red flake...the red belly 
***I frequently adjust the red belly color by adding some drops of black, blue or purple to darken it a bit. Sorry, but this is strictly a "to taste" recipe. 

Frog Formula
4 oz Plastic
8 drops lc kudzu green
add 1/4 teaspoon of medium black flake. This is the top of the frog 4 oz Plastic
1/4 teaspoonful white pearl powder. This is the bottom layer of the frog. 

Ghost Hologram 
1/2 cup plastic 
1/8 tsp Large black Flk. 
1/8 tsp Small Silver Hologram Flk.

Golden Punkin' Seed
8 oz plastic
5 drops pumpkin seed 
10 drops flo yellow 
Add 1/4 tsp med. black flake
dont forget 1/8 tsp pearl white
Alt recipie instead of using flo yello use chartreuce, then substutie the pearl white with green hi lite's 

Gourd Green
Root Beer or Amber Brown with medium and large green flake will both make nice Gourd Green colors. Pumpkin works too.

Gourd Green
get real close to Zoom's gourd green using LC pumpkin and medium green flake.
I don't remember an exact formula for it, but use it sparingly and you'll get there, I am thinking around 3-4 drops per 8 OZ. Try adding some small black flake too, really cool effect. 

Green Weenies
Mine is amber brown on top and lime green on the bottom (black & red flake). Another popular one is straight brown over avocado. Makes a darker version
4 oz plastic 
3 drops watermelon 
2 drops Moss Green 
black flake to taste
PART 2 
4 oz plastic
3 drops straight Brown
1 drop Jet Black transparent 
2 drops pumpkinseed. 
NO FLAKE!
You can stick with 6 drops of brown if you have to but the formula above makes a far nicer chocolate

Hot Bubble Gum
8oz. plastic
12 drops bubble gum
8 drops florescent pink

Ice Blue
1 cup plastic 
2 drops blue 
1/2 tsp pearl white powder
1/2 tsp Large Blue Flake 
1/2 tsp Small Silver Holo Flake 

June bug
Plastic : 1 ounce 
add purple color until you reach a medium to medium heavy shade.
add green glitter( enough to your able to see the green shade). 

June Bug
1 1/2 cups plastic
40 drops of black grape
55-60 drops of red

June Bug
Plastic : per ounce of plastic 
add three drops of indigo (black grape).
when plastic is hot stir in green glitter until you get the desired effect. 

Motor Oil Camo 
4 oz Plastic
5 drops natural brown 
20 drops motor oil 
2 drops green 

Motor Oil 
4 oz Plastic
2 drops black
14 drops golden yellow

Motor Oil
4 oz Plastic
2 black 
4 amber 
5 yellow 
10 fluorescent yellow
Add your choice of flake. If you want it just a tad darker, try adding 2 drops of purple.

Motor Oil
1/2 Cup Plastisol 
10 drops Chartruse (must be mixed with plastisol before heating) 
10 drops Motoroil 
If you cut the colorant to 7-8 drops each, the color comes out more on the watermelon side. Add a little fine red flake to this produces a very nice color. 

Motor oil pepper 
1/2 cup plastic
2 drops yellow
1 drop pumpkinseed
1/4 tsp Large Black Flk.
1/16 tsp Small Gold Flk. 

Motoroil Red Color
motor oil red is simply motor oil color with red glitter. 

Motor Oil camo
4 oz. Plastic
5 drops natural brown
20 drops motor oil 
2 drops green 
brown/silver/red/and green glitter 

Motor Oil
4 oz Plastic
2 drops black 
14 drops golden yellow

Mustard Seed 
Plastic : 4 ounces
6 drops Transparent Yellow
4 drops Amber Brown
3 drops White 
black flake 
green hi-lite (optional)

Natural Worm
4 oz. Plastic
4 drops pumpkinseed
1 drop natural brown 
glitter your choice 

Oxblood Lite
4 ounces of plastic
1 drop of purple
1 drop of red

Pearl Peach
8oz. plastic
8 drops bubble gum
4 drops yellow
8 drops minnow silver

Pink

1 cup plastic
6-10 drops red
1-3 drops white
1 cup plastic
4-6 drops of red
silver flake

Pink Shades
3oz Plastic
5 drops red 
3 drops Yellow
3 drops chartreuse

Plum
Plastic : 4 ounces
6 drops Black Grape
5 drops Strawberry 

Purple Camo
4 oz. Plastic 
14 drops purple 
14 drops natural brown
green glitter 

Plum Crazy 
1/2 cup plastic 
2 drops rasberry
3/8 tsp Large Purple Flk.
1/8 tsp Small Gold Flk. 

Rainbow Trout 
In 4 ounces of plastic
Belly: 1/2 teaspoon of pearl white powder, 3 drops red color, large black flake 
Back: 6 drops green color, pinch of blue hi-lite powder, large black and medium holograph (or silver) flake 

RED 
1 cup plastic
20 drops red

Smoke With Flake
Plastic : per ounce add one drop of black per ounce of plastic for light clear smoke and two drops of black per ounce of plastic for a medium smoke color . 
Add silver and black flake to imitate baitfish ,Red to imitate crawfish or another good crawfish imitator is made by adding red,green,black,and copper (or orange)flake to smoke colored baits. This is essentially the Yamamoto grub color #180

Tubeman's Magnetic Wammo Camo 
1 cup plastic
9 drops rootbeer 
13 drops amber 
8 drops carmel 
small red glitter 1/2 tsp (estimated)
small green glitter 1/2 tsp (estimated) 

Transaprent Metallic Green Pumpkin
8 oz Plastic
6 drops Pumpkin 
3 drops Watermelon
3 drops Amber
A SMALL quantity of metallic silver powder (about the size of a match head?)
I like this bait seasoned with either Large Back Flake or LC Holo String Glitter.

Watermelon (dark)
4 oz Plastic
12 drops motoroil
4 drops watermelon
glitter of your choice.

Watermelon Gold
1 cup plastic, 
6 drops Avocado Green,
1/2 tsp Large Black Flake 
3/4 tsp Small Gold Flake 
1/4 tsp Small Silver Hologram Flake

Watermelonseed- NB 
Plastic : 5 gallons
6.8 grams school bus yellow. 
4 grams black. 
1/4 cup small black glitter.
1/4 cup large black glitter. 

Watermelon Candy 
Plastic : 4 ounces 
4 drops MF Watermelon Brown
Lots of small & medium purple flake 
touch of medium red flake 
touch of medium black flake 
touch of medium blue flake 
touch of large green flake 

Watermelon Red 
Plastic : 2oz
2 drops LC watermelon
1/8 tsp fine red glitter 
a hair over 1/8 tsp med black glitter
1/2 tsp salt. 

Yamamoto's Cinnamon 
is just very light brown; 1 drop of brown per every 4 ounces of plastic with medium black flake.

Yamamoto Watermelon with large green flake
1/2 cup Plastic
16 drops watermelon
1 drop black(just added this part to try and darken it up).

Heavy Salt Watermelon
4oz plastic
8 drops Watermelon
4 drops black/grape 

Dark Watermelon
4 oz Plastic
12 drops motoroil
4 drops watermelon
glitter of your choice.

Zoom's Margarita
1/2 cup plastic
8 drops of florescent yellow
large chartreuse and black glitter
medium green and black glitter 
*add flakes to desired amounts. 

Zoom Green Pumpkin
In 4 ounces of plastic
6 drops of watermelon
6 drops pumpkinseed
medium black flake.
You can also add a couple drops of brown to Lure Craft's green pumpkin for a darker effect.

Zoom's Red Bug
4 ounces of Plastic:
Plum (6 drops black grape
5 drops strawberry) 
medium and large green flake 
small copper flake