Fishing With Ted Takasaki

[Woody]

Bull 'Gill Strategies
By Ted Takasaki and Scott Richardson

Fresh, golden brown bluegill fillets are bound to bring a smile when you lay them on a plate beside baked beans and coleslaw at the summer cookout. Bluegills are a summertime favorite for a lot of good reasons.
* They are abundant and nearly everywhere.
* Their populations can stand good harvests, within reason and in most systems.
* They are generally easy to find and to catch.
* They are lots of fun on ultralight equipment.
* The action they provide is a great way to hook kids on fishing.
That doesn't mean catching decent-sized gills worthy of the livewell is a cinch. Small ones come easy, but getting the big bulls takes some research and work to find.
Bluegill lakes do have some characteristics in common.  For one, the fish usually relate to weeds and the bottom content they prefer consists of a variety of hard and soft bottoms.
Some bluegill lakes are very shallow. In fact, small, shallow, fertile farm ponds provide some of the best action in areas of the Midwest. But in general, the presence of deep water near shallow bays where bluegills spawn and feed is a plus.
A strong predator base is a second critical factor.  Bluegills have a tendency to overpopulate and remain small unless predators like largemouth bass, walleyes or muskies are present to thin their ranks. Most biologists say a lake known to have large numbers of 2-pound largemouth may harbor big panfish. Biologists will also tell you that angling pressure can impact whether big bluegills are present. More on that later.
Study Map, Study Weeds, Time the Spawn
Hunting big gills begins with a lake map.  Look for shallow, weedy bays with deep water nearby.  The shallow weed edges may hold fish.  But, once on the water, use an Aqua-Vu underwater camera or your sonar to search for the deeper submerged weed beds.
The best vegetation is cabbage (or similar, leafy weeds) 12 to 20 feet down near transition areas between hard sandy bottoms and mud. This is a region where the food chain tends to be varied and abundant. Depending on water clarity, productive beds can even be deeper.
Every weed bed has an inside edge, outside edge and a top edge. Ignore one or more at your peril. Add to your understanding of the layout of weeds by slowly moving around the edge watching your sonar and GPS. Note the turns and points that serve as fish holding areas. A Humminbird side-imaging unit can help pinpoint details.
Use the wind. A slight breeze blowing into the weeds is good because it stirs the food up, triggers fish to feed and doesn't spook the fish as you motor around.
The general rule is that bluegills move to the spawning beds during the first full moon of June. However, not all gills spawn at the same time. Some will move into the shallows during the full-moon phases of July and August, or earlier in southern climates.
Gear & Presentation
Start with a sensitive rod like a 5' to 6-foot St. Croix ultralight. Light bites are telegraphed more noticeably by using a good, high quality rod. Spool up with 4-pound Gamma line.  Gamma is so strong that this will be sufficient.
Try targeting shallow fish by casting and swimming light jigs or use a slip-bobber rig.  The best jigs are the Lindy Quiver jig or the Little Nipper. The Queen features tiny wings, which create a slow fall keeping the jig in the strike zone longer. Experiment with colors.  If things get tough, try downsizing your jig by using a micro sized ice jig, like a Fat Boy or Genz Bug. Your odds of success will go up by tipping your jigs with a small chunk of nightcrawler, a whole wax worm, or a few maggots.
Cast parallel to shoreline weed edges. Once fish are found, switch to a slip-bobber rig.  Use a threaded bobber stop to avoid damage to light mono.  Add a small Thill Pro Series float.  The weighted version lets you cast into the wind so the bobber floats back to you over the top of the weeds.  Avoid line damage by using a small rubber-core sinker or soft split-shot to balance the float so the rig will do its job and detect light bites.
If you happen upon a spawning ground, the larger bluegills tend to be at the heart of the colony where it's harder for egg predators to reach. But, be careful about taking the biggest bluegills from the system. Some biologists think stunting may occur, not from overpopulation, but when the biggest male bluegills in a lake are removed.  As the average size of the mature males decreases, younger males have no biological reason to delay spawning until they reach a size when they can compete for the prime nests nearest the center of the colony. A fish's growth rate slows when they mature and begin spawning. As a result, some biologists wonder if taking too many big bluegills can lead to undersized fish in years to come.
Research to confirm the theory is underway in some areas of the country.  Although the results are inconclusive, it's still a good practice to take medium-sized males and free the big males and females.
Many anglers ignore deeper beds, where the best bluegills often can be found. Vertical jigging works best along deep weed lines and over the top of deeper weeds. Vary the action, and let the fish tell you want they want. Afraid you're missing bites? Watch your rod tip very closely, a slight wobble and fish on!?


This is what you're looking for! Ted Takasaki holds a bull bluegill. Follow Ted's techniques to your own solid catch of this popular fish, but please, release the biggest ones.

[Woody]

Bronzeback Bonanza

By Ted Takasaki and Scott Richardson

Smallmouth bass cop an attitude as summer turns to autumn. The warm days of July and August spark a feeding frenzy, with smallies roaming the shallows in large schools while gorging on minnows.
"They wolf-pack as the water warms," says George Liddle, Jr., Ranger Boats sales manager and professional fisherman. "The warmer the water, the more aggressive they get. They school up, stay shallow and feed. It's an ugly deal."
And the cooler water of autumn does nothing to douse their fire. The downward turn in temperature is nature's way of signaling that winter is on the way. The feeding frenzy turns to absolute madness, which translates into vulnerable fish. Fall is prime time for big fish and lots of them.  "They get even more aggressive," says Liddle. "They go nuts!"
Liddle lives in Minnesota, where water temperatures rarely reach 80 degrees F. That means smallies can stay shallow all summer. And, shallow means exactly that? from the surface to 5 feet down, huge numbers of smallmouth roam in lakes like Mille Lacs, attacking minnows wherever they find them.
"Find the food, find the smallmouth," Liddle says. "And, once you find them, you can catch 10 to 50 from the same bunch."
Summer pursuit of smallies is visual. The key is to use good polarized sunglasses to scan shallow spots for visible forage fish or use your sonar to spot slightly deeper schools on the top edges of structure.
In lakes, start the search on classic smallmouth structure, like flats and points with sharp drops to deep water. Add sand, rock and weeds and you've got a good chance to connect.  But, when they are schooled, they really don't care what kind of cover they are on because it's the meal they're after.
Baitfish keep moving, and so should you.
Always try shallow water first. You rarely have to search deeper than 5 feet at this time of year. Use spinning gear for grubs and tubes. Tie on a 1/8-ounce jig with 8-pound Gamma monofilament on opening day and it can stay on until the end of the season. Try using longer 7-foot St. Croix rods to make long casts so you can stay further back in order to avoid spooking shallow fish. Neutral colored tubes or Munchies Thumpin' grubs in brown or gray hues work great. Bright colors in dingy water can turn them on as well. In addition, a Fuzz-E-Grub jig by itself, or tipped with a leech, can often turn the trick in tough conditions.
Liddle uses baitcasting rods for spinnerbaits and crankbaits. He spools up with the heaviest line he can get away with (usually 10- to 17-pound-test). The primary factor in line choice is water clarity.
Use crankbaits and spinnerbaits in order to cover water fast and locate active fish. Go slower with plastics, if necessary. George likes to throw 1/2-ounce Rat-L-Traps in blue/chrome or reds and browns. He'll turn to jerkbaits and Pop-Rs, as well. For summertime spinnerbaits, use 1/4-ouncers with tandem #3 Willow Leaf blades, usually metallic.
How long do you stay on a spot without a fish? Remember, smallmouths are not homebodies. Try several likely places on the structure. If nothing bites, move to another spot. "Thirty minutes is a long time for me," Liddle explains.
Location changes as summer fades into fall. Smallmouths become more structure-oriented. They move off flats and tops of points to the edges of drop-offs. Where you were once fishing from the surface down to 5 feet, focus on depths down to 10 feet as August moves to September. Schools will gather on any drop-off, no matter how slight, in that depth range.
Bait choices change, too. Forage fish are bigger by this time of year, so move up to 1/2-ounce spinnerbaits with tandem #5 Willow Leaf blades. For tubes and grubs, stick with colors such as brown and watermelon, but doctor them by tipping them with orange dye. Heavier Rat-L-Traps still work well. Add Wiggle Warts that are greenish-brown and orange in color.
As September surrenders to October, November and December, smallmouths move deeper still. Their love of structure turns to a passion. They hold on vertical drops from 10 to 20 feet deep. Favored presentations become jigging spoons while using sonar to position the boat over the pack. In addition, Lindy Rigging with a large chub or sucker can be deadly at this time.
"You will often catch the biggest fish of the year,? says Liddle, ?if you can stand the weather."
The summer-to-autumn transition offers a different challenge in rivers. Early in summer, river smallmouths act more like largemouths. They like dead spots, no-current areas like sloughs and backwaters with current nearby. But smallmouths soon move to the main river and hold on current breaks, such as the upstream or downstream side of wingdams, eddies behind shoreline points and blowdowns. That's where you'll still find them in fall.
There's no time for smallmouth bass like the transition from summer to fall. Even when the weather turns cold, bronzeback fishing stays hot.





Veteran pro Ted Takasaki cradles a brute smallmouth, taken on a Lindy Thumpin? Ringworm. Smallies provide great challenge, and fight so hard you wonder who?s boss. Follow the guidelines in this article and you?ll be able to stay on big smallmouths through the summer and fall, as they make seasonal changes in location and behavior.



Everything about the smallmouth bass makes it a favorite gamefish. Sometimes they?re finicky, sometimes aggressive biters, and always terrific fighters. This monster fell for a Lindy Thumpin? Grub threaded on a Max Gap jig. Water-covering presentations are often used to locate fish, with plastics often finessing many strikes.

[Woody]

Fall Transition Walleye Secrets

By Ted Takasaki and Scott Richardson

Though the calendar doesn?t say so yet, weather forecasters count the time around Labor Day as the start of autumn. Walleye fishermen can attest to the truth of that. Fish are no longer concentrated in their summer haunts.
Trolling structure or fishing shallow weedlines produces fewer and fewer walleyes.
Days are shorter. Nights are cooler. The transition has come.
?All of a sudden, walleyes aren?t where they were,? says Greg Bohn, veteran guide, tackle designer, and member of the Lindy Fishing Tackle pro staff. ?They?re gone.?
As early as mid-August, subtle changes (that often go unnoticed) signal the start of the fall transition period. Weeds begin dying, from colder overnight temperatures, fewer hours of sunlight, and other factors.
?Dying weeds, that?s what starts it and pushes it,? says Bohn. ?What a lot of people don?t understand is that baitfish will only stay in those weeds as long as they are very green. Once weeds start to die off, it seems as though baitfish and walleyes start to leave those shallow-water weed areas.?
Shallower, dark-water lakes enter the transition period first. Deeper, clear-water lakes experience transition later in fall. Some lakes have green weeds all the way to ice-up.
Walleyes on the move can be hard to locate, so the transition can be frustrating. But, these fish migrate to predictable areas and gather in big schools, generally according to size.
Once the big ones are located, action can be incredible.
?What the fall does is it gives the walleye angler the edge,? Bohn says. ?The fish are not spread all over the lake. They are in key spots in the deepest part of the lake. You can literally eliminate most of the lake, as you think about where to look.?
Where Transition Walleyes Go
?At first, they start to move out to more open-water areas,? explains Bohn. ?Sand is a really critical thing, if it?s available. They slide out to areas around deep water, like sand bars that come out from shore and drop to deeper water, sand flats, sand points, and sand humps.
?The real sleeper (spot, that walleye anglers don?t fish enough at this time) is sand, especially in September. If you are fishing your summer spots and they aren?t there, start fishing the sand.?
Don?t look for walleyes in the deeper water, though, not yet. As the transition is getting underway, it?s still common to find walleyes in 15 feet and less.
At those depths, a good quality sonar unit can be a big help. Walleyes may be so tight to the bottom, they?re difficult to see, but not impossible. Humminbird has a unit that features 640 vertical pixels. Combine that with bottom tracking and the zoom feature, and you can often pick up on walleyes tight to the bottom. Likewise, they may be on the very top of the structure. In that case, spooking fish can become an issue.
The bottom line is this: if an area has the characteristics that should hold fish, fish it.
(Hint: best way to check the shallows is to keep the boat in deeper water, cast to the top of the structure and work back down.)
Live Bait is Hot
This is the time of the year to use live bait. Early in the transition, try half a nightcrawler on a small NO-SNAGG Timb?r Rock Jig. Drag it along the bottom? unlike in summer, when a more aggressive ?hop? did the trick.
For deeper work, drift or use an electric trolling motor to slow-troll a NO-SNAGG Rig with a 5-foot snell. In 18 feet or less, Bohn likes to use the small 1/8- or ?-ounce NO-SNAGG sinker. This forces him to move slowly, in order to maintain bottom contact. Bait this rig with half a ?crawler or a whole minnow.
Turnover Tricks
Walleyes begin to move deeper as water temperatures drop toward turnover, which begins at 62 degrees F or so. Instead of looking for fish to be on top of structures, look deeper. They will be in spots like the sharper breaks or on mid-lake humps that top out at perhaps 20 feet, rather than 15, or in holes in soft-bottom flats where depth drops from 15 feet to 20 and then returns to 15.
At this time, walleyes become more selective about where they stage. They generally locate on a spot-on-a-spot. For example, if they are on a mid-lake hump with scattered boulders, they will be on the boulders. If all rock, look for the patch of sand. If all sand, look for the rock pile. Think about fishing that ?something different? and you?ll often be in business.
Precision with regard to location becomes important. Because more and more walleyes show up on these few spots, more and more of the lake holds no fish. It?s easy to be skunked if you don?t pay attention to subtle differences on the structure. On the other hand, it can be a bonanza if you do.
?Once you find one walleye,? Bohn says, ?you?ll often find more.?
As water continues to cool down, through the 50s to the 40s, walleyes tend to locate on structure that leads to the deepest water in the lake. Check points or bars that extend out into the deep basin. ?That?s the last stronghold before freeze up,? Bohn says.
When water temperatures reach the 30s, walleyes that were in 15 feet of water in mid-August are now down 45 feet or more (where this kind of depth is available to them). They tend to seek out places where mud and hard bottom meets in the deepest water in the lake. Deep boulders become fish magnets.
The deeper water is warmer and holds food at that time of year.
In shallow, dark-water lakes that have a perch forage base, walleyes will dig up mayflies and other aquatic insects from the ?deep? mud.
In deeper, clear lakes, they may be at 70 feet and deeper looking for smelt, ciscoes and whitefish that are deep at that time of year. Bohn caught a 6-pounder out of 73 feet of water last October while filming a television show!
Bohn prefers to reach those deep fish with a ?- or 3/8-ounce sinker. He moves his boat slowly, so he can maintain bottom contact and pick up on subtle bites. But, NO-SNAGG inventor, Ron Lindner, likes even heavier sinkers. Take your pick. Dress your rig with a big redtail chub up to 5 inches long or more. That may sound huge, but 30-inch walleyes are gobbling 10-inch whitefish at this time of year.
For deep jigging or rigging, try using a St. Croix 6-foot, 6-inch casting rod and reel spooled with 10-pound Power Pro braided line to feel the bottom and the bites better. Keep the drag tight until the fish is hooked. Then loosen it, and take your time reeling it to the surface to prevent damage to the fish?s swim bladder.
Fish are on the move as fall turns to winter. Move with them and you?ll turn cold weather fishing into a hot time on the water.






When water temperatures begin falling and weeds begin dying off, walleyes follow a predictable fall transition. Generally speaking, fewer spots are productive, because walleyes tend to concentrate in tighter areas. Follow the migration and you can catch beauties, like this one being held by pro angler Ted Takasaki.