Topwater Mayhem with a Lunker Punker

Don’t you just love those winter days when the sun comes out, the wind lays down and for a few brief moments it feels like Spring? Despite the ice cold water you can almost imagine fish starting to head for the shallows and begin to feed near the surface. You know the days I’m talking about; you’re in full winter gear all morning but by early afternoon you’re wearing just a sweatshirt and for a few minutes you even give the T-shirt a try. Nearly a month ago now I was enjoying one of those very days. I was with a client and he was on a school of fish that that wouldn’t leave a swimbait alone. During a lull in the mayhem my mind started wandering to warmer places and despite the 50 degree water temps I started digging through the lockers looking for a topwater. Wouldn’t you know it, down in the bottom under all the winter tackle I found a lunker punker. Without a doubt, the punker is my favorite early-spring topwater bait.

I tied it on for kicks and began firing it around the boat haphazardly. What I didn’t expect was that after just a few casts, a fish would roll and miss the bait. As I continued slowly walking the bait to the boat I could see the fish following behind working side to side as she tracked the bait’s movements. It seemed to go on forever but realistically, she was probably behind the bait for 15 to 20 seconds before finally inhaling the bait on the side of the boat. It wasn’t the biggest fish ever but a 5 lb topwater bass in early March is a sight for sore eyes.

As soon as I got home from the lake I started searching for my lunker punker footage that I could share with the Tacticalbassin community. The following video was put together in 2 days of epic fishing on one of my favorite fisheries.

The bass in this area were keyed on large prey and the punker was the perfect tool to do the job. There was a lot of fishing pressure but most anglers missed the opportunity to step up the size of the baits and specifically target the larger fish. Its important to realize that this can be applied to your local waters as well. These larger baits don’t just catch big fish, they catch 1 and 2 lbers as well. Some of these same fish might have eaten a smaller topwater but the bigger fish would have passed them by. By using the right tool for the job I was able to catch more of the fish that were in the area. We were literally catching MORE fish because we were using BIGGER baits. That is a concept that a lot of anglers fail to realize.

There are some simple modifications I make to this bait to help increase my bite to hookup ratio. While I don’t have time to cover them right now, get a punker or two in your hands and in the next couple of weeks I’ll shoot a follow up video to show you exactly what hooks I use to make the bait do what it needs to do as well as the tackle I’m using when fishing the bait.
Though I throw both sizes of the wood punker as well as the full range of injected baits, this video was shot with the 6″ Injected G2 Lunker Punker with Rattles. Here is the direct link to the bait I was using: Injected Lunker Punker

East Coast Giant!

Last week I was out on Clearlake enjoying a great day on the water with a client. He had just gone on a tear, landing a 4, 5, 6, and a 7 lber in just a handful of casts. I'm idling to the next spot feeling pretty good about the day and my phone beeps. I pull it out and what do I see? A text from Josh Fan. (See East Coast Swimbait Advice ) It was hard to see the picture at first in the bright sun but as my eyes started to focus they about popped out of my head. Here I am in California enjoying a great day, then Josh drops the photos you now see. Talk about an East Coast reality check! In Josh's recent video he encouraged East Coast fisherman to throw bigger baits and to focus on catching bigger bass. He went on to say that he was heading home to start throwing big baits himself in pursuit of a personal-best largemouth. Let these photos be further encouragement to you East coast anglers. Big baits work nationwide. I get a steady stream of emails asking questions about the size of baits that guys are using and if they're too big for a particular part of the country. In almost every circumstance the answer is no, they aren't too big. You just need to listen to what is being said here, take the advice to heart and put in some time on the water. Once I got off the water I had a chance to talk to Josh about this fish.

He caught her on an ROF 5 Huddleston 8" swimbait. He went on to explain that prior to this fish he was beginning to doubt if his big bite was coming. He said it had been nearly 2 years without a truly "big" bite to show for his efforts. He also gave some credit to the Southern Trout Eaters DVD.

This isn't the first time I've heard an angler who is relatively new to big baits praise this video. I watched it right when it came out and I too have to admit that if you're fishing in the Eastern United States you need to watch it. You may not watch it more than a few times but in that time you're going to learn a great deal about how to approach your local waters with a big bait. Whether it was the DVD, the trips to California, or just pure tenacity that kept Josh on track, the commitment paid off. Though he didn't have a scale the bass was 26.5" long and was clearly a new personal best. Did I mention it was caught in the North East? Way to go Josh! I'm confident this is the first of many big bass that will come your way in the near future.

Jeremy Lin

Since the rest of the world seems to have “Linsanity” I thought it wouldn’t hurt to let it infect the TacticalBassin community a bit as well. I had the pleasure of fishing with Josh Fan and Jeremy Lin (The NBA’s newest star for those of you who may have been living under a rock) last fall. I thought the sports fans in the crowd might enjoy a quick clip from that trip. Here is Jeremy catching a nice Clearlake bass on a River2Sea Bubble Walker in the 128 size. There isn’t a lot of knowledge to be gleaned from this video but its still fun to see a guy like Jeremy getting out on the water and relaxing in the off season. Enjoy!

East Coast Advice on Swimbaits

When the fishing is going really well it’s easy to become jaded and forget how good we have it. It’s important to take the time to stop and consider just how blessed we really are. One of the best ways I can think of to get that “reality check” is to watch the reaction of someone who isn’t used to fishing our local bodies of water.
Allow me to introduce Josh Fan. I had the pleasure of fishing with Josh for several days on some of the best fisheries Northern California has to offer. Josh was here during a prime time when wakebait and topwater fishing was at its peak. While we didn’t catch any true “giants” we caught a bunch of quality fish and had a great time on a fishing adventure that neither of us will soon forget. As the trip was drawing to a close Josh took the time to sit down and share some tips that were born out of his experiences in the West.

These tips will help you regardless of where you live but if you’re fishing in the East you really need to hear what Josh is saying. He talks about the fish we were catching on a Lunker Punker and a Wake Jr. but the key is the belief in his voice about the effectiveness of these bigger baits. Josh now has a clear understanding of how powerful true big baits can be, regardless of where in the country you happen to be.