Fishing in 6 to 14 Feet of Water
I’m basically fishing anywhere from 6, to eight feet of water to 12, 13, and 14 feet, and I’m looking for isolated grass patches. You know, I’m using the Mega Live and the Mega 360 to see what’s around me. I mean, I can look out there and I can see sand and dark, bright and dark. That’s what smallmouth loves to get around.
The Thunder Cricket: A Big Fish Catcher
What I love about a Thunder Cricket is there’s something about that vibration that the big ones really respond to—it catches big fish. So, this is just a half-ounce tungsten Strike King Thunder Cricket, and what I like about this tungsten model compared to the standard one is that the blade is just a little bit smaller, so it runs a little deeper.
The other thing is when that blade is bouncing against that head, against that tungsten, it makes a lot of noise, and smallmouths are definitely focused on noise.
Trailer Choices and Why They Matter
I’ve got a Strike King Blade Minnow on there. You know, I use a lot of different trailers for bladed jigs like this Thunder Cricket, but this doesn’t have a lot of drag compared to some of the other bigger, bulkier things like a swimbait or even a Menace or a Scown Bug, some of the other ones that have action to them.
So, it allows it to run a little deeper. You know, I’m fishing out here on deeper flats, so it’s clear water, and the fish will come a long way to it, but I want something that’s going to stay down in the water column a little bit further, and that’s why this particular setup works really good.
Choosing the Right Color and Imitating Local Baitfish
You get a little flash off that blade—it’s kind of a chartreuse and white. There’s a lot of perch up here in the Great Lakes, so it’s just a good color. I mean, we’re just getting into fall, and the threadfin shad move in here, and it just really imitates that well, and the big ones like it.
Fishing with Precision
I should go right where I called it—I saw that one with my eyes. He’s just a little guy, but gosh, the other fun thing about this is no matter how big they are, they annihilate it. It’s a really fun bite. The fish out here on Lake St. Clair especially—they rarely are in all sand or all weeds. It’s usually where it’s kind of patchy.
Learning to Read the Electronics
That’s something that you learn to look for, and it’s important. You know, when you’re out fishing and you start getting bit, as subtle as the structure and the cover is out here, to look real close at your electronics to see what you’re seeing on your screen so that you know what it looks like.
I mean, that’s the way that I learned how to use imaging to understand objects and what size they are—you go by things that you can actually see, so you understand that when you’re on a 50-foot range, what it looks like, and when you’re on a 75-foot range, what it looks like.
Recognizing Key Spots on Your Electronics
It’s the same out here when you see those subtle sand and grass patches or those clean spots, to see what it looks like on your Mega 360 or on your Mega Live.
That way, when you get in those areas again, you know you’re in the right kind of bottom. Out here in these big flats, finding some isolated cover—grass clumps, things like that—I’m still definitely focused on my electronics, my graphs, and especially, I’m focused on that lake map.
Grid Searching for Efficiency
I want to see where I’ve already drifted, some of the other lines that I’ve got out here, and I can adjust a little bit. I can move myself over, and that’s what I’m trying to do—kind of grid search this area so that I’m not necessarily fishing over the same spots twice.
If you mark a good spot and catch a big one, obviously you’re going to drop a waypoint there, and you want to be able to come back to it or fish around that area. You can spot lock and do that, but until then, as I’m searching these areas out, I like to space my drifts out, looking at that trail, and seeing where I’ve been, then going right along some of those other areas.
Covering Water with Confidence
It’s going to make me a lot more efficient out here on these big flats like that. I mean, you can catch them a lot of ways. The most predominant local techniques are people just dragging a drop shot, casting a drop shot around, or dragging a tube around, and that catches plenty of fish.
But, you know, I like to fish with baits that I can cover water with. It’s vast, vast, huge flats out here, and you’ve got to find them—you’ve got to be around them before you can catch them. I want to be able to throw something that’s going to generate strikes and cover water, and we’re always looking, obviously, for big fish.
Why I Love the Thunder Cricket
That tungsten Thunder Cricket—a Thunder Cricket in general—it’s a big fish catcher. I mean, largemouth, smallmouth, anywhere you go, and that’s why, as a tournament angler, it’s one of my favorite baits.
