¶ Intro / Opening
🎵 Music
¶ March Weather & Crappie Strategies
Brad Chapel back with you, Crappie Connection, the spring show 2026. And uh I got two of the legends of the sport now even. Uh do a little introduction, I know you guys don't need it, but we'll do it anyway.
It's on Huckabee.
Ah, que é o Word.
Kell Ward and Todd Huckabee. Uh, you know, both guys have been on the show quite a bit and We've done a lot of different topics but I really want to focus this topic coming into the month of March. I mean it'll be here, you know, when this is aired.
And
all the different ways that both you guys full time guides, I'm a full time guide People need to know how do you go about finding fish through the month of March in different bodies of water? You know They all relate. No matter if you're in Texas, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, the month of March typically for us is what?
Pretty small. I mean it's that's what's pretty much gonna happen, at least in my part of the world there in southern Oklahoma and North Texas and fish are gonna be, you know, making that push. Oh, shallower, you know. Uh, and some of the best fishing of the year in my opinion.
Yeah, I I mean the only thing about March it's kinda challenging is the weather, how it can affect the month of March and fishing through March. But Todd I know you've done it for how many years have you got in?
Thirty one.
Thirty one. That's a lot of time on the water. Yeah.
That means I'm old.
I was thinking that but I mean like I I know it, I feel your pain with that. Um but through the years the month of March can be fantastic. It can be very challenging as well. And we want to talk about the fun times. But also I want us to kind of look back and say, you know what, Dig into some of that challenging times.
Well the crazy thing about March for where I live and U fall, Oklahoma, is that March can is actually if you look back over My dad was a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Norman and so I've I've always kind of really watched the weather because of hill.
Yeah.
But actually March, believe it or not, is more stable than our April is.
Huh.
Um as far as just your mean temperature.
Um
March seems it's kind of in that transition where it's getting warmer and we've got some warm days, but then April really is when we start getting all of our thunderstorms and the lakes are starting to come up and muddy up and you know, that's really when we seem to see a lot of severe weather. But yeah, I mean, in March it seems like every year on spring break, which in Oklahoma is like the second or third week in March, without fail we'll have
three, four or five days that are just brutal. Mm-hmm. And you know, it it does become challenging as far as what the fish do. Um two years ago Kale was actually down and him and I shared water for what almost a mu the entire month of March in there. And we were on a flat and It it took way more hours than it should have to catch'em'cause we couldn't catch anything early.
Later in the day, bike.
Or mid morning is when w they would start showing up, getting up off bottom. And so yeah, I mean that that's the tough part is that You can still do it, you're just not as efficient. 'Cause you're you're not seeing the fish.
You're not sim, but you had enough confidence and experience to say, Hey, I know these fish are here. Just give'em time, guys.
Oh yeah. I'd I'd I'd tell clients and and it and and it was really cool because there was a lot of us in this pretty small area and it was loaded. I mean but the first hour, hour and a half, we were all just going in circles out there looking and you'd catch one or two or whatever and then it'd start picking up and it'd get it'd just ramp up until you're done. But when we left it at the day, it was always better than when we started. Um
Like say a lot of that those fish early and Kale and I have talked about it. I remember God four or five years ago you called me when you were down in Hugo and was like, where are these fish? on the bottom. And so yeah, I mean March can be can be trying, but it can also, like I say, out of Thirty days in March you're gonna have fifteen of probably the best days of your year.
Right.
And the other fifteen are gonna be good as well, but you know
Yeah. You know, it's so interesting in as a guide perspective, you're getting out there and and clients think, All right, we're starting at seven o'clock and I don't know what guys time you typically start during that time frame, but um you start ear eight.
Eight thirty.
You delay'em because of the bike?
Yes. Because I to me it's frustrating for me and I know it's frustrating for them when you get out there and plus, you know, people get wore out. So it's better to start a little bit later.
Generally let it warm up a little bit and ain't near you know, in the month of March it can you have some cool mornings so
Right. Oh yeah.
And I mean sometimes it's actually I've had days where if it's really cold we might not start'til ten or eleven midday fish midday, fish the heat of the day. Right. When it's the warmest and think the bite. Fish are gonna be up and active the most, you know, I guess. Uh
¶ Lake Dynamics and Crappie Migration
does your lakes change in March? I mean, like me I I've seen Lake Washington at the end of January. We have say five or six days of really nice warm temperatures. Those fish will start spawning in a blanket of a hat. I mean you're like All right, you know, it's the water's still cool, this mid-50s, maybe flirting the highest, you know, 59, 50, even 60 some days once that uh temperature really stabilizes.
But these fish can change so fast, especially in the springtime and I think a March, spring, pre spawn, but also You know, we get some warm days in a stretch, those fish will run to the bank. They'll run to those trees up there in Washington. They'll they'll run on the north end of the lake. And I think that's kind of a key is the portion of the lake. Uh, we always tend to spawn the earliest on the northern part of the lake. Uh, right now if I was gonna fish this coming week,
I would focus on the north end of the lake. And same thing even on the Barnet. North End of the Lake kind of keys in faster. And I know it has to do with the daylight hitting it longer and the banks and such. But do you g do your fish switch up that fast like ours will? I mean literally in you'll have a couple of days and them fish will migrate.
Well uh you know, so I fish about guide on about eight different lakes. So everyone's a little bit different. I mean Just to kind of give you a couple examples. So uh you know fork is one that So I I would say like Fort from Fort to Ufala, you're talking what a hundred and fifty miles or whatnot. So a little different fish are a little f further behind, further north. It's a little cooler. But I mean down there there's At Fork, there's already fish.
Not necessarily to spawn or going to the banks, but they're already making a migration push back up the lakes. And the water temperature is actually colder now than it was when they actually hit it in deep water. I feel I've always said a fish's clock is way ahead of our clock. And they're already starting to make them push. Now as far as the spawn goes,
I'm not gonna say there isn't a small percentage of fish on a lot of the lakes I'm fishing that won't spawn on a warming trend in March or whatnot. But I feel like the bulk of the spawn is gonna happen in April on these lakes. But uh like a Bodark lake last year.
It's got a high population of white crappie and black crappie and the w and the black crappie was pretty much the what we chased all winter. You didn't hardly catch any whitefish, don't know where they're at on the bottom or whatever. You catch a few here and there. Uh, and then it was like a light switch just flipped overnight. It's like where'd these schools of black crappie go? That was sometime in February and it was just like they're gone. Well it Bowdark. And so these fish uh
You start looking and it was actually during the cold front like this. So first thing I was like gotta move deeper, you know, gotta move deeper. Start looking, start looking. It's like, man, these suckers are gone. Then all of a sudden you start running these creek arms back up and that's what's mind blowing. It's never found in blackfish. When I started running them creek arms, guess what? The white fish showed up roaming. Now the whitefish, individuals was all
And they just kinda hung out in the deeper creeks but they was up the creek arms, you know, and it seemed like they went from that to all the way in the backs of them coves up in the running of the ditches in a matter of like a week or two and it s seemed like it went from seeing a few fish, you know, to literally dialed out forty foot, you'd have five or six fish floating and roaming on your screen in a matter of
I mean a week, ten days, two weeks time frame. I mean it just them fish just loaded up in that twelve, fifteen foot water and all they're just doing's a staging, you know, getting ready to spawn. But then you take a lake like Hugo
I person I know there's fish that migrate transition, but them fish are has been there all winter, real close to where a lot of'em's gonna spawn. I mean they're just gonna pull up on them flats, you know, them dit right out of them ditches, flats very similar to like millwood and So I'm gonna fish the same area right now. I'm not gonna be much further away from where they're gonna be in April. You know, I'm gonna you're gonna be catching spawner fish, post spawner fish. It's all just
you're within the same area. It might be a different debt, but you're gonna be in the same general areas, if that makes sense. And I'm staying out on the main lake, then fish will spawn. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure some are migrating I don't really have to go there. I'll just stay out there on the main lake, keep doing the same thing I've done the last couple years. So every lake's a little different. Uh with that being said, it
It it can not really change like a Hugo, you're kinda still just fishing the same general areas and then it could be like a bow dart where it seems like a light switch slipped and now you need to be a mile back there from where you was fishing or two miles up a creek on to start catching them again. So
And then it seems like in a week, ten weeks or dw a week, ten days, a lot changes really fast, you know, and you're going from a almost a full blown winner to a full blown pre spawn pattern, you know, in that a real quick time.
Do you find those differences some of those lakes maybe shallower or deeper or Would you think that would be a factor, the overall depth of some of these lakes, like the average depth of Say bowarkin I have no idea what that might be compared to fork. Is one deeper than the other and do you have you noticed that w that shallower lake s tends to spawn a little bit earlier?
I can't really s man, I feel I almost feel like the spawn is can be within a couple of weeks every year during a certain time frame. I also feel like yeah, like Hugo for instance is a lot shallower dirty water, you know, overall and I f it's also a really silted in lake. So
I don't feel like them fish are and it's old you know, older lakes. I don't feel like them fish are running up them ditches and stuff as much. A lot of stuff silted in. You get it very mu far up off the main lake, you kinda lose a lot of your
Contours.
Contours, you know, it's kinda selt it in pretty flat and I just think they don't really have to. I mean they can pull up out there on the main lake on some stumps on a flat in four or five foot water. and do the same thing. They don't have to swim as far. And there's bait out there. I don't get me wrong, I've chased fish up arms. I mean it's two troll motors kicking up, you know, mud to to and catching fish back there actually spawning. But I've just
learnt Hugo's kinda treacherous to get around. So to get to some of these places you may idle forty five minutes. So why idle forty five minutes if I can just stay out there on the main lake and catch. Wind's a factor, you know, obviously, but uh like a boat art, it's that lake's only been open two years or what no not even two years now. So it's
It ain't silted in. It's new. I think fish are really they you know, a lot of these fish were either born in the creeks. They didn't stock this lake, so all the the crappie was either, you know, that's in the lakes either come from the creeks or they were born in the lake and I mean they're I still think they're really traveling running.
you know, creek the main highways. They're still running creek everything's real defined. You know, Fork's another lake where it it's a boat arc's a lot deeper and a lot cleaner lake. Uh and then white fish, you know, typical for a white crappie They're they're going in the backs of that creek'cause that's the dirtiest water they can find. And that's the warmest water, you know. And uh
Them fish are I mean, they're going a long, long, long ways up some of these creeks to to spawn and I mean that that seems like the muddier the water you can find, the better the white crappie fishing is, you know. Um
But
So to answer your question, yet depth and water clarity I think does have a lot to do with it. Uh but I can't I can't say there's a golden rule that's like well if your lake's clean and it's deep this is what you need to do. Well if it's shallow and muddy you need it I just
¶ Spawning Triggers and Deeper Bites
Oh yeah, that's crappie fishing for us too.
You know, it one thing I thought of We were talking about like when it happens and it happens quick and
Well.
water temp and everything else and like Kale said, you know, their clocks ahead of ours. You know, for the last thirty years I've been saying this that water temp didn't matter. I think it's daylight hours. Because anybody that wants to argue that and I've said this a bunch, I'll fly you to Canada and show you lakes that are full of crappie and their lake never gets as warm as what A lot of biologists say it's gotta be for a crappie to spawn. So that right there just
I'm not I'm not a stickler on, you know, that sixty to sixty five or or so. I'm looking for that stable, warm trend.
Any any stability is is really good. But kinda like what Kel was talking about as far as these fish spawn what I'm seeing now on Eufala. So used to for years and years and years. By the middle of March, you could be pitching a course. Okay. about ten inches um above a jig. And if you covered enough bank, you were gonna find a wada fish that were up shallow. The males would be, you know, solid black, got their tuxedo on, and you'd catch those males and then
After a a few more days you'd start catching the females. But what I'm seeing on Euphala, a lot of our fish are spawning out in Five to eight foot of water. But it doesn't have to be. This area that I was talking about where we were all fishing, me, Cale, Brian, Levi, Richard, I mean e ev everybody was in this one little area and After it kind of got beat up a little bit, I would still go in there just to get started. And when I would find fish, they would be paired up on the bottom. Right.
They weren't trying to hide like they do sometimes.'Cause even Kale said when they want to hide on bottom, you can't see'em.
Right.
So these fish were visible but they were on bottom and they were paired and when we would catch the male first, seemed like every time. He'd be jet black and then we'd catch the female, she'd have eggs running out. Those fish were doing it out there deeper than what I've ever seen'em.
You know, one thing I've noticed, um uh I don't know if last year or the year before, but it seems like you see those parry-dup fish, it's almost like that male fish to me is almost pushing that female somewhere. He's kinda coaxing her, hey Go over here to this flat or this dump area.
It seems like th th they almost push each other, especially the malefish seem like they're p and I could be totally wrong, just but what I've observed it looks like a lot of times when I see those paired up fish, one of'em's pushing the other one. Uh and I don't know if I paid attention enough to s you know, which one I've caught, but I'm sure it's probably gonna be that male pushing that female, I would think.
The the the males seem to be a little more aggressive once they get in that stage. Now when before that when they're all you know, we're chasing open water suspended fish, it's almost they're almost all female. Almost every single one.
¶ Best March Times for Big Crappie
Doing, you know, finding where they're gonna push that female to. Yeah. They're getting their little area ready and going that route.
Another thing that I like to do, and I've got I don't know how many photos on my my phone but And of course you got uh you know, different events that m a major storm that would influence of course in a negative way but A lot of times I'll look back on my phone and say, or what did I catch two years ago in the mu this week of March and last year in March? And I can always And it could be a little I don't pay attention that much
to I think it's the time of day. You know, and black fish on at least Ross Barnet, I'm gonna catch my biggest black crappie. I'm gonna say March eighth thro the twentieth something. In that two week time frame, the biggest black crappie that I'm gonna catch and I can flip back on my phone and um we'll see'em. The biggest black crappie I caught last year were those prespawners that were pulled up and they were you know, colored up.
Seems to be in that week, two week time frame for black crappie. Then the bigger white crappie were, you know, a little bit further out, but I've noticed that for me to catch the biggest black fish of the year is gonna be right before the the white fish move up. Mm-hmm. Yeah and I know you've got a lot of white fish But have you noticed that as well over New Holly?
One hundred percent with blacks. in in in the spring when I first start, which you follow I'm gonna say at least 95% of our fish, maybe more than that, over a year are gonna be white crappie. We do catch some very good black species and some hybrids. But yes, all of those bigger blacks and the hybrids we catch way earlier than w we catch more in the in March than April for sure.
¶ Effective Lures and Colors for March
Yeah. Yeah. I I know uh I I've got some different things. I asked you guys bring up some baits and some lures to kinda show you guys that you focus with in March and you would be a hey, I'm wanna get out in March Tell'em what you got here.
Well, uh man, I my again I got on different lakes and so water clarity is gonna dictate a lot of what I'm gonna run. But I'm running, you know, a couple of different Bobby Garland baits. I've always been a kind of a power fisherman, so I'm gonna run a heavier jig head. I I feel like this is a time, you know, March during this pre-spawn time frame. That's why I like it so much.
It's really mother nature driven. Yeah. And what I mean by that is I feel like it's some of the best days but you can have a major cold front or uh we get a three inch rain and uh everywhere where these fish are You know, during in the backs of these creeks and coves or whatever and it dumps it and turns into chocolate milk mud and
And these fish will either just suck to the bottom, get out of that silt sediment that's just rolling in the lake for a few days, or if they are up floating, you can't get'em to react very good. So having a bigger bait, a little bigger profile, but I also feel like at this time they I don't know if it's for a territorial response during the spawn or if they're just eating, but a lot of times if they see it, they're eating it. Right. That's the best part about it.
But with that being said, I've got I'm I'm gonna always try to stay in front of the fish. So if I already know they're transitioning towards the backs of these creeks and coves to spawn and just hanging out staging, I'm gonna stay back there as much as I can. But if we get a big rain, I'm actually gonna have to slide out in these creek arms or back out towards
The mouth of a
major arm or something and catch fish that's still just coming out of that winter pattern that ain't got there yet. Water's a little cleaner, they're not quite as aggressive. Again lake to lake, but for the most part I'm gonna run a couple of different profiles.
Um, one of'em that that I run that's my f this is my favorite time to run is a slab slayer. I'll pick it up and it's the two inch one. I don't really run a three inch much. If I have to I will if I feel like I really need to move some water, but I kinda I'm a power fisherman but a uh but a two inch bait is a big bait for me nowadays, you know. Uh but I'm gonna probably run a a quarter to a eighth ounce jig head. Uh
Do you have a jig head color preference?
From now till after they spawn is my one time that I will run color. And what I mean by color is oranges, pinks, you know, bright colors.
Lucky started out with orange.
And and and so I run orange, pinks, you know, and bright chartreuses. Pretty much my jig head color year round. It's very simple. I'm either gonna run orange or pink. from about December till April first or April fifteenth when the spawn when I start seeing I'm you know, m on my guide trips that a percentage of my fish are post spawn. I'm gonna run oranges and pink. or silver or just natural lead. And then once we transition from post spawn all the way till that winter December,
Ninety nine percent of the time it's gonna be silver or lit. Just uh natural as I can get. I'm gonna mimic bait fish more or less. I just that's how I've always been. Maybe it's a confidence deal, but I'm gonna run pretty much a couple colors in this in the muddier water. I'm gonna run something bright or bold, you know, orange chartreuse, uh pink and chartreuse electric chicken, you know I I'm a I don't know why I'm a moglo fan. I don't know if they can see it better in that muddy or water.
You got the competence, yeah.
So like the like this is a sunrise color here. It's an orange chartreuse moglo. That's a the two inch slab slayer. Another one of my favorites, you know, for darker, cloudier days is I'm gonna run a June bug chartreuse. I don't know what bla it's it June bug chartreuse is kind of replaced and and for people that ain't familiar, June bug's kind of like a dark purple.
uh it's kind of replaced a black and chartreuse for me. I don't hardly ever run a black chartreuse. It's June bug chartreuse. Maybe it's because it's got a little bit of that uh you know fleck in it. some glitter, um, kind of wheel pop I think a little bit. So those are probably, you know, an electric chicken's another one I'll throw in there. I've had great luck with electric chicken this winter.
uh on Hugo Lake, muddy another muddy water lake. Um but those are kind of my two staples. If we get a little you know, get in there, fish are getting some pressure or whatnot, and I feel like they're going to You know, I start to see more fish react and not bite, feel like uh you know, just less bite.
Then I'll start changing it and going back to a little bit natural. Uh and may even downsize from the slab slayer to a baby shed, but I'm still gonna run something they can see. I'm not going with a monkey milk that time of year or a real super natural. Um something like a blue chrome. It's kinda got a darker back but or silver. It's a little more natural, but I still feel like they can see it pretty easy in that dirtier water. Um it's a great deal.
But if I gotta slide out, you know, on that deeper water and them fish are a little more finicky, I did this last year at Fork during the crappie fest, you know, event. That was in March. Uh Skyler uh with Bobby Garland actually brought me some of these baits and got in a boat and and didn't even know the bait existed. That's bad. You know Bobby. I didn't even know the bait existed. But they make a old school split tail bait. It's like a two it's a two-inch bait. It's a longer
like slimmer profile. It's got a split tail, one tail's a little longer than the other. They don't have it in a ton of colors.
But
I mean you can't.
Yeah, this is double silver rainbow. It's just solid, you know, silver flex, silver glitter, like I guess maybe even a smoke, translucent, clear body. It's just it resembles a shad, probably closer than any bait we got on the market. And Them fish, I don't know if it's that slimmer profile, I don't know what it was, but for about a month and a half, two months from that mid-March, like I picked it up at fork, and them fish seemed like they were shooting two foot and just inhaling on it.
And then, you know, once them fish started coming out, it was kind of the first of April. at at uh Bod Art uh a state'em them fish were coming out and working their way back out of the creeks in postmont. It was it was absolutely mind blowing how well this bait got bit.
It's like they were coming five foot. They was probably bite a lot of things, but it's like man they're killing this. It was working. And what I like about it is it's it's kind of a longer profile, but it's kind of a smaller profile.
Right.
Yeah.
And it was something different. I knew the fish hadn't been seeing it. Not everybody throws this bait. It was kind of a off the wall deal and I run it there for a while and it it become a major player there. until early summer for me and I this is that I pick you know that was about all I
That double silver rainbow I think they're about making it in every uh profile now. Yeah. Because it does. I mean it looks just like what you would say a a minnow chad or what have you in in the lake looks like.
And probably my you know, if I just had to I'll say this all if I could just pick one color to catch fish year round. I like that Diamond Miss Baby Shit. And it's ha it's a laminate bait with double silver rainbow on top and kind of a glacier bottom. And I don't I just it's Looks like a shed and fish will eat it.
You already ate it.
Ha ha ha.
¶ Sonar Stick and Essential Jig Baits
Todd, what you got here? I know you got some goodies to show the folks as well. And it's a product that's kinda new to the market that we talked about before the Grizzly Jig Show that, you know, it it's it's gonna i it's gonna help some folks out.
Yeah, so he's talking about the new sonar stick. It's made by a company called Dragon Master. Dragon Master's been making catfish products for years and years and They they approached me a couple years ago about this idea, and we've got it perfected. Can't really see it real well on film, but what what it is, it's a long, slim weight. Yeah, and it's to go above your jig and what it's done is it's helped my client. you know, I'm not necessarily saying that it would improve Kale a lot, but
Yeah.
Everybody else out there that hasn't stared at a live scope for 20,000 hours. A lot of times and I know Kel will agree with this, you'll agree with this, any guide, how many times do we tell a client he's on there? Mm-hmm. Hey, he's on there. Get him.
Shut up, shut up.
And they're like, No and you reach over and you kinda set the hook for'em and they're like, Dang, he wasn't
Never believed he was there. Right. I've heard that.
So w what this helps now is when that fish grabs that bait, you're gonna see it. So yes, they they do show up very well on sonar, that's part of it. They don't get your jig does not get tangled up with it like a split shot or some of the other weights that guys use where your leader goes from this long at the in the morning to this long by noon. Because we don't untie it.
Yeah.
Because at my age I can't see it. You're wearing readers. When it gets wrapped around that top weight, you're not untying it. But the other cool thing, especially when you're using any type of live bait, be it a minnow or a piece of a minnow or whatever, and you get that fish that comes up and just grabs it, now you're gonna see that weight tilt.
and so you know he's on there. And so that's a big part of it. As far as baits that I use on Ufala, it's pretty much so this is the new top hat jig head. It's orange. White and chartreuse, and this is an inch and a half guppy gobbler. Um, I'll either use an inch and a half or a two-inch white and chartreuse. With an orange head. If if they won't bite this, then to be honest, they go to a solid black hair chip. Blackhead, black body, black head.
Standards, man. That's just like fundamental, basic, crappie to the core comes back to the white and chartreuse.
Yeah, white and chartreuse and then solid black. I mean Dean Martin's out there right now tying solid black.
Done told me. I I done seen them.
'Cause I he was like I told him I said you solid black. Black black black. With him it might be gray, gray, gray. Yeah. But it's it's it almost everybody who does it for a living Yeah, yeah. gray hair jigs or black hair jigs. Just depending on you know, I stay on Ufala a lot of the time and it t tends to run a little bit muddier than some of the lakes that kale's fishing, so, you know, gray would be better on those, but yep.
It's kind of just a one-two punch, man. We got two rods on the deck and if if if they if they drop a plastic down like this, first thing, if I see that the first couple of fish kinda hesitate. on it, then we go to the hair jig. But it then there will be days where they hesitate on the hair jig, but we'll come a little bit further. Kind of like you was talking about with the double rainbow color. Yeah. Fish coming further for it. Yeah.
Once you get dialed in on what a fish will come further for, it's easier for our clients. Absolutely.'Cause then we're not saying right, right, left, but pick, you know. W w they don't have to get it as precise on them. If you can find something that a fish will come a little bit of distance to
Really, yeah.
Yeah.
¶ Bait Action and Fishing Efficiency
One of the special things about the Guppy Gobbler there is you can rig it a couple of ways for two different actions to say. Right. Uh kinda go through, you know, each one of those, how you would rig each one of them up.
Well so with this tail And I I don't know. I could be wrong on this. When when you rig a bait the way that most people would, which is gonna be, you know, the visual coming up from here. A lot of times this is the inch and a half, this is a smaller one, but th the two inch say. A lot of times you'll see fish that will kind of react and what it is t in my mind is I think the tail is moving too much.
Okay, it's it's too much movement because you know, you can't hold a rod completely perfectly still.
Boats drifting factors, yeah.
Or m moving up and down or you know, our clients. As you know, as and and we're getting there quickly.
What do you mean we? I don't get that title.
Older, yeah, and we're not quite as steady as we used to be. And so I think a lot of times with a bait. Um it's got too much movement. And so at that point then I will rig it like this to where they're not seeing Yes. And I I think that's why hair jigs work sometimes better than a plastic is because a hair jig is rigid and it doesn't move as much in the water.
It's doesn't have all of that action. You know, I couple weeks ago at one of the other shows there was a guy there and um He had some baits and he had a tank and he had water moving through the tank. To show how much action
Mm-hmm.
these baits had. And I was like, damn you kinda shooting yourself in the foot now,'cause as we know, less is more sometimes. You don't you don't want a lot. I mean, there's days on Ufala Um, where a real lively minnow won't get bit as well as one that's dead. And when I say dead I'm talking about like I'm like, Hey, find one in the crack of the boat somewhere and it's dry it out because
Yeah.
It they didn't want a lot of movement. Um, so I think that's a I think that's a big deal that we're seeing is how finicky they are to certain movements on certain days. They just don't like it.
It's a wonder we ever caught fish sometimes, you know. I think about some of the moods that they get in, you're like, I don't know how we ever caught fish and there's some days we don't still. I mean
Well, m me and Kel were talking yesterday and Um I I used to use nothing but very big baits. Two on a rod. Rod in each hand with Clive. And and we still caught hundred fish a day. But there was days that it would take me eight, nine hours to Now we're doing it four. He's doing it in half that. Especially if he's in front of me or anywhere I'm at. But, you know, it's made us more efficient. And yes, we still caught fish back then, but if you think back to those days. Yeah.
You had some long days. And you had some days where And I know I did where midday you're like, Man, I don't even know. Let's just call it and y'all come back. They're not biting.
I love it.
whatever, you know, and you give'em and you ate you ate the trip, you gave'em a free trip or they came back for free or whatever it was.
Now
We don't have that happen unless, you know, a tornado's coming through or
I've been very blessed, but you still as much I use them as much as I'm on the water and feel like I've been pretty successful. I mean I've had In a year of 2025, I had four or five trips where
It's time to die.
Everything.
I had one in December.
And we ha I think I had four trips this year. I mean I I think I had I had one in December and I don't I on Hugo and we seen thousands of fish. Wish you tried. You wouldn't give them one to buy. I mean, and we fin I had one guy look on, I think we finished like si fourteen or sixteen fish, and I was just like man. I ain't even mad about it. It's just gonna happen. I mean you don't have but uh
That's good to hear from people too.
it's you're I've had days it's like that and then what it's kinda mind blowing'cause it always seems like I'll have a like a week where it's unbelievable and then we'll get a little cold front or something next week and I'll be telling Oh man, we're gonna bust'em, you know, you show up and you start like It's changed. It ain't the same as it was last week, you know. But uh you g you're gonna have bad days. I mean, but I've also had days where I had A hundred fish in about two hours, you know.
I yeah, I've you know, everybody's had those days you're like, Well we're this might be a difficult day, this might be a little tough and you go out there and you whack on'em and then it's like, Oh, this the conditions have lined up. The gods have lined up with the conditions and you get out there and you're like Somehow these fish don't know what's going on. They're supposed to be biting today. And you just don't figure them out. Or or they're just not gonna buy I'm like, I don't know what the
Water temp mid fifties, upper fifties, it's like that ain't too cold. They shouldn't be colour. Ain't got no rain, ain't nothing changed, but also
They didn't get the memo.
Yeah, they I decided, you know what, we ain't eating today.
Uh I've s I wish I would have never seen it, but I have definitely seen it. Uh definitely appreciate you guys. Make sure you hit that like, subscribe, join me on Tuesday night for today's bite, uh, Facebook, YouTube. We do it every week. Uh it's very fun. Um appreciate you guys coming on again. Todd, you've been on a a a bunch of times. It's always great to see you. Uh we make sure we keep up with each other still and uh it's just a fun thing.
Well Grizzly Jig Show I I think it's uh it's going strong out there, so we'll get it back out there and help some folks out. But uh appreciate you guys coming on as always.
Appreciate you.
Yes sir.
Till next time you got Brian Chapel here.
🎵 Music
Here how rest.