The first technique that I wanted to work on was fishing a Shakey Head.  This technique has become a staple in many angler's tackle boxes and I've not had as much time as I would like to work on fishing this simple, but effective lure.  One morning I pulled up on a rock point and knew there was a pile of fish there, so instead of going to my staple lures I grabbed my 7' 2" Wright & McGill Tessera Series spinning rod rigged with a 3/16 oz. Picasso Shakedown jig.  I used various sizes and colors of finesse worms on my jig and quickly became very comfortable letting my jig sink down to 5 to 8 feet of water and just barely moving the jig.  By practicing my Shakey Head fishing I was able to put 30 bass in the boat in a short amount of time!

Fishing a Fluke style bait has always been one of my downfall's as an angler.  Friends of mine always tell me how they whacked em on a Fluke, well my history with them has been less than stellar.  So once I located the feeding bass on main river points, I tied up a Tru-Tungsten Depth Shad in white and rigged it on a 5/0 TROKAR extra wide gap hook.  I had several hits right away on the shad imitating bait and missed them.  Just as I was ready to put down this rod, I hooked up with these largemouth.  It was important for me to watch my Seaguar Inviz X as the bait slowly fell because I would just see my line jump, count to two and then set the hook! 



Walking the Dog is a very popular retrieve for angler's to use when fishing topwater baits such as Zara Spook's, Sammy's and my favorite a Yo-Zuri Sashimi Pencil.  I've had some luck fishing these baits in the past, but I still I wanted to increase my confidence in them.  With the extremely warm spring, the bass had already moved to certain summer locations and were feeding on shad, so this was a perfect time to throw out my topwater.  Within a few casts I was able to hook up with this very nice 3 lb. smallie!  To aid me in my ability to walk the dog and to get the bass to the boat I finally got to use my 6' 8" Wright & McGill Tessera Series Topwater rod.