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We all work to ensure that we protect our equipment to the best of our abilities from haven our equipment stolen but sometimes no matter what you do it still happens!!
There are all types of security devices we can buy to help deter potential thieves but if they really want it they will find a way. On my boat I had a prop lock to secure the prop, a lock-r-bar to protect rods, reels, and baits in the boxes on the front deck. I also had a pin type trailer lock to secure the trailer.

You may notice I said had….in 2008 I had my boat broken into twice. The first time was when someone took the cowling off my engine and stole the ECU out of my Mercury 225 Optimax. That part alone costs almost $2000 dollars. Since, I had never heard of anyone doing something like this before there was no locking mechanism on the cowling. I called the police and my insurance and went from there. A good friend  of mine Larry “Stretch” Gaines after hearing about what happened came up with a locking solution for it and we installed them on our boats after I had the ECU replaced of course. I was up running and fishing again!! I still felt somewhat violated and was more observant about my boat from this incident though but I had to move on.

Well approximately 5 months after this incident the Ultimate happened!! My boat was stolen from my residence!! I left for work at 7:00 am as I always do and got back home around 6:30 pm, only to discover my boat was missing. I was in SHOCK!! I walked around the area and neighborhood looking and asking questions to no avail. From what I could tell the thieves had broken my trailer lock off and hooked the boat up and took off with it. I called the police and insurance again and reported it stolen. The very next day the boat was found abandoned on a back road 30 miles from where I live….but they had stripped it!!! The Mercury 225 Optimax was gone along with all of my electronics and they had cut the locker bar off and took all the fishing equipment I had in the boat as well. Total about $39,000 dollars in damage!!! A new replacement engine costs about $24,000 dollars installed. The fishing equipment and electronics totaled about $15,000 dollars. On top of it all I had to pay the tow company that had the boat in their storage yard after the police identified it $330 dollars to get it back. As you can guess I was not a happy camper.

Well, this all happened about 6 months ago and I still haven’t gotten a replacement boat yet but I am working on it. Until I get one another good friend of mine Anthony Miller who is serving our country overseas in Iraq, volunteered his boat for me to use while he is deployed. I can never thank him enough!!! It has allowed me to get in some fishing after being out of commission for a few months and get some things together.  My insurance settled everything and were very helpful during this entire process!

I hope my story helps some other fishermen to be more observant of their equipment so that the same thing does not happen to them!

Ray Heredia

Get An Early Start For Big Bass

I love throwing a Culprit top-water frog over grass beds in the morning. If bass are there and feeding, I know I will get bit. There is nothing more exciting than being able to see a fish attack my bait on top of the water. It makes my heart race and gets my adrenaline pumping.

I use a Culprit frog to cover a lot of water, working the bait quickly in over areas that should hold bass. The frog bite generally doesn't last all day so the best thing to do is to cover as much water as possible and catch aggressive bass. As the sun comes up I may have to change tactics to continue catching fish unless it is an overcast day and then I know I can fish top water pretty much all day.

When, I initially get that strike when fishing any top-water bait, everyones first reaction, including my own is to set the hook. I learned to discipline myself to hesitate for a couple of seconds and feel the fish pulling the bait down, as he eats the bait. Once I feel the weight of the fish then I set the hook hard, this hesitation will increases my hook-up ratio considerably versus missed fish because of pulling the bait from his mouth by setting the hook to fast.

After I set the hook and have the fish on, I keep my rod tip up high and start reeling to get his head up and out of the grass and moving towards me otherwise he will bury down into the grass and have a better chance of pulling free. If he does bury down and it is a Big one, I put my Minn-Kota trolling motor on high and go in and get him! The braided line allows me to horse the fish in more than monofilament will.

Equipment, I prefer when fishing a Culprit Frog are a 7-foot medium heavy action rod to heavy action rod, a high speed reel and spooled with 50-pound-test braided line and a wide gap super line hook. The action of my rod will depend on how thick the mats of grass I am fishing are. The high speed reel is used to retrieve line quickly to get the fish in when hooked. The braided line allows me to put more pressure on the fish once hooked as well as cuts through the grass a lot better than monofilament, plus is a lot stronger and has a smaller diameter for heavier pound test than mono. I like a wide-gap super-line hook because it has a wider bit ration for setting the hook and the super-line hook is thicker than regular hooks and does not bend as easily especially when using braided line which doesn’t stretch.

This is one of the tactics and baits that I use for catching fish so give a Culprit Frog a try and see if it helps you catch some of those bass in the grass!

Ray Heredia

Organization to Capitalize

Keeping my tackle organized can be a tedious job. But if you are as serious a fisherman than spending some extra time is worth it in the log run. For example, my sponsors provide me with tons of baits for all my fishing needs in different sizes and colors. This is great but all these baits can create a nightmare if not properly organized so that I can find what I’m looking for quickly when needed. As a tournament fisherman, keeping my bait in the water increases the chances of catching the winning stringer. Searching, through bags and boxes of tackle for one individual bait in particular, can waste precious tournament time if I am not properly organized. Sorting my baits into groups that make it easier for me to find is the key. My personal method of organization is to place my baits in Plano tackle boxes and Bass Pro shop worm binders. I separate and organize by size, color and action. This way if I’m going to a particular body of water and I know the hot colors for that body of water, the time of year and what spawning stage the fish are in, I can just bring the primary baits for that location and I can eliminate bringing excess equipment with me.

Example: My Culprit soft plastics, are grouped by dark colored baits of the same design together and do the same for my lighter colored baits. I also separate my Lucky Craft baits in this manner as well. I place all the topwaters, jerkbaits and crankbaits etc, together by color, size and action. I also keep a small tray made with baits that I have caught a lot of fish on over the years that is my “Confidence Tray”. This allows me to only bring baits that I will actually use for that particular body of water with me instead of bringing my entire stock. Another advantage is I store less items and less weight in my Stratos boat, and do to the lighter load in the boat my Mercury Optimax doesn’t have to work as hard and I have that extra speed to get to my honey holes.

Ray Heredia