Improve Your Coarse Fishing (UK)
Brothers Carl & Alex, two of the biggest angling stars on YouTube, jet off to the USA where they fish and catch from a variety of waters in a whirlwind trip from Chicago to Texas
Carl – You may remember back in June 2017 we had a guest from the USA visit us in England. Jon is a bass fisherman, who grew up fishing the ponds of Illinois but now, thanks to a very successful YouTube channel, travels the world filming and fishing for every species imaginable. Jon joined us for two weeks and in that time we landed barbel and chub from small streams, right up to 40lb-plus carp from private lakes. He enjoyed the trip so much that we made plans for another transatlantic fishing trip. Jon has a hectic schedule and was frantically trying to sort out his boat and trailer right up until the hour we arrived at the airport. We flew into Chicago, the plan being to fish around Jon’s parents’ house for the first few days, before heading south in search of larger fish towards Texas. Luckily, the boat and trailer were in working order just in time and without hesitation, we drove straight to the first venue. Having 14 days of travelling ahead of us we knew little of what was to come. I think anticipation is often as enjoyable as the actual reality. We were pretty hyped as we launched the boat for our first USA bass fishing experience. The excitement was short-lived and quickly changed to frustration as I struggled to get used to a baitcasting set-up. Multiple bad casts into trees and backlash causing large birds nests of fluorocarbon were part of learning the new technique, but after a few hours I was fishing effectively. That first afternoon on the water produced two bass for Jon on silver crankbaits. Our efforts fishing with jigs didn’t pay off but Jon had a promising water lined up for the following day. Sleep was tough that night, perhaps jet lag was to blame, but I have a distinct feeling it had more to do with the possibility of quality large and smallmouth bass from the next day’s venue. The lake itself is fed by a nuclear power plant, so this discharge means the water is always fairly warm. The only problem was wind due to its size and topography. Typically, we arrived to huge winds and hefty waves crashing against the shore. Launching the boat we were unsure if we were brave or simply mad. A couple of hours later we decided we were stupid as the boat was full of water, we were soaked and the trolling motor had given up. To top it off, the fishing was tough, possibly due to only fishing effectively in the sheltered bays, and we had no fish to show for our efforts. With such windy weather, it was time to try
and find somewhere more sheltered. Jon had a place in mind and we drove via home to a suburban pond, no more than five acres. Fishing with jigs and senko worms produced five bass, including two new PBs for Alex, fish of around 4lb. This was promising but things got super busy when we found a shallow channel, stacked with bait fish and hungry largemouth. Almost every cast was met with a bang on the rod tip and the bass were of a decent average size as well as mega hungry! Fishing in this channel was full on and as soon as the bites slowed, we simply moved further along the channel and found new fish. Jon mentioned that the fishing here wasn’t normally this prolific, we had hit it at just the right time as the fish moved from deep water to shallower areas in preparation for the spawn. As if this day couldn’t get any better, we found a couple of decent koi lurking in the shallows and one of them could not resist a chunk of bread on a bass hook. It certainly put up a scrap on the light spinning rod! The next leg of our journey saw us driving north to Michigan, the opposite direction to our final destination of Texas but a worthwhile detour if conditions would allow some finesse fishing for largemouth. Jon called in the help of his friend Bill who lived locally and knew of a lake which was fishing well. Meeting Bill at the lake it was cold, wet and windy. It didn’t look ideal, but after such a long drive we had to make the most of it and try to get a bite or two. We drove to a shallow area, where reeds and weedbeds fringed the bank. The tactic for the day was to use something called a Ned rig, which consisted of fishing a soft plastic worm on a jig head. This method creates little disturbance and the action of the worm is minimal, but just enough to encourage sluggish bass to strike. I likened it to fishing a dropshot for perch, rather than a spinner, giving the fish time to spot and engulf the bait. These finesse tactics performed amazingly, and although I personally didn’t do too well at this lake, Alex, Bill and Jon all caught consistently including a few fish over 5lb. A five-pounder is rare in this area; we thought we were going to have to wait for Texas to get among fish of that size. In return for guiding us on his local water, Jon visited Bill’s college fishing team to do a talk on the angling industry. We spent that evening at the college with 30 keen anglers, listening to Jon’s story about how he made a career within fishing and filming. I was inspired by Jon’s information, but also shocked that
“Alex, Bill and Jon all caught consistently including a few over 5lb”
the college had a fishing team! Apparently it’s commonplace for a school or college to gather a team of bass anglers, who fish in competitions. Bass fishing is actually cool in the states. From Michigan we spent the next few days driving south towards Texas. We stopped off at a few lakes on the way, making the most of short windows of opportunity to get the rods out. A couple of evenings were spent at hotels, backing up our footage and processing our many photos from the trip. Copious amounts of fast food were consumed during this long drive, Jon trying his best to help us sample the delights of every possible different rest-stop cuisine! We were constantly impressed by how unhealthy the meals were, either super sweet or mega salty. The service was also interesting, Americans in general being quite chatty and full on: “Thank you. Have a nice day!” The last leg of our road trip was to be spent in Texas with a group of anglers who call themselves The Googan Squad (Googan being the equivalent of a noddy back home). These five guys film videos together for their YouTube Channel, and don’t take things too seriously so we were sure the next week was going to be a good laugh...
ALEX – After entering Texas, we headed to the Googan Squad house where Jon and four other fishing YouTubers live and work. This was where we would be staying for the rest of our trip. Due to Jon being tied up with work commitments, our first fishing trip was a short evening session at a tiny Texas creek. Although it looked devoid of fish and extremely shallow, Jon assured us there were bass living there. We set up our spinning rods with wacky rigged plastic worms and Jon explained we had to be as quiet as possible so as not to spook the bass. After catching a couple of green sunfish we finally hooked our first bass from the creek. All the disturbance spooked the spot and only one more bass followed, to Jon’s popper. Although we hadn’t hauled, it was another eye-opener catching bass from such a small waterway. Jon was busy the whole of the following day but kindly lent us his truck and marked a
few points on a map to try out. It was our first experience of driving an automatic car so it took a little bit of getting used to. Thankfully, we arrived safely at the first spot, a large lake called Lewisville, and in the fast flowing water we managed to spot lots of buffalo carp. Unfortunately, they weren’t as easy to catch as we had hoped. After trying to catch one on a piece of bread for a couple of hours, we left with no fish being landed. We hit the road and drove 20 minutes to the next recommendation, a park with a number of small ponds. We found some good sized carp swimming about at one end of the pond. We grabbed the rods and a loaf of bread from the truck and set about trying to catch one. It was amazing to experience carp fishing in Texas. It was unlikely that these fish had ever been caught before. They quickly started feeding on the loosefed bread and after an hour of freelining, we totalled five commons up to 17lb. It was one of the best carp sessions we have enjoyed this year. The next day we were back on the bass fishing. In fact, we actually went out to a lake with the Googan Squad and had a competition. It was UK v USA although we did have Jon as our bonus team member who would navigate the boat. I still thought we would get beaten big time but somehow Jon managed to put us on some bass and we won the match. Two big bass of 5lb and 6lb were caught on jigs in some very snaggy areas which made for some exciting fishing. By now nearing the end of our bass fishing road trip with Jon, he took us to East Texas to fish some small lakes in the hope that we would achieve one of our aims of catching a bass on a topwater lure. This was ticked off the list after the first morning when we caught a number of fish on frogs cast into some thick weedbeds. Topwater fishing for bass is definitely the most exciting way to catch them. Finally, on our last day in the USA, we drove south to Houston to target a prehistoric fish known as the alligator gar; they really do look like an alligator with fins! We met up with a couple of local guys who Jon had fished with in the past. They did an amazing job of guiding us to our first gar. These fish are such an interesting species which live in huge numbers in the Trinity River. Using chunks of fish as bait, a number of large gar were pulled to shore. Not only are their looks impressive but they fight very hard in strong river currents. Sadly, our bass fishing road trip from the north to the south of the USA had finally come to an end. It had been quite incredible to experience so many different angling opportunities. With America being such a huge continent, we had only just scratched the surface. Even though it had been a non-stop, action-packed trip, we still have so much more to explore. While writing this, we are actually back in Michigan, this time fishing with Brendan, Austin and Brian, enjoying some bonkers carp fishing, but we’ll tell you about that next month!
“Not only are their looks impressive but they figh tvery hard in strong river currents”