drop it down and hover it in front of
them, and those ones are hard to catch.”
Another challenge is an obvious one:
Fish can be spooked by the boat.
“I find the fish are getting smarter
every time there is a tournament,” says
Johnston. “Five years ago any spot you
idled over with fish you could catch
them – guaranteed. I find that in about
20 feet or less on these clear lakes they
start to skirt around your boat. So, in 20
feet or less, I’ll just pull up on a rock pile
and then put my trolling motor down to
fish, but in deeper than 20 feet I would
just idle over them.”
Tackle
Johnston doesn’t do anything fancy
when it comes to turning sonar returns
on the screen into bass in the hand.
“When I’m dropping down on them
it’s almost always a drop-shot,” he says.
“A Jackall Cross Tail Shad is probably my
No. 1 bait, and after that I’ll experiment
with some other minnow baits or swim-
baits. If you’ve got clean bottom you
can’t beat a tube, but if it’s a mossy bot-
tom it doesn’t work.”
Johnston suspects that the increase
in “mossy bottom” is the result of clear-
ing water, which is due to the filtering
effects of zebra mussels and improved
water quality. Regardless of why, the
moss affects his bait selection.
Green pumpkin is Johnston’s favorite
color, but for small swimbaits (less than
3 1/2 inches long), the Ontario pro likes
standard shad colors.
He usually rigs his drop-shot with a
dropper that’s about a foot long, but
he’ll lengthen that up to perhaps 3 feet
for bass suspended off the bottom. For
both the drop-shot and the tube, he
prefers a 3/8-ounce weight, though he’ll
adjust depending on conditions, some-
times going up to 3/4 ounce in heavy
waves and wind.
One constant is his line-and-leader
combo.
“I always use Power Pro [braid] with
a fluorocarbon leader,” says Johnston.
“You can feel bites like 10 times better,
especially when you get into windy con-
ditions, and I’ve had it where they will
pick it up and drop it really quick. You
can also shake the bait better because
it has less stretch. I use 8-pound-test
braid and 8-pound-test fluorocarbon. If
I’m marking them and struggling I’ll go
to a lighter leader, but that’s not very
often. It’s the same thing when I’m fish-
ing a tube.”
HOW TO TIE THE FG KNOT
BEGINNING THE SEARCH
FOR BIG-WATER
SMALLMOUTHS
Johnston starts his search for Great
Lakes smallmouths by looking at places
where they summer on the main lake.
“I start on the most obvious spots,”
says Johnston, “those big, gradual points,
islands and around the main-lake shoals
and stuff, just graphing on the edges and
the points of them.”
Each lake and area is different. For
instance, the eastern end of Lake Ontario,
where the Costa FLW Series frequently vis-
its, has some very defined drops, but a lot
of the water Johnston concentrates on is
relatively flat on the map. That’s why his
search strategy is so effective. It allows him
to cover a lot of seemingly nondescript
bottom content to find subtle sweet spots.
For example, a point might go for 100
yards without dropping off more than a
foot or so, but it might have a half-dozen
little rock piles or key places in all that flat-
ness that could hold a smallmouth.
Typically, fishing offshore is a July and
August endeavor for the Canadian pro. In
September, he likes to fish shallow again
before intercepting the smallmouths out
deep again in October just before winter.
By Curtis Niedermier
ILLUSTRATIONS BY KEVIN HAND
As braid-to-fluorocarbon knots go, the FG knot has all
the right characteristics. Most importantly, it’s strong and
thin, the latter allowing the finished knot to slide smoothly
through rod guides. While it’s easy enough to tie once you
learn it, the FG does require a few more steps to complete than other popular leader-to-line connections, and getting
the hang of it requires some practice and proper tech-
nique. FLW Tour standout Chris Johnston has the FG down
pat. He shared a method for tying it that just about any-
one should be able to master.
Sit on or hold the rod butt between your knees with the reel
pointing up. Tie a loop in the end of the braid and hook it on the reel
handle. Wind up most of the slack so it’s tight enough that you can
wrap the leader around it numerous times without holding the braid,
but has enough slack that the braid will fold at the connection point
and be drawn into the wraps as they’re made. You’ll probably get it
wrong a couple times before you perfect it. Cross the leader over the braid about 8 inches above the loop
you tied previously.
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