“When you are mentally prepared, you are ready
before you ever get to the lake,” said Ike a day
prior to practice for the 2015 Lake Havasu
event. “I think about the place and the time of
year. For example, I have a game plan that gives
me a head start on tomorrow’s practice, and I’ll
do the same for every event. I even prepare for a
day of fun fishing!”
However, he has learned not to shoehorn
the fish into his plan but to let a heightened
awareness to fish activity that day direct his
decision-making.
“Guys like Kevin VanDam and Edwin Evers and
Skeet Reese are excellent at fishing the moment
and making decisions, boom!...just like that!,”
he said. “When they realize the fish aren’t biting
according to their plan, they don’t wait three
hours to abandon ship. In 10 to 15 minutes, they
decide to do something else. They can build the
rest of the day around a bite, even if it’s in a zone
the fish shouldn’t be in. I’ve worked hard in the
last several years to do that!”
Step #2
Learn new techniques and improve on old
ones. Even with the time constraints imposed
by family life and a hectic angling and business
career, Ike takes time to expand his angling
repertoire, learning about new baits and
techniques and ways to optimize and refine
old ones.
He makes deliberate efforts to do so, keeping
an eye on baits and techniques capturing
attention on the West Coast and other regions
of the country but beyond U.S. borders as well
-- most notably, Japan.
“Take spybaiting,” said Ike. “After the 2014
season, I spent a month with the bait around my
house much as I had a couple years earlier with
No Motion fishing. That’s the best way to learn
any new technique. Take that lure or technique
and limit yourself on the water to it alone. That
forces you -- by default -- to learn the strengths
Page 19 | Fishhound Mag
and subtleties.”
Ike also improves upon techniques he knows
he should be better at between seasons and
travels.
“I know they regularly fish 40 to 60 feet of water
in California,” he explained. “If I’m traveling
near Table Rock and I find bass suspended over
trees in 60 feet of water, I’ll go out of my way to
practice deep water techniques there, because I
know I need to be better at that kind of fishing.”
Fishing hollow-bodied frogs had been a
conspicuous weakness for years until fellow
pro Ish Monroe offered him some on-thewater training. “Ish helped a lot,” Iaconelli
recalled. “I was able to utilize what he taught in
a Northern Bass Open on Lake Oneida in New
York. Every fish I caught in that tournament came
on a frog!”
Step #3
Design and come up with new concepts, baits
and colors. If you’ve noticed more lures and
tackle boasting an Iaconelli signature these
days, don’t mistake it for mere celebrity
branding. His work with big-name sponsors
like Rapala/VMC and Pure Fishing’s Berkley
and Abu Garcia lines is just a stair-step
continuation of a lifelong habit of studying,
testing and tinkering with how things work.
“It started back in my club days,” he noted.
“I was always tinkering with lures and tackle
myself, looking for ways to create new stuff or
tweak old baits to get more out of them. Only
now I can do it on a bigger level.”
You’ll find the manifestations of that old habit
in a pair of Berkley Havoc soft plastic baits
he designed, several Ike signature items from
Rapala, and the long-awaited Ike Series rod
line just released by Abu Garcia.
Take Ike’s Custom Ink colors found now on
Rapala’s DT crankbait series. The muted