River Smallmouth Fishing Techniques & Tactics

Alex Rutledge and Redbone dive into everything you need to know about Ozarks river fishing — from post-spawn smallmouth behavior to bait selection, color theory, and reading river conditions. They also catch up on local tournament results, upcoming events, a Hannah Harper concert recap, and the hottest sports stories of the week. Stick around for the bonus segment where Alex and Redbone share their go-to fish recipes straight from the riverbank.

Chapter Markers & Timestamps:

• 0:00 – Intro & Pre-Spawn Fishing Tips
• 1:48 – Current Events & Tournament Results
• 4:47 – Hannah Harper Concert & Sports Talk
• 11:23 – Segment 2: River Fishing – Where to Find Fish
• 20:24 – Segment 3: Topwater Baits, Colors & Crankbaits
• 28:31 – Segment 4: Jerk Baits, Storm Fishing & Wrap-Up
• 38:20 – Bonus Segment: Fish Recipes

Missouri Hunting Heritage Federation:
https://www.mhhf.us/

To follow American Roots Outdoors Podcast:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/448812356525413

To learn more about American Roots Outdoors:
https://americanrootsoutdoors.com/

https://www.facebook.com/AmericanRootsOutdoors/

To follow Alex Rutledge:
https://www.facebook.com/americanrootsalex/
To follow Wayne Lach:
https://www.facebook.com/wayne.lach.5
To follow Mike Crase:
https://www.facebook.com/mike.crase

Transcript

 Intro & Pre-Spawn Fishing Tips A lot of times these fish, when they're not very aggressive and they're lethargic after, after the spawn, this post-spawn, they just pick it up. And all of a sudden you'll feel it, and you'll pull on your line, pull your rod back a little bit, tighten it up, and you'll feel a move on it. When you do, that's when you set the hook fishing down baits. Now, if you're throwing crankbaits or whatever, those are great. Here's a tip for everybody that's fishing crankbaits. If you're fishing a deep-diving type crankbait, you want to throw that crankbait down 🎵 "Camo boots on my feet, bow in my Walking in the early dawn to climb up in my stand" 🎵 Well, Alex, I know it's about food plot planting time. What are you gonna plant this year? Okay, in the spring I like to plant different things, and also in the fall, but my go-to all the time is the Eagle Seed Smorgasbord, because it has a variety of blends. You know, when I was a kid, and even as an adult, I loved to go to a smorgasbord. I bet it's the same for deer. It is. They l- they have a variety to choose from. Instead of eating one thing all the time, they got a variety, just like you walking into a restaurant. Get Smorgasbord today and you'll hold more deer and turkey. How can I go about getting that Smorgasbord? To go to a dealer near you or go to www.eagleseed.com. Wise Eye Technologies presents Welcome to American Roots Outdoors. I am calling via phone, and this week's show is smallmouth fishing, river fishing. We're gonna talk about, uh, techniques, tactics, and right now in segment one we're gonna talk about current events. Current Events & Tournament Results This weekend is the His and Hers put on in Van Buren, Missouri. The launch site will be at Watercraft at 7:00 AM and the weigh-in's at 4:00 PM. A lot of the proceeds go to, uh, charities, Redbone. Yeah. It's gonna be a pretty neat deal. Yeah, always a neat deal, and of course, you know, getting the His and Hers out there, uh, you know, most generally husbands and wives, and, uh, you never know what's gonna happen on the river. No, you don't. Last year's winner was Dalton, uh, Yarber, I believe, and, and Sissy Downing, Howard Downing's daughter. They won it last year. Wow. Uh, I wanna give the results, too, while this is segment one of the CRSA, the last tournament we held. Uh, Yarber and Rector, they dominated. They weighed over 10 pounds, and I believe second place was, like, 9.80, something like that. But they weighed 10 and a half pounds. Then we had the River Masters Tournament, uh, this past week- last weekend down at Donovan, and we, uh, Larry Rutledge Jr. from Piedmont, Missouri, he dominated with, uh, 10 and a half pounds. Oh, wow. And he had a 3, he had a 3.10 or 3.20 b- smallmouth. That's the biggest smallmouth that been weighed in so far this spring on the Current River. Yeah, for a river smallmouth, that's a big smallmouth. Yeah, it is. And, and, you know, uh, all the other guys that were fishing, and second place went to Nick York from Donovan, Missouri. He had 7.40, I believe, seven pounds, .40 ounces. And third place went to Dakota Connell, 2026 River Masters Classic Champion and Angler of the Year. He won, or took third with six pounds something, and fourth place went to Rick York with, uh, six pounds, and Dylan Watson with 5.20, I believe, for fifth place. So we had a good little tournament. Uh, a lot of kids was happy, Redbone. Yeah, gave away some rod reels. We give away several rod reel. Good deal. Yeah, and you know, and I think Alex is- Yeah I think it's, would be important to remind folks or tell folks that don't know, uh, that when y'all fish these tournaments and, uh, they catch the fish, the fish are well taken care of, and then they're put back in the river, correct? Exactly. W- we have a holding tank when people come in to weigh their fish in their bags, they get to set the fish down in the holding tank to keep them alive. Uh, we had two dead fish in the last tournament, and, uh, I don't believe there was any dead fish I can think of in the CRSA tournament. Okay. Well, that's good. And, and, you know, sometimes the fish are gonna die. I mean, it's just part of, it's part of- Yeah ... the sport and part of what goes on. But I think it is important to, to remind people that, you know, we put the fish back in so somebody can catch them again later. Exactly. It's all catch and release. Yeah. Hannah Harper Concert & Sports Talk Let's switch gears here, Ed, when we talk fishing. We're gonna talk smallmouth techniques and tactics throughout the show, but I went to Hannah Harper's concert down in Corning, Arkansas. Yeah, I saw that it was a big crowd. My friend put it on, and I must tell you, I was truly impressed, man. They sounded so tight and so good. Uh, brothers Dalton and Dylan, uh, was on lead and bass, and the drummer, man, their drummer, the new steel guitar player from Fort Smith, Arkansas, is unbelievable, and their drummer's from Greenville, Missouri. Those guys really sounded good, and there was almost 2,000 people there to see Hannah in Corning, Arkansas. Yeah, I saw that it was a really good crowd, and that's good. And good for Hannah. You know, she's a, boy, she's a busy girl right now. Oh, my goodness. And, uh, I got to sit backstage. Of course, you know, I help promote Pops events with Donald and Ricky. A big shout-out to them for what they're doing for our communities here in the Ozarks. They're doing great things by putting these events on. Uh, I got to sit backstage with Galen Harper, uh, Hannah's father. Okay. And we visited for a couple hours and watched the concert together right there and, and, uh, good friends. You know, Galen Harper still works for Standing County Southern Road District- Oh, does he really? hauling gravel and running equipment. Yeah. All right. Very cool. Very cool. All right, so Alex, I know, uh, uh, we want to talk a little baseball. How about the St. Louis Cardinals, man? Have you been keeping up any at all? You know what, Redbone? I've not watched a game yet this year, but I've, I've always been a Cardinals fan. Uh, I'll be just straight up with you. I don't mean to be political, but I've got a right to say what I want. I, when they done that, that thing that wasn't right with, with the gay pride thing, I just quit watching them. I did. But I'm a Cardinals fan. Yeah, well, uh, as of, and we're recording on Thursday afternoon, as of right now, Cardinals have won their last six in a row and are sitting in second- Oh, my goodness yeah, they're, yeah, and they're, they're, they're, uh, they're actually playing right now as we're recording this show with an opportunity to have their second straight sweep. They're trying to sweep the Mets in New York and, uh, yeah, Car- Oh, my gosh. Yeah, Cardinals are playing- That's huge ... yeah, Cardinals are playing extremely well. The offense and the pitching is holding together so far, and that's still kind of the question mark. And the Royals got beat Wednesday, but they had won five in a row up till then. So the Cardinals and the Royals both are playing pretty good baseball right now. Um, also- That is awesome ... now- You, you made me think of something when you brought baseball into our subject. Uh, I was going through some old stuff in our garage. We're getting ready to clean our garage out and have a huge yard sale at my place, so everybody needs to be looking out for that. I've got hunting equipment, fishing equipment, a bunch of stuff we're gonna get rid of. But, uh, I found two baseball cards, and I found, uh, the Mack card that played for the Cardinals and J.D. Drew's card. Oh, okay. I wonder what those are worth. Uh, yeah, probably about a quarter. Yeah, probably. You never know. Anyway, I found those two cards in Mallory's stuff. Okay. Well, you might put those in the yard sale. You never know, they might bring some money. Yeah, yeah. Uh, also, Alex, want to mention the National Hockey League Stanley Cup Championship because this series, if you follow hockey at all, this series has been record-breaking. I mean, they're break- every game they're setting some kind of record that's never been done before, and this series between Las Vegas and Carolina has been absolutely unbelievably fun to watch Awesome. There you go You know, I like to watch hockey, I'm just not a big follower of it. But, uh, what about the, the, the, the Knicks game and San Antonio Spurs? Yeah, well- Did you watch it? Uh, yeah, I watched... When I tuned into the game, it was, uh, just start of the second half, and the Knicks were down by 29 points. And I thought- ... "Well, not much else on, I'll continue watching." They went on a 13 to nothing run, and they kinda got back in the game. I'm thinking, "All right, this is getting interesting." And then I fell asleep before it was over. I got up this morning and found out that they came all the way back and won the game to take a three to one games lead in the best of seven series, and it's the biggest comeback in the history of the NBA in the championship series to win a game. That was huge, Redbone. Yeah, it's just- That was huge ... unbelievable. Yeah. Yeah, unbelievable some stuff this morning. You know, there, there's summer league, there's summer league basketball going on, like, all across the country. Up at Champs they had a big, a scrimmage of schools. Hartville was there, Mansfield, Liberty, a bunch of schools was up here at Champs here this past week, and they was doing scrimmages, so I guess Liberty was two and one through the scrimmages. They got beat by Mansfield, but they said they played terrible the first game, Liberty did. Yeah, well, there's a lot of that- But the second two games they got, they got going. Yeah, a lot of that stuff is going on right now, 'cause, uh, Thayer- Yeah ... hosted a, uh, shootout this past Tuesday, and, uh, Bobcats looked awfully good. But Alex, and before we go to break, we gotta go here real, pretty quick. The brand-new sports facility is now open in Thayer, and next time you come down to record, we'll go down there, I'm gonna take you on a tour, because this place is unbelievable. Yeah, I saw it on social media, and then congratulations to Thayer, Missouri, man, for this new facility. We're gonna go to a break, everybody. When we come back, we're gonna talk river fishing, smallmouth and largemouth techniques. Don't go away, we'll be back with more America Roots Outdoors right after this. Hey, guys, Bradley Roy, major league fishing angler, and you're listening to American Roots Outdoors right here, right now. 🎵 "Coming off the farm, wishing on some love. I been on a big boy for a while, I could load him in the back of my crew cab." 🎵 Redbone. Yeah. Wise Eye has just gotten better with these new cameras that they come out with. How could it get better? Well, they got the new Mini, and they've got the new DC2. DC2? They have a... Yeah. DC2, you can actually go live any time you want and film your own hunts with the Wise Eye data cam. Now, wait a minute. You mean I could be getting ready to shoot a deer, and I could go on my phone and activate my camera and, boom, film- Your own hunts ... my own... Well, that's amazing. That's amazing. Okay, Alex, you convinced me. How do I get one of these cameras? Go to a dealer near you or go to wiseeyetech.com. 🎵 "Take it to a line. Order yours today. Take it to a field. Across the creek, a big ol'-" 🎵 Tall Point Hunting Blinds presents. Segment 2: River Fishing – Where to Find Fish Welcome back to American Roots Outdoors. This show is focused on river fishing, river smallmouth and largemouth fishing. You know, uh, we, we take it seriously in the Ozarks, don't we, Redbone, this river fishing? Absolutely, we do. And, and we take our, you know, rivers, ponds, lakes, we take all kinds of fishing very seriously. Yeah, I think the thing that people need to learn about river fishing, whether you're fishing in a kayak, a inner tube, or a canoe, or floating in a jon boat, uh, I think the thing is they need to take in consideration is understanding where to find the fish. And the fish are in different areas different times of the year, but all in the water, of course. Yeah. But right now, we're dealing with what we call pre-spawn. We're gonna talk about pre-spawn techniques after I mention these creeks in the Ozarks. Check this out. It's unbelievable how many creeks we got. We got the Eleven Point River in Oregon County and Howell County, then we've got the Jack's Fork River in Shannon County. We got the Current River in Shannon County and Carter County. We got the Big Piney, the Little Piney up north. We got the Niangua, we got the Gasconade, we got Spring River there in Arkansas. Yeah. And, uh, man- The White River, the Black River ... we got so many creeks. Yeah, the White River, the North Fork River, and the Black River, and, and then when you start talking about creeks, and there are thousands of them. And here's the thing, Alex, almost all of these bodies of water hold abundant amounts of fish. Correct, correct. A- and that's what we're gonna talk about. All these creeks, and, and, and when I reference, I'm referencing to everybody, no matter if they're fishing a jon boat, floating, or a canoe or kayak, you gotta know where these fish are at. Right. Right now, as the days are getting longer, the weather's getting warmer, the humidity's getting higher, these fish, after this, this spawn, what we call the post-spawn, these fish are, are somewhat lethargic, but they're moving more into the current for oxygen. Mm-hmm. So most of your older fish, bigger fish, are staying on cover like ro- logs, rocks, and depending on the time of day, a lot of these bigger fish like to stay in the hidden. They like to be in the darker water, along bluffs, deep water, whatever. But they'll get in underneath logs, too, where they're in the dark, or underneath a root wad. Yeah. So targeting these fish and understanding where they're at will help you catch more fish. Now, understanding where they're at right now in those different areas, you gotta try to find them, 'cause they move from the deep water to the shallow water when they're feeding. Mm-hmm. Cloudy days, when there's not a lot of traffic on the rivers or whatever, them fish will move out from the dark area and they'll feed into the middle of the rivers and the current and stuff. So that's where you look for 'em. Uh, techniques to use and types of tackle to use right now, I love using the spinning reels. Uh, I've got a variety of different reels and different rods. I'm excited about a new rod company, it's called Slabz, S-L-A-B-Z, Slabz Rodz. They're doing crappie rods, but they are getting ready to come out with a series of bass fishing rods, and I'm giving some input to Crappie Chris Burkhart, who is one of the owners, of designing these rods for, uh, fishermen. Oh. So we're excited about that. So now, if I'm fishing spinning reels, I wanna fish six to eight pound test. I love P-Line, which is fluorocarbon. There's no stretch in this line, and this line actually sinks quicker than the monofilament. And when you got the mo- or the fluorocarbon, you can actually detect and feel the bite a lot better than you can on monofilament from my perspective, my opinion, Redbone. Mm-hmm. Yeah, I would agree too. So the baits that I'm using right now for after the pre-spawn, they're moving into swifter stuff, are these types of baits. I'm fishing down baits, all kinds of down baits. Down baits meaning baits that'll be on the bottom, like, uh, uh, sliders, worms, uh, s- uh, tubes, jigs, uh, Senkos, baits like that, uh, for down baits. And I'm using the slider heads. Now, different weights of slider heads is what people, uh, use as preference for th- their, for their opinion in different types of water. Now, I like, Linda, my wife, we got to visiting hers this weekend, she likes to fish a quarter ounce, a lighter head on her baits that she fishes. And she fishes six to eight pound test P-Line fluorocarbon. So she throws that bait in along the logs, the rocks, and she fishes a tight line. She also likes the water line. Mm-hmm. So do I. A lot of times these fish, when they're not very aggressive and they're lethargic after, after the spawn, this post-spawn, they just pick it up, and all of a sudden you'll feel it and you'll pull on your line, pull your rod back a little bit, tighten it up, and you'll feel a move on it. And when you do, that's when you set the hook fishing down baits. Now, if you're throwing crankbaits or whatever, those are great. Here's a tip for everybody that's fishing crankbaits. If you're fishing a deep-diving-type crankbait, you wanna throw that crankbait downriver- While the current is going down river. The reason behind that is if you get hung up, the current loosens that bait a lot of times and you do not lose that bait. Yeah. And I do the same with down baits. Now, if you're using a slider head or a weedless-type heads on the tubes, the Senkos, whatever, the jigs, whatever, you can throw up river if you know how to fish the lure. But if you do not know how to fish the lure, you're gonna stay hung up 90% of the time, Redbone. It is very aggravating. Yeah, it is aggravating a- and that's why, Alex, I almost always use a spinnerbait and something that I can just crank just about two, or two or three inches under the top of the water. Well, right now- I hate to get hung up ... the spinnerbait is getting missed. It's not- Right ... very, they're not very aggressive on it. I've not found anything where they're very aggressive on the spinnerbaits right now. We're catching a few fish on it. Now, again, as the days get longer, the weather gets warmer, a- again, humidity getting up, those fish move into that current and they get more aggressive when they move to shallower water. That's when the swim bait, the square bill type crankbaits, and the spinnerbait comes into play, Redbone. Yeah. I would agree. And, uh, you know, and, and we always love to, to fish, uh, at least I do, I love to fish the deeper water. Uh, now, now I know when the fish are in the shallower water, you gotta go there, 'cause you gotta go where the fish are. But man- Yeah ... there's, there's nothing like getting on a big slow hole along the creek or the river and finding those rocks and finding those logs and just hammering those things with your bait. I mean, that's, that's just, it's relaxing and it's just some way, you know, to spend a couple hours. Yeah, you know, being on the river isn't just about catching the fish, and you touched on that just then. It's about, you know, relaxing and y- your mind's taken off of all the stress of your job or your bills or health or anything. It's so, uh, therapeutic in a sense, uh, to be on the river and fishing, you know? Yeah. Uh, a tournament fisherman like I am, it becomes an obsession for me. There'll be times that I'll fish a tournament, I won't eat nothing, Redbone. And I drink very little, but I need to stay hydrated. Yeah, gotta stay hydrated. I'm just obsessed with trying to catch those fish. All right, Alex, we need to take a break here. When we're back, we're gonna talk more, uh, river fishing and just fishing in general. Back with more American Roots outdoors radio with Alex Rutledge and Friends right after this. This is Brenda Valentine and you're listening to American Roots outdoors with Alex Rutledge and Friends. 🎵 "Year after year, got my hunting gear In my old pair of-" 🎵 Remember when a hunter was measured by how well he shot, not how much he spent? When memories were measured in rooster tails, not dollar bills? We do. We are Spandow, reliable, easy to operate, extremely balanced, premium firearms offered at a price that proves you still know the true measure of a hunter. 🎵 "Spandow, making the American hunting tradition available to all ... boots passed on down, planted deep in the ground around your heart so you never gotta worry." 🎵 Eagle Seed presents. Segment 3: Topwater Baits, Colors & Crankbaits Welcome back to American Roots, se- segment three of the show. We're talking about river fishing techniques. And, uh, we just talked about current events, and we talked about, uh, different types of water, where the fish are at, what type of baits to use. We didn't touch on top water. Top water is picking up. There's some fish being caught on top water, and I'm gonna talk about the baits that are used, Redbone. Okay. Uh, right now, the great top water baits to be throwing on the river is any type of popper, Pop-R, and, uh, spooks, or some of the, uh, Bass Pro baits. Evan VanDam jerk, uh, top water baits are really good right now. And you'll find these baits in different types of water, again, depending on what time of day it is, if it's cloudy or it's sunny. And when I'm throwing top water, I'm looking for structure. I'm looking for logs. I'm looking for rocks. Yeah. I'm looking for anything where a smallmouth or a largemouth can be hiding. But our main focus is catching smallmouth at, at our tournaments at Current River Smallmouth Association and, uh, RiverMaster. However, at RiverMaster, we do have a couple tournaments that we let the fishermen land a couple of largemouth because there's a lot of largemouth in the areas where we're fishing Back to topwater. Again, as the days progress and it gets hotter in June, end of June, July, that's where I go to some type of aggressive topwater bait, which would be like a buzzbait. And there's a new bait out called the Hellraiser. If you haven't seen it, it's pretty neat. It's got a wobble tail and a blade on the end of it, and it's like a stick bait, and you reel it, and it sputters, and the head whips back and forth. It's pretty cool. Uh, I fished it a couple times and caught some fish on it. Uh, but they... It will be a great bait when it gets- fish get shallower and more aggressive throughout the summer. But I wanna make mention real quick, uh, to all of our listeners, and most of our fishermen are also turkey hunters and deer hunters and predator hunters, et cetera, send your Wiseye pictures or videos to us, and let's see what you're capturing on film for, for velvet bucks and turkeys right now. And also, the 12Point hunting blinds, y'all need to be watching out for the Watchtower. It's a new blind that's coming out, and you guys are gonna love it. And the food plots, right now, Red Boat, I've done something, and I mentioned it on the show a couple times. I planted the fall mix of Smorgasbord this past March, and I gotta tell you, I've had more wildlife in it, uh, than anything I've planted in the spring. Wow. Well, that's good So- I mean, that's a good thing ... pe- people may wanna plant that Smorgasbord in the spring as well as they do in the fall. And you've got, you know, different clovers, and you got brassicas and perennials. A- and, uh, man, the, the turkeys will go crazy over it. They're in it every day, Redbone- Yeah, I- on that food plot ... yeah, I would imagine, yeah, with that, uh, Smorgasbord, because this is just gonna provide a lot of food and a lot of different- Yeah ... a lot of different choices for them to eat from. Yeah. Let's talk crankbaits. We got a few minutes left here in this segment. Okay. Uh, we didn't go into detail on that. Uh, uh, crankbaits, we touched on a little bit. Uh, we'll talk about colors of baits that you wanna throw. Whenever I catch a smallmouth and I get it in the boat, and if it regurg- regurgitates something up, a- and the first thing is I look at it to see what they regurgitated. It could be a minnow, it could be a shad, it could be an insect, it could be a crawdad. Yep. But what I do, like to do is look at the color of that bait, of, of, uh, color of that insect or whatever it regurgitated. Then I try to match my bait with whatever I caught the fish on. Exactly. So, what I catch fish on. Yeah. So, one of my favorite colors to throw on the river is white, purple, black, green pumpkin. Uh, sometimes I like the, the spring colors, which is an orange color, pumpkin seed color. Mm-hmm. That works really good in early spring. But those are my favorite colors to throw in baits throughout the year. All right, now Alex, something I've always heard, and I've tried to abide by it because, you know, so many of our rivers are clear, and, uh, and that is on a cloudy day, use a bright colored bait, and on a sunny day, use a dull colored bla- Do you believe in that, or what's your opinion there? I think, I think there's some merit to that, but you can't go by it 100% of the time. Uh, I, I do know this, the, the, the, the brighter a bait- Mm-hmm ... depending how aggressive they are and what phase they are, they're out in pre-spawn, or post-spawn right now, but, uh, if they're aggressive, they seem to like the brighter baits. Yeah. But if they're not aggressive, they want the bait that's harder to be detected. If it's super clear water, I'm gonna lighten my color baits up. I wanna use something that matches pretty close to the sand or, or the, the bottom, because it makes it harder for them to detect and it creates more curiosity to make them go after that bait. Yeah, and- So if you're fishing an impulse strike, trying to get that instant bite, bright baits seem to work close to the bank or cover. Yeah, 'cause it's- That's great ... yeah, 'cause it's gonna imitate a minnow. Yeah, something quick. Yeah. Exactly. You wanna get that impulse strike. Now, if you're fishing a long distance, making a long cast, you're not getting any hits between the bank after that instant cast, I'm switching colors. I'm trying to find a color they want or type of what they're feeding on. Again, I wanna reflect back to what I just said. Pay attention to what they regurgitate up in your boat. That'll tell you the colors you need to throw or what you need to throw. Think about that. Yeah. And, and don't be, uh, don't be afraid to change baits and, and try something till you find something that works. Exactly. What happens is we find a bait that's working and all of a sudden it quits working. "Well, I'm gonna keep throwing it." Well, you don't end up catching fish. The fish are becoming so pressured on the rivers here, down Current River especially, that you can't guarantee a bait's gonna catch fish all day anymore. I don't see that. Right. Well, and I would think as- So I'm always switching bait. I have seven rods laid out on the deck of my boat when I'm fishing. I have got four bait casters and three spinning rods laid out when I'm fishing. Yeah. I promise. Yeah. Or even fishing. Yeah. And I think part of it also has to do, and we've gotta go to a break here, but part of it also has to do with the water changes, the sky changes, you know, the shadows change, everything changes. Right. And when those things change, their bait that they're looking for or what they're looking to eat is gonna change as well. Anyway, we need to go to a break. Correct. Uh, we'll be back. More American Roots outdoors with Alex Rutledge and friends right after this. Hey everybody, this is Cody Huff, Bassmaster Elite Series Pro. You're listening to American Roots outdoors with Alex Rutledge and friends. 🎵 "What the wind might do. American-" 🎵 Hey everybody, Alex Rutledge. I'm excited to tell you about 12 Point Hunting Blinds. Seven-foot walls, perfectly camouflaged, snowproof, waterproof, tinted windows. They will not reveal you in the 12 Point blinds. We're proud to work with this Amish-made blind, made in America, made in USA. 12 Point Hunting Blinds. For more information, go to 12pointhuntingblinds.com. Hornady Ammunition presents. Segment 4: Jerk Baits, Storm Fishing & Wrap-Up Welcome back to American Roots Outdoor, segment four of our show. We've been talking river fishing techniques and tactics, man, and we've covered some good stuff here, and hopefully this information we're sharing with you will work in your rivers, you know? Don't be afraid to try different baits and different colors to find what they want in that specific area that you're fishing. Yeah, exactly. Now, I wanna mention this. You know, uh, right now is a great time to get your rifles out and be practicing shooting. I love to shoot all summer long when I can, Redbone, and Hornady makes some of the finest ammunition out there. It's probably the most consistent-made ammunition, uh, factory-loaded, uh, that's ever been made, in my opinion. Yeah, I would agree. And, and it is a great time to be out shooting and, and, you know, shooting for fun and, uh, you know, make sure you're doing it safely. But we like to get the .22s out. A matter of fact- Yeah ... I got, I got, I got one of my .22s out the other day. This was my mom's gun, and of course, my mom passed away about five or six years ago, and she hadn't fired this gun probably in 20 years. And, uh, I got it when she passed away and, and I hadn't fired it in the six years that I've had it. But I got it out the other day and I thought, "You know what? I'm just gonna get the old single shot out and see how it does." And it was the first- Yeah ... gun I ever shot when I was a little kid. I mean, my mom, we've had this gun in the family since nine- 1967. And, uh, I put a sh- I put a shell in it, I pulled down, I put me a, a can out there about, oh, probably 40 feet, and I pulled down and I pulled the trigger. Bing. That can went flying. It might be the best shooting .22 I've ever owned in our life, and it was one of those that we bought... Matter of fact, I can remember the day we bought it, and we bought it at the old Tasco store in Thayer, Missouri. And, uh- Wow ... and the gun still just shoots perfectly. Probably hasn't had, you know, in the last 30 years, probably hasn't had a dozen shells shot through it. Yeah. I love to shoot, man. It's just a, a great feeling. I don't mean to get off our subject matter here, but I have to plug Hornady because they're such a great company and American-made product. Yeah. And they make different calibers. They do not make any .22 shells. Right. Everything they make is, is center fire cartridges. But, uh, a great company. Moving on here, river fishing. Uh, we talked every bait possible. I wanna talk about jerk baits. There's different types of jerk baits out there. You got Rogues, you got Rapalas, uh, just to name a few. Uh, these jerk baits are great baits to be throwing right now over structure as well. Mm-hmm. Now, they got deep-running jerk baits, they got shallow-running jerk baits. They also have, uh, soft plastic baits, which are called flukes, and swim baits. Right now, those baits are great baits to be throwing, uh, to catch smallmouth during this post-spawn. They've come out of that post-spawn and, uh, they're starting to get more aggressive, so you need to look at using these lures. Again, a selection of color depending on the day- Yeah ... uh, depending, uh, the areas that you fish. I like to keep it as realistic as possible when I'm throwing these jerk baits or swim baits. Now, believe it or not, when the water's dingy, I like to throw a pink-colored swim bait or fluke or jerk bait, and they seem to love pink, smallmouth do, so keep that in mind. Pink is a great smallmouth color. All right, Alex, not, not to totally change gears, but get away from the jerk baits for a minute. Uh, you know, we've had a lot of rain off and on. Thunderstorms here, we got thunderstorms this weekend. Do you like to fish leading up to a storm or after a storm's already gone through? I love it leading up to the storm, not- Right ... before the storm. But I've caught them after the storm, but it doesn't seem to work as good de- depending how, if the river's coming up. If I can catch right in front of where the river's co- coming up, that's when I catch most of the fish. Okay. It seems like a light switch comes on, and they get aggressive and they start to feed. Well, they're gonna- Um- ... you know, they're gonna be like a deer or a turkey or anything else. When it's gonna storm, they're gonna go hide. Uh, so they're gonna feed- Exactly ... they're gonna feed before they go to hide. So yeah, I, I love, you know, when, uh, when we got a storm coming in in the evening, uh, you know, go fishing in the morning that morning or even in that afternoon and, and up until, you know, the storm is getting evident, uh, because you'll catch some fish. And, uh, one other thing I wanna say here before we wrap it up, Alex, is if you're fishing after a storm, and maybe it's a couple of days later, and it was a lot of rain and you got muddy water, one of the best things to do is find where the muddy water is joining the clear water, and fish- Right ... right along that line. Yeah, and find the pockets. If the rivers come up and there's pockets, what we call a pocket, and that's- Yeah ... where the water's not being stirred by the current, the fish like to settle right on that line in those pockets. Yep. And if you're floating, and, and, and depending on how you're fishing, if it's a canoe, kayak, a float boat, or a jet boat, as a jet boat fisherman, we float down the river backwards most of the time. Mm-hmm. And what we wanna be doing, the guy in the back of the boat wants to be going down river or straight out and letting his bait swing back to where the fish are at, because it's more natural if you throw out and let it swing towards the fish coming down river. Now, you wanna get that impulse strike, that instant bite, you throw down river and you get aggressive with it, bringing the bait back. And I need to say this before we wrap up this segment. Depending on the type of bait you use, again, depends on how they want the bait. E- especially a jerk bait, a spook, or whatever, a crankbait. Crankbaits you can reel constantly fast, medium speed, slow, reel it and stop it, yo-yo it and stop, yo-yo and stop. That's pulling your rod up and letting it drop, reeling the slack out. Yep. Same way with all the other baits. So as a versatile fisherman, learn to work your baits different ways. Don't stick to one style, and watch, you will catch more fish using different types of baits. Yeah, I don't- Don't be afraid to change baits or use different colors. Yeah, I don't know how many times I, I've thrown a, you know, a log and, and you know there's gotta be a fish in that log, under that log somewhere. Yep. And you'll throw past it and, and, you know, crank past that log at a pretty good speed, nothing. Throw back, pretty good speed again, nothing. Throw back and just pull it and let it s- go up and down, sink and then pull it tight and, you know, like a wounded fish would act, and boom, get a hit right there. Or- Yeah ... the other way around. I mean, it, it's, the fish are, you know, they're kinda finicky sometimes and it, you just gotta catch what they're looking for right now. Exactly. I want to give a shout-out real quick and tell everybody that, uh, we got some YouTube videos coming out. If you go to American Roots Outdoors YouTube, you can watch some of my fishing shows. We're getting ready to step up the fishing shows. Sharp Line Growth Media is doing an excellent job in helping us with our social media, Redbone. Well, cool. You're gonna love the stuff we're seeing. You saw the instructional turkey stuff we done. Yeah. This guy's really good. A big shout-out to Sam Santorita at Sharp Line Growth Media. We're gonna wrap up the show here, everybody. I want to thank everybody for listening. And, uh, man, get out there and take your kids fishing. And again, don't be afraid to change baits. Try different techniques. Don't work your bait the same way every time. You get into an old rhythm, and sometimes that rhythm can, can keep you from catching fish. And we're gonna wrap it up with this. This old world needs more love and not hate, don't it, Redbone? Absolutely. You know, this, this New York Knicks and San Antonio Spurs game, I saw a video on social media of a bunch of people ganging up on a, on a, I'm gonna say it, a, a white guy because he had a San Antonio Spurs shirt on, and they ganged up on him and beat him and took his shirt away from him. Hostility. Yeah. This world needs more love and not hate. All blood is red. Teach your boys to become men. Teach your girls to become ladies. And remember, we got a bonus segment after this if you wanna hear the recipes. We're gonna talk about fishing. And remember, when your roots run deep and strong- There's no reason to fear the wind. 🎵 "So you never gotta worry what the wind-" 🎵 Thank you for joining us for today's American Roots Outdoors Radio with Alex Rutledge. You can find us on Facebook. Look us up on the World Wide Web at americanrootsoutdoors.com. We'll be back again next week on this great radio station Deadly, dependable, Hornady ammunition. From a two-man operation in 1949 to a world-leading innovator of bullet, ammunition, reloading tool, and accessories design and manufacturer today. Hornady, each piece is hand inspected to ensure consistency and quality. Ammunition engineered to perform flawlessly. Simply put, the best. Hornady ammunition. Find Hornady ammunition at a retailer near you and at hornady.com Fred Owens presents. Bonus Segment: Fish Recipes Welcome back to American Roots, our bonus segment. I'm sitting in my vehicle right now across from the Liberty Eagles Nest football field, Redbone. Do you know what they just did at the football field? Uh, no, I don't. They took up all the old grass and they put all new sod down on the field. I'm watching it. Oh, really? Sounds like they just done it yesterday, and they're sprinkling, sprinkling all over it. We're gonna have a awesome football field this year. Well, here's what I gotta say about that. It's about time. Yeah. It's the w- It was one of the toughest fields to play on ever. Yes, it was, and because it, they just had big, big clods of, uh, grass here and there and, and a lot of that's due to the flooding that tends to happen in that area sometimes in the springtime. But- Yeah ... well, good for that. You know, good for them for getting that done and, uh, yeah, nothing like, you know, going out on a football Friday night and the field be beautiful. Yes, it's gonna be beautiful. I'll send you a picture after the show or after we get done, but I'm sitting over at the airport right now and underneath a, a big old cedar or pine tree. I don't know what, it looks like some kind of pine tree, in the shade 'cause it's hot and humid. But I wanna share with you some fish recipes. I know you got some too, uh, but I want to share a fish recipe with you. And I don't keep smallmouth. You know, you got, you, you, it's all right for everybody to keep smallmouth and eat them. I just don't do it- ... 'cause I love to catch them. Uh, once in a while I may keep a mess, but I haven't kept a mess I bet in 10, 10 years. But I wanna share this. Any type of fish that you cook, the secret is, is cleaning it as soon as possible. You know, cleaning it and setting it in cold ice water, and I like to put a little bit of salt in there, and you can put a little bit of lemon juice in there while you're letting it soak, and it sucks a lot of the, the, the bad fishy taste no matter what you're, you're eating or type of fish you're gonna eat. Mm-hmm. So let them soak. Then what I like to do is go over here to, uh, Pomona, Missouri. There's an Amish store on that cut-through road that goes back to 17. Okay. And buy the Amish cornmeal. It's a lot finer than the regular cornmeal you buy at a grocery store. And I like to take and, uh, roll my fish after taking it out of the ice water and the lemon juice or lemon juice, and, uh, take it out and roll it in my cornmeal and my seasoning. I love seasonings, Redbone. There's a lot of great seasonings out there. Mm-hmm. You cannot beat Cavender's for a fish seasoning and cornmeal. Yeah, I would agree So you, I like to cut all my fish into little strips about an inch and a half to two inches wide. Okay? Mm-hmm. And when you cook them they'll curl up- Mm-hmm like a pretzel in a sense. And I like to cook my fish crispy. Not overly done, but crispy. And when you do that, and the smaller pieces that you make, the more people you can feed. Think about it. The more times you reach for a piece of food, it's a mental thing- Yeah ... too. So I, I, I'm gonna share a quick story I'll never forget. Fishing with Glenn Bachman and Jim Bachman one time and we went fishing on the river and he said, "Hey, we're gonna..." There's about eight of us going. He said, uh, "I'm gonna take and get us a couple of chickens and we're gonna grill them and deep-fry them." I'm sorry, not grill them, but deep-fry right there on the river. I thought, eight of us, there ain't no way two chickens are gonna feed the eight of us. They cut up taters and onions and I'll never forget, he cut that chicken up into so many pieces, each chicken, and we couldn't eat it all, Redbone. Eight people could not eat all that chicken. Yeah. But it's all how you cut it up. Yeah. And, and again, people are, are, feel guilty about going back more and getting more chicken than everybody else has. Yeah. Yeah. But, but more... That's a little tip for everybody that's listening. If you cut turkey breast up into smaller pieces and you'll cut deer meat up into smaller pieces, fish, chicken, whatever it may be, you can actually feed more people than by making them in great big pieces. Yep. I would agree with that. That, that was my recipe. Okay. Very good. Let me give you a quick one, and you know I live here at the head of the Spring River and, uh- Yep ... the, the major fish to catch on the upper part of the river is trout. And, uh, I don't like trout fried. Now, I know you've had some that was really good. It depends on how you fry it- Oh, yeah ... I would assume. But if I go trout fishing, I catch a mess of trout, I bring them home. You gotta scale them of course, and, you know, you cut them open and you gut them. I will cut the heads off because Miss Nina won't eat it if I leave the head on. But I'll take the head off and I put that fish... I, I put me some butter and, and I get me a piece of aluminum foil. I put some butter in the aluminum foil and then I put my fish on top of that butter and, uh, I've been using, uh, this, uh, uh, stuff it's, uh, it's a salt, pepper, and garlic powder all combined and I'll put a little bit of that on the butter. Now, I put my f- my fish on top of the butter and then I'll cut me up an onion, maybe some potatoes and maybe a green pepper or two, whatever I like, and I'll put that on top of the fish and then I seal up that aluminum foil and make it a pouch. Throw that on the grill- Ooh ... let it cook over about medium heat for about, oh, probably 45 minutes- And then open that pouch and you can just take a fork and just pick the meat right off the bone. Oh my gosh, that sounds delicious, Cecil. Yeah, and some people, and some- I'd like to try that ... yeah, some people take a little bit of lime or lemon and put it on the fish before they start eating it. And you got your vegetables right there, and it's all cooked together, and it just, it makes for a wonderful meal. Great show today. I think so. Great recipe. I wanna make mention right now, where we talk about Spandow. Spandow isn't only famous for their shotguns. You need to check out their rifles. They sent me the new 308, and I'm excited. Bolt action. It is a absolutely beautiful gun, walnut stock, and I'm gonna like to hunt with it this year. So check out the Spandow rifles, everybody. Thank you again for listening, and again, remember, this old world needs more love and not hate. Love one another. All blood is red. Remember, God's our creator, Jesus is our savior. When your roots run deep and strong- There's no reason to fear the wind 🎵 "We'll be waiting when they hit the ground. Big time coming, it's what we do. From a whippoorwill to an old owl's hoot. Sitting still till it's time to shoot. American roots. Take it to a holler. Take it to a field. Across a creek of a big old ground around your heart so you never gotta worry. So deep and strong. There's no reason to fear the wind. American roots will rise again. Yeah, I got family and friends and living the truth. American roots. Yeah, God." 🎵