> Now in its second year, the Healing Heroes in Action Tour supports the Wounded Warriors in Action Foundation, a national non-profit organization dedicated to serving the nation’s combat-wounded Purple Heart veterans through outdoor sporting activities.

> Tournament fishing needs an overhaul. …we continue to do things with weigh-ins and venues the exact same way. …each event is held the same way it was when it started more than 45 years ago.

Doh!

Shad spawn tips.

> Shad spawn shallow on rocky or clay points during low-light periods. Post-spawn bass know that…. You can get some great feeding action for the first hour in the morning or the last hour in the evening….

> On lakes with deeper grasslines, or if the water is colored, the shad will stay in the shallows a little longer. The bass will get tight to areas where they can ambush the shad against the docks, rocks or right up in the dirt.

> The Spit-N-King or a small spinnerbait are good choices for this pattern, but you’ve got to keep the lure in the strike zone for as long as possible and cover a lot of water.

> Although I’m trying to keep the bait in the strike zone longer, I’m still covering water quickly in high potential areas…boat position is critical. If I’m fishing riprap, I’ll fish parallel to the rocks so the lure never leaves the strike zone. If fishing docks, I’m going to zip a lure down one side, shaking and jerking it all the way to the boat, then dart around to the other side and repeat the action before running my electric motor on high to get to the next dock.

> Bass are there to feed, but sometimes it takes a little effort to trick them. You can’t cast a spinnerbait and reel it in. I’m going to shake it, jerk it and twitch it to make it look like an injured shad.

> If the water is clear, I use natural-looking shad imitators in translucent or natural shad patterns for topwaters and jerkbaits, and Sexy Shad for my spinnerbaits.

> Jones speculates that clusters of male shad are attracted to the flashing [spinnerbait] blade, thinking it is a female shad. “Often you’ll have a ball of shad around your spinnerbait,. Then when the bass comes up behind it, the shad scatter. The bass doesn’t really prefer your spinnerbait to the shad. It just appears to be a more vulnerable target.

> “When the shad quit following your lure, that’s a pretty good sign it’s time to get off the shad spawn pattern and change baits.”

> Jones’ first choice is a 1/2-oz Booyah spinnerbait with a willowleaf blade. “I’m always throwing a white skirt because a shad is the only thing I’m trying to imitate. I don’t need to add chartreuse or anything else. The underside of a shad is white, and the bass is looking up.”

> His second choice is a Bomber Fat Free Shad…in pearl white.

> Guido Hibdon secures a Fluke tail on his spinnerbait after cutting 1 to 2 inches off the [Fluke]…. The bait is particularly effective when bass are chasing larger gizzard shad.

> “I want 2 inches of the tail sticking out past the skirt. The larger lure eliminates a lot of bites, but those you get will be the right bites. As soon as you get a limit, tie on one of these. It will definitely get you a bigger fish.”