Barret Duncan Blog

How understanding leverage and blank recovery speed will double your landing percentage on tournament day. In my thirty-plus years of fishing southern reservoirs and river ledges, I have seen thousands of fish lost within ten feet of the boat. Nine times out of ten, the angler turns to his partner and grunts: "She just didn’t have it choked," or "My drag was too tight." Most of the time, neither of those excuses is true. What really happened is that the angler brought a knife to a gunfight—or more specifically, they brought a jig rod to a crankbait fight. There is a dead-simple rule of thumb that separates weekend casters from consistent tournament sticks: your lure's hook configuration dictates your rod action, while the cover you fish dictates your rod power. Ignore that geometry, and you are simply giving the fish all the leverage. 1. Single Hooks Demand Fast Actions & Real Backbone When you tie on a jig, a Texas rig, a spinnerbait, or a hollow-body frog...

Why the most popular hook on store shelves is secretly costing you big fish in heavy cover. If you look inside the tackle boxes of 90% of weekend bass fishermen, you will find one hook style dominating every compartment: the Extra Wide Gap (EWG) hook . The EWG hook is convenient. Because the point of the hook sits directly in line with the hook eyelet, soft plastic worms and creature baits lay completely flat. It is easy to rig weedless, it slips through surface grass without snagging, and beginners can rig a plastic in ten seconds without thinking twice. But talk to old-school tournament flippers who have spent thirty years pitching into heavy timber, and you’ll notice almost none of them use an EWG hook for flipping heavy plastics. They use a straight-shank hook . This isn't stubborn nostalgia. It comes down to basic mechanical leverage and point-of-penetration physics. The Geometry of the Hookset To understand why hooks penetrate or fail, look at the alignment between the hook e...

Why casting at visible surface targets keeps you catching small fish, and how understanding underwater terrain changes your game. If you walk along the bank of any lake or watch weekend boaters work down a shoreline, you will notice almost everyone doing the exact same thing: they pull up within casting distance of a visible laydown tree, a wooden dock, or a patch of surface lily pads, throw three casts, and move on. There is nothing wrong with fishing wood and weed edges—plenty of fish live there. But if you talk to experienced tournament anglers or guys who have spent thirty years targeting quality fish, you will hear them use two words constantly: Structure and Cover . A lot of guys use those terms interchangeably. That is a fundamental mistake. Understanding the difference between structure and cover is the single biggest milestone in transitioning from a casual caster to a consistent fisherman. 1. Structure Is the Land Underneath Structure is the physical topography and contour o...

Why falling air pressure sends fish into a feeding frenzy and how to capitalize before the dreaded bluebird sky hits. Ask any seasoned fisherman about their best days on the water, and nine times out of ten, they won't talk about a cloudless, gorgeous 75-degree chamber-of-commerce afternoon. They’ll describe a dark, overcast morning where the wind was picking up from the south, gray storm clouds were stacking up on the horizon, and every bass in the county seemed to be attacking everything that touched the water. That isn't luck or superstition. It is meteorology. The barometric pressure—the physical weight of the Earth's atmosphere pushing down on the surface of the water—is one of the most powerful feeding switches in freshwater ecosystems. When that pressure starts tumbling ahead of a storm front, you have a golden window to catch the biggest fish in the lake. The Mechanics of the Swim Bladder To understand why bass go crazy before a front, you have to understand how the...

Why casting accuracy doesn’t mean a thing if the river keeps spinning your boat into the rocks. A lot of guys think fishing moving water is just like fishing a farm pond, only with a little current pushing your line downstream. You see it every summer on our southern river shoals. An angler buys a clean new kayak, loads it up with five rods and a bucket of soft plastics, drops in below a dam or rapids, and within fifteen minutes they are fighting for their life just to stay off a submerged boulder while their line drifts completely out of the strike zone. River bass don't sit in the open torrent fighting the full force of the flow. They are masters of hydrodynamics. And if you don't learn how to position your boat relative to current seams and eddy lines, you’ll spend your whole afternoon paddling upstream instead of catching fish. 1. The Anatomy of an Eddy Line Whenever fast water runs into a stationary obstruction—a bridge piling, a limestone bluff, a gravel bar, or a sunken ...

If you walk along the bank of any lake or watch weekend boaters work down a shoreline, you will notice almost everyone doing the exact same thing: they pull up within casting distance of a visible laydown tree, a wooden dock, or a patch of surface lily pads, throw three casts, and move on. There is nothing wrong with fishing wood and weed edges—plenty of fish live there. But if you talk to experienced tournament anglers or guys who have spent thirty years targeting quality fish, you will hear them use two words constantly: Structure and Cover . A lot of guys use those terms interchangeably. That is a fundamental mistake. Understanding the difference between structure and cover is the single biggest milestone in transitioning from a casual caster to a consistent fisherman. 1. Structure Is the Land Underneath Structure is the physical topography and contour of the bottom of the body of water. It is permanent, geological, and completely independent of vegetation or artificial objects. Ex...

If you have ever been on the water three hours before a heavy summer thunderstorm rolls in, you’ve likely experienced it: bass striking nearly every lure you throw, feeding with unmatched aggression. Yet, twelve hours after that same storm passes and the sky turns crystal blue, the lake becomes an absolute ghost town. This feast-or-famine cycle isn't coincidence—it is directly driven by barometric pressure shifts . 1. How Pressure Affects Fish Anatomy Fish possess an internal air bladder ( swim bladder ) that regulates their buoyancy. When atmospheric pressure drops rapidly prior to an incoming cold front: The water pressure decreases slightly, reducing pressure on the fish's internal organs. Scientific water quality and pressure monitoring models from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) highlight how rapid barometric shifts alter dissolved gas dynamics and aquatic biological behavior. Bass feel comfortable, expand their strike zone, and actively roam shallow water to gorge on b...

Every angler knows the feeling: you arrive at the lake after a cold front, the sun is high and bright, and the bass have completely locked their jaws. You throw crankbaits, buzzbaits, and heavy jigs across every piece of cover, and after four hours of relentless casting, you haven't felt a single tap. Years ago, days like that would send me back to the boat ramp defeated. Today, I don’t pack up — I pick up a spinning rod tied with a Drop Shot rig. While power fishing with heavy baitcasters is fast and exciting, finesse angling is what separates consistent anglers from those who only catch fish when conditions are perfect. Here is why the drop shot remains the most reliable finesse setup in modern bass fishing: 1. Keeping the Bait in the Strike Zone Indefinitely With traditional rigs like a Texas rig or a standard jig, every time you hop the lure off the bottom, it moves closer to you and further out of the key strike zone. With a drop shot, your weight rests on the lakebed while yo...

  Most anglers skip this. Then wonder why they're losing fish. I spent twenty-two years as a diesel mechanic. Long hours, dirty hands, problems that needed fixing right the first time because there was no second chance once the truck rolled out of the bay. Fishing got me through all of it. Weekend mornings on the Tennessee River before anyone else was awake. The kind of quiet that a shop floor never gives you. But here's what that career taught me that most fishing guides won't tell you: preparation is everything. A mechanic who skips the checklist loses an engine. An angler who skips the setup loses fish. Same principle, different stakes. This is exactly how I prepare my rod before every trip. Not the gear I buy — what I actually do with it before the first cast. Step 1 — Check the Line Before You Leave the Driveway Not at the water. At home, the night before. Run your thumb and forefinger down the first ten feet of line slowly. You're feeling for two things: nicks a...