O’Neill Outside television has been airing for 44-plus years. The like-named radio show started in 1992, so it has 24 years under its belt also.

I stumbled around those beginning years to make extra money and it worked and got bigger and bigger. Making money and supporting my family was the early year’s purpose but after a few decades, I slowly added another intent in our effort that made itself evident as I was privileged to hunt and fish along with famous, experienced and knowledgeable sportsmen. As an example, we produced fishing shows with Jimmy Houston, Woo Daves, Cliff Craft and many others. Hunting presented other experienced experts like Michael McMichael, Dudley McGarity, and a host of other personalities and product sponsors willing to put up with me.  Anyway, that’s not the point of this information for today.

After so many positive experiences, my purpose on both TV and radio evolved into making your time spent watching or listening was to help expand your knowledge and make you a better and more productive fisherman and hunter and to appreciate the experience more. I will not take the column space to give credit to the individuals from whom I learned all these things but will remind you that they came not from O’Neill but from true professionals.

So, with this lengthy introduction, here are a few for your memory and application. 

  1. When using a buzz or spinnerbait, if the brush limbs will allow it, turn your trailer hook down.
  2. If you get a strike on a buzz bait and miss the bass, don’t cast the buzz bait back in, have a rigged plastic worm ready and cast that back into the strike zone. You’ll get twice as many second bites.
  3. If you’re fishing extra deep for bass and hook and lose the fish deep, don’t reel up, which will be your natural tendency, just leave it there for a minute or two and give it a little action. It’s likely that the fish you lost will bite again or there may be dozens of others there that are hungry, too.
  4. Don’t over size your line weight. You’ll get and feel more strikes using light line and small baits especially in clear water.
  5. If a deer walks into your food plot and you take him, don’t be in such a hurry to visit the poor dead guy. He’s not going anywhere. Wait a few minutes. It could be that a bigger buck was just back in the woods out of sight traveling with the one you shot and will walk into the plot to check on his buddy and you can take him too, if legal. I’ve witnessed this many times.

If you shoot a deer in the plot and he runs out into the trees and you need to track him, take a photo from the stand where he entered the woods. It’ll help you start the track in the right place. It could look very different when you change locations. Enough? More to come later if you can stand it.