Captain Roger Lee Brown

Roger Lee Brown
Location: Lake Champlain, New York
Credentials: Brown is a former pro tournament angler turned operator of a 3-day bass fishing school with national and international cliental from as far off a South Korea, Africa, and New Zealand.
Number of years guiding: 23
Contact: (518) 597-4240; capital.net/~rlbrown/

Favorite Spinnerbait: Stanley Wedge
Color: Gold Shiner/Gold Blade
Weight: ¼ oz.
Details: “These baits are very easy to tune right out of a package. This particular lure also caught my all-time biggest bass: a 17.2-pounder. I'll grab the Colorado blade with needle-nose pliers about a 1/4-inch from the tip. Then I'll bend the blade at a 45-degree angle away from the cup. This will create a lip and give the lure five times more vibration. It’ll feel like you’re pulling a crankbait.”

Favorite Crankbait: Bill Norman Deep Little N
Color: Smoky Joe
Size: 2 ½ in.
Weight: 3/8 oz.
Details: “This lure has always been a pet bait for me. That color is a shad pattern, which is probably the most versatile for a crankbait anywhere in the country. The Deep Little N is rated to run at six to eight feet. But a fast retrieve will get it as deep as twelve and it also works really well just sub-surface if you slow-crawl it.”

Favorite Soft Plastic: Zoom Li’l Critter Craw
Color: Watermelon Red
Size: 3 in.
Details: “I have more confidence in this soft plastic in this color than any other no matter where I fish in the U.S. I’ve tried many different colors in countless conditions and Watermelon will out-fish all of them. This bait is also the best imitation I’ve found of a soft-shell crawfish, which are candy to bass. When Carolina-rigging I encourage anglers to use enclosed rattle chambers instead of the normal glass or brass beads strung on the line. The click they produce alerts bass that natural forage is near by. But what happens when weeds get wedged between the beads? With enclosed rattles, you don’t have that problem and produce an enticing click on every cast.”

Heddon Zara Spook

Favorite Topwater: Heddon Zara Spook
Color: Natural Leopard Frog
Size: 4 ½ in.
Details: “Anglers forget that all the bass can see on a big, round, buoyant bait is the belly. So colors on the back don’t make much difference. White is a natural forage color and this frog pattern has a white belly strip. Assuming the bass may catch a glimpse of the sides now and again, I stick with the frog as they are a natural forage everywhere. People put too much into working a walk-the-dog. They try to achieve long strides and they work them all the way back to the boat. I’ve caught more bass on a Zara that was sitting still than during a steady retrieve.”