Want to Catch More Bass? Learn From Shap This Friday
Today we are covering:
Bass Fishing Seminar Tomorrow - Friday 18th, 6-8:30pm
Slabzone Lures Arrive at Sweeney’s
Live Bait Update
Napa Fishing Club welcomes Shap’s Baits for a special bass fishing class at Sweeney’s Sports - Friday, September 18.
Bass fishing can look deceptively simple.
Throw a worm. Cast a jig. Toss a swimbait.
But consistently finding and catching bass - especially when the fish are pressured or conditions begin changing in the fall - comes down to understanding where the fish are, what they’re doing, and how to choose the right presentation.
This Friday, Napa Fishing Club is bringing in Shap from Shap’s Baits for an evening focused on exactly that.
Shap’s Baits specializes in bass tackle and presentations, including specialty soft baits and terminal tackle built around getting bites from pressured fish.
What We'll Cover
The class will focus on practical bass fishing that anglers can take directly to the water, including:
Finding bass during the fall transition as water temperatures and feeding patterns begin to change
Choosing the right bait and presentation instead of simply throwing whatever happens to be tied on
Finesse vs. reaction techniques and when each approach makes sense
Rigging and terminal tackle and how small adjustments can change the way a bait fishes
Fishing pressured bass when the obvious presentations aren't getting bites
Reading water and structure to narrow down productive areas
Shap’s own approach to bait selection, experimentation and developing presentations
Plenty of Q&A, so bring your bass fishing questions
Whether you're just getting started with bass fishing or you've been doing it for years and want to pick up a few new techniques, this should be a fun and useful night.
Friday, September 18 at Napa Fishing Club
6:00 PM – 8:30 PMSweeney’s Sports
835 Lincoln Ave., Napa
Grab a seat, talk fishing and meet some other local anglers. Napa Fishing Club's monthly meetings are designed around learning from people who actually fish our region and giving anglers a place to share what they know.
Not a Member? This Is a Pretty Easy Decision
Adult membership in Napa Fishing Club is just $50 per year. And this is the part we're especially proud of:
Half of your membership goes directly toward helping young anglers get into fishing, including fishing equipment and other support that removes some of the cost barriers for kids who want to get outdoors.
Youth 21 and under can join free. The club also provides workshops, outings, mentorship and help with fishing gear.
So your $50 doesn't just get you access to classes, meetings, outings and club events.
It helps put a fishing rod in a kid's hands.
That's really what we're trying to build with Napa Fishing Club: adults learning, fishing and building community together — while using that community to create the next generation of anglers.
Join Napa Fishing Club →Join Napa Fishing Club
New at Sweeney’s: Bay Area-Born Slabzone Lures Have Arrived
This month, we’ll be talking about bass fishing!
We’re always looking for interesting fishing tackle to bring into Sweeney’s, but we especially like finding products that were developed right here in Northern California for the waters our customers actually fish.
That’s why we’re excited to bring Slabzone Lures into the shop.
Slabzone is a Bay Area lure company whose baits were originally developed in the waters of San Francisco Bay. The company says its handmade lures have been refined, tested and fished since 2013, with each lure individually constructed and hand finished.
And these aren’t baits designed around some hypothetical fishing situation halfway across the country. Slabzone has built its following fishing the same general waters our customers chase stripers, halibut and other predators.
The Slabzone Swimbait
We brought in a selection of Slabzone’s internally rigged soft swimbaits, including 1/2-ounce and 3/4-ounce sizes in a bunch of colors. The 1/2-ounce version is approximately 3.5 inches with a 4/0 hook, while the 3/4-ounce bait steps up to about 4 inches with a 5/0 hook. The lure is molded around its jig head, giving the paddle tail a matched body-and-weight combination, and an internal rattle adds another element of attraction.
That makes them particularly interesting for the kind of fishing we do around here: casting shorelines, working current, covering water from a boat, and chasing predators feeding on baitfish.
Stripers immediately come to mind. These have a long history around San Francisco Bay, and there are published Bay Area fishing reports going back years specifically mentioning Slabzone swimbaits producing striped bass. They’ve also developed a following for halibut and other West Coast species.
For Napa anglers, we’re especially interested in seeing what they can do in the Napa River, as well as the Delta, Carquinez Strait and San Pablo Bay.
And Slabzone Goes Beyond Swimbaits
The swimbaits are only part of what we’re bringing in.
We’re also adding Slabzone wake baits, glide baits and topwater baits, giving anglers several completely different ways to imitate larger forage and target aggressive fish. Slabzone currently maintains a dedicated Wake Runna line alongside its other lure offerings.
That range is one of the reasons we wanted the brand in the shop. You can go from a smaller 1/2-ounce paddletail you can cast all day to larger presentations designed to draw attention and potentially a much bigger bite.
Slabzone's own motto is:
“If the fish are lurking, the Slab is working.”
We're going to put that theory to the test.
Come Check Them Out
The first shipment is now at Sweeney’s Sports in Napa, with multiple colors of the 1/2-ounce and 3/4-ounce swimbaits, plus wake, glide and topwater options.
This is exactly the kind of product we want to continue finding for the shop: local companies, interesting tackle, and gear made by people who actually fish the same waters we do.
Stop by, take a look at the lineup and tell us which colors you think we should stock deeper.
Sweeney’s Sports
835 Lincoln Ave., NapaMon–Sat 9–6 | Sun 9–3
Live Bait Update
Available this week:
Pile worms
Medium Minnows
Jumbo Minnows
And if you're not sure what to run—stop by the shop and let’s talk strategy.
As always,
We truly appreciate every time you walk through our doors. Thank you for choosing to spend your hard-earned dollars with us. It's a privilege to be of service.
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