Witnessing Vexus pro Brandon Card catch 20-pounds last week on a spinnerbait during the Bassmaster Elite Series event on the St. Johns River was about as rare as a bald eagle sighting. Not quite Sasquatch rare, but the lure that was once bass fishing’s crescent wrench tool has become sadly underutilized the past two decades.
So, we talked to the 38-year-old about all-things-spinnerbaits, and whether he planned to bust out the blades again this week in Florida at the Elite Series event on Okeechobee, where he finished third in 2023.
Q: Did you have any spinnerbait heroes as a teenager?
Card: All of them! KVD, Jay Yelas, Rick Clunn, Ken Cook and Jimmy Houston, to name a few.
Q: What’s the key to being a great spinnerbait angler?
Card: Realize that windy days are your friend, and heavier spinnerbaits worked at slower speeds often outperform lighter spinnerbaits retrieved too quickly.
I like the 1/2-ounce Advantage Bait willowleaf spinnerbaits that feature a unique Extreme Flash Technology on the blades, and I reel them on a 7.4:1 reel. My retrieve is slow and steady on a 7’ 3” medium heavy iROD to keep them a bit deeper in the water column, versus a lighter 3/8-ounce bait.
Q: Why didn’t you throw a ChatterBait at the St. Johns instead?
Card: I had a ChatterBait tied on, but on the first cast with a spinnerbait I caught a good one, and I never caught a bass last week on a ChatterBait, so I stayed loyal to the spinnerbait.
Q: How much weight will a guy need to catch each day to make a Top 10 at Okeechobee?
Card: You’d still better have 16 or 17-pounds a day, but the lake is almost totally void of vegetation right now, and a lot dirtier compared to 2023 when I finished third.
Q: And so, will you break out the spinnerbait again this week?
Card: There’s a chance (laughs) but I honestly don’t think it will play a huge role because of the type of cover and habitat I’m focusing on.
Amid a fishing trip on the bass-starved Ohio River in the summer of 1987, Alan McGuckin’s Dad told a then 16-year-old “Guck” — “I don’t care what you do for a living, just promise me you’ll do something you love.”
Originally from Pittsburgh, McGuckin considers himself a blue-collar kid, who has been richly blessed to live-out the best piece of advice his dad ever gave him for many years now in the Tulsa area.
After earning a degree in ecology at Juniata College in Pennsylvania, where he placed radio transmitters in largemouth bass to track their habitat preferences, he moved his life to Oklahoma in 1992, where he earned a Masters in Zoology and Fisheries under the direction of Gene Gilliland at the University of Oklahoma, before then embarking on what’s now a nearly three decade long career as a marketing and media veteran in the fishing industry.
His career spans 28 years of wisdom-rich marketing experience working to strengthen brands and increase sales for Lowrance, Terminator Lures, Toyota, Yamaha Outboards, Boat U.S., Carhartt, Costa, Quantum, Vexus Boats, and Zebco.
- Member of the Bass Fishing Hall of Fame voting committee, as well as a Board of Directors member for Keep the Tennessee River Beautiful
- Co-piloted the Terminator brand of premium lures from its birth to more than 10 Million pieces sold between 1997-2006.
- Has authored and published more than 800 stories on Bassmaster.com, along with several other popular bass fishing websites.
- He has generated $3 Million dollars’ worth of branded digital media since 2020, as a content creator.
- Serves as emcee for hundreds of guests at the annual Toyota Bonus Bucks Owners event.
- Avid angler, who fishes nearly every weekend when not on the road working.
- 13,000 followers on Instagram @GuckFishing.
“Guck” lives just north of Tulsa, OK at Lake Skiatook with wife Sherrie, an elementary school principal who also loves her job, and has a genuine passion for slinging a Rapala Brat crankbait on shallow points and habitat-laden flats.
