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When water temps hit the 60s, Elite Series pro Jordan Lee looks for spawn-oriented largemouth inside shoreline indention ‘pockets’ formed by tiny tributaries on nearly every major reservoir in America.
Pockets can be located along main lake shorelines, typically where large natural drainage ditches are located or, as is more commonly the case, inside the major creeks of a reservoir where a minor stream originally ran into the main creek prior to the reservoir’s dam construction.
“Pockets are kind of a shortcut to finding bass around the spawn because bass are eventually going to be in them, it’s just a matter of when and what phase of the spawn they’re in on the day you’re fishing,†Lee said.
Most of the pockets he targets searches are in the 1 to 10-foot depth range.
“You can fish a ton of them fast versus searching miles of shoreline on the main lake,†Lee said. “I may fish 20 different pockets a day and maybe only five of those will have catchable fish in them; but those are decent odds and it’s an easy way to find bass in the springtime. It only takes a few minutes to fish each pocket.â€
Lee takes a two-lure approach to pockets based on water clarity.
“If the water inside a pocket is clear enough to look for spawning beds, I’ll cast a wacky-rigged finesse worm on a No. 1 Decoy brand hook with a weedguard,†he said. “That’s a great light-line presentation on a size-30 Quantum spinning reel if bass are roaming or fully locked down on spawning beds I can see.
If the water is too dirty to look for beds, he picks up a baitcasting reel and pitches a Texas-rigged 4-inch Strike King Game Hawg on 20-pound Seaguar fluorocarbon around wood.
?“Pockets are easy to locate, it doesn’t take long to fish them and if you fish enough of them in a day’s time during the spring, you’re probably going to catch fish.â€
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.
