Interview: Mike McNellis - The Friendly Neighborhood Academy Fishing Guy

I met Mike McNellis over at a pond in late winter of '08. I was getting frustrated not catching anything and I saw this other guy catching them one after another. I finally went up to him and asked him what he was doing. Thankfully, he was nice and shared with me what he was doing. It's a secret that still pays off.

I always look for Mike when I drop in my second favorite place (first being the water) and talk fish. He is truly a great resource for new and old fishermen who want to talk fish, techniques, or equipment. I cannot recommend him highly enough as a person to get to know. Although it took a while to finally hook up for this interview, I though it well worth it!


WTJB: Hello, fellow fish jerks. It is Tuesday, January 27th on a very cold day. I am over here at Baker’s Street Coffee House with Mike McNellis. Mike is our friendly neighborhood Academy Fishing Counter Fisherman. Mike is a local expert and an excellent recourse I have tapped over the last year. Mike, would you like to say ‘Hello”?

MG: Hello.

WTJB: If you wouldn’t mind, could you take a moment and tell us your name, hometown, and a little about yourself?

MG: I’m Mike McNellis. My hometown is San Diego, California. I moved here to San Angelo about three years ago. I’ve been fishing all my life; as long as I can remember since I was three years old. Mostly bass fishing, but I have fished for just about everything.

WTJB: Are you a member of any local bass clubs?

MG: At this time, I’m not. At some point I’d like to be, but time restraints just do not allow it. I’m trying to raise a couple of kids.

WTJB: I totally understand that.

MG: Yeah.

WTJB: The focus of the blog is on the condition of local area lakes and such, what is your favorite lake?

MG: Twin Buttes. Accessibility. It’s easy to get to and there are a lot of fish in there.

WTJB: I cannot find them.

MG: Yeah, but they’re there. I’ve had most of my experience there. I’ve fished Ivie. I’ve fished Amstead. Beautiful lakes, but frankly I can’t see spending the money going all the way out to Ivie when I can do just as good at Twin Buttes.

WTJB: What would you say are your three favorite techniques?

MG: I’m a shallow water fisherman. I don’t rely a lot on electronics so flip and pitch would be my main techniques whether that be jigs or soft plastics. I throw a spinner bait. I love throwing a spinner bait. Another technique I use is twitching a minnow. It’s a pretty specified technique. It doesn’t work all the time but when it does it is a lot of fun.

WTJB: What is it?

MG: It’s like a Rapalla. It’s a balsa wood bait.

WTJB: This leads into the next question I have. What would you consider to be your 3 favorite lures?

MG: By far, I probably catch 50% of my fish on a jig. I’m a big jig fisherman. I have a lot of confidence in it whether it be jigging pork or jigging plastic. I’ve recently started using a lot more plastic where as I was using pork.

WTJB: Why the change?

MG: You have more colors with plastics. Plastics do not dry out. Pork is really good for cold weather and fish that are real picky. Fish will bite into pork a lot easier and hold on to it for a lot longer, but you run into the problems of it drying out and what have you. And again, spinner baits. I love throwing spinner baits. Other lures include that Rapalla Minnow.

WTJB: Regarding spinner baits, are you one of those fishermen that favor one color or another?

MG: Any color as long as it’s white.

WTJB: (laughing) I just about spit all over my computer!

MG: I pretty much stick with white and clear colors. There are times where in real dirty water I use black and chartreuse or such, but normally I am trying to imitate a bait fish and the clear colors seem to work the best. Out at Twin Buttes really good colors are a clear skirt with a blue top. For some reason they just like it.

WTJB: For my next question, this is something you really helped me out with a year or so ago. Do you have any advice for local fishermen?

MG: Fish shallow. Around here, they adhere to shallow water regardless of temperature. Out at Twin Buttes, the water could be 40 degreed and the water dropping a foot a day and they would be right up against the bank with some reason. Sometimes, if you are not getting hits, downsize your bait. I have found that a lot of the finesse techniques I learned in California really excelled when I moved out here. It’s something I didn’t try to do. I was just used to fishing that way. Out in California, everything we fished was just a little smaller or a little lighter.

WTJB: Everyone always says things are a little bit bigger in Texas.

MG: Well, sometimes you go the opposite way and you catch fish. I’ve caught some really big fish on some really big bait that I wouldn’t ever throw in California. If you’re having trouble catching fish, downsize. I have found that people try to complicate bass fishing. I think that’s one thing I see is that people come in (to Academy) and there are so many colors and so many baits and it’s not so much what you throw as where you throw. I think if people learn fish behavior they will be a lot better off than collecting every bait in the store.

WTJB: I think we can all appreciate that.

MG: I use this analogy, if I’m going down a ban throwing a 10” plastic lizard with a chartreuse tail and you follow shortly with a 10” plastic worm you will probably catch just as man y fish. As I do. It’s not so much “what” as “where”. When fish are in feeding mode, they’re going to eat just about anything. You know, every bait has their own subtleties. Again, I use California as a reference where guys will hand pour worms and you will get one style of worm with about 200 colors and these guys will collect every one in a huge worm bag and that’s not necessary.

WTJB: I see. What is your opinion of the local fishing?

MG: Pretty fair. I think it could be better if for no other reason than the lack of water. When was the last time it rained here?

WTJB: Today. Maybe.

MG: Yeah, we got a dusting of ice.

MG: Well, the fishing is pretty diverse. We have dirty water. We have Nasworthy. We have Twin Buttes which I call stained water. We have a lot of the creeks around here that are gin clear. You have a lot of diversity as far as water quality. The fish always seem to bite despite certain things.

WTJB: If you do not mind, do you have any favorite true fishing stories?

MG: I have enough to write a book. One of my favorite as of late is I had my son out at Twin Buttes. He loves going fishing with me, but I have a hard time getting him fishing. He can catch fish. He does really good when he makes those 1-2 a day. But, he showed some desire to fish with live bait. I don’t really know a lot about fishing with live bait. We went out to a spot out at Twin Buttes on the Middle Concho. The water was much higher than it is now; just under the tops of those bluffs. We tried a minnow on a weight and caught nothing. Finally, I decided to just cast out the minnow. I threw it out and told him to just stand here and hang on. I figured a white bass or crappie would come up and eat the minnow. I walked 10 yards down and was throwing a worm and he started yelling, “Daddy! Daddy! I got one!” I’m thinking, “OK, he’s snagged in a bush.” I started ambling my way over and this bass jumps up every bit of 7-pounds. Just a huge fish. I’m running to him at this point and I get to about a foot from him and he gets pulled into the water. He won’t let go of this pole. He lands and he’s in the water up to about his chest. He lands on this ledge and he would have been fine if he had let go of the pole but he’s not letting him go and this fish is pulling him into the water. It pulled him out deeper and deeper until he wasn’t touching the bottom anymore. He starts to panic. In goes dad. Quite the scene and he finally let go of the rod. I dragged him out and he was crying saying, “Daddy, I don’t like fishing any more!” He was screaming so loud that down the river was a big red Skeeter that heard the commotion and came down to see what was going on. He was out the next day fishing with me. He’s still going out with me. You’ve seen the picture out at Academy. That’s another funny story. We were at a pond near where I live and I was throwing a little top water and hooked into a 12” fish. I was working it back to me and I noticed this big torpedo following it. It was a big fish, maybe 7 or 8 pounds. I’m screaming to my son to cast. He threw out his little plastic worm and hit the fish on the forehead. The worm rolled down the head and the fish just inhaled the worm. This time I grabbed a hold of my son and he pulled in the fish. You’ve seen the picture.

WTJB: For those interested, there is the picture over by the fishing counter at Academy.

WTJB: Catch and Release?

MG: For all black bass, yes.

WTJB: Personal hero?

MG: My dad. He never had the patience to fish, but he would take me fishing. He’d take me to the camp site and send me off to go fishing.

We talked on about other things and shared a few laughs over our coffee (check out the podcast for the complete story) as we wrapped things us. We also visited about the people he’s met working the Fishing section at Academy. I have to admit that there is definitely something envious about working in an area where you can mix your passion with making a living and be successful at it.

If you get a chance, stop on in the Academy and say hey to Mike. He’d like to take a bit to just talk fishing. And do me a favor and tell him Jay sent you!