Iaconelli's Panic Box
By Mark Hicks

Even Mike Iaconelli, the screaming maniac of professional bass fishing, has trouble getting bites sometimes. This New Jersey angler was consistent enough to win the 2006 Bassmaster Angler of the Year title, yet he still suffers through days when everything falls apart. If Iaconelli's livewell is empty with only a few hours left before a tournament weigh-in, he reaches for his panic box.

Iaconelli's panic box contains finesse lures that often bail him out when bass won't hit his regular baits. He started carrying the panic box in his boat long before he began competing in professional tournaments. The panic box goes with him everywhere he fishes.

The Box
Iaconelli's panic box is a standard 3700 size, clear utility box — the same type of box he uses to house his other lures. He puts labels on the tops and sides of each box to show its contents, such as "Deep-Diving Crankbaits," "Jerkbaits," "Jigs" and so on. The label on the panic box boldly reads "Panic Box."

"When I'm scrambling through my tackle boxes for something that'll work, I see that big ‘Panic Box' label and it takes my mind to a different place," Iaconelli says. "It says to me, ‘Look, here's an opportunity to go catch a couple and salvage the day.'"

Panic Box Tackle
Most of the lures in Iaconelli's panic box weigh from 1/16- to 3/16 ounce, with a few 1/4-ounce baits thrown in. He serves up all the lures in his panic box with a 6-foot-6-inch medium-action Team Daiwa Advantage spinning rod. He matches the rod with a 2500 size Team Daiwa Sol spinning reel and 4- to 10-pound line, depending on the lure he's fishing and the situation.

"The reel is a little bit oversized for that rod," Iaconelli says. "But it has a bigger spool, and that definitely improves my casting distance and accuracy with light baits."

Worms
Iaconelli's panic box always has selection of Berkley's 4-inch Finesse Worm Hand Pours in four natural colors that match whatever the bass are eating. He goes with the Prism Shad and Triple Margarita colors when the main forage is baitfish, such as minnows, shad and alewives. The Purple Greenie Christmas color gets the call when bass are feeding on yellow perch or baby bluegill. Blue Cinnamon comes through when bass key on crayfish.

In the same slots with the worms are the hooks and the weights. The hooks are light-wire, straight-shank and offset styles in No. 1 and No. 2 sizes. Iaconelli Texas-rigs the worm with the offset hook and nose-hooks it with the straight-shank hook.

The weights are split shot in No. 3 to No. 7 sizes. The heaviest shot weighs about 3/16 ounce. Iaconelli pinches a split shot 12 to 16 inches above the worm to make the basic split-shot rig. Or he'll pinch a split shot on a drop line beneath the worm to make a drop-shot rig.

"I always use Berkley Vanish Fluorocarbon line when I'm fishing a 4-inch worm," Iaconelli says. "It's the ultimate line for finesse fishing. I like 6-pound test when there's little or no cover, and I bump up to 8- or 10-pound test when I'm fishing around snags."

Fluorocarbon's low visibility helps Iaconelli get more bites when he's fishing in clear water after a cold front. It also pays off when bass have grown line shy due to heavy fishing pressure.

Even more important to Iaconelli is fluorocarbon's density. It is heavier than a nylon monofilament, so it allows for longer casts with light finesse baits. And, because it sinks faster, it gets worms deeper and imparts a livelier action to them as they fall.

"I've tested fluorocarbon line in my swimming pool," Iaconelli says. "I'll cast identical worms on 10-pound test fluorocarbon and 10-pound test monofilament. When you watch the bait fall on fluorocarbon, you'll be amazed at how much more action it has."

Iaconelli usually digs 4-inch worms from his panic box when larger worms stop getting bites. There have been instances when he has been catching limits of bass on 6-, 8- or 10-inch plastic worms rigged Texas or Carolina style, but then a cold front comes through and high pressure and bluebird skies turn the bass off.

"That's when I tell myself, ‘Mike, these fish are still here,'" he says. "I pull out the spinning rod, rig up a 4-inch worm with a split shot and start catching bass again."

In-line Spinners
When bass stop biting regular spinnerbaits, Iaconelli fetches one of several in-line spinners from his panic box. These are essentially the same baits he uses for trout fishing.

"A lot of my fishing as a kid was trout fishing lakes and streams, and the in-line spinner was a staple for me back then," Iaconelli says. "When I was fishing a trout lake that had bass, I would always catch bass by accident. That really opened up my eyes to this type of bait for tournament fishing."

Iaconelli's panic box contains a variety of spinners in 1/6- to 1/4-ounce sizes. His favorites are Worden's Rooster Tail, the Panther Martin and Blue Fox's Vibrax. The Rooster Tail has a long, flashy, willow-leaf style blade and works especially well in clear water. The Panther Martin has a compact body and a short, rounded blade. It puts out more vibrations. The Vibrax falls between the other two.

As with his regular spinnerbaits, Iaconelli carries in-line spinners in different sizes and colors, including spinners that have silver, gold or colored blades. White and pearl spinners are his shad patterns. Chartreuse and green spinners mimic perch and bluegill.

"I remember back when I first started fishing professionally," Iaconelli says. "I was at a tournament on Lake Champlain, and I was catching giant smallmouth bass by burning a 1-ounce chartreuse bladed spinnerbait over grass flats that were 6 to 8 feet deep. I was using heavy line, a stiff baitcasting rod and power-fishing to the max."

Then a cold front blew through, and the bite died on the third day of the tournament. Iaconelli frothed the water with his big spinnerbait for hours and had only one small bass to show for his efforts.

He could feel panic setting in. He dug out his panic box and found a 1/4-ounce in-line spinner that had a chartreuse blade and body. It was basically a downsized version of the heavy spinnerbait he had been casting. Iaconelli fished back over the same flats that had produced nil on the big spinnerbait, and landed another big limit on the in-line spinner.

Plastic Grubs
Berkley Power Grubs and Gulp! Shaky Shads also grace Iaconelli's panic box. He carries 2- and 3-inch sizes. His four basic colors are white to imitate baitfish, chartreuse to represent perch or bluegill, pumpkinseed for crayfish, and black.

"Black is a sleeper color," Iaconelli says. "It's great when you want to make a real subtle presentation. I use it a lot in stained water or black tannic water."

About 90 percent of the time, Iaconelli rigs his grubs with a 1/16- to 3/16-ounce jig and leaves the hook exposed. He retrieves a grub horizontally through the water, much like he would fish a crankbait. As with a crankbait, he tries to make contact with bottom cover, such as rocks, sparse weeds, stumps and isolated logs.

This tactic came through for him when he fished a major tournament on Wisconsin's Lake Wissota, a natural lake that has tannic-colored water. On the first two days of the tournament, Iaconelli caught limits of smallmouth bass cranking a perch-pattern crankbait over the ends of flats with scattered boulders. Bumping a boulder with the crankbait often sparked a strike.

Many of Iaconelli's competitors were fishing the same area, and they were all doing well with crankbaits and spinnerbaits. On day three of the event, the fishing pressure turned the bass off these lures, and everyone struggled to get bites, including Iaconelli. Fortunately for him, Iaconelli had his panic box to resort to. He rigged a black 3-inch grub on a jighead and retrieved it over the flats, just as he had been doing with a crankbait. When he bumped the boulders with the subtle grub, he caught bass that refused to bite crankbaits and spinnerbaits.

Horsehead Jig-Spinners
"I fished Blakemore's Road Runner for crappie as a kid," Iaconelli says. "On most trips, I would catch really good largemouths on that bait. So it became a big part of my panic-box arsenal."

Iaconelli carries two styles of horsehead jig-spinners in his panic box that weigh from 1/16- to 1/4-ounce. One is tied with bucktail or marabou and is reserved for cold-water conditions. The other style has a bare hook. Iaconelli dresses it with a grub from his panic box and fishes this combination through spring, summer and early fall. In both configurations, Iaconelli prefers white, chartreuse, black and gray colors.

He regards the horsehead jig-spinner as a combination of a spinnerbait and a jigging spoon. He slow-rolls it like a spinnerbait and lets it make bottom contact. He also fishes it vertically on deep structure with a lift-drop retrieve like a jigging spoon.

"It's the kind of bait that will put some bass in my livewell when I'm fishing a lake I've never seen before," Iaconelli says. "It can turn a zero into a two- or three-fish day. When you're fishing for points and pounds to qualify for a championship, a catch like that can really save you."