Davis

Here is the weird one that I caught. At first I was thinking oil on the fish. But upon rubbing the markings they felt the same as the rest of the fish. Any ideas? I was wondering about lamprey but the wounds would be much different. Again sorry for the size. I don't have a resizing program.

This 17" was grabbed out of the Cattaraugus Creek which is right down the road from me in NY state. Great creek for smallies to come up out of Lake Erie. My son caught this one on a 7" Black/Char Berkley Power Worm. They just smash them in the rapids rigid weightless. I was a very proud dad this day seeing how this was his first smallie ever and his biggest bass ever caught. He don't have a boat so this creek is the best chance we have at smallies coming out of Erie. I have some more pics of others that we caught including a weird one with black marks all over its body. More to come soon.

If you have a local Dicks Sporting Goods stores they should have them Also suprisingly enough I found some at my local walmart and tried them out for the first time this weekend. Tough bite so I wasn't catching anything that day but the Gitzit has some nice action in the water. I plan on throwing it my next time out.

I just started fishing jigs this year too. I think the best advice is to always keep a tight line. You feel something out of the ordinary, set the hook. Sometimes it will be some vegetation....sometimes a nice bass. After I caught my first bass on a camo colored jig with a zoom chunk trailer I went out and bought about five more bass jigs. It also helps if you can see the fish heading for them though. Also make sure your making those suckers hop and be patient after the cast. Let them sit on the bottom for a bit.

Jitterbugs are up there with me too. Great action and sound in the water. I try them at night but nothing. Probably doesn't help that I'm fishing them in heavy pressured waters though. I may try them out in my dads small pond.

I need to do this more often. I can take one or two different plastics with me and only fish one. But for some reason when I try this with hard baits I always get frustrated and go back to my plastics. Leaving my plastics at home would do me some good. Need to learn to be more versatile in my fishing. Thanks for the drive to do this Road.

Same. I have a lot of lures in my tackle bag but when it comes down to it.......I love using plastics in all sorts of different setups. Thats my talent is fishing plastics. I used to catch a good amount of bass on spinnerbaits as a kid but it just doesn't happen anymore. Same with crankbaits and rattletraps. Killed bass on them as a kid. But now at 27 years old. I can't catch squat on them. But give me a plastic of any kind and I will catch bass on it. Maybe its a confidence thing on knowing how to use them?

Berkley power bait or gulp bait. Enough said. ;D

I also agree that dark colors like watermeleon/green work very well on a standup type jighead. I fish in a creek called the Cattaraugus that has some monster smallmouth in the waters. But the deep holes are few as well. Gulp Shakey Worm in a watermelon color with a shakey head jig pulled a nice 18" out of about three foot of water for me. Biggest so far of the year. Regular 7" Berkley power worms (numerous colors based on water conditions) have always worked wonders for me. Zoom tricky worm in a bubblegum color has also garnished me some hits. I usually do not use any type of hard bait as there are a lot of rocks and ledges. Snags are very common if you don't go in rigging a plastic weedless. Good luck and always toss up stream and fish it slow.