Mattlures

Bighead ist about playing the percentages and increasing your odds. That giant caught on a little shinner was a fluke. Heck some monsters are caught in Cali off of powerbait. Yes big baits will catch little bass and little baits will catch big bass. Catt hit the nail on the head. If you keep doing what you have always done than you will catch the same sized fish. Its not all in the baits. Its about targeting big bass. think of them as a diferent species. kinda like targeting smallmouth when they live in the same lake as largies. They are both bass but they have diferent habits. Well so do big bass. I fished for probably 20 years before I caught my first big bass. Up untill that point I hade caught many bass between 5-8lbs but only a few bigger than that and none over 10. I had to change my entire mindset and only specificly target big bass. It also took me 2 years of half a$$ed swimbait fishing to finaly catch one on it. After that I used swimbaits religously and actualy learned how and when and where to fish them. Heck I even figured out how to make them . The single biggest adjustment I made was to spend more time fishing lakes that kicked out the big fish. this was hard to do because where I live the smaller super clear deep lakes have the biggest fish. These lakes are brutaly hard to catch any bass let alone a big one. But I instantly increased my odds. I had to leave my favorite lakes where 20lb bags were common for me. I made up my mind that I was going to do what ever it took to get a 10lber.

In all honesty this is one of my tricks and I am suprised I shared it. I like to help but I do like to keep a few secrets to my self. I do have alterior motives though. The scent thing does work and it works well so it should help you guys get more fish on my baits wich helps me. Right now I am almost regretting giving it up but I dont hardley fish anymore so sombody else might be able to catch them. No you cant release the bluegill after you deslime and scale them. They will die almost instantly.

Actualy Burley you just stumbled onto one of my tricks. Alright I'll give it up because I am such a nice guy. Disclamer: this might not be legal So hypotheicly if you want to make a GREAT gill scent you would catch a halfdozzen gills and scrape off all thier slime and scales and put that in a babyfood jar. Next you would add a couple heaping tablespoons of petrolium jelly(vasaline) add about a teaspoon or 2 of salt and mix really well. This lube scent will stay on for a long time and smell just like a gill. The salt will keep it from spoiling. No need to chop up the gills becuase thats a difernt smell than the outer slime. The scales will fall off in the water especialy when you get a bite and this is one trick that turnes followers into biters. Plus you can eat the gills when your done DONT add any kind of solvent. you will never get rid of that smell and your scent would probably repell the bass

I would use vasaline over nothing at all but that is basicaly what the base in megastrike or the procure butters are. I would rather use the stuff that smells like prey but if all you got is vasaline, well its better than nothing

One tube will last a long time. The stuff stays on the bait for a while. I also like Pro Cure scents in thier butter formulas. One of the biggest mistakes I see beginners doing is reeling in the bait to fast. 90% of my bites come from a slow steady retreive. I might throw in a fall or jerk when I hit something or swim past something. When I say slow I mean just fast enought to make the tail swim. Fast techniques are for small fish.

It makes all the diference. Not the smell the LUBE. When a bass hits a bigg rubber bait, its little teath dig into the bait. They get a real good grip. So you swing and the hook doeas not penatrate. Then they open thier mouths and out pops the bait. If the bait is lubed they dont have a good grip and the bait will slide when you swing causing the hook to burry itself into the fish. VERY VERY VERY IMPORTANT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Congrats Avid. I knew if you kept throwing it you would get a good one. Now you gotta get a 10

Not to bash Storm(even though I hate them) but they are probably the stinkiest baits made but like I said just let them air out. I would hang them by paperclips by thier hook eyes outside out of the sun for a week. That should take away most if not all the smell

Biz I know Matt uses the Redingtons but you gotta check out the 7"11 okumas they are extremly nice

All that smell will go away. I assume you are referring to storm baits or some other chinese made bait. Its the plastic they use. If you just let them air out the smell will go away in a few days and THEN you cover them in scent

Randall I sent you a PM I have contacted BassWestUSA Magazine and they want to do a story on you guys. I need you Pnone #

Randall you are my new best friend! Dont worry Adam I like you to. Man you guys are on fire. Its guys like you that make it worth all the work to make baits. You made my week. Thank you. I definatly apreciate you posting all these big fish you two kkep catching on my gills. I am going to send out a couple( I only have a couple) of my Mattshads for you guys to play with. The colors arent perfect yet but they are close. CONGRATS on an absolute monster OH YEAH I JUST YESTERDAY PREDICTED THAT YOU WOULD GET YOUR 15LBER. HOLY CRAP I THINK I NEED TO GO BUY A LOTTERY TICKET !!!!!!!!!!!!

Murphy and Crupi and kodata were the first but these guys have been doing this consistantly for the last 20 years

Nope. I dont realy sponser anybody. I might give out a few baits here and there to guys who have helped me out or gotten my a new account but I do not have a sponser program. Usualy when a top BASS or FLW guy wants some baits I Give a good discount. If they mention my baits on TV or in a magazine I always thank them with some freebees or when I am testing some prototypes I remember Guys like Randall who posts up big fish with my baits. I will be sending him some prototype Mattshad swimbaits in the near future to get his thoughts and as a thank you.

Randall you are a stud! I love reading your reports. I think you you will get your 15 this year.

With the proper gear you can throw a swimbait a mile. Serously I can probably throw a hudd sized bait 100 yards. If I am casting in open water I dont care about the big splash. I was watching Mike Long one day working a shoreline with trees and he was able to side arm his hudd right under the trees from about 40yards with no splash. It was very impresive. I tried but I could not do it. I have also seen othe big names like Butch Brown hucking the Hudd as far as he could and making big splashes with the bait. So dont wory about the splash unless you are specificaly targeting a small peice of cover and you cant cast past it. Also the right rod and reel will make all the diferenc in the world. You will be much more comfortable and you will hook a lot more of those missed bites.

I agree with RW. The sad thing is the design is good

Lubing the baits helps this problem alot. I have also done this but usualy its when I was too lazy to put the lube on. I know it can still hapen but it does help

The Diawa Heartland is a poor choice to use as an example. The rod works fine for my sized baits but anything larger and its way to soft.

Craig, yes 1 day limit of 5 fish. They also dumped two big fish first thing in the morning that were around 10lbs each. Unabasser dont beleive every thing you read. Mike took Monte out to San V for his interview. The whole time they were out there Monte kept trying to get dirt on the other trophy hunters. He kept asking him questions about all the other guys. Mike ended the interview early and brought Monte back to the dock. Obviously Monte was not happy about this so he painted Mike unfavorably in his book. Monte also greatly exaggerated the fueds between all the guys. The day after Mac caught the 25.1 Mike Long and John kerr and Mac, Jed, and Mike W were all on the dock talking and Mike and John congratulated them. There were no hard feelings. I enjoyed reading Sowbelly and I think it is a great read but like I said Monte took it out on Mike L. He also mentioned how Mike gets to fish on clossed days. While this is true, it is only at one lake and he has to bring a member of the press or local celebrity. He would bring the Padre players out. Also every single one of his lake records were caught durring regular open days. Catt yes it is my opinion but I am not alone in this.

RW I dont think its "all" about the money. By nature we are all competetive. Some will deny this but deep down we all are to some extent. You get glory by catching huge fish but you also get it (maybe even more) by beating your fellow angler. It also seems that tournament fishing and trophy hunting are starting to become similar. They are scheduling more tournaments durring the spawn and they are scheduling more big events out west. The use of swimbaits in tournaments is quickly becoming common place. This is the perfect oportunity for a guy like John to make a verry good living catching bass. I think the big orginazations realize that bigger bags are better for buisiness. It makes for much better TV which bring in money from sponsers and the big fish sell more merchandise. Think about it your watching a tournament on tv and see Aaron Martins catch an 9lb limit dropshotting Robo's. and next week you see Aaron catch a 40lb limit using a swimbait. Which bait do you want to buy? I dont see John fishing for small tournament fish unless he has to. Either way I am sure its pretty exciting to win a tournament.

No brownie metal just admit you were wrong without making excusses. Are you big enough Mr Fly what you dont realize is that swimbaits have already won tons of money and tournaments. A lot of guys dont like telling what they won with. A large percentage of them out west are won with them and some of the big name pros are just learning when and were to use them. THEY ARE A TOURNAMENT BAIT!!!! When I do go to shows I meet a lot of the big name pros and every one of them has and uses swimbaits but almost none are sponsered by the real swimbait companies, thats why they dont get mentioned as much as they should. Its OK I have been wrong before to

Matt when I look at your bait I see a dangerously week link. If you were to stick a big fish on that bait I beleive your split ring would fail you. I have had split rings pull before on big fish and it sucks! I highly suggest getting some large screw eyes instead. I beleive you can get them at Stamina. BTW my first baits looked about as good as yours.

By no means am I trying to discourage you but I realy think you need to learn how to make the baits before you get a loan. I had been pouring for probably 10 years before I started my buisiness. The good news is that the baits you want to sell are very easy to make. The bad news is It will be dificult to break into a market that is grossly flooded. There are tackle making sites on the web that have tutorials that will speed up the learning curve. Just google tackle making.

Catt I love throwing them at night. I usualy start with a waking bait like an osprey type bait or a wood bait like an MSslammer. The rubber baits also work well but at night I generaly start with bigger baits on the top of the water and go smaller and deeper until I find them. Surface swimbaits are also a nice change up or follow up to buzz bait at night