EastTexasBassin

JJ's magic is my favorite. When I run out, I can tell the difference. Megastrike is awesome on swimbaits and frogs because it's also a lubricant

Here's mine, caught her just a couple weeks ago on the ragetail shad! 12 lbs 1 oz

When I got out yesterday morning, the first thing I wanted to do was to try out the Ragetail Shad. It's my favorite topwater bait, and I was hoping things had warmed up enough for some nice topwater action. After fishing it for about 20 minutes, I was about to switch to something else and then suddenly the water exploded! It looked like a bowling ball fell from the sky and hit my shad! The next 2 seconds were certainly the longest 2 seconds of my life. A dozen thoughts raced through my head, most of them telling me to hold on and wait until I felt the fish. The line started moving down and then I felt the weight....I set the hook and my rod doubled over. The power on the other end of the line was beyond anything I've ever felt before. "Is this really happening?" "Is this a bass?" She didn't jump or even come to the surface, she just kept running and pulling. When I finally got her to the side of the boat I completely lost it. If any of you were within a few miles of Canton, TX yesterday morning and heard of bunch of histerical screaming...don't worry that was just me. I got her unhooked and put her on the scale as quick as I could. 12 POUNDS 1 OUNCE!!! Woohoo! A new PB! I snapped a few pics and put her back. What a morning!

I sort mine by depth. Topwaters and wakebaits in one box, shallow runners in another, then medium and deep in the next. There is one box I call the "elite" box, that is occupied only by cranks that have caught a bunch of fish. These "special" cranks have earned Triple-grip KVD elite trebles. I keep stock hooks on cranks until they earn something better. That being said, I don't fish cranks that much...lol, I'm mainly a jig n plastics angler these days.

The Ragetail Shad! I've caught more fish on the RT Shad than any other topwater lure. You can fish it through thick grass or brush, and it gets BIG fish!

Congrats! I remember my first jig fish. The jig brought my fishing skills to a whole new level. I always have one tied on now.

Strike king KVD swimjig, bluegill pattern, with a watermelon/red ragetail craw or ragetail grub. I dip the trailer in chartreuse JJ's magic in sunny weather. If I could only take one lure with me, that would be it.

Roger, what do you mean by ' flank-rigging'?

Yellow magic. I don't throw any others anymore. I don't know what makes the difference, but the fish do.

He does pretty good on the boat. I started taking him out when he was 2 1/2. I thought for sure that at least one of us would end up doing some swimming, but so far we've been good. He didn't catch the crappie, I just let him hold it for the picture. He almost caught his first bass on a lure that day. He hooked a bass on a grub but it jumped and threw the bait. So far he's only caught fish on live bait. And yes, his hair was really long. He got a haircut yesterday lol.

I went back out today and brought my 3 year old son with me. The crappie in my lake really like the white grub on a drop shot. I caught a few nice ones and some little bass too. I also caught a bunch of bass on a 1/2 oz KVD swimjig with a watermelon/red grub on it. The biggest fish today was just over 5lbs.

I had a great time fishing the new ragetail grub last Monday. I caught more than 40 bass between 7am and 2pm. This little gem is certainly going to become a regular part of my arsenal. It can be rigged and fished in so many ways- I tried to cover each technique pretty well but I didn't have time to try everything I had planned. I'm going to split this up and cover some detail. Swim Jig Trailer The grub might just replace the ragetail craw as my favorite swimjig trailer. I had several doubles and triples (fish on consecutive casts) with the grub on a swim jig. The best two were the KVD bluegil pattern swimjig with a green pumpkin grub and the KVD sexy shad swimjig with a pearl grub, both of them with the tail dipped in chartreuse JJ's magic. What I liked a lot about this grub was that I could adjust the rate of fall and the vibration by tuning the tail. Yesteday, they seemed to want it moving pretty fast with a cut tail. The tight wiggle of the cut-tail grub gives it a very nice swimming action. A Mini Swimbait I caught a bunch of fish in the grass using the grub as a mini swimbait. I rigged it on a 3/0 swimbait hook with a cut tail. This made it very weedless and it had a great swimming action. I let the bait sink to the bottom, and then used a very slow and steady retrieve to make it swim just above the bottom. The fish SLAMMED it. I also caught a few fishing this rig kinda like a senko. Rigged this way, the bait falls in a horizontal position with a tight wiggle. I would sweep the bait off of the bottom and let it fall back down, then repeat. The fish mostly hit it on the fall doing this. You can also fish the grub like the ragetail shad. If you burn it along the surface, it kicks up water and makes a gurgling sound. T-rig I caught a few fish on the grub on a T-rig. I rigged it on a 4/0 hook with a 3/8 oz tungsten flippin weight. It's a great little flipping bait. I pitched it around logs and laydowns and caught several fish. A 3/0 hook might fit a bit better, I had to stretch it a bit to fit the 4/0. Dropshot The grub also makes a great dropshot bait. I only caught a few dinks doing this on Monday but I caught some nice bass and a few monster crappie fishing the grub on a dropshot last fall. I prefer the cut-tail version for this, it has a more subtle and realistic swimming motion this way. I didn't use the grub as a spinnerbait trailer or a chatterbait trailer yet, but I'll have to try that next time I'm out. I think it'll work pretty well.

I use ragetail craws and lobsters, usually with the tips dipped in chart. JJ's, and the new Ragetail Grub.

Wow, that was almost exactly what I was going to say.

Worth it to me. I don't fish lead weights anymore. They just seem so bulky and 'mushy' now. I never would have thought that it would make a difference, but I really prefer the tungsten. It sucks when I lose one, but that isn't too often.

Hard to pick a favorite, but if I had to choose one it would be the eeliminator. From skimming along the surface to deep water c-rigging, it gets bit. I can catch fish with this bait at any depth and in any weather conditions.

Funny you should ask, just a few days ago I had an awesome afternoon fishing a spook in the middle of the day. Bright sun and not a cloud in the sky, and fish after fish were coming up and nailing it.

A-Jay, please blur or edit out the one at the top right. Others might start throwing it!

I haven't thrown any mouse lures but I think I should. Twice now I've caught bass in my lake that had rat tails sticking out of their throats. That lure looks pretty nice. I'm sure I'll try one. I have caught quite a few fish on the Koppers frog. Very realistic looking and I like that it has a wider body than the similarly sized spro frog. The body is also softer and the hookup ratio is much better than other frogs.

On a very windy day when the bite is tough, I go to a heavy weight drop-shot rig. I'll use a 1/2 to 3/4 oz weight with a 15lb flouro leader, tied to a 40lb braid mainline on a 7ft med/heavy baitcast setup. (My c-rig setup) For baits, I like a cut-tailed RT thumper, RT baby craw, roboworms, and small flukes.

My favorite lure to use around algae is the eeliminator. You can crawl it over the mats and then dance it through the open pockets. I fish it weightless on a 4/0 hook. It stays pretty clean

My most productive jig trailer is the ragetail lobster. It doesn't look exactly like a crawfish and i've never seen a crawfish that flapped its claws up and down, but it works. Looking realistic doesn't seem to be as important as simply looking alive.

I dont really set the hook at all when fishing a buzzbait. I use braided line and a medium heavy rod with a fast action tip. When they hit it, they hook themselves. I just raise the rod and start reeling in the fish

I would try retrieving it faster. My favorite retrieve is burning it either on or just below the surface. I know this sounds backwards, but preventing the fish from getting a good look at it will often trigger a more aggressive strike

The thumper is my favorite worm. You can tune the tail to change the frequency of the vibration. More here ---> http://ragetalk.com/index.php?topic=2347.0