EastTexasBassin

Way to go man, that's a nice day for sure.

I was about to mention my last trip but you beat me to it. ;D

This was my first time to use them, and I'm really happy with them. The wire trailer keeper on it is genius. I bet more jigs are going to start using it, it's far easier to use than anything else I've tried before. I just picked up a few more in the sexy shad color, can't wait to try 'em out.

Yep, that's right...and I never would have guessed it. Tuesday was one of the weirdest winter days of fishing I've ever had. We had nearly a week of lows in the teens here in Texas, and the water temps are pretty cold. I got out on the water at dawn and for the first 3 hours of fishing I didn't get a single hit. I fished mostly deeper water, as well as a steep drop off area by the dam. I tried craws, thumpers, annies, jigs, and a lipless crankbait but no takers. I noticed on the sonar that there were a lot of fish suspended pretty high up in the water column. Most of these fish were only 3 feet from the surface. So I headed up the creek to see if I could find some active fish in the shallows. I threw a bunch of baits but no luck. I remembered a bit that KVD did in the last episode of The Bass Pros in which he was burning a swimjig on the surface like a topwater lure. He was burning it so fast that the jighead stayed up out of the water and his ragetail craw was splashing around on the surface. I had just picked up a few of those KVD swimjigs a few days earlier, so I tied one on and I wanted to see how fast I would need to reel to keep the half ounce one with a Lobster up on the surface. Well, turns out you gotta reel VERY fast to keep that 1/2 ounce jig up on top like that. So I was pretty much just playing around, burning this swimjig and Lobster around and all of sudden this bass rockets up out of the water just behind my jig and comes back down with a huge SPLASH! It scared the crap out of me! I pitched the jig back at the spot where this fish was and hopped and dragged it through there several times but no luck. Then I made a long cast past this spot and burned it across the surface again, and she SMASHED IT! I was laughing so hard as I reeled this fish in. I don't think I've ever seen a topwater strike in January, and this one was unbelievably violent. So then I tied up a 3/8 oz KVD swim jig on another rod, put a ragetail baby craw on it, and started burning it around as I moved up the creek. I caught several more fish, each of them exploding on it at the surface. I couldn't believe it, I couldn't get a bite unless I was burning my jig across the surface. The water temp was 44 degrees. What were these bass thinking??? Then I tied on a black cavitron buzzbait and caught a couple more fish, just so I could say I caught fish on a true topwater lure in January. My buddies were so surprised to hear how I was catching fish on Tuesday. It was a blast!

Looks good to me, especially the Lobster jig. That's been a consistent producer for me in cold and warm waters.

That's a heck of a package man, very nice. Many of my favorite lures in there.

In the winter I always go big first, and only when I can't get a bite at all I'll go to something smaller. During the winter, BIG jigs with ragetail lobsters are usually my best bet. When that doesn't work, I'll go to something small on a drop shot. one extreme to another...

LC RC wakebait in pearl/purple For the 0 to 12 inches range, its hard to beat the bandit footloose. Once I got some of these, I took my Mann's -1's out of my tackle bag. They have been replaced. The footloose has a much better action and it outfishes the -1 every time. (for me) The ragetail eeliminator is a great bait for fishing just under the surface as well. Especially when the fish want something a bit slower or if there's grass/pads around.

Top soft baits were Ragetail Thumper, Ragetail Anaconda and Ragetail Shad. Top hard baits were Yellow Magic, SK Series 3, and Norman Middle N. (yes, I know that's 6...oh well)

Water temps in northeast Texas have been hovering around 50 lately, but it's snowing today. Highs are in the 30s for the next few days and the water temps are going to drop significantly.

My friend Danny and I caught our first few fish of 2011 yesterday. We caught all of our fish except for one on green pumpkin/black jigs with ragetail dirty craw trailers. I caught one on a t-rigged watermelon red thumper. It was a tough bite, we fished almost all day and only caught 4 bass each. I tried fishing a lot of other baits yesterday, but the jig 'n craw was the only thing they really wanted. We got bit working it SLOW through laydowns with long pauses between movements.

Yep. That's a cut tail candy craw thumper. Merry Christmas to you and your family as well Big-O!

I use the Lobster most of the time, I only go down to the craw when the bite it tough or I run out of Lobsters in the color I'm catching 'em on. The lobster is hard to beat, and I don't think it's anywhere near big enough to be 'too big' I've caught some nice fish on a jig 'n Lobster, but I've also caught several 8 to 10 inch fish on it. They didn't have any problem eating it. The Ragehawg is a great jig trailer too, as is the spacemonkey.

Had a decent day on the water Tuesday. For the first 4 hours I didn't get a single bite, and I started to get that sinking feeling that I might get skunked. Then things picked up in the afternoon. I had to go SLOW to get a bite. They just weren't interested in anything that was moving too much. I didn't catch anything big, just a bunch of dinks and a few in the 1 to 2 lb range.

I didn't know Big O made crankbaits, I thought he was more of a soft plastics guy. jk

The line/hook/bait will depend on the lake you're fishing and the kind of structure/cover you've got. I go pretty heavy on the weight, from 1/2 oz up to an ounce. I like to use a big circle hook and 17 to 20lb flouro. For the baits, there are so many choices but don't limit yourself to the small ones. I've had a lot of success drop-shotting 10 to 12 inch worms like the Ragetail Anaconda and Ragetail Thumper. Creature baits do well on a drop shot as well. My most successful bait overall is the the Ragetail baby craw. Play with different lines, weights, and baits and make your own drop-shot style. There are so many options, there really is no 'best' setup.

I bought a Norman 'wake' bait but I'm very disappointed. It isn't a wake bait at all. It dives too deep. Only with a VERY slow retrieve could this thing stay near the surface. The Bandit footloose is pretty nice and the Lucky Craft RC jointed wakebait is cool too. The footloose stays up high if you hold your rod tip up. The RC stays right on the surface, no matter how fast you retrieve it.

couple more pics

Had a great time on the water yesterday. The baby thumper wins again for numbers and the biggest fish of the day. It was also cool to catch what were probably my last few topwater fish of this year. Temps have been getting up to 80 degrees the past few days, which is unusual even for Texas this time of year. I caught most of my fish with the red shad thumper, t-rigged and on a drop shot. The big girl hit a t-rigged watermelon/red baby thumper. I also caught one on a white shad and one on a Falcon Toad. (toad in falcon craw color)

I'm not much of a Crappie fisherman, but I got my hands on some of the new Ragetail Slab Hammer Crappie Grubs and I had to try them out. I rigged a black and chartreuse grub on a small circle hook on a drop shot. I fished it for about a half hour and caught a couple crappie and a couple small bass. Pretty nice action on this little thing.

I had a lot of fun with the baby thumper Tuesday morning. This thing is really growing on me and I like how much the action of the bait changes when you 'tune' the tail. I found some brushpiles in about 12 feet of water that were holding some fish. I started with the tail full length and caught several fish. Once they seemed to stop biting, I cut the tail and worked over the area again. I picked up several more fish on the same brushpiles with the cut-tail thumper. My biggest fish was 4lbs 7oz. (first 2 pics) Most of the fish were in the 1 to 2 lb range. The color of choice this time was red shad.

Ragetail Anaconda is my favorite by far.

I like owners but gammies are ok too. Lately I've been using Moaner screw lock hooks and swimbait hooks and they're really nice. Probably the best deal out there for the price. Fish after fish after fish and they're still sharp as hell and the shape is just right imo.

I just started using duolock snaps (love them!) but I haven't removed the split rings from my crankbaits yet. So far I haven't had any issues, but I'm going to remove them anyways because its just unnecessary hardware on the front of the bait and I don't think it looks right.

Well I guess I'm the only weirdo that dropshots a craw. The ragetail baby craw has been my most productive dropshot bait by far. A cut-tail thumper is pretty good too.