gobig

basstrix

I fish for spot's quite a bit. They will pretty much eat anything a large mouth will. But say I was going to with my nephews and just wanted them to catch fish, my top 5 choices to put numbers in the boat would be... 1. dropshot w/roboworm 2. 3in tube rigged with a 3/16oz darthead 3. 1/8oz darthead with a roboworm 4.Deep little'N 5.a single tail grub or a hula grub on a 1/8-3/16oz darthead. It is hard to go with just the 5 things I listed. For one they do not cover all of the water column but you should be able to put some fish in the boat.

When you rule out options you sell your self short. Any bait out there has its time and place. There is no one bait that works all the time. It is what works at that moment in time and swimbaits have their place just like jigs, shakey heads, drop shot etc... I know of guys who have 15-20 fish days in northern states like Idaho, Minnasota and Colorado on swimbaits, in water temps that are in the 30's, (we only get down to the high 40's here) with outside temps in the teens and snow on the ground.

Swimbaits can be thrown year round with success. Generally when its cold its best to fish them painfully slow. If its cold the fish are probably in pre-spawn and if you hit it at the right time you can put some really big bags together.

Re-spool with heavier line

I guess I am in.

IMO the line you were using is not heavy enough. 20lb is the lightest line I throw swimbaits on. You do not really have to worry about the fish being line shy. As far as the type of line I use mono or co-polymer. You can use florocarbon on soft baits but when you change up to a hard bait it fouls in the hooks to easy for my liking. I use CXX and Maxima. What you described sounds like you got bit to me. In my experience most of the bites you get slow rolling an ultimate gill feel like a solid tick. Kinda like a violent jig bite. Set the hook right away, the big girls will spit a swimbait fast. If you swing and miss go right back to swimming the bait. Often times they will hit it again. You either had a nick in your line or a toothy fish got a hold of it from the sounds of it. Constantly check your line looking for nicks or abrasions when you fish swimbaits along the bottom. Also retie fairly often there is a lot of stress on that knot.

Alberto knot.

As long as it takes to effectively cover the location. Limiting your self to an exact number of casts can be crippling. The number of casts is completely situational. IMO this is more about time, than how many casts. This is a judgement call that is honed through experience. Here are a few things to consider. Bait size - I have to agree with Fish Chris. When throwing big swimbaits, its either going to happen or its not. The drawing power of a big bait is huge and the big girls will move a long way to get them. The smaller a bait is in size the more casts that are required to cover the area. Water clarity - Think of it this way, your sitting in a duck blind on a blue bird day. You can see birds 500+ yards away. Now add fog to the equasion. The birds are so close you can hear them. You know they are there, you just can see them until they are close enough to break out of the fog. This is similar to water clarity, in clear water less casts are needed then in stained water. Cover - The more obstructions there are in the line of sight the more casts that will be required.

What type of waters are you fishing? The answers given seem relative to what people are fishing personally. There can be huge differences in bodies of water. For instance if you were to fish a place like the CA Delta, not having a heavy rod is a recipe for heart break. Going to the opposite extreme, if you fish deep crystal clear waters a medium light rod for going finesse is also a must. If where you are fishing is really diverse, I would add those two rods to what Raul suggested.

That's just it... you can see the obstructions. Think about it for a second. Radar has been used by the military since WW2, airports use it to navigate planes, Police use it bust speeders and its even used for measuring droplets of rain. I am sure everyone has heard of doppler radar. As stated above you can't cure stupid but if radar was so dangerous why do so many different industries rely on it. Not to mention most of which would suffer huge casualties in the event of failure.

Radar is a very effective means for navigation. It has been used for years in salt water fishing. As with anything there is risk involved and there is a level of common sense that needs to be exercised. Many of our lakes out West have a significant amount of debris from rain and snow run off that can last well into the spring. Lower units and props get destroyed on clear days every year. If you were in a boat travelling 60mph and saw an obstruction at 200ft you would have the same amount of time to react at half the distance (100ft) travelling half the speed (30mph). So to answer your question, yes, you go around it. A boat is not confined to a lane on a street. Speed and your ability to react are the determining factors. As far as bow waves go you should be able to anticipate them based on the fact that you can see the other boats.

I have not fished any of the baits you mentioned. However big top waters do catch fish all over the country. I realize I am in California and the first thing people think is well you have trout for forage. Though this is true, through the internet I have met several people through out the country who have successfully used these types of baits. With these types of baits you will catch fish of all sizes. My two favorites are the supper spook and the punker.

fish uphill

California Largemouth 21lbs 12oz (Then there was the unofficial catch of Dottie 25lbs 1oz) Smallmouth 9lbs 13oz Spotted bass 10lbs 4oz Striper 67lbs 8oz

http://www.bassanglermag.com/2010/08/a-37-53lb-5-bass-limit-in-western-oregon/

In the belief system I have adopted there are baits that create an illusion and there are those that sell realism. Illusion type baits are generally faster moving baits. spinner baits, swim jigs, buzzbaits are just a few illusion type baits. I am talking about the baits you looked at when you first started and you thought why would a fish hit that? You don't look at a swim jig and say to your self, Wow that really looks like a shad. But fished properly swim jig can represent many different types of forage. Many of the lakes I fish are gin clear and I do not buy into the fact that in order to work in clear water it has to be windy or cloudy, however these type of baits do excel in those conditions. There are many scenarios where a swim jig can be effective on a clear calm day in gin clear water. I will give you a few examples... Areas that have large shadows like along docks or bluff walls. Another good area is along mud lines created by boat traffic. It may be different across the country but out west many times the mud line is like a canopy. The water below is clear. They also work well over weed flats. When the fish are down in the grass tick the tops of the weeds and hang on. There is some good info out there on where, when and how. KVD has a good video on using spinner baits in less than perfect conditions. You can find it on the bass pro shops website. Bill Siemantle has been doing some v-logs on TW also. As far as color goes, that is a judgement call. If the bass are feeding on bluegill common sense would be to start with a bluegill pattern. But who knows sometimes they want pink or some other random color. I would start with the basic color patterns. White, white & blue, white & chartruse, red & black, bluegill. Something along those lines.

I wonder if its certain sizes or brands of spinnerbaits that don't stay in place. Most of mine are wareagle and they go from 3/8oz up to 3/4 oz.

I have had the same issue.

Roboworms sink until the salt has dissolved. This takes about 30 min in the water. I dropped a new one over the side and it went to the bottom. Later it floated up. Got on their website and there is a page that explained the salt release and how the worm responds. The salt is in the head of the bait so maybe the tail dose float up in the beginning I have never tested it.

60% of the time... it works every time.

To me finesse fishing is not defined by the particular bait you use. It has to do with the precision in making accurate presentations. In the tackle world the term "finesse" generally means down sizing. Finesse is a technique that is not relative to the size of the bait. You can finesse a 10in worm just as easy as a 4in worm. I think the generalized term "finesse" is misleading. This question is way to open ended. What are the fish doing? are they suspended? clinging close to structure? Are they buried in the cover? There are no magic bullets. If you asked 10 different people this same question you could get 10 different answers. If there was a "most productive presentation" there would be no need for any other presentations. There is only what is most productive in the moment.

Its the way you are casting it. Just like a deep little N or a DD22 when the bait goes through the air tail first you get a lot more distance. Just takes a little practice. Tell him to contact spro or the store he bought it from they will make it right.

I would rather buy them without rattles for less and have the option to upgrade them.

There is more to choosing a swimbait then buying one you think looks cool or you heard someone caught a good fish on. You need to think about what kind of structure and cover you are fishing around. Is it rocky? over weed beds? Are you looking for a bait that fishes fast ?or slow? One with a lot of tail kick? or a subtle tail kick? How deep are you fishing? What part of the water column are you trying to fish? With more info you can select the best bait for what you want to do. Out of the baits you have mensioned I have used the osprey and the baitsmith. Both are killer baits. They do not have a ton of tail kick. I believe the Osprey only comes in a slow sink. Now I am assuming you are talking about the 6in baitsmith. This bait sinks 1ft per sec and the magnum is a 1ft 1/2 per sec if I remember right. These are going to get down towards the bottom pretty quick.