gobig

I was not saying this bait is the end all be all of swimbaits. I am not saying its my favorite bait. I am not sponsored by... nor do I have anything to gain by saying this bait catches fish. I was simplely stating that the proper presentation, applied to the right technique, in a key location is critical. I have learned the difference between getting bit or not can be as simple as a cast landing a foot or two in the wrong direction. A lot of people want to blame the bait, the sun, the moon, the stars or what ever it may be when they don't catch fish. We all have our preferences and baits that we have confidence in. This does not mean a particular bait does not work or is ineffective. Either the time has not been taken to learn how it works or its the wrong place, wrong time. In most cases I rarely throw a swimbait that is smaller than 6in. I prefer the drawing power of a larger bait. But I will not hesitate to downsize if that is what I suspect the fish want. In the spring and summer fish it where smaller bluegill can be found in around brush and docks. This is where I have had my best success with a slow roll. Adding directional changes when the bait comes in contact with the structure or cover (you will feel your line start to tighten up. That's when you give it a good pop). Burning this bait over the weeds can be explosive and you can't crank it too fast. My most productive time with this bait is in the fall and into the winter when the bait fish are schooled up. Using it like a rip bait or letting it sink to the bottom and stroking it like a jig (rip it off the bottom and let it sink back down count to 30 and repeat). The slow roll can work well here to. This is not just a chuck and wind bait. Mix it up. If you don't give up on it you may be surprised.

http://thebbz.com/video/fish_university4inch.html Any one who thinks the only way to fish a swimbait is slow rolling it is flat wrong. These are very versatile baits and they do catch fish. The cadence, speed and action you add to the bait is only one part of the equation. If your not fishing in key locations or the right part of the water column you will have limited success.

I like straight shanks. As some have said I think the hook up ratio is better.

Its tough for me to pick one bait. It really depends on the situation and what it calls for. If I had to pick just one though. Nothing has the drawing power of a big swimbait. For now I will say the BBZ 1 Floater in silver fish. This was my most productive big fish bait last year. Worst case and you don't catch'em you will at least find out where they live. Caution your our eyes may start to look like this.

Happens every weekend through out the summer here in California. Starts in the spring and slows in the late fall. The few free launches that are left are usually full on weekends by 6am. Berryessa, Clearlake and the delta are busy places. Besides I think boat traffic effects the attitude fishermen more then the fish.

I don't know if it effects the bite right away but It makes sense that it may harm the ecosystem from the bottom up. I am not a biologist but I have seen negative effects from spraying on the delta. It may not harm the bass directly. But if it kills the plant growth, phytoplankton, then bugs and bait fish, a chain of events has started that may trickle up to the top of the food chain.

I X 2

3/4 - 1 oz dirty jig with a beaver or a fighting frog trailer.

http://kaenon.com/ Some of the better sunglasses made. You can read about what colour lenses are best for specific conditions.

Shhhhh :-X

Punker, Size and style depends on the location and conditions.

Unless your buying high end gear, which is goretex in most cases ( Like North Face). The gear will not hold up to constant rain. Most of it is water resistant or some kind of spray on repellent (inside the garmet or out) that has no longevity. I worked 6 seasons at Kirkwood and tested a ton of different snow boarding gear. Between personal riding gear and uniforms I have owned or wore most of the major brands. There maybe some new stuff out that works great but I am slow to change due to experience. I would rather spend $250 on a jacket that will keep me dry and last for 5 years then spend $150 on one that might make it through a season before it leaks. I have to add I have never tried Cabelas dryplus and I have found the columbia omnitech products almost as good a goretex.

IMO anything goretex. I spend a lot of time in a duck blind every year. I have owned several water proof jackets and pants and goretex holds up the best. The Columbia omnitec is a close second.

Fish that mud line. In most cases it's just on the surface and reduces light penetration creating shadows. It makes a prime ambush zone for bass. Even if it goes all the way to the bottom the outside edge should still be productive. Start at the outside edge and work your way in. Just like you would fish a mat. As for baits... I would start out throwing reaction type baits. Spinner baits, cranks, rip baits, swimbaits etc... If you don't get bit try finesse. Senkos can be killer in this situation. I also have had great success with wake baits in the wind.

I do not think this is a strait yes or no answer. There are quite a few variables. Generally speaking though the boater has the advantage. He has the ability to get into position to make the best possible presentation at the most productive angle. Only once have I truly ever been back seated where I had no where to fish. If your fishing a hump in 40' of water the playing field is somewhat levelled. I think the key to the back seat is fishing or doing something different. I have fished behind guys that are like vacuum cleaners and if your doing the same thing its going to be a long day.

These are baits that won't break the bank and they work. You will be able to work all of the water column with different types of presentations. Breaking in to swimbaiting is expensive. It would be easy to drop $600 on 10 baits. You can purchase all 10 of these baits for less than $250. 1. You should have a good wake bait that can be fished real slow and pushes a lot of water. I would go with a OP minnow. 2-3. Next you should have a good walk the dog bait. I would get 2 injected punkers one with rattles and one with out. 4-6. The BBZ 1 6" in all three sink rates. Because the OP minnow is kind of a one trick pony it is to your advantage to have a floater that can do more than just be slow rolled. Watch the BBZ videos. http://thebbz.com/video.html Bill explains how all three baits can be used. 7-8. Weedless hud in ROF 5 & 12. These baits have a much more subtle action then the BBZ's and can be fished in heavy cover. 9. Shell cracker G2 by black dog baits. This is a great bluegill bait. It can be fished on top or like a crank bait. 10. And last but not least Mattlures hardgill in slow sink. Unless you have a fat bank roll this list should give you a good foundation to get started. You can always up grade as you go. Plus you should be able to throw all of these baits on standard tackle. Hope this helps.

These are baits that won't break the bank and they work. You will be able to work all of the water column with different types of presentations. Breaking in to swimbaiting is expensive. It would be easy to drop $600 on 10 baits. You can purchase all 10 of these baits for less than $250. 1. You should have a good wake bait that can be fished real slow and pushes a lot of water. I would go with a OP minnow. 2-3. Next you should have a good walk the dog bait. I would get 2 injected punkers one with rattles and one with out. 4-6. The BBZ 1 6" in all three sink rates. Because the OP minnow is kind of a one trick pony it is to your advantage to have a floater that can do more than just be slow rolled. Watch the BBZ videos. http://thebbz.com/video.html Bill explains how all three baits can be used. 7-8. Weedless hud in ROF 5 & 12. These baits have a much more subtle action then the BBZ's and can be fished in heavy cover. 9. Shell cracker G2 by black dog baits. This is a great bluegill bait. It can be fished on top or like a crank bait. 10. And last but not least Mattlures hardgill in slow sink. Unless you have a fat bank roll this list should give you a good foundation to get started. You can always up grade as you go. Plus you should be able to throw all of these baits on standard tackle. Hope this helps.

For the last year of so I have been using the BBZ method of locating fish with good success. The first key to locating fish is identifying structure. The best description I have heard for structure goes like this... If you took a metal bowl (represents the lake), turned it upside down and hit it with a hammer, then flipped it back over the dents would represent the structure in a lake. Its basically the contour of the bottom with all of the cover removed. Points, ridges, humps, creek channels and flats are the primary structure that hold fish. You can find fish in or near these areas year round. Any cover (trees, weeds, tires, blocks, stumps ect...) associated to structure is added value. So the system basically works like this...any piece of structure has a value of 1. Any piece of cover on the structure has an added value of 1 point. A condition like wind could even have a point value. So for example lets take a flat. To start the flat has a value of 1. Add weeds to the flat it now has a value of 2. Lets say the edge of the flat drops off into a creek channel its now a 3. Add wind and its a 4. And so on...So using this value system some things will remain the same all the time. Things like weed growth are seasonal and things like shade and wind can change several times through out the day. Things that stay the same in most cases can be identified on a map before you ever hit the water giving you a head start. Any structure that has the same point values should have a similar bite creating a pattern. Now that the structure is broken down the next step is to find out where the fish are active in the water column. The top, middle or bottom.

You are most likely missing fish due to your hook set and rod position. Keep your rod tip down and rather than swinging hard, try reeling down loading the rod up with a sweep to the side. See if that does not help. And sometimes your just going to miss fish especially small ones.

Same here. Caught a lot of fish on the stock hook and have not lost that many. I have not seen enough need to change it. In my experience most of the time the bait is so deep there is not much leverage anyway.

Yes. I have caught fish that won't measure 13in on 8in baits.

This is a post from another forum I frequent. It was written by Derrek Stewart. I think he does a great job of defining lures as tools that are applied to techniques. I hope this helps. Crossing a Threshold A swimbait is just a tool. Another tool in your tackle bag that can be applied to many techniques. If your goal as a fisherman is to solely use swimbaits and do nothing but catch swimbait fish then as a specialist so be it. The swimbait or nothing approach is not what most of us are about. Swimbaits are not 'magic bullets' and nor are they the only lure that will catch more and larger bass. They are simply another tool. It has been well said many times here at the BBZ that tools do not define techniques. Lures are tools that are applied to fish catching techniques. These tactics are what fool fish into thinking they are accomplishing their goals when they eat our presentations, our deception. To illustrate that a lure does not define a technique let's look at a scenario. You suspect a bass has positioned itself at a submerged bush in 7' of water. The bush sits next to a boulder out-cropping on a shelf located on the side of a bluff wall. The edge of the shelf is directly adjacent the outside edge of the boulders. The boulders and the bush are at one end of the shelf where the shelf turns back into the bluff wall. The bush is on the inside of the boulders against the wall and slightly away from the drop off edge of the shelf. Water clarity allows human vision to see to depths of 10'. It has been determined that the bass are feeding heavily on bait fish. You have seen the bush and its relation to the boulders and have identified it as a funnel, a likely ambush spot. You have also considered where you feel the bass is expecting it's next meal to come from when entering the funnel. A technique; you position yourself tight to the bluff wall a good distance away from the boulder end of the shelf. Knowing that the bass are keyed in on baitfish you present a baitfish imitation, either realism or illusion, and make a cast to the other end of the shelf opposite of the boulders. You retrieve the lure on top of the shelf close to the bluff wall. As you retrieve you anticipate two deflections, one at the bush and another at the boulders. As you reach the bush first your lure deflects and then heads for the boulders. Just before you reach the boulders the bass strikes. After a solid hook-set you move her off the shelf and she is out in deep water in front of the bluff wall. She is big but you play her well and you have a nice catch. Back to the technique, notice that I did not identify a lure. The lure is a component of the technique so what tools could you apply to this scenario? A short list could be, a spinner bait, a chatter bait, a crank bait, and yes you guessed it a swimbait. In other words you can use different lures for the same technique. So if you can understand two important concepts 1) swimbaits are a tool, not a technique and 2) tools do not define techniques, you are well on your way to understanding when to use swimbaits. Does every tool apply to every technique, no of course not. You have a specific situation that calls for a task, what tool(s) when applied to a technique are best suited for accomplishing that task? Look at this way, as an angler prior to using jigs you have your tools that you are proficient with. You are good at catching bass with crank baits and plastic worms. You have heard and read about the possibilities and the big bass catching power of jigs. You're interested, you believe what you hear but the confidence level is not that high, you're not sure. Finally you cross a threshold and you are rigged with a jig. You have gathered an extensive background on them and you are getting them wet. To make a long story short time has passed, you practiced, you have gained experience and you are now an excellent jig fisherman. You are back on the water and rigged with your tools. The crank bait, the plastic worm and this time also a jig. As you go about your day on the water you indentify different situations and you are using multiple techniques to approach them. In doing so you employ the different lures at various times. You decide which ones when and where. It is not a case where you abandon your plastics and cranks and exclusively throw jigs. What you have done is expanded your skills by increasing the number of tools and options you can apply to techniques. Now go back to the previous paragraph and this one and substitute the term jig with the term swimbait. Swimbaits especially the big bait can be intimidating. They are unfamiliar to many and surrounded by myth and misconceptions. When learning how to use them understand the essence of what you are attempting to accomplish is really no different than any other lure you were once unfamiliar with.

Dirty jigs are what I use for the most part. In finesse applications I use booyah spider jigs.

I use a circle hook, an O'ring and make sure the hook point is up. I just reel down and sweep when I use senkos very similar to a dropshot hook set. If I need it weed less I just buy hooks with a wire.

Same here I would look else where.