bigbill

I got some red/pink silver flake grubs in a grab bag of baits from Mr twister website for $1.20 once. I got 3 of them and the first day i tried them the bass were killing it. I don't see this color anymore. They had a pink inner color with a see thru red color on the outside plus the silver flakes. I just had clark custom lures manufacture me some Pearl / Pink sunfish crankbait lures to match the live ones i caught. His workmanship is excellent. He made them exactly what i explained to him.

My best early morning lures so far have been; 1.Rebel BIG Claw crawfish in chartruese/black back (Dark to dusk) #1 (10lber so far) right along a weedline next to a channel. You can walk the dog or pop it 3 times and pause but timing it right is the key to success do it right for awesome topwater action. 2.BPS Topnocker #25 in color (dark to dusk) #2 this a fish caller and one of the loudest rattle topwater baits. 3.Bomber FAT A in apple red crawdad (dusk) #3 this is one lure you can use topwater by letting it sit or crank it slow. 4. Rapala orginal floater 2" in blue/white (dusk) #4 just throw it and reel it slow or jerk and pause it at day break. 5. Strike king inline spinner silver/black tail (dusk first light) 6. Joes flies in firetiger apache & glo tiger in low light (1/4ox bass size) 7. Joes flies in blackgnat (1/4oz bass size) (dusk to first light) 8. torpedo 9. Top prop tri alive in firetiger over weeds. (weedless) 10. Mepps timber doodle size "00" or #1 in silver/white trailer. Just drop it in the weed pockets.(weedless) These are a few of my hottest baits fishing the shoreline from shore. They have to be awesome from a boat its only fishing it backwards.

They hit the middle sized money minnow over the smaller one for some reason. I haven't thrown the largest one yet but i did buy an assortment of sizes and colors to test them all. Bigger bait, bigger fish.....

Its the best topwater calling lure i have ever used. I just stocked up on them not too long ago. I hope they still have them.

In the thick over grown topwater stuff i bring a larger saltwater rod with a lure with many trebles on it to clear the water so i can fish first. It pays off because for weeks that area is clear to fish. Year after year of clearing this spot i call shot gun alley its staying clear now. Its like having a small channel to fish in now.

Its 1 fish per senko. But i switched to bassproshops stick o baits. They last longer, so much longer i have a bag of used ones i just gave away.(I help others catch fish too) Its hard to stay with one senko type bait manufacturer because of certain colors too. I use the gambler ace in blue flake too. The stick o in red amber flake. On a 1/8oz carolina rig from shore at the dropp off's.

I run the hook the way you would do a tube. And back up the point just enough to cover it weedless. I maybe sleeping at the controls a little too. At first I was using a med rod and now I mainly use my med/hvy topwater rod with 12lb test. I guess I have to focus more on hooksets. I was watching from shore a big fish tearing up the weeds/lilly's in this one spot for weeks every morning just out of my reach. One day she came within my cast. I nailed a 6lb1oz lmb and as i had her in my hands i watched the water in the lilly's still churning up. So there are more than one big fish in the small pond. She missed my topwater bait on the first pass and swirled around to make a second pass. Luckily i didn't move it when i seen her turn around. I have caught pickerel that looked like northern pike there too. (28")

Do you need a saltwater license in maine?

I'm just north of waterbury,ct. we fish the housy when we can too. I go along the dirt road and fish for bass. Up a little farther i see pike in the water so they say the big swirls in the water are pike. Soon i want to target them when the waters calm down. I'm sure there are big bass up there too. Bill

I been fishing the same places with two of my buddy's everyday. Lately the success has been way off. I meet with them the other day and they admitted the fishing was really bad. I threw out a money minnow and had strikes right away. My question is i can't hook them up? The strikes happen so fast. My money minnow lost an eye yesterday and it had teeth marks in the head too. I did notice i had two very fast strikes. Why do i get so many misses? I'm using a 5/0 and 7/0 hook in the mid size and larger size.

I have these in every size and color too. I would try it in the early mornings and late evenings as the sun goes down and the topwater bite increases. Stay trying it sooner or later you will figure it out and it will work. You need to figure out what presentation to use too at that time. Stay with that one lure and practice presentations with it and you maybe surprised what happens when you get it right. There's no trick just fish it and practice with it. We know the fish are there its figuring out the presentation. I have spent a lot of $$ buying up all different kinds of lures to test out and see if they work or not since i have the time to fish everyday being retired. I'm slowly finding out they all work sooner or later.

I'm in CT too where are you fishing? The housy? the farm? River fishing here we go its my favorite place for stronger pullin bass. These fish are going to golds gym when swimming in the river current. Even notice how much more they fight? Do you see any natural baits that are nearby were your fishing? I see tons of empty crawfish shells along the shore were i fish a river. Thats a clue as to what there main diet is. Ok with that said I never used a topwater bait in a flowing river. I been using the rebel crawfish chartruese lures(smaller ones) and the panther martins (silver/yellow fly) most of the time and we been piling up the bass. The crawfish lure can be used topwater too by letting it float across the pools. I do the same thing with the inline spinners by holding my rod up and dancing it across the pools. Now if your fishing the slower currents thats another story. Its the water conditions and the lure color and how clear the water is and your lure speed. It all matters if your looking for success. It seems to me the fish are always on at rivers they never stop looking for a meal. Take your time and figure the pattern out thats the most fun. I enjoy the challange as well as seeing them come to life and strike my baits when most say there's no fish here. Some more food for thought? Do you wash your hands before going fishing? Do you use scents to attract fish and to cover our human scent? Does your tacklebox smell? It could be on your lures too. I wash my tacklebox and lures often. I will give you a tip about my hottest topwater bait. Its the bass pro shops topnocker #25. You can still fish it, pop it, walk the dog or even speed it up underwater. It has a very loud rattle. Your river maybe too fast for it. That can be a problem too the river maybe too fast flowing for topwater baits. When i think of rapids i think inline spinners like mepps, panther martins and joes flies.

Any fishing reports about the lakes and rivers? All this rain sure has the bite way off lately. I was wondering how high is the water on the housy and the farmington river?

I try to switch color / model when the bait I am using tends to slow down.

On my first cast its the BPS Topnocker #25 in color loaded up with either baitmate bass scent or YUM shad scent to get things going. This sets the tone on what mood the fish are in wether its topwater or going to either crankbaits or inline spinners next. Using scents has proved itself over and over. I like the YUM money minnow at the surface too.

My hottest crankbait colors so far have been; Manns baby 1 in crawdad brown(hottest #2) Bomber FAT A 05 in redcraw(hottest #1) Bomber FAT A 05 in greencraw Bomber FAT A 05 in browncraw Bomber FAT A 05 in chartruese Bomber FAT A 05 in babybass orange bottom (4 are tied for hottest #3) Every lure i have tried with an orange bottom has caught fish.

After being away from bass fishing for a while i'm back!!!!!! I been having problems with my back plus the new mini farm has kept me busy too. I never knew i missed bass fishing this much. I found out if i switch between a 6 1/2" rod and the 6' / 5 1/2' rods my back sometimes won't bother me the whole time. I think throwing the 6'6" rods hurts my back more. Does anyone wear a back brace? Does it help?

I have had a large pickerel at the shoreline dropoff rip my spinnerbait off my line just as i took it out of the water it was about 30" long. I have lost lures in another spot at dawn many times. The strike is so hard it rips the lures off everytime. I figure its a large smallie. I went from 8lb test to 12lb test with a steel leader so soon i will see whats doing it and it has a supply of my lures hidden somewhere too. Its happened to my buddies in the same spot too. In another place the fish has broken a few rods so far. I lost a topwater lure with 14lb test so far. It makes a sweep at your lure and its gone down into the weeds forever. Its a really big largemouth.

I started using senko's with a 1/8oz carolina rig from shore with great success. I was using the red/flake ones and i found out its one fish per senko. I would also use the larger broken piece on the carolina rig too. Then i found the sticko's at BPS and they last longer and there cheaper than senko's. The sticko in amber red flake work the best in my area. Now the other hot color is the gambler ace in electric blue flake. But i think there discontinued. Even the gambler worms in electric blue flake work great too.

My tackle room is bigger than the one at infisherman with all my favorite and discontinued stuff. I'm buyinmg a ton more of discontinued stuff this month. I have over $300 on my plastic already. I buy stuff just to test it to see if it catches fish or not. What i'm finding out is there is no lure that doesn't catch fish at one time or another. But some seem to be hotter at it than others. On some slow days the slower lures seem to work better. I have found out you can't use the same lure everyday at the same place and expect to catch fish in the same spot year after year. The fish do learn our baits. I try to stay ahead of them using different stuff and presentations. Sometimes i notice a different scent can make a difference too. I use scents on everything but senko type baits. If i get a miss on a senko type bait its the shot of scent that makes the hookup on the next cast 100% sure. Its a good trick to fool them.

I fish from shore mainly small ponds and dammed ponds were they used water for power over 100 years ago. The Manns hank parker classic isn't available in there 1/8 oz spinnerbait in white anymore. After tuning and playing with it like Glenn said here it became one of my most successful baits using it from shore. I changed the single spoon to a larger spoon from a larger classic spinnerbait and used the blue tinited skirt and the mr twister double tail trailer. This is a killer setup. I did the same setup with the chartruese spinnerbait too. The 1/8oz spinnerbaits are nop longer offered at manns.

Anyhoo i go thru a ritual of baits when i first start fishing to see what they want and the topwater is always my first to tray at anytime.

I see my favorite stuff is being discontinued all the time now. Most are my hottest baits fishing from shore too. We had a contest oneday against livebait(minnows) against my Mepps Timber Doodle size 00 silver/white in color.(weedless lure) We were in the mid summer thick weeds. I was reeling it very slow and dropping it into the weed pockets. I was equal in catching fish for a while then my numbers were higher as time went on. I'm not knocking livebait its the cost of fishing everyday with livebait that was killing my wallet. I was up to $50 and more a week. I learned that mepps is discontinuing the size 00 timber doodle. I just ordered many of them to stock up on them. Even Culprit has started discontinuing there worms too These 4", 6", 7 1/2", 10" and 12" have been my favorites for eons. Even Mann's has discontinued the Hank Parker spinnerbait line too. This is all i use and have my best success in shore fishing with them too. I do like trying new stuff too but i still use the old stuff too. I just think i'm getting old when my 60's and 70's tackle is at antique shops now too. I find it hard to let the old stuff go that still works for me. Thanks to Glenn here he taught me about spinnerbaits. I finally caught on how to adjust them and set them up for success. I'll never forget Glenn for doing that. This site is awesome for learning too.

I been testing scents for quite a few years now. So far my best results have been with baitmate, yum and the bang scents. I haven't tried anything else yet. These seem to work great so far.

I use the Mepps/MrTwister split double tail grubs for trailers on all my spinnerbaits.