CRFisher

I had that same thing happen a few weeks ago deadsticking a fluke.

How can you judge the bass's weight from the photo? Otis might be 6'11" or he could be 5'3".

Are they running up river yet? They chase the herring up through Boston Harbor. I've seen a surfcaster or two on the river but not sure if they're looking for Stripers or big Carp. I'll probably give it a shot tomorrow morning. What bass lures do you recomend for Stripers? Since they are chasing herring I was going to stick to silver patterns, starting with a spook and then moving down the water column. If the herring are running it's good for the bass too, as they congregate to fill up on herring themselves.

Set the hook regardless, many times it will shake off the weeds.

To me they look like Storm wildeyes with a bite taken out of them. They should catch fish, whether they outfish other similar lures remain to be seen. The over-the-top marketing claims are another story. They slather on quite a bit of BS onto the product. To me, if anyone is making it so you have to buy $20 or $30 of soft plastics to give it a try it sounds suspicious - like they're worried you won't be buying any more.

It should work... but then again this worked as well..

Anyone try the Hocust Locust? It's basically a Jitterbug - wasn't sure if there was any difference beside looks. I figure from below the water they probably look no different to a bass.

The manufactureres always talk about leaving a "scent trail" etc. I just wonder as they chop up real fish and concentrate the stinkiest parts into a gel, liquid, etc. if it will ever get to the point that it's no different than chumming. Or if they'll perfect it to get to the point where a scented cottonball with a hook through it will catch fish. It will be interesting to see if tournament rules change over the next 20 years or so. On electronics, I remember when I was a kid a lot of older fishermen seemed to view it as "cheating". That part of the skill was finding where the fish were. It's a moot point since everyone has them though.

I don't see why it wouldn't work, based on my hazy recollections of a sleepless night seeing the infomercial. Soft plastic paddle tail like the Storm Wildeye baits or maybe the Panther Martin Vivifs. They should work, whether the durability, hook quality is any good remains to be seen. The Storm baits are very inexpensive, not sure how these compare price wise.

I stuffed some tubes with a little minced garlic last year. Results were weak but I think it was more the Zoom tubes than the garlic. I don't like their tubes at all. I debated the same thing with coffee but never got around to it. The garlic can't hurt much but not sure if vaseline is a good thing to have in the water. Since it's petroleum based it's scent might put off the fish as well.

Here's a question, especially for tournaments, ever think there will be a line crossed where scents are no longer considered "artificial" and thus a lure with them not artificial? The main ingredients in many of these seem to be real fish. Not an issue for recreational fishing, but grinded up fish put in gel seems very similar to things that are banned in tournaments.

Crawfish on a shad to a bass may be like chocolate plus peanut butter to us. Until they start talking we won't know. What scent is powerbait? I have a few guesses but most of them involve roadkill. Nasty smell seems to work.

I would say there are paddle tail swimbaits and jointed, sectionalized swimbaits. I always thought the realism of the bait was part of the package. It has to look like a fish, not just swim like a fish. So I would say the plastic baits with no detail don't fit the bill but the detailed ones would, but each in their own subsection.

Slow retrieve. I find the slow wobble still gets the wary ones. I'll use it when I get follows and no hits on a rapala or if I know the fish are there.

I have only fished them once or twice, but I've been rigging them with a tube jighead, with the eye protroding out the tail of the bait, the hollow body makes this rigging easy., fished it pretty much the same way as t-rig.

I only have them with braid, especially since I can't find my scissors and been using a pocket knife. They bother me, but I'll only spend so much time trying to cut them off with a pocket knife. They can't impact the action of the bait. I do wonder if some old excess gets in the knot, whether it can impact knot strength.

I stopped fishing about twenty years ago and just got back into it last year. I was at Bass Pro shops looking for some River Runts and some Jelly worms. Jitterbugs always work. Hula poppers as well, but I think most frog, popper baits are an upgrade on the Hula popper. All the spoons will work. First early morning fishing outing this year I started at 6:30 am with a Jitterbug and got my first topwater bass this year. I always viewed Daredevles as more of a Pike bait. I had a bad early season outing and resorted to using one trying to catch some decent sized pickerel and ended up catching a bass. I bumped into a guy tearing them up last year on a small black and white Daredevle. I think for pure fish catching (dinks and all), little compares with a Mepps Aglia, which I think is somewhat unchanged since the 1920's. I'll still throw a flatfish, the slow wobble still gets them. When the herring ran last year up river, the bass were feeding on them, the flatfish seemed to do better than Rapala's.

Tough to name just three.. These are the 3 favorites I feel like watching at the moment. Jaws Stalag 17 Trading Places

Technically I think I snagged it but caught a gigantic freshwater clam today on a fluke I was deadsticking. The hook got right in it's mouth, it fell off the hook before I could get a picture though.

A lot depends on the strength of the current. I mostly fish my local river that I grew up on, some places you fish no different than a pond due to lack of current. The stronger the current, the more likely I'm finding fish behind cover, saving their strength behind something that protects them from the current. You may find some baits don't work well either with strong current, as they work on resistance, which isn't there. Some spinners and even some cranks won't run right in strong current if you're fishing with the current. I've had some luck in such situations fishing against the current, you can deadstick a rapala and it will swim due to the current and look like it's struggling to swim upstream. It works best when the herring run.

I've had the same problem, the wire bends easily. It appears related to only the Red Eye model, as I haven't had any issues with their other spinnerbaits. The one I got at Wally World gets out of tune just about anytime the bait gets caught up in anything. It's like the wire is made out of lead.

Probably thinking of a Deps Buzzjet, unless you are you talking a topwater type like a Heddon torpedo or a Devils Horse? Cordell has the Boy Howdy and a shad bait as well. *** carries the Buzzjet.

Never been there personally but Mass Wildlife has some dated info on it. http://www.mass.gov/dfwele/dfw/habitat/maps/ponds/pdf/dfwcong.pdf

Had my first luck with a topwater, it was a dink, but still. Yesterday morning on a jitterbug.

I have to agree with Sir Snookalot, if they aren't hitting plastic worms they probably aren't there. I just got back into fishing last year after 20 years out of it and have had a lot of poor days. Finally I realized the problem, they weren't there. On top of worms I would say inline spinners are good as well. If I'm having trouble I'll go to a Mepps spinner than a worm, or a senko. If those, on top of what else you threw, are coming up empty - move on, there's most likely nothing there. I would also suggest you try the Ohio Fish and Game website to see what detail you can get on lakes. I've gotten some OK info from the Massachussets site, Ohio may have something similar. Details on lake access, depths, even the type of baitfish can be helpful. I'll scope out someplace new online the night before I head there. Google maps help as well, just trying to find where coves, etc. are.. Also, read everything you can under the fishing articles here.