River Rat316

The key for me in Rivers after rain is finding clean water dumping in, this could be from a little drainage ditch, a culvert or whatever. Next time you are on the water check for areas where water would come in, look for washouts, culverts above the waterline, or just tiny little ditches. One of my best spots is just a tiny little ditch that holds no water under dry conditoins, but in the rain its got a steady small flow of water coming in. The key to this spot is the water is clean coming in (usually) it has a lot of drop before it hits the water and that helps aerate it. it is also fairly deep and not overly fast in this area so the fish ain't going to get washed out. I have had 40 and 50 fish days from this spot. I have other spots that are just as good, but they are in town culverts and are not nearly as fun to fish as this little hidden ditch dumping in!

Thats the Bears Baits craz craw mold

I have never seen the need for a rattle when I am t-rigging a tube like this, its usually a change up bait from a jig so I like it different, including silent.

You can do that with any weight, I use a 1/4oz or larger bullet weight slid up there, or larger split shots. Owner phantom tube hooks are also nice, but they can be expensive. When you trig a tube slide the weight in there before you rig up the hook point on the back of the tube. Your hooks should keep the weight from sliding out. You might have to adjust the weight to the front sometimes cause it will slide back. One other thing you can do with this presentation is adjust where the weight is in the tube to get different falls

I just got done redoing my whole line of spinnerbaits you can see them here http://www.northstarbaits.com/spinnerbaits.html These baits have been very good to me over the last 4 years, I have caught my pb Largemouth, Northern pike, and Musky on these baits. Actually i have caught my top 3 largemouth on these baits.

There run of hooks was bad a couple years ago, they messed up the temper on them. They took care of that and they are honestly good hooks, I use them in a lot of lighter jig applications, for the price they can not be beat!

Your Married.... she already does ;D

I would take a look at the Matt lures ultimate bluegill soft bodied swimbaits, it is a very good swimbait for this, its not "cheap" but for what you get its pretty affordable

Chatterbait is not a swim jig. I swim a jig when I want something more subtle than a spinnerbait, alot of times I will see fish flashing behind the spinnerbait, but not really wanting to eat it. I find a swim jig closes the deal on these fish alot. It is also way more mobile then a spinnerbait, they come through grass alot cleaner than a spinnerbait could ever think of. As far as where and when to throw it, you can throw it in water from 45 to 80 just like a spinnerbait, you can throw it in open water to dragging it across the thickest pads and dropping it in holes. It is one of the baits that is always tied to a rod in my boat, no matter smallies or largies.

I checked them out at cabelas in Rogers last week, they looked pretty good, they are wider and rounder than a Spro BBZ-1 but they carry a good pricetag, I am going to pick a couple up for this summer, but am in no hurry right now, we have awhile to wait

Depending on how chilly, I might replace the blade bait with another jig, either hair, or a bigger or smaller profile then the one you have tied on

T rigged, or weightless, fished just like you would any other tube or jig. They can also be wacky rigged.

Read that article, it might be an early version of a Bomber? One of the founders of Bomber was named Ike Walker. I have no idea, have never heard of Walker baits.

Red Eye is a great bait for yoyoing and ripping out of the weeds, other than that there is better brands.

Hair Jig Hair Jig Pointer 78 When the water warms a little swimming a grub and spinnerbaits get worked in For coldwater hair jigs check these out: http://www.northstarbaits.com/hairjigs.html

Go to a mojo type rig you won't regret it, less hangups and easier on your line

Fishing skirts.com or look for the rubber grommets in your hardware store in the electrical section

As you can see from the pic, it is neither cloudy, or muddy water, so there are no absolutes, water clarity was around 4-5' on this lake. I also have lakes that have 10-12' clarity levels where I can work a 1oz bait in the summer down to 20+' with a #4 blade and pick up fish when I am searching with the same setup, white bait with white blade.

My 3 largest bass have come doing this in the fall, I only use a single willow though, largest came in 44 degree water doing this! Very cool - I have not taken any mogan bass like this but it is Definitely one of my favorite ways to fish in the early fall. I have never used it in that cold of water. If you don't mind sharing, what size (ounce) bait do you throw for this and what is the single blade size you prefer ? A-Jay Since they are usually shallow or "shallower" in the fall around here its usually a 3/8 with a #4 I believe it might be #3.5 though. in the 1/2 ounce its a 4 or 4.5. The day my PB came the water was on a little warming trend, we had a super cold October and then a brief warming the 1st week of November so the water actually warmed up to like 42 or 43. I started fishing slow with jigs and plastics and only had 2 smaller fish after like 3 hours. I was actually giving up but was only a couple minutes away from the ramp so I put my tm on high and started gunning a spinnerbait down what was left of the old weedline. I think on my first 4 casts I had 3 fish with 2 of them being pretty solid. So I went to a couple areas I had hit earlier with good points running out of pads and just smacked the heck out of em, ended with like 40 fish that day, all on that same spinnerbait. I have had other days (not as great but close) in fall that you would think slow would be the name of the game, but that reaction strike was working! Here is a solid fish from this fall, you can see the white blade sticking out of its mouth. It was another cold day water temps of mid to upper 40's I believe, couldn't buy a bite slow but ended up picking up 4 that would have weighed over 16lbs (good for around here) on the spinnerbait before my little boat couldn't handle the winds that were whipping up!

I have caught fish burining spinnerbaits all the way down to 43 degree water temps, its great when they are actively feeding, but also great when you need a reaction strike to get them to go. They don't have much time to decide if they want to eat it or not, when they decide to eat it though watch out! They will try to rip the rod out of your hands!

5317 does, never tried the other but I assume it would

My 3 largest bass have come doing this in the fall, I only use a single willow though, largest came in 44 degree water doing this!

It would mean Strike King paid RAD to use some of there design so they didn't get a patent infringement suit, or a cease and desist on production. I have no idea why it would be blacked out. Maybe they originally thought they were going to go that route and had it on the packaging then decided to go with they're own design so they didn't need it? I do know that if you try and use the original shape of the blade that the original chatterbait uses, you will be getting a letter.

This one is not last year, but I didn't get much time chasing smallies last year, this isn't my personal best but its a good pic and the fish is fatter than me ;D

Stickbait (senko) wacky rigged, any color for the conditions but my favs are watermelon chart flake, Green Pumpkin Gold flake, or salt and pepper!