BARON49_Northern NY

St. Lawrence River/Lake Ontario region. Crawfish seem to get the attention of both Largemouths and Smallmouths. If I could only pick one bait it would be a jig the imitates craws.

Good to know there are plenty of others out there that go nuts over froggin'. I will have my Toads and Frogs ready to go by the middle of Feb and wash the winter off them in Lake Toho.

Most used plastics get put in the trash with the execption of soft swimbaits and maybe a beaver that had the head torn after one of two bites. A little drop of Mend-It and they are back as good as new.

I have had excellent success using the rage chunk as a jig trailer and the buzzfrog has produced very well too.

Rolo, Yes, I gave up on the St. Johns River. I headed down to the Kissimmee Chain of lakes a actually was able to catch a few fish. Have really enjoyed the central Florida area and all the lakes. Got spoiled with fishing the hydrilla but when I got there last year all the hydrilla in the southern and middle section of Toho was gone. Just wanted to see how effective they were again this year so I have some idea as to where to start this year.

Read where they sprayed both Toho and Kissimme around mid-Dec/2009. Anyone know how much of the hydrilla has been effected by the spraying?

This is an umbrella rig, we use them for trolling for Stripers. Bluefish will knock the hell out of them too.

This is the correct version. I remember buying creme worms and running a sprout hook thru the egg sag back in the early 70's. Read about this rig in one of the Hunting and Fishing magazines back then as the hot new way to catch bass.

Bottom line is if you are fishing waters with a lot of Pickeral, Northern Pike, and Muskys losing a $70 lure to a bite off is not a good thing.

Books have been written about each of these baits and for every opinion there are many with opposing thoughts. Weight the information given and find what works for you. In the situation you have described a Rattle trap fishing quickly over the top of the weeds might be the first thing to try to see if there are any aggressive fish. Try a variety of retrieves to see what they want. Burn it straight back, yo yo it, and a stop and go retrieve all can produce fish. Try ticking the top of the weeds and rip the bait if you hang a weed. Hard to say what might trigger a strike. Try the spinner bait the same way with a variety of retrieves. Buzz it or wake it near the surface for active fish. Use a slower retrieve and try to tick the top of the weeds with the occasional stop or twitch of the rod. I like using a crankbait to probe the deeper edges of weedbeds. Sometime the fish are hanging along the weedline edges. Look for small points along the weedline and run the crankbait as close as possible. Also work the deeper end of the point where it falls off into deeper water. Might be a hog or a school of fish holding on the breakline where the weeds end and the deeper water begins.

Zoom's Fat Albert twin tails are a good trailer for 3/16 to 5/16 plain ball jigs, football or dressed jigs and can be cast on baitcasting with little or no trouble. If you go to really light 1/32 to 1/8 jigs it is easier to cast and control them with spinning tackle.

Zoom's Mag II (8.5 inch) worms are a favorite of mine for catching big fish most anywhere. While texas rigging them has produced the most fish you can Carolina rig them as well. I find these worms are a good medium between the smaller 6 -7 inch ribbon tails and the huge 10'' worms. Smaller fish will still eat them, but the larger profile seems to appeal to better then average fish. Best colors have been Green Pumpkin, Watermelon, Red Bug, and Junebug. Use as light a weight as the situation calls for. A 4/0 Gamakatsu offset hook works well and does not tear up the worms as quickly.

Not much more to add other then when trolling you MUST know how deep a lure is going to run based on the speed, lure size, line size, etc. There is a good guide available called Precision Trolling that has hundreds of lures listed in guide form to show how deep a particular lure will run using all the above.

You may want to give a jig a try. My personal favorites are BooYah jigs 1/4 and 1/2 oz in black/blue and green pumpkin. Add a trailer like a Paca craw in the same or opposite colors. These are big fish baits.

Gander Mountain carries the Owner Beast hooks.

Have fished a super fluke weightless for years and it catches fish from Florida to NY. The past year I have tried the new 7" fluke and it fishes the same way as the super fluke. I use a 7/0 Monster Gamakatsu hook, h action rod with a fast tip and 30 to 50 lb braid. I don't get a lot of strikes with this big bait, but the ones that do hit you never need to check to see if they measure.

I use a net for big fish with a mouthful of treble hooks. Otherwise I lip or gill land most.

Depends on the tackle I am using. If I am drop shotting with 6 lb test and have a 7 lb smallmouth I take my time. If I am flipping with 65 lb test and hook a 1 lb fish I can easily and quickly pull it into the boat.

Haven't tried Basstrix but I've found just the opposite with Berkley. Shadalicious shimmys both head and tail. Berkley like a stick. Maybe retrieve speeds or hooks affect the baits differently. I use Gammie weighted EWG hooks, not the screw in nose hooks. That might make a difference. I have to agree the Berkley swimbaits are stiff and do not have as good a swimming action especially at the prefered slower retrieve speeds. The Shadalicious and the Yum Money minnow offer a much better wiggling action no matter how I rig them. With the smaller baits I use a texas rigged weighted hook, with the larger 6"+ swimbaits the screw lock weighted hooks seem to do a better job. Both the Shadalicious and the Money Minnows hold up much better then the Basstrix which usually is a one fish bait.

Lipless crankbaits are the first lure I use as soon as the ice is gone and the last lure I cast once the water is close to turning to ice. The rest of the year I move from shallow runners during the spawn, mid depth divers during post spawn and finally to deep divers once the fish move from post spawn to summer patterns in deep water.

Have not tried that exact jig and worm, but have wacky jigged finesse worms, soft stick baits, zoom trick worms, and several others and it is a good presentation. Light jigs work the best, but is tough to fish on windy days and choppy water.

I will assume this poll is just for bass fishing, 3 Revo Winches 4 Revo SXHS 12 Revo S 2 Quantum 5.1 1 Quamtum 4.4 2 BPS 2000 Qualifier Wide spoon spinning 1 BPS 4000 Qualifier Wide spoon spinning 1 Abu Garcia 3000 Spinning

I have used Allstar telescoping rods since back in the 80's and gave them to my son and neither of us ever broke a single one. Fenwick flipping sticks the same thing, just gave away one I know for a fact is 25+ years old and is still going strong. I currently have 5 T Legend rods from St. Croix and use them for flipping, pitching, and frog fishing and not a single problem with any since purchasing them several years ago.

Good read...thanks for sharing.

I have to disagree, used these swimbaits all last year in NY and caught a LOT of quality fish on them both Smallmouth and Largemouths. This year in Florida they produced quality fish in all kinds of weather conditions. I cannot say enough good about the Shadolicious swimbaits. Plus they hold up a LOT longer then the soft Yamamto products. To answer the main question, I rig these baits texas style on a 1/4 to 3/8 oz weighted 6/0 hook for the 4.5 inch and weighted 8/0 for the larger swimbaits. Have a bottle of Mendit handy and you can fish all day on one package of these quality baits. As an added trick...coat the swimbait with Mega Strike scent and they come through grass much easier without hanging up.