BARON49_Northern NY

Other options I am looking for, but have tried some of the other hard swimbaits and other then the Sebiles have not caught much on them. These King Shads do catch fish and catch good fish. There is a thread going about the Tru Tunsten 4" Baits, but it appears no one has used them and the information is slim to none. As far as sending your broken Strike King baits back to the factory? Go to their web site and find out what zone you are in and talk with the supervisor of that area.

The number one thing I have done to help fisherman gain sensitivity for fishing jigs and worms is to get them set up with braided line. You can have a fairly inexpensive rod and with braided line get an amazing amount of feel and sensitivity with braid. The drawback is a cheap reel well be torn apart quickly by a good fish and the drag tightened too much with braided line. Now for a good fisherman with a high quality rod and reel you add braid to this setup and most can actually feel a Bass that is just thinking about hitting a worm.

Abu Garcia makes and Inshore Revo and the Revo Premier is also an outstanding reel for your situation.

I knocked the ceramic insert out of one of my St. Croix Avids. They offered to repair it if I sent it back OR would send me a new tip at no charge so I could replace it myself. They even included the proper glue and directions on how to do it.

I fully understand your question. I have tried some of the superlines like Power Pro, Spiderwire, etc on casting reels and for the most part all seem to work well. I do have a personal prefference for Power Pro just due to working with it more then the rest. However for spinning reels I found these superlines too limp and if I filled the spools to normal levels they would unwind into a pile if I was not careful. After watching an In fisherman show on TV they were using Fireline. Switched over to it and have not had a single problem since. Just a slight amount of memory to keep it on the spool and not wrap the guides or tip, but yet limp enough to cast a mile. I use 10 lb for Shakey heads and drop shotting, 14 lb for everything else with a spinning reel setup.

The only times I use braid is when fishing lipless crankbaits around weeds. Using a MH 7'3'' casting rod and a Revo S reel spooled with 14 lb Fireline. I can rip the bait out of the weeds to trigger strikes. The other is for fishing jerkbaits and X-raps on spinning tackle I use 14 lb Fireline on a BPS Pro Qualifier 4000 and a 6'6'' MH spinning rod. Tried using a very limber 7'6'' M rod and 15 lb Power Pro for DD22's and other deep divers and just could not get used to the way it felt. Guess being old school doesn't help. After reading all the comments I may give braid another try this coming year.

When you say "Swimbaits" are you referring to hard or soft swimbaits? For the hard baits I have had very good luck with Strike King's King Shad and the Sebiles (the 125 size is my favorite). I fish these on a 7'6'' MH rod moderate fast action and a Revo Winch reel and 17 lb Trilene XT line. For the soft swim baits I have found the 5'' Money minnow, Shadalicious, and the Magic minnow rigged with a 1/4 oz 6/0 hook work very well in the early Spring, windy days over weed beds, and again in the Fall. These I use the same set up as the hard baits in open water, but in and around heavy cover use a Revo S spooled with 30 lb Power Pro line. You can fish these baits in very thick cover by texposing the hook.

My goto topwater is a baby bass colored PopR. One thing I do change on them is to remove the stock rear hook and replace it with a red feathered replacement hook for the X-raps.

I have used the Strike King King Shads and the ABT's since they came out. IMO they are one of the best big bass lures I have used. Was not impressed with the hinge pin breaking, but all the newer baits have a steel pin in the hinge and I have not broken a single one since. Even with the older models I found fishing them with Trilene 17 lb XT helped with the hook ups and less breakage then with braided line. Also a long swimbait MH rod with a moderate to moderate fast action worked better then a H action rod with a fast tip. Sent my broken ones back to ABT and Strike King and they did replace them. Both were very good about it and only wanted the broken pieces returned. As far as fishing these lures most anything has worked for me, but the best has been working next to or over thick weed beds. A slow steady retrieve with the occasional pause seems to trigger most of the strikes. When the fish are really active hold the rod tip high and wake the bait over points and along boat docks and other cover. Hang on when doing this as the strikes are vicious. Both Largemouths and Smallmouth hit these King Shads and so do BIG Northerns and Pickeral.

Not sure if anyone mentioned frogs. Got to have some Horny toads and Ribbits for buzz frogs and a Snagproof Tournament Floating frog. Black and white colors will cover most situations.

Very interesting...I have been using a Canon Power Shot, but have been looking for a good waterproof one. I will have to get over to the mall and look for one of these. Thanks for the information.

The article on soft stick baits covers a lot, however I have been using a little different setup with a LOT of success from NY to Florida for years. It is simply a Zoom trick worm, 3/0 Gamakatsu offset worm hook, 30 lb Power Pro braid and a rod at least 7' with a fast tip. I use a St. Croix Legend 7'6'' with a Revo S reel. I work this outfit two ways....one as a followup to a Bass striking and missing a topwater frog either a floating frog or a buzz frog. If I cannot get the Bass to come back for the frog I go into slow mode and cast the Trick worm right to where the Bass swirled. The trick worm falls horizontally with a unique wiggle. Watch the line and if you see it jump set the hook! The second way is when the Bass are holding in and around shallow water cover pre-spawn to post spawn. Cast the worm right up to shore and bring it back over the top of the cover. You can work the rod tip a little to get a little bit of a jerk bait action going in open water. Also let it fall into any holes in the cover along the way. Works great in lily pads, floating wood, or just about any kind of shallow cover and draws some strikes from good sized fish.

Has anyone actually used one of these baits? I have used quite a few hard swimbaits and was wondering how well this baits track and how durable they are?

I fished the 125 Sebiles quite a bit this Summer and found them to be an excelent bait to work weed line edges with. There is so much you can do with the bait from top to bottom. One thing I found was you cannot crank a Sebile too fast. They track and run great no matter what the speed. In fact, found I did much better with these baits cranking them at a quicker pace then a normal swimbait.

I fish jigs in crystal clear water in a lot of heavy cover, mostly Milfoil and Hydrilla. My personal take on rattles is the rattle imitates the clicking sound of the pincers on a crawfish. In thick cover I drop the jig with a craw trailer to the bottom and shake it to get the rattles clicking. I feel it is like ringing a dinner bell for the Bass. When fishing rocks in clear water I use a smaller rattle that clicks as I crawl the jig with a pork and/or plastic trailer over the rocks. If I am not getting bites in area I am sure there are Bass then I will remove the rattles and see what happens. Rarely does it make a difference, but I have learned over a lot of years to keep an open mind. About the only jigs I do not use a rattle on are small ball heads or football heads when using a double tail as a trailer. I fish these in shallow clear water and feel it is more of a reaction strike and the rattle is not needed. I rarely fish stained water, but in that situation I would go with a double barrel rattle and a larger profile jig and trailer.

I tried fishing a Zoom finese worm this Summer as a wacky drop shot and did very well with Smallmouths.

I used to watch the Outdoor Channel all the time. However Time Warner Cable bundled it in with a bunch of other channels I have no desire to watch and is charging for it now. >

I fish Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence river in crystal clear water and use green 50lb Power Pro for my jig and creature fishing in thick milfoil. No leader or coloring the line needed.

I have to agree that FLW magazine has more and better written articles then BASS. However for the most detailed articles not much beats In Fisherman.

I did not post this to have a thread do well. Just simply pointing out a problem that is growing in our area. Your information has been noted and in the future I will give your way a try. Thanks for your reply.

Ed, Was in Guffins Bay looking for you guys on Friday. The fishing was pretty good and wanted to see how you two were doing.

I am a FLW member, but no longer fish draw tournaments retired after 20 years. The Stren series was fishing out of Clayton last week. I was fishing in Chaumont Bay on the outside of a couple islands. On the inside of the islands was a red Ranger, Ohio registration with two fishermen working the shallow water. I caught one Largemouth and then another within moments of each other. By the time I had released the second fish this red Ranger had left the shallows and was sitting right on top of the weed bed I was fishing close enough I could have touched this guys rod with mine. I asked him what he was doing and his response was, "he was in a tournament and this was his best spot." Stange I saw him come in, go to the inside of the other island, and work the inside of the next island. He was in my face in the deep water only after I caught two fish. Since when does fishing a tournament give anyone the right to be rude? This rude person fished right over the top of the weedbed and when ever I went to move my boat he would try to cut me off. I figured if he was that desperate for a fishing spot I would leave as I have many other places to fish. Getting to my point....if this rude individual had simply come over to one side or the other of where I was fishing and explained to me what was going on I probably would have given him the spot. But his rude "I am a tournament fisherman I own the water" attitude is getting very old. This is not the first time this has happened and many of the locals are getting fed up with these rude tournament fishermen.

Like many other things Fireline has it's place and that is on spinning tackle. Just a slight amount of memory to keep it spooled up and yes it does work well with a med-light action rod with smaller crank baits. I use Power Pro on some of my bait casters, but found it to be too limp for spinning reels.

I could not find 3/16 and 1/4 oz weighted hooks for these same swim baits. I bought some long mojo carolina weights, cut them to the size that works best and inserted them inside the 5.5 bait through the hole in the tail using a little fish formula as lube and scent. Was able to use a Gamy oversize EWG and so far so good.

This was ment to be funny...a spoof...why some people need to blow something like this way out of proportion is beyond me. There are many other things happening out there that do need some attention, but this is certainly not one of them.