Chris

If given the choice between the two I like Rapala. There are some properties that a wood bait has that in a jerkbait is a plus. Rapala's in the plastic jerkbait models are a better bait in my opinion.

I have a pop R style bait that I hand carved that I like to use. I like it because it sits higher in the water making it easy to walk the dog with. The mouth is shaped to spit which I feel draws strikes. I can chug it to draw fish out of cover and slow it down. I can also walk it to cover flats and stuff. I also like using a spit'n image Jr. topwater lure. I sanded mine so it sits higher in the water and changed the hooks to a lighter wire. I feel it gives the lure more distance on the glide when walking it.

If I was to flip I would choose a black blue flake tube if I couldn't get a jig bite going. My reasoning is that the tube is going to fall different each pitch and might draw a reaction strike. If the bass where real sluggish I would hammer it out with a jig but rigged with a 3x trailer. My reasoning is that you can pitch the jig and slightly quiver it and the tails will generate a lot of action without moving the jig. If I was to tackle the area with a spinnerbait I would also use a colo blade black bait because of the stained water gold blade or a willow blade that was bent to make it vibrate like a colo blade. When you bend the blade you get the best of both worlds the bait runs slower and you still have the flash an the weedless qualities of a willow but more of a thump of a colo. I would bend the blade side of the wire shaft up which will help it get through the pads a little easier and give it more thump. With the wire more vertical when the bait comes in contact with the pad stems it will kick the bait out of the way and give it more action. If the spinnerbait bite didn't pan out I would swim a jig. Black or black and blue skirt with a chartreuse twin tail grub for a trailer. The twin tail will slow the bait down more and if needed I would scale down my jig weight to slow it more.

It was an old deep runner Rebel crankbait that I borrowed from my grandfather's tackle box. It was bone color with an orange belly that had a prop on the back that I took off. We where fishing on a lake in Virginia and I tied it on and cast the length of the dock we where fishing off of. I was bouncing it off the pilings when a bass smacked it. The next bass I caught was on an old Big O.

I use a Florida rig weight for most of my plastics which has a rattle. Sometimes I use a glass bead behind my weight when fishing worms which act like a rattle. Regular glass rattles I do use with floating worms if I am fishing around vegetation to help draw fish out. I also use them for soft jerkbaits from time to time. In senko I have never used a rattle not that it wouldn't help in and around cover or in stained water. I just figured that it pushed enough water by itself on the fall.

Also great in early spring. What your doing is two things. One you are fishing a wide zone. By fishing a wide zone you cover more water and helps you zone in on which depth the fish are hanging at if you pay attention to the point where they hit. The second is that fish that are not as active will hit a falling bait more often than a zone bait. A falling bait is easy prey and sometimes even if they are not hungry they will still nail a falling lure. Many guys that use this technique in cold water and other times are doing so to figure out where the thermocline is. Like I said if you pay attention to at what point they strike. Just pay attention and count it down to know about the depth they are hitting at so you can stay in the zone for your next cast. Your trying to mimic a stressed shad.

if you want more action in your pork whack off the front fatty side up and make it look like a wedge. This lets the pork flap more and when you stick a fish you have less pork to get in the way. You can also cut lines from side to side on the fatty side that will make the pork almost jointed. It makes it more pliable and more fluid in motion. If you take a hole punch and punch out a hole in a coffee lid you can use the plastic circle as a trailer keeper. After you use the trailer for awhile the hole wears and this will give you more use out of it. If you first thread on a piece of plastic worm on the hook before you add the trailer it will keep the trailer from fouling up by preventing it from sliding up your hook. I sometimes use that high floating 3 x cyber plastic material instead of plastic to help control the fall rate when needed. Keep a container weighted with rocks or sand in the boat filled with water to keep it from drying out. You can also push a glass worm rattle into the trailer if you wanted to add a little rattle to it.

I like that answer I was self taught my Dad was a live bait fishermen who enjoyed being in outdoors more than catching fish. He felt it was easier to feed them than to fool them. I saved up my money and bought my first bass lures and taught myself how to catch fish on them. I then saved more money up and bought more. I had a group of kids I grew up with that we would head to the ponds around where I lived after school. We kinda learned off each other then began the arms race for better equipment and lures. The learning part was who could beat who in catching first, biggest and most fish not actual education. It was between the competition and the arms race that helped me learn about bass fishing. Also the fact that I spent my free time fishing when I wasn't at school helped me learn how to bass fish. It was through catching fish that helped me learn. You can have so and so tell you how to do this and that but until it works for you it is just information. When the applied information works and you catch fish it becomes education. Now I am in the process of teaching my sons how to bass fish. They are not as careful with lures as I was and have done a great job decorating the trees. ;D

+1

Good bait

Max 5 with some plastics less.

When I choose a crankbait rod I want a light rod weight wise. The lighter the rod the better you can feel the bait at a distance. Rods that have a counter balance weight are helpful to balance the rod and reel. When you balance the rod the tip feels lighter and helps you feel vibration and strikes. The higher the graphite the more vibration transfer you will have on your longer casts. What I do regardless of company is take the rod and put the tip up to the celling or on the floor and softly scratch it. You will find a big difference between rods and it helps me determine which rod is best for me. This helps me determine how much vibration I can feel into the hands between rods. I next bow the rod to figure out how to best use the rod. If I was going to use the rod for long casts I want more back bone than a rod used for shallow short casts. I have found that cork handles transfer vibration better than foam. Thick cork and cork with large pores also transfer vibration less than cork with tight pores in my opinion. I also look for rods that have a reel seat that I can feel the blank in the trigger. This gives me direct contact with the rod and vibration. The harder the material the guides are made of the better the vibration transfer. Also understand the lighter the guide the better it will transfer the vibration. I'll leave rod company preference up to you.

I choose a glass rod for most of my short game spinnerbait fishing and a composite for my long game. I choose a 6'6" MH for my glass rod because I feel I have more control over my bait. My long game casting I choose a 7' rod because I feel I gain some casting distance. For my short game I choose a 5 to 1 gear long game 6 to 1 reel. Line choice I choose 14 lb line you can beef it up if you like but I feel 14 lb is good all around line for this lure. If the cover is heavy or I do beef it up. Unlike a crankbait line size has less effect on depth when it comes to a spinnerbait. Most guys just use the largest pound test that they can get away with. What does effect depth and speed is the blade configuration, blade size, and blade style. Here are some ways to fish this lure Buzz it Much like a buzz bait this technique can be killer in the summer around mossy areas and cover in general. Bass Pro came out with a lure designed to do this but I will show you how to make any bait do this. You take a single willow leaf blade and with a pair of pliers bend the end of the blade down This forms a cup to the blade. You can also bend the middle of the blade to change the vibration pattern of the blade. I do this sometimes if I was fishing clear water and I hit a section of stained water. Instead of changing baits I just bend the willow blade to give it more thump. Sometimes you need to mess with it to get the vibration and action that you like but at times it can make a big difference. Wake it At times fish want the bait a little more under the water and this technique can just be the ticket. What you want to do is make your cast and reel it just under the surface making it look like a baitfish pushing water. This technique works great when fishing flats and parallel to cover or shore. If you need to slow it down a tad add a pork frog trailer to it or a twin tail grub. You want to use a bait that has a single large Colorado blade on it for this technique and let the blade break the surface from time to time to change the vibration pattern to draw a following fish to strike. Burn it This works well when you are covering water and when your want fish to react to it. With this technique you want to have smaller blades than normal because it will produce less drag on the bait allowing it to be fished faster. Sometimes I up the weight to really get it moving fast or add weight to it. You can do this by taking a rubber core bass casting weight and removing the rubber core and clamping it to the hook. Just make sure you use a spinner bait that has a large enough gap so the weight doesn't interfere with the hook. The smaller blades and heavier bait also works well with deep spinner bait applications. What you want to do is make your cast and burn it in. To make the fish strike or react to the bait you want to either stop the bait from time to time or stop and jerk it to make the blades smack together. Rip it When you rip a spinner bait what your doing is changing the speed of the lure. This change in speed can cause fish to strike. This technique works well on many forms of cover and if you incorporate a pause and twitch to flair the skirt out can be deadly. What you want to do is make your cast and point the rod to the bait while reeling. Next you sweep the rod to the side like a Carolina rig drag . What I do is on a steady retrieve I pause the bait for a split second and twitch it to make the skirt flair out and the blades to smack together then sweep the rod to make it took like it is trying to get away. Steady retrieve When you make your cast you want to crank the bait just high enough in the water column to be able to see the blades flash. all the way to the boat. Just remember to pause it from time to time to break up the vibration pattern to draw a strike. Herky jerky What you want to do is make your cast and while reeling the bait jerk it at a rhythm. It sounds strange but it does work at times when fishing around shad schools. Fading it This works well with logs that come out from the shore and angle to the bottom. Meaning the end of the log is deeper than the trunk side and not all floating. What you want to do is make your cast to the shore side close to the bank and the log. You parallel the log letting the blade tick the trunk until it reaches the end. When you bait reaches towards the end you let the lure fade out and slowly run deeper. This looks like a shad that ran down the edge of the log and fade out into the deeper water. Sometimes bass will hang on the end of the log to intercept the bait. Skim the bottom Sometimes when your fishing heavy stained water the fish need a little more racket to find the bait or react to it. This technique works well with hard cover but can work equally well in vegetation at times. What you want to do is make your cast and slowly fade the bait down and let it barely skim and tick the cover. Each time the bait makes contact it changes the vibration pattern and flares the skirt. You don't want it to dig the bottom just tick it. Slow roll it This technique works well in stained to muddy conditions and works well in late fall or early spring. With this technique I like to use a short arm single Colorado bladed spinner bait but it can be used with any blade combination. What you want to do is make your cast and reel the lure so that the blades spin just fast enough to keep it on the bottom or at a maintained depth. Sometimes you might need to change to a larger blade to give it the lift you want. Hop it This works well in early winter or in deeper structure fishing. What you want to so is make your cast and let the lure fall to the bottom. You then hop it off the bottom like you where fishing a worm or Carolina rig making sure that the lure pauses to come back in contact with the bottom. This is an excellent way to fish around deep brush piles or other deep cover. I tend to like a single blade Colorado short arm spinner bait for this technique because it tends to have a better fall. Drop it When your fishing deep ledges like a bluff or creek channel at times a drop technique can be very effective. One technique that works well is to make your cast to the edge of the drop and let it helicopter down. Sometimes there might be a small shelf that will stick out that your bait will hit. You next raise your rod tip to let the lure work its way to the edge and let it drop again. You let the bait slowly climb down the drop like if you where worm fishing. You want to make sure the lure hugs the bottom and always stay in contact with the lure to feel the strike. Bump it A very productive technique is to bump the cover with your bait. I use this technique around flooded timber but it can be incorporated on any cover. What your trying to do is make contact to change the vibration pattern of the lure to draw a strike. What you want to do is make your cast beyond the object and while your reeling it in aim it at the target. When the bait smacks the target you change your rod position from pointing at the lure to bring it to the side. What you doing is changing the direction of the bait after the contact. This change of direction with cause a reaction strike. Sometimes you can incorporate a dying shad look by letting the bait drop after the contact. Flip it There are times when you are fishing stained to muddy water where you need to put the bait right on its nose to make them bite it. You are using the spinner bait much like a flipping jig but the difference is your adding more vibration to your offering than a jig would. This technique works well also in areas that are hard to reach and you need pin point accuracy to produce a fish. What you doing is making your pitch or flip into a tight area and letting it fall to the bottom or through a piece of brush. I tend to use a flipping spin with a single Colorado blade for this technique because it has a strong fiber weed guard because I loose less lures but you can use other lures. Roll cast it This is the alternative to flipping it which requires you to make a roll cast to reach a tight or cover. I use this technique if I am wanting to force fish to react to the bait. What your doing is making a roll cast so that the lure is close to the waters surface when it reaches the target. This helps cut down the splash when it reaches the target to prevent the fish from spooking. When the bait reaches the fish the bass isn't given time to get a good look at the bait and strikes out of impulse. You reel it back as you would normally. You want to get the bait as close to the target as possible on the cast. Yo-Yo it This technique can be effective with suspending fish where you are bringing the bait in and out of the thermal cline. In early spring it works kind of like the hop technique but higher up in the water column and can be deadly. What your doing is lifting the bait up and letting it fall on semi slack line. Your making the lure go in a zigzag pattern. This technique also works well on drop offs to help figure out what depth the fish are holding.

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http://www.glcfishing.com/SuppliedProducts.asp?doc=CLM

1/2 oz All Terrain jig black/blue with either a 3x Strike King chunk or Uncle Josh pork chunk color Saphire blue, or same shade blue as the jig...black/yellow pork chunk for muddy water. I cut the hole side of the pork into a wedge shape to make it flap more on the fall. I also yank off the rattles that jig comes with and replace it with those spidar free moving rattles.

here is another one http://www.smacktackle.com/acehandmolds.html if you want to take the dive and cast it yourself http://www.alumilite.com/index.cfm

Your not going to know until you check. Some ponds for different reasons can be different temps even if they are side by side. Some guys like cow bells and if it works for you great if you feel like it is a bit much scale down. You don't want to throw a bait that you don't have confidence in. I like to use spinnerbaits when the water has some color and if I need to slow it down I do use either a cow bell or a deep cup blade.

Around weeds I like to use balsa lures. If you you use a longer lip than what is needed many times you can use the lip as a weed guard. If you don't drive the bait into the weeds but just reel it down until it touches the weeds surface then let it float up the reel it back down to touch it again. I am sure you have heard others go into great detail about this technique and the whole weed guard thing. But did you know that if you used a crankbait that the lip is positioned at the same angle as many square bill crankbaits that it is the best lure for the job for deeper weeds. This is the angle lip just for a reference http://www.bagleybait.com/7.html Other lure companies make lures like this as far as the lip angle but it is the angle that keeps the lure out of the mess in weeds that is important. The angle also hits the cover at a different angle instead of digging in it slaps the top of the weeds. The angle also prevents the lure from digging in and if you choose the right depth can work very effectively. When you take a bait with this angle lip the length of the lip acts like a weed guard while keeping the bait out of the weeds. This style bait slowly works to reach its max depth. The dive angle is less dramatic than like a DT for example. On weed flats this is where this style lip really shines.

Del-mart.com, bobstackleshack.com, or lurecraft.com will build one for you or you can mold it yourself. I have not looked around to see if you can just buy one already made if so someone will post it.

Crankbaits that have a lot of roll when running through the water tends to dig less than lures that wiggle. Lures that wiggle side to side cut the water more and require less speed to reach depth. The side to side action along with the larger surface plane of a wider lip causes the bait to dig. The distance the lure travels from side to side does not gain or loose depth per say but it takes the bait longer to get there. When you have a lure that the line tie is at the nose the lure will dive less than a lure with the line tie at the lip. It changes the angle the lure runs through the water column and changes the pivot point. The thicker the line the less casting distance you are able to cast. The less distance you can cast the less running room you give your lure. If you have a lure that dives more vertically you can make an adjustment. With lures that take some time to get depth you may never get there. You know how they say a crankbait ran on 8 pound test will dive a foot more than on 10 pound test line and so on. Well between 8lb line and 10 lb line you also loose 10 ft in your cast and so on. I am going to try to break this one to you gently. I have cast lures and reeled them in with my tip up, down, and with the whole rod under water. On a average cast and casting with some sling behind it. Your lure will run the same depth regardless. What changes is the point where the lure makes its upward climb. If you make a short cast and can keep the line up off the water's surface you can make a bait run shallower. I like to use wood lures and other people like plastic. What is important is air. If you read some of my other stuff I mention that wood is more responsive than plastic and reacts better when striking objects. Basically with a plastic lure you have a lot of dead weight that takes up room that could be air like in a wood bait. The thicker the plastic the less air can be trapped in it. The responsive part is that when you start your bait with wood the lure wiggles right now not a foot or two into your retrieve. Wood baits take less time to start and stop. Lures that are built with a ton of plastic take even more time. If a bait takes longer to start and stop when you strike an object it takes the lure longer to give you the back pressure vibration. The lure travels farther past the object than wood because it takes longer to start the vibration pattern to give you the vibration feedback into your hands. With wood you strike the object and you might be about a foot or less past the object before the starts its vibration pattern. With plastic when it strikes a object it will travel a greater distance before restarting its vibration pattern. Oval or round body lures have less friction in the water and dive more than flat lures. With lures that dive deep many add weight to gain distance in your cast. More weight takes up space for air. If you just add weight to a lure without countering it with more air your wood plug will act more like a plastic plug and will move a greater distance because of inertia so there needs to be a balance, air is key.

Carolina rig this lure use black. I handed someone their...well, you know with this lure fishing at night. http://www.productolure.com/buzztailshad.php

I will also say a guy I went to high school with did some underwater filming in 2001 for a lure he called laser lure and raved about how well it worked. I don't know if it is the same company or same lure. Brent wasn't much of a bass fishermen but at the time he thought it was a good thing based on what it caught while filming.

You can also use rattle trap style lures just make sure the bait falls straight and doesn't flip on its side to hook the line. Apply a little back pressure to keep it upright or use a Excalibur trap, spro trap or a sugar shad all fall right side up.

My guess is the guy was either swimming it or making the bait free swim as it swings back to the boat.