Chris

I like the Bobby's Perfect Frogs it is a darn good frog! I throw a sumo frog if I want a large profile frog also. The topwater frogs that float are more for slow rat fishing but can be spooked or fished stop and go. Most of the soft plastic frogs are either used as buzzbaits or can be used as a pitch bait. Most of the soft plastic frogs sink.

My guess is that your using a flipping stick that don't have enough load bend when you cast to make a distance cast. It is to stiff at the tip section.

Hey Peter this is Chris Welcome to the forum Spinnerbait Flipping bait like a creature bait, jig, flipping tube shallow crankbait all should work

Aww just dab it a couple times behind your ears and go fishing that's what I do I use the spider grub a bunch it works great.

I use lurecraft formula 502 plastic it is a mid grade strength plastic that has a heat stabilizer in it so I don't waste any by burning it. I have had the least amount of problems with this plastic and it holds a hook good and works well for pouring senko's or any other kind of bait. If I need to make it more soft because of the amount of salt in a bait it isn't a big deal or harder for like flipping baits it isn't a big deal either. Most of the time for salted baits I don't need to add softener to the plastic at all. This plastic does float so if your pouring a jig trailer the claws do float up as long as you don't add salt to it. I have used the 536 formula and for straight dropshot lures it isn't a bad plastic but if you pour a ribbontail worm with the stuff the plastic is not ridged enough to hold the curl in the tail and becomes limp. If you put a plastic hardener to the bait the plastic would be fine but with the 502 formula I can just use it straight from the bucket. Lurecraft plastic doesn't have a strong plastic smell but you still need to make your worms in a place that is ventilated. Calhoun plastic when it is melted is real clear and works well for hand pours the problem is the stuff stinks bad of plastic and without you adding heat stabilizer to it you really need to watch the stuff because it burns easy. The plastic smell if you pour a bunch will drive you out of the house. MF plastic I have never used.

Lurecraft Mold # 5x833 4" senko Mold # 5x834 5" senko Mold # 5x835 6" senko All do not have a flat side when poured.

Clear water-green pumpkin, watermelon, watermelon red, pumpkinseed, strikeking green crawfish/black trailer, natural frog, white Stained water- purple, black/blue flake, brown/red, green pumpkin Muddy water- black/chartreuse(more yellow than chart.), black, sapphire blue, flipping blue, black neon, black/blue flake

If I remember correct the stuff has shark oil in it.

Nope but if you want you can spray it with fish scent or something. Years ago I would use WD-40 as a fish formula they kinda frown on it now.

If you have been catching them on the deep side the fish drop down deeper because of the sun and the shad moved deep. If your catching them on the shallow side the fish might move back into the docks or suspend out from the point or position somewhere on the point that is different. If you have a strong wind or current cutting across it position down wind and hit the tip of the point throwing up current and bringing it to the tip of the point and working it to the backside. The fish should be positioned facing the current and a little behind the edge of the tip of the point. <-should be a sweetspot. Hit the point on windy days or when there is some chop on the water those fish should move up. If your nailing them in the morning they should be there at dusk also. The reason why they move is because the sun pushes them deep or in nearby cover. The sun pushes the shad and the bass follow if the shad become inactive and suspend the bass just hang out under them. I would motor around and look for tight shad schools on your graph. If you don't see any shad then hit the docks but check back from time to time. I had kinda the same situation on a lake I fish. The bass where on an island and in the morning and sunset I could slam some great fish on the spot but during the day nothing. One side had a slow taper the other had a good drop. I played havoc trying to figure these fish out until one day I made a wild cast to the great blue yonder with a jig to pick out a backlash and I got hammered. I caught a limit fishing nothing just casting out in the middle of nowhere. I came to the conclusion that when the lake gets a bunch of traffic the water around the island gets so muddy that the fish move away from the spot and suspend. This became a wildly solid pattern through most of the summer either picking them off with a countdown lure or free falling a jig or tube.

I use either WD-40 and a rag or a toothbrush and tooth paste.

I think I wrote some of those forum posts ;D I had a guy in the early 80's that came up with that rig and was winning tournaments with it. I think at the time he rigged it with two slug-go's. It is amazing to watch that rig in action both baits run in different directions then at the pause one follows the other. The real key to the rig is to have one bait hang about 4 inches behind the other. He rigged it with two barrel swivels one was just threaded through the eye and slid up the line free the other swivel was tied on both ends. When you jerk it sometimes one will shoot far up the line. It is a great rig when your after schoolers. I am not sure that a zulu would be a good bait for this rig only because it floats way more and you wouldn't have the same effect unless he is rigging it with a three way swivel even then the other rig has a better presentation.

Shad Master that sounds like the way I fish a worm and jig ;D -suspending jerkbaits-Make sure the bait is weighted the way you want it because the temperature of the water will effect how well the bait will hang. A bait that is weighted for summer will float in winter because the water is more dense. -sharpen the edge of the lip on the backside. This will put more action into the bait and it will dive a little deeper. I do this sometimes with crankbaits but I do it the most with jerkbaits. -Oval split rings are a big plus on a jerkbait. It gives the hook more free movement when you jerk the bait and will help hook fish that just run up to sniff the bait. Make sure your hooks are sticky sharp because when you hook a fish with a jerkbait you want to have the bait plastered all over it's face and the more hooks stuck into it the better. -weight placement will change the action of the bait- If you stick a weight in the front the bait will sit nose down and will dive deeper. If you stick it at the tail the bait will make the bait wiggle wider. If you stick it in the middle the bait will lay flat. - Each jerkbait has a different action-some glide better side to side some wiggle more some wiggle on the pause. Some baits glide a short distance from one side to the other some will move a good distance. The floater style and most wood jerkbaits have more paused action then suspenders but the pointer is the exception. The pointer has a quiver on the pause much like a wood bait. -The colder the water the longer the pause. Jerkbaits are eye contact baits that can draw strikes from a far distance. Jerkbaits are not the best choice for super cold water (except for spoonbills in cold water) or muddy water. In cold water the bass are to deep for them to be effective and in muddy water bass have a hard time tracking it down to hit it because of visibility and how fast the bait is worked. - one way I work a jerkbait is to drag the bait like a Carolina rig. I do this in the early part of the year. You cast it out reel it down then pause it. You take the rod and drag the bait a short distance then stop the bait and gather up the slack and let it soak for a little while then drag it again. Mess around with the distance you drag the bait before you pause it to get a feel for what the bass want. -another way I fish the bait is to reel the bait down and stop pause the bait. Let it sit for a second or two or three or several three's then give the bait two hard jerks then two quick ones. What your doing is forcing the bait to move hard right on the first jerk hard left on the second and before it completes the glide it turns back right then left erratically. Then let it soak and hang there for a while. Then do it again you can change it up to figure out what the bass want. Sometimes they want two hard jerks one soft sometimes it is just one soft two hard crisp jerks. The key is the pause and most of the time they will nail it before the next jerk and you hook them on the next jerk. Sometimes they want that bait to just sit there motionless for a long time. It is really up to the fish and what they want so experiment a little. The less stretch you have with either your rod or line the more action you can put into a jerkbait.

I would fish the edge with a buzzbait or a walking bait on top. I would fish the edge with a bang-o-lure, trap, balsa crank, spinnerbait. I would fish ontop of the grass with a grass frog. I would flip the grass with a tube, sweetbeaver, or fry.

I can pitch with both hands it takes a little time to learn to do it but it is worth it because there will be a situation where it is needed.

When you use a spinnerbait do you have to use any weight with it? no and if so how and where should you tie the weight If you got to use a weight then you might want to put a bullet weight up the line then tie to the bait. Another option is to take a rubber core bass weight and take out the rubber part and pinch it onto the shank of the hook. how do you necessarily use a spinnerbait? do you just cast and real in? what is the technique For the most part I use them in stained to muddy water or overcast days. Think of them as a weedless crankbait because you can throw them in and around most cover. For the most part I just cast the bait out and reel it in. If I get the bait around a stick up or log I slow it down and let the bait slowly fade to a deeper depth. I sometimes bump the bait into objects or shake and jerk the bait to make the blades smack together. what is the difference between live bait and spinners and other lures Live bait is alive and has random movement and a spinnerbait and other lures either have motion already in the lure or action that you put into the bait to make it look alive.

Good stuff b8r welcome to the forum. I catch a lot of fish in pressured waters from slowing way down and making perfect pitches and casts to objects. Most guys fly through an area and fish fast to pick off the active fish. They also flog the water without much thought about lure and boat positioning. They don't put the lure where it needs to be and present it correctly to produce the fish that are less active. If you slow down and pay attention to what your doing and pick apart the area you can catch a ton right behind these guys. If your fishing behind good fishermen then you either need to go deeper into cover and fish real tight to it or find fish that have moved out and are staging out in deeper water. If your fishing vertical cover a lot of times the fish will move up on the cover and suspend when they get a lot of pressure. Just change the depth your fishing and they will still bite.

I feel that in the winter bass can and will move up because the water temp is tolerable to the baitfish. When the baitfish move up even if it for a short span the bass follow. Baitfish are not as cold hardy as larger bass and are not as effected by the colder temps as a baitfish might be. When the water temp drops and the baitfish move farther out for warmer water the bass follow. In the spring I have found that when I first see any sign of baitfish in the shallows even if I only see one or two the bass have already moved up or will in a day or two. I think there is more of a correlation with the temperature of the water and what temperature the baitfish can stand then the length of the day. The longer the day the more the sun can heat up the water and algae can grow. Your putting to much emphasis on a glad where you should be looking at the temperature more closely and the relationship it has to baitfish activities and movement. Shad for example will die in cold or hot water which will not effect the bass as much. The bass can still function while the shad seek out more tolerable conditions. When the conditions turn south and the shad leave for better water temps the bass follow the food source. I have had a few years where we had a mild winter and the bass and baitfish never moved deep. As far as the intelligence of a bass they are dumb but because they learn through positive and negative reinforcement and instinct that is what makes them smart. They know how to avoid danger and can adapt to fishing pressure learn to avoid certain lures because they relate them to a bad response. Granted a dog can learn also from positive and negative reinforcement so is a dog considered smart? When your dealing with a fish that has strong instinct for survival who is also an accomplished predator they don't get big from latching onto anything that swims by your dealing with a well tuned fish. Large bass become large from being selective at what they put into their mouths. The object must look and act real for them to be suckered into mistaking it for live food. This is a learned response from eating millions of live baitfish and other live critters. The bass can distinguish between real and fake or more important they know the way a real baitfish should swim and act. If you can't make your bait look or act like it is alive the bass will pass it up because something is wrong and the object isn't acting like the millions of other baitfish the bass has eaten before. It is like the difference between a wild shiner and a domestic shiner. The wild shiner will haul butt to get away from a bass the domestic hangs around like business as usual because the domestic shiner has never grown up in a lake where they where chased all the time, they have no fear. Bass are smart from learning through positive and negative reinforcement. Now the spawn issue Bass have a temperature and water conditions that are ideal for the eggs to mature. If the criteria is not met because of poor water conditions, poor spawning areas, or temperature the bass will wait and have a late spawn and at times will pass up the spawn all together. In some lakes either because of poor conditions during the spring or maybe they are on a different cycle or something these bass spawn in the fall. I am not talking of large numbers of fish but enough to break out the bedfishing equipment. Physically spawning not just catching an oddball fish that drops a few eggs on the deck of the boat but visible beds and fish locked onto them. I have seen fish do this in several lakes and in several states so it isn't like my fish are glowing with 3 eyes or something. I have also seen bass fry in the fall so I know that the spawn in this time frame can be successful now if the survive the winter or not that might be a different story.

I do not understand why humans try to portray fish like they actually have a reasoning and thought process as humans do. The real world for fish is far from Walt Disneys movies. Its primitive and basic. It makes it easy to explain and understand if it is told in such a way. I know for a fact that I have caught fish shallow all the way till the water has frozen and in some lakes I have broken ice with my boat just to fish. Shallow meaning on the bank shallow. I have fished some lakes that one day they have ice across it the next day they are open and the next day frozen again and still caught fish shallow. So if the have a gland that tells them hey dummy it's winter migrate to deep water and wait till spring. Why are they there and also why do some bass spawn in fall in a regular lake? And also in hot water discharge lakes since "fish will still try to move shallow just because the length of daylight getting longer affects their instinct to spawn" why do those fish spawn in the winter in the shortest days of the year. The length of the day doesn't effect anything but the water temp.

I thought that was why bass hold up in schools to learn and know how to be a bass ;D

this plug was made out of cork http://home.cfl.rr.com/rkgast/corkhead.html

during the summer i have success off of a dock into a deeper part of the lake where the land under the water runs up and gets shallower coming to the bank. thanks for the help That would be a point or hump and you might want to spend a lot of time on that spot. Fish use areas like that as a highway to deep water. You can take a crankbait and fish it from different angles if you can. I would fist use a deep running crankbait while doing this and pay attention to what the bottom feels like. You basically using the crankbait as a depth finder and what your looking for is the edge of the drop. When you find it then you can position your cast to take advantage of the break. Another good option would be a Carolina rig. If you find the fish are relating to the break you can fish a worm or jig down the side of it.

rather good

The bait looks the same on both sides the bait is just bowed that is why it looks different.

flip side