Chris

If you are catching them on a sweetbeaver then you are either fishing it like a tube flipping it or working it on the bottom like a worm. The fish moved and or changed moods and you might need to change with them. When I first get to a small pond I will really whack them on one style of lure then for the next few days I always need to change things up to stay on the fish. You create fishing pressure and the fish change their mood because of it. You could be fishing and catching bass right up on shore cover one day and the next day find that they moved to the outside of the cover suspended. You change to a crankbait or spinnerbait and get back on the fish. I always find that the fish will be on one of two style baits. Either drop or falling baits or horizontal lures. That is what I start with then fine tune as I go. You might find that the fish might drop to deeper water or move to points. In most cases you will find other groups of fish the more you search around. Rule of thumb for me is if I found fish figure out where they went and change what I am using by their mood.

Welcome to the forum!

I would use a jerkbait, spinnerbait, or trap. (I am not an inline spinner fan) Some days even when conditions scream topwater for what ever reason bass will not hit it you gotta dig a little deeper. A lot of times you can just change the style of topwater and that will trigger them other times they are not active enough to hit topwater. I fished a lake one time early morning overcast and the bass would not hit topwater even though they where slamming bait. I ended up throwing a diamond shad and caught 30+ fish. Sometimes they are just in a different mood even when the signs show topwater.

I would throw a jig tight to any thick cover.

I was just telling you what was said to me

Did you look between the fins? ;D The way it was told to me was if you look on the underside of the bottom lip and notice a bump it is a female if it is not there it is a male. This is coming from Dion Hibdon on a female the bump is more pronounced.

or salt

Welcome back!

Buy a good scale then you will know.

Good Job!

Both work I like powder myself.

Hand pour.. you pour the plastic in the mold and then let it set for a second then pour it out then pour the second color in the new cavity then cover it with the original color on top. Two gate get you a flavor injector and make sure the plastic is hot then pour the bait with the injector inside of the bait then inject the second color as you pull it out of the mold. If they are using a powder to create one I have no idea how to do it.

rocknfish9001 is from Eau Claire, MI not me. ;D

Tom Mann Hank Parker Larry Nixon Denny Brauer

smallmouth/spot because they don't mess around with a lure. They are either on or not. (I find them easier to catch myself)

I would fish the lower end just because of the fluctuating water and the steeper banks. All the fish would need to do is move up or down without moving far for comfort. The sweet spot should be where the steep banks taper off into the shallower water areas.

The other way you get them to bite is to force feed them. You put the bait in front of them and force them to react to it. You position your boat at a 90 to the shore cover and cast the bait to high percentage places and rip the bait and kill it. They either grab it on the first few turns of the reel or right after you kill it. By doing this you don't give the bass time to think and they either fight or flight.

I guess I'll answer this thread like this: Spinnerbaits are one of the best baits to catch bass under most conditions even clear water if you know what to do and where to throw. In clear water you need to focus on ambush points like points of grass or stumps or places bass will hang out to ambush prey. In clear water you need to scale down your lure and use skirts that are more metal flake and translucent. You also need to speed up your lure and fish it more erratically. This means ripping the bait shaking it stop and go anything like that. You also need to scale down your blade so that you can run the bait faster without causing the bait to lift. You can also do this by adding weight to the hook shaft or flattening the willow blade. By flattening the willow blade when it makes a revolution it is in a tighter pattern. The smaller profile and clear skirt blend in to the surroundings and the bait will not stick out like a sore thumb and will help prevent the bass from figuring out it is fake. In clear water speed and location is what will draw strikes with this bait. You don't want to let the bass have a good look at your bait. Around cover the bass only has enough time to ambush so they don't take a good look at it. The bass are in a different mood and the odds are great that it can grab the bait without moving far because the cover helps box it in. Bass use places like this (ambush points) because it has a natural flow of bait and an obstacle to help pin the bait. When a lure reaches the sweet spot in the ambush point the bass has only a small amount of time before the advantage is gone. When you target and exploit it then your catch rate goes up in clear water. Other things that will help in clear water is to fish the bait on windy days, cloudy days, or early and later when visibility is lower.

Bass usually will hook themselves or try to rip the rod out of your hand. I usually don't set the hook because on the next jerk usually sticks them. (soft jerkbaits I try to cross their eyes)

It depends on the mood of the fish. When you have a chop on the water or stained/muddy water a topwater bait that makes a lot of noise in most cases will draw more strikes because the bass can track it and locate it from a distance. In clear water action is what will draw more strikes but like I said mood is the detemining factor because bass have a mind of their own and break the rules sometimes :

It was an old fish if it had not spawned yet. Eau Claire, MI (slow growth rate)

Most skirt materials come in strips with the ends still together. They just stick it through a collar and cut the ends. The old rubber skirt comes in a long strip that you cut and then wrap onto the spinnerbait and secure it with rubber cement. Staminainc.com has what I am talking about or Jannsnetcraft.com

[moved] [link=http://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_forums/YaBB.pl?num=1144113451/0]Fishing Tackle[/link] [move by] Chris.

I fish irregular features like depth change, points, humps, or other structure.

True if a soft plastic appears alive and has fluid movement a bass will hit it. This style lure if presented correctly looks like something alive and for a bass it is hard to distiguish it from a fake. The key to this deal is how soft is the lure? The softer the lure the less the bass will drop the bait or spit it. You add scent of flavor to the bait and they will not think twice about swallowing it. Salt adds weight to the bait and as the salt disolves the bait becomes even more soft. Some feel that salt helps a bass determine if the lure is real or not. Can bass figure out between one style of lure over another yes, because each lure has a signature or different pressure waves as it enters the water or moves through the water. Many lures have different tails or shapes that give off a different vibration. The idea that a worm is a worm regardless of what style it is not accurate because each style has different vibration. For example you throw a Culprit worm in a hydrilla bed, pitching in the holes and I pull up behind you doing the same thing with a paddletail worm I would bet that I would catch more. Why? My paddletail is giving off more vibration than you Culprit (eye contact low vibration) worm. Because of this the bass can find my worm easier and it produces a vibration that is easy to find in the grass. When you are dealing with visual obstructions be it dirty or stained water or cover obstructions like weeds sound is what helps a bass find the lure if they can not see it. That is why each soft plastic has a time or place where it will out proform over another aside from color selection.