Chris

Bait signatures: This is the vibration and water displacement that every bait has. The more water a bait displaces the greater the bait signature. This means the more water displacement the better a bass can find your bait in low visibility. This is important in choosing the right vibration with the right water clarity. I always label lures in three main categories tight wiggle medium and wide. Tight wiggle baits are for clear water because bass feed mainly by sight not sound or vibration. Medium wiggle baits I use for clear to stained water and wide wiggle baits are for stained to muddy. I do this because the less distance a bass can see under water the more a bass uses its hearing. You don't want to throw a tight vibrating bait in heavy stained water because bass would have a hard time finding it and it will not stand out. Clear water baits: If you ever took a close look at a rattletrap it runs in a straight line but kinda looks like its fighting to stay straight. The bait kinda shifts to the right a little then to the left a little then rights itself. Well, that's the way real shad swims. A live shad doesn't run dead on straight to get anywhere. A crankbait that mimics that same pattern when cranked will displace more water and look like what a bass was born to eat shad. Tight vibrating crankbaits that are just a hair off tune will mimic that same action. Wood baits are the best for this action but some plastic baits can do it to. Lucky Craft BDS, Bandit, and Norman baits are some that I have tuned to mimic that off center action (sometimes its the luck of the draw). Most wood baits do it on their own most of the time without messing with them. Distressed live bait: If you ever watched a shad get spooked you should know that it darts around trying to get away from a would be predator. Shad and other live bait act completely different when they figure out that they are on the dinner plate. They boogie in a random direction to try to get away. Many fishermen try to bounce their bait on the bottom to make it have a random action. This is fine and it works but if you take a wood bait and tune it slightly out of tune your bait will do some wild stuff. You don't need to bounce it off of anything just reel. Some "special crankbaits" will search a good distance right and left. I was fishing one today that when I started my reel it shot right 3 ft then straightened out then shot right and left randomly. The thing about it was each cast the lure acted different. This random action makes your bait different then most of the baits that people throw. They also have a unique vibration pattern that is different from the mechanical action of most plastic baits that the average guys use. The bait acts like a distressed live bait. Foreign: Baits that have a lot of rattle or an odd vibration or action strikes the curiosity of a bass. In some cases it turns the bass off. You need to understand that a bass that lived all of its life in clear water has developed its sight the most because that is what it mainly uses it to feed. By the same token a bass in muddy water bass has developed its hearing the most because it uses it the most to feed. If you take a clear water bass and drop it in a muddy lake it would have a hard time hitting your crankbait with 100% accuracy until it adjusted to the muddy water if it does at all. You need to understand this when you choose your crankbait and the speed you reel it. Lakes that are clear most of the year then a storm muddies it up this is when it is wise to slow down and use more vibration because the bass is still in the clear water mode. Where a bait signature becomes foreign is when you use a wide wobbling lure in clear water. Some bass will be duped by a strange vibration but most will be turned off because it is foreign to the environment. You take that same bait and fish it on an overcast day, over heavy cover or low light and things change. Tuning: (regular baits not wild search baits) A medium and deep bait that is perfectly tuned when you throw it out and point your rod at your lure and reel. When your bait reaches the boat it should run almost under it and the very front of the lip should be what you see as it reaches the surface. It should not run right or left of center at the boat. Some baits take time to tweak to get it right and other baits for whatever reason will never get right and need to be weeded out. A perfectly tuned bait will dive the deepest and vibrate the most when it is tuned correctly. Bait runs right bend the eye left. Bait runs left bend right. It just takes a slight bend in most cases and if it takes a dramatic twist you might want to ditch the bait. Some plastic baits the two halves are not matched up right and will be difficult to tune and would be a good bait to give to your buddy. Some Bandits are like that and I have had some Fatfree shads that way too. Strike detection: When in doubt set the hook! It takes some time to know what weeds feel like and stumps but while your getting the right touch its a good idea to set on anything different. If you have a hard time feeling the strike or the vibration of the bait graphite is a wonderful thing and a glass rod has its place but composite is the best of both worlds. I stuck a fish today that if my line broke I would have thought it was just a stump. Sometimes it is tough to determine a strike so I set the hook on anything. This time it turned out to be a 3 pounder. Welcome to the world of oz ;D

Temperature Plus Oxygen by Environmental Concepts 710 N.W. 57th Street Ft. Lauderdale Florida 33309 (website or phone I don't know but thats the addy for the service center to mine that I got at BPS)

Bass Pro shops has one I think it cost about 50 bucks

I kinda go in a different direction. I throw big spinnerbaits with a big pork frog, big crankbaits, big jigs, I want Godzilla! ;D Late fall into winter I scale way back but still fish them slow.

It just takes them longer to get there and may not reach the depth they have marked on them unless you cast them a mile. For a bait to dive deep quick it needs to have a tight action. You have the floatation of the bait fighting the lip that's trying to make it dive. You also have the wide wiggle that puts up resistance. Your line is adding floatation to your lure. Some line by itself floats and the resistance of the line cutting through the water cuts down on how deep the bait will go. Colors lol well let me put it to you this way most bass grab a bait from under it or behind it. (look at the bass in my picture what do you think the last color it saw befor it hit that bait and notice the location it hit that bait) The belly color and the colors viewed from behind is the most important. Bet you never thought about it that way huh. The back color only comes into play when the bait is plowing the bottom like a crawfish. The sides only come into play in clear water (flash)or when the bait deflects off of cover and turns the bait so that the sun reflects off of the side color. A lot of the neat finishes that crankbaits have unless there is enough light to reflect off of it (which means the bait needs to tilt to the sun to reflect with the right mechanical action already in the bait) or if the bait glances off of something to reflect the light they serve no purpose other than they look pretty. If the bait doesn't reflect off of the sun the color appears dull or a shadow. Crawfish colors for bottom bouncing lures and shad or yellow for anything not hitting the bottom. Clear water flash comes into play. If the lake has shad I throw shad baits if there is a lot of bluegills then I try to match it. Dirty water bright or dark colors because your dealing more in shapes and vibration. Super clear water I fish more chrome colors. If I am fishing a place that has shiners then gold works. Shiners in stained water or heavy stained water appear yellow or dark or white depending on the amount of stain the water has. In spring red because it looks like a bluegill and they are the first to move to the shore after ice out. You can put a ton of thought in colors and styles if you want but really it boils down to the vibration and the way a bass views the colors before they hit your bait. Most of the time a bass just sees an opportunity to feed and if its the right size it has been feeding on it hits it. Spend more time on vibration and depth control than pinning down a new color that nobody has. You will get a headache. There are times like after a hatch that you need to match the size and general color of the hatch or if there is alot of stain in the water you need to use a brighter color but most of the time a basic color selection and a good selection of different kinds of vibration is the key. There is a lot of times I use odd colors for the wrong clarity of the water and still catch a bunch of fish because I match the right vibration to the right clarity of the water. Color is important when they can see it but vibration is top on my list.

The biggest key to becoming a better crankbait angler is to pay attention to the vibration. Try to block out distractions and tune in to what your bait is doing. Feel the vibrations the whole cast and retrieve. Use the force! Concentrate on the vibration and keep a positive attitude. The more you pay complete attention to the steady vibration of the bait the easier you can detect a difference or change in the vibration. You can tell when your bait comes in contact with cover or when its about to. You can feel the rush of water that means a fish just rolled on your bait. Sometimes you just loose the vibration which means the fish has your lure or when you feel slack. Most strikes are not bone jarring but a slight difference in the vibration and almost feels like an interruption in the vibration. Most guys say well with a crankbait the fish hook themselves. Well, unless you spend hours sharpening your hooks and if the bass turns with your bait more than likely your missing fish. If you do not react to the strike you can have the sharpest hooks but guess what they can still spit it. You don't set the hook like a jig or worm but I sweep my rod to gather any slack and line stretch just that tension is enough to drive the hook but if your sitting there waiting for the fish to hook themselves your going to be waiting a long time. If your using a dead pulling crankbait where all you feel is the pull and not the vibration you will never feel the difference in vibration and will never have a clue how many fish hit and spit your bait. Color is a factor to what bait to use in what water color or clarity but your first step should always be vibration. Depth control, lip style, line size all need to be factored in also. When figuring out what retrieve to use I try to make an educated guess of what I think the activity level of the bass should be then tweak the way I work the bait as I learn more through the day. I feel that a single rattle or no rattle work best because it gives a bass more of a direction of where the bait is. Sound from rattles kinda spreads out and doesn't give much of a direction just an are of noise but vibration gives more of a pinpoint direction. Baits with tons of rattles in them call bass from an area and in clear water to slightly stained water can be very effective. You need to understand that rattle noise and vibration are two separate things. You can't put them in the same category. Vibration gives a pinpoint direction and rattles give a general direction. Rod position will effect the depth of your bait and will change the amount of feel you have. I try to point my rod to my bait and as the bait runs deeper follow it with my rod. If I keep my rod high it will loose depth if you point your rod to the side you will have a hard time feeling that rush of water I was talking about. Casting distance will effect the amount of room the bait has to reach its deepest running depth. Its kinda a game of angles if you get good at it you can hit structure or a depth zone with some consistency. Different lures that are identical will have different running depths so you need to play with them to figure out what depth they run. The depth on the lure package in most cases is an average running depth. Lur Jenson and DT lures are the few that have an accurate running depth not an average but always factor in casting distance and how much running room your bait has to reach that depth. A Bill Norman bait kinda slowly works its way to the depth and about when the bait reaches the boat is the max depth it will run. It took most of the cast distance to work down to that depth. As a bait gets close to the boat it looses depth and starts working its way to the surface. So if I make a long cast with this bait and reel it in about 30 feet out away from my boat is the max depth that bait will run. The DT baits are different because it digs as soon as you start reeling and in a short distance gains depth. Most baits don't do that and take more running room to reach the same depth. The wider the wobble the more resistance the bait has and the less depth the bait can go. This is crankbait season and I hope this helps you this season ;D

Special order some that float. Some smaller companies might pour some for you. Micromunch might pour them for you. You can also pour your own. Riverside has a Air Fry that I used for years that has pockets of air trapped in the bait. Most floating plastics have tiny bead bubbles mixed in the plastic that make it float.

Waste of time? If you work a plastic crawfish on a dropshot it will act like a live crawfish. When you spook a crawfish it jumps up and hops around just like the action a plastic craw will have on a dropshot. It would be time well wasted with one of the most effective presentations next to a dropshot senko.

I fish a spinnerbait (slow roll), jig and pig(pork)(slow fall), swimming jig (slow roll), suspended jerkbait points (long pauses), tight wiggle/medium wiggle crankbaits fished medium to slow retreive.

The one that works for the mood of the fish. Tinker with it until you come up with something. Generally I just chunk and reel. You can fish it stop and go or sweep it like a Carolina rig. You can run it fast and stop and twitch it then burn it. You can plow the bottom with it or ram it into things. You can be as creative as you want there is no "best retrieve" until you find the one that works for the day.

Throw a crankbait if there was ever a time to throw one it was then! What do you think the bass was feeding on? It was the rockbass. Swimming a jig would do the same thing.

I flip a tube, creature bait like a zoom super hog, brush hog, gatortail worm, paddletail worm, tube lizard, a fry(or senko), lizard, and sweetbeaver.

Roadwarrior we live miles apart and never fished together and we both fish the same color and call it by the same name baby diaper yellow. I get a chuckle every time you write it because there is no other way to describe it. ;D

You can frog it or pitch a tube or plastic worm through it.< let me give you a better answer than this. If the mats are loose and just floating around in 8 to 12 ft of water bass might stop and use places like this for short periods of time to feed but in open water its less likely. When the stuff stacks up because of wind or moves to the shore or if you have a cove that's covered bass will be there all day long.

In Florida Rattletrap, jerkbait(on spinning gear or lucky craft on baitcaster), or spinnerbait

I fished the flats down in Florida for years with a fly. I still enjoy summertime smallmouth fishing on the fly. ;D

You need to use something that thumps or produces noise. A crankbait is a great bait for heavy stained water but not all crankbaits work in this situation. The right vibration is the key. Crankbaits that thump is what I use in this situation. I try to use either bright chartreuse colors or dark colors. A spinnerbait would be another good choice. I would use a single Colorado blade and either chartreuse or black/blue colors. The key to the crankbait and spinnerbait is that they can track the vibration from a long distance. Jig and trailer is another good bait for hitting objects. In your case the log jams screams classic jig cover. Because you have current you might want to pitch beyond the log and bring it to the area. If you pitch it to the log the current might push the jig away from your target. Use a heavy enough jig to fight the current. Black/blue would be a good color and because of the heavy stained water use a rattle. Make contact with the cover or bottom if you can.

Normally a change in weeds means a change in bottom content. Hard bottom lakes as they age become either muck or peat bottoms after years of a life cycles of plant growth. Certain weeds grow on certain lake bottoms and when the lake changes so does the weeds. Water clarity changes where weeds can grow and flourish also. It could also be that they sprayed them.

Welcome to the forum ;D

Well, there are two things in your favor. One is that its around fall and the fish are not as effected by cold fronts as spring. In fall you will get many many cold fronts and fish are effected but not as bad. Second is if that is a spring fed lake that means there is a depth where the temperature is maintained and may never go up or down. Fish seek out places that either hold heat (the thickest weeds,rocks,logs,boatdocks)or in the case of a spring it maintains its temp around the spring. Small ponds are not as effected by cold fronts as much as a larger lake. You might need to slow down and fish tight (use a jig). I have had great days on small water under cold fronts just make sure you fish the bottom(shallow). Deep fish are far less effected by cold fronts and can be caught on crankbaits and spinnerbaits. Afternoon heat up changes the mood of the fish.

Knowing that a rattling bait in most cases unless its real heavy runs about 4-5 ft deep(1/2 oz). 1/4 will run about 3-4ft. This is just throwing it out and reeling it in. When you count a bait down to lets say 10 ft deep and you use a regular retrieve. There comes a point when your bait looses depth as you reel. Where you think your bait is running 10ft down it might have just lost 1-2 ft after you have reeled it in 10-20 ft. For you to keep that bait at that depth you need to slow roll that bait and count it back down a ft or two. This will keep the bait in the area not the exact depth. Your bait from the line drag and the angle of you being on a higher position (you in the boat)will force a bait to loose depth. The deeper you go the heavier a rattletrap you will need to hold that depth through the duration of your cast you still need to count it back but not as much as a lighter trap. If you take a 1/4 oz and count it down to 10 ft it would be very difficult to maintain that depth with any accuracy through the duration of your cast. I use countdown baits a ton and it took me some time learn that your bait doesn't stay at the depth you think it is and that you need to count it back down. In the winter this technique is my bread and butter. The heavier your line is the more dramatic the loss of depth is. Thats why you can take a 1/4 oz trap and run it in 2-3 ft of water on 17-20lb test without much of a problem. The line drag keeps the bait up. Line diameter and type of line does effect the fall rate of a bait be it a jig or trap. 20lb mono and 20lb braid have different fall rate than 20lb Flourocarbon. Mono and braid floats Flouro sinks. These different styles of line also effect the amount of line drag it has. All of them cause the bait to loose depth when reeled in. You still need to count that bait back down to stay in the area of the desired depth. I just use trial and error I count it down and reel to a point the count it back down two or three then reel more then count it down more. I keep adjusting until I make contact with the fish then duplicate it.

I usually pitch a jig about 24 ft to make a quiet entry. Usually my jig almost touches the water as it sails to the target. If I need to I can pitch 60 ft but it will not hit the water quiet. With braid if you try to force more distance on a pitch you will know it quick as you pick out your over run. You can get away with pushing more distance out of mono not braid. I tie direct to the jig without a leader. If I can get away with it I would pitch mono all the time because mono has more spring to it on the pitch than braid. Braid has its place where mono has a tough time horsing fish out of braid will ****** and drag it out.

When bass feed sometimes they have bait that will pass through their gills and injure the baitfish and other bass are trying to eat them also bass will try to take away another bass's meal.

I always used a flipping stick.

Bass change colors to blend in with their suroundings.