Greed

There doesn't seem to be any info in the video Mike put out about a year ago. I'm pretty sure it's not a Keitech or Damikii.

Don't forget a lipless crank!

Every year I do the same old thing and it seems to work. 38-42 degrees: Jerkbait only 42-50 degrees: Jig and Lipless Crankait 50-55 degrees: Bladed Jig, Swim jig, Jig 55 degrees plus: It's pretty easy to wack them on anything until they start bedding up.

My only superstition is if I get bit on my first cast it's going to be a slow day.

Take out the lure and then take your picture.

Maybe change the time you make your outing. There are always a few fish that'll move into feed at dawn and dusk if where you're fishing usually holds fish.

If you're worried about a bite off why not use a heavy flouro leader or even a steel leader? Seems like you should be using one anyway if you're fishing where there are toothy critters.

My biggest pet peeve when watching a fishing show is seeing a fish feeder in the immediate background on the 10 acre pond they're fishing. To be more direct it pains me to see fishing shows shot on small private waters.

I would also like to know if it would be possible to lower the gear ratio on my Calcutta even lower. This would be something that I'd like to do over the winter while I patiently wait for winter to end.

Agreed! My go to bait when the water is >50 degrees is a lipless crankbait. This year I've been throwing 6-7" Swimbaits all year so I'm looking forward to see how my huds work in cold water.

I would also suggest slinging a 6" huddleston in your favorite pattern. I've gotten some big bites swimming a rof 5 hud along shorelines at night. No hook ups though a wakebait if you know the fish are active.

A white 1/8-1/4 bitsy bug on a little dipper, bam!

I only fish gravel ponds in the arid region that I live. As soon as I switched from a spinnerbait/crankbait to a swimjig the size of my average catch went up a good pound. I usually use 3" Big Hammer Swimbait trailers but I recently made an order to test out the 4" version on a 3/4oz Dirty Jigs jig. Most of this year I've been using the 1/2 BooYah Swimjig. It even caught me my kicker fish and a couple striper on the only tournament I've been too. I made the discovery last year when I only brought jigs with me to the lake and no topwater. The conditions were excellent for topwater, post-spawn, surface activity, the perfect storm for a good wakebait bite. Out of frustration I made a cast with my jig as far as I could down the shoreline and burned it back as fast as I could. Right on cue a 2 1/2-3# hit it with authority. Fastforward to this year and all I throw are Swimbaits, Swimjigs, and Jigs in that order.

Same thing has been happening here in Colorado for the last 10 years or so. The managing authorities aren't protecting Salmon or Trout but Endangered Sucker Minnows. Any fish that's non native gets removed and thrown on the bank to rot.

Brush Hogs and Beaver style baits are the only creature style baits that I've dabbled with. I prefer Gambler Otters over RI Sweet Beavers but that's just me. The times I use a Brush Hog is when I'm covering water by casting compared to picking apart cover (flippin/pitchin) then I'll use a compact beaver style bait. I like to use 3/8-1/2 punch rigs when I'm using a beaver style bait, I haven't found much use for heavy punch rigs here in CO. The best punch rigs I found are the Pepper Punch made by Pepper Jigs. The nice thing about the Pepper Punch is you can essentially create you're own personal pattern if you check out their site. My favorite pattern is Desert Storm.

I've said it once and I'll say it again (meant in the best way possible). Get your hands on some Big Hammer swimbait trailers, they have monster kick when they start swimming. Another plus to the big hammer trailers is they come in a multidute of colors so you'll be able to match the jig's color easily and they're cheap to boot.

Here in Colorado we have a few different internet forums on fishing. I'm on the western slope, naturally my home is westernslopeanglers.com. The person in the video you posted is a well known angler on the front range which is everything east of the cont. divide. in CO. I'm not riding this guy buy any means but anytime he posts anything about swimbaits I'll always read it and take it into consideration. I also figured out night fishing this time last year when I got tired of dealing with the crowds and having to really grind fish out. I just started throwing swimbaits for bass and naturally I throw swimbaits at night also. Until I can get my hands on some other hard baits the only three lures I use at night are a 68 rof5 hud, ms slammer, and a shellcracker. All three have there places yet are fished pretty much the same.

I keep on fishing for Bass but I pretty much fish at night like some of the othe posters have mentioned.

I was able to order some of the 68 specials on the 3rd, one in each size so we'll see how they work. Does the 68 specials and 8" huds swim differently compared to the regular six inch hudds?

Either a killerbaits, pepper jigs, or northstar. Any hidden weight spinnerbait really.

A pretty broad question I know. I've never fished the 8" Huddleston yet but I'd like order some for later on in the year. So far I've only used the 6" in both rofs and weedless and have had success with them. If I was going to work 5-15 fow I would use a 6" rof 12, If I was to use an 8" hudd would it be better to use a rof 5 because of it's weight?

I wish that the Mattlures Hard Gill was easier to find on the market.

Serious question, instead of dragging a plastic/jig through the deep weeds has anyone had personal success using Weedless ROF 12 Huds during the middle of the day?

This thread is relative to my interests. I'm looking at my e21 Heavy Wild Black and I have 'some' issues with it. It performs well with 1.75-2 oz lures but it can't handle the 2.5oz baits that I'd like to throw later on. The rod is only rated for lures upto 2.5 oz so I'm not dissappointed per se, I just need another swimbait rod. I ordered a heavy action Okuma big bait rod so that I may have a true big bait rod. I believe the Carrot Stik that I have is more of a froggin' rod and maybe for some 1oz swimjigs.

I like to throw swimjigs with a 4" paddletail trailer. Pretty much a small swimbait.