Bluebasser86

Man, so many of my favorites listed here ? Things I've given up on; Fat Ikas-I don't get it, they don't work for me and when I do get bit, I'm running a perfect 0.000 hookup ratio on them. Anything that says Lunkerhunt or LiveTarget on it. Things I'm real close to giving up on; Flutter spoons-I love jigging spoons, but flutter spoons are just a mystery to me. Anything from Rapala that isn't a Shad Rap. I'm tired of broken baits ?‍♂️

I bought one and the first time I tried to use it, it was dry ?

So are you looking for the ones with the double paddle "feet", similar to a toad, or the ones with the "buzzing", tails like a soft whopper plopper tail?

Vertical so the tail swims like a fish's tail is how I rig them. A Menace or Pitboss are 2 of my favorite trailers for them.

The Booyah is nice, but the 2 Tap is the best.

I use the Slider heads a lot in the spring and early summer. My main bait is a Croc-O-Gater Ring Craw. I use a M/F Okuma EVX spinning rod with 8lb InvisX and Okuma Epixor reel. I'm a "do nothing", retriever also. My oldest son caught his PB when he was 4 on that rig.

I've had good luck with the Optimum line thru baits, the BLTs (baby line thrus). The Savage Gear line through baits are really nice too. Some of them I tried were nice but super fragile. They get destroyed after a fish or two. The right equipment depends a lot on the size bait you end up choosing. If it's in the range you listed, a big crankbait rod is fine with 15lb fluoro/mono/copoly.

A 3" Gulp minnow on a 1/8oz head was my Ned rig before I knew what a Ned rig was. I've caught so many smallmouth, largemouth up to 5lbs, tons of walleyes, crappie, white bass, wipers, catfish, drum, anything that eats little fish really. The price is what keeps me from using them anymore. I use 3" power minnows instead.

Worked HARD for 4 little fish Tuesday. 1 would have fit in nicely with the swimbaits in my swimbait binders. None of the others were over 3lbs. Broke off another one and lost another. Wished I'd just stayed home.

Congrats! I'm still looking for the fish to break me into that 8lb club in my home state.

Z-man TRD Zoom shakyhead worm Strike King Menace 6th Sense Provoke 6th Sense Catwalk Duo Realis Rozante 77

Welcome and thank you for your service!

Welcome!

You're here questioning if you should or shouldn't, I think that probably gives you the answer you need.

I go when others won't. I work on angles of my presentation a lot. I think most people go down the bank and just cast in or 45* cast as they go, but I'll park my boat on the bank and parallel a lot of the time to give them a different look, or cast out and work uphill. Paying attention to where a fish comes off cover tells me a lot too.

I'd get the 6" 4D Pulse Tail line thru trout instead. Much nicer bait IMO. A frog rod will handle it also.

Welcome!

Welcome!

On average, I'd say probably 5-10 an hour is average for most of the lakes I fish. I'd trade those smaller fish in for big bites though. Last week I only caught 4, but 2 were big fish. That's a much more memorable day for me. Last time I went I'd caught 10 or 11 but considered it a pretty unsuccessful day until I caught a 5 pounder 30 minutes before I had to leave.

I've used mine for a good while now and mine rattle together in my storage locker and are still real clear. They're tough too. I've dropped mine hard several times, even my terminal box, which I about had a heart attack when it happen, but it was unscathed.

Jacomo is by far the best of the lakes you listed but that HP restriction is unfortunate for you. It's good enough I have a separate boat I bought just so I could go out there.

It actually lost a tiny amount of weight according to my scale (7.36 to 7.22 in 3 weeks). She was on the same bank about 75-100 yards from where I caught her the first time. First time she ate a shakyhead with a Berkley Flute worm, second time it was a Strike King KVD HC 1.5 flat crankbait.

Haven't caught many the last couple weeks, typical wintertime stuff. The other typical wintertime things are happening like big fish biting too though, and that's what I'm out there for. One was a 7.22lb fish, second(ish) fish over 7 I've caught already this year. I say secondish, because I'm 99.73% sure it was the same fish as the one I caught on 1/2/21. Both blind in their left eye, both missing a chunk out of the top of their tails, and pretty distinct lateral line markings. Top is from the 2nd, bottom is last week. Catch and release is soooo important with big fish like this. I don't care if it's the same fish, I caught it on 2 different days so I'm saying it's my second over 7 for the year ? Then I had a 5.09 on one of the new Ott's Garage Rapala's. Only fish I got to catch on it before it blew up because it got snagged... Then my "little" fish was a 4.94 out of the cold water portion of the hot water lake. First bite I've had on a Ned rig in a month. She pulled hard for low 40 degree water.

There's always bass shallow. Both my big fish last week were right against the banks, in the shade, in sub 50 degeee water temps. I'm talking less than a rod length off the bank. Both ate crankbaits moving fairly quickly too. May not be as many shallow, but those fish are there for one reason.

No mixed messages. I like wood baits and have several expensive balsa baits, I know how to treat them. Other than catching the one good fish, it hadn't taken any abuse other than the usual wear and tear of cast and retrieving through cover for about 2 hours. I had a giftcard and liked the look of them so I wanted to give them a shot. I was hoping they'd be a more sturdy built bait. I have a few more so hopefully it was one bad one.