Bluebasser86

I fish that little one in the same places I'd fish a wake bait or spinnerbait. Pretty much a straight retrieve bait but you can kill if for just a second so it glides off to the side too.

I retrieve mine with the reel only. Couple quick cranks, then a pause. How long of pause and how quick the cranks changes day to day and I have to let the fish tell me what the answer is. Normally, if a fish follows a bait it's best to continue on and even speed up, but for some reason with glide baits, killing it so it falls down in their face triggers a lot of strikes. I usually combine the two though. If I see a follower, I'll give the handle a few quick turns, then stop. This lets me judge the fish's reaction to see which it liked.

Been a good spring for the big warmouths. Another good one pitching a beaver into the grass on Thursday. The local river finally got down enough to fish and the hot weather had me itching to do some catfishing, so I went and caught some fat little blue cats, it was a good time.

The problem is Melvern is, for the most part, populated by smallmouth. Largemouth move to the banks in high water events, the smallmouth being mainly visual feeders, seem to vanish into thin air, especially the larger ones.

I'd guess low 3's, which is pretty heavy for a 16-17 inch fish. A 5 pound bass will generally be in the 20-21 inch range. To give some perspective, this fish was between 18 and 19 inches, super fat, but didn't quite go 5 pounds.

That'll spoil you real quick catching one like that for your second ever!

Same here. Instead they put up signs that it's a "trash free zone" and pretend like people will take their trash with them instead.

Catfish love to slap at topwaters at night. Occasionally I'll connect with one, but usually it's just a really loud splash and I'll feel nothing.

Blue-I'm a L.E.O. basser-what I am on the water 86-year I was born

Welcome!

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From the rules and FAQ's We are absolutely against any form of illegal fishingand will not allow any such threads or posts advocating such activity. LOCKDOWN!!

Are the skirts banded or tied? I rarely keep a jig long enough to catch 40 or 50 fish on one, but they're usually still largely in tact other than missing paint on the head after a few dozen fish. I wire tie mine.

If it's not a known public body of water, best to be asking permission. The whole "There's nobody and nothing here saying I'm not supposed to", is a weak excuse and a sign of a poor moral compass. How many with that mindset have no trespassing signs posted in their front and back yards? It's not marked so it's okay for someone to walk through it right? It's just a fish, it's not worth getting a ticket and/or getting arrested or your gear confiscated. Folks who decide to just fish until someone tells them not to are a big part of the reason why it's so hard to get permission to fish anymore. Property owners get tired of running people off, so when someone tries to do it right they have those bad memories and impressions of fishermen that makes it dang near impossible. I've lost permission to fish places because of others sneaking in and the owners getting fed up with dealing with it, so they just shut it off to everyone.

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I use them just because of how snag resistant they are. One of the main lakes I fish for smallmouth in has some of the snaggiest rocks I've ever fished. If I fish a shakyhead, it's almost a cast per bait, but with the swing heads I can keep it to 1 or 2 heads a day.

You mean, back when this thread was started, a decade ago

No, it's still catching fish for me now long after the baby ducks have lost their downy feathers. I'm sure it still looks like various different things a fish would want to eat.

I put the little 3" version on a 1/8oz swinging football head that I pour just for small plastics like that. The hinged head gives it a jerky action that looks a lot like a little craw scooting away. It's a great presentation that I probably don't use often enough. This is the 3" Pit Boss and a 2.75" YUM Craw Papi on the same size heads. It's a 2/0 Owner short shank rig N' hook and it fits perfectly.

I haven't been fishing as much this year due to a tremendous amount of OT at work, but I'm still finding my share (and probably more). Had to hop out of the boat and wade up the shoreline to retrieve a customers bait from a bush along the shoreline last Friday, was rewarded when I found this guy hiding on one of the roots of the same bush.

Great to hear the site is helping in your journey! Never stop learning, that's one of the biggest keys in getting better at this sport. I've been doing it 30 years and still experience firsts and strive to learn something new all the time. I caught my first bass on an underspin this year and it has quickly become a rig I reach for quite often now that I understand it. It's a great feeling when the light bulb comes on.