Primus

There are more 6 lb plus bass in Michigan than many realize, saw a picture of a 9lber recently that I wish I had caught. In my opinion deep diving cranks, swimbaits and jigs are my most consistent baits for bigger inland lake largemouth bass, smallmouths are a whole different topic. I like both hard and soft swimbaits. I tend to use hard swimbaits on overcast days or when I want baits that have an exaggerated action. Soft swimbaits that I like would include .... Top Shelf inline baits 7" Rago BVD - I usually add a couple of nail weights to it but it also fishes well without nail weights especially if you are fishing higher in the water column. I like the Light Hitch color for clear water lakes. Intermediate tail kick. 6" River to Sea Live Eye Bottom Walker -great for slow rolling in deeper water, also readily available and inexpensive. Wide tail kick. 8" Hudd Rof 5 & 12 - The brown gold & golden shiners patterns somewhat resemble small carp, you will need a big boy rod to throw this I like a Dobyn's 867 - Subtle and super realistic swim. Also Trout works well even in lakes without Trout. 6" 316 Rising Son - I like to add a couple of nail weights to this one, great selection of colors and very well made. Wide tail kick great for aggresive fish. Hard swimbaits.... 6" Spro BBZ Wicked Perch Slow Sink -if you are new to the swimbait game I would recomend this as your first purchase as it's readily available, affordable and gets a lot of bites. 9" MS Slammer Baby Bass - very light for it's length, mid priced for a swimbait. Great for waking or twitching, just flat out gets bit. River to Sea S Waver 168 - easy to throw and very affordable. It's a relatively new bait for me but a slow stop and go retrieve seems to be what works best along with light twitches. If you really get into swimbaits and are willing to spend the money.... 316 Wake JR - it will cost you and they are hard to hunt down but are worth it in my opinion. 7" Triple Trout Baby Bass - great bait when the water gets warm Matt Lures Hard Bluegill - great numbers bait.I'm also fishing a couple of other gill baits this year but I need to fish them longer before I can recommend them. These baits would make good start , fishing in Michigan like yourself these are baits that are proven to me based on my personal experience .

I have used the 7'6" telescopic MH for several years and have never had a problem, I use this model for deep divers with 12 lb Floro. I also use the 7' MH with 17 lb mono for 2.5 size squarebills & medium to large wake cranks spooled with 17 lb mono. The 7' Medium is the one I use most for throwing Wiggle Warts, Baby 1 minus, 1.5 cranks, traps up to 3/4 oz, DT 6's & DT10's. Terrific series of rods for the money.

I agree with you on a jig, Crazy thing is only on occasion do I use a jig under 3/8 oz and often times in the summer much heavier. I am not saying you are wrong but it shows how we all have our own fishing styles.

Excellent post by Paul Roberts, in addition to what has been mentioned try a R.I. Skinny Dipper on a weighted hook with a keeper throwing it with braided line. This bait comes through grass real well and has caught me some nice ones. Regarding the bass spooking easy admittedly I don't have a lot experience bank fishing but as was suggested I would try blind casting and throwing baits parallel along the shoreline edge for those fish that are close to the bank. Good luck, I hope you stick one of these big fish.

Love the Maximus , use it as a Power Shaky head on a large jighead it produces big fish. Way better than Yum's Mightee worm which is an inferior copy, the difference is the Maximus floats. I also like using the Raptor tail junior as a jig trailer.

I'll chime in as guy who does not get any free baits from Strike King or any one else for that matter. Just about any soft plastic on the market will catch fish especially when they are aggressive, that said after trying different jig trailers I settled on about 1/2 dozen different type of trailers depending on the action I am looking for from the trailer. I try to use only baits that are the consistently more productive or seem to have a little something extra over the competition and the Rage Chunk to me is one of those products based on my experience. My previous go to trailer for a flapping action was the Paca Chunk which is a very good bait. I was reluctant to try the Rage because I thought I had no reason to but after hearing reports from anglers that I respect along with the positive reports from this website I decided to try it. What I like about it over the Paca is it seems to produce more vibration and though the Paca catches a lot of fish I seem to catch more with the Rage especially is stained water. I do carry a couple of bags of Paca for certain colors like Smoke Purple that Rage does not offer but for the most part the Rage Craw is my go to for this bait style. I also use a few other trailers as well such as Power Team Craw D'oeurve, Xcite Raptor Craw Junior, Yamamoto single & doubletail grubs depending on type of jig and what I am doing with jig. One bait style that has many challengers but in my opinion no equal in it's category is the Yamamoto Senko, to me this bait is the most consistent when I need a stickworm so I rarely use anything else. I realize that there are going to be a variety of opinions on this subject, the great thing is we have a lot to choose from. Use what you are confident in.

rockchalk06 I appreciate your observation, placed an order last night can't wait to get them.

Thanks guys for the intel, They have a lot of nice color combos including the hard to find Smoke Purple color. I want to use the 3/4 and 1 oz sizes with Big Hammer swimbait trailers and use a stroking along with a slow rolling presentation which is something I picked from Matt Peters who runs the Southern Swimbait website.

I'm thinking about ordering a few, need to know if it has a trailer keeper. Thanks

I just got these in from Tackle Warehouse.... http://www.***.com/Lucky_Craft_SKT_Magnum_120_Mag_DR_Crankbaits/descpage-SKTDR.html http://www.***.com/Lucky_Craft_SKT_Magnum_110_Mag_MR_Crankbaits/descpage-SKTMDR.html Here is a rod designed for large cranks, I'm sure there will be other brands to follow.... http://www.kistlerrods.com/p/fishing-rod/c-Mic-KLX-Fishing-Rods/KLXMRO711H.html You could probably use some of the more parabolic swimbait rods such as a Dobyns 795 with a 300 size reel . Regarding the size of the bait it will likely catch fewer than regular size cranks but have more appeal to larger fish. Once you see a 3 lb bass choke on an 8" Hudd it will change the way you look at lure size. Once I get a rod for this application I'm look forward to throwing these baits, I am particularly excited to throw the 120 square bill that Lucky Craft came out with.

JP Hammer Shad would be my favorite.

Wait till you see the new Lucky Craft SKT mag 120 DR it's even bigger than the new Strike King. I won't be throwing mine until post spawn so it will be a few weeks until I get a chance to fish it.

Went to their website, nice looking bait I think I'm going to get a Perch color.

I'm also a huge fan of the Red Eye Shad along with some other select brands as the better ones each have their time to shine. For a yo-yo retrieve try the Rapala Rippin' Rap, this bait is the best I have ever used for this type of retrieve. The only thing I don't like about the bait is that the hooks are too small in my opinion so I switch them for #4 KVD Mustad Short Shank hooks.

The problem with VMC hooks is that they aren't consistently sharp and are never as sharp as Gamakatsu. I consider VMC to be a decent hook company whereas Gamakatsu is a premium hook company in my opinion. The only Gama hook that I was disappointed with is their flipping hook because the keeper won't stay in place.

Those are the 2 exact models that I favor, the only difference is I usually fish it with 14 lb Floro. I still like the Super Fluke when I want a slower fall.

There are lot of swimbaits that are made in the USA but many of these are niche boutique type of products and because of the size & price of these baits appeal to a small part of the overall bass fishing tackle market. That said some of these items like the 316 Wake Jr & Matt lures Hard Gill are terrific lures if you are willing to spend the coin. One thing I try to do is by local when possible, for example the local tackle shops in my area have a good selection of soft plastics from Zoom , Rage, Yamamoto etc. so I buy the majority of these products from these stores. The online retailers are utilized for hard to find colors & products. I will try to buy made in the USA when possible, that said the baits need to be high quality & perform.

I like fishing the Pit Boss, productive bait. I do find it ironic that Berkely which has done more to promote scented plastics as a difference maker in catching fish is having a lot of success with the Havoc line which to the best of my knowledge are unscented & unsalted. It seems obvious to me that action & profile seem to be more important to the fish than a special scent formula. That said I do apply a little smelly jelly on the bait just in case and to mask my human scent.

I have not used their chunk but I used the Raptor tail junior and it makes for a very buoyant productive jig trailer. The Xcite product line is very underated in my opinion.

I believe in buying local first as I feel it's important to put money into the community and support business that's adds to the local tax revenue. I will go online for baits that the local shops don't carry and for that my first choice is usually Tackle Warehouse.

WhiteMike1018 Thanks .

Buckmax here is your answer. Congrats Jeff on a great catch !

Senko's for me but I can't blame those who prefer a more affordable option.

Good answer, they are tools and they have different attributes that make them excel under certain conditions. More than any category of lures preferred jerkbaits can change day to day, it's one of those things that you have to experiment with each day. You can catch plenty of fish with Husky Jerks and Roques and at certain times these will outfish the premium Japanese baits. That said more often than not the Ima Flit, Megabass , Jackall and especially the Lucky Craft jerkbaits will outfish the Husky Jerks & Roques in my opinion.

There have been reports of guys deadsticking or very slowly working large floating swimbaits with some success but this is something that I have not personally tried.