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Thanks Big-O. I know. I know. I'm just gonna have to save up $20-30 so I can get the other RT's. I feel like an addict who's jonesing for the others now. It's your fault. LOL! Now if I can get big mama. This Saturday my fishing buddy and I are heading to my favorite point. It's gonna be interesting to see how many we get. I gave him one of my Anaconda's and he loves them too. Oh, the shop owner said that he wasn't even sure he'd be able to get any more of the Anaconda's or Roosters because his supplier isn't selling them anymore. Said that he doesn't keep them over a year if they don't sell. I can't imagine why they wouldn't sell now that I've started getting strikes on them.

It's hard to say. They look about the same length, but I'm thinking that the second's belly isn't as fat as the first. It might be a few ounces less than the first.

Now for the Anaconda length bass

I realize that what I'm about to say fits several other posts, but since I am the OP I thought it would be prudent to give the update here. It is utterly amazing how just a small change in color makes a difference. As posted in another topic I bought some Roosters in black/blue flake today. The difference from the june bug is: all black with blue flakes vs some black some purple and blue flakes. Not much difference, right? I almost walked out of the store empty handed today. I didn't want to take the risk originally and sure didn't want to spend $5 on something that wasn't working when I could have gotten something that I know works. But, thanks to various members (too many to list), the shop owner, and my wife I walked out with the black/blue flake Rooster's. Still wish he'd carry something other than the Anaconda and the Rooster, but oh well. I warn you that I didn't get any big bass. The thing that has me excited is that I did catch 3 bass and with in 30 minutes. Let me stop and thank the wonderful members of bassresourses.com because I fished shallow in the heat of the day when I normally try to go deep as possible with the limitations that I have. Shallow is where I caught all three. So here's the area I caught them at. And here's the three I caught: That's right the last one was a rock bass/warmouth. He could barely get it in his mouth. LOL. Which is almost as funny as the smallie that tried to eat the Anaconda that was almost as long as him. Which I will post in the next reply. Oh and the Rooster was on a 3/0 Gamakatsu red EWG hook on a 3/16 weighted c-rig. I now love the c-rig.

Okay, I got some black/blue flake earlier today. People have been saying that color works This morning I tried the june bug color on a c-rig, t-rig, chatterbait trailer, and weightless. At one point something started to take off with my Rooster on a c-rig, but it might have been a turtle. I have to assume that since the bass like my Yum version of GY Senko (black/blue flake), then it should be a good color for the Rooster. Hopefully I will have pics posted with it in a bass's mouth. At this point I don't care if a quarter pound bass takes it, just as long as a bass any bass takes it.

I would love to but I can't see paying $5 delivery for less than $20 worth of stuff. And at the moment no one near me sales Rage Tail except the one store and that one just has like 3 colors in Smokin Rooster and maybe 3 in Anaconda. I tried the Smokin Rooster that I have (june bug) this morning between 4am and 7am. Still no bite. I have a hinky feeling that I was fishing it too fast. I fished it like a t-rig which is slow, but I needed to slow it down way more. I am also thinking that I needed to fish it with a light weight c-rig. There were bass hitting all around the area of bank where I was at. Just weren't hitting my lure. I'm not complaining. I just need to figure out what I'm doing wrong and tweak it until I get it right. I think I got a couple of small strikes but I am not certain if it was bass or turtles. Them jokers seem to go after anything. There's 3 others that I really want to try. Maybe 4. The lizard, the Space Monkey, the Rage Craw, and either the Eeliminator or the Shad.

You know, I got to thing about something a few minutes ago. There's one tree/bush that always holds at least 1 bass and if a black Zoom trick worm wouldn't bring him out then a Zoom brush hog (the 3" version with the pincers instead of the twin ribbons) would. It sorta resembles a crayfish. I'm an idiot. Thanks for the encouraging feedback guys.

Berkley Powerbait Power Worms are good worms to use. My only complaint about them is that all of their Powerbait and Gulp products smell the same and the smell will attract catfish. I caught a 5lb cat on their Gulp Alive Earthworms. Kinda ticked me off because I don't care for catching catfish. Also, from my experience, you really should have gotten a 3/0 or 4/0 for most if not all of the worms. 2/0 will work with the 5" worms but you may have a lower hook set ratio compared to a 3/0. Since I am still having problems with hardbaits, I will leave you with one more tip from my experience. Get a pack of Gary Yamamoto Senkos or, if your on a budget, NetBait Salt Lick. I use black with blue flakes and red bug (dark red with blue flakes), however, black or any natural color works good. You can t-rig them or wacky rig. Bass love them and it's not uncommon to have them grab the worm almost as soon as it hits the water. Good luck and tight lines.

My one and only local shop only carries Smoking Rooster (june bug, okeechobee craw, and black/blue flake) and the Anaconda (green pumpkin seed and one other that I can't remember). Last month I got the Smoking Rooster june bug and still haven't got a strike on it yet, as you know. It is probably a presentation issue, but I do wish I had gotten it in a more natural color like green or brown. But I am happy to announce that today I got a pack of the green pumpkin Anaconda and though I only landed one bass, I did get a total of 5 strikes. Getting one bass isn't anything new to me. Just this month alone there have been 7 days that I've only gotten one bass. What makes me happy is the strikes. I consider one bass or one strike to be a luck of the draw. Two, well lightening does strike twice. Three is the number where I feel that the lure is worth the money spent and the time fishing it (it's a mental thing I know). The last three strikes was the same bass (I am positive cuz it was the same spot). The first bass missed the first time and he came back after it. The misses were me getting excited and/or the fact that the biggest hook I have at the moment is a 4/0. I'm certain that if my rod wasn't a medium/heavy action, I had a bigger hook like recommended, or I had just given it another second or two to run I could have landed that other bass. Basically, I thank you Big-O and the people of Strike King for making such great lures. Don't get me wrong, it will be hard for any company to take the place of my Zoom trick worms or my Netbait Salt Lick. But, with the strikes that I was getting, I can see myself getting another PB with the Anaconda. Also, if I can get a hold of the other Rage Tail products, then Zoom might very well take a back seat.

Basically I am over thinking things. Since with soft plastics I find dark lures to work consistently (blacks, dark red, dark green, purple, and brown) and some light colors work in some situations (chartreuse pumpkin seed and watermelon red flake) I should stick with those type colors in most, if not all, my soft plastics and jigs. With the Spook the bullfrog works great but I might want to get one in white or match the hatch. With spinners just stick with chartreuse/white and white with their variations except in muddy water using red brown or black. Still need to play with the cranks colors. My boy lost a bass off of Mann's baby 1-minus red craw with orange bottom. More or less I need to turn my focus back to finding the patterns and zones. I have been creating more stress than what's called for. Gotcha, colors come into play if I am fishing different places, but since I don't then I need to stick with what I know to work on my lake. Thank you all for putting up with me.

LMAO! While it does explain why I do really good with a black trick worm (confidence) the rest is about as clear as the red water fished during the B.A.S.S. Master Classic this year. So regardless of clarity or light penetration, you just chuck the kitchen sink and what ever they bite on is the one you stay with for a while. Not much different than what I've already been doing. I guess it boils down to location and presentation then. Haha. The depressing moment isn't when you realize you suck. It's the moment you realize that you suck worse than you originally thought.

Actually I think both of you answered the question to some extent. In essence, water clarity should affect lure color while light penetration should affect what type of lure and presentation to use. For instance: If the water is relatively clear then use a natural or light color lure. Given the same condition, but the water is choppy calls for slower presentation and if the water is calm then a moderate to fast presentation so as not give the bass time to think about it. Of course, the last statement also applies to sunny vs. cloudy.

I have read through the articles and realized that there is one topic that confuses me and I am sure I'm not the only one. That is color selection. Most of us understand color selection based on water clarity. But how much does sunny vs cloudy and calm vs choppy affect color selection. For example, cloudy skies slight choppy water but relatively clear. Or cloudy skies calm water and relatively clear. Do you "down grade" a color from clear water selection to stained if it's cloudy or the water is choppy? Thanks to a bunch of great people I am starting to grasp the concept, but I think it would be great to have an article that explained it a little more taking clarity, current, and sky conditions all together in consideration.

Ah....I think the light bulb is going off or it could be just a migraine. Anyways, this morning for instance I really should have used a white-ish spinner until the sun got up good and then switched to my more natural skirts providing it's more sun than clouds. If its more cloudy than sunny go back to my white-ish and if it's mostly cloudy to all cloudy use the light chartreuse/white or the white-ish depending on how calm or choppy the water is. The rest is playing with size and retrieve. I think I have an understanding of the blade colors. The silver/nickel are for sunny or cloudy and clear-ish water. The gold/bronze is for stained to dirty water. When do painted blades come in? I have a white Strike King Red Eye Special with a white painted willow. Of course the types of blades determines vibration and flash. Unfortunately I only have one double willow and that's the half ounce sexy shad/translucent. I also have one hammered goldish single colorado firetiger spinner. Other than that, the rest are tandem willow. Sorry, don't mean to bug. It just that I am really trying to restrain myself from using soft plastics as much. Smalljaw67 is one of those who has greatly encouraged me to start utilizing my other "tools". Yesterday I caught 2 bass on 2 types of worms. Needless to say, I still find myself reverting back. Anyways, thank you all for the great tips and support.

Another thing I was thinking about is after I replace my Spook that I recently lost, getting a couple of back ups, and getting a few different kinds of the Rage Tails, I want to get different skirts and blades. The problem is that those skirts and blades can cost as much as a pack of worms for the few that you get.

Yeah, I kinda missed that opportunity of using spinners during spawn. I pretty much stuck with lizards and a worm every now and then. This morning it started out sunny so I used the sexy shad. The water was unbelievably clear considering it's rained off and on the last few days. No bites. I am thinking that the key to solving my lure problems is not the lures or my technique (although I do need to work on that). I think that it's location, location, location. These spots that I fish I know have bass. But am I hitting those spots at the right time? I switched from the spinnerbait to a white one, then to 2 different cranks (shad family) with no success. Not even a follow. I can't remember who makes those 2 translucent spinners. They have silver or nickel heads. They maybe Terminator or War Eagle. I looked at their websites but didn't see the colors I have. So I'm not sure. But, thanks guys. The one big concern is that since I'm on a budget I don't want to buy something that isn't going to get the job done.

This maybe a dumb question but it's plaguing me lately. A while back I bought 4 spinnerbaits. 1 white, 1 chartreuse/white, 1 bleeding shad/translucent, and 1 sexy shad translucent. The last 2 I paid $9 each for. Everything I read or watched usually refers to the white and the chartreuse. Maybe even some of the red orange, firetiger, or the black red. Nothing ever mentions the translucent type skirts. Did I waste my money on those? Also, I am a bit confused. Today it was overcast with rain here and there, so I thought the chartreuse/white would be good to use (and the water was a little choppy). Not a hit, not a strike, not a bite. I got to noticing that the water was still pretty clear despite the overcast and waves. In a situation like that, do you still maintain the clear water baits or do you go down one level and treat it as if it was stained?

I have that problem too. After a few minutes I usually change to a black worm. Trying to break that habit lately though.

I have roughly 10 kinds of crawdad type lures. I have fished a few of them but not caught anything. Somebody once told that there weren't any real ones in this lake. Somebody else said that it didn't matter because the bass' instinct is to eat them. So which is it? If they won't touch them because there's not any then I'm wasting my time. If they will regardless of the presence of real ones or not, then I need to work on my presentation. I did catch a couple of bass on some jigs with craw trailers but I had the luxury of being able to see them and know they only took it to get it out of their beds.

I realize that some may think that this has nothing to do with fishing, but it does. Any weather condition affects fishing and more importantly affects the fishermen/women and those who don't fish. This weekend the south and south east coastline areas are getting hammered by huge amounts of rains. While I'm sure they need rain, I don't think that they needed it all at one time. I am no scientist and not sure if it negatively affects the bass or what ever fish there are, yet I know that it's no fun spending the fishing days drying out stuff in your house like walls, furniture, etc. So my heart goes out to any members who are suffering due to flooding rains.

no boats allowed at risk of being evicted

Okay well that spot supports the first 3 on the list. There's a lady that fishes for bream and crappie in the evening 3 or 4 days a week. Outside of wind creating a current, I'm not sure if there are any actual water currents. The lake is a no boat allowed lake and no swimming/wading. So that rules out fish finders and depth finders. The area is covered in moss/weeds up to atleast 15 feet out and about 2-4 feet high. Okay, thank you all.

One of my friends gave me 2 bottles of Baitmate Live. Both are 2fl oz. One's in Shad and the other is Craw. Just curious if anyone has use this yet and what their opinion is of them. I bought some Yum F2 shad scent but it doesn't seem to make any difference. Thanks for replies and opinions.

Thanks, mattstone, I appreciate your encouraging words. As far as color goes, I would normally agree with you. But, you know how sometimes you find a little quirk that doesn't fit the general rule of thumb? I have caught bass using a Zoom U-tail chartreuse pumpkin seed on a bright sunny day (or a lizard for that matter). These bass beat all I have ever seen. I guess the solution for the time being is for me to save up the money and get a pack that has either green or brown in it. Since I've got to replace my Spook it'll be $10-12. For me that might take a little bit. In the mean time, I will try the June Bug when it's cloudy or when the water is dirty. I guess I was so stoked about finally getting a hold of the smokin' rooster that I didn't take things like what you said into consideration. On the one hand you want to call bass fishing a money black hole. On the other hand, I could be spending the money on drugs or something stupid. I think fishing wins out. Heck, I haven't even played a xbox or playstation in almost 3 months. For me that's a record.

I've been looking at the bird's eye view of my lake off and on. I noticed that there's one place that doesn't seem to hold any bass and I can't figure out why. While it's not a true point in shape, from what I read it is still a point. The northern part is real flat for about 50 feet or so and is at best only 2' deep max (if we had some decent rain). The northwestern starts off shallow and then around 30 or 40 feet drops going into deeper water. I'm not sure exactly how drastically or not it drops. The western part is almost identical except I think it starts going deeper faster but it don't get as deep in the middle. The southwestern slopes off slowly and doesn't run quite as deep. Keep in mind that the deepest part of the lake is only 18-25 feet deep and no one has been able to tell me where that is exactly. So the question would be this: are there areas of a lake or farm pond that bass, both small and large mouth, absolutely refuse to go? White is the 1-2 feet deep and light blue the 2-6 feet deep (estimation).