scaleface

I would try a small smoke grub on a black jig head with an eye. On slow moving baits in cold water and fish that are reluctant to bite , the eye has made a difference for me. I'd also take a black sharpie and color the line in two inch strips for about four feet above the jig.

If the water is fairly clear theres a good chance it will be an Arbogast Mudbug in crawfish color.

I'm not keeping score but it looks like jigs are winning .

I was catching big Small mouths 30 foot deep at Bull Shoals on Tubes with 1/4 ounce weights. I could see dark clouds moving in though the hills. I didnt want to leave because it was the best smallmouth fishing I ever had at the time. I made a cast and my line arced upward from electricity , it did not lay down and I was using 1/4 ounce jig head. I was about to be struck by lightning. I spent the rest of the day in a bar telling fish stories. I was fishing a small lake on a beautiful day and I heard this roaring noise. I trolled out in the cove to have a look around and there was a wall cloud bearing down on me. I raced it to the boat ramp , it won. I just beached the boat. I never saw the tornado but the next day it was in the news .

Same here. He shot from a distance and the pellets were landing around me. Maybe I shouldnt have been fishing during duck season.

I'd be grinning too . Pretty fish .

Once the water starts warming fast, usually in April here , I will throw a buzzbait { Lunker Lure } almost every trip for at least a little while no matter the weather or water quality.

Stupid me googled skinny dipper .

I have some 1/4 ounce lead weights that hold skirts . I also have an old spinnerbait mold . Some day Im going to pour some without hooks . Then all I have to do is pull the wire out and I'll have 1/8 , 1/4 , 3/8 , and 1/2 ounce weights that will hold skirts .

Here's one of the Slow Fall jig's I bought. I threw away the package so do not know who manufactures them. You can see the head is plastic with a weed guard molded into it.

I bought some last year, that had plastic heads. I never did use them . They are called slow fall jigs. I dont know the manufacturer. I'll have to try and find them. My tackle is so unorganized I dont know where they are .

Me , white Lunker Lure. Scale read 7.5 lbs .

I have hooks out the ying yang . I buy them on clearance. I have to say though, worm hooks its hard to beat the standard offset Gammys.

3 fish , 25 lbs in Tennessee , I'm speechless .

I'm with maxximus and Papa Joe. I use an old 6 foot Lightning rod with pistol grip handle for topwaters like spooks , poppers , minnows.. .Shorter rods work these lures better for me .

Ive done a lot of fishing in shallow oxbow lakes. One of the best places to get on a fantastic buzzbait bite .

I found one of my old ones . Its 1/4 ounce with a three inch body and the lead head is not round . I cant throw them in the snags like I can a regular spinnerbait, I would get hung up all day . Thats one of the best qualities of a spinnerbait , the arm deflects snags the Beetle spin arm does not .

Maybe its the half ounce I use to buy then. I havent seen them around for years . So you bump stumps with Beetle Spins like Spinnerbaits and not hang up ?

Beetle Spins are so good at catching fish that even the most novice fisherman catch lots of fish with them . Then for some reason we out grow away them. If they work that well for a kid then in the hands of skilled anglers they should be deadly. That being said , they dont make the quarter ounce Beetle Spin like they use to. It use to be much bigger and was a better bass bait than the tiny thing they sell now days. I'd purchase some if they would bring the ole quarter ouncers back .

That top bait is gorgeous.

I use to fish for them along the sand bars on the Mississippi river during the summer . Id cast a dead creek chub hooked though the mouth , out in deeper water on a Carolina rig { we never called it a Carolina rig just a weight and hook] let it sink to the bottom then retrieve it slowly. When I felt something i'd disengage the reel and let it freespool . Id count for 30 mississippis then engage the reel and set the hook.

Im partial to crankbaits with some yellow because they have worked well for me . Not bright chartreuse . Perch colored rapalas have been producing for decades for me . I use other colors of course but use something with some yellow the most. Soft plastics I have a lot of favorite colors .

I dabbled in making crankbaits about twenty years ago. I made about six and have a couple of unfinished blanks carved out. One is a crawfish and the tail is the diving lip . I have some top water blanks too. One is designed to back up after it is twitched. I dont think that is possible but thats how I designed it. They are sitting unfinished in a drawer. I may finish them some year. I have an unused paint compressor . I was going to make more but just got out of it. Anyway , these are made of cedar with a plexiglass lip. I drilled a hole in the bottom and filled it with lead solder to weight it. I glued the lip in. Dont even remember what glue I used. The line tie is a jig hook shank. I didnt know what I was doing and the lure would probably come apart if a big fish was hooked. But I did use them and they worked real well. Everyone I made caught fish and miraculously held together. One of of these two ,on the retrieve, would run straight then randomly kick out one way or another before returning in a straight course Something manufacturers would love to duplicate. Anyway heres a photo of my two best ones .

I saw a duck disappear in the middle of a lake once. It never did come back up. Dont know what got it .

I know how to catch gar in the muddy mississippi .