CPBassFishing

just spit on the keeper and put your plastic on.

Mac's Tackle RJ Jig. It's got a screwlock and an EWG hook.

Bobber stop on your line, half oz tungsten, punch skirt, hook, craw of choice= BOOM! Weedless jig.

Rod- 6 foot to 7 foot medium or medium heavy action spinning Reel- spinning reel with a good drag Line- 8-10lb fluoro or braid, depending on water clarity and cover. Jigheads- there are hundreds of shaky heads on the market but I keep it simple- a dirty jigs finesse shaky head with a 5/0 hook, 1/4 oz, or an 1/8 oz megastrike shakeE2 head. When and where to fish a shaky head- I find this technique works best when the fish are on the bottom or suspended no more than a foot above it. drag it VERY slowly until you hit an obstruction, then shake away. Once you have cleared the obstruction keep dragging. Bait selection: I typically throw a 6" or 7" finesse worm on the dirty jigs 1/4 oz head, and a 4" or 5" on the 1/8 oz megastrike. I like Roboworm straight tails and PowerTeam Lures finicky ticklers. Good luck fishing, a shaky head is a great way to catch fish when the bite is tough.

To soon? Nahhhhhh. I have been killin em on a punch rig.

you really have the match the hook size to your baits perfectly. 3/0 for 3" baits, 4/0 for 4" baits, 5/0 for 5" baits, and so on (there are exceptions but this rule usually works). Another thing to consider is bait thickness. With snelled 4/0 straight shanks I use a sweet beaver, which actually has quite a thin body where the hook goes because of the ribs, only about a half inch thick. It also helps to push the hook through the bait and then pull the point back in, it makes a hole for better hookups but doesn't make it less weedless.

one problem, they're protected. Nobody likes a hefty fine.

AHAHA!!! I literally just lost my breath from that.

In my experience, snelled straight shank hooks get the best hookup ratio possible. I use nothing but a snelled 4/0 gamakatsu heavy cover flipping hook for any flipping, pitching, and punching. I even snell it with 17lb fluorocarbon. It is a pain to tie and you have to use a bit of superglue so it won't slip but it works so well. Offset round bends don't have enough gap for me and EWG's have bad hookup ratios and are less weedless because if your soft plastic rips where you stuck the point back in your bait is no longer weedless. Give the snell knot a try with a straight shank hook, you'll love it.

Haha thanks for the suggestions and the laughs guys I'll just deal with it. They haven't been touching me, they just scare the crap outta me when they fly a foot from my head.

Hey everyone I fish a few ponds where there are numerous pairs of red-wing blackbirds and they dive-bomb me as soon as I get near where their babies are, which happens to be all of the best pitching spots (Next to reeds). Anyone have any ideas of getting these annoying things to ignore me?

won't that kill the hookup ratio quite a bit? Yes, I did paint it. It is now a very light tan color/ off white. Here's a pic. Now I just have to get some epoxy to make it indestructable.

Made this ugly thing in applied tech today and put the hooks on at home. I will be replacing the frog hooks with Owner 1/0 stinger trebles ASAP. It may not look good but it wakes well and leaves a nice bubble trail. It also walks the dog like a champ. Tell me what ya think!

If you are unable to return a broken rod (I know you did), break it off so it is half the original length, spool an old reel with heavy braid, lock the drag down, and use it as a plug knocker.

You should do fine with a 5/0 EWG or offset round bend depending on thickness for the 8". If it is more than a half inch thick I would go for the EWG. For the 12" I think you should use an owner 7/0 oversize worm hook.

Slaughtered the bass today on the split shot rig with a small tube when nothing else was working. It seems to be that magic in-between rig for suspended bass- it is more weedless than a tube with an insert head and you can fish it faster than a drop-shot. Anyone else using this rig? How do you fish it?

nah, I'm pretty sure it's a Bagley No-See-Um from the 40's.

The texas rig is more weedless and will attract more bites, but the quality of the fish is usually smaller. A jig has a larger profile and tends to get less bites, but it attracts bigger fish. It is also less weedless.

A-Jay, what worm are you stitching and with what hook?

Anyoye using the ima roumba? Its so good.....

X2^ If it isn't raining today I'm gonna try stitching a worm.

Well, the bass are finally on beds here in northern VA as well as a lot of other places I'm sure, and I wanted to see how all of you guys are targeting bedding fish. My three most effective methods have been: 1. Texas rigged soft plastic (chartreuse or white small craw)- 3/16 oz bullet weight, 3/0 EWG 2. Wacky Rig- small 5" finesse worm or baitfish imitator 3. Dropshot- baitfish imitator Anyone have any tips or lures they like for bed fishing?

they probably had just gotten onto the beds. Give them a day or two.

You're killing me dude. Your last thread inspired me to fish my new 5" soft plastic swimbaits and I ended up catching a 2lb bass out of a pond full of 14 inchers. I know there's a 5 pounder or two in there, just gotta find em.

Hey guys went out for a few hours this afternoon and caught about 10 bass, 9 of them were off beds. One of them had a weird spinal defect! Idk what happened there. Also chucked my new powerteam lures swimbaits a bit and hooked up with a 2lb female on my first cast.