Swamp Girl

Okay, I'm sold. Luckily, I don't have to busy since I own dozens of them, but I'm sure going to try them for lmb.

Okay, but do you twitch them? Slow, steady retrieve just under the surface? A morning, mid-day, or evening lure?

Well, that makes two of you catching largemouth bass on the original Rapala. Do tell. How, when, where, etc. I might give mine a try.

I just found it and thank you. The water park thread makes me look sane.

Listen to me, y'all! This is really important:

I bought some of those too. They were okay, but not productive enough to join the rotation. Their SwampyRating (TM): Meh.

Maine's Fish and Wildlife reports Golden shiners in all the water I fish. So, I often throw lures in the gold and yellow spectrums. Don't know if it helps, but fingers crossed it does! You're aren't alone in overbuying, Gim.

No, dang gummit! Golden shiners are the most-ordered item on the menu. However, there are also crayfish, alewives* in some ponds, pumpkinseeds, white perch, and yellow perch. In short, mostly yellowish/orangeish/reddish food, which is why, I'm guessing, I do so well with chartreuse and white Zakos. *I've seen some of those anadromous alewives returning to fresh water and they appeared to be about a foot long. That would be a big meal for a big bass.

You're so right...and I keep waiting and waiting and waiting. I checked a pond yesterday: still frozen.

Yes. When it melts, which is a ways away. Even then, I'll probably wait a few days or even a couple weeks. I don't want to tip and die.

And that's because he couldn't thumb brake the spool right before the lure landed, right?

Good plan. Determine what works best for you.

I have had sooooooo many lures recommended to me that now just sit on a shelf. I tried them and they didn't work well enough to keep using them. I still experiment and will do so this year, but I've also determined a number of lures that work well where I fish, just as I've located some spots that are more likely to hold fish. I have reported the successes I had in 2024 with Rapala's Crush City Mayor, Yamamoto's Zako, 13 Fishing Dual Pitch Pencil, Dobyns Beast, and Deps Sakamata, but do I think others should go and buy every lure that worked for me? No. Not unless you're fishing clear, but tannin-stained water that's shallow, rocky, and also weedy. Even then, if you're standing atop a bass boat, other lures might work better. If you're fishing current, that's entirely different. If you're fishing a place like Florida where the bass can feed heavily year-round, different again. Highland reservoirs? I don't have a clue what would work for you. My point is that it's really hard to advise each other on lures. We all have to find our own ways and we all have different expectations. It's a common human tendency to want others to align with us. My dad would visit Paris and then URGE me to go to Paris, again and again and again. My friends want me to like the restaurants they like. And so on. But bass are regional and quirky. Where they live determines what, how, and when they eat. Behold this lure: I caught thousands and thousands of smallmouth bass with it, but if you're targeting smallmouth bass, do I think you should buy it? Again, NO. I caught those bass in northwestern Ontario on oligotrophic, glacial lakes, largely in June. If you're fishing similar lakes in that region at that time, then give Rapala's F13s in fluorescent red a try, but stay nimble. Don't keep casting this lure if you're not catching bass. Have I even cast a Rapala's F13 in fluorescent red in Maine once? No. Maybe I should, but I assume it's a lure that caught bass in another place and when I did catch thousands with it, I was using six-pound test in nearly weedless water. Six-pound test wouldn't work where I fish today. No way. And heavier line would impede its action and my casting distance. However, we still help the Bait Monkey with the VERY BEST OF INTENTIONS, even though we fish in VERY DIFFERENT PLACES. And sometimes our suggestions are sweet pitches that let us hit home runs. Here are some examples: Alex/@AlabamaSpothunter suggested the Deps Sakamata to me and it works great in Maine. It does tear easily and is expensive, but when I cast it, I have learned to expect a strike. My local bass love it. Someone else suggested the Dobyns Beast and he was right; It's a spinnerbait that doesn't break; I can catch 100 bass with it. I stumbled on the 13 Fishing Dual Pitch Pencil and that's the walking bait that my local bass love, but don't go buy it thinking it's going to work for you too. Yamamoto's Zako is another fragile, but effective lure and it works in Maine, but will it work in California? Alabama? The Potomac? I don't have a clue. We have to buy the lures and try them to know, which is why the Bait Monkey always wins, and why buying baits and trying them is so much fun: It's fun to not know. The Bait Monkey always wins, but we do too.

Wow! 35 pounds of largemouth and 25 pounds of smallmouth...in 45 minutes!!!

@softwateronly: What a day, Scott!

I like weightless flukes too, Pat. I want to like hollow frogs. WANT! Here's video of me when a frog hits: I'm also comfortable fishing just about any soft plastic T-Rigged.

I've had good luck with those weightless 7-inch Senkos too. I really don't have much preference with soft plastics. I think they all work.

That's the ticket. Don't expect something for nothing. Step up and contribute. Yep, that's living the right way. More of the good stuff.

@Jar11591 made the same analogy upthread and it's a good one: Where I quibble with the status quo is buying a different rod for each type of lure. I think this approach was started by rod makers. Let's say that you boarded my canoe with 20 rods for 20 different types of lures. I'd be in the stern with four rods, which I'd use with all my lures. Do I think I'd be outfished? No, unless I was primarily focused on putting you on bass, as I sometimes am by spending half my morning positioning the canoe to give you the best casting angles, but I don't think your extra rods would give you an advantage. They'd actually disadvantage you because you'd spend half the morning untangling them. #I'mnotahereticIjustwanttofishsomewhatsimply Yep. If whatever gear works for you, cast away with just that.

I've seen this assertion before and I think there's truth to it. I watch some masters with baitcasting outfits make one incredible cast after another on YouTube. However, after decades of using spinning outfits, I'm pretty accurate too. I fish a lot in heavy cover and I've had mornings where I only missed one or two casts. Every other cast landed in a notch two feet wide or under a woody bush. I'm not always that accurate, of course, but I expect that those master casters on YouTube miss a cast here and there too. However, I'm open to using baitcasting outfits more and will in 2025. In the end, we all just have to find what works best for us where we fish and how we prefer to fish.

I plan to use my baitcasters more this year. I have some experience with them dating back to my musky years. I have no experience with "severe pain" when casting five-inch and even seven-inch lures with my spinning outfits. I have experienced some discomfort if I paddle and fish a lot over a span of a few days, but that's in my wrists. I have thin old lady wrists. My reason is distance. I cast a lure farther with a spinning reel. I'm a stealth angler and I have hooked so many unwary bass at the very end of my farthest casts.

I do. I use MH rods. I mostly power fish and they work well. Like Tom wrote: I cast big lures too. Mostly big lures. I know that @MediumMouthBass reports discomfort casting big lures with spinning outfits, but that's not my experience.

Yeah, me too. Cold water means cold bass. When the ice finally melts, I expect to catch zero to three bass the first few fishing trips, just like last year.

I don't live there. I am going to put a chain across the driveway, which will force any would-be trespassers to park in the open right between two houses, not hidden in the woods.

I'm pretty sure I couldn't catch bass like that if they were in Maine! That's not next level. That's next-next-next level! Remember he is the kingfisher.