iceintheveins

I mainly just cast and retrieve. There is your problem, right there. Soft jerkbaits are meant to be jerked and twitched in. Use long pauses between the jerks, as fish almost always hit on the pause. In clear water it can be the deadliest lure you can throw at least 50% of the time. Make sure as the others said to rig it dead center. I usually rig the hook in the belly slot. Quite weedless and gets easier hook ups that way.

I have heard of a few people using them, but they just don't put off enough vibration and sound. I have had my only luck on spinnerbaits and topwaters.

I usually fish from a one man personal pontoon. I can fish many presentations sitting just fine. Standing, however, and I stand on the seat since I have pretty good balance, gives me a far better presentation for hard jerkbaits and also longer casts. I prefer to stand when fishing hard jerks, plastics on sinker rigs, and sometimes for buzzbaits even. I get pretty good hooksets sitting but a little bit better standing up.

Hmmm that looks pretty good.

As for my favorite color I like perch.

I loosen the screws that hold the props and bend the tips forward a bit.

I've caught them on all the aglias from size 2 to 5, and on thunderbugs and the old mepps weedmaster. An overlooked bait that does work.

Bigger bass generally do move deeper in hotter weather, feeding in the mornings and evenings in the shallows because most forage is deeper when it's hot.

Seems to work for all fish so far that I've tried it on.

When it's cloudy the fish can hold shallow all day, and even if it's sunny and close to 100, they can also be shallow if they have some shade pockets or thick emergent weeds to hide in or under. Most all the time though, they will be shallow in the evenings and mornings, and slide deeper gradually as the sun brightens. I too think sunlight makes more difference in the summer and warmer times of year than actual water temperature. If you can't find shallow bass when it's hot, fish deep, or once again in shade or in thick weeds. Some of my best big bass action has been froggin' these weeds, or punching big plastics through the pockets or right in the weeds.

I would use bigger, more realistic baits fished slooowly, and also right in whatever cover is on the lake. Nighttime can be good, but concentrate mostly on mornings and evenings. During the middle of the day, fish the deepest areas of the lake with a 1/4 ounce sliding sinker on a carolina rig, tipped with a 6" or a 9" lizard.

In lakes it seems smallies will be fairly shallow in the mornings and evenings this time of year and will be holding deeper near structure during the time when the sun is high and bright. I have best luck with hula grubs in bigger sizes on 1/4 to 1/2 ounce jigheads near these structures.

Riffles and areas with current are cooler and more oxygenated than still, stagnant areas that might be deeper in rivers. So I agree with you 100%.

The crazy shad is my favorite double prop bait.

I have to agree with the others, the spook in all sizes is a piece of cake to walk, and it's not even my primary topwater presentation, I use a lot more poppers, buzzbaits, and rage tails.

It's defective so send it back. My PQ is baby's butt smooth.

The spook walks the dog very easily for me so it gets my nod because of price. Just wish it had better hooks and came in more colors.

How do you guys fish this bait?

Just spray it on the spool and let it dry overnight on the first application. Give 2 - 3 sprays once a trip afterwards. Great stuff and makes line a lot more manageable, giving you slightly longer casts and more natural presentations.

Bomber model A's just catch lots of bass for me.

I throw them out and let them sink to their desired depth. Then I will start a moderate steady retrieve, and then pause it every 15 or so seconds for 2 - 5 seconds, then I will rip it forward with the rodtip and that makes it dart and is often when the fish grab it. Fishing one over grass beds, letting them tick the tops of them, and then ripping them out is also deadly. This technique works best with braid but the first will work with mono, braid, or fluoro.

Thanks guys. What does a strike usually feel like for you guys. Usually it's a series of taps for me.

Megastrike and smelly jelly are the only ones I've used that are worth a darn, and even they don't really trigger a lot of extra bites, but they will trigger a few, plus mask bad scents and help a bass hold onto a bait longer.

Suspendots and strips are good products to help slow the rise of your cranks or get them to suspend. It's pretty tough to get a very buoyant bait to suspend though, you need a lot of dots or strips. But baits that rise a little slower are easy to turn into full suspenders with these.

One of the very few scent products I've ever used that I can say makes a difference, the other being smelly jelly. The megastrike does cause them to hold on longer, it masks scents like sunscreen and it does trigger a few extra strikes. It's worth every penny and you only need a teeny bit on a lure.