MainelyBASS

I should have said that

Im a braid to fluoro guy all the way. 90% of the fish I catch come from the dropshot. My reasons for braid are: Better hook up ratio when fishing 30+ feet because there is no stretch in the line. Less twists in the line because of the leader. Better casting distance with small baits/weights. My biggest reason for using braid is for bite detection. I prefer to use a very bright color braid yellow or neon green, color doesnt matter because the fish only see the leader. For bites that I don't feel right away, seeing the line jump is a helpful tool in catching more fish.

Also if you're somewhat familiar with the lake, find the early season grass/weed flats adjacent to deep water. Throwing a jerkbait on the drop is a very successful approach that I stick to this time of year. If we have a streak of warm days, the fish will move up into the shallow water to feed. If we have a cold stretch the fish will move into the deeper part of the area, but I always start at the 1st drop off from shallow to deep.

How do you rig your EZ shiner? Ive only ever used the EZ shiner for drop shotting.

Double Colorado spinnerbait with some chartreuse in it. Chatterbaits as mentioned, also rattle traps. Post spawn, some of the bigger females will have moved out deep and will be tough to catch. The males will stay shallow and guard the fry. Dont be afraid to fish a little deeper than normal.

As everyone already mentioned, clear water, no wind, high skies is a great time to throw them. Another instance when I love to throw them, although it doesn't happen too often is when I find a school of fish and I catch 4 or 5 out of the school and the bite dies off. I will throw the same bait, same color, just silent.

As stated before. You can try and throw perch or bluegill imitation swimbaits in the area near where the spawning occurred. I also move out deep at that stage because a lot of times I find the males guarding the fry as opposed to the females. The stress from the spawn can limit the willingness of big females to bite, but it's possible to trick a spawned out female into eating a swimbait for sure.

Keitechs are always a great choice. No wrong time of year to throw them. I just throw them in different areas depending on how late you are talking post spawn.

They are great! I am particular to the Keitech, or other ribbed swimbaits during the pre spawn because the water is colder and the ribs displace more water. All other swimbaits will work. As far as spawn and post spawn, they work just as great. Bass become very protective of their beds, and then their fry once they are off the beds, therefor swimbaits that mimic bluegills or perch become very successful because they are prime suspects in fry killing. When post spawn turns into late summer, I will still fish swimbaits, only deeper. If the lake you are fishing has smallmouth, my favorite and most productive way to catch smallmouth is a 3" swimbait fished on a tungsten ball head jig on spinning gear fished off points in 25-40ft of water.

They will release at ICast I am told. July 12th - 15th

Thank you for this. I can now sleep comfortably. I can't even count the number of fish I have caught on the 1.5F in the last year. Fall and Spring so far. I only use 2 colors, the red craw and the chartreuse black back. They are legendary baits.

You only live an hour away from me. Maybe I can buy some off you if I drive to your house? Haha. But seriously.

You can't even find any information yet anywhere. Mark Menendez is throwing it during practice on Smith Mountain Lake and offered a sneak peak.

I saw some photos of it today. It looks 100% like a Keitech Swing Impact Fat. This could be good news for me. I almost exclusively fish SK products, hard and soft baits alike. The only items outside of SK I really buy are the Keitech swimbaits and once the water warms up, I stop throwing the Keitechs in favor of Shadalicious swimbaits. I'm assuming they will price out higher than Keitechs probably in the $6.99 - $7.49 range, but I wont have an issue paying that price.

I had been throwing a red eye shad (red craw) and it broke off an hour into the trip. 2 hours later at the other end of the lake I set the hook on what I thought was a fish, but it was someone elses fishing line who had caught bottom and broke off. The lure came free and I was able to reel in the whole mess and on the end of the line it was the same exact color red eye shad, only with rusted off hooks and split rings.

Dont forget to take a few night trips around the full moon phase. Regardless of water temps, or time of year, the moon can still have a large effect on the feeding habits of fish.

It wont affect your baits ability to stay on the bottom, the fluoro leader will serve the purpose of disguising the line and thats about it. The fluoro leader can also act as a shock absorber for the braid. Fluoro has a little more stretch than braid so it will help not tear hooks from the fishes mouth.

Another thing to keep in mind are the hooks that are on your baits. If you are using a bait with treble hooks, you do not need a heavier action rod. If your throwing a bait with a single hook (worm,jig, buzzbait) you'll need more power to drive home a single hook. Im basically reiterating what roadwarrior said because he is right.

Thanks!

Does anyone know if the traditional hook size applies to the Trokar ds hooks. TW has 4 sizes 1, 1/0, 2, 4. I'm looking for the smallest size which I believe would be 4. Can anyone confirm?

As mentioned, the swimbait bite is year round. It's more a matter of "where" you fish them on the lake that makes the difference between catching, or not catching them.

Have fun. Its very addicting. I pour my own Senkos, Craws, and Chunks. I save all my torn up plastics and after the season is over I separate them into colors and melt them down. Very fun stuff.

My opinion doesn't really count because i work for a major fishing outfitter so my price on the Megabass is $13. Before I started working there I would buy STX jerkbaits and swap out O rings and hooks. So I was spending about $10-$12 per STX after changing terminal tackle. Thus the reason I switched to the 110's. The STX is a great bait, but I put it 2nd in line behind the KVD jerkbait. The reason being I had too many problems with STX's not running correctly, or not suspending.

I do not cut the bait at all. I have never had a problem losing fish on paddle tail swimbaits. I also use Trokar swimbait hooks. I admit that I am addicted to them ever since I landed a 6 on 6lb test dropshotting. The hook was barely penetrated in the fishes mouth and he faught for a good 4 or 5 minutes but the Trokar did it's job. Havent bought another hook brand since.

That chart shows the hook sizes. I use the same size hooks, the only difference is I use the hooks with the screw lock and keel weight to keep them down in the water column.