everythingthatswims

Well I had a day at a certain body of water this spring when I saw 5 bass in the 6-8 plus pound range (it's hard to judge weight when they are shaped like a crappie!) and only two of them even showed mild interest in what I offered. After a year at that place I still haven't figured them (the big girls) out. I don't get it at all. It's very personal now!

Senkos on spinning gear is super easy, the only other baits I can skip well (talking casting gear now) are jigs 3/8 and under. 15lb test and up for skipping, anything smaller than that gets messy IMO. For t-rigs, I "peg it" if I want it to skip, otherwise the weight just stops when it hits the water.

I use 3x owner st-56 #2 trebles for 168s. I lost about a 4lb fish due to the stock hook straightening on a 168 and from then on I have replaced the trebles.

Their jerkbaits IMO are only good if you are fishing slow in cold water. Tried the smallest size popper and it's not even fishable, but I am a big fan of their walk-the-dog bait, I have the smallest size of that one and it almost has a glide to it.

Odds are that when you catch a bass, largemouth or smallmouth, it wasn't alone. Whether or not the others are active or willing to bite after the first one was caught is another story.

In REALLY dirty water the only baits I ever catch many fish on are black and blue jigs and black and blue t-rigs.

S-Waver 168. It's not that it's a magic bait or anything, its just small enough that you will catch all sizes of bass on it, and at least in my area they have never seen anything like it. Also does a good job revealing fish to follow-up on later. Besides that I would say a weightless ultravibe speed craw fished like a buzzbait. The sheer numbers that bait will produce is crazy when conditions are right.

Huddlestons come in different sizes and colors. You should be able to find something to match your forage. Lots of baits out there that don't imitate trout. Some say that it doesn't matter if you use trout baits in non-trout waters. While I prefer to match the hatch, I have caught bass in shad lakes on trout baits, and bass in trout lakes with no shad on shad baits.

Green Fish Brown Fish

6-6'6" light or ultra light with 4lb test. Trout magnets, gulp minnows, and power eggs to drift on the bottom.

All the time. I have caught piles of bass on a drop shot and not a single one of them was vertical from a boat.

I fished a ned rig for the first time this week...Results were surprising, those little dudes really catch fish! Hope you have a smooth recovery and get back out on the water when you can

Smallies love s-wavers

Finesse would be a good approach since the fish got slammed the day before. Not sure if they would be willing to bite the day after the weigh in, lots of stress there, but if they were going to bite it would probably be something "finessy"

Some goodies from TW arrived today. 3 packs of Z-Drop worms in purple smoke, 3 packs of yum sharpshooters, some drop shot hooks, trebles for my swimbaits, 3 Baby Boo jigs, and I decided to jump on the Ned Rig bandwagon with everyone else.

Fresh Blackfin with some soy and wasabi is my #1 favorite. Yellowfin and mahi are also excellent that way. On the grill, Cobia is probably my favorite. There are just all sorts of saltwater fish that are EXCELLENT eating... Black Sea bass, flounder, trigger fish, sheepshead, tog, redfish, sea trout....the list goes on and on.

Crappies do love that pendulum action. I have fished that rig with up to 6' of line under the float, and for a couple days this spring, 6" under the float.

You must have been trolling for the mahis if it wasn't as fun as bass fishing? Sight casting for mahi may be my favorite way to fish ever! They are absolutely wide open, got into some small ones last year on a ML spinning rod, 6lb test, and an x-rap. Incredible how they change colors constantly. I think the smaller ones spend more time airborne than in the water when you hook them.

I have a friend who won't pull the trigger on a higher end swimbait. So he now has half a dozen mediocre baits that don't catch fish that well and instead of getting used try just sit in his box taking up space, that's a waste of money. Better to just spend the money on a proven bait. The storm swimbaits like the one you describe do really suck. I bought a couple when they were on sales for 2$ and they wouldn't even swim upright. The only storm swimbaits I like are the internally weighted swimshads, we use them in the bay for stripers (Calcutta makes better ones though)

My PB came from about a 2 acre pond.

You will see them if there are enough to target. Sight fish with corn weightless on a #6-#4 hook, or chum where you see them and use a c-rig with corn.

When I was very little, my brother and I were fishing with my dad at a pond for bass, our go-to bait (and pretty much the only thing we used) back then was a t-rigged 1/32-1/16oz tiny brush hog and dragging or swimming it. Ran out of baits and while my dad went back to the truck for more baits, my brother and I started catching them on the weight and hook. I'm thinking that was probably a case of a "virgin fishery"

If your can figure out how to get it to run correctly without a weight then you're on to something. Weightless t rigged speed craw is one of my deadliest presentations.

Good 'ol water gremlin dipsey swivel teardrop weights. Cheap and effective

Seguar red label fluorocarbon is the same diameter as a line 2lbs weaker than it. So 6lb is the diameter of 4...4 is the diameter of 2...you get the picture. So if you are wanting to fish light, go with that. Have to be careful with light fluoro when tying knots though. Due to past experiences, I won't fish 6lb and under on anything but small, exposed hooks. I use #2 gamakatsu drop shot hooks when I use light line.