TheSmilingSwordsman

I use red hooks as well as grey/black colored hooks. All of my odd numbered hooks, 1/0, 3/0, 5/0, are red. My even numbered hooks, 2/0, 4/0, and 6/0 are grey. It's just a way for me to organize and quickly identify hooks in my tackle box. I'm not sure that it saves me much time but it looks pretty cool.

Panther Martin black w/ yellow spots and a gold blade.

I only use 2 fishing setups, one baitcaster and one spinning, so I switch lures all of the time based on our location on the lake and where we are finding bass. I usually fish from a Pelican Bass Raider with someone else on board. We don't have room for many different rods so it try to keep my rod and reel selection simple. At the same time, we don't use a fish finder so we have to be ready to switch lures often in order to find the bass. Pair this along with the fact that I am fairly new to fishing and get really excited about learning different fishing methods, means that I spend a good portion of my day tying on new lures in order to find what it is the bass want.

I noticed that VMC came out with a new hook called the Powershot which is a bigger version of their Spinshot hooks. They tout the benefits of less twisted line and a more enjoyable fishing experience. My question is, do you think that the swiveling action of the hook is actually beneficial/necessary, or is it just another way to get you to spend more money on specialized tackle?

H2O Express CRS XCalibur

My three most successful colors are: 1. Baitfish, 2. White Ice, 3. Watermelon. All three have proven to be good choices in clear water. I'm not sure that any one color outperforms the others, even though I have the most confidence in Baitfish.

I use a 3/0 on the Super Fluke. Have not used a Horny Toad

Love their square bill cranks, but I haven't been as pleased with their lipless cranks.

He got one!! My son finally landed one using a Berkley swim bait. The bites were few and far between today. He tried Yum Dingers, a drop shot finesse worm (it's how I caught mine today), a square billed crank, a shakey head and a t-rigged lizard. The best part, he cast and reeled the thing by himself. I helped him get it in the boat. Today was a good day.

They catch fish for me. What more can you ask for?

1. Siebert 3/8 oz Blue Craw Dredge Football Jig with a Berkley Pumpkin colored Chiggar Craw. 2. H2O Express Bluegill colored Squarebill crank. 3. Zoom Baitfish colored Super Fluke.

Elkaholic, I fish a very similar lake. The bite on a jig seems to have dried up for me right now. Earlier I was fishing natural colored 3/8 oz football jigs dragging and hopping them along the bottom and was absolutely slaying them. With this hotter weather, I can't seem to get much of anything to bite my jigs. With that said, I am getting bites on other baits. It may be that your fish just don't want a jig drug on the bottom right now. You might try some more aggressive hopping or try swimming your jigs and see if that works. Don't give up on them, it may just be the wrong time of year for your lake.

Thanks for the help. We'll give some of these a try and report back.

My four year old son absolutely loves fishing tackle. I've given him a few cranks, some flukes, various craws and his own bag of Yum Dingers. I will of course take some night crawlers to let him bobber fish but he really wants to use some of his lures. We've tried trolling crankbaits with no success. He can cast a good 30-40 feet with his Zebco. I was thinking Dingers and maybe a finesse worm on a shakey head. Have any of you let your small kids use artificial baits for bass with any success? If so, what did they use?

The Mitchell Avocet Gold sets are good for the money. I actually really like the reel and the rod is serviceable.

I have had my best luck with White Ice and Bait Fish but like was said earlier, I'm not sure the color really matters all that much.

1. H2O Express Squarebill in Bluegill (I fish clear water) 2. Zoom Super Fluke in Baitfish, White Ice or Watermelon 3. T-rigged Zoom Brush Hog in Watermelon 4. Siebert Dredge Football Head Jig with a pumpkin colored craw trailer. Between these four, I have yet to be skunked this summer. Be patient and let the fish tell you what they want. No lure works 100% of the time.

What are your opinions (if any) of Xcalibur crankbaits. I bought some on sale at our new Cabela's and have seen them at Wal-Mart but have never actually used them, nor have I heard much about them. What say you Bass Resource forum members?

What style of jig would you recommend?

I went fishing earlier this week and had a lot of success catching bass by running a H2O Express bluegill patterned squarebill crank and a Zoom Super Fluke just outside of the cattails. The water was usuall pretty shallow. No more than two-three feet and clear. The question I have is, what would you suggest I use to throw up into the cattails. A heavy jig? A t-rigged soft plasic? A Poulan Weed-Eater? What have you had success with?

I use 30lb braid with a 12lb leader. We don't have have much in the way of cover either but I am a noob when it comes to bass fishing so take it for what it's worth.

Berkley pit boss, chigger craws or Zoom baby brush hogs.

The 12lb comment was sarcasm, thus the . They were more likely 1-2lb fish given the typical bass found in the lake. It had to be restocked after a pretty severe case of overfishing a few years back.

Alright, I'm convinced. Fishing a jig is amazing. I went into today planning to use a jig 75% of the time but ended up using it the whole day. I caught 8 bass (very good for this small lake) and had a blast watching them go after the jig in clear water. I do need to work on my hookups. I let 4 bass get away and I'm sure that they were all at least twelve pounders. I think I may now have my first confidence bait. I've felt pretty comfortable using a lipless crank in the spring but I didn't have nearly the bites I did today. Hopefully I can get out again later this week and duplicate today's performance. Tackle: Siebert 3/8 Dredge Football Jig in Blue Craw (strangely it matched the color of our dragonflies perfectly). Berkley Chigger Craw in Green Pumpkin Rage Tail Rage Craw in Hard Candy

If you are really worried about it, you can mix some JJ's magic in with the sunscreen before you apply. You might scare away other humans with your scent, but the bass will love it.