MIbassyaker

I've just gotten into keitech swimbaits this year too. I like them texas rigged with a little lighter weight, 1/8 or even 1/16. They're also pretty cool on a Sworming Hornet underspin.

Just rig it weightless.

haha! No joke: when I saw "dock rocker" as the first suggestion, I thought, that's perfect, no way I'll top that. Great name -- Congrats.

I should use tubes more often for largemouth. I tend to use them strictly for river smallies, and I just don't think about them otherwise. On jigheads I like to hop tubes so I can get that crazy spiral fall going. For dragging on the bottom, i rig them weedless on an Owner bullet ultrahead or a widegap Spider Slider head.

I've been able to catch fish on it in 1-2 foot visibility. If it's a brownish stain, like one of the rivers I fish, I use the red head, and if its a green stain I use the chartreuse head (don't know if the color really matters, but I picked those for their visibility). The only issue is, if it's pretty murky, fish will be close to cover and you may get hung up more often trying to get to them.

Ha! The Carmina Burana is never wrong. Everyone knows the O Fortuna theme as the all-purpose soundtrack to Everything Ominous and Epic, but the whole thing is spectacular. Go see it performed live if you ever get the chance.

Hey, why not? Flies, jigs, and dressed hooks on in-line spinners and other lures with feathers, squirrel hair, deer hair, and other kinds of fur have been catching fish forever.

I may be exaggerating slightly. But only slightly. Ned is the new Senko.

Yeah, better to not lose an eye, but better still not to die from being out of the water too long.

That is what I do too. It seems to cut down on how often I deep-hook fish. I'm guessing it's because strike detection is easier if the line can slide freely through the weight.

The Ned Rig is some serious skunk repellent. I've started throwing it instead of a wacky-rigged senko (!) when I start getting impatient for strikes.

Cool -- sure! They do look great on a shaky head. And the vile craw really does look like something created in a genetics lab, lol. A very different look than most other craw baits I've used. I'm eager to try them out too next time I get a chance. BioSpawn has clearly put a lot of thought into their lure designs.

Last June, while browsing the BassResource sponsors websites, I signed up on the BioSpawn site for a monthy drawing to test some of their baits for free. In return, BioSpawn asks that testers spread the word about their baits. My name was among those randomly drawn at the end of July, and three weeks later I got a package in the mail containing two sample packs of baits to try out: On the left are samples of the forthcoming 6.5" PlasmaTail worms (TW lists them as available on 9/20), and on the right are some samples of the Vile Craw. There was also a BioSpawn sticker, which I used to decorate a Plano box: This morning got to try out the PlasmaTail for a couple hours (sadly, the Vile Craws will have to wait, for now) -- my first time ever trying a BioSpawn product, although I have heard and read many good things about their baits including the currently-available 4.5" PlasmaTail, both here and elsewhere. Here it is (Middle) alongside two of my other favorite worms: the 6" Roboworm (Top) and 6.5" Zoom Trick Worm (Bottom): A few features stood out right away. First, the plastic is soft and quite supple. Second, the PlasmaTail has no flat side, and therefore it's hard to tell whether it has a "top" or "bottom". A cross section seems close to perfectly round. Third, I don't know how well you can see this in the picture, but the PlasmaTail's thickest region in the front half is slightly bulkier than the trick worm, while the tail at its narrowest region of the taper, right before it widens again toward the end, is thinner, and about as thin as the Roboworm at the same point. This third property gives the tail portion a ton of action and makes it incredibly responsive to any movement of rod tip, which is especially noticeable on a shaky head. As the package advertises, the PlasmaTail is neutrally-buoyant. I found it sank very slowly rigged weightless on a single hook. When rigged on a shaky head, the tail tends to stay upright pretty well. It also tended to stay slightly off the bottom when dragged behind a weight up farther up the line, as in a mojo or carolina rig, although it doesn't rise after settling, as a floating worm might. I did not try it on a drop shot (I'm not much of a dropshotter), but the action and buoyancy seems just right for that application. Is it effective? A fish speaks for itself: This one was on a mojo rig. In the couple hours I was out, I also caught two more on a shaky head with the same worm. It's also notable that I got a lot of little strikes that didn't hook up, which I assume were smaller fish, probably bluegills, nipping at that tail. But the tail did not tear, despite the surface getting scuffed up a bit. So for a worm this soft, it seems quite durable. The worm that caught the fish is still rigged on my rod, and is probably still going to be usable through a few more fish. Overall, the 6.5" PlasmaTail has a very nice mix of properties that seem to make it a good candidate as an all-purpose straight-tailed worm, and I am definitely looking forward to buying some more of these when they become available.

I use all spinning too, always have, and haven't ever even cast a baitcaster. I keep thinking I should get a nice one and learn it, but I have yet to hear a clear, detailed explanation by anybody for what the added benefit would be. For instance, I use a MH/F 7' spinning rod with a 4000 reel (not even saltwater sized), spooled with 50lb braid for t-rigs, jigs and frogs. I use another MH combo with slightly softer tip and a Lew's speed spin reel for spinnerbaits and heavy cranks, and a M combo for lighter crankbaits and topwaters. Then I have a few lighter combos for smaller baits and finesse work. I am told BCs make it easier to use thicker diameter line, but braid seems to render that argument obsolete. I don't believe line visibility matters much so I don't see any good reason to use flurocarbon, and in any case I can always put on a mono leader. And I've never found a situation where I felt like my MH/F spinning rod was somehow not powerful enough, and that I needed a H or XH instead. I'm also not interested in throwing A-Rigs or big swimbaits, or, really, anything over about an ounce. Every time this topic comes up, numerous people jump in to say, no, you don't really need a baitcaster for anything. Then someone chimes in to say, yes you do, for technique x, y or z. Then somebody else says, no, really, the right spinning rod will do just fine, as long as you have specs A, B and C. Oh, but a baitcaster makes it easier. Easier how, exactly? That's the part I don't hear an answer to. And in the end, invariably, all the discussants agree you should "pick the right tool for the job", but also you should "use whatever works for you", which always seems a little contradictory to me. I don't doubt there are good reasons to use a baitcaster over a similarly-powered and actioned spinning combo sometimes, but it I have found it very difficult to get a clear sense of what those reasons actually are, in any detail.

Does brief, former NJ resident count? I lived in Lawrenceville, Mercer county for four years before moving to MI 7 years ago. I didn't get to fish much, but I hit up Carnegie, Mercer, and the D&R canal a few times.

I don't have your heat up here, but I also don't have as many of good size where I fish. In late summer the occasional 2 pounder pretty much makes my day.

I haven't. I should. Pretty obvious really, now that you mention it....

Same thing as Mojo or Split-Shot Rig: https://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-videos/splitshot-mojo-rig.html https://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-videos/splitshot-mojo-rigs.html Except I don't peg the weight completely, but let it slide freely above a bobber stop. Some call that a "slip-shot", but "finesse C-rig" seems more functionally descriptive: It's essentially a downsized Carolina rig, with less hardware, and more suitable for light line and spinning tackle.

no. (takes a couple steps backward)

Great video! I have a few bags of these, but as WRB says, I am definitely guilty of overlooking them. They're so goofy-looking, I haven't been quite been sure what to do with them.

The smallies I catch come out of fairly shallow rivers and streams, and I don't see any of the really pale guys. They aren't anywhere near that big either, lol.

I was in EXACTLY this situation up until this summer -- had them for years and gave them many chances, but had never caught a thing. I started bringing one with me tied on everywhere I went this summer, and forced myself to throw them just a little longer than usual before giving up. Sure enough, they started catching fish. My hook-up percentage is still low, but I'm at least getting a blow-up or two on them almost every morning i go out now.

I could never get anything going with a brush hog on a t-rig either, but the Zoom baby brush hogs were instantly productive once I started dragging them around deeper submerged weedbeds on a finesse c-rig. It was like an "a-ha!" moment.

I have managed to satisfy the bait monkey for now, with recent orders from TW and Siebert, subscriptions to MTB and LTB, and a lucky random draw of my name by BioSpawn to receive some samples to test this month. I start another academic year in another week (I'm a college professor), and all fishing will grind to a halt by the end of September. Once the semester gets busy, the bait monkey goes into hibernation and fishing is out-of-sight/out-of-mind until he wakes up around March or April, and I can start thinking about it again.

I've always liked watching Bill Dance. But, then again, I've always assumed Bill wasn't actually making a guarantee I would always catch exactly the quality and quantity of fish on my lakes that he did on his lake......surely, that's a fair assumption, no?