RHuff

My #1 hands down is a wacky rig... The only thing I have ever really caught on a ned rig is catfish or junk fish lol... I have hooked one smallmouth, granted it was a solid one, on a drop shot and it broke me off shortly after hooking it...

Rank the following smallmouth techniques based on effectiveness, confidence, and reliability.. feel free to add anything if you feel it’s justified.. Ned Rig Drop Shot Wacky Rig

After years of struggling I forced myself into learning to fish a wacky and it's the best decision as an angler that I have ever made. I have caught fish, both pleasure fishing and in tournaments, with that rig when I'm fairly certain that I would have zero'd before when power fishing wasn't working... This is something I have learned through trial and error - An inactive fish will sometimes eat a wacky worm... An aggressive fish will almost always eat a wacky worm... To me that's a 75% chance that if I put that worm where bass are that they are gonna eat it..... Medium/Fast Spinning Combo with 8lb braid to a 10lb copolymer leader with a size 2 vmc or Berkley Fusion 19 wacky hook is my main wacky setup.... If fishing around bushes, wood, or anything prone to hanging up I texas-rig the worm with a 1/32oz bullet weight on a 3/0 thin finesse wide gap worm hook....

The reason all you see is Bill Dance catching 3 and 4 pounders is: A. he catches many bass that size and smaller, and larger in front of the camera B. he is has very good editors who put the episodes together for him depicting what catches he wants to showcase based on the lesson or point he's trying to make

Care to share what you do to get bit? My frustration stems from never seeming to be able to get bit on them. Where and when do you throw them? What kind of soft plastics?

Well, I declare... y'all get bit on dropshots?

I tournament fish locally and regionally out of a 2007 aluminum Triton VT17 it's 17'8 with a 2-stroke 50HP Mercury and a single axle trailer with a swing away tongue. I paid $5280 cash for it from a guy selling it who wanted the payoff amount to get out of debt. I've had it for almost 7 years now. I added a Garmin UHD 93sv to the console and a Garmin Echomap 7sv to the bow and the new 24v Motorguide Tour Pro with pinpoint GPS anchor..... It costs about $40 to fill it up and I can make several trips on a tank of gas and by myself in calm water I can run 32 mph. Two people can fish out of it comfortably. I'm not gonna win any drag races to fishing spots but if I don't catch any fish it's not because of the boat.... I've thought about trading it for something bigger but can't justify trading in a rig that I fully own for going into debt for something the price of a small house. If I ever decided to attempt to get my teeth kicked in fishing tournaments nationally I would probably trade it for something to fit that need but for what I need right now it fully fits my lifestyle. It doesn't take up my whole garage and I can move it around with one hand..... On a side note... A lot of times I fish team tournaments out of this boat as a single and I'm not gonna lie every time I beat a pair of guys fishing from a 70,000 rig it does make me smile a little bit....

Continues to beat me up… Nothing but dinks and one or two slightly better than dinks each trip. No big bites. Nothing respectable. Went last week.. 80 degree water, overcast, stained water, slight to moderate breeze.. Caught one 1 3/4lb off a spinnerbait off a laydown in 2-4ft of water off a main lake point just15 minutes into the trip thought it was gonna be the deal not another spinnerbait bite the next 8 hrs… lol Wacky produced a few dinks.. Cranking rocky and clay banks nothing.. Flipping standing timber nothing.. Working inside points and channel edges nothing… Shaky head, drop shots nothing… That one fish and 3 dinks in 8 hrs brutal lol Help… Did see most of the bait balls scattered in 10-12ft thermocline looked around 17ft… Maybe a lot of the bass were suspended??

I’ve caught two catfish in my last two trips on two different lakes on a general max scent wacky rig..

I have found that "jerking" the jerkbait in quick short pops help entice smallmouth bass into biting, especially when they are coming up and looking at it and swirling away without hitting it. Cast. Pause. POP. POP. POP. POP. POP. POP. Pause. POP. POP.POP.POP.POP.POP. sometimes they'll hit it between the pops and sometimes on the pause. I think they see it on that initial pause and get curious about it and when they think it's trying to escape or get away is when they decide to strike.....

My lake has vast fields of lilly pads that extend out to 12-14ft of water... Really it depends on the day..... Some days paralleling them with moving baits work... some days... dropping a wacky along the point edges work..... sometimes flipping the holes work....some times frogging the top of them work....

I think being on the water helps most with recognizing changing conditions and developing that intuitive instinct to make changes.... Recognizing what to do and when to do it

I would only put lights in storage boxes or livewell.. i wouldn’t do anything on the deck that would limit visibility for fishing or running..

I guess this was a stupid question looking back on it as baitfish won’t be below the thermocline ?

I hope that's the case near me... that things offshore is just starting to get good!

My last two times out I fished two different lakes one was 80 and the other was 81

Just making sure I understand what you guys are saying..... you'll identify the thermocline....say it's at 20 feet. You'll look for brushpiles or rockpiles at exactly 20ft or less.... Would you consider the deepest ones exactly where they intersect the thermocline to be the "juice?" Or can shallower ones be just as good?

I went jig, big worm, crank, dropshot in that order making 5-10 casts with each before moving to the next spot

So I know yall have seen my whiny posts on here about feeling defeated in tournaments as of late and me talking about how frustrated I have been… Well I’ve been studying, learning, etc about offshore fishing a lot lately so this afternoon I told myself I’m gonna take my time and apply the concepts I have learned and fish offshore the entire trip today… I started in a large arm off the main lake and began idling using my sideview (Garmin 93UHD) on my console and switching the color from orange crawfish to midnight blue seemed to really help things click for me today.. I scanned a deep main like point and noticed a lot of baitfish in the 12-15ft range so I started idling up the arm in the 15ft range and marked several different rock piles, brush piles, and shadowy areas.. I found one really nice brush pile on side scan in about 20 ft and marked it with a waypoint, circled back and idled over it with clearvu downscan and tossed out a marker boey to help me triangulate myself.. Made several casts with a football jig.. then switched to a big shaky head worm… then the DT 16 in Citrus Shad and first cast caught one my true first offshore bass using the process I have learned.. It wasn’t a giant but it was a solid bass for the lake I was on (5 that size could win tournaments there.) I fished about a dozen more spots using the same method with no bites but today felt like a win and I absolutely cannot wait to go again tomorrow to try the same system on a different local lake! I feel like if I can learn to catch fish this way and learn to trust it while keeping my shallow techniques in my back pocket it’ll open a whole new door for me as a fisherman. I know to a lot of you this is probably bass fishing 101 but I grew up and learned to fish the bank and shallow water power fishing so every offshore I have had to learn for myself. I’d like to thank Jonny at Fish The Moment and Tyler at TylersReelFishing for their efforts in helping average guys like me learn to fish just a little bit better..

Beautiful rig. I envy yall that are able to do it. I just don't see how people can afford 70 and 80 thousand dollar boats. I have both my vehicles paid for and a very affordable house payment and I still cannot afford to trade in my little Triton Aluminum VT 17 (paid 5,000 for up front) on a new rig..

Excellent news Tom! Happy for you, brother…

When you guys have a particular stretch of bank or a particular ledge or spot and you are going to fish it in a tournament how fast do you fish it? How many casts do you make at each target before you move on to the next one?

I’ve always been under the impression to always fish what the conditions line up for that day and not chase history

I’ve never caught a fish on a drop shot.. i suck at it..

That is an exaggeration, of course.. but I do find that I finesse fish about 3 times as much as I power fish now.. In tournaments it’s about all I trust.. Something tells me both active and inactive fish will sometimes bite a finesse bait but an active fish will bite a power bait but an inactive fish will hardly chase down that same power bait… Wacky Rig, Ned Rig, Spin Jig, and a finesse crankbait is nearly all I throw anymore when money is on the line… If I could ever learn to catch fish with a drop shot i’d be dangerous… Sometimes I break out the spinnerbait and chatterbait.. sometimes the jerk bait but that is about it anymore..