Cgolf

With a tube I wouldn't worry about how much of the hook gap the tube takes up because they compress when the bass chomps em. If anything a tube does a great job of concealing a hook. I use a swing oil J tube, bulky tube, a lot on a slider head and really can't think of a fish I have missed with that combo.

Personally all I use any more are the slider spider heads. Been 15+ years since I have used a bullet weight and hook for a soft plastics. I guess the difference for me is I don't need to punch any mats so I can get away with the lighter weights.

Green Pumpkin colored baits.

Would love to know where you shop? They have the best normal prices of the places I have looked. Their sales other than Black Friday tend to be behind other online store(s) though.

For now I have settled on the Siebert Morel, Berkeley half head, and the fireball jig. I have yet to throw a Zman bait this year on the Ned, I have replaced it with other options now. Kind of regretting all the Elaztech stuff I bought.

Not sure where the gambler family of baits falls in this. The why not has the body of a brush hog with the tail of a beaver. Where as the otter has the side appendages that give a lot of action and I think the pretty unique single flapper tail. I have considered the otter a creature bait, not sure what you would consider it, maybe just unique lol. I guess going with your definition the zoom super hog has worked the best for me.

I picked up some phenix weights from TW over the winter, might be similar. Only issue I found is 90 percent of my tubes had a solid head so the weights won’t work with them.

The Gambler Ugly Otter is becoming my go to creature bait. Bought it on a whim during a TW sale, and have bought a bunch since. I think it’s different enough from other cookie cutter creature baits that the bass jump all over it.

Fished the Why not a bit, but have really had good luck with the ugly otter. Have also been able to stock up on them cheap when TW does either the black friday or 25 days sales with gambler stuff.

Lipless are an interesting case, lots of noise and vibration, but they catch lethargic bass. I think the key for them is that they are a drop bait as well as a crankbait, and excell around vertical cover. Realistically they are fished a lot like soft plastics, which makes them a great starter crank for folks that have mostly used soft plastics. Over the last couple of years the red eye shad has been my number 1 producing crank.

I wonder if the store in Janesville and the one in Madision area is reopening? I know in the past they made some horrible location choices around here. They had high traffic stores by the Madison malls, only to move out north of Madison into an area with not a lot going on, but they were closer to the interstate which I believe was their goal at the time, don't think it worked out around here.

I really don't think a chatterbait can replace a crank at all, they are totally different beasts. Reading the post about vibration thing it is more about getting in tune with how each of your crankbaits run. I would say most cranks vibrate less than a chatterbait, and the reason we have many styles of cranks is because the different vibration patterns work under different conditions. Two examples. Shad rap which is a very subtle bait is a killer cold water crank due to the limited commotion it makes. While on a vacation a few years back, I was crushing an active bass bite with a hard wobbling Xcalibur square bill. We had a major front hit, and they would no longer hit this bait. I then switched to a Bandit 100 which was a little smaller and more subtle action and I started to crush them again. Personally I get the feeling that a chatterbait is for more active fish that will chase as a general rule, and you may get some inactive fish, if you put it right in front of there nose and bother them enough to strike it.

I have 2 plastic shoe boxes of rigged plastics I keep in the boat. If I cut off a rigged plastic with life left in it because it wasn't what the fish wanted that day it goes in there. I did drill holes in the bottom of the shoe box ot allow water to drain out ot limit how much the hooks rust.

Yeh it’s no problem. My pb 45” Musky was on a M lightning rod. I pretty much had the drag locked down too. As long as you net it you shouldn’t have any issues. Only issue could be if you try to highstick it near the boat and it dives you could put too much stress on the rod. Being from MN I am surprised you haven’t caught one yet, all of mine have come on bass lures. They really seem to like red eye shads.

Mine are the Lindners, because my magazine and books of choice early on were infisherman. While I didn’t read his slider fishing book till recently, Charlie brewers slider heads changed the way I fished. Until I tried his jigs around 20 years ago I had never Texas rigged a bait. I still use his spider jigs today. Probably had the biggest influence on my growth as a fisherman.

I have used the anglers choice 5” wart hawg cut in half and had good results. As durable as half a Zinkerz, no but I like the fact that it is salted and not floating. With my plastic stash I have given up worrying about how long baits last. I realize others don’t have this luxury. I will I’ll say I have found half Zinkerz far outlast TRDs. Personally I hate the TRDs, they seem to tear easily. I will use what I have till there gone and then stick with Zinkerz.

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Snags suck with 50lb braid, I either pull with the rod straight or let out enough line and just pull that with a glove so I don't get cut.

I have been throwing 50lb braid on rod and reel combos rated for 10 to 12 lbs for years with no issues. I have no idea why they rate the rods for line anyways, I get the reel for capacity wise.

Got my acadamy order, with the plopper sale and 20 percent off code I feel I did alright for 27 and change.

It has been interesting talking to some color blind friends. While they can’t see certain colors, they can tell what it is by the shade of the colors they can see. One guy was actually a fairly good painter. My thoughts with fish is similar, they see shades of color, so a color may work great, just not for the reasons we think.

I guess I look at it this way. A swim jig is fished like a spinner bait and is an active bait for fish that want to chase. I think of swim baits like a Giron as finesse presentation for more neutral fish. Personally I think of baits like the rage swimmer more as a grub style bait when not rigged as a trailer. Definitely for more active fish.

Great info. Thanks for posting. My clear water strategy has been, to try to match the hatch figuring no matter how good or bad their vision is, if The bait is close to the forage fish color they will see the bait as prey. In clear water when it is overcast or wavy I go with water red, and when it is sunny and flat smoke red or purple. This to me covered gills with the sun on them and in the shade. The Chartruese results surprise me, I wonder if smallies are the same as largemouth. Over the years smallies have really liked chartruese over other colors.

For everyone that orders from Acadamy, help me understand if I am getting what I ordered or some extra baits. My order initially showed as shipping in two boxes, one lure in one and the other four in the second. Since then I got an email that another package was shipping with a second of one of the two traps I ordered. Then today I got another email that a second set of two poppers were being shipped. Are their shipping emails just goofy, or am I getting extra baits shipped to me? Of course me being who I am would probably let them know they goofed up lol.

They were 2.50 a piece before the 20 percent off. I also didn’t have tax added, because there isn’t an academy here.