Cgolf

Rattlesnake brand 4" chartreuse silver flake ribbontail worms. To this day I can't find a replacement worm in that size and color and the smallies just crushed them. I only have a handful left.

Funny that you say that I used to use them a ton for crappie and would also catch bass when fished with the 2" solid body tubes they had. Well fast forward a few years, like 15, and now that I fish for bass instead of crappie I haven't dragged them out in well about 15 years. Next year I will have to give them a go, I have a handful in bass sizes, but the panfish ones would make great post front baits.

I have a decent sized order I won't see till Christmas, lots of lipless baits, tubes, menace grubs, gambler baits, jig skirt tabs and some misc stuff. Oh yeah the TRD tubes, looking forward to trying those.

Do you fish T rigged soft plastics on the bottom? I have found bass jigs to have about the same to less gunkupability than a standard Trig. I was really impressed how they came through millfoil.

A second vote for the slider jig, very underrated setup, just fish it like you would any texas rigged bait. I also like salted plastics at time on a ned rig, half a finesse worm would work great. The use of salted plastics give a different action than the Zman baits, both have there time and place. The Ned rig is not just a Zman thing.

This was a really off year for me and the river bite was zilch due to low water and heat early. Top was the RES. On a week long trip I caught 6 species on this including 2 nice muskies. Second was the good old tube, always in the top three for me. Third Gambler ugly otter and Rage Menace. Both really caught em but tore up quickly, gambler gets the nod here due to cost, especially right now at TW. Honerable mentions Anglers choice wart hawg Ned rig, skinnier than a Zinkerz and heavily salted Zinkerz rigged weedless on a slider spider head fished around docks, need to work this one more next year. Rippin Rap worked but not as good as the RES. That is about it for me, just looking forward to next season, hoping for a big rebound year.

Personally I like the skirt a bit past the bend of the hook. I am newer to the jig game, but as long as the skirt doesn't inhibit the movement of the trailer I leave it alone. I also have found that shorter skirts don't fold back as well at least out of the water, I am sure they are fine in water. I like the boss hubs, I have used them in front of a slider jig with a bobber stop keeping it in place against the slider head. I haven't used a worm weight in years.

Well the TW sale won out, so no smoke red skirt material. I did get some smoke silver, that I will do 2 full tabs of with 2 quarter tabs of red in between. I attached a picture of this done with the clear sparkle I have on hand which may work well too. The other picture is two perch jigs and a red/white to match my best producing spinnerbait. Just wish TW had more color options, more on the spinnerbait side than the traditional jig colors. Maybe as swim jigs get more popular they will add some colors.

I have been trying colors not available pre made and I also use it for fly tying. My goal for the order is to keep it under 70 so I don't go to crazy. I haven't started pouring my own heads yet, I have one brand in particular that I really like so I have been sticking with that.

Does the sale go through the weekend? I am not partaking but my Father in law may if he can order over the weekend.

How do they do the bulk pricing, is it #per style or color to get the cheaper price?

Thanks guys, I am either getting them mixed up with Siebert or another bulk supplier for the sales. My parents wanted christmas gift ideas for me, so maybe I will do a gift card from the site or do an order and have it shipped to their place. For bottom bouncing jigs, have you guys ever tried traditional spinner bait colors like the smoke red or smoke purples? Also could I use the tube I normally texas rig as a trailer or should I try to find craws in those colors? The smoke purple is doable, I will need to do some searching for a smoke red craw.

You sure, I swear there were guys on here last year posting about it?

If fishing skirts does a Black Friday sale I am thinking of picking up some skirt colors in some of my favorite soft plastic colors. Looking to do up some smoke red and smoke purple skirts thinking that what works with a tube will work on a jig with a trailer in the same color to give a bigger bite. Any thoughts? Of course I will pick up a bunch of other colors like pink/bubblegum for smallies. Any ideas what's up with their site, did they get hacked or does everyone need new users because of the site redesign? I haven't ordered from there before, but I know a lot of you have recommended them. Thanks cgolf

I'm with the two voting for a tube. You can work it up in the water column to imitate a baitfish and bounce it off the bottom to imitate a craw. The fact that I can imitate the prey a bass feeds on throughout the year with one bait makes it an easy choice. Other baits may do better certain times of the year, but a tube will be consistent the whole year

So what are the ethics involved with using a guide on a vacation lake? If we use a guide to help put us on fish during a certain time of year where we just struggle, we will not only be learning techniques from them but also locations while we are catching the fish. If we end up going back later and catching fish in those spots with the learned techniques and ones we already knew it would feel like cheating at a minimum to me. Essentially we would be paying a guide for his waypoints. Would it be more ethical to fish a different lake even though we want to learn about the lake we are vacationing on? Sorry to the OP if I am hijacking the thread, but I have learned a good bit reading it.

Thank you all for the answers as it helps out a lot. The extra depth and width needed will drive the location of the 3rd bay on the garage. We aren't fully set on a house plan so that helps too.

I will post a picture tonight, but comparing the 1/16 mushroom to 1/16 fireball I am 90% sure the fireball has a shorter shank, maybe the same. It for sure is a stouter hook. 90% of my Ned rig fishing is on moving water with rocks and flat water around reeds. If I am fishing weeds, I use a light slider jig which has served me very well around docks. I do have a lot of gopher mushroom heads, I just end up trying a lot of different stuff and some works and some don't.

Personally I have come to like the Northland 1/16 fireball jig better than a mushroom head because of the short shank wide gap hook. Also the short shank allows the bait to wiggle more than the longer shank mushroom head. In the picture it is the jig on the bottom. As for plastics, I use Zinkerz and TRDs when fish are feeding on craws since it stands up. I go with skinnier salted standard plastics when they are targeting baitfish. There is a place for both in my box.

I am in the process of designing a downsized house for us, but need to know how much I need to upsize the garage to fit a 21' Bass boat with the fold away trailer tongue. I don't have an issue with have to slightly angle the boat in the stall, but want to make sure I have enough depth to cover me. My current 16 foot boat will look itty bitty in there, but I want to plan for the future.

For me I have found uses for the bouyant Elaztech baits and a heavily salted bait like 1/2 of an Anglers Choice Wart Hawg. The Wart Hawg is skinnier than a Zinkerz and I think all the salt keeps the bait swimming more horizontal vs the Zinkerz having a more tail up presentation. This year I was about 50/50 between the two baits. When fish are triggering on small baitfish I feel the skinnier salted sticks work better. When the bass are looking down for craws the Zman baits have done better for me. That Zoom stick should work really well too, I like the look the forked tail would give.

No, just happened to be at Walmart and found myself in the tackle aisle. The spots are a good deal though at 3 bucks a piece. Did grab a Bass Angler mag too. I want to have a few orange craw RESs for next year so I can afford to lose one if I get some more musky hookups/bite offs.

On a quick Walmart trip picked up 3 lipless in my new favorite color. Excited to toss the spots as I have never thrown one before, RES is my current #1 lipless bait.

Personally I need more plastics to fall apart to make room for all the baits the bait monkey makes me buy over the winter! What I have done instead of repairing lures is to use the broken bits for a different presentation. For example when a swim senko tears up I end up with a ned rig bait, and have used bits of finesse worms in the same way. Making up some crazy color combos or some different styles of baits could be fun though.

The only areas I have fished mine are on sand flats with reeds. I have found that structure/cover to be a big fish magnet for all species. It is also overlooked by many. You could hook up with a PB Bass, Pike, or Musky tossing one of these.