Cgolf

This is what I have been trying to do, but perhaps it just doesn't fit one part of my fishing. One thing I learned is that the 1.0 is a great river crank, the 1.5 shallow was too, need to see if I can get the replacement bait up to snuff. It could be that the 1.5 doesn't track as well in heavier current and that is why the fish stay off it. Unfortunately the near shore water is a little more slack so I never really see what it does in heavier current. Still you would think it would work well in the eddies but who knows. Next time I am out on the lake I will give the bait some more time and see what happens.

Shallow Baits - Bandit 100 - Bandit Flat Maxx Shallow - Xcalibur XCS 200 SB - BL Echo - Red Eye Shad - Rippin Rap - Shad Rap - Scatter Rap Crank - Luhr Jenson Speed Trap - SK 1.5 Shallow SB Mid Depth 6-12 - Don't fish this much with cranks due to weeds - Bandit 200 - DT 10 - Red Eye Shad - Rippin Rap 12+ - Crankin Rap 14-16 (Thankfully I have a few) - Deep Little N - DT 16 - DD22 I fish a lot of shallow cranks thanks to rivers and a vacation lake that has a big sand flat.

How about letting us put it in our user profile so it shows when we post. You already allow twitter and facebook.

There is a rattling 1.5 shallow? Who carries those? I will try burning them and see how it goes, that is the one retrieve I don't do a lot.

But their is this thing called the bait monkey that tells us that the KVD SB is similar to my bandit in depth and cover it should be fished, therefore I must buy it;) To be fair after my original order of said SBs and buying multiple pairs of SK sunglasses on clearance that included 1 of each size SB I haven't bought any more. What I am trying to figure out is the when and the how with these baits, I definitely have learned where they don't produce. Since I am at the point of not caring too much if I snag and lose them I may try them around docks. For the SB at least I was hoping for another great river option to compliment the bandit, so they saw something different once in a while. I fish an area quite a bit, so changing up is a good idea. The lesson I learned from this is to not buy a lot of a bait before you know what you are getting. It doesn't matter how good of a deal their kit of 12 baits is if they don't catch fish for ya.

Some are not catching fish, it is really strange. I tried out the 8.0 SB this year and caught 3 northern WI bass on it in probably 20 minutes of use. Using its smaller counterparts, excluding the 1.0, I have caught around 5 fish in probably 24 hours of use. Interestingly most of those were caught on a bait I bought later, the ones that haven't produced well were from when they first came out They seem to run true. I had a similar issue with the 1 series that saw 1 catch fish and 3 blank with all tuned properly. That trip I caught a ton of fish on one RES including 6 different species and tied on another and kept catching fish at the same rate. Same with the mini 3 and the 1.0 SB, everyone I have tied on caught fish. Who knows, maybe those other baits don't fit my fishing style, but other SBs have produced for me from bandit, xcite, xcalibur, etc. I won't give up on them yet, perhaps I will change the hooks on some or add weight. The original shallow SB would get crushed when I paused it, perhaps the new one is more buoyant and floats up too quickly?

I am not being a hater, as I have a lot of SK baits, I just tend to find more lemons as you say with some of their cranks vs other brands in the same price range. I do know that different brands have different levels of QC checks vs others, one reason many like LC cranks. I know early on when the RES first came out I got 2 or 3 that had the rattles stuck, would other brands have caught this? I will say that there customer service handled that situation very well and I continue to buy their products, but don't buy in bulk like I used to. But yes if I catch a lot of fish on one SK SB and tie on a 2nd identical lure, I expect similar performance, knowing some baits do just catch more fish, I don't expect to get blanked though. With other brands I see this and with some SK baits, just not all.

I am curious if others see inconsistencies with some of the Strike King crankbait models. I own a lot of them, and while I love the RES, 1.0 SB, and the mini 3 I have had hit or miss luck with the others. I had one of the new shallow SB that was a star performer last year out fishing pretty much everything else I had. Unfortunately I donated it to the river gods within a week of the opener. Its replacement unfortunately has not caught a fish for me all year. Have seen similar things with the standard KVD 1.5 SB and series 1. Of the many I have tried I only caught fish on one of them. With other baits such as the Bandit 100, I have seen them all catch fish, the only differences that I have noticed is that some snag up less on rocks than others. The fish catching ability stays pretty steady, we will see what happens now that Pradco owns them and those baits hit the shelves. Do others see this?

For me Tubes are the most versatile bait out there. I always have fished them weedless on a slider spider head. I fish them everywhere from docks to reeds. With the slider head they come though dense weed beds pretty well too. I try to carry a few craw colors for bottom bouncing or dragging retrieves and some preyfish imitations when fishing the tube like a jerkbait or doing a big lift and drop retrieve to imitate a dying baitfish. I did fish a stupid rig for the first time on the river yesterday and was impressed with the action, I am excited to try it on lakes soon. The reason I never used the internal heads before was due to the weeds, but the stupid rig covers that for me. I have found water red to be a pretty versatile color. It seems to work both on bottom and up in the column too.

When you get the fish close can you see if they have the hook sunk in them? Zman baits are tough, they could withstand a tail grab, I have had my share this year. A lot of times when I real in the bait is wrapped around the hook funky from when it snapped back after the fish let go. I have had bass pull off parts of a ned rigged yum dinger and the tails off a yum wooly hog. If you have a medium action rod like others are saying might help. I personally have been using a medium action ugly stick with good results. I like the slower tip when fishing around rocks and snags and if you get a bigger fish on it gives ya a little cushion if they make a big run. Reading through a little bit, do you fish it on a tight line or let sit on slack line? I find I get more consistent hooksets on a tight line, with many in the roof of the mouth, vs anything from a deep hook to a missed fish. Also you can try some of the gel scents out there to give you some more time to set the hook.

Did they start coming unbuttoned during the summer or has it been a consistent problem. During the warm water time of the year I lose more fish. I have read and believe it that sometimes their mouths get softer and the fight makes it easier for hooks to come out of the hole that develops in the side of the mouth during the fight. This time of year I try to fish baits on a tight line so I can hook them in the roof of the mouth more often.

Would go with a 5" kalins single tail grub and color would be bluegill or water purple. I have tossed a sungill jig that had a little chartreuse in it with a Rons craw kalin which may work with that too.

They do, I had some of the early RES where the BBs were stuck, they definitely stepped up and took care of the issue, and they were very easy to deal with.

Since you kind of started it, what would be cool is to do a tourney type bracket and see what brand wins the popularity contest on the boards. The only issue with this matchup is it is like a 1 and 2 seed pairing.

Of the two it is SK for me. I hate fishing senko style baits, too slow of a presentation for me. The only GYCB bait I really like is the swim senko. As for SK, I really like the RES and the rage menace is a nice bait. I really have had good luck with their spinnerbaits, I think over 90% of what I own is SK. Realistically though for plastics and hard baits I have other options I reach for first.

I am really looking forward to the air and water cooling, because the fishing was way off this year. The problem we had is that the water levels were low early and they are high now. The rain was kind of backwards for us this year.

Honestly I think it is easier, because you don't get either misinformation or well intended bad advice, and spend all day deep cranking when they are on the docks. The only info I ask for anymore is water temp trends and weed growth and look at a lake map before I go out to figure out the spots I want to hit.

I share the same philosophy as papa joe. I have a Plano box filled with various colors of tubes and 3" to 5" grubs, my personal choice is kalins because I feel they have the best action on a slow retrieve. I do also carry a few BPS and zoom grubs too. For rigging I go with various weights of slider heads or a plain jighead with the grub if there aren't many weeds. With this box I feel I could hit any lake that has bass and I could catch them. For the tubes I generally fish the hopping them off the bottom, but get a lot of strikes on the initial drop. The beauty of a tube is that fished on bottom it imitates a craw. Fish it with a stop and go retrieve up in the column or a big lift and drop it can imitate a swimming or dying baitfish. The tube is probably the most versatile bait out there. For grubs I vary the retrieve a lot, even bouncing if off the bottom. The one thing I never seem to do is a straight in retrieve. All I can say is that grubs just catch fish. My PB Muskie and largemouth were caught on a grub. Grubs do pair well with swim jigs, but those can get pricey quick. When fishing a new lake I look first for visual cover like reed beds, docks, weed lines especially those on a break, lay downs, etc. I would start working those areas first. If those don't produce, I would start working structure like points, ledges and sand flats. If I get to the point of fishing structure, I am in trouble because that is a weak spot in my game plan. I will say sand flats between reed beds can be money, don't just put the trolling motor on high and cast your way over to the next reed bed. For cranks, I could get by with a few. I would carry a lipless bait or two, my current favorite is the red eye shad, but have done well with others like the rippin rap. For square bills I like the Bill Lewis echo and the Bandit 100. For deep divers I like the Norman deep little n and dd22, Rapala DT series and out of production cranking rap. The square bills and lipless work on shallow flats and I cast them in and around reeds. I have been known to go through the middle of a less dense reed bed and slowly work a squarebill through it, giving the fish they haven't seen in that cover. The deep divers cover the weedline and ledges. Lipless baits have worked at times for me on deep weed lines too

I think I might have some Manns dragonflys in a box somewhere unless I gave them away, may be a good way to use them up.

I like the ideas above for first aid, which is similar to what I carry in the boat. One item that while not directly for first aid is a hook cutter. I have a Muskie sized one in the boat and carry a bass hook sized one on shore in case the fish and I hookup on the same lure. You could cut the shank of the treble to release yourself from the bait and fish and deal with yourself later. I came close to having to do this once, but luckily I got unhooked before the barb sunk in, but man when that Smallie shook it hurt, can't imagine the pain had that hook been buried

Power shotting work in stained water too? My local lake is greenish, while the vacation lake is pretty clear. I like the idea, might give it a toss next time out.

So I assume this is picking at the edges? Only in the shade or does in the sun work sometimes too? I have visions of the sinker spiral wrapping around a post or bar if I try to get the rig under a dock.

Personally if your looking for a straight up crawfish imitation, can't beat the yum Crawbug, been using them for a long time with great results. Colors aren't as detailed as the huddle bugs, but they catch the heck out of the fish and you can't beat the price. I rig them on a slider head.

I was wondering about a Senko, this would be the one place I could convince myself to slow down enough to fish it. I would also think a Texas rigged senko would skip pretty well too. I am fishing out of a 16 foot single console deep v with the longer shafted trolling motor that I can't put all the way down in shallow water, so low casts and hook sets are really difficult in the rig. I have broken a few cranks bouncing them off the console. The longer trolling motor is a must for the vacation lake where the shorter shafted motors would see the prop come out of the water in waves.

Hey all, I have started to work on my non existent dock game this year. So far I have tossed a slider rigged tube and a slider rigged 1/2 Zinkerz Ned rig and done pretty well. I did try a swim jig, but had issues hooking up with the one bite I got on it. I like the idea of Texas rigged baits because they are pretty easy to set the hook on with weird angles and the line deflecting off the dock if I actually got the bait under it. The concern with the bass jigs is the hookset, with the bad angles etc, I would think it would be more difficult to get the power needed to set the hook with the weedguard in the way. Haven't tried cranks, spinnerbaits, or topwaters yet, well I tried the plopper 90 for 15 minutes with no hits, but that is the extent of my topwater effort.