BassFishingMachine

I don't understand why one wouldn't just set up a small bucket or two, and flip/pitch to that. Seems like just another way to make a buck to me. I guess it would be good for the kids like Micro mentioned.

I used to call Booyah my #1 choice for spinnerbaits, but I have found Terminator spinnerbaits to be a higher quality/more durable then them. I have caught some nice fish on Booyah spinnerbaits, but I have used a few that had problems, such as a skirt flying off, a blade breaking off, and a blade that just wouldn't spin correctly. If you do get a booyah spinnerbait that works correctly, it will catch fish. Terminators I have yet to have any problems with, other then one which came with the skirt bunched up on one side, with no strands on the other side. The thing I like best about the terminator spinnerbaits are the wire its made out of doesn't bend. Booyah spinnerbait wires tend to bend after a good fish, although you can usually just bend them right back into normal place again. All in all terminators have less problems then booyahs from what I've observed. Other then that, they both catch fish.

Ok, heres how it goes for me. Football Jigs: Rocky bottoms, as mentioned above. Swim Jigs: I really don't have a specific time or know any clues to lead me to throwing a swim jig other then when the fish start hitting my swimming jig. Let me explain. I will throw a typical jig around, and if its rigged with a trailer that swims nicely, such as a ragetail chunk, doubletail grub, or paca chunk then I will cast it to the peice of cover I plan to target, slowly hop/crawl it along, and when the time comes to bring the lure in, I'll swim it back in. If the I start getting fish like this, I'll usually start throwing the jig all around swimming it. This is the only indication I follow for swimming jigs. I have found times where they wouldn't touch it while it was crawling/hopping but once I swam it, I'd start to catch. But as of yet I don't have a known indication of when a swim jig is the best bet to try. Finesse jig: I use finesse jigs under a few conditions. 1. When im fishing in a area that has alot of small bass, and very few quality fish. 2. When the water gets cold, and the fish's metabolism slows down. 3. Match the hatch theory, if the bait is small, I want to be using a small bait myself , and 4. if the fish aren't taking the typical size jigs. Flipping Jigs: If I'm dealing with alot of cover I'm going to throw a flipping jig, mainly because its made to be fished in the thickest of cover, and as Bigfruits stated the hooks are heavier. Good luck.

I have found out, it all comes down to what the fish want at that time period. Which makes me switch from panther martins, to rooster tails, to mepps spinners. Sometimes I find a white/green panther martin or a small all gold panther martin kills. Other times I've found the rainbow just go crazy for a black roostertail w/silver blade, or a chartruese roostertail w/gold blade. And lets not even bring up the gold featherless mepps spinner, with the lil red rubberband on the hook, and the gold blade, or copper blade. Like with any other lure, you have to throw it to find out what they fish are prefering. I've seen times where I didn't have a black/orange or black/red spinner, and that was the only color they'd hit. I have also been in situations where I didn't have a black roostertail w/silver blade, and I couldn't buy a hit, meanwhile the guy next to me with that roostertail was catching em. It all depends what the fish are going for on that day. Roostertails have their moments, and so do panthersmartins, and so do mepps.

Buy yourself a pack of Stanley Ribbits. You can fish them pretty slowly, and the legs kick with ease. I never liked the zoom horny toad, rode belly up alot, and I could never get the feet to kick right. Now the stanley ribbit will also ride belly up on OCCASION, but I'd say its about 80% of the time it will ride correctly, and 20% of the time it will ride belly up. I think all frogs do that, only way I've heard to fix this, is to use a weighted hook.

I thought the same thing at first, didn't catch much at all on chatterbaits. But then I tryed fishing them at dusk/night, black/blue with a black/blue hulagrub trailer. It Worked great. Give the chatterbait another try, buy the original chatterbait in black/blue and use black/blue hulagrubs as a trailer, fish them primarily at dusk/night or in low light conditions. Then see if you still think it doesn't catch. Fish it exactly like you would a spinnerbait.

I chose "other". I do best with Rapala Huskyjerks, luckycraft slender points are definetly #2 though for me. I pretty much fish a huskyjerk and when I can't get a hit on the huskyjerk I switch to the Lc slender which sometimes gets me a hit when the huskyjerk couldn't. Although I've had times where I switched from the Lc slender which wasn't getting bit, to the huskyjerk which proceeded to get me bit. So its been fairly balanced between the two. All in all though, the huskyjerk has caught me more fish so thats what the bait Im going with. I will say this though, in my opinion the Lc slender point has better action then the huskyjerk, but I find the slender point has a more aggressive action to it, while the huskyjerk has more of a "finesse" type of action. When I reach for a jerkbait its typically when the water is pretty cold, so maybe thats the reason Huskyjerks work better for me, because they're action is less aggressive, therefore the fish being unaggressive in these cold waters are hitting it. All I know is I've caught plenty of bass on huskyjerks ;D.

I like that design, and I've used a jig with a similiar design before, and it did work great for holding the jig trailer in place. But there is more then holding the jig trailer securely that I am interested in. I am looking for a trailer holder design that not only holds the trailer in place, but also doesn't destroy the inside of the trailer, this way I can remove the trailer at the end of the day, and re-use it, without it sliding up and down on the next jig I put it on. The trailer keeper on the Evo jig looks great, but it also looks like it would tear up the trailer inside, making the trailer slide when you remove it and re-use it. Can I claim this factually? No, but to me it seems this way.

This is something I wanted to talk about, I can't stand jigs with trailer keepers, and Im sure theres alot of you guys out there who don't feel this way. But I find the trailer keeper rips up the inside of the chunk, so not only does it make it real difficult to take off the jig when your done fishing or want to switch trailers, but it also ruins the inside of the chunk, so that chunk is pretty much trash and unusable. I see some great jigs out there coming out with this trailer keeper idea, and I want it to stop. I actually prefer the standard groove in the shank of the jighead, that Booyah jigs, and such come with. But, what I would see as a great idea for a trailer keeper on a jig is a minitiature hook. I have seen this same design on a certain shakey head jig (although the name slips my mind). I have never seen a jig with this same design in "trailer holding" and I think it would be the best idea over any other. The small miniature hook holder that I used with the shaky head worked great, not only did it do a great job at holding the bait, but when ever I wanted to change worms on that shaky head, all I had to do was lift up the miniature holder hook, and release the worm. I figure on a jig, you could make the trailer holder hook maybe a bit tougher then that on the shakyhead, but still flexible enough to let one bend it up and remove the trailer with little to no damage to the trailer. So my main point is, please, somebody make a quality jig, with this sort of trailer holder design! Ps. If I see the shaky head I was referring to, with the miniature hook worm holder, I'll post a pic of it. But if any of you guys know what Im talking about, please feel free to post the pic.

Hey, around here, the only time a lizard really produces is when fished on the top. I've tryed fishing them t-rigged plenty of times, and never have any great results. But if you rig them weightless/weedless and burn them over the top of weed mats, or along shorelines they produce pretty well. So that is what I plan to do with this lizard if I do buy a pack. I have used the ragetail chunks many times, and they're actually one of my all time favorite jig trailers, along with the ragetail craw which not only worked t-rigged flipping/pitching, but also worked well slowly twitched on the top of weed mats. I was able to peg a bullet weight which was just light enough not to break the weed mats, so when I came to any upcoming weeds, I could lift the bait off the bottom, and start crawling it ontop of the thick muck, like you would a hollow frog. Well, back to the lizard, by the looks of it, it seems the feet are made with the same design as the chunk/craw, and those claws showed some amazing action. I assume the lizard due to the same design in the feet, will wiggle the same as the chunk/craw's claws did, is this true? If this is true, it makes me think this bait would swim great over the top, with all 4 feet swimming, along with the curly tail in the back kicking about. My main question to you guys, is to anyone who has had the chance to fish this bait, particularly on the top. How does it perform on the top? Does it turn on its back much, or does it stay on its belly like you'd hope it to? It doesn't spin when brought over the top does it? Is the action good when burning it on the top? Can't wait to hear the responses, seems like the ragetail lizard would make an incredible topwater lizard if it carrys the same traits as does the craw/chunk.

Gotcha, thanks 8-).

Hmm, fast moving you say.. Then mine would have to be a single willow blade white/chart spinnerbait 1/4oz.

Couldn't agree more, when ever I come upon a new lake that Im clueless about I spend a good hour or so, walking around the pond throwing a search bait. Just incase you don't know what we mean by a "search bait", this is a bait that you can fish steady/semi fast and cover alot of water with in a short period of time. Like throwing a jig for example would take alot of time to fish because you'd have to gently hop the jig along and let it pause, then hop, then pause, it kills alot of time. A "search bait" you can cast out, reel in, and move along, thus covering alot of water very quickly. Ok, now that im 100% sure you know what a search bait is, I'll tell you a couple of my favorite search baits. My go-to search bait is probably a spinnerbait, IMHO you can never go wrong with a white/chart spinnerbait with a single willow blade. I also like lipless crankbaits as search baits, because I can rip them and get reaction strikes. So next time you pass by the ponds your interested in checking out, bring with you a few spinnerbaits or lipless cranks, and walk around the pond casting it around. If you don't get bit does it mean theres no fish in the pond?, obviously not, but it should definetly give you a good chance to find out without spending a ton of time at the pond slowly fishing a t-rigged worm. I'll keep in mind every spot I got bit with my search bait, and next time I fish the pond, I go back to these specific spots, and fish them with a slower approach such as a finesse style, like a jig, or soft plastic. Good luck.

You must not understand, anyone can use livebait, you do not have to work the bait, the bait works itself. I can buy some live shiners, and set my 7 year old sister up with a bobber and a live shiner beneath it, and she'd probably catch bass, and she'd most likely have fun. And I could do the same, but there'd be no sport to it, because it takes barely any skill. The fun in using a artificial is you work the bait, you control the baits movements. Fishing for bass with artificials is fun because you truly decieved the fish into biting a fake bait, in which the fish liked due to the way you worked it, and made it out to be life-like. When using live bait, the bait works itself, heck, you can put the pole down and watch some tv, the way I see it is the live bait did all the work, all you did was stick a hook in it...wheres the fun in that :-?? Don't get me wrong, when I'm fishing to eat this rule goes out the window, because sportsmanship is not my primary goal. So I will do anything in my power to get the fish to hit, and if live bait is the key, theres no doubt thats what Im going to use. But for bass I only catch/release, so sportsmanship is the only reason Im fishing for bass and I feel if I use livebait the sportsmanship is basiclly gone. If you still don't understand my point, next time you see a fly fisherman standing in a river fishing for trout, go up to him and ask him why he doesn't just use nightcrawlers, and see what he says.

Ok, the fishing for me has been getting pretty bad. I've been having day after day of either getting skunked, or having 1 hit, or bringing in 1 fish. I think If I find where the fish are, I can catch more. The lakes have been pretty quiet lately, everything seems to be in a "resting state". Theres barely any movement other then a carp jump on occasion, other then that its pretty dead. The lake is like a ghost town compared to how it was in the spring/early fall. So this leads me to believe the fish are in a calm state, non-aggressive as can be. Im thinking they're most likely bedding down somewhere, and not traveling much at all. But this is just a guess... I want to see if any of you guys can help me with opinions on locating the fish. Where do bass tend to move to when water temps start to fall dramaticlly? This is NJ im fishing in and the temperature in the morning has been in the low to mid 40s, from 1pm-6pm its been in the mid to high 50s, with the nights getting back down to the low/mid 40s. Hope this gives you guys an idea on the water temperature, or atleast a good guess, but I can tell you this, I put my hand in, and it was pretty cold.. So what my question comes down to, is where do bass tend to move when falling water conditions come into play? Do they go into deeper water?, do they relate to stickpiles, weeds? Do they go shallower? Are they suspended, on the bottom, or on the top? I believe if I can get a general idea on where the bass are, my producing rates will increase a good amount, or atleast better then the days I've been experiencing lately :-/.

I don't know if I could bring myself to take an extraordinarily large bass out of the waters I fish to kill and mount it. The reason is because the waters I fish you don't commonly see many large fish, biggest you really see is 5 - 5 1/2lbs, and you don't see them often (maybe 2 a year if I am lucky, and I fish about 5 days a week sometimes 6-7). So when ever I do catch a real quality fish I try to take a few good pictures, and then I release her back into the pond so her genes are spread to the next generation of bass to come in the pond. I guess If I caught a record bass I'd mount the fish, but I'd have a hard time killing a fish like that. The way I think about it, is if everyone keeps a new record fish, how can we expect to see any giant fish that size in the future? I don't know maybe Im just fanatical, I just have a hard time killing bass. Fluke is another story... : ;D.

Ok, first off I know this question has probably been asked numerous times, but believe it or not, I tryed typing in "texas rig", and "t-rig" in the search tab, and couldn't find any topics like this :-?. That being said, my question is what is your favorite "go-to" bait, for the texas rig. And when I say texas rig, I know it can be understood as weightless, or a pegged sinker, but In this post I am STRICTLY referring to a t-rig with a free sliding bullet weight. I have found throughout this year I've drifted away from using the t-rig. I have found myself throwing crankbaits, jigs, spinnerbaits, buzzbaits, topwaters, jerkbaits, frogs, weightless plastics, pegged softbaits...BUT I rarely recall fishing a t-rig w/free sliding bullet weight. I think I through a ribbontail worm around a few times with a free sliding bullet weight, with decent results, but nothing to make me use it over my other baits. I really want to put the free sliding t-rig back into my arsenal, so please tell me about your go-to baits for the free sliding bullet weight t-rig, so I can try them out, gain confidence back into this rig, and put it back in my arsenal as one of my main tactics 8-).

My 2 biggest bass were both caught on jigs. As for other big bass catchin baits, IMO that would be frogs, and flipping creatures.

Exact colors I use....x2

Everythings been slowing down for me due to these falling temperatures. I can barely get a hit anywhere. But I will tell you what baits I've actually had hits with here and there. Ive had a hit or two with lipless cranks, retrieved as slowly as I can go. I've had hits with jigs, worked slowly through stick piles. And I've had a hit or two with shallow cranks. Other then that, its been dead for me :'(.

Hey, I'm a friend of Foodang's and the guy who recommended him to use this site. I know him in real life, and he plans to do fluking/bassin and even trout with a single reel (Yes, I know this is difficult, but I also know it can be done). Im not sure on reel sizes when it comes to pflueger, and by reading the sizes available on cabelas they name the sizes as "4520GX, 4725GX, 4730GX, 4735GX, 4740GX" judging by the line capacity I'm thinkin the size 4735GX would be the best bet, no? Also, you think saltwater will destroy it? Or if its washed with water after the trip there'd be no negative effect on the reel performance?

I like to trim my weed guards to just about where the hook point starts. If I'm fishing in a weeded area, or many stick piles I'll trim the weed guard barely above the hook point.

My favorite is a Lucky Craft Lv-0, simply because I fish from shore, and 99% of the water I fish is very shallow (1-3feet commonly), the Lv-0 seems to adjust itself in each level of water it enters, mostly staying the middle depth, and rarely ever catching any weeds or gunk on the hooks. Plus I've caught plenty of bass on em . Although as "cheap" alternatives I like Bill Lewis Rat-L-Traps (the hooks are crap though..), and Rapala rattle traps. Ive also heard some great things about the yozuri rattle traps but have yet to try one.

I have too many GYCBs to buy any more :-/. Although I could use a pack or 2 of hulagrubs ;D.

Yeah, definetly a great crappie bait. I rig them on a trout magnet jighead, and gently hop them along the bottom, with or without a bobber is preference. Although, they don't seem to outfish the typical trout magnets, but there are some days when it will catch some fish the trout magnet couldn't get a hit from. As for bass, I've never hooked anything big on it, a few 4-5incher bass, but thats about it. Then again, I only fish a bait like this in january and Im targeting crappie with it, not bass.