BassFishingMachine

I'd get a Original Scumfrog, which is a hollow bodied frog. And With the money left over a Pop-r or any Pop-r look alike for that matter thats made by a "known" company.

My most productive is a GYCB 5inch Kut-tail Worm (Cinnamon Brown or Greenpumpkin). My favorite bait to fish is a hollow frog, specificly a Original Scumfrog.

I have a question regarding trout kept on a stringer during trout season (April-May). My question is, if trout die on a stringer, but are left in the water, will they go bad? I understand that water temperature probably plays a part in this, so lets say the water temp is 55-65. Will the trout go bad, or will the water keep them good for over 6hours?

5.5lbs, not bad for the small local waters of NJ which is all I fish pretty much .

Roostertails are great for trout, wouldn't say the same for bass, but definetly a great spinner when it comes to trout. If I'm going to throw an inline spinner for bass, which is rare, it'll be a Mepps, featherless. In gold or copper, never silver. http://www.4fishin.com/images/meppsaglia_mkting.jpg These also work great for trout too 8-).

Stanley Ribbits are the way to go .

Yum Chunks, Paca Chunks, Ragetail Chunks, GYCB Hula-grubs, Berkley Sabertail Bugs, Zoom Super Chunks, and cut in half Berkley Chigger craws all work well for me. Out of them all I like the yum chunks, ragetail chunks, and paca chunks the most.

I don't like senkos or any cigar bait, I still use them, but I try to avoid using them. There are a few reasons I don't like them, number 1 everyone and their mother throws them, pretty much constantly. Number 2, they are extremely easy to fish, and you barely have to work them, I like a bait that requires you to work it more, and make it a little more challenging to catch a fish, I simply like a bit of a challenge. And don't say you don't cause we'd all be throwing live shiners if there weren't the case ! But like I stated sometimes I will use them regardless. I do not like doing it.. but it tends to be habitual, and I will often try a bit of other things before falling back on it, also it is NOT my #1 go-to bait, that would be a GYCB Kut-Tail. I'll throw senkos/cigar baits in open water with little to no cover, or creek channels/rivers. Those areas are where the senko seems to shine best for me. Anywhere else I usually always have a bait that works better.

Trees are a different story hang a hook in one and you are pretty much up the creek. You can get the lure retriever that looks like a golf ball retriever, but if its to deep it won't work. Do you throw jigs without a weedguard? Gotta get that feel and stop setting the hook into trees. You will get it in time! No, its not that I'm setting the hook on tree limbs, I'm fishing jig heads without weedguards, so while Im crawling the jig along the bottom, the hook manages to get stuck within a branch and im done. I have to try and see if I can find some 1/8 ounce round jig heads with a weed guard.

If they only made a hula grub knock off, that would be a great bait =\.

I use brown, pbj, green/w red, and green all in clear water, black/blue and black in muddy water.

Man that lake looks amazing .

Hey, who knows it might actually be a 10lber, she could have stuffed a good bunch of 6oz sinkers down its throat .

Amazing bait, you made a good buy. I rig them with a 2/0 EWG and mostly fish them weightless. Its a great bait fished weightless, and especially when slowly pulled ontop of the heavy muck twitched along like you would a hollow frog. The advantage to this, is that a hollow frog cannot fall into the open holes within the muck. When using it weightless, I find it works best casted into patches of pads, let it fall slowly down, and just twitch/walk it, then bring it back to the top, and let it fall etc, repeat.

Wow... I never thought of that.. I definetly will try that next time I encounter a similiar situation.

I have been using round jig heads intended for shaky heading with the hula grub threaded onto the hook, and its been working great for getting around the rocks, have not gotten stuck into a rock and lost the jig yet. Now comes the bad news, even though they are working through the rocks with ease, everytime I occasionally come upon a tree limb in the water unknowingly, I lose the jig, any suggestions? And thanks Ice for the suggestion on that jighead, but im looking for a solution I can find in my general area, all I have to work with is a few tackle shops and a Dicks Sporting Goods/Sports Authority.

Man thats going to be a great bait for monster pickerel around here!

As I promised I got the pics for you all. I tryed to upload the pictures directly to the post, but it was telling me too big or somethin, so I set them up on photobucket. The first pic is of a fish we estimated to be 4lbs, we did not have a scale at the time, although I think its slightly bigger ;D, let me know what you think. The other 2 pics are of the 5.5lber. Here is the link, enjoy! http://s298.photobucket.com/albums/mm242/BassinJ/?special_track=nav_tab_album

You try using a jig with a thick weedguard that goes beyond the hook point? Such as a Booyah Boo Jig? I would use jigs with this description in the sunken trees, they should be pretty weedless, don't trim the guards at all, heavy flipping jigs with strong weed guards should be pretty snag proof. You might already know this, but incase you don't here it is, do not ram the jig upwards with great strength after a wiggle here and there to try and get it free, alot of the time this will only get the hook point jammed into the stick. Give it a good bunch of wiggles, keep letting the jig fall back down (you should feel it fall back down the timber), and then try and pull it back up again being very gentle with short hops. If your in a boat then this should be alot easier obviously. If you spend a good 3mins trying to get the jig free with gentle hops and wiggles, letting it fall and pulling it back up the branch without any luck of freeing it, then there is one thing left I do. Let the jig drop with slack line, and then with one great pull try and bust it out of there, as a last resort sometimes that works. If a heavy flipping jig still gets caught up, then I'd go with either a pegged craw like a ragetail or paca craw, or a pegged creaturebait such as a baby brushhog or GYCB Kreature, but mainly I'd just focus the timber if thats where the bass are.

15-20lb fluro doesn't cast well and gets tangles commonly when throwing 1/16-1/8 jigs, or atleast it does for me :-? >.

Here is my approach when it comes to the "search" technique. I usually either do it when I can't seem to find the bass, or when im fishing lakes that Im new to. I will choose a spinnerbait, and move along quickly making long casts, and covering alot of water in a short period of time.. obviously. Then you go back to the spots where you seemed to get the most hits, or catch the most fish, and fish these spots with baits you are most confident in, or a slower approach, therefore thoroughly fishing every nook and hole in that "hot spot". I prefer jigs, but it really depends on what type of cover is around the "hot spot" your focusing on fishing. If its stickes, I'd go with either a jig or a t-rigged creature bait. If its muck I'd try a frog or pegging a creature or using a jig and breaking right through - same for if it was lillypads. Yes, this is very useful tactic because it lets you cover the water quickly, and find the hot spots, so you do not waste alot of time walking around the lake slowly working each spot to little to no avail, you merely fish the most productive spots with the "finesse" approach and skip the rest. Although the tactic does have its flaws in my opinion, because the fish can move, and the bait your throwing to cover alot of water can just be something there not interested in at that time/day. I had plenty of days where I can't get a hit on a spinnerbait. So if you ask me its not a flawless tactic. But if you don't have all the time in the world, and you want to try an find the hot spots without wasting much time, than it is a tactic I would highly suggest. I use it everytime Im fishing a brand new lake. Sometimes I will dedicate the entire day to just covering the whole lake with a power fishing approach like a spinnerbait or lipless crank etc. And the next day I will come back and fish the spots that produced best for me with a slower approach. It might not be the best tactic, but it sure is one I keep in the bag of tricks.

Yes, but when your losing 4-6 a day, on rocks, it tends to get kind of expensive, you figure jigs are around 2$ a peice, thats 8-10$ a day. I rather have my 8-10$ then some small bass, If I was rich you bet I'd take the bass over the money.

Well, many of you probably know sometimes the exact placement of where your line is tied to the eyelit of a bait can change the action of that bait, sometimes for the worse, sometimes for the better, and sometimes it just doesn't matter. Although I have noticed if I tie my line to the side on the eyelit of a jighead in which I rig a Hula grub, it lets that "spider jig" have alot better action, and stand/lay in the water correctly. My question to you, is how do you keep the line from not sliding up and down the eyelit if you want it to stay put? Do you just keep rearranging it every other cast? Or is there a technique to keep it still, such as adding something etc?

Ok, I fish a river that produces well, alot of 12-13inchers, but its fun. Anyway, I love throwing jigs there but the only problem is they tend to get caught up in the rocks alot and you end up losing the jig. Now I know football head jigs are suppose to be more suitable for fishing the rocks, but I tryed them today, and I still was losing them. I plan to try round head jigs tomorrow, is this any better, or is this even worse? Are there any other baits you guys use fishing the rocks? Maybe that don't get caught in-between them as easily? I was thinking of trying tubes in this situation.

Yeah jigs are amazing baits. They catch alot of quality fish, and they will also catch alot of common size fish too. In my opinion if you want to learn to fish them, fish in some type of river where you have caught bass before. They tend to work great in rivers for me, once you get the hang of them you can fish them in more difficult places, like stick piles in lakes, and heavy cover. But I'd get a general idea for the hits, and how to work the jig before targeting the thick cover etc with them. Go to a river which you know holds bass, and get yourself a 1/8-3/16 ounce football jig, it can be cone headed too if you can't find the football heads, I like to use cheap jigs in rocky rivers because you tend to lose alot when they get stuck in-between rocks. So my favorite jig for the situation would be strike king bitsy bugs in 1/8ounce or sometimes even smaller if the current lets me get away with it. There are many colors jigs come in, but the best standard colors in my opinion for jigs, would be black/blue, any shade of green, brown, and black. For trailers I recommend using Yum Chunks, (2.75 inch for small jigs, and 3.50 inch for larger jigs), or Paca Chunks, match the color of the trailer to the color of the jig. For rigging the trailer, I prefer to thread the chunk onto the hook, like how this hula grub is threaded onto the jig head in this pic http://www.conquistadortackle.com/ConquestJigPages/JigPhotos/FootballPhotos/SpiderJig.jpg. Some also prefer to just hook the trailer through the center like this http://www.lakeforktackle.com/Images/MegaJigCutFromAd.jpg. Now for fishing them. Cast/Pitch or flip the jig out there, the best idea for casting the jig is to let it hit the water with the least water disturbance possible, a very "stealthy" approach if you will. If I can, I'll often cast the jig onto land and work it into the water, that to me is the most stealthy entrance possible. The fish tend to hit the jig majority of the time on the initial fall, or 10 seconds after the jig hits the water, so really pay attention when the jig first enters the water. Once some secs pass by without a hit, start slowly crawling the jig along the bottom. Don't just feel the rod, try and feel what the jig is doing down there, feel the rocks, feel the mud etc. When the jig bumps into a rock, let it sit for a second, then gently hop it over the rock, or make it make small hops, as if it were trying to get over the rock but failing. You have to think as if a bass is watching the lure, make him truly want it, try your best to imitate a natural crawfish, and remember crawfish are slow, and they do not swim, they walk along the bottom. So the general way of fishing the jig should be to let it enter the water quietly. Give it a long pause. Pay attention to it when it first hits the water because thats when the hit tends to occur. After it sat for a few secs without a hit, start to drag it along the bottom, or hop it if it needs to get over sometype of structure, frequently give it 3-8 sec pauses, sometimes even 10-20sec pauses will get hits... no I ain't kidding. You can also give it a real big hop, so it imitates the intial fall, which is what the bass seem to react best to. But majority of the time you should tend to be fishing it with short hops, slowly dragging, and frequent long to short pauses. Now for how to tell the hits. This is the subject when fishing the jig where alot of people have there biggest problem with the bait, they just can't tell a hit between a rock, stick etc. My solution to this problem is to let the jig sit perfectly still and feel it, when you get the "tap tap" you can be pretty sure a stick or rock didn't swim up and hit the jig while its sitting still :. The hits tend to be either a tap or two, a feeling of mushyness or something alive on the end of the line rather than the feel of the bottom, the vision of the line moving a different direction, or once in awhile which I call the best hit you can have on a jig - they'll just pick it up and run with it basiclly giving off a hard tug. Pay close attention to the line at times too, sometimes you won't feel the hit and all you will see to indicate the hit is a twitch of the line. When you get a hit, set the hook hard and immediately, bass don't tend to hold onto the jig long for some reason, so you want to drive that hook into them as fast as the second they pick it up. I have only been fishing a jig since September, but I am addicted to using it now, it just catches so many quality fish and its so versatile its unbelievable, just a amazing bait that I can't get enough of. The jig tends to be a hard bait to learn once you start fishing it, in my opinion this is because you do not have any confidence in the bait until you have caught a fish with it, and any good fisherman knows you just can't work a bait you lack confidence in as well as a bait you are confident in. Once you catch a fish on the jig it gets alot easier from there on, so keep fishing it, and trust me, once you do learn it, your going to use it a heck of alot. I just recently caught my new pb on a jig, its a bait that every avid bass angler should learn if you ask me. Good Luck! . Ps. You can also search under "tips and tactics" on bassresource.com, and read a few articles about jig fishing. Very helpful information there. Googling about jigs for bass can also find you some good lessons on learning the jig.