BassFishingMachine

What he said .

Hey, just came back from my local Dicks Sporting Goods. They had some amazing sales going on, think it was a clearance sale. Anyway, they had bags of plastics for 93cents a bag, and name brands too. Yum, Berkley Powerbait, Gulp! freshwater/Saltwater, Shaw Grigsby bait series etc, 93cents a bag. I bought a few packs of chigger craws, a few packs of yum chunks, a few packs of Grigsby beavers and jerkbaits, a couple berkley tubes, some berkley beaver knock offs, and grigsby tiny craws (for jig trailers). They also had tons of hardbaits on sale too, bought myself a few bombers at 1.73 a peice, and a few storm subwarts at 1.73 a peice. Also had a bunch of yozuri's but most in colors that I don't like, silver purple etc, but they were selling for 3.25, and many more all at extremely low prices. They also had a bunch of new stock in (not on sale, but new stuff), bought some Strike King Pro Grade Football Jigs, which I thought were terminator and didn't find out they were strike king until I brought them home, they were such high quality strands/jighead/hook that I thought it was terminator, couldn't believe strike king made such a nice jig, guess they literally mean't the "pro grade" term. Also got a pack of Zoom Baby Brush Hogs in watermelon candy. All in all I left with 53$ spent, and the receipt said at regular price it woulda been 69$, said I saved 18$, pretty good deal if you ask me. Just thought I'd post this and figure maybe everyone elses Dick's is doing the same thing. So check out your local Dicks and see if they have a sale going on, cause 93cents a bag of soft plastics is just something you can't afford to miss.

jig

Good Luck . Remember to try a jig, or yo-yoing a Rat-L-Trap, or a hard jerkbait!

Personally I think it keeps a more natural look when fishing a worm/creature type bait, because black can pretty much go with anything and stay natural looking. As for the silver colored bullet weights imo when used with greenpumpkin worms/creatures or brown worms/creatures its not as natural as a black or green would be. Although if I was fishing a baitfish imitation like a super fluke or a white senko then I don't think the silver bullet weight would make a difference because silver pretty much goes with the baitfish look. Just my opinion of course.

Lol Hot Rod, you beat me to it by seconds!! ;D

It depends how deep the water your fishing are and the wind conditions/cover your fishing. Can you tell me if your fishing from shore? Or how deep majority of the water your fishing is?

Supposably you rig them through the side, instead of under the belly, with the tail sticking up, like in the pic in this post http://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_forums/YaBB.pl?num=1203382761/0. (Scroll down a bit, its near the bottom)

Well I go pretty much everyday when the winter ends, and I catch a bunch, don't keep track but alot.

A 5inch GYCB Kut-Tail can usually always catch me a fish, but I only tie them on as a last resort because they tear easily and the only way I can get them is from purchasing online. As for the bait I have tied on the most, currently thats probably a jig mainly with a Yum Chunk or Paca Chunk, I use many other trailers but these 2 seem to be the best. I also tryed the ragetail chunk recently and the action is just incredible, it was freezing cold so I don't think it counts as truly testing the bait and I'll test it out as soon as these waters warm up. Im sure it'll be right up there with the yum chunk/paca chunk in no time.

Exactly the same experience I had with them, you have to buy one and get lucky enough that its a good quality frog. I did get one that was good quality, but out of 3 that I bought only 1 was quality(and this paint chipped too). By quality I mean it wasn't too hard, not too soft, and didn't fill with water after 1min 30secs of being on the top. The 2 out of 3 had problems, taking on water, paint chipping after a bringing in a fish, too hard for a good hookset etc. I won't buy one of these again unless I can literally feel it before I buy it. As for the big foot I haven't tryed it, but if you want a great frog take my advice and buy the original scumfrog, http://www.scumfrog.com/scumfrog.html it doesn't take on water, it floats great, and its very soft, letting you get a great hookset. Plus after catching a fish you can easily re-adjust the hooks and your ready to go, unlike the spro where after a fish and you re-adjust the hooks you have to worry about the paint chipping off and crap, theres a reason its on sale, trust me on that.

Megastrike on my soft plastics, Yum Crawfish spray on my jigs.

Hey, I seen a few videos of people skipping baits, and it looks amazing, seems to me if you can learn this technique you can get your baits under over hanging trees with pretty much a 100% chance of not hanging up in one of the branches. Because of this it seems pretty important to me that I should learn it. I use a spinning reel so can you perform this cast on this type of reel? Also are there any specific baits that you cannot skip? The baits I'd like to skip are soft plastics and jigs, so hopefully there skippable. Can anyone give me some advice on how to do this cast, or any videos/articles on the subject? Thanks for any help.

Well yesterday I went to another small pond, basiclly moving alot quicker and wasting less time (there aren't as many stick piles at this lake). I pitched jigs to the few stickpiles and moved along, I didn't rush it though, I gave each stick pile about 5mins worth of fishing with the jig, so I gave them plenty of time to hit. I also tryed hitting up some deeper spots in the lake but to no avail. This pond is usually not to good even in the summer so I wasn't surprised to get skunked. I did get to see a good size crawfish sitting along side a rock, so that was cool (there aren't many crawfish around here, you see one literally 1-2 times a year if your lucky). Today I went to a pond that holds alot of pickerel/bass. Majority of the lake was frozen >, but I walked to one spot where the water was open and just took 30mins fishing that spot, I threw small lipless cranks, tryed working them with a slow retrieve nada, then I tryed letting them fall, bringing them back up, and letting them fall again, nada. I then tryed a jerkbait, fished it with 2-3 jerks and then a 5sec pause nada, then tryed a 10-12 sec pause, nada. It was pretty darn cold and I wasn't gettin a thing so I just left. Oh yeah forgot to mention, I did see a small pick under the ice, about 4 1/2 inches I'd say. Just can't seem to catch anything as of lately :-/.

In No Special Order 1. Jigs w/ a Yum Chunk trailer 2. Creature baits flipped/pitched into cover, or dragged along top weeds, specificly GYCB Kreatures, Zoom Brush Hogs, Yum Wooly Hawgtails, Reaction Innovation Sweet Beavers. 3. GYCB Kut-Tail 5inch 4. GYCB Senko, Yum Dinger, Waveworms (all in either 4-5 inch) 5. GYCB Fat Ika 6. Scumfrog 7. Stanley Ribbit 8. Rapala suspending jerkbait 9. Topwaters, mainly jitterbugs, heddon tiny torpedo, booyah buzzbaits, storm chug bugs 10. Spinnerbait (white/chart or white) The bait I can always seem to get bit with though more than anything else is a 5inch GYCB Kut-tail in cinnamon brown or Greenpumpkin, I don't even use them too much, I use them as a last resort when nothing else is getting hit, the reason is the sunnies tend to bite them too and if you set the hook on a sunny bite they'll rip the tail and I can't get GYCB Kut-Tails anywhere around here so I have to order em. Thats why I only bring them out when absolutely neccessary, mainly spawn . The jig w/yum chunk definetly comes in as 2nd though.

First thing I'd do is pitch a jig directly into the pads/around the pads/in the back of the pads, like Tin stated. If the jig didn't work I'd try a creature bait pegged with a bullet weight (3/16-1/4ounce), by creatures I mean either a Yum WoolyHawgtail, Zoom Baby Brush Hog, GYCB Kreature, Reaction Innovation Sweet Beaver. If the jig/creature approach didn't work I'd try a soft plastic frog (if the pads were spread out enough to fish it), if they weren't spread out enough for the soft plastic frog to work properly I'd throw a hollow frog, particularly a scumfrog. Another thing I'd try is a spinnerbait worked either directly in the more less compact pads, or around the edges, probably a white/chart color wise. And the last thing that would be on my mind to try is a 5inch Zoom Super Fluke, rigged weedless/weightless with a size 4/0, jerked all throughout the pads, I'd try a fast approach and then a slow approach. Super flukes can get in/around the lillypads perfectly, snagging the pads very rarely, so there always a good choice to try, for colors I'd rercommend white or baby bass.

Yeah, I'd throw them.

Hopefully . But Sam, I don't know maybe a senko would have done the trick, I don't think so though, it seemed kinda dead.. nothing moving on the water, like a ghost lake hah. Anyway I plan to try another pond today that I caught two 4-5inch bass yesterday morning at while targeting panfish. Leaving in literally 10mins, will let ya know in the next post on this topic about how I did, and will bring a senko/spinnerbait to maybe give a shot.

I fish from the shore pretty much 99% of the time, and spinnerbaits are definetly something I have in my arsenal. I use them to cover alot of water real quickly, so I know where the fish are primarily at, how deep they are holding etc. I pay close attention to where the fish hit the spinnerbait, so I can then go back when im done scouting out the lake with the spinnerbait and fish the locations in which I had hits or hook ups, with more of a finesse presenation, such as a jig or plastic worm, thus wasting less time fishing blind with the finesse technique. I also tend to throw them when I don't have much time to fish, or if im about to leave. Because you can cover water so quickly with a spinnerbait you can fish a huge amount of areas within a very short period of time. Works to catch me a fish here and there just before I leave . Another thing they are great for is water you are new to fishing, by throwing a spinnerbait you can see where the fish seem to be located and do this quickly, then like I stated previously, go back and fish those particular locations with a plastic worm or jig etc. For this reason a spinnerbait is my #1 choice when it comes to fishing a new lake.

So then letting it pendulum back to me in water thats about 2-4 feet wouldn't make much of a difference, no? I thought it was 10 feet he was fishing no? I dunno I was watching it and running to the comp back and forth, so didn't get all the info 100% clearly.

Hey, I just heard on the show Basspro today, that you should always let the jig fall on slack line when it first hits the water. Why is this? I like to cast out to a specific peice of cover and immediately be in contact with the jig. Most fish hit the jig when it first hits the water so I like to be in contact with it immediately when it hits the water. I understand that they say to watch your line instead, thus enabling you to have slack line when the jig enters the water, but watching the line can be frustrating and I rather just feel the jig. So what are the negative sides to letting the jig fall while in contact with it? Is it that if the water is deep the jig won't land where you casted it because of the tension on the line? If so, im fishing fairly shallow water so maybe thats not a issue for me. Do any of you keep in contact with the jig as it falls? Also I believe its easier for you to watch the line on the initial fall when fishing from a boat, so I believe you boat owners should have no problem with this matter.

I went to a small local pond called Milton Lake to shore fish (like I pretty much always do), guess it was about 30-35 out, was pretty darn cold but I was eager to give catchin a nice fish a shot. Water was pretty stained which made me use black/blue as my primary color choice. Anyway I first tryed throwing a 1/8ounce Spiderjig using a GYCB Hula Grub Black/blue flk, worked a few stick piles with it and nada. After about 15mins of fishing a bit of stick piles I ended up snagging into one of the sunken branches and lost it, (the weedguard is one of them weak metal wire type of guards). So that ended my Spiderjig fishing. I then tied on a 1/4ounce Black/blue Bitsy flippin bug(small profile) with a 2.75 inch Yum black/blue flk Chunk as a trailer. Worked every stick pile I could find, im talking stick pile after stick pile after stick pile after stick pile, just a bunch of them, and I worked them slowly, with 5-10sec pauses constantly, and slight twitches/drags of the jig, basiclly keeping it slow. I headed to the back rivers and worked all the sticks back there, not even a tap :'(. All in all though it was good to be fishing particularly for bass again, and it was pretty fun working the jig through all the branches, especially leaving the lake with the jig, and not getting it snagged up in the many sticks I worked it through. I plan to go again within the next 7 days, and this time fish a hardjerk bait/softjerk bait and see if they take that instead. Just thought I let you guys in on how I did heh, good luck on your trips fellow North East bass anglers 8-). Bythe way once I figure out how to work the digital camera and put pics on the comp through it, I'll be sure to post some pics in my next fishing trips of the future, even if it is just of scenery ;D.

***, for a few reasons. First there customer service is great, if you have a problem you just call them, and theyll call you back as soon as possible and work it through with you. Secondly, they ship to you extremely fast, I wait literally 5-7 days and the purchase is at my house, they let you track it and give you a estimate of when its going to arrive that for me has always been correct. Thirdly, when viewing their products on the website, you can see clearly all the colors, and how they look on each bait, I went to other websites where they show a small color chart that you can barely make out, or the pictures are just so small you can barely see them, or they just have the name of the color listed and nothing more. Fourth, all their products are organized perfectly for fisherman, softjerk baits, craws, trailers, worms, jigs etc. Its just so easy to find what your looking for. Fifth, they post videos on their new products, in which they talk about the action of the product what hook to use with it, and just tons of useful information about it, what other tackle website does that. Sixth, they have great sales daily and not on just products that no one buys like most places, you can get some great deals on your favorite baits, just keep checking the daily sale and you'll see what I mean. And finally, seventh, *** just seems to have pretty much everything you can think of, yes there are a few baits they don't have, but they have more to offer then most other sites I see. And for those reasons I love that site, and will only order from other sites if they have a sale thats too good to turn down, or if *** doesn't have the product (which isn't common).

Yeah im pretty much the same way Max, although once someone brings up fishing, you just can't get me to shut up lol. So try that as it might help you, just start talking about fishing with them and Im sure you'll stir up a conversation and new friendship . I remember working at Homedepot, I met a guy who worked in the plumbing department, I worked in the back, anyway he asked me if I fished and I replied with "thats like asking willy wonka if he ever heard of candy" after that we talked a bunch about fishing and I got to be a good friend of his. Everytime a fishing show comes up that he plans on going to he will let me know and ask if I want to go, he took me on his boat many times to alot of big lakes I'd never get the chance to fish. And I showed him some great saltwater spots for fluking. So anyway I highly suggest getting some fishing buddies as it truly is something you will most likely benefit from.

You always do well when you leave your camera at home ;D, sometimes, and I am not kidding with you, I will leave my camera at home intentionally, and end up doing pretty well. You can call it a form of superstition, but what ever it is It brings me luck hah. Although this doesn't stop me from bringing my camera altogether, I only do it when I go a few days with no hook ups. The camera is a device of bad luck I tell ya! :-/.