BassFishingMachine

When do you peg a bait, and when would you rather unpeg a bait? Is there an advantage to each? I find myself pegging baits quite frequently, though mostly around lillys and such. Although pegging can be a PITA, because sometimes the pegged weight will slide, or won't be too straight on the front of the bait, it may be kinda crooked. Anyhow, thanks for any info!

Definetly a bait everyone should have in their bag of tricks. They work exceptionally well for me in and around lillypads. I peg them with an appropriate size bullet weight, and then hop them throughout the pads with a pause after every hop. When you give the bait a hop it will land doing a headstand, the little "claw-like" part of the bait sticks right up, really looks inticing to the fish if you ask me.. They also work well around stick piles and such, and very well in weeds. Due to the profile of the bait, it slips through weeds very easily. Although I don't use them in areas without cover, in that situation I'd rather throw a straight tail worm, or such. But in cover...definetly an incredible bait.

Windy and overcast, windy and sunny both work well for me. If the water is flat, I'd choose another topwater, like a jitterbug, or wakebait. Over here in NJ we've had a weekend of nice weather (weather in the 80s). I've had some good topwater results lately, though alot of short/missed strikes for what ever reason.

Yeah it was like summer out there. I gave the topwater another shot today. Landed 1 fish about 1lb on a luckycraft wakebait, and had many fish miss and short strike it. Even the 1lber I landed was skin hooked by 1 of the hooks on the treble...just barely hooked. For what ever reason they just weren't hitting it good. I must have missed like 5-6 fish. Including a nice fish that followed it up 2 times, boy you should of seen the wake, and when she turned... wow.. lets just say it was a big fish, broke my heart she wouldn't eat it.. :'(. Once dusk hit I switched over to a 3/8oz black Jitterbug. Had another small fish miss the bait, and then a good fish (I'm guessing 3lbs - 3 1/2lbs) engulfed the jitterbug as I was working it through some pads. Gave a nice hookset, and had the fish on for about 3 secs before she came unbuttoned... :-/ d**n jitterbugs and their crappy hooks! All in all a bad day, really made me mad to miss so many nice fish. I gave the jitterbug's hooks a run through the hook hone once I got home, to sharpen em up a bit. So all in all their hitting the topwaters (atleast for now), but their mostly short striking em. By the way, what do you do when you have fish short striking your topwater, and missing alot? Do you switch to another bait? Or whats your take on this? Thanks!

Hey, anyone in NJ do any well with topwaters yet, or do you think its still a little early? I gave a black buzzbait a try, but it was after a cold front, so who's to say.. What about you guys?

Hey, I found a lure in an old tacklebox which has written on the belly "heddon tiger". I searched for the bait, and it seems to be an old bait, that I assume is not made anymore. This being said, is this lure worth anything? I don't have the original box for it, and I'm not 100% sure the condition, I'd have to take a better look at it. If it I'snt worth much, is it a good fish catcher? Cause maybe I'll fish it then 8-).

Well, I slammed the bass last sunday, and after monday being rainy and cold, it seems the water temperature dropped, I could feel it today.. Water clarity was pretty darn muddy, I tryed fishing a firetiger single colorado blade spinnerbait, a chart/black crank, a black buzzbait, a black/blue jig, and a black/blue tube, all with no success. Pitched the tube/jig in laydowns and lillys, but nada. Swam the spinnerbait/crank/buzzbait around lillys and all sort of cover, nada... They just didn't seem to bite. I don't think anyone caught a bass today at the lake I fished, (a few trout/cats were caught). What do you do when a cold front comes? Is there any specific techniques that you use for a cold front?...cause I could use em! I think I should have tryed maybe a shakyhead rig with a small finesse worm, or a real small profile bait, to give off a finesse presentation, but other then that, I don't see what I coulda done. Do the bass just not want to chase at all during a cold front? So spinnerbaits and cranks are not a good choice? Please help!

Here are somethings I'd give a try. 1. Single Colorado blade Spinnerbait, for colors: (firetiger, black, or black/blue) 2. Chatterbait w/double tail grub (black, black/blue or firetiger), I like black/blue chatterbait w/ black/blue hula grub as a trailer. 3. I'd try a light jig, maybe 3/16oz in black or black/blue. Specificly a jig with rattles would be nice, I'd use a trailer that gives off some good vibration, like a ragetail chunk or paca. 4. Black or black/blue tube w/rattles. 5. You could also give a black buzzbait or black jitterbug a try.. I find dark colors, or extremely bright colors are key in muddy water, as well as vibration.

Well, Trout season is fun, but it also brings with it a bunch of newbs who don't know what they're doing, or what to do with any fish they catch. Today I caught a guy with a stringer of about 6-7 bass, one of which was in the 4lb range. Now that is a big female fish for NJ, that is most likely getting ready to spawn.. The guy was with about 3 buddies, and I suppose they all didn't have a clue what they were doing, how they managed to catch 6-7 bass is beyond me... Anyhow, they had a few beers with them (all of which they left on the ground after leaving >) so I didn't want to end up getting into a fight over fish, especially when I was outnumbered. Well I gave the warden a call, and he told me he was a good distance away, and couldn't make it. So I was forced to try and talk to these guys and tell them they had to release the fish (you can't keep bass from April 15th - June 15th). Luckily enough, someone had told them a few minutes before I had that they can't keep bass this time of the year, so I atleast had an ally. They released the fish. The 4lber was pretty beat up from being on the stringer awhile I guess, its gill plate was pretty red, and it just didn't seem 100%. They "released" it by putting it into shallow water a couple inches deep and watched as it could barely swim off. I had to go over there and walk the fish out to deeper water to get it oxygen. After having it in the deeper water for a few, it took off so I am hoping she lived. I think they wanted to say "look, its in the water and it won't swim away, its dead why release it now?", which the truth of the matter was the fish didn't have the strength to take off in 2inches of water after being dragged around on a stringer for however long they had it on there, which was probably a couple hours. Anyhow, I caught about 8-9 bass on a 1/4oz war eagle spinnerbait white/chart so I made out well today. Most were little 12inchers, the biggest was a 2lber. But it just frustrates me that when trout season comes along, these people who just don't seem to give a dam, and really aren't fishermen show up, and cause nothing but problems. Trout season is fun... but it sure does bring out some imbeciles... :-?

Hey, I just wanted to get an idea on some good colors for buzzbaits. (I know the water clarity matters too, but I'm just trying to get a basic idea) What color buzzbait would you use in: 1. Sunny Conditions? 2. Dusk? 3. Night? 4. Overcast?

If theres no ice on your water, walk around a local pond of yours and throw small rapala huskyjerks, fish them slow and you'll catch fish. I can almost guarantee it.

Lol, so the only situation would be clear water with calm conditions and a clear sunny sky? And even then, I'm still hearing it will work. 8-)

So it wouldn't be a good idea to fish the jointed shad rap in shallow water ponds?

I have never fished with a trailer hook on my spinner baits before but I bought a couple packs this winter. When fishing a spinner bait with a trailer hook and trailer are you attaching the trailer to the trailer hook or the main hook? (I hope that made sense.) Also do you guys use trailers on buzz baits as well? Thanks! I think this picture should clear things up for you http://a.espncdn.com/winnercomm/outdoors/bassmaster/i/P2_BT_Dec04_InPro_Fishing.jpg You attach the trailer hook with a peice of plastic tubing, this tubing should have came in your pack of trailer hooks. There is two ways of attaching the trailer hook with the tubing, one would be to cut a peice of tubing and put it over the eye of the trailer hook, then run the main hook of the spinnerbait thru the tubing that is wrapped around the eye of the trailer hook, this will keep the trailer hook still on the spinnerbait. Although, the way I prefer (any many others I notice), would be to stick the spinnerbaits main hook through the eye of the trailer hook, and then take the tubing and stick it through the point of the main spinnerbait hook, this will stop your trailer hook from flying off your spinnerbait while enabling it to free slide up and down your spinnerbait's hook shank. As for the buzzbaits, yes I use a trailer hook with buzzbaits, but to me it really depends on the length of the buzzbait's main hook. If the length is pretty long I won't bother with a trailer hook. Like on the 1/4oz Booyah buzzbait the hook is pretty long, I don't use a trailer hook with it majority of the time.

I really have found myself not using a soft plastic trailer on my spinnerbaits. I suppose if you have a larger bait presence, using a single tail grub, or one of those split tail "spinnerbait trailers" would be worth a shot. But majority of the time I will use a spinnerbait with a trailer hook attached, not a trailer bait.

I know they work well when there is chop on the water/windy day. But in what conditions would you say they're not as productive?

How deep do they dive? And are they suspending?

Ooh Ya! Got 9 bass today on a small rapala huskyjerk. All dinks, but I could careless. Also got a crappie. Fished the rapala really slow, "jerk jerk 4sec pause, jerk jerk 5sec pause" etc. You really had to watch the line, all but 1 of the fish I caught was from paying attention to the line and noticing it slightly twitch, or tightening up barely. Meaning 90% of the fish hit when the lure was paused.

I blew all my money this year on striper plugs and striper tackle. 15-22$ is the common price for striper plugs.. my wallet can't take anymore. I won't be buyin too much new freshwater bass tackle this year :-/. Oh well, I have more then enough anyhow :-[

I fish for a variety of fish year round, Though my top 3 favorites are Largemouth, Fluke, and Striper.

Posting pics in a sec.. I caught 2 carp today, the first two pics are of the first carp, the last two pics are of the 2nd carp. The first carp was about 6lbs, the 2nd carp was just about 5lb. I caught them both on balls of bread about the size of a penny, made from hotdog rolls. Was using a size 12 Gamakatsu hook, which is pretty small, easily able to hide it in the center of the bread ball with no appearance of a hook what so ever. I fished these bread balls weightless, it was pretty windy today, so it was at times challenging, because the wind would blow your line. But, the carp in this particular pond are very smart, and if they feel any unnatural weight they'll spit the bait. So the key is to fish weightless. Both fish gave about a good 8min fight a peice, definetly a fun day today. Funny thing is I planned to go for bass today, but the bass weren't hitting, primarily due to the cold water. As I walked around the lake I noticed a few carp hanging around one general area, though I didn't have any bait for carp on me. Then I came across these hotdog rolls which I believe the guy from the hotdog truck threw out, and it was great from there on... Thank god for the hotdog man.. ;D

Any of you guys been doing any fishing lately? Just wanted to see if anyone attempted to do some bassin yet. I've been having fun catching suckers in rivers, using worms. I tell you what, use a ultralite and hook into a nice 16inch sucker and you'll enjoy that fight for sure. Most of the lakes around here are defrosted, and if they are icy, its thin ice that melts, and reappears the next morning, but all in all I've been seeing alot of entirely open water lakes. However, there is no sign of life in these lakes yet, which is why I don't bother throwin any lures around. The suckers are biting and thats good enough for me, until it warms up a bit that is..

Really surprised to see that myself. Im also shocked to see Booyah winning, I used to think they were the best until I tryed Terminator. So my vote went to Terminator. However, the only reason I chose terminator is because I have yet to have a problem with any of their spinnerbaits, I bought a booyah spinnerbait where the blades didn't spin properly, and I've also had a blade fly off on a cast. Although I've used booyah spinnerbaits that never gave me a problem, and I believe they're equal if not better then terminators when you get one that runs correctly, which I don't think is necessarily hard to get. But I've run into two faulty Booyah Spinnerbaits already, so my vote is going to Terminator. Btw, I bought a War Eagle spinnerbait over the winter, and can't wait to try it out, sure looks nice, though the hook is pretty small for my liking, either way a trailer hook will solve that problem. Who knows, it may become my new fav spinnerbait brand if they work well.

Ragetail are great baits, I have no reason to steer you wrong. Try them, you won't be disapointed.