John Cullum

I always try to pick up a thing or two from my non-boater. This year was no differant. Everyone fishs a bait in differant situations or conditions so I always pay attention to thier go to baits and find out way it's thier go to bait. A few years ago I had a guy show me how he fished wood with big balsa baits like BB2-3. I fished Bagley prior to that but never really "crawled" them thru cover like he did. This year I had a guy in the back of my boat that couldn't get a single bite for 6 hours of an 8 hour tourney. I had 5 fish right away cranking but only had around 6 pounds. We were on the Calumet river which is a 12 inch limit. I thought it would take around 8 and some change to win. My non-boater tied on a 10 inch worm (black) and smoked em' the last 2 hours. He had to of caught 10 or so keepers none bigger than 14 inches. He was catching 6 inch large mouth on a 10 inch worm. He would stitch the worm with a 3/0 hook and it was very effective. If there was one lesson I learned from this year it was that. When the bass are aggresive like they were it's hard to find a bait that is to big.

I have been using Nichols and Glamour Shad. I use the Hank Parker Classic on river systems and cut the arm down and add smaller blades. The diameter of the wire on the Hank Parker is very small and 12 inch fish on the river seem to like it better exscpecially smallies. Other than an adding a pork chunk, twister atil and trailor hook I fish the other two "out of the box". You can always up or down size blades but I've had my best luck leaving themn how they are. I use 1/4-3/8 on both models. I very my retrieve more than I modify my bait. Out of all the "fast" baits you can fish it seems that the spinnerbait bite matters more on your retrieve. If you match your blades to the hatch and your colors right you still might not be getting bit. But add a "kill" or a speed up slow down to your retrieve and all of the sudden your getting fish.

Glenn, I had know idea that Smelly Jelly now comes in a tube. I used it fot several years and always purchased the jar because thats all I thought they had. Did they change the texture of it? It was way to thick to be in tube form before. I haven't paid any attention to it after I got my first few tubes of MegaStrike there was no reason too.

Another vote for MegaStrike. I was a huge fan of Smelly Jelly in the past but the last 2 years I have been hooked on the MegaStrike scent. I never liked the spray scent because most of it was wasted in the water or on your boat. Smelly Jelly comes in a jar which is a little easier to apply than an aerosol can. Mega Strike is in a tube which makes the applacation super easy and you waste very little of the product on your boat or in the water. It seems to stay on longer than the others I've used too. I don't think it has a huge impact on spinnerbaits or crankbaits but I think it makes a big differance on your soft plastics. I believe they will hold it for an extra second or two and that makes a differance between catching and missing sometimes.