Brad_Coovert

I have not fished them yet, but they look awesome in the water. I just gave some to one of my clients to try at Fork this week. I really like Lake Fork baits and I decided to carry some of the 4 packs in my store and my first order sold out in three days. More are on the way and I already have guys wanting those. Needless to say, this is a hot bait somewhere. Brad

Congrats to Terry McWilliams from Greenfield, Indiana, home of my Greenfield Bassmasters! He is one heck of a fisherman. Just a couple of better fish and we would have pulled it off. Brad

The one I loaned my partner and he just lost. Brad

The Crig is a year round technique. It will work in nearly any water depth and can cover a lot of water very quickly. It is good for active fish or inactive fish. I will always have at least one and up to four Crigs in the boat at any given time. My suggestion to learn this method is to do this. Take nothing with you but your Carolina rig rods, tackle and your soft plastics. Leave everything else at home. This will force you to use this bait in lots of ways and places and you will learn a lot. In fact, this is the best way to learn any method IMO. Brad

When I use scent, I like the Megastrike as it comes in a mess free tube. Brad

Combo #1 will be a good set-up for jigs, plastics and most spinnerbaits. Combo #2 looks to be a 2 power 6' rod. Sounds like an excellent topwater, hard jerkbait and small crankbait rod. Combo #3 will be fine for crankbaits. Combo #4 looks to be a 3 power, so it should be fine for casting jigs, soft plastics and smaller spinnerbaits. Your spinning combo will be very versatile with small plastics, tubes and finesse jigs. The only rod I would reccomend adding is a 7' heavy for Carolina rigging, frog fishing or flipping. Brad

There are a ton of great soft plastic frogs out there. I like the Gambler Cane Toad, ZOOM Horny Toad and Stanley Ribbit series. For standard frogs, again there are a ton of great brands. SPRO Bronzeye, Boze Sumo, Reaction Innovation Swamp Donkey, River 2 Sea Croaker, Scumfrog and many more. For the soft plastic versions, I like the ZOOM Horny Toad hooks, Mustad Impact hooks with some LocTite Gel or EWG Superline hooks either witch a screw in weight or Reaction Innovation's new Screwed-up Bullet that is made specifically for fishing in front of weightless plastics. All of these methods help to keep the bait from sliding down the hook in heavy grass, which can be a problem with soft plastic frogs. Hollow bodied frogs seldom need any work to keep them weedless. Some are a little light, such as the Scumfrog, and you can add some weight by stuffing some cut up plastic worm pieces in them, rattles or small weights. As for fishing the frogs, the soft plastic frogs are the most versatile as they can be fished on top or deeper if you let them sink. You can fish them over cover and then let them sink into holes. You can swim them along the bottom or just under the surface. Something that is not mentioned much is that soft plastic frogs like a Horny Toad are great follow up baits for missed strikes on floating frogs. Floating frogs do just that, float. They can be paused over holes, on the edge of lily pads, on top of the weeds, etc. and can be pause as long as you want. They can be fished fast or slow. Hookups on these frogs are not as good on soft plastic frogs and some practice is needed to get a good hookset down. Fish also can miss them when they strike, but they usually come back for a second try. I always try to reel up slack and hit the fish when I feel it. If I miss him, I will toss in a follow up bait to the same spot he struck the frog. For tackle, I would not suggest anything lighter than a 7' or 7'6" Heavy action rod and 50 lb. braid. Some will say 50 lb. is too heavy, but it is not much different in size than 30 lb. braid, does not cost much more and doesn ot break as easy as 30 lb. braid, so IMO, why not use it? Sometimes long casts are needed with frogs and this setup lets you move more line on the hookset and the braid has no stretch, so this helps drive hooks home. A big bass, or any bass for the matter, with a bunch of grass on it is very hard to move. Again, heavy tackle and the braided line will get the fish to the boat. Braid cuts through grass better than any other line and is at it's best in heavy grass. Frogs are a big bass bait and this setup will help you avoid losing a big fish. Good luck with your frogging! Brad

Danny Joe's Original Floaters are one of the best floating worms made IMO. Very hard to find. Brad

Second to Lucky Craft would be Husky Jerks and Bombers for me. Brad

My most productive pre-spawn baits: Carolina rigged plastics Jigs Texas-rigged Plastics Crankbaits Lipless Crankbaits Suspending Jerkbaits Spinnerbaits Which one all depends on lake and conditions. Brad

SPRO owns Gamakatsu. Normark may be one of many importers for Gammy hooks.

I would just give Lucky Craft a call and tell them what happened. They may be able to just send you some free Lucky Craft eyes. 1-800-270-3117 As for losing eyes, I have only had one LC bait lose an eye, a Pointer 65. Brad

Last year, I used the 10# for crankbaits and topwaters and the 15# for all else. It has been a good line. I bought the large bulk spools and changed out line each month. Brad

Chicken!

Bass aren't that smart. They do not know if that thing you are throwing is a frog or not. Baiscally, to a bass, if it moves, its food. If you have some weeds, pads, etc, then the water is good for frogging. Brad

The most popular knockoff is probably the "trick stick". It is a mass produced generic bait sold by dozens of different bait companies, stores, etc. as their own Senko knockoff. The colors are usually the same from seller to seller. Do some Googling and you should find many of them. Brad

You can wake any blade type. It all depends on how fast you want to move the bait. If you need a fast retrieve, a double willow. A little slower, a tandem colorado/willow. Slower, double colorado. Brad

If any of you guys really love Rapala, you can buy their stock on the Finland stock market as they are a publicaly traded company in Europe. Brad

My basic colors for baits are some variation of these colors, depending on brand: Crankbaits and topwaters: Chrome/Blue Gold/Black Firetiger Bluegill Solid shad color Translucent shad color Spinnerbaits: White White/Chartreuse Chartreuse/Green Jigs: Browns Blacks Greens Whites Soft plastics: Watermelons Green Pumpkins Blacks Purples Pumpkins Reds Brad

Nope, no 306 Natural Shad. Brad

I had several fo the original Chatterbaits and most had cracked hook eyes where they squeezed them shut after installing the blade. The hookeye would just break in two pieces. That was enough reason for me to stop using them. They also have Renosky beuilding them now and I'm not a fan of their production. I use the Gambler Swim Blade quite a lot and it is a good bait. Any of the baits with split rings can foul every now and then, but a quick jerk and the bait was running true again for me. BTW - I do not read much about guys tuning these baits. You can change the vibration with just a little bend in the blade. Brad

You can't go wromg with the Baby Paca Craw in one of the Green Pumpkin or Watermelon colors in most waters. I fish both sizes, but I do better on the Baby Paca Craw here in Indiana. I sell far more Baby Paca Craws than I do larger ones also. The new Tiny Paca Craw should be a killer for smallies and spots. I'm anxious to try these out this year. Brad

A lot of name brand baits are made in China and elsewhere in Asia. Brad

Those crankbaits are made by Possum Lures. They are soft bodied style crankbait. I have not used them. Brad

Yes, Normark owns Blue Fox. They have for several years. Brad