Brad_Coovert

That's tough man, trying to get your single bait to stand out in a crowd of shad and attaract that bass. I would probably have tried to make my bait look different than the shad rather than match them. I would either pick a shad colored bait much larger than the ones she was feeding on or pick a bait sized like the shad she was eating, but in a totally different color. Still, competing with all that shad is sometimes a losing effort. I fished a tourney on the Ohio River a few years ago when we came across a huge school of shad being destroyed by a very large school of nice spotted bass. We threw everything in the boat and managed to catch one spot. Brad

I bought several bags of 5" and 4" Dingers to try when they first came out. I had to take several baits and save them for Wacky rigging only as they had some big air pockets in them that rendered them useless for Texas rigging. Also, some had plenty of salt and sank right, but most had no salt and nearly floated. The wiggle was not nearly as good as the Senko either IMO. I had the same results with the BPS Stik-O's. In the end, the cost of each "good" Dinger was not much less than the other baits I used, so why change brands? Maybe YUM has improved their quality since they first came out, but after a lot of use last season these baits were just not something that I saw replacing the baits I like to use. If I buy a bag of baits, regardless of price, I expect all of them to have good, consistent quality so that every bait I grab out of the bag is basically the same. I get that with Senkos, Assalt, Wave and NetBait and these always catch fish for me and I have 100% confidence in them for tournament use. Brad

Grass will hold fish all year. Somewhere in that grass will be fish. The deeper grass with some water over it, you can fish a shallow running crankbait or lipless bait over it and rip from the grass when the bait catches on it. Depending on the depth of the water over the grass, you may need to beef up your line to help the bait run more shallow. I like to use 15 - 17 lb. mono when I'm fishing cranks over shallow grass. The heavy line keeps the bait up, does not hinder the action and helps get foish out of the grass also. That deeper grass will also be a good place for a Texas rigged plastic, weightless Senko bait or spinnerbait slow rolled in the grass or burned over the grass. If the water is real clear, you can call fish up out of the submerged grass with topwaters also, especially if there is a slight chop on the water. For the matted, thicker grass, you can drag plastics over the grass or a topater frog type bait - use heavy line or braided line and a long, powerful rod to help you get these fish out of the veggies. The thick stuff can also be flipped - either to holes in the grass or using a heavy weight and punching through the grass to open areas underneath. This can be a killer way to fish. The water under the matted grass will be much cooler than the open water areas and will have a lot of shade. The biggest bass in the lake will probably be in the thickest stuff this summer. The cattails may be good spawning areas depending on the bottom composition and depth there. Brad

A small C-rig or split shot type rig can be a non-boaters best friend. Many a boater has their had their clock cleaned by the non throwing these. Brad

Yamamoto ASSALT NetBait Wave These are the best four stickbaits made IMO. I was not impressed with the YUM Dingers for several reasons. Brad

One of the best days I ever had was during an 8 hour steady downpour that pretty much caused constant use of the bilge pump! Caught far too many bass to count on Superflukes over grass beds that day. Still, I hate fishing in the rain. Brad

I try several confidence baits on each spot I fish throughout the day based on the bait needed for what I am fishing. After a while, I usually have refined baits/presentations down to only two or three that are catching the most fish, the others go back in the box. Of course, there are still those days when nothing works ???, but they are becoming less and less the more I fish ;D Brad

I know guys who have caught some nice smallies when there was ice still on the lake edges. They cast a tube or blade bait on the ice, drug it off the ice and into the water and not too soon after entering, BAM! In other words, fish when there is open water to fish. Fish get active far sooner than most realize. Brad

For clear water situations with a lot of sun and slow presentations, I usually make my baits blend in with the surroundings. Green pumpkins, watermelon, cinnamons, pumpkins, etc. - something that matches the bottom or the cover I am fishing. For clear water with no sun, I will do the same, but add some flake like watermelon/red or greenpumpkin/red. For darker water, I like darker baits like black, purple, grape, red shad, etc. I seldom use colored tails, too many bluegill bites. Brad

Weigtless on 3/0 or 4/0 EWG or Round Bend Gammy hooks. Wacky rigged with an Oring. I like the Reaction Innovations Wacky Hook and Owner Mosquito Hook. I also love to use a screw in weight and a straight shank 4/0 round bend Gammy. They fall like tubes rigged this way. ;D Brad

Hey JT, I can help with all those overcrowded Yammie baits you have. ;D I need to get better at time management on the water. I spend too much time on some spots fishing dead water and not enough on others where I have caught fish. Confidence in a spot can kill you sometimes. When all you have is 8 hours, you gotta use them wisely. Brad

I would say it depends on the fish, but I have caught the same fish on back to back casts and on successive days - they were both fish I broke off and they had my hook and plastic in their mouth when I caught them a second time. The one that really killed me was during a Federation Top8 tourney when I busted off a fish on a plastic lizard. My non-boater threw up in the same place while I retied and caught a fish. When he got it in the boat, it had my lizard and hook buried firmly in its jaw. At least I got my lizard and hook back, but the 3lb. fish would have done wonders for my weight. Brad