papajoe222

Personally, I would skip with any kind of blade and go with the paddletail and a jig, or belly weighted hook. Shy away from bottom presentations as they're keying on the baitfish. Don't forget topwater. Smaller ones will match the forage size best and my favorite now (no, it isn't a Spook of anysort) is a CrazyShad. Start by working it fast over the schooling shad and if you don't get any takers, switch to a slow twitch pause in areas that the shad frequent. Fun time if you time it right.

To be honest, mine has $^@*!& so far. Between boat problems that didn't get resolved until the end of July and the wife's health problems, I didn't get on the water much. That's all changing starting this week. The boat's running great, wife is done with her treatments and the fall bite approaching, I'm as excited as I normally get just after ice-out. I will say that the few times I've been able to wet a line, I've caught some nice fish. Here's hoping that trend continues until the lakes shut down at the end of October.

I've been doing this for years with plastics impregnated with salt. Not so much to attract more bites, or change the sink rate, etc., but I feel the fish hold on to the bait longer before rejecting it ( if they ever do).

It depends on the application. In weeds, you'll want something with a weed guard, but for swimming over the tops of submerged weeds or any assortment of presentations, I rely on a ball head with not too long of a hook shank. You don't want to impede the tail action with a hook that sits too far back toward the tail. The last option is an underspin, which I have been using more frequently over the last two season. Big Bite Baits swimbait head is fairly inexpensive and fits the bill for longer baits and Cumberland Pro offers standard size and finesse ball heads along with underspins. Both company's offerings have keepers that won't tear up your baits. For longevity, I recommend staying away from jigs that use keepers that are molded onto the hookshank.

I go with a split tail in the colder waters of spring and fall.

For your application, I recommend T-rigging with a pegged weight. This will eliminate the occasional line wrapping around a branch as it spirals down as with a Stupid rig or the Owner weighted tube hooks which are designed to keep the spiral. https://www.basspro.com/p/eagle-claw-lazer-sharp-tube-hoo These are what I use. I tried the Trokar version, but they tear up the tubes in no time.

There are occasions when I reach for a crank that won't contact the bottom, but those aren't the norm. I will generally pick a crank that occasionally hits bottom, if I'm retrieving it fast. When I'm looking to slow it down, like after a front has moved through, early spring, or late fall, I'll go with one that runs considerably deeper than the water I'm fishing. Once it reaches bottom, every turn of the reel handle will send it crashing into the bottom again, but it only moves a short distance. I've not had much success with a steady contact retrieve where the bait is constantly digging bottom. The exception is when targeting smallmouth.

And then there's the time my buddy and I were throwing the same exact lure, same color and size, he got skunked and I boated a dozen in the two hours we had left to fish. What I'm saying is that scenario can be compared to the same lure in different colors. I'll switch colors if I'm getting short strikes, or followers, but I'll adjust my retrieve before I do. It boils down to personal experience, confidence.

I have two rods for my topwaters. For Spook Jr's, Jitterbugs, Chug Bugs and Pop Rs it's a 6'6" MH/MF and for full sized Spooks, Lucky13s, Pencil Poppers and bigger hard baits, it's a 6'6" MH/F. I use the same reel, a Daiwa Fuego spooled with 15lb. Trilene. For buzzers and frogs I use a 7'3" MH/F and a Fuego spooled with 40lb. 832 braid.

I have a small Plano tackle bag that holds three boxes. It, like yours is for when I discover a promising pond. That bag goes with me when I'm in the boat, too. BTW, your box is missing a Mepps spinner. Just saying.

I take changes in water clarity into account. One of the lakes I fish never has visibility over 2-3ft. IMO, the fish have adapted to the point that their vision is still the predominate sense they use. 2-3ft becomes their maximum strike window. If the water muddies up, it's like fishing after a cold front, that strike window is reduced. Their other senses become more important and presentations that offer more vibration and sound get bit. The same goes for clear lakes where the visibility is significantly lowered.

One of my favorites is a black Super Spook Jr. I've had good success in both stained and clear water with one.

I use a snap on about 2/3 of my lipped cranks and all of my lipless cranks. No worries about my line slipping into the split ring or what happened to the OP. I will caution all that do use a snap, don't forget to check your knot. I'm guilty of being lazy about that and I've gotten bitten more than once.

Back when I first started fishing tournaments, I was paired with a boater that put us on fish early on. We were into culling fish after two hours. When he weighed in, not one of his original five was in his bag and almost everyone of those bigger fish he caught on a buzzbait. So, whenever I'm after bigger fish, there are two lures I reach for; a jig and a buzzbait.

One follower, I don't concern myself with. More than one on the same lure, I know I'm doing something right. First thing I change is my retrieve and often times stopping and letting the lure sink will do the trick. The next thing I change is the shape of the lure. By that I mean, I'll go to a flat sided crank, or change the trailer on a swim jig to something different. I'm not a big believer in color making a big difference, but in this situation, it sometimes makes the difference.

There are so many ways to retrieve a jig, I could write for an hour. Yes, I would venture to say many anglers just use one or the other of those. If I'm casting, which I believe is what you're asking about, I'll start out dragging it to get an idea of the bottom composition. Then, I'll switch to a drag, hop retrieve. I may add a pause if things are slow. In the summer, I'll stroke a jig more often than dragging it, adding a couple of short hops prior to stroking it again. As I said, there are a lot of ways to retrieve a jig.

If I'm targeting hard cover like laydowns, dock pilings, or heavy brush, I'll trim them short to stiffen up. Otherwise, I may trim them if I feel they're excessively long, but most of the time I'll just fan them out or clip a few strands off.

Is the line breaking at the knot, or some distance up from it? Knot failures happen for a number of reasons, poorly tied or too much stress on the hookset. Farther up the line can be caused by kinks (reeling over loops is one cause), bad line or getting nicked by rocks, shell beds, zebra muscles, or rod guides. Start eliminating things that you do, or could be doing, before looking at things done to the line to cause it to fail.

Barometric Pressure is one factor I always take into consideration before heading out. Not so much the actual pressure, but whether it's moving up, down, or stable. I prefer downward moving as it affects the activity level of the bass, IMO, and a stable pressure is beneficial for establishing a pattern. I don't think light penetration, moon phase, or even PH affect fish activity levels as much as they do feeding windows. There are only two conditions that will keep me off the water, three if you factor in ice. Conditions affect my approach and often times, the fish don't agree with that.

OH YEA! Followed by a YEA! if I land her. I have a multitude of phrases that I utter aloud when I loose one.

I always consider the thickness/diameter of the worm when choosing hook size. Thick worms, like the Mag ll I'll go up to a 5/0, but a Mann's Jelly Worm I may only use a 3/0.

I don't change location much. Instead, I change presentation. Often times when vertical finesse presentations won't produce, I'll switch to a horizontal one. A RoboWorm split-shot rigged, or a dart head jig and grub, or my favorite, a crappie size crankbait will produce when that Ned or 3in. tube won't.

It sounds like conditions may have changed on you multiple times, but the fact that a horizontal presentation accounted for your catches (I assume you were swimming the grub) you may have wasted time and effort with slower, more vertical presentations. I always learn something from the first fish I catch, that's why it's imperative to know what you were doing when you catch it. Small bait, big bait, fast, slow, horizontal, vertical, where in the water column and was it an aggressive bite? Something about what you did to catch that first one triggered a response, so don't switch to something that doesn't include any of those factors. At the least, eliminate one at a time, say a spinnerbait for a swim jig or square bill, or a silent crank for one with rattles.

Everyone loves a topwater bite, but many don't understand why, when they think it should work, it doesn't. The mood of the fish will determine when a topwater bite will work best and finding out that piece of the puzzle usually only comes after trying. The other thing to consider is the action of the bait you're throwing. For instance, a Spook can be retrieved fast, or slow. The same goes for most topwater baits including buzzbaits and frogs. A buzzbait can be used in determining the mood of the fish. If you only get one or two half hearted strikes/misses, it's time to put it down and go with something smaller and slower. The other thing that you should consider is the conditions. A surface like glass under a bluebird sky, IMO, isn't prime topwater time as the fish are most likely in a negative mood and have a small strike window. When the topwater bite is nonexistent, I always continue down the water column as the fish could be suspended, or on the bottom. One last thing, don't think that a bass won't hit topwater in the middle of the day. If you want to have some fun, when the square bill is getting choked, put it down and pick up your favorite topwater. You'll thank me.