HeyCoach

Does anybody use these? Back when I was in college I’d fish these in clear creeks and little tributaries. I’d put them on a jig head of some sort and swim them by downed trees and other structure. I don’t know if it was the correct way to work it as I’d shake it during the retrieve, but I always would land a 2.5-4lb largemouth. Does anybody else use or have used these? How’d you use it?

I’ve always been involved with sports (football, wrestling, track) so I’m not used to fishing in cold weather. I have two shallow jerkbait, a few crankbaits ranging from two 15ft, two 10-12ft, and a few 3-5ft SK KVD. I also have a few spinnerbaits and a YoZuri knuckleball for kicks. What techniques/lures are cooling water lures?

And now lake levels are more than 3 feet lower than it was during summer. Lots of exposed shallow flats, points, and sand bars. I’m hoping I can figure out where to put in as I can’t cast far enough from the pier to get to the deeper areas.

How do you retrieve this? I’ve done both reel it in like a buzz bait and walked the dog with one.

I don’t see why you wouldn’t be able to Carolina rig about any sort of soft plastic. A hollow body frog may look like it’d be diving for food?

So, do y’all just have a green, a dark, and a bright color of your plastics? I’m trying to think. I have white, tequila sunrise, oxblood red, GP, junebug, and black with red flakes in Trick Worms, plus about 5 more colors with different flakes. Let’s not talk about the dozen different Senko colors. It looks like Rembrandt threw up in my tray. How do you dial in on color besides the magical color chart?

Ours is only a 5 foot drop, but a good portion around the banks are very shallow. At 1 foot below summer pool, there was roughly 6 feet of exposed lake bottom next to my pier. I was lucky to not get the bass boat stuck when I got busy and couldn’t trailer it for a few days.

@EGbassing I had an extremely difficult time this summer in central AL. I’m thinking I’m going to try a jerkbait tomorrow and maybe a little Storm 360 soft swimbait to see if I can find any. With how sudden the weather changed I don’t know what to do either.

I had the same luck, except no dinks and one just slapped at my Whopper Plopper first thing Friday morning. Also, my Lowrance went out and wouldn’t display anything. Then my trolling motor died. Then I was stuck on a sand bar. Then I had trouble starting the outboard. I went home and took a nap.

I have seen flukes, a Strike King Dream Shot, and a wacky rigged finesse worm used on drop shot setups. What all have you used or seen used on a DS? I’m going to give it a whirl tomorrow.

@MACHGunnerAJ I used to live in Birmingham. What ponds do you go fish at? Lakeshore in Homewood has a few if you head west away from Samford. Of course Oak Mountain State Park. There is one behind a pharmaceutical company I’ve fished at. And we also fished at the PNC Bank on 280 at 119 but I wouldn’t suggest it as Hoover police didn’t care for us night fishing there, they thought we were pulling some shenanigans.

A cold front will produce a bluebird sky day. Topwater wouldn’t work at 8:30, especially after you figure out your Whopper Plopper was broken by a previous bass. Also, make sure that you don’t miss a guide when you put a different reel on a rod.

I went with a St. Croix Mojo Bass rod. 7’ Med/Mod. I really like it so far, I’ve caught about half a dozen with it since I picked it up and it’s handled them just fine. Lew’s reels were on sale so I got one of their LFS 5.2:1 reels for $75 best I remember. Using 12 pound Sunline fluoro.

The home lake is currently in the process of its annual 5 foot drop in water levels to winter pool. In addition to this, a cold front has moved in. Early this week we had highs in the upper 80s, tomorrow the high will be in the low 70s with a low in the low 50s. Talk about a double whammy. What would you do in this situation?

I’ve had a bit of a slump for most of the summer and have been routinely catching small spotted bass right at sunrise using a 90 series Whopper Plopper in one small area around the neighboring pier. Little fella fought above his weight class. I thought it was bigger as I was reeling it in.

You are welcome to come and fish with me. Logan-Martin and Neely-Henry are Coosa chain lakes that have an abundance of spots. I’m all of 30 seconds from LM and NH is about 30 minutes away.

I forgot about Lake Eufala and Lay Lake. And OP, I’d say maybe early-spring or mid-fall.

Smith Lake in Cullman, AL Guntersville Neely-Henry in Gadsden, AL N-H is part of the Coosa river, where the Alabama spots got their name. You’d be about an hour and a half from Cullman to either Gadsden or Guntersville. Gadsden to Guntersville, about 30-45 minutes.

Does St. Croix make the best rods on earth? I love mine.

There’s a shaky head bait I remember that the tail stand still up. Squirrel tail? I think it may be from Big Bite Baits best I remember. Came out a few years ago.

How do you choose what type of jig trailers to use?

@WVU-SCPA the spot is the back corner of the neighboring pier two yards from the bulwark, right now there might be a foot and a half of water in that spot. There might be a bottom step or two for their kids to enter the water to swim/get on a jet ski. I had three swipe at the WP this morning but none hooked up. I immediately threw a white wacky rigged trick worm on a 1/10th ounce Ned rig head with no dice.

I think I’ve stumbled upon a pattern. The bass I’ve been catching have come out of one area on a Whopper Plopper. Always very early, between that first light and thirty minutes after sunrise. The highs are still in the 90s with the lows in the low- to mid-70s. I don’t know the water temp as I’m still stuck bank fishing. Still no bites on different worm/plastics profiles, jigs, or reaction baits like crankbaits or spinnerbaits.

Last summer I caught dozens on a weightless rigged GP/GW laminate Senko every time I went out. I had to buy several packs from Walmart as the summer progressed. Oxblood red finesse worms also worked very well for me last year.

Check out this Article about a quarter of the way down there is a graphic of the areas they inhabit. They appear to live as far north as Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. It seems plausible that they could work up towards Michigan.