Black Hawk Basser

Squarebill (esp. around the rip rap) Spinnerbait Jig/Craw Weightless/weedless stickbait Suspending Jerkbait It's been 30's for highs for days, water temps are probably mid 40's. I imagine if I went right now I'd be working the jig or stickbait the most.

Many Rapala baits come to mind, especially the Shad Rap and Husky Jerk. Storm Chug Bugs always have been my favorite popper, definitely in use for 15+ years.

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I bought a Cavitron last year after reading all the good reviews and quickly put it to good use. I think I had one hour on a windy day with over 10 fish. Mine is black with a red blade. I bought one of these and didn't get a lot of chances to throw it last year. Do you have any other suggestions for trailers?

Same here on the trolling. I think the erratic slowing down and speeding up of the lure from the paddling is a big strike trigger.

I often fish a pond that's less than 10 acres. I don't downsize as I have caught dozens of fish over 18" there on a variety of "normal" sized bass baits.

I rarely go fishing with a care free attitude about what/how many I catch. I'm out there to put the hurt on the bass. If I want to go to relax, I will toss out some cutbait for cats or something like that.

Berkley has/had a brown/blue pattern called Bama Bug that I love. I really like some sort of purple for worms. If I had to pick one color of jig/craw pattern it would be black and blue.

Palomar always, can't remember ever having a failure, at least when using braid.

A #5 Countdown crushes all species in the local river. It catches lots of dinks but it provides constant action and clues me in to where more fish may be.

Quarries are my bread and butter. During prespawn, I'm using rattle baits, spinnerbaits, and jigs. Texas rigged plastics if I really need to finesse them. Postspawn before summer sets in, I continue with spinnerbaits, jigs & paddle tail swimbaits. If conditions call for it, I also use topwaters in this period. In the peak of Summer, it's almost all T-rigged plastics or topwaters due to heavy vegetation. Bluegills are the primary forage, so if I can find them, I can usually find bass in these quarries.

I use #6 and #8 X Raps for river smallies and walleye, in Olive Green and Pink. #8 and #10 Husky Jerks for bass/walleye in my local lake, in Silver and Firetiger. #5 and #7 Shad Raps in Regal Shad and any of their craw patterns. Here's a chunk that my boy and I got trolling around on Tuesday with a jointed Shad Rap.

Maybe check out eBay, there are a lot of nice looking custom patterns on popular blanks. I'm not really heavy on cranks because I'm limited due to crazy amounts of vegetation in local lakes. I'd definitely buy more if I used them more often.

Make sure it's the Magnum Super Flukes. The regular ones aren't exactly big fish baits. I'd keep grinding with spinnerbaits and jigs as well. Try them deep and slow roll them. If the spawn is done, many of the big gals may be off shore on deeper structural elements. Maybe study how tilapia behave and their preferred habitat Do they school up, suspend and roam around like shad? Do they like to go shallow? Those are questions I'd want to answer to help me find the bait and likely find more bass.

I have a lot of experience fishing balsa baits like Rapala Shap Raps or minnows early on after ice out because they seem to work so well compared to other floating models I've used in early Spring. Balsa baits almost pause for a moment before rising. I think that is what makes them so effective in colder water temps.

I have used some of the gaudiest, most unrealistic little creations for ice fishing and have caught many fish on them. And that is often after a fish hovers there and stares at it for 5 seconds or more before committing. That is an example of where fish would have the best opportunity to inspect a bait for a long period of time and still eat it. Bass are often the easiest to get to hit these goofy ice lures too.

The Chug Bug is my favorite. I have never tried any higher-dollar models because I've generally had great success with the Chug Bug. It's not a popper, but another topwater I love is the Lucky Craft Sammy. With all of the hubbub about the Pop Max, I may get one. I can't imagine losing a topwater easily unless a muskie gets after it. I can't remember the last time I lost a topwater bait.

I've never noticed a difference in catch rate or size.

Best first day of the open water season that I have ever had, hands down! Usually on the first day out I'm just hoping to get a couple to boost confidence a little.

I tend to agree that you may just need to switch up tactics instead of force-feeding. But since we are talking about cranks, you ever throw any little 'hitches' in your crankbait retrieval? For example, you may trigger a following fish by making one or two very fast cranks of the reel in the middle of your otherwise moderate retrieve speed. Or, of course you can also throw in short pauses or jerks. Some days, if you figure out what little hitch is working, it doesn't matter how you're holding your pole. ?

I made my first foray today. Between a Super Spot, a Shad Rap and a homemade jig, I scored 17 fish. I tried a small pond in the morning and a gravel pit in the evening. I also tried a spinnerbait and a shaky head worm but they didn't get me anything. Almost every fish caught was hooked near the bottom of the main drop off from shoreline, in both places I fished.

I haven't caught many on my magnum flukes, but they've all been nice fish.

To me, it is totally worth it. It's a ton of fun, and as mentioned it's very satisfying to catch some fish on your own baits. I have the Do-It Poison Tail mold, that jig head is pretty versatile IMO. If I want, I can make my own vibrating jigs, but I haven't bought the components for that yet.

Good idea. I have the same mold and I love the bass jigs that I've made so far. I may try what you've done here. I modded my mold with a Dremel tool to allow a wire keeper for plastics. Sometimes the wire will wiggle its way out of the lead if I don't pour it correctly, but usually coating it all with powder paint will firm it up enough to stay in there.

They look rather tasty, but only one critique: They should have put a bit of cheese in the mouth for a little added flash.