txchaser

BassForecast

Mid-layer merino (smartwool, icebreaker, etc) is really good, and at least worth trying out. Some of the brands have lifetime warranty too.

Weightless trick worms or senkos? If it's a 5" Senko it is something like 3/8oz. I use a Tatula SV on about half my rods. I find the senko loads just fine on either a LMH/F (in my case a kistler LMH/XF) or a softer-tip MH - my crankbait rod works in a pinch, and my fuego that's supposed to be a MH/F but doesn't have much backbone until mid-rod works too. Threw the senko on the cranking rod today because I had a small paddletail on the LMH already. I use 2/0 or 3/0 owner CPS light, so the hookset is not much more than a reel-down and a little bit of a sweep anyway. Hopefully someone with the Ehrler rod can chime in, "1/8-1oz" isn't a real range unless it is is made from unicorn dust and bait monkey tears. I think you'll hate the ML on a senko - it looks like it's built for trebles and will be super floppy. Combine that with being a ML and it'll feel overloaded.

And third. Get some colorado blades too.

If I'm hunting for active fish, keep moving if no bites. I tend to get tunnel vision on a spot and just throw more stuff at it, thinking they just need something different. It's even worse when I know for sure fish are there. Find the balance between fishing my plan and doing something entirely different when I hit the water. Example from yesterday, there's a point with sharp drop-offs and standing timber that is also further offshore than about anything on the lake (60ac). Also has access to the deepest water. Caught some nice fish there. My plan was to go there first as water temps hovering around 50 degrees. There are fish out there that never make it to the bank, have very little pressure, and are in a pretty concentrated area. My plan was to scan it hard to figure out where they were, what they were doing, etc. I think there are bigger fish in this lake and if there are, this is one of the best spots for them to be, and I want to find them. I got distracted and started catching fish elsewhere... "oh I'll just run over there right quick" - ended up with only the last hour on the point. But sometimes you notice something Be more willing to abandon a productive pattern, bait, or spot in search of larger bites. I learned "big fish don't do little fish things, or hang in little fish places" here, and I've found it to be mostly true... my biggest fish are very (very) rarely in the midst of mid-size or small fish, and never on the same presentation. It's fun to catch fish so it's hard to move/change what is 'working'.

When you pick, look at the bottom of the cover to see if it has some sort of tab or something to grab on to. Pulling them off without that tab is kind of a PITA because you are squeezing it tighter on the hook. I know for sure the Owner version has something to grab on to.

Inspired by the "which lures did you lose the most" thread. I was going through notes today to see what worked well for me this year and to reflect on it and see what I needed to change for 2020 as I'm 100% sure I have some big gaps. The first of which is a better fishing log! 5lbs is a bit of an arbitrary cutoff, but at least in Texas has enough frequency to draw conclusions. Water clarity varied from mud to 10' vis. ----Consistent Producers---- Chatterbait - BG and white, mostly keitech upside down or a zako. Nearly always have one on now. Swim Senko - one at 6.6 (black, dyed tail, 1' vis, spring), one at 7.8 (green/white laminate, 3' vis, fall) - both fished slow like a senko. Buzzbait - two over six, lots over five. Probably one of the best big fish lures in my box, if it is on, it's really on. Cavitron with Chart body/red blade worked better for me than anything else regardless of water clarity. But I usually threw it before other colors. Size was better with a watermelon toad as a trailer. All the bigger fish were spring/summer. Fall was marginal, even with a white one. Underspin w/Keitech - 3.8" or 4.2". blade depends on visibility. Ayu, bluegill flash, or something shad-ish depending on location/forage. Mag Fluke - Lots. Spring/Summer. Don't know why I stopped reaching for it. Frog - Black/Red outproduced every other color for numbers and size. Why do I have all these frogs in my bag? BG Swimbait - 6.6lbs and quite a few over five. 3" livetarget my wife bought for me. I guess she had a knack for a snack-size gill presentation. Orange highlights consistently outproduced yellow over multiple lakes. 8" fat JDM worm - weightless on brush piles and docks --------One-shot wonders---- 6th Sense Minimag Squarebill - 8.0lbs on a grass point - summer - right place, right time. I think the silent helped. I don't reach for a squarebill often, but I got a tip and it was apparently dead on. Caught a few other large fish but not something I could deploy consistently to get results. Jig/Pig - finesse jig with a GP chunk - mid-winter, pulled over a floating mat and dropped into it. 1 just over 5. Long and skinny. Had hooked up and broken off a weightless lizard I presented the same way. Got my lizard back. Jerkbait - Vision 110 in BG on a weed edge, early spring. Just one over 5. Whopper Plopper - Late summer in the AM. I think I only caught two fish all year on the WP. A big bluegull (what was it thinking??) and a nice 5+. Popper - Yellow Magic in white with flake - late summer, just before dark.. choked it like she hadn't eaten for a week. Fat Ika - I don't fish it enough, but it sure works. Zero award goes to the Sprinker Frog. Not even a blowup. Put on a regular frog, game on, fish in the boat. Shrug. For volume of bigger fish, the chatterbait, keitech with underspin, and the swim senko were the hands down winners. I fish them a lot, so I'm sure that's influencing the results, and more often that not I have weeds or wood, and not much rock. In most cases I got better results and bigger fish by slowing down, and being anchored or drifting e.g. off the trolling motor. For 2020, I'm going to push harder on getting better at reaching for a jig in more situations besides pitching at laydowns and stumps. How about you? What worked, what didn't?

Any tips for presentations in 10' clarity water, around big boulders and rock piles? 7-12' depth. Fish were not willing to chase, but would bite if I put it in their face. Partly cloudy, 60 degrees at the surface, 54 at depth. I found if I could get the angle just right, and get the bait close to an overhang, something would come out and grab it. Fields of rocks were pretty big, so I was trying to cover water. Slow rolled swimbait with owner willow underspin worked ok, a few jig bites. Ned, shakeyhead, and dropshot didn't do great. Maybe should have spent more time with the jig or shakeyhead, or shortened the dropshot up to nearly a tokyo rig. Wacky and t-rig senko was a total blank. From the top of the rock to the overhang might be a 4'-6' drop. Caught more on longer casts, probably because of the clear water. Deadsticking reduced bites and size of fish (shrug). On the drive home I realized I had a fat ika in my pocket... Put it there so I wouldn't forget to fish it. I did Tips or ideas on how to fish this efficiently, as well as make sure I covered as many of the hiding spots as possible?

Not counting soft plastics, it would have to be Jackhammers lost to wood.

Tatula SV

I'm working to get my wife to use a baitcasting reel and I'd like to let her fish a Tatula SV side by side with a Shimano DC reel. She has pretty small hands - which of the DC's is the smallest? She reports the tatula feels big for her to palm.

https://www.amazon.com/Mustang-Survival-Corp-Hydrostatic-Fluorescent/dp/B002MXU80U Mustang HIT. Bought it for fishing alone, assuming I hit my head. Is a type II so more likely to roll me over on my back. I didn't even notice it on this summer... never got in the truck with it still on, but came close. If this one doesn't have a kill switch attachment, there's a slightly different model that does. If he's going to be going fast on the water there's a version that looks like A-Jay's above. Not as cool because of the closed back, but apparently better for impact at speed.

https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Lake_Fork_Weedless_Wacky_Hook__Weight_System_2pk/descpage-LFWWHWS.html FWIW I like how much wider this metal doodad is. Leaves the worm impervious to everything but the dreaded "dink head shake".

I have one of these Okuma Nomads in the 1-4oz version. They seem pretty well made.

I bought a bag of them for the motor oil/chart laminate color. They worked fine, caught fish. A little more plastic-y than a senko, but the fall looked ok. I'm not a fan of the hook slot as I'd rather skin-hook - a little easier to get through weedy stuff. If you are trying to save money you can make the actual senkos last a long time on owner CPS hooks if t-rigged, and using the lake fork tackle ring for wacky (just ignore the weighted hook it comes with). And a bottle of mend-it. LFT is a metal ring, so much better than o-rings. Point being a few bucks of upfront, and the senkos start lasting a long time. Or you could do all this stuff on the zooms/bps/etc and save even more.

How'd it go?

Thanks! Thanks Tom. This post was inspired by all of your posts about hair jigs, and not being able to find anything that was like what you described. I have a couple of the PBJ 1/4 OZ punishers that I added some black to. Good point on going direct to them. 3/8 and 5/8 cover/arky-ish head. Too many weeds around these parts for a football head. Purple, black, and brown on all the jigs. Not trokar hooks. Thanks!

I'd like to have some hair jigs made, anyone here take orders? If so please PM.

Package enroute.

Conjecture on my part but I think they are curious but not really feeding, at least on that presentation. But when their face is in it and it jiggles or twitches you get a reaction strike. I see it with senkos sometimes in clear water. I can see that fish staring at it intently. Lift and drop gets nothing. Twitch twich gets a bite. Always makes me wonder how many fish have been chasing my worm and never bit it.

On the big-jig-and-big-worm, two questions 1) mostly literally on the initial fall, or do you mean how fast it falls after the hop? 2) hop or drag? To the OP's question, one thing I learned here is that bigger bass don't seem to do little bass things, or hang in little bass places. Not 100%, but I've had pretty good outcomes on the 'best' cover, or moving when I'm catching smaller bass. @WRB calls them adult bass over 4 lbs, and more often that not I'm getting fish over 4 with different baits or different places, or both. Spending some time learning about bigger bass behavior changed how I fish completely. Here's an example: on a few acre pond I was on there was a single bush in the water across the whole pond. About 6' in diameter, 8' off the bank, 4' water, and a steep dropoff about 5' away. Good ambush point - check, visibility to anything crossing at the ledge or between the bush and the bank - check, easy access to safety - check. I threw a jig at that bush 26 times to get a hookup. There was no better place to be in that body of water, and if there was a big fish anywhere but sitting on the bottom, that's where it was going to be. Family thought I was nuts, there were lots of fish everywhere else... but I wanted this one.

I'll be thinking of you and your family. I hope everything goes well; y'all have hope, and prayers, and sometimes that's just what you need.

Don't want to hijack the thread but I've seen that combo talked about in a couple of lakes with known very large size bass populations. Anyone have any idea why that particular lure combo (big jig with a big worm) is interesting to the big girls?

Bought some 10 lb, liked it a lot, so I also got twelve and fourteen. No issues at all on memory, although I have been using line conditioner on it. I can't imagine that you got fake spools, the stuff doesn't cost enough to be worth faking. But I am curious if you got them both at the same place.

This worked for me too.