Cdn Angler

Part of the issue as you get older is the things that aren't fishing. You have more obligations, need better sleep quality. Etc.

You caught a 4, a 3, and tons of dinks in one of your first times fishing it? That's a good day! They work and you can fish them steady, pulse them, burn them snd break the surface, slow roll. Just a matter of the day/fish attitude.

They make quality products that work as intended and look great, but I think you can usually do fine with much cheaper alternatives. I have not fished the Karashi though, so I can't speak to that bait. It does seem kind of unique, whereas there are millions of crankbaits, poppers, walking baits, swimbaits etc. I use the Pop Max and it's great, but I don't think I catch that many more fish on it compared to a $10 popper. The 110 I haven't had any better success than the Jackall Rerange, though that isn't exactly cheap at $20. The Duel Hardcore jerkbait at $12 I have had near as much success on, same for the Rapala Shad Rap. The biggest "pro" in favour of Megabass is that the quality control is impeccable and every bait works as intended. A suspending jerkbait suspends, crankbaits run right, the paint doesn't wear off quickly, treble hooks don't get caught on your line, a popper will walk fairly well etc. They aren't magic baits that catch more fish by default, but you don't have to worry about them "not working as intended." Whereas most bait manufacturers pump out baits ranging from amazing to sub-par and you have to wade through them to see which ones are which.

TW order. Mostly re-stocking. I like the Castaic Jerky Js a lot but have never used the giant 7 inch size. They seem to be clearing the castaic baits out at TW, hopefully it doesn't mean they are no longer being manufactuted at all. The Picasso rumbler was a pleasant surprise last year. The thump is unreal. I mostly got it for night/low light fishing, but it has worked during the day also.

My too big spro rat is actually the 50 and I have been using the 40. Bass up here usually top out at 5 lbs.

Whopper Plopper. Love fishing this thing and it slaughtered. It was unbelievable how many big fish it caught. However, in the last few years it has caught less and less fish. They became ubiquitous with the Choppo and now are rarely my first choice topwater. Paddletails are still good, but fish seem to have got used to them too, at least compared to 5+ years ago.

I have a 40 size spro rat that was honestly way bigger than I thought it'd be. It was like $40 maybe? I figure I'll use it for muskie since the snaller rat is perfect for bass up here. Then I have a Hog Farmer a-rig. With premium hooks the entire thing was probably $45 or so? I had a cheaper yum version but I had to run one dummy since too many hooks for here. It also did not have any blades, which I wanted. I never caught a single fish on the yum even though I thought it looked great in the water. And have caught 5ish fish in limited use of the hog farmer.

Kalins 3 inch Scrub has been my go to. Basically a double tailed grub with little paddle tails. It is about as erratic as a bait can get, especially on the fall or when ripping.

Mepps inline spinners. They are probably the most old-school and also the plain oldest. I bought a bunch of them used and I have no idea how old they are. Still catch fish.

The Castaic Jerky Js are great baits, I bought two packs a couple years ago and only have a few baits left. I caught at least 75 or so bass from those two packs, which means they are durable and are fish catchers. I'm trying to locate more of them here in Canada but they are hard to find.

I have left a lifejacket and paddle at the ramp. A few years ago my vehicle was in the shop for awhile, so I rented a truck for my kayak. Left my house at 4AM and tied it on poorly. Drove on an urban two lane road, went through a drive through, then went to do a u turn. Right on the road is my kayak and all my tackle. Had no clue it fell off. Thanfully at 4AM nobody ran into it or saw what an idiot I am. And nothing got damaged as I was driving slow. I always use at least three ropes now just in case one fails.

Dang, that's a ton of big fish. Wish we had that kind of size up here, it's a different ball game knowing you might hook into something like that. For all the hype new lures get, it seems like most people are slaying on tried and true baits.

How did the Karashi go? I saw one today in person for the first time and shockef how tiny it is relative to the price. And light line + pike.

I am in Ontario so same here for the most part. It was shoulder surgery so even when I started out I only had a couple hours worth of casts in my arm. I was hoping for a nice November, but it's been the opposite! How do you rig the magnum speed worm? Is it the "u tail" or the flatter one? I've never seen the magnum speed worm in stores around here.

I'd been hoping for another fishable day, but it's been sub-zero, windy and dark. And the water is now frozen in many places, so that's all she wrote! It was an odd year for me as I had shoulder surgery and couldn't really fish until mid July. My most common baits are in the pic, from left to right, top down. See list below. When I did get out a lot of my usual patterns were not producing in the usual places and there were many days where only one bait was the juice. Usually big topwaters, senkos, swimbaits, jerkbaits and ned rigs are at the top of my list. And they barely registered. I seemed to replace senkos with flukes and caught way more fish than normal on a bladed jig/hybrid hunter. Couple of new entries: magnum fluke caught a heap, which shocked me. And the Rapala twitching mullet. I've never heard of anyone fishing the mullet, but when jerked about as fast as possible it was the most erratic bait I've ever fished and triggered a lot of violent bites, though it was a serious workout. Best fish were caught on the bladed jig/hybrid hunter. The hybrid hunter is now the only crankbait I have high confidence in around grass, which is most of my area. Old faithfuls: Pop Max, Krazy Flapper 3.6 and 3Xd. The white 3XD specifically. It is a pike magnet. The little rover walking bait catches me a few nice smallmouth every year. In Order: Flukes Bladed Jig and Beast Coast Blade Runner Hybrid hunter jr. Magnum fluke - Bubblegum Mainly Mini Max with Kalins Scrub R2S Rover 98 Pop Max Keitech Crazy Flapper 3.6 3XD - white Keitech on underspin 3.5 Yamatunuki Twitching Mullet Scum Frog (I think) Evergreen Flat Side Spro Rat 30 Hog Farmer A-Rig

I keep this all upstairs since I am lazy. If I don't remember the EXACT hook I at least remember its general features. For a few specific baits I have kept part of the packaging in my tackle box so when I run out I know what to replace it with.

Last year (Fall) I encountered fish busting bait like crazy and could not get bit on any usual suspects (senko, topwaters, swimbaits etc.). Was driving me nuts. I had a 4 bladed onpoint lures spinnerbait and I was reeling it as fast as humanly possible, badically blowing out on the surface. And I caught fish aftef fish after fish. Since then I have managed to repeat this, but seems like a fall/fish eating specialty. A tiring way to fish because I have to reel as fast as humanly possible.

I don't doubt they work, but they do not work well around around here compared to most other topwaters. Which is too bad since cover water so quickly. The metallic "clangy" sound is I think what is to blame. I notice the same thing with the Jackall Pompadour. I can get bites, but not as many. Similar sound. Same for Mischief Minnow. I think the sound is too abrasive for clear water much of the time. By contrast walking baits, wake baits of all sizes, frogs, ploppers: they all get bit.

I formerly had only a paddle kayak, but my dad got an actual boat and I got a pedal kayak. Over the last number of years I got away from throwing subsurface moving baits often, aside from swimbaits in late June/early July, or in the fall, or at night. So i was trying to throw more of these at all times since I can now cover more water. The main baits I have thrown have been bladed jigs, hybrid hunter jr, a 3xd, and a rapala twitchin mullet. So far this has mostly worked, but right now and from about Aug 14th onward, this has died right down. The fish are either too deep or buried in grass/aren't willing to chase. One nice side effect is that I have caught a few super nice walleye (and many less nice pike). I target bass, but if I am around 5 lb+ walleye or 35+ inch pike/muskie I like to have a chance of catching them.

I would say the standard is generally higher, but so are the prices. And a lot of the baits don't necessarily work great around here or in all situations. I do think they are less likely to produce something that is straight up defective or junk, unlike some of the mass market USA bait manufacturers like Lunkerhunt etc. There is also nothing magical about a bait because it is made in Japan. The fish don't know and I have had as many bites on plastics made by Zoom, Berkley, Reaction Innovations, Strike King etc.

I have had a lot of luck fishing the Yamamoto D shad in bubblegum for smallmouth and largemouth. Last week I had my best day in ages, almost entirely on a magnum bubblegum fluke, fishing it around lily pads/weeds. This is always in fairly clear water. It is nice that the bass eat it because it's probably the most visible colour in the water so it it is easy to see your bait. Interesting someone here said they see it as a form of red, because red around here is terrible for me. I assumed they saw it as somehow close to white?

Kalins Scrub 3 inch as a mini max trailer. I also think it would be good on a ned head. It has crazy action. Netbait big Boppa. Standard swimming Worm, but cheap and gets bites. Beast coast slow roll swimbait. It is a small to medium sized swimbait, but works well fished slow or fast and is durable. For me though it is the best perch colour i have found in that size of swimbait, which is why i like it.

I wouldn't say bass are strictly in a binary active/inactive mode. There are far more shades than that. There are not always some bass in a lake actively feeding either. I think of it more as the mood/personality of the fish on the day. Today i fished and in many areas I knew I was around bass, but they did not touch a senko, craw, 3.8 swimbait or a big walking bait. It had been insanely hot here and there is an abundance of bait everywhere. In my opinion the bass were not only not active, but not really looking to eat period. They were not even set up around typical ambush spots. I probably saw 200+ bluegill in many of the areas that had bass. Also tons of minnows/fry. Bass were sometimes just slowly cruising near the bait. So yeah, they were "inactive" but it does not then follow that they will munch on something slowed down and "finessy." My conclusion was basically to irritate them into biting or to create strictly reaction strikes. That ended up being a popper that i just left on top of them. They came and nipped it basically and I caught them. It felt more like a territorial thing as they never came and crushed the popper. And would not touch any topwater fished fast. Strategy 2 was eventually fishing a bladed jig about as fast as I could right in their grill as erraticaly as possible. This got a bunch of bites too. I think if I had used a ned rig I would have near blanked. Likewise fishing a slow subsurface moving bait. Which to me is the normal active/inactive kind of binary.

I fish mostly natural clear lakes with lots of grass. I have the most confidence in the two toned senkos, one tone being green the other either white or like a greeny-charstreuse. My theory is that it helps them stand out a bit in the grass. I haven't had as much luck on the senkos with Chartreuse dipped tails.

I wear the oldest crudiest regular clothing I own, with the exception of one "fishing hoodie" I wear when it's extremely hot out.