DitchPanda

I wanna try the Murphy's but haven't seen it around me. How does it compare to Guinness ?

What are you guys digging these days? What are some all time favorites? Right now I've been enjoying some new castle Brown ales and golden road mango carts. Mango carts will be a solid summer beer to go along with the shiner ruby redbirds and boulevard lemon ginger radlers. A few favorites of mine are shiner bock,fat tire and Guinness tap. If I'm feeling more basic and just want a plain American beer I go Budweiser or coors banquet.

I use the previous generation Berkley lightning shock 7ft medhvy modfast for bladed jigs, spinnerbaits and spooks

I'm a bank fishing guy myself and find some lures are definitely pay to play so to speak. I fish a lot of wood and have found a few approaches to help me in the lost lure department. If I'm throwing a chatterbait but come up to a nice stretch of bank with lots of wood I'll switch to a swim jig or spinner bait as they come thru it much better. Also ill often flip a jig in wood but if it's hanging up to much or the tree pile is extra dense I'll switch to something like a weightless senko. Another thing I like to do is fish a frog over and around a lay down and just try to muscle em out. The key is don't let them get turned and dive back into the mess...but using a heavy rod with heavy braid and the drag locked down gets most fish coming your way in the hookset. All that said I still lose stuff...May go 5 trips without issue then lose 3 jigs in 2 hours. But in this 1 fish 2 fish green fish bluefish game we play that's part of the deal. Especially with no boat.

I tried keeping track this year then I got around 60 a few weeks back and kinda forgot. I had a day earlier this week I caught probably 20 in 4hrs and id guess my total for the year is around 100 give or take 5 fish. This is a high number for me considering I usually catch 250 in a full open water season and I had ice until the first part of march. Good start for only two months.My most productive lures are 1. Swim jig 2.spinner bait and 3.finesse flipping jig. Biggest fish was around 7lbs on a chrome blue back Cordell spot. Btw 650 so far this year and it's only May? Dang bro

I've never experienced this with zoom myself and I use a lot of there products. If I had to settle on one soft bait company it may be them. They make my favorite worm, craw and chatterbait trailer. Plus they have super flukes and a senko knockoff to fill that niche and they also have a lot of cool productive baits I.E brush hogs, centipedes and various big worms. Also mentioned above is price point-I believe they are the best bang for buck too. Last but not least they have my favorite version on sungill and green pumpkin colors I've seen. So I too would be pretty tolerable of some bent baits myself.

A green pumpkin or bluegill bladed jig with a black blade and a sungill fluke on the back looks good to me...and the bass around my neck of the woods!

In the past week I've caught a bass with a shad in its throat and a bluegill in another ones throat. I've caught bass on a bluegill swim jig and a shad spinnerbait at an almost equal clip this spring...would give the edge to the swim jig but it's a slight edge and I've thrown it more. Could also be the action of the jig over the spinner as well. One color pattern overlooked is crappie...bass chew am and they kinda pass for shad too. I agree with this especially the last few lines. This is why things like a jig or a Ned rig work when other things fail...bass love crawfish. Most of my lockjaw days have been saved and a large number of my biggest bass have all been caught in a jig. Of the last 15 bass over 5lbs I've caught I'd guess at least half were on a jig including one around 8 a few years back.

I've never really caught anything on a swimbait. I know that's blasphemy on here but I just havent. Throw one on the back of a Swim jig and sure but not by itself. Unless you consider a grub a swimbait...doesn't really look like anything...caught thousands on that.

Anybody throw shad/baitfish colored worms? What are some brands and specific colors you like? All I've thrown are what id consider more typical worm colors like green,black,Brown and purples

Whose running straight braid? Whose using braid to leader? Whose using something else entirely? I've been using copolymer and mono but I'm gonna try braid soon I think

I'm here in Iowa and our water is also in the 50s. I'm about as big a spinner bait guy as you can be but I will say a swim jig with a menace has been better for me this spring. Although I have thrown it a lot more. Nevermind...throw a spinnerbait..or a squarebill...or maybe a swim jig? For my second rod I've been using a siebert sniper jig with a zoom ultravibe speed craw and they are smoking that too. Last but not least I've been getting a few fish on a weightless weedless BPS stick o.

If consider something like a senko in a dirty water color like junebug or black blue laminate. Finesse enough for the pressure but still big enough and dark enough for them to find it in nasty water.

For me the soft plastic season is just getting started. That said the 3 things I've used with the most success have all been on the back of a jig. Menace grub, zoom ultravibe speed craw and zoom super chunk jr.

I use 2500 size daiwas and 30 size pfluegers.

I'm a big fan of Abu rods and baitcasting reels. That said there are much better options for spinning reels in my opinion. I use several Pfluegers, a few cheap shimanos and a daiwa and like them all much better than my abus.

One of my favorite fishing books to read is not bass related: life and times in catfish country. It's a collection of Doug stange catfish articles from almost 30 years of writing for In Fisherman. There is some good info on there but for the most part I just like his storytelling style and find it a very entertaining read.

I've used these for Texas rigs and flipping jigs but was curious who out there uses them on a swim jig? I know lots of guys are throwing rage craws on a swim jig and these are similar

I have used the razor shadz and while they have done ok for me I'm not super impressed. I've never tried a zako but have used pit bosses, paddletails, split tail spinner bait trailers,grubs and a few others..my favorite to date is just a plain 4inch fluke. Cheap,fairly durable and enough color options to keep me happy

Bandit 100 in baby bass Bomber Square A in red apple craw

Nice work man that's great..but I do take issue with your pictures. How you gonna cheat and fish a local derby with Greg Hackney? Sure you changed his name to Jon but you aint fooling me! Btw I just bought one of those exact scales and grippers based on things I saw here...like it a lot so far.

I use a st Croix mojo 7ft1 medhvy fast for that size jigs and I really like it. Has a nice tip with plenty of backbone. I only use braid for frogs and I don't use fluoro...I use 15lb izorline xxx copolymer and have done well with it.

I'll agree with the havoc lineup. In particular the pit boss and the small bottom hopper..I don't have a problem with powerbait but I preferred the havoc version. I used to fish black emerald bottom hopper on a finesse Carolina rig in summer and it was a huge confidence thing for me. Could get bit on that when I couldn't even catch an on wacky, senko, shaky or ned.

Sure...I'll allow it! I guess since I'm a bank angler shallow water is also my wheelhouse. Only time I fish deeper than 5ft is thru ice chasing panfish. One thing that always amazes people is how shallow bass will get in cold water. I was out several weeks back when the water was I'd guess high 40s and a gentleman drove up to me and said hey man the waters still to cold so don't waste your time from shore. I responded huh that's weird I've been out a few hours and I've caught 6 already. Then I told him I caught a 7lber the week prior. He just said oh...and slowly drove away?

I think I will go with the daiwa aird x 7ft hvy...I've just heard to many good things about them the past few years not to try one. Thank you for all the suggestions.