Ogandrews

The elongated one your talking about is called the rattlin rap. It’s made to be a straight retrieve bait were the rippin rap is made to be ripped. I’ve had a huge amount of success with the rattlin fishing it around emerging grass. Very similar to the cotton cordel spot which is another great straight retrieve bait. The rattlin rap comes in a 3/4 oz that has a bigger profile but still runs pretty shallow for its weight. Killer early season pike and musky bait as well as bass. I like that it has a much more elongated profile than most lipless as it gives a different profile and matches the shape of perch better which is a really common bait fish around here. Give it a try for shallow application, it’s only like 6 bucks which is nice too.

Thanks for the input, wish I could go out it to use. It was in the 50’s - 60’s the last 2 days but looks like we’re back to the 30’s the next week or two. Really hate living in Minnesota 6 out of the 12 months of the year. The other 6 are the best of anywhere in the us IMO but god does winter sucks when it starts end of October and goes until may some years.

The Christmas trees tied together and tied bricks I dragged out on the ice one night with my buddy’s sled. Thought I would remember where I put them in the 100 acre reservoir I fish all the time but still haven’t with my graph. Seriously though I’d look for springs because those would hold pike In the summer. I’d look for anything that isn’t a silt bottom, this res I’m talking about was farm land until the late 90’s. SE mn is a huge farming area so we have really bad silting in our rivers and reservoirs, makes the reservoirs have a pretty short lifespan if they aren’t dredged out. Any transition between silt and anything else would hold fish I would assume.

Had some truly incredible days throwing the rippin rap in rivers for walleye. Never on a straight retrieve mostly small hops off the bottom with pauses. Both in half and 7/8. Had success on a lot of colors, just depends on water color. Never had a huge amount of success with it for bass, just feels like there’s a lot better options when it comes to working a lipless. If I want to bottom hop a bait I’m a lot more likely to throw a blade bait or a jigging rap, pretty much same thing for walleye too. The jigging rap can be absolutely lights out for vertical jigging on fish you have marked on a graph, not many baits out there that have the action and nobody is throwing it for bass especially in open water.

Bait monkey, or I should say reel monkey, hit me hard today. Was watching a couple musky videos and the guys were using tranx HGs with the power handle and it pushed me over the edge. All the tranx I have right now are the low gear ones so now I have a tranx 400 hg and a st croix premier 9 ft xh that’s rated for up to 16 oz lures on the way along with some 80 lbs maxcuatro and a handful of new musky baits. Can’t wait to throw big rubber and suicks on it, won’t use it for any bass fishing really. This is replacing an okuma 8’6” xxh with a Calcutta b, selling the rod keeping the reel. Gotta love it when sitting on the couch turns into a 600 purchase

I use the 6/0 1/4 oz beast hooks for the 5.8 if I’m not fishing super slow and there’s weeds, a 3/8- 1/2oz Matt Allen swimbait head if I’m around rocks or if I want something lighter I have these weedless 6/0 1/8th underspins where you can remove the blade but I very rarely find I need to go that light as the 5.8 has enough lift from the tail to keep it up with the 1/4. For the 6.8 I throw them on the 8/0 or 10/0 owner beast majority of the time but I have had success fishing for deep pike around reefs with the 3/4 oz Matt Allen swimbait head and just bite a little bit of the head of the bait off. Ive had success fishing both on the owner beast flashy swimmer as well, especially when throwing the for musky, but use them plain the majority of the time.

If only we had reasonable fishing seasons in Minnesota, Michigan is looking better and better lately

Hey I have been thinking about trying to get into some channels seeing as I wont be able to legally fish for bass pike or walleye for the next month. I have a small river that pretty much runs through my back yard that has put out some monster (30+ lbs, in a reservoir of this river a guy caught and released a 42lbser about 10 years ago). Anyone have any tips for fishing them in early spring? I would assume the water is low to mid 40’s right now. I got into some really nice ones this winter while walleye fishing in the stretch downstream from the lake, completely stacked in the 30ft hole under the dam. I would assume some fish would be moving up shallower but I’m no cat fisherman, just want to do something different. Thanks, I’ll put a pic of one I got on a blade bait while eye fishing.

Forgot to say that he took a deuce on my gf within 15 mins of us having him. Once he was home he’s been great, he is a new puppy so he kept us up all night but that’s to be expected

If you want a brighter option sun gill could work too. It’s what I throw 95% of the time up here, but I’m also trying to imitate perch which are a little brighter than golden shiners but they are similar

Awesome fish man. That’s awesome that it was out of a pond, we have a couple drainage ponds and old mine pits around here that surprisingly have walleyes in them from when the creeks flood or midnight stocking.

I’ve always thought their very similar. Your out there for that one bite and sometimes it takes days or weeks even to get one. I’ve always been interested in true trophy hunting because of how much I like musky fishing, cool thing about muskies though is they get over 50lbs and close to 60” and have teeth that can cut someone’s hand off. Makes it interesting

God that’s a great name for a color

Hahahaha I’ll pass thanks for the offer though

My girlfriend and I just picked up a 8 week old husky, little boy we named dexter. Gives me another thing. to look forward to when I come home from work or have to stay home because of all this virus stuff. We had a 4 year old husky die last fall due to him getting an obstruction, died in my girlfriend’s arms. I know it won’t replace the other one but I know this dogs going to be great and make both of us happy.

4” Senko, rage menace, 2.5 inch power tube, and a strike king dream shot

Got a new pb brow trout a couple weeks ago at 24”. This was at a local pond about 3 blocks from my house. There was about 20 ft of it that didn’t have ice in it and this guy hit a small x rap about 10ft from shore. Got to break in my new g loomis e6x 7’1” m spinning rod with a nasci, what an awesome setup. Talked to a dnr officer right after that and he told me they only stocked them 12-15” so this guy was in there for awhile. Hell of a fight

Most of the time I use a #1 owner mosquito light, almost always in the roof of the mouth and doesn’t come out as long as your using a light enough rod. If I want a heavier wire hook I’ve had good luck also with a vmc sureset dropshot hook, also a plus is I can find those at any tackle shop in case I run out of owners which are harder to find around here

Gold flash minnow, copper field, and pro staff special are a couple to look out for also

I wouldn’t say it’s just motion. When they want to feed they will eat pretty much anything they see, doesn’t matter if it’s a little 3 inch crank or a 20 oz musky lure a lot of the time. The hard part about musky fishing is being in the right place at the right time when that feeding window opens up, sometimes it’s 5 mins out of the day. Speed can sometimes turn negative fish on into feeding, part of why you see so many musky guys burning baits as fast as they possibly can. There’s a lot to triggering a musky, hard to put it all into one reply

#1- suspending jerkbait, can fish them all season long in my smallmouth fisheries and early and late for largemouth #2- 3/8th oz casting jig- casting jigs aren’t perfect for every situation but they can be used successfully in almost every situation #3- 5 inch senko- wacky, t rig, neko, chicken rig, always catches fish #4-heavy wire swim jig with a keitech on it- can throw it anywhere and everywhere. #5- small tube- gets bites when nothing else does, specifically for smallmouth #6- frog- imo the most universal topwater, can throw it anywhere just like the swim jig and can be walked like a spook

I would take $30 of that and buy some 65lbs Power pro maxcuatro and then use the big game as a leader but that’s just my way of fishing. i would for sure go with the s waver 168, I like light trout or the perch color because yellow perch is usually what I’m immitating, but go with what your forage is. i would get 2-3 colors of 5.8-6.8 keitechs. Amazing way to get used to throwing a bigger bait and still get a good number of bites. Get owner beast 6/0 for the 5.8 and 8/0 6.8 id also get a megabass magdraft. If your usually wanting a weed less bait get the freestyle And rig it on one of the owner beast hooks If you are planning on doing the whole creeping bottom super slow thing than I would get either an all American trash fish or a 4d savage gear trout. if you are planning on fishing deeper than I’d get an osprey tournament talon in either 6 or 7 inch if you want a wake bait than the floating 8 inch bbz isn’t a bad option, although personally I’d probably get a bigger rat before that. if I had to spend $100 for my fishery though I’d probably spend it all in 5.8-7.8 keitechs and magdraft freestyles, I just have the most confidence in those for how I fish.

I don’t think bass are particularly smart but instead are aggressive at some times and finicky at others. I would say in general they are smarter than musky though, which are considered to be one of the if not the hardest freshwater fish in the America to catch. Musky will follow the most unrealistic bait doing a circle next to the boat while the fisherman has the tip of their rod in the water and then eat after the 10th time around. I think that this behavior has a lot to do with them being the apex predator in their waters and really not having anything that can hurt them once they are at adult size besides people.

I’m from southern Minnesota and fish 6-8 weekends a year way north 30 mins from the border on lake vermilion and I have had some good success with big baits. Biggest bass I’ve ever caught was on a 9” suick while Muskie fishing. Even caught a 4lbs largemouth on a pounder bulldawg which is about 16oz and like 18”. Almost all the big bass I’ve caught on big baits have been when I’m throwing big swimbaits for pike or musky. Lures I’ve had by far my best success with are a 5.8-6.8 keitech and a 6” mag draft freestyle. I would for sure add some of the big keitechs to your arsenal. I have had some success targeting bass with an s waver 168 but didn’t seem to be a bigger average than throwing a jig. It’s funny that you live in Canada and I live in the way southern part of Minnesota but we’re on the same parallel when it comes to how far north we are. When I’m fishing on lake vermilion(where my pb largemouth is from) it would be the equivalent to you fishing a lake about 300 miles north of lake simcoe. St Clair is 150 miles south from where I live in way south mn. Gives you an appreciation for how far north northern Minnesota actually is, and how long it takes to grow big bass up there. Hope you have some success with the big baits, I’m super jealous of the fisheries you have around there. I’d love to live within driving distance of the st Laurence or Ottawa River and the monsters that live in it. I still have world record class musky here in Minnesota but those two fisheries are absolutely incredible.

I fish “finesse” flipping jigs like your talking about more than any other jig combined. Most of the time in 1/4 oz. Almost 100% of the time I’m using a rage menace. If I want it to be more subtle I will go with the baby, if it’s warmer water I’ll go with the regular size with a couple rings bit off. I honestly haven’t tried the baby bug but I have used the regular one on full sized jigs and had amazing success so I know the smaller size would work. The thing I really like about the menace is that it keeps the small profile of a finesse jig with its narrower body. It has great kick on the way down even with really light weights, I fish it all the time on a 1/10th oz mushroom head and it still kicks perfectly. I know people think that it’s an expensive bait but you 100% get what you pay for. There’s no bait I have as much confidence in that’s in the craw/creature category. Only other bait I have used a lot for this scenario is a smallie beaver with a few rings bit off, works great when you want a more subtle presentation.