Takemetothebank

This is a question I see asked and get asked more than anything else included is a quick guide on how I select colors and the reasons why. I would love to hear your input as to why you choose colors for plastics. Maybe if I’m lucky we’ll all learn a little bit and maybe be able to hook into a couple more fish. in general I carry 3 types of colors translucence’s sulliuttes and transitions with these I generally consider water clarity to be my #2 consideration witch is mind blowing to most as they solely pick of water clarity however light is much more important imo. While in muddy water bass have semi restricted sight at night or in low light conditions they have extremely limited sight. My third criteria is depth as in most lakes if you fishing on the bottom in deeper water this fish will have limited visibility in everything but clear water. selection process 4-8 + feet of visibility natural colors like green pumpkin for cloudy or deeper water or watermelon red flake for sunny days if I’m fishing in the shade however I almost always throw pumpkin over watermelon red something I learned fly fishing for trout is that on cloudy days flash or fleck that reflects sun doesn’t look as realistic I do like translucent blues and grey for super super clear water like an electric shad trick worm 2-6 ft of visibility. Transition colors such as junebug, purple oranges, like Texas craw I also throw these in higher visibility if I’m fishing deeper water, these colors also produce well in clear water during low light conditions such as early morning and dusk 0-3 or 4 ft silhouette colors that you cannot see through black, black and blue, white things that leave a shadow underneath the bait these are also my go to colors at night. for swim jig or chatterbait trailers I follow a similar pattern with a translucent shad color in clear water and a white in dirty water im curious to hear how u guys pick colors and if you think my system is flawed or maybe you don’t have a system and this may get you a few more bites who knows another tip to not have to have 4-6 bags of each type of plastic is to find you tos in clear water and go rod on dirty water and carry them in the colors for that situation for example full size brush hogs are a hammer in dirty water for big fish so I only carry black and blue junebug and maybe a green pumpkin then I carry my clear water colors in the midsize

These were some of my favorites when I just started I caught my first bass on a craw on a chigger they work great and have a great scent

Being a worm connoisseur I have used and tried many different brand. 1 zoom brush hog 2 rage bug 3 squirrel tail worm 4 bull whip worm 5 rage craw 6 rage swimmer 7 super fluke 8 rage menace 9 ole monster 10 sweet beaver Texas rig worms brush hog rage bug ole monster whip worm trailers Sweet beaver menace rage bug rage craw rage swimmer floating worm style squirel tail whip worm ole monster super fluke shakeyhead whip worm squirrel tail these are the only plastics I really keep on me and they cover almost every situation in almost all of them I keep a watermelon red green pumpkin junebug and a black or black and blue the only exceptions are the menace swimmer and flukes I like to keep white and in the flukes I only keep white and green pump it doesent have to be these brands but I believe keeping it simple finding your favorite 10 plastics in a 2 clear water 1 transition and 1 dirty water colors are key and I like my clear colors to have one with flake for sunny conditions and one without flake for cloudy conditions

sounds like my soft plastic addiction

Super cool fishing history glad you were able to share

autocorrect makes fishing lingo a little difficult but I assume u guys get the gist

If you guys have any questions or if I missed anything lmk I saw a 8 pg jerkbait thread and have some crazy days with them so I figured I would give my input

While most people think of jerkbaits as a strictly cold water bait fished with a slow cadence this is not unlocking the true potential of this bait. Hard and soft jerkbaits are something I always have rigged everytime I go fishing. let’s start with the differences and application of hard vs soft jerkbaits listed below is how where and why I fish each and the subcategories that hard jerkbaits are best divided into. Imo soft jerkbaits Soft jerk-baits excell in weeds and heavy coves they can be absolutely deadly under docks lay down and in super thick cover as you can texpose or in some baits even cover the hook point completely this is due to most hard jerks having 3 sets of trebles making them a nightmare in weeds and cover. The exception to this is deeper vegetation and shallow hard jerkbaits that allow you to fish 1-4 feet over the submerged vegetation but I almost always like a soft jerk-bait on those situations. Moving your soft bait quickly over the thick stuff and letting it shiny down into holes in the grass is absolutely deadly as well as skipping it under docks and cover and fishing them slow in the summertime. All in all soft jerkbaits are best utilized wherever you don’t want to lose your 15-25$ lure the cadences for these baits are not as important but the fall of shimmy when you kill it is these are almost never moved with the reel instead by snapping the slack in your line back and forth like a walk the dog style bait. they can also be a deadly follow up bait and can catch fish in similar situations to a wacky senko but offer a different shape and movement that can be deadly when everyone else has a wacky wig. hard jerkbaits are best broken up into 2 categories twitch baits and rip baits rip baits and example is the Kvd jerkbait if you look at the body and it’s wide and thick the bait takes more energy from your rod to move these baits are best when you are tying to drawl a fish attention through a flash most of the time they will have a roll when they twitch and put off a crazy flash into the water these baits are killer on sunny days year round but need to be worked very aggressively to be effective i generally go to a 1-2-3 pause 1-2 and they speed of the snaps and pauses will vary depending on water temp twitch baits are arguably the best all around jerkbait my favorites are the rapalla shadow rap berkley Stunna witch can work as a rip or a twitch bait and the notorious megabass vision 110 comming in at whopping 25$ per lure but well worth the investment. The lure I carry and throw 90% of the time is the Stunna because it is so versatile and I love the slow sink action. In the winter this is Uber important as you want your bait to shimmy down to the fish. In cold water i favour the vision as it has a less aggressive action. Spring- fall you will be surprised how hard fish will hit a jerkbait especially on either side of the spawn or around the shad spawn. I use the same 1-2-3 pause 1-2 cadence but I only every fish a slack line unlike the rip baits that don’t do much fished on slack the twitch bait catagory is also deadly for casting at fish chasing shad and is more effective at catching feeding fish than almost any other lure. Whenever I see gosh bust I instantly stop and grab a jerk-bait rod. Try hard jerkbait a above any submerged cover fish will swim up 5-10 feet in clear water to smoke these things I promise. My rule of thumb is I want my bait to be fished about 5 feet over the structure. Rod reel and line for a rod I like a 6’10 medium fast action I swap between mono and fluorocarbon I fish mono when the water temps get over 55 fluro under 55 the reason is that with a fast action rod when are actively feeding they will hammer you bait and it becomes less important for your bait to sink down to them like during winter. and with a fast action rod the stretch in the mono helps to keep those tiny trebles pinned. modifications you want your bait to sink head down in cold water and tail down in warm water this is a presence for me but you can upsize the back or front hooks to make this happen it is especially helpful if you would like to fish mono year round

See I find it to be the other way around I do however feel like people fish chatters and swimjigs way to fast especially chatterbaits at night or in muddy deep water structure they are deadly when you throw them out and drag them until you feel the blade engage and then stop or stroking them off the bottom the problem is most chatterbaits have to be fished too fast for the blade to engage I like the thunder crickets cross eyes or the jack hammers while they are expensive they will vibrate at much lower speeds. With swim jigs most people just cast the out and reel them back in the key is speed or depth changes they are deadly yo-yod or speeding up your retrieve every 3rd turn of the handle or stopping it randomly. I fish both of them on a 6:6:1 ratio reel on a 7 or 8 I tend to fish them to fast next time you are on deep structure try a 1/4 oz swim jig with a fluke trailer in my expirence watching shad they don’t swim with a big kicking tail like a keitech they glide side to side. Also another key is to hold the rod out so the butt is not touching your body it will make it much easier to detect strikes because most of the time fish will eat the bait and keep swimming at you and you will never feel them

What type of rod are you using ? If you have a stiffer rod mono can help makeup a little bit of the stiffer action for example i gosh jerkbaits on a 6’9 medium fast and I use mono so I have a little more leeway when a fish jumps with those tiny trebles

I’ll try out your tips and see if I have any better luck with them when I throw them i normally put a split tail trailer on them and will kind of hop my rod tip to make the skirt shift it may just be where I’m fishing or that I like to dissect a certain type of structure once I figure out where the fish are on rather than just cover water

My lake doesent have any vegatation mainly only rocks and a few lay downs most of our fish are caught off docks points or offshore structure and I always find myself reaching for a jerkbait or lipless prespawn and will fish the jerkbait all through the year it is absolutely deadly if you see a fish chasing shad you can get them to hit a jerk-bait about 90% of the time. If I had to pick one hardbait to fish for the rest of my life it would be a jerkbait by far it’s a blast when you twitch into a 6-7 lb largemouth or a 12 -15 lb striper I catch most of my fish on a chatterbait super slow just barely dragging it until your blade engages then stopping it and reeling the slack it is absolutely deadly on points

So it depends on the junebug color but it is a transition between your natural colors green pump watermelon red and black or white the fleck doesent really matter basically your going off of how see through the bait is when you hold it up to light the only colors I really carry in my confidence baits are watermelon red green pumpkin junebug or some kind of transition color and black or black and blue here’s a road map 5+ft visibility plus watermelon or electric shad (e shad or translucent colors with no fleck shine in super super Clearwater) ~4-10 ft visibility green pumpkin or pumpkinseed or some type of brown very little silhouette 2-7ft visibility junebug, big Texan oranges chartruse puts off somewhat of a silhouette but is still semi natural < 4ft visibility black and whatever fleck white something that you can’t see through when held up to the sun this makes your lure out off a silhouette and makes it easier for the bass to find it For fleck it depends on how much sun you have on cloudy days if you look at a red flecked bait it looks odd but on a sunny day it adds a lifelike reflection also something to think about I don’t however think color of the fleck matters and please don’t be the guy who has green pumpkin green fleck, orange fleck , red fleck, magic, purple, purple and green, all in the same color the fleck only adds a lifelike appeal in the sun the exact fleck doesent matter also when your in deep water you have to think about how much light penetration the fish have in water over 15 feet you may want to swap to darker colors depending on conditions also noted that this is just my selection process and that you can catch fish on black and blue or junebug in any water color to fully awnser your question for me June bug is a transition color between green pumpkin and black i throw it in water that has around 3-5 ft visibility up top I added the times that I think it works best in my lakes i almost always have green pumpkin for normal conditions of the water gets a little clearer I throw watermelon if it’s a little darker I throw junebug if it just rained and it’s muddy af I throw black and blue I also really like junebug for water over 15 ft however this can change day to day and fish to fish thats why you see some overlapping visibilities up top

I know people can go out and kill it on a spinnerbait but despite countless hours throwing them i can never seem to consistently catch fish on them while I may get a random fish every once and awhile I just feel much more confident in other options as in swim jigs chatterbaits and underspin or regular swim baits. I’m not sure if it’s just the lakes I fish but like a good boy I pull out a spinnerbait everytime the water gets a little dirty but it always seems to come up short I have even spent a good amount of time slow rolling big colorados at night with little success burning willows above shallow rock nothing. What times of the year and what conditions do you guys find most successful for throwing spinnerbaits obviously a spinnerbait or chatterbait is for dirty water as opposed to a swim jig but even in dirty water a underspin or chatterbait just produces more fish for me. When do you guys throw spinnerbaits and when do you have confidence that they will produce more than the underspin and chatterbait

Hi I’ve finally decided on a 744 champ hp full handle but the extremes aren’t that much more expensive lol how much more of a difference is there between the 2 I’ve heard amazing things of both does anyone own both and can shed some light on the differences

I i was just wondering if anyone has a rod a full grip that feels bulky or odd while there flipping with it for example I bought a 762 for shakeyheads and I wish I would have gone a bit shorter as the extra 3-6 inches make the rod a little noodly if someone asked me about rod length for a 2 power shakeyhead rod that would be my advice but I think I’m going to go full grip Thank you I’m going with the full

Dobyns offers the same exact rod in both variations the only thing I’m concerned about is how comfortable it will be while pitching with a full grip

I have built a couple fly rods but never any conventional rods where do you get your blanks it would be something to look into also saves a crapload of money I have a sweet 6 at fly rod that’s all black silver and carbon built and was 250$ in materials but buying something comparable would be atleast a 500$ rod

Both are great rods I have multiple Dobyns in lower price ranges for moving baits and love them but I’ve never really used full grip rods for bass I have for musky and it helps throwing the massive lures but for pitching a jig around I’m not sure witch I would prefer to be clear it’s the same rod same black same everything the only difference is the handle

It may not be the smoothest or furthest casting my lews speed spool lfs cast further but feels cheap I like the inception because it feels well made and while i don’t intentionally damage my gear I do use and and am kind of rough on it and i have been verry impressed it has held up much better than a old curado and that is saying something for a 120$ reel I’ve had it for 5 seasons with no issues knock on wood and I use it quite often for walking down to my dock and taking a couple casts with a spinner or chatterbait or swim jig atleast 3-5 days a week

Hi guys I have finally decided on a Dobyns 744 jog special as a new jog and worm rod my 733 that I’ve been using for spinnerbaits and chatterbaits as well as t rigs is a tad underpowered for anything over 1/2 oz. However they offer a split and full grip option. What are your guys opinions on the 2 while the rod will be used for mainly 3/8 oz casting jigs 1/4-3/8 oz Texas rigs and maybe some 1/2-3/4 oz football jigs what would you guys go with split or full handle and why what are the pros and cons of each. Thanks for the help hope I hear from you guys soon so I can get ordering

Hi guy for any of you budget anglers out there if your looking for a budget tweak that performs moderately well but is durable as heck the 13 fishing inception may be for you. It’s not the lightest reel I own or the smoothest but there is something that has to Be said about it still performing how it came out of the box 5 years later I also own a lews speed spool witch does cast slightly further than the inception but in every other way the inception blows the speed spool out of the water smoothness drag how well the reel engages power really anything I can think of. So if your in the market for a budget reel check out the 13 fishing inception you won’t be disappointed

It is pretty random for me in my lake a big rain can raise the lake 4-5 feet but I have caught some monsters right after a. Big storm

I love ny smallmouth fishing the Niagara river is killer I have family that lives in Buffalo and the Niagara is where I caught my first musky and smallmouth larger than 1 lb

This is exactly my point and while yes there are baits that may be more effective on certain days even with a brush hog you can stroke it and they will hit it similar to a spinnerbaits this is an easy way for someone who has never bass fished large public lakes before go out and have a good chance at some nice fish my success is due to countless hours on the water mapping the bottom and finding what the fish are biting o also commonly throw a jerkbait and shakeyhead and paddle tail swimbait i don’t however believe bank fisherman should power fish and should tend to try and focus on slower presentations like shakeyheads and slow dragged Texas rigs general in the summer in the heat of the day fish are not actively chasing moving baits