Harold H

Ive seen a lot of people say they like the Dinger better because its cheaper and catches fish just as good, for them. I personally dont like stick baits, played around with some senkos last year but just dont get the hype. I prefer a roboworm or something like that. As stated above, the slithering action on a weightless worm is difficult to pass up, and theres the rocking action back and forth as a bait falls, that can trigger strikes. But I guess the senko just has that pulsating action as it falls that drives them nuts. Im starting off with my classic Junebug 7" power worm this year, weightless, so I can play around with it on topwater to look like a snake or something slithering on the water

During the reign of Cleopatra in Egypt, there were severe penalties for removing earthworms from the soil, look it up. European crawlers came over with European settlers hundreds of years ago. The Alabama Jumpers are considered invasive, but im not convinced of the invasive talk. Apperently their castings are detrimental to forest floors, but havent found any real proof of this

Same, I need a rralistic bluegill presentation to fool these hawgs in one pond I fish. Ive hooked into one twice on live bluegill and live black salty, felt like hooking into a cinder block. Lost it both times unfortunately, but saw it both times, over 10 easy. And people will just dangle half dead bluegills in the water and sometimes catch them, but Im trying to trick them. But maybe sometimes live bait is the only way to coax the monsters into biting. Ive got some european nightcrawlers going in a bin, starting to lay cocoons so Im hoping to have a good supply of those as a backup, they get to a pretty good size if you feed them well

Get you some 4/0 Gamakatsu offset roundbend worm hooks and take one of those Rage Craws in the top left corner and put on it and throw weightless in shallow areas and either t rig or c rig it for deeper spots, I bet you'll catch something. Also those Berkley paddletails, slap a 1/4 jig head on one, you can get different hook sizes for various jighead weights, and itll look like a little fish swimming. Hard baits are fun and catch fish but I would stick with just a hook and a plastic if youre not experienced Edit: oh yes, if you accidentally gut hook a fish while fishing a t rig, theres a simple trick to get the hook out with needle nose pliers. Refer to the post on here How to remove a hook from a gut hooked bass

I do not, however I do boil the tails on my power worms, not a rolling boil but almost boiling, for 30 seconds or less. Makes the tail slither a lot better. Plastics will lose their sheen as you fish with them and will become more matte looking

Its interesting that Berkley has this labeled as "natural shad," doesnt look like a shad color to me, but I got it because of the darker silhouette I feel that, but this may apply more to larger bodies of water. Im fishing a 2 to 3 acre pond with 10+ lb bass in it, I know theyre their, lol

Well, looks like profile is way more important than color, thanks for all the replies, will help me to become a better bass angler I think purple can be a good color because they have a hard time seeing it thus masking the artificialness of the lure By seeing I mean distinguishing colors and shape

Ive read that bass have a hard time remembering a worm, and that theyre more likely to bite a worm after being caught on a lure. I caught the same bass within a week from one spot, once on a worm, next time on a rapala shallow shad rap. So I dont question the effectiveness of soft vs hard baits, though I do believe soft baits will often outfish hard baits. My pb though is on a rapala glass rap Ill add purple. PURPLE, shows up in a lot of natural forage. Purple/brown should be kept in hand imo

Most of the time is good enough for me, haha. Im not above getting skunked, unlike some people nowadays with ffs, but dont want it happening regularly, lol. So have a good array of profiles with basic fish catching colors. And wonder if instead of switching colors, you could flip a bait upside down if it still looks right, with the dark on bottom and light on top, to give them something theyre not used to seeing

Haha, i got you

So if profile is more important than color, what are the best colors to keep on hand? There are SOOOOO many colors for some lures, most likely designed to catch fisherman. One of the most prominent colors of available forage is brown/green, most times of the year. There are times of the year that crawdads are a reddish color, I could see where color would be important in this instance. I tend to lean towards natural colors, but then chartreuses and such come into play. Threadfin shad have chartreuse looking tails. Also European nightcrawlers, which im growing for bait if I cant get a bite on ANYTHING else, look like the original Creme worm So you think color AND profile are important together, makes sense

I haven't looked a whole lot into a bass's vision, but I know they'll come from 15 to 20 feet away to get something if they want it. Maybe their lateral line comes into play, which would have nothing to do with color. Green pumpkin is the most sold color, I think Zoom created "green pumpkin," yet that spoon has a ton of flash, whereas the gp doesnt

Hmmmmm, that spoon does fit the shad profile, lol. Never used a spoon

What's the take on color vs profile? If you're not getting bites on a lure, do you change colors or switch to a different bait altogether?

That seems to be the biggest problem people have is getting it to run true. Ive seen some say they fish it like a dying bluegill

What size do you prefer? They're practically giving away the 110's on tackle wearhouse

Bass caught in summer/warm water will not taste as good as cooler water bass, but that maybe all freshwater fish

Ive seen people mention the caffeine shads are good, and the zoom super fluke has so many good reviews, and good weight to it and its weedless so should slay

Those look interesting, not sure if they would fool the bass in this pond, it gets pounded. Then again might just be the ticket

2 lbs and under make good fillets, just batter and fry. I prefer crappie and bluegill

My starting lineup this year is junebug 7" power worms weightless, I figured out how to rig it so it goes nose down and the tail stick up for a few seconds and looks like its eating off the bottom, Rage craws, Zoom lizards 4, 6, and 8 inch, 4" power minnows and got some Power jerk shads to try, never used flukes but Ive seen so many good reviews on the super fluke that I had to try em. And Im trying to fish weightless soft plastics as much as possible this year. Maybe I dont need the gilly, but ive seen huge bass eat bluegills at one pond I fish. I have the Bucca baby bluegill so that might work if I give it a chance

Anyone tried the Gilly's with any success, and if so, what's your best rigging option and size. I'm looking for a weedless soft plastic bluegill presentation

A weightless t rigged Zoom lizard in a 4" or 6"

Whatever this kid is using, haha! https://youtube.com/shorts/jAGAMgzkscE?si=d3bEkkR9bUS0QXxH