HesterIsGod

You can rig it texas style, and thats good most of the time. But if you want to think outside the box and do something the bass probably havent seen, you can rig it weedless on a drop sot rig. use a heavy wait and this way you can shake it and jig it up and down in one spot. use a shorter leader too.

4 inch tube bait. Very versitile, pitch it to docks or heavy cover, swim for aggressive bass, crawl like a crawfish, you can even fish it as a topwater.

I dont have Satellite or cable and i dont get to see them but a couple times a year. So when i do get to see one i drool over it. When i stayed at a family members house a few weeks ago i saw a few. One of them was Fishing University with Charlie Ingram. It was the WORST show hands down ive ever seen. First of all 29.999999 of the 30 minutes was spent promoting this spinnerbait, they were fishing it on lake Champlain. At the beginning he said this new spinnerbait is going to impress us. All they caught were little dinks. There was one decent smallmouth at the end. At the very beginning of the show where he was holding a smallmouth with the spinnerbait in its mouth while he was talking that. I thought it was a joke because the fish was SOOO small. They also caught several small muskie or northern and they were too scared to touch them. They called them "smelly toothy crittas" (say that in a deep southern accent). They just took the pliers to the hook while the fish was still in the water.

I take a quick look and try to find any signs of amount of fishing "educated"(advanced lures/ techniques) fishing pressure. If there probably is a lot I will ask look for less obvious structure and get a map is one is available. If there doesnt appear to be much fishing pressure then i just fish the obvious stuff, like stumps, points, laydowns, etc...

This is going to sound really REALLY cliche but, Any time im out on the water and i can learn something new im happy. When i was really young i didnt really understand drag and why it was important, and i had it really tight. i hooked into the biggest bass of my life at that time and halfway back to the boat my line broke. I lost an awesome fish but i learned something that made me better so i can catch and land more next outing.

Bomber

yup

craw imitators should work fine in the prespawn, or any other season. Havent you ever used a jig in the prespawn or other cold water seasons? Its mainly a cold water bait. And what does a jig imitate? A crawfish. What does a craw imitator imitate? A crawfish. Plus, craw imitations and jigs usually are fished on or near the bottom, slowly. That slow presentation is perfect for the more sluggish early prespawners. so im not worried about fishing the craws in the prespawn.

You know what, THIS DESERVES SOME FIELD RESEARCH! It makes sense that a bass would see a crawdad with a pincer missing as an easy meal, and it also makes sense that it might be unnatural, so... Come ice out, im gonna fish a couple different brands of plastic craws, all prespawn, one with a pincer cut off and another with both pincers in tact. I'll get the results back to ya'll in April.

I dont really boycott one brand, but i boycott a few baits. zoom horny toads suck. Use almost any other brand and will catch more fish. Also, how come no one is sticking up for GULP? Smallmouth go crazy over it. The strike king 3X is awesome on carolina rigs or shakey heads, because they float and have great action. Just keep them in their original packaging in a shady place. O yeah, GO CUBS

Thanks for all the replies. I still am kinda confused but i think that im just gonna stick to using craws w/ smaller pincers in clear water and tougher conditions, and vice versa for the craws w/ big pincers. Im also gonna try to imitate the forage better, if i can see or find a craw where im fishing i will imitate the size of its pincers.

my friend caught a bluegill on a French Fry. Mcdonalds i think

Yeah, they make a big difference. They are not only useful for spotting fish when they are shallow and/or spawning, but they are also even more useful for spotting important underwater structure. Amber brown is a good all around color. You can pick up an inexpensive pair from Wal-Mart or any tackle store for 10-20 bucks, or you can go all out and get a really nice one, like an Oakley, for 100-200 bucks,

I bet that thing sinks like a rock. Nearly all storm swimbaits do. It may look cool but you wont think it cool when that treble hook is hanging up on 90 percent of the casts and the heavy weight of the lure is hanging up on the other 10 percent of the casts.

Just ordered some from BPS. 3.5 inchers, which i feel is the appropriate length for the smaller bass of Northern illinois and southern wisconsin as well as colder water of the prespawn (when I will start using them). One question, I plan to rig them on jighead or a 1/0 wide gap hook with a small split shot crimped on the shank of the hook. That will work right?

I am a total beginner when it comes to plastic craw fishing, definitally a big weakness that I need to work on. I have read where bass mainly prefer to eat crawfish with small pincers. So it seems most logical that plastic craws with small pincers would always work. Yet, there is a ton of craws out on the market with oversized craws that have a lot of action and that work great. So, when should i choose a craw with small pincers and when should i choose one with bib claws? Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

My favorite is any stand up jighead and a strike king 3X ribbontail or straight worm or any other 3X soft plastic. Since the worm floats it keeps moving long after you move the rig with your rod.

the water temp doesnt vary hardly at all. Water takes a long time to heat up or cool down. When it gets warm or cold, more than normal for the current time of year, then shallow bass are effected much more than deep ones. When it warms up the fish will probably move shallow and sun themselves. when it gets colder they will back off to deeper water.

The cool thing about tungsten is at first it is a powder material that they compact into weights. So now they can make things like the rubber tube weights made of rubber mixed with tungsten powder. they also now made worms and other soft plastics w/ tungsten powder in it, so the soft plastic is already weighted. So tungsten, i think, is revolutionizing soft plastics just like fluorocarbon line has been revolutionary.

I made a lot of dumb modifacations when i first started bass fishing when i was ten and decided to buy a bassmaster subscription. Since I was self taught i did not know much starting off. 1. i did not have many baits and wanted some of those "senkos" but could not go to the store to buy them. So, i cut the tail off of some 4 inch curl tail worms. Looked like a senko. oops. : 2. I also would sometimes pre rig tube baits or worms and put them back in their scent filled original bag. Well i eventually found out that hooks sitting in watery scent for weeks made them rust, badly. ;D 3. Another time i took my 10 favorite plastic worms and grubs and put them in a clear, square container with aluminium backing, for quick access. Left the container out on a sunny summer day and befor i knew it i had a crazy colored 10 inch square worm.

Couldnt agree more. Any brand or type of soft plastic will catch bass eventually. Its gotta be the way your fishing it. Since you catch fish on spinnerbaits and crankbaits im guessing that your fishing too fast. Look up articles on this sight. if all else fails, use a weightless senko, i havent met a person alive that couldnt catch a fish on that.

Try to think outside the box. use lures and/or techniques that hardly any one else is using. Try a swimbait for those biggies, I doubt many people on that New Jersey lake are doing that. Also, when i face heavily pressured bass that are mostly big, i use finesse tactics with bigger yet subtle baits. For example i'll use a drop shot and six pound line. For the bait ill use an 8 or 10 inch worm, which not many people do. They dont put big baits and finesse tactics/line together. Dont be scared to use light line for those bigger fish. Just play them out carefully. Big bass genious Bob Crupi almost always used 8 pound line. He landed the second biggest bass in the record books on 8 pound line, 22 pounds 1 ounce.

the color really shouldnt matter for that. the only time i worry about color up or down is when im trying to imitate a shad or bluegill. in that case i want lighter side down.

1. Yes, i fish them mostly weightless during the postspawn and summer on shade lines. 2. i dont use trailer hooks but i almost always put on a trailer. a nice grub gives the bait a bigger profile and many pros, like ken cook, believe a grub gives the bass something to grab, increasing hookups. 3.Yes baby brush hogs are a great bait. texas or carolina rigged or even on a drop shot. 4. Depends on rate of fall you want, how much bottom contact you want, how heavy the cover is if any, and much more.

Absolutely try them!!! I fish them here in Illinois and have very good success. I feel throwing a swimbait is a technique that not many fish see here in the midwest. You can buy any of the famous brands like Huddleston or Osprey, just downsize to 4 or 6 inches.