Have you ever been in a jungle trying to find a mosquito? It is hard huh, but if you know where to look it can be fun whacking them. This can apply to many lakes and rivers around the country but if you want to figure out the O you might want to listen a little. The bottom of many lakes around the country because vegetation control or they are just old tend to develop a soft mud or peat moss bottom. Plastic worms work less, spinner baits, crank baits, larger fish tend to hang out deeper in cover to avoid fishermen. Also lures and techniques have evolved to a point that a good lure hitting muck isn't going to cut it anymore. You can shake that drop shot as much as you want but because your weight hit muck nothing made the fish turn and look. Your bait didn't make enough noise or displace enough water or send a signal out there that you where even there. If you like top water you can use whatever you like but it better be cedar... double prop is plan B. Why? It sits different in the water more important it sits lower in the water than a balsa lure or plastic for that matter. Some guys fished the edge of grass or over it with a smithwick devils horse the reason was it worked. Most of the locals used lures like a Jerkin Sam, Johnny Rattler, (awesome redfish bait also) if you where walking schoolers it was a smithwick toothpick chrome notice I didn't say rebel pop R, spook those lures that's the pro's and the fishing world trying to catch up. I am not saying they are bad lures but at the O there are better lures that the pro's and locals use and still use. Some lures work no matter what but your dealing with pressured fish at the O. That quick action rolling skipping walking action drives them nuts. Old school locals fish spinner baits with huge willow leaf blades for two reasons. First, you want to make it look like a shiner second is that large blade will overpower your weight and make the skirt shake and come alive... bend the upper part of the arm down a little so that the bait lays like a shiner would as it is running. This flares the skirt so it don't look like or run like crap. It is a different fish at the O because if it isn't alive or act like it your just another form of danger. Other lake bass in other states are a lot dumber and you can get away with stuff. That was why some companies made lures that have the title Okeechobee this and that because they work on (Florida Bass). Other parts of the country a large Indiana blade works for shad. Speed is not your friend with an large blade spinner bait but clanking the blades together is. Your bait and vertical cover MUST make contact or where you think a bass might be sharp jerk the rod to smack the blades together. Your trying to change the rhythm of the blades and draw attention to signal diner is served. With anything soft plastic you got to have rattles and racket if your trying to hit bottom. You can use whatever you want but that hard tungsten weight hitting a soft muck bottom don't make squat for noise to draw attention....weights with rattles in them and baits or Carolina rig do work well also remember that bead behind your weight. (if you snug the weight next to your bait what is going to make noise to draw fish to your bait?) Later years gatortail and paddletail where the norm when flipping or a fat butt tube. In some cases the big bulky paddle took the place of the swimming technique of a crème worm. Mr megabucks and Roland made a killing fishing a gator tail worm incase you didn't know. Jim Bitter was scoring with a rogue jerkbait and rattletrap....I know what your thinking..but KVD..Big O is different locals used a cedar rogue and weighted it when needed. Partly because it is a better material than plastic you can alter it and if you shaped the nose right it had moved a great distance in any direction. It was the original slug O. So unless you hit them on the head and make them react most just move away from danger or never know your there. Some guys for years troll large mister twister sassy shads. (Green black back) This was well before the push that they have now. (remember zone fishing not bottom bouncing?) This was back 30 years or better. Guys now are just slow to the party. If you are going to use a straight tail worm old school guys use a creme  worm in either black and blue or natural. What you need to understand is that OLD SCHOOL guys don't fish them like you do now...not in soft bottom lakes. If you remember when that worm came out there wasn't a twist tail or curl tail or gator tail worms. There was just his and if you want to make the lure act alive you FISHED it like a banjo minnow. You know like Tom Mann said "I wish I invented it" could it be that locals in Florida where doing the same action since the invention of the worm?  If the water had some color to it you fished it working your wrist more erratically as you pulled the worm which gave off more pressure waves. His favorite color was motor oil btw he invented it and adding scent to lures. Today we use dip it dye to give your lure the same UV light reflection that the chartreuse in motor oil gives you. So now every lure can have that great color and scent. BTW motor oil was his #1 color hands down. Fishing is what it is today because people invented products because they didn't have the money to buy the new fangled thing overpriced from other countries. Also understand that it is the copy that dilute why they where invented in the first place. I am not saying by no means that other baits will work in other situations but when it comes to the Big O or Tenn tuffy, or other lures with names or places attached THERE is a reason and many times you better be fishing it if the soft bottom shallow water applies. Hard lake bottom deflect off the bottom which adds pressure waves or objects which deflect your bait which trigger bites. If your fishing zones use a countdown the lure be it swim baits or vibrating baits or crank the DOWN TO (DT) baits to that depth. Many are taking one style bait and applying it to every style of fishing or lake conditions. Some lakes and fish are different and the Big O is different. The flat thin crankbait lip style that rapala makes is for mainly tripping over cover and hydrilla but if you position your boat correctly where the front of the lip lays flat it is the best swim bait for striking vertical cover. You have two baits in one and it is one of the baits Rick Clunn would kill fish on in standing timber BTW it was a wood bait.  You have a hard time doing it with a plastic bait because it takes longer to make flat which is the position where it is most weedless. Also you loose vibration and have a hard time feeling the strike with plastic. If you make it out of cedar for example you can weight it to suspend and hover in the strike zone.

 

Welcome to the world of oz.. omega of lures

 

sincerely,

Christopher Dana Sink 

(Son of DT Sink III)

good read!

Ok! I think!! Uh what did I just read

Mostly the differences between a natural lake populated with FLMB and the heartland of southern bass fishing where traditional NLMB dominate bass tournaments. The only time big O is a topic is the pre spawn-spawn peroid then it becomes a side bar during the balance of the year, just like western bass fisheries that have FLMB populations.

FLMB in our western deep structured reservoirs go deep after the spawn, in Florida they spread out, no deep water to hide in! FLMzb Tend to prefer outside deep structure breaks,the NLMB preferring close to shore cover breaks in lake they both live and eventually cross hybridized into 1 species; F*.

Tom

Part of the deal is ease of use which is why lures come and go. I remember when skipping a tube under a dock was a great way to catch fish developed in the Ozarks. Bass fishermen learned the how this was done and did well with it some even won a tournament or two. At the time I was working at a tackle shop and we had the flying lure on the peg. I know on here that topic comes out from time to time. It wasn't until that product was pushed on tv that guys would come in asking for it. For me it wasn't my lure of choice but I can understand where the guy was coming from..point being not everyone is good at all things and it takes a teacher and practice to bridge that gap. You can take the long road or short some lures are easier to use and some take that flick of the wrist. It is the lures and different styles or techniques that make fishing fun and rewarding otherwise people would loose interest and just skip rocks. So please enjoy the fellowship of fishing teach the young and old and protect the resource and keep only what you need and turn loose the rest for the next guy.

Ok! I think!! Uh what did I just read

 

Me too, I am confused.

 

Chris,

 

How about the rim ditch and how you can replicate more northern type patterns especially in the rim canal along the NE side? There is a HUGE population of bass that go untouched or are pressured very little in the rim canal and communities off the rim canal around the J&S area north.

Sorry buddy but if your referring to Okeechobee theres a lot of misconception in your post.

 

First of all there is no fixed rule of bass fishing anywhere, second of all while motor oil is an excellent color it is by far not the best color in Florida swamps like Okee and Kiss.

 

What soft bottom lake are you referring to, stick your rod tip into the water on Big O too hard and youll break your tip.

 

With all due respect there is too much of an "absolute" vibe going on there. 

 

I cant speak for lake of the Ozarks but as far as Okeechobee is concerned iv had fish chase baits 20 yards like a torpedo.

Paragraphs bro.

Paragraphs bro.

 

Exactly.  I have tried to read it three times and can't get through it.  I quit.