Hello All,

 

I will be fishing smaller lake this weekend in WI where we had succuess this summer with soft plastics on sunny hot days sometimes right in the middle of the day...

 

My question now is, will the soft plastic techniques continue to work as it will be 61 degrees, slight over cast, september and somewhat cold?

 

We will be fishing alot of texas rigged berkley power worms pit bosses, senkos(possibly wacky rigged) and thanks to you guys I will be giving Shakey Head Finesse fishing a first go around. I am beginnder on soft plastics so not sure when they work the best or continute to work. Or should we go to shallow running squarebill cranks...lipless cranks, rat-l-traps and Red Eye Shads, Rapalas?

 

Thanks for the advice!

Fish will tell you what they want.

If a plastic isn't getting bit, they may want to chase something. If they won't chase, try finesse. If they're not hitting senkos, lipless cranks, or shakey heads, go play golf.

Fish will tell you what they want.

If a plastic isn't getting bit, they may want to chase something. If they won't chase, try finesse. If they're not hitting senkos, lipless cranks, or shakey heads, go play golf.

Thanks for the advice...I hope we dont get skunked.

You should be using a search bait to find fish first then slow it down with plastics/jigs or whatever else. Good search baits would be hollowbody swimbaits, spinnerbait, swim jig, squarebill.  Once you figure out where they're located, you can start pitching plastics in that area to see if they're stacked up. Cloudy is good...so that is in your favor.

the fish up on northern WI will be on the fall feed. find the forage they are eating. it's getting to that time of year that most presentations will work as the fish are not picky. they just want to eat before ice up. topwater should be amazing especially if it's that cool of water and cloudy. 

Soft plastics will work year round. If it were me, I'd be throwing a weightless zoom fluke, hard jerkbait, shallow crank, lipless crank.

If a cold front just came in I would definitely recommend using a search, or reaction bait, like a lipless crankbait. Pay attention to what the bass are feeding on, when you get a couple to hit your search bait, slow down and try to match the hatch with a dropshot or shakeyhead rig. Good luck!

Oh yea, dont forget the spinnerbait!

spinner or lipless, then slow down.................................

On overcast cloudy days I pump up the chartreuse colors. I try the smaller sized inline spinners like the Joe's Fly 1/4oz bass size in fire tiger apache and help tiger. These also have a Colorado blade for more thump. Now if it's in the middle of being overcast to cloudy days I would throw the mepps #3 Anglia in silver or gold blade with a brown or gray bucktail. Next I would try the spinnerbaits. Don't forget the YUM Shad scent. I've had a lot if success with these lures on overcast cloudy days and rainy days its all about the thump.

Thanks for all the advice; I think we will start with lipless cranks, I recently got some Strike King Red Eye Shads I want to try out anyhow, sounds like they are pretty popular.

 

I also picked up some shakey head rig, VMC shakey head 3/16 jigs; Berkley Havoc Bottom Hopper 6.25" and then some Berkley Havoc Craw Fattys. Hope this technique works! I will let you know

Thanks for all the advice; I think we will start with lipless cranks, I recently got some Strike King Red Eye Shads I want to try out anyhow, sounds like they are pretty popular.

 

I also picked up some shakey head rig, VMC shakey head 3/16 jigs; Berkley Havoc Bottom Hopper 6.25" and then some Berkley Havoc Craw Fattys. Hope this technique works! I will let you know

Additional question; I accidentally picked up the Craw Fattys; I wanted Pit Bosses; will 4/0 EWG hooks be fine when texas rigging these? I also got some 3/16 oz bullet weights