Z man jerk shad, small wire hook to float the jerk shad. Let the fish deside how they want it.

22 hours ago, jonnyblazex said:

Rapala skitter pop.  The bigger sized one in frog color.  I caught a nice one yesterday, and the water temp was 50 degrees.  That's 3 weeks in a row now that that popper has been catching fish!

Caught my PB on this exact bait. ! 

On 10/17/2016 at 11:15 PM, weso said:

Just fyi I purchased some jawbone frogs at Dicks sporting goods and they were garbage. They were sinking like crazy  and i had to constantly squeeze water out of them. The legs which were rubber strings were falling off. Any tips on some good frogs.I'm  new to this type of fishing but loving it. 

I like the Snagproof Bobby's perfect frog and the Scum Frog (I believe the trophy one), especially for the cost. The Scum Frogs are all reasonably priced.

 

Both of them cast well and neither take on water. I have a Booyah (also very reasonably priced) popper and a Jackal popper...they don't on take water either. They cast ok for being poppers. I haven't actually caught anything on them though, so I can't really comment on what happens after a strike.

 

Everybody has their preferences but I haven't heard anybody have any negative comments yet about these 4. 

 

Of the hard baits, they aren't my favorites but I've had the most luck, all sound, on the Heddon prop baits. Either that, frogs or running the Pit Boss (yes, a soft plastic) weightless and retrieving it as a topwater. 

 

Because I'm kinda addicted to topwater fishing, I'd love for the other, big hard baits to get me enough fish to comment...but so far, not much luck. 

On ‎10‎/‎16‎/‎2016 at 1:39 AM, Bluebasser86 said:

My favorite topwater really doesn't change all year. I like to fish a 3/8oz black on black Cavitron when the fish will eat it, which is most of the time they're eating topwater. The last few weeks though, they've been biting the WP 90 and ignoring a buzzbait. I also have done pretty well with a discontinued Excaliber Zell Pop (the smaller size). It's one of those magic baits that just has something about it that really catches fish when they ignore everything else. I'm almost afraid to fish it because I don't want to lose it but it's too good to leave in the box.

Though not quite the same as the Zell Pop  , the Booyah Boss Pop in the smaller size is still quite a good copy . The Ghost Shiner color sort of looks like everything which a few tour guys have gravitated to . *As far as the Cavitron - is that not THE nicest buzzbait or what ? ... I love those things !

I throw a small Deps Buzz Jet on a gLoomis GLX 802. A slow crawl when the water is flat and pretty fast to cause a commotion when the water has a ripple.

1 hour ago, ChrisD46 said:

Though not quite the same as the Zell Pop  , the Booyah Boss Pop in the smaller size is still quite a good copy . The Ghost Shiner color sort of looks like everything which a few tour guys have gravitated to . *As far as the Cavitron - is that not THE nicest buzzbait or what ? ... I love those things !

I like the Boss Pop, but I have one specific Zell Pops that is one of those baits that just has "it". That thing outfishes even the other Zell Pops I have in the exact same color. I don't know if it sounds different or maybe because the paint is ate off it, the thing is just a killer. I don't know how many sets of hooks it's gone through, but it's a bunch. Hasn't had eyes for a few years now.