What do you look forward to doing more next year? For me it's Spinnerbaits. Thats what I threw 90% of the time when I started fishing as a kid. I know over the last 2 years I only threw one once for about 20 minutes. I wanna kind of go back to the start a bit. I bought a couple of these that turn your Spinnerbait into 

a mini A-Rig so that looks fun.

Drop shot.  I only used the rig once this year, and that was only for about 1/2 hour.

After eye balling @T-Billy 's last post

Gotta be the A-Rig 

I mean C'Mon Man !

A-Jay

 

For me its gonna be whacky rig. Seems working for me this season. I wanted to learn more about wacky (types of plastic and retrieve) Thats why I bought a wacky setup for me this season.

I'd like to get better at jerkbaiting, pretty high learning curve 

11 minutes ago, A-Jay said:

After eye balling @T-Billy 's last post

Gotta be the A-Rig 

I mean C'Mon Man !

A-Jay

 

Exactly what I was thinking!

Top water, be it a popper, walking bait, buzzbait or frog. 

This past year I moved alot, meaning mostly moving baits.

Never threw a Ned or a Texas rig.

 

I got a boat load of soft plastics and aim to slow down and get some of those wet.

 

My go to " slow down " technique in 2022 was drop-shot roboworms so that'll certainly be in the mix moving forward.

Good question by the way ?

4-4.5" finesse worms, both on a Slider Spider head and a split shot rig.

Preacher jig started to make sense and catch fish for me this summer, I wanna continue on that. I might try adding a flutter spoon/ large blade bait (4-5”) this year as a 1-2 punch. 

scott

Want to do more? Any of it !

Drop shot for me.  The last couple of summers have been a struggle.  I've tried the drop shot for short periods of time.  Next year this technique will get much more time.

18 minutes ago, Chilidog said:

Drop shot for me.  The last couple of summers have been a struggle.  I've tried the drop shot for short periods of time.  Next year this technique will get much more time.

I pretty much gave up using it. It’s like watching paint dry. If I were you I’d bring lots of beer along if it’s going to get more time.

Fishing my hair jigs w/ pork trailers?

Tom

1 hour ago, PressuredFishing said:

I'd like to get better at jerkbaiting, pretty high learning curve 

Thats all I've wanted to do the last couple years!?

1 hour ago, Bird said:

This past year I moved alot, meaning mostly moving baits.

Never threw a Ned or a Texas rig.

 

I got a boat load of soft plastics and aim to slow down and get some of those wet.

 

My go to " slow down " technique in 2022 was drop-shot roboworms so that'll certainly be in the mix moving forward.

Good question by the way ?

I have trouble slowing down myself. Always power fished. I did throw a Ned a couple times though and wanna keep playing with that as well. 

8"-10" soft swimbaits, and big glidebaits. Built some decent confidence with heavy(ish) 6" this year, but I have no instinct at all for the hardbaits, or when it is time to get out the bigger soft ones and grind. Or at least as important, when it -isn't- time. 

My current plan is to either establish a pattern then use that as a jumping off point, or fish in places that I know already hold bigger fish. But maybe I just need to grind.

I'm looking forward to doing more topwater fishing next season.  For some reason, I did very little this year and considering how much I love to work a Spook, I was surprised.  I normally break them out around the spawn and don't put them down until the lakes are closed.  I'll be doing just that next season.

Great thread.....I'd "like" every post in it.

 

This is what makes Bass fishing unique besides the magical fish themselves.    The toolbox is a blackhole, and inside the abyss there is always a lure that will catch more, or larger Bass than the one you currently have tied on ?

 

What do I need to desperately work on.......Jig N Pig for large fish.   

 

 

9 hours ago, A-Jay said:

After eye balling @T-Billy 's last post

Gotta be the A-Rig 

I mean C'Mon Man !

A-Jay

 

 

9 hours ago, Jar11591 said:

Exactly what I was thinking!

It's a cold water killer. I didn't post any pics since we didn't have any giants, but the wife and I caught a nice limit of 17-24 inch saugeye on it last Friday. What really excites me is, I'm just getting started with this bait. I never really gave it a fair chance until last spring.

 

Some things I've learned.

1. A long rod is a big help. The long handle provides leverage to lob the thing out there and the length helps with distance. I disagree with Tactical Bassin on this point. You want a powerful rod, but it should be fairly parabolic not a pool cue. They say a MH is good, I say H is the way to go. Think 3/8-1 1/2 oz rating minimum. That said, a big swimbait rod is not required. I like my Ark Tharp Guntersville flippin stick for throwing it, but I like my SLX 7'10" H MF even better. The SLX has a bit more power, and gets a little more distance. It just feels "right" to me. If you're gonna buy a rod for this bait, the SLX is a good one that won't break the bank.

2. Casting mechanics is HUGE when you'e lobbing this thing all day. Don't try to throw it all the way across the lake, you'll get nearly as much distance with a gentle lob as swinging for the fence, and it's MUCH easier on you. 

3. Retrieve: The best retrieve I've found with the exception of shallow water is to just kind of keep up with it so it sorta floats along with occasional hard cranks thrown in. THANKS A-Jay!!!  The bite usually comes right after a hard crank.

4. Reel: I like a 7 speed. Unless you're burning this thing, it's not a high resistance bait. I'd call it similar to a spinnerbait in that regard. Use whatever you got, no need for a special reel. 

5. Line: 40-50# braid is what I like. These things snag anything that gets within 10' of them. Braid allows me to straighten hooks and get my rig back and gives me hook setting power at distance. You're pulling a chandelier through the water. If a fish will attack that monstrosity nobody's gonna convince me they give a crap about seeing my line.

6. Rig: The Yumbrella in all it's variants is well built and durable. There are better out there, but this one does a fine job and the price is right. I use both the standard and the ultralite. Standard in muskie waters, ultralite when just bass and eyes are present. Three 1/8oz jig heads on the bottom and middle positions and dummy's on screwlocks on the top two. This setup works from 3'-15' or so very well. I'll jump up to 1/4oz below that. Three hooks is fine, so far I've had ONE fish hit a dummy bait.

7. BEWARE!!! THIS THING IS HIGHLY ADDICTIVE!!! I haven't picked up anything but the rig and my flippin stick for a month. No need, they're gett'n it done.

I would like to get better at topwaters.

I caught my first A-rig bass a couple weeks ago.   I'll fish it more this winter.  I still kinda laugh when I tie it one.  I mean, look at it.   

 

@AlabamaSpothunter catches big bass on bladed jigs all the time.   I'm determined to catch bass on them but haven't yet.  I won't fish something much if I'm catching bass on other lures.  

 

I keep 3 rods/reels on my deck rigged with different offerings.   I use all of them pretty much equally until I start catching bass on 1.   I have a hard time throwing something else after I've caught a few.  I may be limiting the size of my catch by not experimenting more.  

 

 

I wonder about the size of bass in the lake I fish most often.  I've caught a BUNCH of 3 and 4 pounders but only 10 above 5 pounds this year.   Hopefully there's a bunch of 3 and 4 pounders that will continue to grow.   

Lipping bass ?

I have two. 

 

Drop shot in the reeds. This worked really well for me one year and I have never gone back to it, not sure why.

 

Topwater, This has been awful for me. Last year saw bass busting fish on the surface so I threw on an LC gunfish and had a fish on the first cast. 30 minutes later working the cover with bass still busting the surface zero hits on the bait. I just need to throw them more to learn the whens and the whys.

 

Bonus lure is a bladed jig, I have the same number of Musky on one as bass, one. I have no clue why these suck for me.

 

It is so hard to do the above though when the spinnerbait bite is on.

Jerkbait for one.  I never threw them and never tried, but they catch fish.  So this year I'm going to make more of an effort on them.

 

A-rig.  I started fishing one last year a bit but it was a hashed together rig to try it out.  Now that I have a feel for fishing it, I'm going to actually fish it harder in the spring in a few places.

BFS soft plastic. I've had a great time fishing BFS hard baits but have been avoiding the micro soft plastics. It's just something that requires more patience.