I love Carolina rig and drop shot…….

 

I don’t give up on much, I’ve thrown spinnerbaits for a lifetime with little success 

 

Alabama rig is one thing I hope I never throw again, just feels ridiculous 

Hollow body Frogs and chatterbaits have one more season to prove themselves, caught a few but nothing consistent. 

I spent a lot of money on an a-rig/swim bait rig and haven’t gotten in to either. Just don’t enjoy fishing that way. 

Honorable mention is deep diving cranks and frogs. 

I haven’t been at it long enough to give up on much. Still trying new things.

 

Haven’t cared for Storm shads—the ones with the weight and mold inside the molded plastic. I prefer a 3.3” paddletail on a 2/0 1/8oz jighead.

 

Swim jig has been one of my least productive presentations. I do better swimming an Arkie or skipping jig, or just using a Texas-rigged Zoom UV Speed craw (or YUM spine craw on a jig head if I’m not going to touch bottom).

 

I like the drop shot, but so far have only caught fish with it from the bank. Haven’t used it enough from a boat.

2 hours ago, A-Jay said:

Intuitive Angler' using a FC leader,

than me ever throwing another Glide bait.

#donedeal

Had me cracking up.......  

I've been thinking I should try drop shotting and a Carolina rig. Reading this thread, I no longer have the desire to try either one. 

 

 

Odd looking through the posts.  I'm like, "I like that, I like that, I like that and that and that!" LOL

 

Dropshotting is a staple for me as is splitshotting.  Perfect for tough conditions.

 

Chatterbait - you know, when I talk to pros about this and tell them I use a paddle bait as a trailer, they look at me like I'm high.  But boy does it ever work!  Maybe that's because nobody else uses paddletails as a trailer?

 

But, back on topic - Glidebaits and giant swimbaits for me.  Tried them for a year and wore my arms out without getting any bites.  I don't know, but casting 2-6oz baits feels more like surf fishing to me.

Ned rig & drop shot. Just can’t fish  those  two.

If I am fishing tournaments, then nothing is off limits as you got to do what you gotta do. If not I woul never throw another carolina rig ever again. 

 

Allen

I've given up on the Carolina rig. Granted, I've never even started it, but...

 

6 hours ago, A-Jay said:

 

Then you can take solace in knowing that I will make sure they get what's coming to them.

 

The baits or the smallies? 

Probably top water.  I have a couple frogs and a couple poppers but, that’s about it.  It’s usually the last thing on the list I’ll try.  If I even remember to try them.  

4 hours ago, Glenn said:

.

 

Chatterbait - you know, when I talk to pros about this and tell them I use a paddle bait as a trailer, they look at me like I'm high.  But boy does it ever work!  Maybe that's because nobody else uses paddletails as a trailer?

 

Paddle tails or twister tails are about the only thing I’m use for a chatter bait trailer.  I know a lot of people use craws and are successful but, that never made sense to me on a chatter bait.  Why would a craw be zooming and vibrating across the top 1/4 of the water column? 

So much loathing for two of the three baits I am most productive with; the Carolina rig and the dropshot.

 

On the other hand, three of my most unproductive techniques are probably favorites of many here; a jig, a chatterbait, and a ned rig. I don't loathe them. I'm just not skilled or lucky with them. If I had to pick a bait I would be OK with if I never threw one again, it would probably be the chatterbait, but I can't say that I don't have any desire to ever use one again. But if I never used one again, I wouldn't miss it. 

Done with deep cranking in my primary lake. Grass grows out to 17' and it's just not worth the aggravation. 

Gimmicky top water baits. I can catch them all day long with poppers, walkers, frogs and buzzbaits, but I’ve seen too many topwater bites shut down completely as soon as I bust out the Whopper Plopper and the like to not retire those useless noisemakers for good. 

Some may find this strange, but I gave up fishing jigs all long time ago. Florida bass much prefer soft plastics to hard jigs.   I have tried everything I can think of to fish a jig in Florida and it never works for me.  Throw a plastic worm, lizard or creature bait in the same place and bass eat them up.   I have thought about this for a long time.  I think it's a water temperature thing.  I once fished a tournament on the Kissimmee Chain when the air temperature was in the 40s.  I couldn't buy a bite.  I tied on a black and blue jig and started throwing it around some rocks.  I caught a three pounder on the jig.  That was the last and only fish I caught that way.   Of course, if you never throw something you will never catch a fish on it. ?

Standing at the end of the boat looking down at a screen all day holding a spinning rod with 6# line waiting to get all excited when a 1# fish comes swimming by!

 

 

 

Mike

1 hour ago, Jar11591 said:

Gimmicky top water baits. I can catch them all day long with poppers, walkers, frogs and buzzbaits, but I’ve seen too many topwater bites shut down completely as soon as I bust out the Whopper Plopper and the like to not retire those useless noisemakers for good. 

I just realized why I never catch any fish on the whopper plopper.  Its because you fished it before I did and they wised up after seeing you use it!

 

#sloppyseconds

7 minutes ago, gimruis said:

I just realized why I never catch any fish on the whopper plopper.  Its because you fished it before I did and they wised up after seeing you use it!

 

#sloppyseconds

Someone must have beat me to it as well, because I’ve never had so much as a boil on the WP.

5 minutes ago, Jar11591 said:

Someone must have beat me to it as well, because I’ve never had so much as a boil on the WP.

I am pretty sure the original guilty party was Chris Lane at Toledo Bend.

43 minutes ago, Jar11591 said:

Someone must have beat me to it as well, because I’ve never had so much as a boil on the WP.

 

On the other hand, several times this year, I'd catch a bass on my Whopper Plopper on the first cast. If not the first cast, then within the first three to five casts. It doesn't take long. Of course, I'm casting at four or five in the morning, in the dark or near dark, i.e. the perfect noisy surface lure time. 

10 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

 

On the other hand, several times this year, I'd catch a bass on my Whopper Plopper on the first cast. If not the first cast, then within the first three to five casts. It doesn't take long. Of course, I'm casting at four or five in the morning, in the dark or near dark, i.e. the perfect noisy surface lure time. 

The one lure that you predict will catch you the most bass this year is the one that I swore off ? the variance in experiences with different lures and presentations among bass fisherpeople is one of the great things about our sport. There are no two bass fishers alike! The weird part is I love a noisy topwater lure at times, like a big jointed jitterbug. For a while my PB was a fish I caught around midnight on a jitterbug. There is something about the whopper plopper (or about me), that doesn’t let me replicate the success I have with pretty much any other topwater presentation. 

11 hours ago, Glenn said:

Chatterbait - you know, when I talk to pros about this and tell them I use a paddle bait as a trailer, they look at me like I'm high.  But boy does it ever work!  Maybe that's because nobody else uses paddletails as a trailer?

 

 

Hi Glenn,

     Do you mean like paddle tail like Keitech Swing impact or paddle tail like (a paddle) paddle tail grub or reaper? Flat tail type is what I am trying to get at.

FM

I don't know that I've actually retired any as I like playing with different ways to catch fish. If it's a technique I've heard a lot about and I'm not catching fish with it I usually attribute it to user error. 

One that's on the back burner and has been for probably 5+ years is the flutter spoon. I'm sure it catches fish so it would be user error on my part. Maybe I should bust that one out this year and give it another go. 

I've gone 7 years in a row without throwing a senko/stickbait traditionally.  This year will probably be 8.  Stick bait chunks on jigs and neds is my current threshold.

 

I've also almost completely abandoned the drop shot too.  It usually comes out when trying to get kids on fish without live bait. 

 

scott

7 minutes ago, Jar11591 said:

The one lure that you predict will catch you the most bass this year is the one that I swore off ? the variance in experiences with different lures and presentations among bass fisherpeople is one of the great things about our sport. There are no two bass fishers alike! The weird part is I love a noisy topwater lure at times, like a big jointed jitterbug. For a while my PB was a fish I caught around midnight on a jitterbug. There is something about the whopper plopper (or about me), that doesn’t let me replicate the success I have with pretty much any other topwater presentation. 

 

I think my Whopper Plopper-success has to do with my canoe. My canoe is long (15' 6"), light (32 pounds), and has high sides. It glides a long ways and I don't carry an anchor. So, unless it's dead calm, which it rarely is, I'm always moving. I do not pepper an area with casts. It's one and done. I am catching the most active fish. 

 

I watch YouTube videos when guys will cast and cast and CAST at a laydown. I'll cast twice, once on each side and then I'm off. 

 

I'm also super quiet with my canoe and try to land the Whopper Plopper as lightly on the water as possible, which isn't easy, as it's a big, heavy lure. The only time I stop moving is when it lands. I let it bob back to the surface before I retrieve it, so that it's churning the water with the first turn of my reel's handle.

 

I also cast to open water. A lot. And I've caught a lot of bass with near no weeds nor water. And I also throw the Whopper Plopper where few others would cast, i.e. in a slight opening in a great weed patch. I might only have five feet of open water retrieve, but that's all I need to catch a fish.

 

I'm also casting to Whopper Plopper-virgin bass. The water I fish rarely has another fisher on it. And I'm also fishing in low light conditions, so they get a lousy look at the thing chugging over their heads. I literally launch in the dark, which bass have taught me is the very best time to catch them on a Whopper Plopper. Last August, I caught a 19-incher and a 17-incher on the same cast. Here (You can see the Loon-colored Whopper Plopper in the first photo, followed by the 19-incher out of the net. The second photo is lousy because my camera couldn't get a bead on the bass in the dark.):