Put me down in the 'some sort of jig' camp.  I'll get some on soft plastics and cranks but I'll get a lot more on pitching/football/finesse/shaky head/casting/swim/bladed jigs.

 

My best producer during the cold months is a jig and chunk or beaver and then when it gets warmer I like stuff with more action like a Z Craw or Rage Menace or a pit boss.

 

I use spinnerbaits and bladed jigs when it's windy or cloudy or they're chasing bait.

 

I use swim jigs when it's calmer/they want a horizontal presentation and around grass.

 

I use pitching/brush jigs 90% of the time and I'm usually making short pitches or longer casts to shallow or deep wood/brush/vegetation/rock/shade or any other structure or cover bass relate to either from the boat or bank.  

 

I use football jigs dragging slow around rock.

 

I use finesse jigs when fish are finicky and the water is clear.

 

I use ball head jigs with swim baits and worms on pressured fish when the bite is hard.

 

I like throwing other things but I like the bite detection and hookup to land ratio and size you generally get throwing jigs so I use them the most.

Definitely a ned rig for me. Nothing will come close. 1/16 oz jighead with a TRD. 

22 minutes ago, A-Jay said:

That's last years pic, meaning before the re-stock and the bait monkey influence.

And don't forget to factor in all the after market hardware & treble hooks on every bait.

When $20 bills start catch big brown bass, I'll use those instead.

Until then, I'll keep trading them in.

A-Jay

 

 

it’s like COVID we all get it sir. No fisher person is immune to the dreaded bait monkey. And your successful catch rate supports your thesis. 

27 minutes ago, Pat Brown said:

Put me down in the 'some sort of jig' camp.  I'll get some on soft plastics and cranks but I'll get a lot more on pitching/football/finesse/shaky head/casting/swim/bladed jigs.

 

My best producer during the cold months is a jig and chunk or beaver and then when it gets warmer I like stuff with more action like a Z Craw or Rage Menace or a pit boss.

 

I use spinnerbaits and bladed jigs when it's windy or cloudy or they're chasing bait.

 

I use swim jigs when it's calmer/they want a horizontal presentation and around grass.

 

I use pitching/brush jigs 90% of the time and I'm usually making short pitches or longer casts to shallow or deep wood/brush/vegetation/rock/shade or any other structure or cover bass relate to either from the boat or bank.  

 

I use football jigs dragging slow around rock.

 

I use finesse jigs when fish are finicky and the water is clear.

 

I use ball head jigs with swim baits and worms on pressured fish when the bite is hard.

 

I like throwing other things but I like the bite detection and hookup to land ratio and size you generally get throwing jigs so I use them the most.

 

There's a lot of clear, concise info in ^this^ post. Thanks!

 

@gimruis I agree with what you wrote. We catch the most with what we prefer. However, I do cast half a dozen lures whenever I'm fishing. If a non-Whopper Plopper lure suddenly started outfishing the Whopper Plopper, I'd switch in a New York nanosecond. 

 

#nolureloyaltywhatsoever

5 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

 

There's a lot of clear, concise info in ^this^ post. Thanks!

 

@gimruis I agree with what you wrote. We catch the most with what we prefer. However, I do cast half a dozen lures whenever I'm fishing. If a non-Whopper Plopper lure suddenly started outfishing the Whopper Plopper, I'd switch in a New York nanosecond. 

 

#nolureloyaltywhatsoever

 

 

I tend to think that with a jig, it can be fished in virtually all of the water column, which has made me lazy about lure selection.

 

I can put a buzz toad or magnum rage bug on a 1/4 oz swim jig and reel it fast enough to buzz it/gurgle the claws on the surface and I'll tell ya what, that's a heck of a topwater strike when they're hitting it!

 

I also got a thing with gut hooking/gill hooking fish.  It just always puts me in an off mood.

 

Hasn't ever happened with a jig.

 

Sometimes with a senko or a crank they are a little too enthusiastic and I end up killing a good fish.

 

FWIW, I'm not loyalist!  I fish for fun and enjoy experimenting and sometimes they want one specific sort of thing!

 

Got to love it!

6 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

Nah you’ll get it with that homemade soft plastic beaver bait 

Maybe, it gets me a bunch of 'em, and consistently gets me big bites, but when I start running into those schools of post spawn fish on the weed flats at night, the numbers pile up quick for the chatterbait. 

 

Edit to add: These two baits caught all my bigguns in 22. Four over five and one just under for the Sweet Craw, and five over four including a couple that were one bluegill shy of five on the chatterbait. The CB also caught all those big eyes last July. Both baits get numbers and size.

@Pat Brown I hate hurting a bass too, which is why when I wacky fish, I set the hook early. I lose a lot of fish, but it's worth it. I caught one 19.75" bass last fall on a wacky-rigged Senko that was BARELY hooked in the lip. Whew! 

1 hour ago, T-Billy said:

but when I start running into those schools of post spawn fish on the weed flats at night, the numbers pile up quick for the chatterbait. 

Dead floaters don't count towards your total this season.

For me it will surely be a senko or other stick worm, probably t-rigged weightless more often than wacky. #2 will probably be a small worm on a jighead similar to @TnRiver46's go-to rig. But it depends on where and when I end up fishing the most.

Spinnerbait and frog. Historically i've gotten the most consistent bites from both on the lakes i fish.

 

And now that I've said that, neither will produce for me this year. 

9 minutes ago, Functional said:

Spinnerbait and frog. Historically i've gotten the most consistent bites from both on the lakes i fish.

 

And now that I've said that, neither will produce for me this year. 

 

Oh, your frogs will produce. Frogs make bass go crazy!

 

It would be between a Senko, a chatterbait, and a rat-l-trap for numbers. I wish it was a frog or a spook.

I think it'll be between a lipless & TX rig for me. The lipless will jump out to an early lead in the spring, but the TX rig should have a commanding lead by late summer. However, the lipless could pull out a win if I can get on the schools in the fall.

 

Whatever lure comes out on top, it should be a lot of fun.

 

2 hours ago, gimruis said:

Dead floaters don't count towards your total this season.

More rule changes???!!! What is this the MLF series? ?

Hardbaits.....Megabass Great Hunting Flatside 70SP and the Megabass Baby PopX

 

Soft plastic.... Geecrack Bellows Gill and a 5in Senko

 

Honorable mention.... black and red jig with red and yellow craw trailer

probably a lipless

9 hours ago, A-Jay said:

That's last years pic, meaning before the re-stock and the bait monkey influence.

And don't forget to factor in all the after market hardware & treble hooks on every bait.

When $20 bills start catch big brown bass, I'll use those instead.

Until then, I'll keep trading them in.

A-Jay

 

 

You'll get no judgement from me for your jerkbait collection brother. I bought over a dozen Ark rods last year for cryin out loud, + four Zillion HD's, and a BB1 Pro, and........... So..... you know..... people in glass houses...... ? 

 

PS: I'm about to drop about 4k on a transmission so FFS is likely out for this year. I might just pick up a go pro 11 though. No promises, but next fall's Muskiepalooza might be in HD.

6 hours ago, ol'crickety said:

 

Oh, your frogs will produce. Frogs make bass go crazy!

 

I just got into frogs last season. They never produced for me up north except 1 lake that I only fished 1 week a year. Its almost as exciting fishing a jitterbug in the pitch black...almost. So hopefully this year is as good as my late summer frog bite.

That's easy.

 

4 inch swimbait will put several hundred bass in the boat again this year. If not well over a thousand bass.

 

Followed closely by the ribbet frog.

Lunker Punker 

It‘a definitely going to be a Texas rigged trick worm,  or a crankbait. 

Rat'l'trap

Lipless is traditionally my numbers bait, but it's my all-time confidence bait so I throw it basically all the time.

 

Last year, because I made 2022 my "Year of the Jerkbait" mission, that presentation beat out the lipless on numbers.

 

This year, I made a promise to throw a spinnerbait more (which I will start trying to grind out after the spawn, still hoping to try and pattern some big fish on a jerkbait soon) so who knows how that will go, but if I put money on it I'd say the jerkbait might win again this year as I'm still learning my way around them.

Gin clear smallie lakes.

1. Free rigged DoLive Shot

2. Drop shotting a 2.5" tube or flatworm style plastic 

3. 3.3 Keitech on various swimbait jigheads

 

Largies.

1. 3.8 bellows gill or bull flat. 

2. Power bite will come on swim jigs, spinnerbaits and bladed jigs. 

Every few years my top baits change.  I basically fish the same waters.  In past years its been a wacky worm, swim baits and crankbaits.  For some reason those baits drop off quite a bit from year to year.  This year it was a little bit of everything with probably a slight edge to the whopper plopper.