Never threw a Ned rig or a Neko this past year.

Lipless crank, and deep cranks.   I didn't do much with either this year.  I caught the deep crank, and lipless bass on bladed jigs this year.   

  I caught several decent fish on top water but the bite was more sporadic this year than the past.   I finally figured out by reading reports on here that a topwater bite is rare when there's Velociraptors around.  (Herron).

I also caught some fish on a T-rig  but not as many as the past.   Shaky heads, and wackys took a t-rigs place in many instances.

 

Feel free to laugh at this one.   I didn't catch a single fish trolling this year.  I don't "troll", but when I'm moving a short distance I'll let a crank troll behind the boat.  Occasionally in the past I'd catch a Bass or Cat, doing that but none this year.   

Senko. Tossed it for a total of 5 minutes one day back in spring. 

Buzzbait . It just did not materialize for me. Its my favorite lure to throw too.

The jerk baits bite was slow this year, only catching a couple in the springtime.  I finally caught a bass fishing with a lipless crankbait and bladed jig in November.

19 hours ago, Jig Man said:

Crank baits almost never.

Same. 

Lipless cranks. I fished some new ones I got to try out early in the year and for whatever reason I didn’t fish them much throughout the year. My son had good success with them.

 

Another for me was a T-rig weighted craw. It’s been a staple in my arsenal for a while. I really don’t have a reason for reducing its footprint in my boat but I did and I kind of regret it. I won’t make that mistake again.

Chatterbait, Senko, Fluke

Carolina rig was excellent the previous 2 years… almost non-existent in 2023. 

Strangely, ned rig and drop shot. Barely used at all this year, even on my smallie lakes. 

Fished a whole lot, can’t remember 😂 

I didn’t throw jerkbaits much at all. Crank baits never seemed to materialize for me either. 

Neds, tubes.

Ned Rig, deep cranks and senko

chatter bait, all types of cranks, and spinner bait.  

 

not throwing the chatter bait and spinner bait was a mistake on my end.  I usually pound fish with both in the spring.  However, i was too busy messing around with other stuff. 

 

The cranks though just didn’t produce for some reason.  we had a very mild winter last year which, i think promoted more weed growth than usual.  The summer was also very mild.  a lot of the water i fished never got above 75-78  degrees.  So i think the fish never really went deep until late august.  which, i was basically done fishing last year at that time.  

 

i threw plastics from early may untill october.  i’ve had years where i don’t get into the soft plastics untill june some years. 

The stick bait took a break this season for me.  I also did not get on any real topwater bite.  We are in a drought so I don’t know if that played a role or not. 

Jigs

Crankbaits

Jerkbait (Although I missed the pre-spawn)

Chatterbait

 

After a couple trips I took most of these out of the boat.

 

Allen

Hollow body frogs.  There was a massive weed kill just prior to Memorial Day and the weeds never came back.  You can add a punch rig as it was best used in early May.

I did cut down on cranks quite a bit. My right shoulder would yell at me for hours after I got off the water if I fished them for more than an hour, but they were of great value in finding active fish.

Shoulder surgery this month and hopefully back to it come ice-out.  I'll miss out on opening day at the power plant lakes unless I give trolling a go.

I barely threw a spinnerbait. 

I thought of another one.... a lipless. 

 

I tried it a few times but the lake I go to the most is filled with wood and trees. If you fish the bank, getting hung up is inevitable.

On 12/29/2023 at 6:33 PM, FishTank said:

Frogs, bladed jigs, and spinnerbaits. I tried them off and on but the bites just weren't there for these baits. 

Same.  I'm not much of a frog guy, as there's often not too many places where they're worth throwing, but bladed jigs and spinnerbaits just didn't seem to do well for me at all this year.  

 

Honestly, it just wasn't a good fishing year for me.  

48 minutes ago, Bankc said:

Same.  I'm not much of a frog guy, as there's often not too many places where they're worth throwing, but bladed jigs and spinnerbaits just didn't seem to do well for me at all this year.  

 

Honestly, it just wasn't a good fishing year for me.  

 

There are not many baits I can go out on any lake and catch fish with but this guy has been my go to. I have caught everything on it from largemouth bass, smallmouth, spots, crappie,  walleye, catfish, drum, small striper, and white bass. If you want to break out of a slump, this is a good place to start. I have found 10lb fluorocarbon to be the magic line with it as well. 

 

It was topwater for me, buzzbaits, whopper plopper, spooks, stuff like that. Hard to imagine not using those kinda baits out in the glades but I hardly tossed them last year. The bite just wasn't there like it used to be. Funny how that works. 

Threw Texas rigged craws a whole heck of a lot in the past. Still threw em last year but not nearly as much. I tossed crankbaits more this year than I ever had, and had pretty good luck on them too. One of the first places I always hit are riprap rocks with a squarebill

I didn't throw any crankbaits, and used a jerkbait on one outting in 2023. I used a lot of soft plastics over hard baits this year.