Kinda the opposite of the “which baits have stopped producing for you?” - maybe inspire some new anglers and old hammers to pick up that fancy lure they bought and gave up on!

I’ll start - this forum has so many fantastic anglers aboard - it truly is a chore keeping track of everyone who is good at fishing - but back when I joined 6 years ago - there was one dude who was absolutely wrecking big bass in Alabama - @AlabamaSpothunter ! Sadly he doesn’t come around much these days (hope you’re well if you see this!)

I was getting really deep in the trenches with some giant urban pond bass and struggling mentally with them and my confidence and here he is posting videos of 6-7-8-9 lb bass being caught out of a Jon boat on modest equipment.

Come to find out he’s doing most of his damage on something called a “free rig “

I was pretty sure it was a gimmick but I could see maybe how with floating plastic the bait presentation could work.

I sent him a private message asking how it works and he did his best to explain the finer points as he saw them etc and away I went.

I threw it and threw it and never got a single bite for 3 years. I convinced myself it was a gimmick to sell drop shot weights.

Went back to fishing exclusively jigs and Texas rigs and felt fairly confident I had made the right choice.

Last summer I moved into a neighborhood with a 15 acre pond in the backyard with giant bass in it - I could see them I could cast all my favorite fishing t rig plastics and jigs at them and they simply laughed at me. It was extremely frustrating to say the least and then a little voice in my head says “‘maybe that old “free rig” might get them to take a swipe at my worm.”

I took the clunky 3/16 oz tear drop sinker and my 10” culprit ribbon tail in red shad and “free rigged them” and made a cast into the creek of many skunks in my backyard - instantly get bit and catch a nice little 3 lber.

I’m literally aghast. I can not believe that this is happening. I continue to fish it and catch another and then another bass. I lose one and that feels huge that evening at sunset. Now I’m pretty sure I need to keep trying with it. I caught my first backyard brute the next morning - 6 lber. I proceed to replace all of my t rig fishing with the free rig at the end of the summer and catch many manny big bass and small bass out of many different types of cover. Suddenly what I truly believed to be a gimmick was showing that it really is something different to a bass. What was I doing wrong years ago to make the fish not bite?

To put it bluntly: Everything. Looking back on it I wanted the rig to do the work after I cast. Can you imagine fishing a frog or jerkbait like that? Hehehe - well that’s kinda how the free rig is. Turns out you gotta very deliberately and masterfully manipulate the bait and manage the slack line very intentionally throughout the retrieve and there’s not much “drag and pause” to it at all. Fancy that. A fisherman experiencing user error and deeming a bait worthless! Hah!

Now I always fish a free rig AND a pegged t rig.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Whatcha got!?

Man what a great topic. And story.

Tough one for me because I generally struggle with a new technique for a while. But honestly it was probably the jig. I’d caught some here and there. But never built confidence in it. Last year I tied one on and just fished it all year. And a lot of help from folks on here I got the hang of it. And really caught great fish and quantity. I enjoy it so much now I probably should put it down and fish other stuff like a Texas rig. So it’s kinda become a bad habit lol

The one that comes to mind first is a crankbait. A couple years ago my brother and I were out on the lake one day beating the banks, catching a few small bass. Then on a whim I tied on a KVD 1.5 sexy shad squarebill and started casting to a flat behind us and immediately caught my PB 8 lbs. 8 oz. largemouth and proceeded to absolutely wear them out that day. Since then a squarebill has become one of my favorites.

The "Chug Norris" popping lure. I guess in honor of the passing of Walker Texas Ranger.. lol

I never really knew when to throw such a loud lure and really create a disturbance with a wide-mouth popper like that. Until a guide I met encouraged me to use it on Lake Lanier. You have to spot schools of fish and chug it over the top of them, but everything I saw was 15-25 feet below the surface... and being a Northerner I said "they're too far below it." He said "THAT" is exactly when you use the chugging lures - Spro e-Pop, Chug Bug, and of course the Chug Norris.

It absolutely "calls them up" out of deep clear water. And not just Spotted Bass - largemouth and Stripers. Never thought I would catch a 5+ pound largemouth on topwater in 42 feet of water. The ferocity of the strikes and how an entire school comes up to smash the lure is an absolute drug!

I’ve heard shallow running jerkbaits will often do the same thing to deep schooling fish - great one @FryDog62 - gives me something to try this summer when I see that!

Squarebill crankbaits. I fished deep divers all the time but when it came to shallow fishing, short lipped baits were lacking, opting instead for a spinnerbait. Then one day about a dozen years ago it just happened. Its a staple now, especially in standing timber.

I would say a jig.

Years ago, I just kept seeing a few select guys killing it on a jig. I would fish one and basically put myself on the struggle bus. I would get hung up, I would miss fish, casting and presenting the bait was an issue, knowing when a fish would pick it up and just overall line, color and trailer selection was a mystery to me.

Then one day a guy I knew said a jig bite is basically the opposite of a strike. I was kind of clueless as to what he meant at first but once I figured out what bottom structure felt like, a bite became the a total lack of that feeling. Like there was nothing on the end of line. After that, the fish started coming in more easily and I started to gain confidence in the bait and the technique.

First off, thanks for recalling Alex. I miss him. He was so welcoming and encouraging when I arrived at Bass Resource. I took my cue from him and try to encourage others.

For me, it might be a walking bait. I'd caught muskies with them, but hadn't had much luck with bass. Then, two years ago back in August, I was struggling to land good numbers of bass and I watched a YouTube video about fishing for bass in August. A walking bait was used. So, the next morning, I started with a walking bait and I discovered that if I loaded some slack into my line by bringing the rod tip a little ways forward on my pauses, the bait would really lunge forward when that slack line was suddenly pulled taut. That's been my retrieve ever since and it's one of my favorite baits.

I have a couple, but I'll drop this one here and now and the other one a little later.

My version of the A-Rig for Brown Bass ~ 

Right off the bat, I will say that I threw an A-Rig for the better part of two seasons, trying to force-feed it to smallies. Got a lot of great casting practice, but that was about it.

But once it clicked, it was a Beauuuuuuuuuutiful Thing.

Now, I'm semi-addicted to the thing. 

First, it's a bit of a bear to fish for any length of time. Obviously it doesn't cast very well (more of a full-body heave or lob than an actual cast), but it does require quite a bit more effort to fish than most anything else I throw in Michigan, anyway.

Second, the strikes are straight-up vicious, and every brown bass I've caught on it has been in the plus-size class, so there's a decent reward for the effort expended.

As for what clicked: I initially even got the idea to fish it for brown bass from Mark Zona. But rather than actually watching how, where & when he was having results—I thought I could just go out, throw the thing around a bit, and hook up. Didn't happen. 

Once I went back through what he was offering and really digested the deal, I was eventually able to get on some fish. It took a while, though. 

So like I said, I love throwing it because the strikes are great and so far, it's been a big fish catcher.

However, it's not a deal I use all season or on every lake.

I have found two specific situations where I use it effectively.

The first starts pre-spawn, but not super early. More like once the water temps get to about 55 or so—and there are plenty of fish shallow(er), say less than 10 ft. Clear water helps but is not totally needed. But smallies are sight feeders, so clean is usually better. 

What is needed are long casts. The fish have to be willing to chase the bait—so if it's too cold or too dirty, they will not. I usually start throwing it once the smallies start to follow a jerkbait to the boat without eating it—often they will eat this thing hard!

This bite will last right up to the spawn for me—and then a little into post-spawn—but not that long - as brown bass will often head deeper pretty quick, and I'll use something else out there (usually a drop shot or spy bait). 

The other A-Rig bite comes back in the late summer—the first week of August. I have found several huge smallies super shallow early in the morning (very first light) hunting perch right at the edge of the inside weedline in less than 5 ft. Unusual to say the least, but that's where I got my PB so I don't ask questions; I just go fishing. These big fish are super spooky way inside in such skinny water, and getting them to eat has been a challenge—topwater works, but that bite dies fast each morning—so once I tried the A-Rig, it was on like Donkey Kong. I was surprised it didn't spook them, as it hits the water like a bomb, but they'll follow it and eat it—no problem.

A good thing is, a little later in the morning and again in the afternoon, these same fish move out to isolated weed clumps in 8-12 ft, waiting for the next low light to go back inside & eat again. By throwing the A-Rig around these clumps, I'm often able to get a few more bites from some great fish I'd often given up on in the past—sometimes at noon with the sun just blazing! Tons of fun. 

While watching Zona hammer smallies with this thing, he kept talking about how he wanted the rig to kind of "hover" in the water column. I didn't know what the heck that meant. But after getting some fish, I sort of have an idea. The A-Rig is certainly not a contact bait, meaning you can fish it around cover, but you can't be in it at all. But where it is in the water column and at what speed, is EVERYTHING. Traveling along, about 2 feet off the bottom seems like the sweet spot. And while there are times when they will smash it while I burn it along, the best results come when I can retrieve it just fast enough to keep "hovering" along in the correct slot of the water column. Intermittent quick reels handle turns that make the rig 'jump ahead' a little—can be money! 

A-Jay

Spinnerbait. For the longest time I called it a noisemaker. Just a giant hunk of metal that did nothing but scare fish away. Until one day I’m fishing some sparse milfoil and the spinnerbait just called to me. It was that day that I became no longer a noisemaker but a confidence bait. Now it’s my #1 confidence bait and producer. For the last decade or so it’s been responsible for the most fish and for a few of the top 5 biggest.

41 minutes ago, A-Jay said:

I have a couple, but I'll drop this one here and now and the other one a little later.

My version of the A-Rig for Brown Bass ~ 

Right off the bat, I will say that I threw an A-Rig for the better part of two seasons, trying to force-feed it to smallies. Got a lot of great casting practice, but that was about it.

But once it clicked, it was a Beauuuuuuuuuutiful Thing.

Now, I'm semi-addicted to the thing. 

First, it's a bit of a bear to fish for any length of time. Obviously it doesn't cast very well (more of a full-body heave or lob than an actual cast), but it does require quite a bit more effort to fish than most anything else I throw in Michigan, anyway.

Second, the strikes are straight-up vicious, and every brown bass I've caught on it has been in the plus-size class, so there's a decent reward for the effort expended.

As for what clicked: I initially even got the idea to fish it for brown bass from Mark Zona. But rather than actually watching how, where & when he was having results—I thought I could just go out, throw the thing around a bit, and hook up. Didn't happen. 

Once I went back through what he was offering and really digested the deal, I was eventually able to get on some fish. It took a while, though. 

So like I said, I love throwing it because the strikes are great and so far, it's been a big fish catcher.

However, it's not a deal I use all season or on every lake.

I have found two specific situations where I use it effectively.

The first starts pre-spawn, but not super early. More like once the water temps get to about 55 or so—and there are plenty of fish shallow(er), say less than 10 ft. Clear water helps but is not totally needed. But smallies are sight feeders, so clean is usually better. 

What is needed are long casts. The fish have to be willing to chase the bait—so if it's too cold or too dirty, they will not. I usually start throwing it once the smallies start to follow a jerkbait to the boat without eating it—often they will eat this thing hard!

This bite will last right up to the spawn for me—and then a little into post-spawn—but not that long - as brown bass will often head deeper pretty quick, and I'll use something else out there (usually a drop shot or spy bait). 

The other A-Rig bite comes back in the late summer—the first week of August. I have found several huge smallies super shallow early in the morning (very first light) hunting perch right at the edge of the inside weedline in less than 5 ft. Unusual to say the least, but that's where I got my PB so I don't ask questions; I just go fishing. These big fish are super spooky way inside in such skinny water, and getting them to eat has been a challenge—topwater works, but that bite dies fast each morning—so once I tried the A-Rig, it was on like Donkey Kong. I was surprised it didn't spook them, as it hits the water like a bomb, but they'll follow it and eat it—no problem.

A good thing is, a little later in the morning and again in the afternoon, these same fish move out to isolated weed clumps in 8-12 ft, waiting for the next low light to go back inside & eat again. By throwing the A-Rig around these clumps, I'm often able to get a few more bites from some great fish I'd often given up on in the past—sometimes at noon with the sun just blazing! Tons of fun. 

While watching Zona hammer smallies with this thing, he kept talking about how he wanted the rig to kind of "hover" in the water column. I didn't know what the heck that meant. But after getting some fish, I sort of have an idea. The A-Rig is certainly not a contact bait, meaning you can fish it around cover, but you can't be in it at all. But where it is in the water column and at what speed, is EVERYTHING. Traveling along, about 2 feet off the bottom seems like the sweet spot. And while there are times when they will smash it while I burn it along, the best results come when I can retrieve it just fast enough to keep "hovering" along in the correct slot of the water column. Intermittent quick reels handle turns that make the rig 'jump ahead' a little—can be money! 

A-Jay

A-Jay, have you heard of the "Quad Hover" rig that is being used for big brownies on Mille Lacs? I had one for awhile on some spotted bass lakes down south. At $50 a pop, they are kind of a niche thing, but has a loyal following...

Performance Fishing Innovations

Quad Hover

WARNING:  This is NOT a standard "Alabama" rig!!   The first and only truly Hovering Flourocarbon Umbrella Rig, built with our proprietary "Hub and Spoke Armature" kinetic energy transfer system on a

It was a bladed jig for me. It was back when it was first really taking off. I'd bought some and fished them quite a bit and never had a bite. It looked good, but the fish plain ignored it. One day, I wasn't having much luck with anything so I tied a white one on, but decided to try something different and put a bright chartreuse trailer on the back. The contrast must have really done something for them because I wore them out on it the rest of the day. That combination worked for me everywhere I went and built my confidence in the bait, allowing me to learn it. Those early baits were also the reason I decided to build my own because the skirts constantly got pulled down, the hooks rusted and dulled quickly, the blades corroded, it was just overall a poor quality bait but the fish loved it.

Rio Rico. Learning how to walk the bait aggressively without moving it much was a game changer.

I second what @Joedodge wrote about @Pat Brown's solid storytelling.

I also second what @Jar11591 wrote about the spinnerbait. That's another bait that I associated with catching muskies and I was already using an underspin, which is pretty similar (blade plus trailer), but I learned heavily on spinnerbaits last spring and had a couple mornings where I caught three and four bass over nineteen inches.

24 minutes ago, Bluebasser86 said:

It was a bladed jig for me. It was back when it was first really taking off. I'd bought some and fished them quite a bit and never had a bite. It looked good, but the fish plain ignored it. One day, I wasn't having much luck with anything so I tied a white one on, but decided to try something different and put a bright chartreuse trailer on the back. The contrast must have really done something for them because I wore them out on it the rest of the day. That combination worked for me everywhere I went and built my confidence in the bait, allowing me to learn it. Those early baits were also the reason I decided to build my own because the skirts constantly got pulled down, the hooks rusted and dulled quickly, the blades corroded, it was just overall a poor quality bait but the fish loved it.

I agree with all this. I’ve fished them for 10 years and until the end of last season and this season so far. I’m starting to catch fish on them. And it’s really becoming a confidence bait. But for so many years I just couldn’t crack the code to make it work.

30 minutes ago, FryDog62 said:

A-Jay, have you heard of the "Quad Hover" rig that is being used for big brownies on Mille Lacs? I had one for awhile on some spotted bass lakes down south. At $50 a pop, they are kind of a niche thing, but has a loyal following...

Performance Fishing Innovations

Quad Hover

WARNING:  This is NOT a standard "Alabama" rig!!   The first and only truly Hovering Flourocarbon Umbrella Rig, built with our proprietary "Hub and Spoke Armature" kinetic energy transfer system on a

Yup and thanks for the thought.

I tried a couple last season. (no blades)

But my fishing last year was a train wreck, so I am totally willing to give them another shot.

I will say the baits on the rig seem sort of close together—bunched up, if you will.

Either way we'll see how it goes.

A-Jay

Mine was the jig and pig. Around 40 years ago, I kept reading about the jig being a great bass lure. I bought jigs and pork frogs. I cast them till my arm was sore and never could catch a bass. One day I was Bank fishing and cast an Arkie bucktail jig with a pork frog trailer near a large blow down. I made one slow lift and got a hit. The bass was around 14". Not big, but I got the idea. I think at first, I was fishing the jigs too fast. Once I learned to slow down with jigs I could catch fish on them. I always carry jigs and trailers with me now, and have caught many bass over the years slowly fishing jigs.

I have two. Ther first is a bladed jig. I bought a few and tried them, forcing myself to tie one on every day. I didn't have any luck so I quit trying. I fished spinnerbaits, and squarebill crankbaits often, and always caught bass on one of them, so I didn't really feel a need to use a bladed jig.

eradic

A couple years later after watching many videos and noticing that every tournament the bladed jig was always a major player, I decided to give them another try.

I discovered I was simply fishing them too fast. I fish crankbaits fast, and like a friend told me once he thought I was having a seizure when he watched me fish a crankbait. I'm reeling fast jerkirking, the rod, starting and stopping the reel all at a quick pace. It has always worked for me with crankbaits, and I assumed because a bladed jig feels like a crankbait when retrieved that I should retrieve them very fast and extremely erratic. When I slowed down and started fishing one similar to the way I slow roll a spinnerbait, I started getting bit, and the bass were almost always big. Now unless I'm around wood, I prefer to throw the bladed jig rather than a spinnerbait. I fish crankbaits in rocks most of the time, but once in awhile the bladed jig works on rocky shorelines when the cranks zero.

The other bait is a Trig plastic worm. I never really gave them a chance. Once I actually started using them, I discovered how effective and easy they are to fish. Now because I hate loosing tackle, I feel I may depend on the T rig too much.

Back almost 40 years ago, I was pretty much a novice on most bass fishing techniques. I had just bought a new Ranger boat and was devouring everything that the In-Fisherman was telling me. One of those things was about small jig and twister tails. Like a lot of us do when you read about a new bait (to you), I picked some up before a planned fishing trip. On the first evening of that trip, we pulled back up to the dock at the end of the day and while I was straightening out the boat, a young kid maybe 10-12 years old walked out on the dock and started casting a small jig and twister tail. He caught probably 4-5 small smallmouth then turned and walked away. There was a small rock pile that years before formed the support for the old dock that I wasn’t aware of before that moment that was holding those fish. I followed his lead and tied on my own jig and twister. I cast several times and came back empty. I knew there were still fish there, I could see them follow my bait back. My next cast, I let the jig sink, reeled up the slack and gave it a twitch, then a second. Bam! I got one! I got 4 in 4 casts just hopping it back. I ran and got my fishing partner to show him my discovery. That little, simple technique was responsible for the majority of my smallmouth catches on that trip and for many years after that.

Took me a while to figure this bait out—like two seasons.

I thought I had 'tried' everything I could; no bites.

Turns out, not everything.

 

For the places I fish for brown bass, it's all about being around the right cover.

SURPRISE—I know, right?

But seriously, the bait excels for me when I can get it to 'hang up' in the cover a bit.

Pause there, and then keep moving.

How fast of a retrieve, how long of a pause, and what type of cover (and depth) is always seasonally dependent.

The bladed jig has been such a big fish producer for me that when the conditions are right,

At least in my mind, it's hard for me to throw anything else. 

So cooler water early and later in the season, it's a lighter 3/8 oz bait fished low & slow.

Zako proved to be a great trailer.

Warmer water—late summer—it's a 1/2 oz bait moved a little faster and higher in the water column.

Some of that is because the grass is taller by then as well. 

Finally, in the lakes that have goby, using these little gems as trailers,

has been like a religious experience. #revolation

(I snip off the little pec fins.)

Cooler water catch ~

https://youtu.be/o9xew3tWuuU?feature=shared&t=1013

Warmer water catch~

https://youtu.be/sITpRNLz_04?feature=shared&t=192

Fish Hard

A-Jay

It was the texas rig for me. Growing up we fished moving baits of all types and jigs. If the fish weren't chasing something then you hopped a jig on the bottom. Finesse was a split shot rig with a 4" centipede or ringworm. A texas rig was never in play because it was 'too slow'. I carried that mentality for a long time until I did the all plastics trip 4-5 years ago (previously posted here). A key learning for me then was that a texas rig doesn't have to be slow. Fish it just like a hopping jig- cast it out far and keep it moving across the bottom. Sure, you can slow it down but as a searching rig on the bottom it does a might good job. Then when you find some fish that way, slow down and cover the area more thoroughly with varied retrieves. This is nothing to say about using it as a pitching bait into cover the way I would have a jig. Since that learning moment, a texas rig is one of my 'always on deck' baits. For the grassy/mud bottom lakes I tend to fish more a texas rig just slides through cleaner than a jig does. And with a texas rig you just vary the weight or the plastic to have a whole new bait pretty quickly. If I rewind to the past 5 years worth of bass, I'd wager that 60-70% of the bass that make up my best 20 fish would have been on a texas rig of some sort (with the balance on a vibrating jig or a buzzbait).

It was a jig for me. I had read online that black and blue was the color to throw. I fished a black and blue jig for about a hour every time I went fishing for at least 3 months with no luck. Then I decided I would experiment with different colors. I bought some PB&J and Green Pumpkin jigs and it was like a light switch turning on. Now the jig is one of my top confidence baits.

It was a jig for me. Where I fish I hardly ever saw anyone fishing with a jig so I decided to learn how to fish it. I started my education in March, and most of year I don't think I ever had a bite. There were a few trips when the only bait I brought was a jig.

Six months later in October we were fishing in a cove, and the crankbait bite was on that day. For some reason I just picked up the jig and started fishing with it. I felt a tap-tap, and set the hook on my first jig fish. After that I got more confident with it, and now I always have a jig on the water.

Jerkbaits come to mind for this guy.

For years, I had a few rapala versions (shadow rap, x-rap) and could not catch anything on them. Not even a pike! Do you know how hard it is here to NOT catch a northern pike??

One time probably about 8 seasons ago I was reeling one in on big smallmouth water and something happened: the line went tight and the rod doubled over. I thought "holy crap, there's something on here" and it turned out to be a pretty decent brown bass. That moment was a turning point.

Well then I couldn't figure out why people spent 25 bucks on those Japanese versions. It seemed way over priced. Santa dropped one off for me several years ago in perch and that thing really shined the following spring - it caught smallmouth and walleye of various sizes.

Since then I've added a few more in various colors and refined my technique. I've learned so much about using these lures in recent years. Much of that insight has come from two regular posters here who spend a lot of time on big water targeting smallmouth with jerk baits, @Dwight Hottle and @A-Jay .

Now that Minnesota has lifted its completely closed bass season for the first time in my life, I suspect jerk baits are about to become an even more important presentation here, for both smallmouth and largemouth.

I'm still waiting for the 'click'.