Mattlures

A Senko and maybe even a jig are more realistic then a realistic finish painted on a NON realistic bait like a crank bait. A crank is still a crank even if it has a photo finish. It is still a non realistic looking bait. It doesn't swim like a real fish. It kind of has the right shape. They come with big hanging trebles. How many crank bait bites do you get with the bait just sitting still or fishing it super slow? Probably none. Why because it doesn't look or act realistic. Fish react to it. A good quality swim bait that is the correct size, species, color, and has a natural swimming action is REALISTIC. A crank bait with a nice paint job is not. Here is a test. If you saw a crank from 20 feet away that I was holding would you ever think it was a fish? no you would instantly know it was a lure If you saw a realistic swim bait from 20 feet away that I was holding would you ever think it was a fish? If you didn't know better you would probably need to take a closer look and If I played it off I might even be able to trick you into thinking I was holding a real fish. Now to Senko. There is nothing about a Senko the screams fake. It is a very natural looking bait. aside from funky colors it could easily be mistaken for a living thing especially with its subtle action. Jigs can also achieve an allusion of realism with all the little movements of the skirt and trailer. I wouldn't classify a jig as realistic but It can look very natural as with the Senko. I would not classify a classify a crank as realistic ever. Do they get bit? yes of course so they don't need to be real looking. In fact I believe the realistic finishes are less productive on cranks or jerk baits and other billed trebled type baits. I think less is more for that type of bait. Give me an old Rapala style patern instead

That is a giant male. I don't think I have ever seen one that big

This is one of the very few accurate posts on this subject. If you assume your getting better components or a better quality lure because you spent $15 instead of $8 your probably wrong. What makes one better then the other? probably nothing. Price does not dictate which bait is better. The manufacturer decides what they need to charge to make the amount of profit they need to make on that specific bait. The exception comes when A huge demand developes and the manufacturer can charge much more. But on regular low priced baits from $5- $20, Higher priced baits does not mean higher quality. Now when you start talking hand made, custom baits, or limited supply then the higher price usually means higher quality.

Do those other baits sit upright when you let them sit on the bottom or do fall over? That makes a huge difference when fishing a soft swimbait, especialy if your going slow on the bottom or even more important if your bed fishing. There is a lot more that goes into a swimbiat then just the outside cosmetics. Of course the realism is extremely important to. I don't know what those other bait look like though.

I have seen a video of it swimming. The 2nd joint is very tight and has a small range of motion. From what I saw the action is like a glide bait. The bait does not swim like other lipless swimbaits. I would compare it to the Jackall giron. It seemed to rise up quickly and blew out at a medium retrieve. From the video I saw, if your wanting a sinking giron but with a much more realistic appearance that you will retrieve slowly then you will probably love this bait. I think the price is good for that bait and it looks really nice. Before you buy one I suggest you google this one and watch the video and see if its what your looking for.

I have been saying it for years. Somebody needs to invent a super strong super sharp CLEAR hook. like a ridged fluorocarbon material made into a hook. When/if somebody invents that they will be very rich.

YES bass know when the trout are being stocked. They become conditioned especially if the stocking is consistent. The bass will get used to the stocking and move into the stocking areas a day or 2 before the truck shows up. When the truck does show up the bass are sitting there waiting. The best possible situation a bass fisherman could have is if the trout truck showed up and just dumped a bunch of water in with no trout. They would be easy to catch on a trout swimbait. Unfortunately this does not happen and they are actually tough to catch during stocking.To many real trout for your bait to compete with. That's why the day before the stocking is my favorite day to throw trout swimbaits.

You chose the wrong bait. a trout colored sluggo looks NOTHING like a trout. Your strategy was good but your bait choice was bad. Try it again with an 8in weed less Hudd

People put the fish in there. First if you just have water with no fish then you can have a bad mosquito problem so whenever a pond is made it is almost always stocked with at least minnows, but usually bluegill and bass to. This is usually done by whoever made the pond. 2nd is guys jut put them in there by bucket. I have done it many times when I was a teenager whenever a new sand pit pond was dug or a new golf course was built. I have seen other doing it to. It happens a lot more then you might think.

Agreed.

Did you get the floater or the sinker? swim it real slow and see if you still think it looks good. From the videos I have seen the floater looks OK but the sinker looked weak. My opinion though is just an opinion. If it gets you a lot of bites then its good no matter what I say. To me the bluegill is the same thing as their trout. Same design, same weighting same gaps in the joints and similar action. We will see if it produces the same.

LC makes great baits. They do not make great swimbaits. Its like they do not understand the dynamics of what makes a swimbait work. Of the swimbaits I have seen from them (2 trout and a bluegill) they are not good. Interesting that their regular baits are great but high priced and their swimbaits are weak and low priced. Although I am not a fan of the BBZ it is a much better bait then the LC and its also on the low price end.

I would rather use a simple jig then a craw bait but I bet a Huddle bug would out fish most of the other realistic craw baits. Where I fish using live dads is legal so I would rather use a live craw. Trout, bluegill, baby bass etc. are illegal so I use the closest thing I can buy or make.

Its a soft bait. Ripping does happen with all soft baits. Get your self some Mend-it and you can fix all your ripped soft baits many times.

Realistic baits will out fish non realistic baits probably at least 10 to 1 when it comes to big bass. Here is the thing though. Many guys think a bait looks realistic to them because it has some details or a good paint job but it is still far from realistic. 99% of most cranks and similar baits are not realistic at all even though they may have a photo finish. They still look like a lure and not a fish. It would be like painting a picture of a Ferrari on the side of truck and expecting people to think its a Ferrari. No its still a truck. I will use the Huddleston as my example. Here is a bait that actually is realistic. Its looks like a trout. Its the correct SHAPE, SIZE, and COLOR. When bass eat that bait I am pretty sure they think they are eating a real trout. Its not a reaction bite. They are feeding. That bait is realistic and its results speak for themselves. The biggest problem with this argument is guys comparing a regular crank bait to one with a realistic looking paint job. The truth is neither one of them is realistic at all so they produce similar results. If you want to debate the effectiveness of realism then choose a bait that looks like a real fish, swims like a real fish, is the correct size of that fish and realistic paint job. Then you will see how effective realistic lures can be. Consider this. I make a couple baits that are made for dead sticking. They just float on the surface, with none or very little action by the fisherman. They get bit by big bass based soley on their realism. Most bites are slow and deliberate. I have seen it many times, The bass will slowly swim to the front of the bait and eat it head first. The bait is not being worked. its just floating. Its the realism that fools those fish. For all regular non realistic, non swimbait lures. I think that simple patterns work as well or better then a detailed finish.

My biggest Soft swimbait 17.2 pounds Mattlures Ultimate bluegill Lake Morena southern CA Hard swimbait 15.1 pounds Mattlures Hardgill Lake Morena southern CA

I have caught big bass in the morning, the afternoon, and at night. I cant remember catching any at dusk. If I had to cherry pick a time it would be low light conditions, mid day. Stormy afternoon.

These little trout are the best for growing big bass. When the DFG is stocking the bigger trout, the bass have to grow big enough to start eating them. Now with these little trout, even the small bass can start eating them and get a jump on growing fast in their early years. In other words with big trout a 5 pound bass might be 4 years old. Now a 5 pounder might only be 2 or 3 years old. Plus if the lakes stock trout from any other source besides the dfg they will be bigger trout. The best would be a mix of trout from 1/4 to 2 pounds. But I think the smaller ones are better then the bigger ones but we will have to see.

Fluoro does stretch but not quite as much as mono. It sinks much quicker and it is definitely less visable. Ask anybody who fishes saltwater. When the fish get line shy, Fluoro can save the day.

Myth, Internet experts are real experts? Just because a guy makes a lot of posts and loves to use key words like location, structure, and patterns does not mean the guy is legit. Every message board has one or a couple of these guys and usually a lot of members buy into it and praise them for there knowledge . These guys love to recycle info that they have read in some fishing magazine to try and make themselves sound like great and knowledgeable fisherman. No pictures, no video, no real info = internet expert.

I don't pretend to know how bass see colors but they obviously do. I just don't buy into the color red disappearing at a certain depth unless it is very deep or low light. I have scuba dived at 40 ft and I could still see red and orange fish at that depth. They were dulled down some but they definitely weren't grey.

No the fish would be worth very little. The anglers ability to sell himself after he caught it would determine how much he could make. He would then have to earn that money. Kurita made very little money. People just assume they would get paid and this is not true.

Half the lake can be fished from shore and there are plenty of huge bass in there. The locals have learned to keep quiet.

Uhmmmm no. That fish was no where near the claimed weight and dismissed as the fraud that it was. On top of that Kurita made very little money from catching the world record. He had to go out and earn the money after the fact through sponsorship and promotion. Nobody just runs up and hands you millions for catching the WRB.

You do realize that was broken a couple years ago in Japan right?