Mattlures

You guys are doing awsome. Quick learners. Get your self a bottle of Mend-it. It will weld soft baits back together like they were new. no hard spots and a permanet repair. You could cut the bait into 5 pieces and fix it like new with mend it. Now with major repais like that you might want to let it sit overnight but you could easily fix regular tears and give it 15 minutes and be back to fishing. Also I cant stress enough the use of lube. Megastrike, Procure, Smellyjelly etc. This makes the bait slippery so its easier to burry the hook and it makes the bait much more tare resistant. Man you guys are killing them out there!! Thanks for posting

Randall I swear if I am ever going to be in GA. I am going to book a trip with you so you can teach me how to fish my own baits!!! I aint kiddin you need to fish one of those HBC tournaments. This latest one is in Texas, thats not too far from you. I am sure its too late though. If I ever get rich I will put you and I in one of those tournaments!

Paul your a quick study. Congrats on a great swimbait fish!

How did you measure the heigth? Was her top fin up or flat against her back. It is difficult to guess with such little info but It was probably a little over 10. BTW I commend you for releasing the fish unharmed. You could have killed it and weighed it but you did the honerable thing and released it. Good on you!

Dang dsaavedra, your just a kid!! what I mean by this is you have been doing some very nice work and I guess I just thought you were older. I know when I was a kid the stuff I made was UGLY. Not only does your stuff look good but you caught fish on it!!! Wow Congrats.

Ok ya old bug eyed geezer, There aint nothing right in this universe!!! Just because you show back up with your fancy pictures and your designer shirts, You just think we should all coment on your posts????? HA HA I missed you and you pics. Yeah I guess the universe is pretty good right now. Thanks for taking care of that Avid!!! and I am glad your back. Now you just gotta find Lightning rod.

No Don Osbourn caught a 10 in the first one.

I am soo tempted to fish it. Byron Velvick told me he would even show me around the lake before hand and I could stay at his lodge but I just cant afford it right now. Towing my boat, $1000 entry fee, It would be fun though. I am sure there are some boys in Texas who can stck pigs when they need to but I like the the Cali guys in this one

I want to come fish with you guys!

Buy an actual name brand Dremmel. I buy a lot of tools from harbor freight and I love most of them. However some tools you just have to buy quality and a Dremmel is one of them. I tried to go cheap and I litteraly went through 3 different cheapo rotery tools in about 1- 1 1/2 years. now I have an actual dremmel and it has lasted for about 3 years and it work as good as new

Bluegill tend to do machine gun bites. I actualy dont have a hard time telling when a gill is messin with me. If I am not sure I swing with full intentions of hooking a bass.

3:16 sells a lot of those baits. Why because they work. Guys that are serious about their swimbaits know its 100x beter to have 10 great baits that cost you $500 then 50 pieces of junk that cost the same. Think about it. If you could trade in all your old and no longer used tackle and get full value in exchange for a few high end things, wouldnt you? I would. There is also an advantage to the fisherman who buys ultra expencive baits. He is not only buying the bait but he is also buying the oportunity to fish baits that most would not even consider because of the cost. In other words he bought an advantage. In most places the fish have rarley or never seen one of those baits. That in itself is worth something. Just so know, I havent bought any baits over $50 But if I couldnt make them I would buy them.

dsaavedra, if you dont know already learn to tie a palomar knot. I can tie foot long baits with a palomar no problem. The big baits take a little practice but it wont take you long. As usual I agree with 4bizz. the general rule is snaps on hardbaits and direct tie to soft baits.

WHOA Fluke 4oz?????? ........you need a new scale!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My baby bass weighs 1.25 oz My Ultimate gill weighes 1.65 oz My original gill weighes 1.75oz. Actualy will you sell me your scale? I want to weigh my fish on it ;D

Congrats Senko your learning from one of the best!

Cool pics. I tell people all the time not to go cheap on hooks and rings. Its bound to happen.

8 in hand poured curly tail cinamon blue. There are several brands that make good versions. That is my #1 daytime worm. my #1 night time worm is a 10in dark colored power worm. if I could only use one it would be the hand pour

Yes good to see you back. I think we all missed you. I totaly aggree with the Bizz. I dont know where the clear water notion came from but swimbaits are trying to imitate fish. Bass especialy big bass are fish eaters. they eat fish in chocolate milk looking water too. My favorite conditions for throwing swimbaits are when its overcast and windy/rainy. The water is usualy very clear but the weather makes it so they dont get a great look at the bait. The bites seem to be more commited also. Its like they dont think about it as much and just eat it.

Love the release pic. Ok litsen up! What happened to you is typical. Big bass with big bait equals a ton of leverage. Big bass jumps or even shakes its head underwater and the bait comes out. This is why we use heavy gear and crank them in. You cant play them or they will find away to get away. We use oversized gear and heavy line and almost no drag and WE control the fish. If you feel the fish rising sweep hard to the side just before it breaks the surface. Many times you can turn their heads towards you and keep them from jumping. dont stop cranking untill the fish is caught. Also use a stinger hook. A QUALITY hook and split ring. I recomend owner hyperwire rings and owner 2x size 4 treble. Imbed one of the trebles into th belly so its not hanging. Lube the bait. I repeat, LUBE THE BAIT!!!!! This will result in much better hook sets and this will also prolong the life of your soft swimbaits. The fish cant get a good grip on a slippery hunk of rubber so its less likely to tare. This also means the bait will move in its mouth and burry the hooks. I recomend Megastrike or Pro cure butters. Thes tips are recomended for all soft swimbaits , not just mine. Congrts on the 5 but man that big one would have been better. At least you know were she lives. Good luck I hope you get another shot at her. I also sent you a PM

The Diawa rod is a decent rod however they grossly overestimate its lure rating. It is horrible with baits near 4oz and above. For smaller baits like mine its not bad but I would still take the Okumas. Now IMO nothing competes with the Okuma for arround $100. You can buy better rods but not in that price range. Their lure ratings are good.

Do any of you actualy burn buzzbaits and consistantly catch fish? the reason I ask is, I always see fast reels assosiated with buzzbaits. IMO a fast reel is the WORST chioce for a BB. I think a 5.1 is just about right for them. I have caught 100's of buzzbait bass. It is one of my top 5 techniques and evrybody I know that are good with the buzzer uses a sloooow retreive. So I am sincerly curious if you guys have "heard" that fast reels are best for buzzers or do you actualy preferr them?

the TT is a good bait dont give up on it. The problem is guys see the pics of the huge fish we catch and dont realize that we get dinks also. Usualy not as small as yours but plenty of 3-6lbers. You have to remember we use thes baits to fool the biggest oldest smartes bass in the lakes. A small bass will get fooled just the same. That liitle guy you caught had some moxy! Keep slinging away, if anything that should have givven you a little confidence since you caught one so quickly.

Randall you are scarry good. I only know of a couple guys out here that catch as many big fish as you do. You really need to enter into one of the HBC tourny's. The next one is in Texas on Amistad. The Cali boys are going to invade that state and I think you would be a great rep for GA.

Ha Ha I bought the Hydro lures. I didnt expect them to work but I wanted to see how they swam. I found some on ebay for about $3 They werent even worth the 3 bucks. Realy bad.

Mrs. Matstone I havent tried the Rage tail tods or frogs. I meant that I like thier shad better then regular hollow frog baits and all the other toad baits. I wouldnt be suprised if the other rage baits are also good. Thanks for posting your reports. I always enjoy them.