Mattlures

Yeah badhabit swimbaits dont work in florida! OK umm what ever. They sure seem to work great in Georgia. HMM come to think of it I sell a lot to florida and many are repeat customers. I guess they just got lucky when they caught there big bass on swimbaits. Randall must be the luckiest guy ever as he CONSISTANTLY catches them on swimbaits. He just recently got a 15+ BUT YOU OBVIOUSLY MUST BE RIGHT after all you have caught hundreds yourself : Live bait? Shinners? I dont think any bass out of Florida should count, after all the lakes are only a few feet deep. Its like hunting a lion in a cage! way to easy to be any kind of challenge!! REAL bass come from lakes that are at least 50ft deep. To all the non jealous(hater) Floridians I am sure you realize my coments were sarcastic.

Randall you sir are a stud. I heard a national bass fishing magazine did a ful length write up on you! you are becoming famous!!!!

What a thick fat pig! That has to be one of the coolest 2 pics I have ever seen with you holding the fish in the water and then her soaking you. It is my goal to copy you now! Congrats FC on true monster and it was kinda late in the season.

Soft plastics---Robos and big power worms plugs-----Rapalas Jigs and swimbaits----Mine(no I dont sell jigs) Buzzbaits----custimized terminators Spinnerbait---HA I woulndt waist my time

I think most of the "INFO-Lures" are weak. They will all still catch fish if you fish them long enough. Now with that being said I think the Hydro lure is the very worst of all of them. If you want that style bait get a big hammer or a fishtrap with a small lead head. they are cheaper and 1000x better

Very nice Bizz, your killing me. I realy need to get out and fish!

The fry were baby bass. The bass you saw were males gaurding their fry. It wont belong before the male turns on them and starts to eat his own babies

Wow I am very suprised at some of these answers. I dont know if they could be MORE WRONG!! First and formost getting sponsers is about marketing. If YOU are marketable then sponsers come easily weather your a trophy hunter or not. Mike Long is sponsered by Ranger, (I beleive his boat was free) and many, many other sponsors. Pretty much all the big named trophy hunters out here are sponsored. Heck I am, and I aint that good but I am marketable. Fish Chris is sponsored by G3 and Okuma. Trust me there are millions of tournament anglers who have none or small sponsors. Its not how big or many you catch or how many you win its how much you sell. If you market yourself properly than sponsors will come to you. Can you get your products recognition? will people buy these products because of you? if the answers are yes than you could get sponsered catching bluegill.

If the bait is crooked it could cause it to lean. It is soo easy to straighten the bait. All you need to do is put the back half of the bait in boiling water for a minute or two and the bait will automaticly return to its original straightness. When the bait is straight it will run straight. I do not know why but some line/knots tend to make them leam a little. If you guys cant get them to swim straight I will exchange them for you, or just straighten the ones you send back. My packaging keeps them pretty staright but its not perfect. I personaly hang my baits by the hook eyes. Also remember, Slow down. 90% of my bites are fishing the baits as slow as I can swim them or bouncing them along the bottom. with these baits you WANT the fish to get a good look at them. RW I am glad to hear your getting some fish on them I was beginning to wonder what was taking so long Keep throwing them, you WILL get big smallies on them

Very nice Fbizz. I love to night fish and I use very similatr tactics. I also think color is unimportant at night. Every body says black, and black does work but so does every othey color except glow. I like slow waking swimbaits, buzzbaits, big worms and creatures. I am just more comfortable fishing at night.

Brent be careful with those bubbles. Wear a mask!

any worm can be custom poured to float. They can be poured to stand up on end. You could make a Senko copy with just a small tail section that floated or any othe worm. You would probably have to order a bunch but I bet if you contacted some guys who do custom handpours they could easily do it for you.

bucketmouth is right. that will fix 95% . also the faster you reel them thmore they will "try" to lean. The bait is designed to be fished slow. reel them just slow enough to get the tail to kick and maintain that speeed. The biggest mystake I see new swimbaiters making wath any swimbait is retreiving them too fast.

It is a very borring technique and it does not work. The guy who named it stitching was well known for catching 2 lb bass. Ok let me start over. MR LUNKER BILL MURPHY, the original modern day trophy hunter is the one who named this technique. He had caught hunderds of fish over 10lbs before he died a couple years ago from skin cancer. Mike Long, Bob Crupi and pretty much all other trophy hunters have read his book. "In pusuit of giant bass" it is known as the trophy hunters bible. The man was the best there was and one of his favorite techniques was stistching. He used spinning setups and so do I. The idea is togather line with your fingers a couple inches at atime untill you have a couple feet, then your reel the slack and continue. There is a lot more to that just this as setting up your spot is crucial. stitching is probably the best worm technique for catching big bass. It is slow and percise and EXTREMLY efective. I actualy have some of his worms he made I bought off of ebay after he died. He used big bulky worms and a small bait hook with a small split shot. HE SLAYED THEM!!!!

preach4bass thanks for posting. This is why I make baits. This is what drives me. Yeah I make little money too but when I am burnt out and tired its things like this that keep me motivated. Thank you.

Heartbroken? NO No No. think about what you did. You should feel good about it. Now that big ol bass can make sombody elses day maybe even yours again. You did the right thing.

Thats a good question because I caught somethis year that to me looked like they were 2 lbs and when I got them up they were twice that size. For me it seems that size plays a big part in distortion. Small looking fish almost always look bigger when they are caught and I have caught a couple that a swore were 12 and only weighed 10. For the most part the water makes fish look smaller to me. 80% are bigger than I thought. It also has to do with how many big fish you have seen and caught recently. If its been a while they look bigger if I have caught a few recently then they look smaller. Glad I could help. ha ha :-/

I dont recomend bending the harness but nait weights work. I still recomend boiling first to get everthing straight. If you use a treble on the bottom you can embed one of the hooks into the belly. If you hook it slightly off center it can correct the lean. Also certain stiff lines can cause the bait to lean.

I Have not caught as manny as Randall but I have caught a couple. I think the key here is playing the percentages. I have hada couple good fish caught on various baits like Rapalas and small plastic worms but those same baits have produced hundreds of fish for me under 2lbs. Baits Like jigs,buzzbaits,big worms and Suprisingly SMALL creature baits produce bigger fish on average. But.. through much trial and error I have learned when certain baits work well for big fish. For instance Buzz baits at night equal big fish but in the day they catch small ones. Why? because in the day time the big ones are out deeper and there are to many negative ques for a big bass to fall for a buzzer. At night they move up shallow to feed and a SLOW buzzer becomes a big fish bait. Swimbaits are probably the only no brainer. They simple give you the best odds of catching a big fish. Now I dont mean that they will catch bigger fish all the time than a jig or other big fish bait. what I mean is if you took the average weight from a hundred fish caught on all the popular baits, swimbaits would win hands down. It wouldnt even be close. Now a jig might catch as manny big ones but it would also catch more small opnes. Big worms are interesting. I dont think you increase your odds much just by upsizing your worms. I have caught a ton of very small fish on verry big worms. I think a big worm fished in a regular spot will do as good or less than a small worm. However a big worm fished in a big fish spot will greatly outproduce a small worm. The small creature bait still makes no sence to me but I have a very high average weight on little 3in power hawgs. It makes no sence to me but there is something that better sized fish like about them. Of corse most of my big powerhawg fish were caught at night in ponds. hmmmm.

It all has to do with expectations. If I am hunting big fish and I catch 10 fish and the biggest is 5lbs, I feel like I failed. It would still be fun but I would not be satisfied. Now if I didnt expect any big fish and I was throwing plastics than that same day would be a good day and that same 5lber would be a good fish. Its funny how when you swing on a swimbiat fish and you realize its only 5lbs you instantly are disapointed. Any other technique I am thrilled to catch that 5.

They were actualy in the act of spawning. This does not take to long. Usualy when you see bedded fish they are either getting ready to spawn or they are protecting thier eggs. When you see them rubbing and turning likethat they are getting it on!

Avid I serously think you should send your story to Loomis and Diawa. That is great advertising for them. It shows their products are still good even after being under water for a year. Who know mayb you can be thier next ad campaign. Mayb they will send you new gear if they use your pictures and story. Couldnt hurt.

I have always thought about this. Many years ago when I was a kid I used to fish various Rapalas 80% of the time. The plain black and silver ones were a million times better than the ones with a fish pattern on them. I am mainly talking about the shad raps. I believe that with detail you give the bass a chance to find something wrong. A negative cue. I have always thought that a plain spinnerbait, buzzbait, crankbait, or jigs should have a simple pattern. With the exception to jigs, bass dont have a lot of time to decide if they are going to eat those baits or not. I dont like jigs with eyes or scales or a detailed head. I like them simple. Now keep in mind NONE of these baits are realistic to begin with. They have bills or hanging trebles or splitrings etc. To me cranks get bit becuase of the illusion they create. Not on the detail. Now as a swimbait maker I feel this is completly diferent becuase the most common method is to fish the baits as slowly as possible and LET the fish get a good look at them. If you realy want to get a bite on a swimbait cut off all the hooks and use 4lb Fluorocarbon in a clear lake. You wont catch a fish and you will get your bait bit off but you will see that the little details help. Think about a plastic worm being worked along the bottom. There realy isnt much a bass can find that looks wrong except the line. One more thing I always here that lures are made to catch fisherman instaed of fish. I disagree. If a company invests the time and money they want a bait that will continue to sell. One that does not produce will quickly die off. However I do believe that lure companies do make many diferent sizes and colors of a good product to capitalize on sales. I myself have done this. The ones that our out to catch the fisherman and not the fish are the knock off companies. They will copy good designs to make a quick buck. This is the main reason that originals are almost always better than copies. Not always but most of the time.

Man that makes me feel sick. I feel soo sorry for them.

dropshot worm ;D spinnerbait ;D flyinglure ;D walking worm ;D any other soft plastic worm that is under 10inches ;D Ok for real My gill a big trout swimbait (there are several goo ones) My baby bass Jig Buzzbait, only at night though.