Tokyo Tony

The best way to combat the slow bite for LMB is to fish for smallies. They're still pretty active, and way better than largemouths Otherwise, get jiggy on deep structure.

Topwater's been hot around this area too in most of the ponds I fish (Connecticut). Been killin' 'em on frogs buzzed on the surface. Jig bite hasn't been too hot, but soon I will probably be using jigs almost exclusively, especially after this little front.

If you're gonna be texas/carolina rigging your plastics I would not spray the scent in the bag. It makes the worm/misc plastic slide off the hook very easily so you'll be fixing the rig all day. Rig it up and spray the bait afterwards. If you're worried about the scent wearing off, don't. Just because you can't smell it doesn't mean the fish can't. The main purpose of scent is to make the fish hold on once he has it, not necessarily to attract the fish to the bait (although this may happen sometimes).

Any of you guys shore fish at Boston Lot Lake near Hanover? I love that place - heading up this weekend from CT for my fraternity reunion weekend, and I always hit this place up. TONS of smallish smallies.

I also keep all my jigs bunched together, organized more or less by color and type, and for me this works fine. As for your rust situation - I reserve a 3700 labeled "used" for all the wet lures I've used during the day, and when I get home after a day of fishing I'll lay them all out on a towel and let them dry before I put them back in with the rest of the lures, and I haven't had any problems with rust.

Burley - nice. That's the same tackle bag I use for my hard baits. The thing is awesome. I rarely take the whole thing with me, but for me, it's a great base of operation. Instead of writing directly on the box though I put strips of athletic tape labeled with sharpies - this way when I get in the mood to improve the system, I can easily switch labels. I usually just take a backpack with me either with a couple of the 3700 boxes and a bunch of plastics, or I'll hand pick a bunch of lures and put them into much smaller boxes to fit in the backpack. For my plastics I use little ziplocks (or sometimes the original packaging) inside of bigger ziplocks, then label the big ziplocks: senkos, kreatures, curly tail worms, tubes/grubs, frogs, etc. Then with that pile of big ziplocks, I dump them all into an older, smaller soft bag than that Cabelas one from which I've emptied the hard plastic boxes. This way I can put my scents, rigging tools, spare pliers, dyes and markers in the outside pouches. It's funny - when I started to get into bass fishing hardcore about 2 years ago, I started with a hard drawer-type tackle box that had all my lures in it. About two weeks later, I graduated to a soft box with 8 3600-ish boxes, and a couple of months later, I graduated to the huge Cabelas one that has 12 3700s that also held my plastics. Now, I've moved all the plastics away from the hardbaits to make room, and my plastics sack is full to the brim. I think I have some issues. Word of advice: don't get a tackle box that is way too big for all of your tackle because then you feel a very strong urge to fill it.

Get some in-line spinners too. They're great in rivers and will catch anything that's there.

Yeah I just got my order of 4 swimblades and 8 bags of plastics (and three packs of skirts). I'm unimpressed by the swimblades. They seem like they'll be good (I only tried one out briefly), but you can't work them fast - they start to spin. So you have to work them relatively slowly, and they're less weedless than Booyahs and Chatterbaits. I do like the action - it's a lot crazier than the other brands - but we'll see if the fish like them. On the other hand, I really like the plastics, especially the cane toads. It's tough to find a toad that actually floats, but their floating version stays right on the surface, which I like in a lot of situations. Just caught some nice ones in the muck the last two days, and the fish seemed to prefer the cane toads to the more subtle toads (e.g. SIZMIC and Horny Toads). I like the huge kicking feet they have. The senkos seem decent, but I'll always prefer GYCB senkos. I also like the skirts I got - they look pretty good. FYI Thanks again for that post, Avalon.

Carp are sometimes near moving water. I know once I saw a 20 poundish fish watch my senko fall, and since I at first though it could have been a bass, I had to go home and change into a clean pair of boxers. Turns out it was a carp, and he didn't want the senko.

Bait Monkey really isn't a problem unless you're spending more than you can afford - I know that when I'm sitting at home and have nothing to do, often I'll go to Dick's just for the heck of it and spend a bunch of money on stuff that looks cool, or stuff that I "need" more of. I have a great time picking the stuff out, and a great time pulling out all my tackle and placing the new items in their respective areas. It's been said before, and I'll say it again. Half the fun of fishing (sometimes a LOT more than half, depending on how good the fishing is) is the anticipation. I love sitting around the night before going fishing and just going through which baits I think I'll need and imagining where I'm gonna fish them and the huge fish I'm gonna catch. Usually doesn't work out that way, but the anticipation NEVER disappoints, and I have the bait monkey, in large part, to thank for that. That being said, it is still ridiculous how much I spend on fishing stuff.

Same here. Hoping the order will be at my doorstep when I get back from work, but they charged the correct amount. Thanks for pointing out the offer buddy, we appreciate it!

My favorite is MegaStrike for all applications, but that was not your question. So for a spray, I use YUM craw scent. It goes on a little red, but as soon as the bait hits the water the red disappears but the STINK stays. The stuff reeks like freakin' gross rotten craws, but it's really good. I use it when I really want to stink the fish out. Caught my PB on a GYCB Kreature doused with this stuff.

jb_adams - a lot of people have success at night with plastics, but I am like you. Unless I'm sure a spot is holding fish, I'm not confident with plastics at night. I much prefer something with at least as much vibration as a spinnerbait with a colorado blade. My favorite baits at night are chatterbaits and rattletraps - I seem to have the most luck with those, and it seems to me it's because they're really loud and easier for the bass to find. Of course sometimes at night, depending on the conditions, the fish will still be spooky so these really loud baits won't be your best bet. But by far my favorites for night are chatter-style baits, rattletraps, spinnerbaits with a single large colorado blade, and walk-the-dog topwaters (I prefer there to be some moonlight with these so I can see the strike because let's be honest - that's the best part about topwaters). Black or black/blue, black/purple, black/red are traditionally the best general colors, but some people here have said that light colors sometimes do well. I'm sure the guys here can give you (and me) some tips for fishing plastics at night, but for now, I prefer the noisy baits.

Wow fish-fighting-illini - thanks for that explanation. I have some of those bobber stops and have never used them because I couldn't figure out what the deal was. That makes sense - you take the tube off 8-) I actually looked online today for an explanation on how to use them and couldn't find one. I guess it's assumed that you know how.

I highly recommend a reaction-type bait. I have had plenty of times where smallies will just follow or watch a slow-moving or sinking bait, then I'll throw and X-Rap and really jerk the crap out of it and they just instinctively slam it. And yeah, I'd try to stay away from shore, although one of my favorite things is sight fishing for really active smallies and watching them take the bait ;D

Well I guess there's always a price to pay for such good fishing, whether it's coming home to a nagging wife, or gigantic deadly sturgeon flying at your face when you're on the water ;D Seriously though, great story Fish Chris. Those fish look really cool.

I saw those spike habitat things also - but Bill Dance endorses them

Nice fish man, I wish I had a nice pond like that right down the street... And Avid, I know what you mean. When I started, all I used were black senkos, then I diversified my arsenal to include pumpkinseed and watermelon, and used those three baits almost exclusively for almost a year. Needless to say, I have become bored with the senko. It's an amazing bait, but now I pretty much only use it when the bite is really tough or if I really think it's head and shoulders above any other bait for the conditions. It's much more fun for me to catch a fish on pretty much any bait other than a senko. Never tried white before, but it looks like it works just fine FivePoundBluegill 8-)

No he means off the bat. Any hooks that are old and dull should be replaced. From your original post it sounded like you wanted to replace the new hooks on a Rapala with Gamakatsu hooks.

You don't wanna catch the dinks that will short-strike a soft jerkbait anyway. Any bass 1lb+ should be able to inhale it. Anything smaller should be able to inhale it unless it's a bluegill or a baby bass. And I would think that a stinger treble would noticeably hinder the action and eliminate the weedless property of these baits.

I've always thought it was funny how the frog companies often come up with intricate designs and different colors on the back of the frog, designs that the fish may see 1/500 casts. They look cool to the fisherman, but they really don't make a bit of difference to the fish. For me, give me a black, green, or brown frog and I'm happy. I've found the SIZMIC toads in all black are awesome for night fishing.

I'd say that's pretty much the whole ball of wax.

I just read Doug Hannon's answer to question #14 and he said he crimps the barb on ALL his hooks. What? Do you think that's true? If he's actually caught over 800 10 lb+ fish with no barb, it's hard to argue. I STILL think no barb = fewer landed fish....confusing.

My brother has had good luck taking the skirt off a chatterbait and using a Sizmic toad instead - it looks pretty cool in the water. And Joe's Flies - those are great baits for trout. I use them when I occasionally go trout fishing, and yes, they are difficult to cast more than 10 feet, but I can cast them 30 or 40 feet with an ultralight spinning setup with 6 lb braid (and a 4 lb flouro leader). No reason why they couldn't work for smallies or dink LMB.

Awesome, thanks for the replies guys. Definitely have some new ideas to try out there. Those bass have it comin' ;D