senko_77

This is where we disagree, Smalljaw. MAD props to the angler who still refers to his soft baits as rubber baits. It's a term I use in tournaments all the time and honestly, is the only reason I'm replying to this thread. But it's all good, Jaw. You're still my homie. My favorite would have to be the rubber jerkbait or rubber stick bait. I'm a big believer in bigger fish being generally weary of all the insanity of the baits thrown at them on a daily basis, so I think a bait that puts off very little disturbance gets me bit more and by better quality fish. The rubber jerkbait imitates a dying shad without putting off a bunch of vibration and I fish them very subtly. The rubber senkos, that's a no brainier. They shimmy a bit on the fall and absolutely slay bass. They also work extremely well used in the fashion that Mr. Yamamoto originally designed it for......to be fished like a jerkbait and then sink on the a pause like a dying shad.

You'll do fine, man. In Georgia, they have tournament series on electric motor only lakes and I had great success. I'd also take my boat out to the big impoundments and just put in at a ramp and fish the area like it was a small lake. If you approach it right, fishing with limited mobility on where you can go is a big deal and you can do some serious damage. On most lakes, each creek usually has enough fish with to win a tournament. People get so hung up on running and gunning that they usually move to fast. Having to slow down and really work and area thoroughly can have great results. The boat doesn't make the angler, brotha. It's all about the angler.

Sorry Neil, but I have to disagree with you. I've fished a lot of lakes outside of my "Georgia swamps" and caught them in extremely clear, deep lakes way up shallow. I'm from Rhode Island and visit a couple times of year, and I almost broke the state record a few years back fishing a horny toad on a lake that you could see about 15' down and the fish was way up shallow in some reeds and buck brush.Also, to correct your Georgia swamps comment, our lakes here are not all shallow, muddy reservoirs like you'd think. We have deep, super clear lakes like Lanier, Alatoona, and numerous mountain lakes that are as clear as the water in upstate New York. On all of these lakes, you can always find quality fish shallow. I hope you revisit some of that shallow water on a day when you are struggling out deep and see what you can find. Maybe you will run into more than just a juvenile bass! I hope this post doesn't come across at all as rude or me putting your advice down. If it did, please know that isn't my intention at all.

This is also some fantastic advice. Wayne is a straight killer and is super finesse on the water. He's mastered the wacky rig technique and I owe many fish I've caught to the advice he's given me in the past. Good luck, my friend. Enjoy being in that boat. It's going to open so much for you on the water. Like I said, start simple and slowly expand.

This is a relatively easy problem to solve. It's best since you're in your early boating career to stick to shallow fishing. Boat control and positioning is IMPERATIVE when fishing offshore, so keep it simple. Before the sun gets over the tree lines, pull into small pockets and throw topwater. This time of year I really have success with a spook style bait or a buzz bait. Try different shoreline cover like grass, docks, rocks, lay downs, etc until you find where you are catching more fish. This will help a ton later in the day. Basically, you're gonna stay shallow all day. As sun gets up, usually you experience a small lull in the bite as the fish adjust to the brighter conditions. Since the fish aren't crazy about being exposed in the bright light, it's a no brainier on what to attack the rest of the day.....shade. Fish the shady side of docks, bridge pilings, laydowns. Basically anything that casts a shadow, no matter how small. Bass sit in the shade pockets and ambush prey as it comes by. Bring your bait right next to the shade line or flip a jig or weighted soft plastic right into into the shade. Eventually you're gonna trigger a reaction strike by doing this. I like using a streamlined plastic and heavy weight to get that pitch to shade to fall faster. The faster the fall, the better chance of the reaction strike. Another thing to look for is wind. Even a tiny ripple can get an entire area of fish fired up. It adds oxygen to the water, can cool it off a bit, and create minute amounts of current. All of those things are huge in warm weather fishing. When you find banks with wind, approach it the same way. Root a squarebill crankbait or spinnerbait to keep it simple. Make sure you're running then around shade lines and keep the bait moving quickly. It's all about that reaction strike. If they aren't interested in the hardbaits or spinnerbaits, try a soft plastic jerk bait or senko. That small change can be huge. Once again, on the windy banks, attack the shade with the jig or soft plastic once you hit those shade lines with the moving baits. Another scenario is shoreline grass. If you find quality grass (not that slimy scum grass), but solid, green grass. Attack this with a frog or toad and then work the edges with soft plastics. If you find anything out of the ordinary on that grass line, fish this extra hard. Usually this means the bottom either has an indention or small point and this will focus the fish on that particular area. When you fish a pocket and you're backing out, always always ALWAYS take your boat, line up where the pocket comes to an end, and make a cast to the end with a crankbait that dives a bit deeper (6-12') and make some casts right down the center of that sucker. This little trick will get you tons of extra bites. What's going on is that when the lake is down, and it rains, it carves out a small ditch in the pocket. The fish hold on that ditch and will move up to feed and then move back into the ditch. Seriously, this little technique catches fish year round. Lastly, if you have cloud cover all day and some wind, that topwater bite is gonna stay strong. It won't concentrate the fish like a sunny day will, so you're going to have to expand the areas you fish. Bass tend to roam around on cloudy days so if you are fishing a flat, they could be everywhere, so this is when putting the trolling motor on high and covering as much water as possible is key. Once again, taking note of which cover is near when the fish strikes. No matter how hot it is, there will ALWAYS be shallow fish that are catchable. I hope this helps and gives you a starting point. Please feel free to ask anything else. No question is to basic. We're here to help you catch more fish

Honestly, I think the color black works so well because you stop worrying so much about the dam color and actually on fishing the bait properly. A tournament was won on Lake Oconee a couple years back fishing a smaller tournament while I was on the same lake fishing a BFL. He caught just under 20lbs while everyone else struggled throwing the standard green pumpkins, watermelons, june bug. The point is, color really doesn't matter. Concentrate on the fish's location, the speed of fall they want, and the action they want out of the bait. If you are worried about color, you better have those fish DIALED IN! Good luck, bud.

A bait you don't have listed that will catch fish day in/day out, sunny, cloudy, post front, pre front, muddy, clear, windy, calm, or any other condition you can think of is the Keitech Swing Impact in 3.8 or 4.8 Rig it on a darter head with a high quality hook or a Owner swimbait hook with the small, cylindrical weight on it with the CPS spring on the hook eye. Make sure it is rigged dead straight and play around with the depth and speed you reel it. Reel it on the surface, count it down, or reel it along the bottom. This thing gets bit and works all the time. Also works great on a Scrounger head, on the back of a swim jig, or a chatterbait with or without the skirt. If the water is muddy, try the Fat Swing Impact. Something about this bait....it's special. They always eat this thing.

PAfishing, you can most definitely add a split shot on your line for extra distance and a slightly deeper dive, but like the other members have stated, if you place the shot incorrectly on the line, you can mess with the bait's natural swimming motion. My suggestion for better distance and dive depth.... 1. Lighter line 2. Wrap the shanks of the hook with lead wire. I buy mine from a local fly fishing store but you can probably get it at a hobby store and definitely online. This is a killer trick for your crank. Try wrapping just the front hook's shank to give your bait a more nose down dive and better protection from snags. 3. Add extra split rings. I know it doesn't sound like much, but adding an extra ring to both hook hangers can make a big difference, Hope this helps : )

C'mon Catt. The OP stated he was brand new to jigs and this is a totally valid and understandable question. You should contribute your years of experience with jigs to help the guy out. Hope this doesn't come across as snide, I just know you have an full arms cache of jig info in that Catt brain of yours and this guy could sure need it. Preytorien, as others have said, yes, green colors usually get the nod from anglers in clear water which I would say 2 1/2-3ft or more of visibility and anything less, they usually go with black and blue. Now what Catt meant was that both colors work in either situation. Sure there are times when certain colors seem to out produce others, but for the most part, my best advice would be to take 2 rods, rig up a black and blue jig and a green colored jig, and just toss em in any water color. Concentrate on retrieve (hopping, dragging, shaking, or swimming in like a spinnerbait) to see which the fish prefer and also play around with the weight of the jig. A TON of times the fish will hit it on the way down in it's initial decent and playing around with weights can trigger bites. For example, in Summer, I like a fast falling jig. To do this, I use a heavier jig (1/2-3/4oz) and a skirt that is thinned out and a streamlined trailer to make it fall fast. This triggers suspended warm water fish to bite. In the Winter, I like a bulky jig with a wide, obtrusive trailer to slow that fall down, giving the sluggish suspended bass time to eat it. Let us know if you want some more specific information. Always glad to help. Remember, just take rods rigged with jigs and change your retrieves and weights/trailer combos until you get confidence in your jig fishing ability. The jig WILL catch you bigger fish consistently and once you're confident in it, it's all over. Good luck, my friend. Sending good jig vibes your way!!!

This is the funniest post I've seen on this forum since the MuddyMan, Tin2Win, LBH, and BL days!! I'm Lmao. The swimbait forum guys are some of the funniest, most entertaining group of people I've seen on the internets.

Square bill: Diawa Peanut II (laugh all you want, lol) Freakin fish catching machine. Lipless Crank: Spro Aruku Shad, Yo-Zuri Rattl N Vibe, and Bill Lewis Pro Trap Jerkbait: Norman Razor Minnow, weighted to suspend (fav. cold water bait), and the original Rapala minnow #9 or #11 Topwater: Berkley Frenzy Popper....to think, they used to be 99. in the bargain bin. Now they are $20+ on ebay : ( ONE THING TO NOTE from the replies above....anyone see a pattern? A ton of anglers are throwing the KVD square bills and and Red Eye Shads....not saying they don't work but it says something when you see over 50% of people suggesting it. It means when you hit the water, a bunch of fish have already seen heard a KVD square or Red Eye that day or days prior during practice. Try doing something different like gluing the rattles in your Red Eye or throwing a slightly larger or smaller version of the KVD square. Basically, what I'm trying to say is that both of those baits are great, but in a tournament situation, I bet a ton of fish are gonna be seeing them. Try being a bit different.

Try using the Owner Beast weighted swimbait hook. The weight sits much lower and more to the rear of the hook and this will help a lot with the bait rolling on you. I also really really REALLY like the Owner TwistLock Light which is the same style hook as the Owner CPS you are using but again, the weight sits farther back on the hook and will help prevent rolling. This hook only comes in 3/32oz. and I think it would match up perfectly with the 4.5" swimbait you are using. My other suggestion is to toss the Shadalicious in the garbage. From my experience, they are way inferior to other paddletails on the market. A great bait that catches em for me trip after trip is the Big Bite Baits Cane Thumper. It comes in a 5" and 3.5" They are a little slimmer and kick just as much as the Shadalicious but it's slimmer so it comes through cover better and it's much softer. Even though it is softer the centering pin spring system on the Owner swimbait hooks keeps them going for awhile. Once the nose wears out, bite off about a 1/4" of it and re-rig and you are good. Good luck, my man!!!

I like the way you fish, sir! Weightless and tiny hooks catch big fish.

Jiggz, you can fish it either way but I'm a huge fan of the screw in tungsten screw in weights. I still have a big stash of the Tru-Tungsten ones even though they went out of business, but I believe Eco-Pro and maybe Strike King make screw in tungsten sinkers. Just know that if the weight is pegged, the craw will fall with more of a nose down motion and if the weight is unpegged, it will still lean forward a bit but it will be more horizontal. Also note that when fishing a texas rig with an unpegged sinker, once it hits the bottom, know that the plastic is till falling, The weight separates and slides ahead of the bait and lands first, and then usually 5-10 seconds later, the soft plastic bait comes fluttering down. Really just depends on how deep you are fishing.

This, exactly.

Pictures can be incredibly deceiving. Like Hi Selinity said, the fish in your avatar looks to be about 4lbs to me but I have no doubt that you are telling the truth and that she weighed in at 6.6lbs. Camera angle, the way you are holding the fish, lighting, the background, how big of a person you are, etc. all come into play in screwing up pictures of fish. I've had 3lbers that look MASSIVE and my personal best was 14.7lbs and even though it looks huge, It doesn't look like some of the other 14lbers caught by other anglers. I wish I knew now what I know about taking pictures of fish when I caught that beast. The picture I have of a 10.4 caught 3 years later when I was a much better "fish photographer" honestly looks as big if not bigger than the pic of my 14. Oh well. For any of you reading this thread, go to google and search for Fish Chris's tutorials on taking photos of fish. It helped SO MUCH in how I set up my shots and will make it so you get the best possible polaroids of your fish of a lifetime.

Kent, I agree with your strategy. Besides, you are fishing one event, so you aren't in a points race. Go big or go home. I hate the "I got 5 so now I can go for my kicker." Why waste time with a 7-10lb limit when you can work hard those first few hours when the bigger fish are typically caught and then spend your day with an easier job of filling out the well with the cookie cutters. I can tell you I fish a whole lot better and with more confidence when I have a 5lb+ in the boat first than 3 fish that weigh 5lbs. I don't know your waters too well, but chunk a big crankbait, big Rage Tail bait, or anything else that suits your local big bass' fancy. Except for live shiners...don't throw those. Lol.

I don't have the answer to your question, but PM Bobby Uhrig. He is the owner of Megastrike and an active member here on the forum. I'm sure he will be happy to answer your megastick question.

Beautiful post, Mr. Rolo. I'm sorry for the pain you're feeling but it's an excellent reminder to all of us, young and old, to really appreciate the time we all have here together. I for one believe we will all be reunited together in the afterlife and that gives me peace, but it still is terribly painful waiting here during these "earth years" for that to happen. Thanks for sharing with us and you are in my thoughts and prayers. -Ryan

I live in Georgia but we've had a brutally cold winter. Water temps are extremely low for this time of year. Anyway, I've been catching them since February on the same rig, day in and day out. 1/16oz screw in tungsten sinker, 1/0 ewg hook, and a 3.5" Keitech Swing Impact which is a small, ribbed paddle tail swimbait. I really like the Swing Impacts but I'd imagine any smaller swimbait would do. On the sunny, warm, windless days, my best retrieve has been just swimming it slowly around shallow cover. When the wind has been blowing and it has been post frontal conditions, the lift and drop around the cover a bit deeper has worked better. Hope this helps and glad you're finally able to get out on the water!! This has been a nasty winter for everyone.

I do a lot of golf pond fishing. Once the water hits the mid 50's and up, all I throw is a senko style bait and a buzzing frog. Specifically a 5" GYCB Senko in either a watermelon or smoke color either wacky rigged or texas rigged on a 2/0 wide gap hook. Use 6-8lb line. You will get way more bites compared to throwing heavier line. For the froggy, I use a Black or White Zoom Horny Toad and put it on a 5/0 EWG superline hook and braided line 40#'s and up. Those two baits will destroy golf ponds. Btw, I'm not sure what kind of jerkbait you were talking about in your OP, but I'd refrain from throwing a hard jerkbait as golf ponds are usually covered in that slimy moss crap. You throw something with treble hooks and you're in trouble. If you want to throw a jerkbait, throw a soft plastic one, texas rigged, and with the hook point texposed. Enjoy the pigs you're gonna catch. Golf course ponds are LOADED with big bass.

From my years of tournament fishing, my advice is really just to keep it simple. It's a day on the water where there just happens to be money involved. If you have a good day of fishing, you may end up at the top. If you have a bad day, you'll finish near the bottom. Don't blow it out of proportion. They are fun, but really, it is just 8 hours to see what you can do. Fish the moment, don't fish history. Make sure your gear is good to go the night before just like you would on any normal day on the water. Good luck and I hope you enjoy it! They sure are fun.

Hey Tuckahoe. Congrats on the find! I've found quite a few lures on the bank and when lakes have been drawn down or even when a lake's dam has broken and the water receded until it was just a creek. Anyway, what I have always done is change all the components as you said you have done in your OP, and then use some steel wool to clean up the hook hangers. Then go to the dollar store and grab a cheap toothbrush and use either hot water and dish soap or abrasive toothpaste and get to scrubbin'. This works real well to clean the bait and restore the color and the cool thing is, usually these baits are dimmed down and the color isn't as bright and that can result in you having a killer lure with a color that the fish haven't seen. Quite a few pros will take their baits and put them on the dashboard off their trucks to take some of the shine off the bait so it isn't as flashy underwater. The mud coated baits kinda do the same thing. Now for cleaning up the bill, I've never been able to get them back to their original quality but that doesn't seem to be a big deal to the fish. I clean the bills the same way as the rest of the bait. Hope this helps and good luck!!

It sounds like a perfect lake for throwing a lipless crankbait. Go grab a 3/8 or 1/2, red or orange colored lipless crankbait from any of the manufacturers out there. I prefer the Spro Aruku Shad or Yo-Zuri Rattl' N Vibe but seriously, anything works. Work the bait just fast enough so you aren't snagging the bottom and if you hit any piece of cover, give the rod a quick snap backward. You'll catch numbers and big fish doing this and this technique will work for the next month or so. Also, if they aren't responding to a lipless crank, try swimming a jig. Take any jig you have a put a paddle tailed swimbait on the back of it and fish it just like a spinnerbait. I usually use a 1/4oz or 3/8oz. Good luck!