Gangley

Spinnerbaits and Flukes.

I rig mine in the up position. Unlike most though, I prefer to have a THICK skirt on my swim jigs.

I did and LOVED them. They arent cheap, and their tails rip off easily, but they have some serious thump and do a good job in dingy/stained water. Productive Presentations: Texas Rigged with Pegged Weight. Let it sink to the bottom and sit for a second, then rip it 3-4 feet off the bottom and let is sink on slack line. You will feel that paddle tail thumping good on the upwards ripping motion but the bites rarely come during the ripping motion. Be ready though, because most of your hits will be once it starts so sink on slack line. You will notice the line twitch, or see it move to the side right when you start to let it fall back on slack line. Occasionally you will feel a solid thump, but in my experience you will have to watch your line. Weighted Hook. Use a weighted hook and swim the lure on top of grass flats right through the tips of the grass, occasionally ripping it upwards if you start to feel it knick the grass a lot. Jig Trailer. I use this method a lot at night since the tail gives off so much thump. You can also cut the tail down the middle to give it a "clawed" appearance. Hope this helps, good luck!

the Zel-Pops are great!

dropped this good sized one out about 2 weeks ago. It should hold some decent bass and crappie, or atleast Im hoping it does

looking forward to DVR'ing that one!

A little use method with poppers is also the "Dive" retrieve. I'll pop it a few times and then do a strong pull of the rod where the popper dives down about 6 inches below the surface and gets pulled about 3 or 4 feet at that depth. WIth good poppers, an oxygen trail will follow the popper as its pulled under the surface and the popper will have a tight wobble as well. Certain poppers will do a slow side to side wobble as they float back to the surface. Along with the way the popper sits on the surface, its walk-a-bility, and its spit-a-bility, the two properties mentioned above(tight wobble when pulled under the surface and a slight wobble as it floats to the top) are two of the key characteristics I look for when selecting a popper. A word to those who are looking for those characteristics....you get what you pay for

Rapala DTFAT3 and DTFAT1 Bomber Model B Balsa

glad to see you got it back. Loosing a good lure can be rough because most times its the intangibles that made it a good lure. Glad to see you got it back.

Whoops, didnt read all the posts to know you were finished, haha. SORRY!

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Most all of the brands listed are great in my opinion and you wont go wrong chosing any one of them. However, brands of lures vary greatly in quality and details depending on what type of fishing you are doing and what specific traits you are looking for in your lures. For instance, a 7 inch ribbon tail worm is gonna basically be the same for a lot of manufacturers so pick your brand preference for a generic ribbon tail worm based on whatever whimsicle detail you want. However, if your wanting something specific in a 7 inch worm, thats when you need to be specific about brand. As an example, Rage's new 7 inch worm will put out more thump than most ribbon tails and that can really bring the fish in sometimes while the ZOOM, Berkely, Gambler, etc. will all have milder actions that produce equally as well when less thump is needed. Again, brand preference is mostly important once you know what you are specifically wanting from a lure, but if you are looking for generic items, any brand listed will meet your needs. As an addition to the question you asked, quality is something that a lot of beginning tackle buyers seem to over look. Make sure that your terminal tackle is quality so that you arent spending loads of money and time re-tying and replacing. Good hooks, good line, good swivles, good weights, good etc. will save you more money and catch you more fish in the long run. Good lures dont catch anything if they break off or if the hooks get dull quickly. Again, spend the extra 2 or 3 dollars and get the higher quality terminal tackle when available so that the money you spend on plastics isnt thrown away.

Any single tail grub of decent size will work fine. Another option is the back end of a 10" ribbon worm. A while back I ran out of grubs but had my 10" worms on me so I ripped off the back of the ribbontail worm, rigged it as a trailer, and it worked just fine.

Instead of skipping over your question and simply suggesting a sponsors product, I'll try to answer the questions you asked first. As far as what they mimic, I have NO clue. Maybe a craw, maybe a salamander, I have no clue....but they obviously work . Techniques: Texas rigged and carolina rigged. They are a fairly subtle lure so I dont blaze them through the cover too quick. I like to give them a chance to let their appendages do their job and draw in the fish. The lightest weight allowed the better for a texas rig. Since the uninhibited sponsor promotions seem to be a re-occuring theme, I'll add this. Selecting a lure isnt about brand and just because it says Rage Tail on the package doesn't mean it will automatically work better so don't fool yourself into buying something if what you have is giving you good results already. Since the brushhog is working well for you, that means the action of the lure and the presentation you are using is perfectly fine. Switching to a Rage product offers a completely different action thats not near as subtle. The fish may or may not like it, so I wouldnt switch up until the fish quit hitting your current setup. I am not bashing the Rage Tail products by any means, but blindly suggesting sponsors products is an irresponsible approach to learning and can set you back on the learning curve. Dont get me wrong, I own several Rage Tail products and had a good day of fishing this past Sunday with them because the fish where keying in on plastics with LOTS of action. When thats the case, its HARD to beat a Rage Tail product, they simply thump better than most However, on days where they want subtlety, the Rage Tails get put away and out comes the more subtle lures. For right now, if what you got is working then no need to reinvent it. Stick with it until the fish are requiring you to change your presentation or lure selection.

X2 Find the crankbait lures that you like and become proficient with them. By doing so you will learn crankbait tactics far quicker and will further increase your confidence as your catch rate increases. Color is last on my list of crankinbait attribute importance.

similar to a 4.25" gambler flappin daddy, but muuuuuuuuch longer

MH XF Tip is perfect for an all around worm rod. the thicker the cover the more I throw the worm. I rarely lose tails going through any type of cover, but if I had to chose one I would have to say that I generally lose tails when fishing thick underwater grass flats. For some reason the tails sometimes tend to get wrapped up in the grass and tear off.

Great worm. I've found that when I get a bite with a rattlesnake, they RARELY spit it out. Also, you can smell a boat with an open pack of Grande Bass baits from half a mile away....STRONG smell, haha.

LFT Hyper Freak and Hyper Worm

The skirt on that jig is just fine. I might would trim the length, but thats personal preference and nothing more.

This is a conversation best had with the Bait Monkey! In all seriousness though, you are lacking most in soft plastics and topwater. These are my "must-haves" when I go out as far as soft plastics and topwaters are concerned. Everybody has their preference of brand so I listed a few off to the side for you. Soft Plastics to cover all water columns: Get some 7" and 10" curl tail worms(ol' monsters, powerworms) Stick baits (senko, strike king) straight tail (Trick Worm) flukes or paddletail flukes (Zoom Superfluke, Yum Money Minnow) creatures (beaver, brush hog, craws) soft plastic buzz baits (Horny Toad, Rage Toad) Topwater: Buzzbaits (cavitron, lunker lure, booyah) poppers (pop-r, zel-pop, chug bug) jitterbug spook

Not that I'm a big rage tail fan, but the action of the warmouth and the shellcracker are going to be COMPLETELY different. This is not a ripoff of one lure by another. last time I checked, the warmouth didnt have pectoral, side, and anal fins, textured scale patterns and gil slits along its side, and sure as heck didnt have the rage tail appendages. Keep a more open mind when looking at things, a little patience and inspection of the two lures would have shown you how different they truley are. After all, lure action is what truley sets one lure apart from another, and there is no way to deny that the actions of these two baits will be considerably different

Do you have a price point yet? It looks to have plenty of plastic so I assume it will be a hefty price. Worth a try regardless though, its a close resemblance to a beaver and Im sure can be fished like one with good results. Since I'm certain that you have done quite a bit of "beta" testing on it, what is your preferred method of rigging and how did you fish it?

Looks goood. Judging from the slits near the tail Im assuming its a side hooked bait meant for flipping and pitching. Throw a little chartruse die on the tail and fins and BAM!!!

Spro Little John DD Strike King 6xd Norman DD22 H20 Express Deep Crank Rapala Dt14, 16, 20 Last but not least is a GREAT deep diver and the one that will most likely go deepest..... the Hot Lips Express. I'm sure Im gonna get PM's asking me to remove that last lure from the list seeing how alot of people try to keep it hush hush.