Nice_Bass

Just bought a couple of the packages yesterday and was both impressed and unimpressed, many times within the same cast. The Realism as it goes through the water is great, as a search bait it moves perfect at constant speeds. Add some jerks and you have a dying fish that even a vegetarian may think about eating if you put it in front of her. All in all, bait looks and acts great. Now for the disappointment. I must have had around 7 fish on, all large, in the hour that I was using it. Problem was the hook cannot get the penetration that is really needed to get the job done. The hook does not have room to bust out for a solid hook set. Tried a quick hook set, pulled it out of the fishes mouth, tried to let them take it down a bit more, pulled it out of their mouth. Very frustrating for such a good looking bait, although a perfect prefishing bait to find big fish but not catch them! Anyhow, anyone have these issues and have a decent solution? Like I said, with the size fish I saw coming out of structure to nab it, I really do not want to give this one up quite yet.

I did not do this myself, but a friend of mine and got a womens toy put in the bottom of his minnow bucket- he then went to the bait shop and handed the bucket to the clerk and when he went to put the minnows in the discovery was made.

Zuri?

HOLA

Make MJ legal- tax and regulate it. Use the money not spent in rounding up and prosecuting the mj users and put it towards the hard dangerous drugs.

Invasive carp at that...

Just used these products for the first time last night. Seemed durable, looked good in the water, and ran true. My only complaint with the Anaconda was the resistance through the air. All that plastic is great for moving water, not great for moving in the air. Way I was fishing I needed distance casting to cover front back and center of a 7 ft hump in 18ft of water. Had to switch to the Berkley 10inch power bait as I could get just a bit more distance but still carry the larger profile. All that aside, I cannot wait to throw the Annie t-rigged weightless around some docs, should get those pigs to come out for dinner.

Use it flipping t-rig in I believe the blood colors from strike king. Also, I picked up a couple that are floating and I use them to drag a c rig on the bottom over humps and islands. Only problem is up here in IL, you can catch a lot of walleye/saugeye with that rig. But I usually just grease those if I can!

For musky...and sure enough it worked. Did you use any kind of a steel leader, or just tie direct? Picked up 9" rainbow trout and alewife today at Dick's, for $4.97 each. I want to try the rainbow in our river for northerns. used a heave swivel from the main line which was #50 power pro, from there i attached about two feet or so of i believe #50-60 pound mono. Tough to tie at first, but it also helps float the bait a bit. I have also tied direct to the power pro and did not have a problem, just cut off a couple feet and retied after every fish.

I call B.S. ;D I have done it as well, they work grrrrreat. Seriously, the tool that puts them on is a must though.

Not at all. From what I have read, a fishes brain cannot decipher the connection between I see red, therefore it must be blood. I do believe that it may give something just a bit different than the usual presentation, so in pressured waters, it could be beneficial. I also have red that they can decipher different colors, so giving it a shot would not be a bad idea if you want to give a solid color soft plastic just a bit of variation.

Bought 8 packs of them three days ago,...going to try a few different riggings tonight. By the look of them, they do seem like big fish baits, and i will be fishing big fish waters. Cheers, RT Virgin

Coors light, and little powdered donuts.

The only thing better than fishing is good a looking women with a nice,....well, hopefully you get it.

Central IL here, fishing is great right now, stacked up every which way!

For musky...and sure enough it worked.

Don't focus on the brand, any brand will work. Make sure us use the correct types of terminal tackle, and most importantly use the correct knot so that your hook sits at 90 degrees to your line or close to it ( I believe either a Palomar or double cinch would do it). Other than that, its all about when to fish it and where. One more tip, use a clip on egg sinker if you are fishing in rock, much easier to just pull it off then breaking line and shorting your leader to the hook by retying another knot.

Yes, tex-exposed rig it just as the packaging states. I also like the zoom flukes, they have a belly slot for the hook and also carry a more shad-like silhouette. Really though, it is hard to beat the sluggo, just make sure everything is rigged perfectly straight so your bait is not doing corkscrews in the water. If you need to go deeper, I believe Bass Assassin makes a jig head specifically for soft jerkbaits.

Unweighted on a sluggo hook or a toad hook. Draw reaction strikes just like the flukes. Let pause after a series of twitches.

X3 could not state it any different.

Float a Texas rigged craw weightless below a float of some kind, make it a spook or some other lure that will not dive at all with the hooks removed. Make the leader to the craw go just below the weedline that you are fishing and make a series of three jerks so that it appears the craw is scooting out of there and let it dip slowly back into the weeds. If they start hitting your float, time to switch.

At my home lake in central IL, we have an amazing musky population along with the pig bass that we usually target. The musky, of which netting surveys now have us holding many state records, can be pressured to say the least. Now that I am throwing soft swimbaits for bass from time to time, I am out catching the esox angler by a large margin. There is no better day on the water than not knowing what may have just stopped my bait in its tracks, an 8 pound bass, or a 45 inch musky. Makes me smile and appreciate the multitude of species that we are offered, even in Central IL! Love to hear more about the accidental catches, they can be the most fun. I know there is more than a few of you with a few giant flathead and musky caught on low profile bass tackle.

When using the jig..best bet is to case out specific structure. For instance, mark off on your map several rock piles at 15ft. Work those slow and grind the bait on the bottom, try not to lift and let fall too much. Note any bites. Work changes in bottom composition at specific depths and make notes. Also have a few saddles marked out at specific depth/depth changes and fish those slow. I personally only use a jig as a deeper water bait, so I don't have to worry as much about vegetation which can give quite a few false bites with a jig. Eventually, you can get accustomed to the structure at your lake that a jig works, probing these types of areas also has increased my size keepers. Not a good search bait IMO, but I am sure there are many on here that use it as a first throw every time with success. Long story short, put it to use with a specific game plan; I would not worry so much about your equipment, I am sure what you have can and will do the trick. Also, with the braid, you should feel a bite, no need to overthink it. Worse case senerio is lift it to see if there is any weight pulling back, if it lets go tell everyone about the 8 pounder you lost that day!

I would have to agree under 99% of the situations, however when fishing a jig deep, I almost always give a secondary set so that if the strech of the mono did not drive it deep enough, the second may help. Albeit, the second "hookset" is not a power hookset, more of a slower, longer, and controlled pull. This is also in relation to a jig with a heavy broad hook and a brush guard.

If you have the money, go with a fish and ski in the 22ft range. Tough for some situations however I have fished as a 4th on the back many times and we have had plenty of room.