Beverly Bassman

Merrimack River at Tyngsboro, MA was 67 degrees on Saturday. One year ago it was 81 degree. Fishing was incredibly slow. One smallie in four hours. They wouldn't even touch the drop shot. I spoke to a guy who lives on the river and he said there was a tournament on the river last weekend and he heard they did ok. But it was dead Saturday. Most of the boats at the Pawtucket Blvd ramp caught nothing.

I keep detailed records on all my fishing. I like the look and feel of rage craws. But Texas weighting them and flipping in or near cover has been unproductive where I fish.. I'm not saying other craws work better. I haven't tried. And I do ok on a few other rage products. But rage craws have only caught fish successfully for me as jig trailers. And frankly rage chunks are better for that. If you watch Extreme Angler TV on YouTube, that guys hammers them on Texas rigged rage craws. That's where I really got the inspiration to fish them heavily for a while. But when I flip Gene Larew, Reaction Injovation or Yammamoto soft plastics, they outperform the rage products in the same water and cover.

My 30 hours estimate us low. I have been on the water 34 times in the last two seasons, at least 4 hours each time. That is on the order of 150 hours. It's more than 30 hours.

I know I am going to get attacked by everyone on this board, and I know they are a sponsor of this site, but I have had very poor luck with rage craws. I have had better luck with space monkeys and roosters. The regular craws don't work in the waters I fish. I have spent probably spent 30 hours throwing them in 6 or 7 colors on Texas rigs. Maybe two fish in all that time. As soon as I put down the craws and throw something else, I catch fish. I almost think the rage craws have become a "hot" lure and fish are getting conditioned to them. I fish very highly pressured waters, so that may be part of it. I do ok using the craws as a jig trailer, where I bite off about half an inch of the body. I did recently try the baby rage craws with a very small sinker as a "finesse" presentation. Lots of hits from bluegill on that but no bass. Let the attacks begin...

What would you guys do differently, if anything, in a lake where alewife are the primary forage? I will be fishing a lake like this soon.

Very nice fish, and all the more impressive because you stuck it out through the bad weather. Congrats!

Just took a look at your profile. You like bass fishing, deer hunting and camping. The military is very lucky to get a guy like you!

Question for Shane or others: what situation calls for putting a craw, space monkey or any bait like that on a weighted swimbait hook (keel weighted). Is this really for sparse cover with a swimming type of presentation or would it be ok to flip it into the really thick stuff?

I have to hand it to you, Mainebass. You get the numbers like nobody I've ever met or seen. Most of the time, you are getting 7 to 10 bass per hour. That is fantastic! I really never get more than 2 or 3 per hour. Lots of learning and skill improvements needed on my part. Are you getting those great numbers in big water or smaller lakes/ponds? Are these lakes highly pressured? When you fish the weightless rage craws, are you using the full size, baby size or the new Denny Brauer DB size?

Nev,I have been drop shotting a lot the last two years. I don't love it, but it does catch many fish when other things don't work. I think it's the best way to catch deeper fish that won't chase a moving bait. I have tried many baits on drop shot. I have not caught much on roboworms, which are the original drop shot bait (favored by Aaron Martens). I have done best on Gulp minnows. Best success has been on 3" size in black shad color. I got this idea from a Mike Iconnelli article. The emerald shiner and smelt colors also work. I sometimes drop down to the 2.5" size if the bite is poor. I use Gammakatsu 1/0 drop shot hooks. I don't bother with the new swivel hooks. Line twist is not a problem if you use the drop shot weights that swivel. I use 8 pound fluorocarbon for all drop shot applications. It also helps to have a medium weight, sensitive rod. It's important to rig the bait properly. Bring the hook point up through the chin of the bait and just barely poke it out the center of the nose. KVD describes this in a video. Don't just nose hook the bait and let it dangle. Proper rigging makes the bait stay in a horizontal position and dart forward with a slight twitch of the rig. I use a reasonably heavy tungsten weight, sometimes up to 1/2 oz. depending on depth and wind. You have to be able to feel the sinker the whole time. I normally fish this setup in cleaner bottom areas in depths over 10 feet. Oftentimes over 20 feet. It's great for smallmouth. Many people have success with whacky rigged senkos and worms on a drop shot. I have not found them to be as effective as the Gulp minnows. If trying senkos, I recommend the 3" size or at most the 4" size. The 3" works ok when nose hooked as described above, rather than whacky style.

Bob, Do you use a spinning reel when skipping those baits? I can cast very low to the water with my baitcasters but I can't really skip baits with them very well.

Most of the research shows there are larger fish in most bodies of water. They can be very solitary and very wary of artificial lures. That's probably how they got so big. Some anglers seem to gave the skills, patience and the knack to find them and catch them. I have not really been one of them in the past. If I'm not catching anything, I get bored after an hour or so, and I start using drop shot or something to catch a few fish. I usually only have 2 or 3 hours on the water, so I don't spend it searching for the one or two lunkers in there. But in most cases, they are in there. I admire they guys who get them. I am starting to target bigger fish lately. On one highly pressured lake I know, there are big fish, but it's hard to get them to bite. For years, I have assumed that once the spawn is over, the bigger fish are on the deep edge of the weed lines or out on deep water structure. I have fished that way for years on this lake with poor results. After some reading on targeting bigger fish, I tried the opposite strategy. I fished very tight to bushes, dock pillings, rocks and other cover that was right against the shore. In two hours last week, I caught a number of fish in the 3 pound range in water I have been ignoring for years. In some cases, I went through a grass/pad field with a push pole and fished in a foot of water to some shoreline bushes. I would have never thought a 3 pounder would be there but it was. Have you guys had similar experiences?

I have no doubt there is strict enforcement of some public water supply locations. I can tell you there is zero enforcement at others. At one of them in the next town over from me, when the police catch someone fishing there, they say "this is not allowed, you have to leave soon" then they take a telescopic rod out of the squad car and fish with the person for a few minutes. Then they make them leave. I have seen this happen many times while I am on my morning run. My issue with the whole thing is the inconsistency in policy. If boating and fishing are so bad for the public water supply, then why us it routinely done in the western US? When I lived in California, all the Water District reservoirs were fishable. Now a few have been closed because of invasive species (mussels) that clog up the water equipment. That is a legitimate issue. But other than that, what is the big problem? One small water supply reservoir near my house is now closed to fishing after being open for decades. I went to the water planning board meeting to ask why. They said the two older couples who live on the reservoir complained that teenagers were dumping "oil or gasoline" into the lake. So the solution is to permanently punish fisherman??? I get the feeling those people wanted to have the pace all to themselves.

I have thrown many musky lures that are bigger than 4.8oz on a 7ft MH bass rod. I caught a 19 pound musky last august on a setup like that. You have to be careful. A heavy action rod is better. But you can fish that lure with the rods you described. Don't over stress the rod on the back cast. You can still get a feel for the lure.

I hired guides when I was learning how to fish. I wanted to see how they located fish, how they selected lures and how they presented them. I learned a lot from them. But not everything they showed me has worked for me. At some point, you have to figure it out for yourself. Texas, Florida, California Minnesota and New England all fish differently. I have fished all of them with guides at first and then on my own. Minnesota is my favorite. Most anglers are fishing for Muskie, Pike and Walleye. The bass are less pressured. They bite hard and fight hard. And they are easier to find. They tend not to be in open water because of the threat from pike/muskie. They love bull rushes in 3 feet of water.

My experience is that the skill of the fisherman means a lot. When I fish with guides, they ALWAYS outcatch me, even though we are throwing the same lures. Of course, part of that may be that they are at the front of the boat. But they are more accurate with their pitches, and they make less splash. They also seem to give the lure more subtle action than I can.

Shane, what line and hook would you use to throw an unweighted Rage Craw? With 12 pound Fluoro and a 4/0 hook, it doesn't seem like enough weigh for effective pitching. An unweighted 5" senko is heavier than that, but I still have a hard time pitching them. I have to keep the spool pretty loose, which means I can backlash it pretty easily if the bait hits a stump or something. One other question. Do you use a line conditioning spray on your fluorocarbon? I like how these products make the line easier to handle, but I worry the smell could turn off the fish.

As for set ups, here is what I am typically using: Unweighted Senko: 12 lb Fluoro, 6 1/2 foot medium action St Croix, 6.5:1 Shimano Citica 3/8 or 1/2 oz. Jig: 15 lb Fluoro or braid if very heavy cover, 7 foot medium heavy St Croix, 7.1:1 Shimano Citica Set ups are what I learned from various guides I have hired.

Fishing a jig along a clean bottom is totally different, obviously. But pitching a jig in or near heavy cover, it's a fall oriented bait. Once it's on the bottom, shake a time or two and pull it out. You can fish a senko in exactly the same cover and catch fish that won't strike something falling so fast as the very lightest jig. I know you can slow the fall of a jig a bit with a big trailer and 3/8 vs. 5/8. Nothing like a senko. I hired a guide on lake toho years ago. Former pro tournament angler. He showed me how to measure and alter the fall rates of senkos. Unweighted, they fall vastly slower than any jig. Period. He was counting them down with his stopwatch. NHe caught a nine pound spawner that day on a five inch senko. I didn't have much luck that day but I learned a lot from him about how to fish senkos. Some people think it is an idiot technique. Not according to this guy. I would not ever match Shane on a five fish bag, even using the exact same bait as him. I lack the skill and touch to be that good. But many times, I have gone through a heavy cover area dropping a jig in every open pocket and caught nothing, then gone back with a senko and caught three or four fish. It happens too often to be coincidence. It makes everyone all irritated when someone talks about senkos. That's silly. It's just a piece of plastisol that has a particular shape, density and salt content that makes it fall a certain way. Yamamoto, Strike King, Yum and BPS all make them and they all work. They outsell all other soft plastics, big time. If you are out for a nine pounder in a northern state, maybe it's not the best choice. But 5 pounders sure like them. And I can tell you dinks will certainly hit a big jig. Happens to me plenty. Then there is the lizard, which we haven't gotten to yet. Maybe another day...

Yeah yeah yeah. I keep statistics on my fishing. Over a thousand fish, I don't think the numbers lie. It's 5 to 1 jigs vs. senkos. My average size is bigger on jigs but not much. The problem with a jig is that you can't fine tune the fall rate very much. Your choices are fast or kind of fast. Senkos or other soft plastic stickbaits can be fished anywhere from unweighted to nail weighted to lightly weighted with a swimbait hook to full Texas-rig weighted. They can also be whacky rigged or niko rigged for a different look. Many different fall rates can be achieved. All of these pale in comparison to a simple, unweighted Texas rigged senko because it's the only thing out there that really falls in a horizontal orientation. You can do almost the same thing with a hard jerk bait, but my experience is the senko will out catch it every time. If you guys want to talk about what will catch a 7 or 8 pounder in New Hamphire, I cannot disagree. My personal best is only around 5 pounds. But I have had about 10 of those and most of those were on senkos, including a 5 pound smallmouth I caught at Big Mantrap lake in Minnesota that is within a pound of the lake record. That does not consider the dozens of four pounders I have caught on this bait. So if 5 pounders in northern states will readily hit this bait, why will six, sevens and eights not do so? By the way, if you don't think a 7-inch senko is a big fish bait, why do I routinely catch northern pike with them when bass fishing in Minnesota? I have caught pike over 15 pounds on this bait. My personal data and experience shows that senkos shallow and dropshot deep will significantly out-catch other techniques, with only a small difference in size versus the other techniques. I think the reason for this is the action. The weightless senko and the drop shot more closely match natural forage, by hovering slowly in the water column. Nothing in nature hits the surface of the water and falls straight to the bottom. I spent much of this past season throwing Strike King Denny Brauer Pro Model jigs and Texas Rigged Rage Craws. My catch rate on both was very mediocre, and I certainly caught numerous sub one-pounders on these baits. I did catch a few decent ones too, but nothing to write home about. I don't expect to convince you guys, which is fine. Shane would catch big fish with a Mcdonald's french fry on the hook. I will keep on doing what works for me. Do me a favor guys, don't start throwing senkos. :-)

I fish senkos a lot. My five biggest fish have all been caught on them. The five inch size will catch big fish but it will also catch a lot of smaller ones. If you go up to the six inch size, you will get a higher mix of larger bass. If you use the huge seven inch senkos, your bite will slow down, but you will really only catch larger fish. I have never had anything less than two pounds even bite a seven inch senko. These are big bait. If you hold one in your hand you will see what I mean. You have to use a 6/0 hook with them, Texas-rigged. They are so bulky and heavy, you really have to work on your pitching technique to avoid big splashes that spook fish. I know a lot a experienced bass fisherman look down on senkos. That's fine with me. They consistently work for me when other baits don't. I have attended professional BASS and FLW tournaments and there are plenty of pros using them. When money is on the line, the pros use what works. They don't care about image. KVD uses them all the time, all though he uses the Strike King Ocho product, which is similar, but slightly different from a senko. I saw KVD catch a 9 pounder on Lake Fork using this bait.

Shane, those a great fish! Fantastic work. Just thinking about those will get us through winter!

For my money , Shimano reels cast better, reel smoother, don't backlash, and require less maintenance than any other brand. I am not in love with their internal braking system, which uses small plastic weights that can fall off when you have the compartment open. But they are such good reels, it's a small thing to put up with. Second best is Abu Garcia, but it's a big drop off to any other brand. Have not had luck with BPS over the years, but have not tried recently. Lew's is a brand that was great, disappeared, and is now back. Endorsed by Barry Stokes on his fantastic Texas based fishing show called Southwest Outdoors. Episodes are posted on YouTube every week.

Bob, I like the Shimano Citica. It can be had for 100 bucks and comes in 3 different gear ratios. I have six of them and they are very smooth and trouble free. The Shimano Caenan is a slightly cheaper option at 80 bucks. But it ony comes in 6.5:1 and I don't like the round handles on the cranks. Still, it is a very smooth reel. For rods, I am St. Croix all the way with a coupe of G Loomis mixed in.