smalljaw67

I will tell you what I think is happening. I believe Bluebasser is correct, the fish are trying to stun the bait or even kill it. When they do that they aren't always hitting the bait with their mouth, they will often tail slap it, if I didn't see it I wouldn't have believe it. I had it happen with a snag-proof frog 20 years ago, we would fish the bait in a normal fashion until it reached open water and then we would reel it back to make another cast. About 5 cranks in the water explodes and my frog is 5' in the air, it happened 2 more times and then the third time it was close enough to see, the fish tail slapped it. The way I caught the fish was to let the bait sit after it came back down, I let the bait sit in the water without moving it for about 10 seconds or so and then the fish came up and ate it. If we moved it after it got tail slapped it wouldn't get bit and sometimes it would get tail slapped again. I believe they are either hitting your bait with a closed mouth or tail slapping it, either way try letting it sit motionless for bit before reeling again.

For that application you don't really need to spend a lot and I have a rod that is perfect for that purpose. The rod I use is a 6'6" medium power, fast action Abu Garcia Vendetta, it is the first generation of that rod but I imagine they still are using the same blank. I originally got it as an all-purpose rod to use when fishing in a jon boat or canoe on the Susquehanna river. I figured it wouldn't hurt much if the rod was broke or lost on a float trip and being all purpose I could get away with using only 2 or 3 rods. Well the rod was a lot better than I expected it to be, it is a little more stout than a typical medium, it is a solid 1/2 power over a medium, a light medium heavy if you will. With that rod I could throw anything but I found it was really nice for spinnerbaits, swim jigs, and buzzbaits, the power allows you to drive home larger hooks but it isn't a broom stick, it is kind of funny in that it feels real stiff and stout until you fight a fish and then you see that the rod does have some give but not too much, perfect for single hooks. I got the 6'6" because most of my casts with it are roll casts to specific targets and I often need low trajectory to get under overhanging trees but a 7' should work the same.

Berkley Series One in a 7' ML-fast action should work well for you. It will handle Ned rigs, light jigs and TX rigs but is limited because it is a true ML. Another you might consider is the Major Craft Nanoace in a 7' medium power, fast action, it is $20 more than the series 1 but they have better components than the Berkley and will handle the same presentations but it will have a little more power.

I've learned over the years that it pays to have a few different brands and styles of lipless cranks. I really like the discontinued, but now sold under Booyah brand, Xcalibur One Knocker, it gets big fish and seems to work when other lipless cranks don't. The Cordell Super Spot in 1/4oz, that bait is the best shallow "trap" made, it will vibrate and rattle at much slower speed than other baits, the 1/4oz doesn't sink too fast and on a slow retrieve it gets a lot of bites. My all time favorite is the Sebile Flatt Shad, I have a good stash because they were discontinued but they brought them back, they look the same as the old ones but I haven't used any.

I fish lakes that are similar to what you described and none have been good for deep cranking. When you have a silt or muck bottom there usually isn't oxygen past 12' to 14', use your sonar and see if you are marking any fish on the bottom. I'll bet the fish you see off shore are mostly suspended, if that is the case lures like underspins with a swimbait trailer work much better than cranks, suspending jerkbaits also work if you have decent water clarity. Not all bodies of water make for good deep cranking, there has to be some type of structure or deep cover along with enough food and oxygen to hold enough fish to make for a good deep cranking bite.

I have been using the Rattlin' Kill'R B for a couple of seasons now, I got them when they first came out. I'm sold on them, one of my top producing square bills. I'm also big on the Balsa Shad, The size 5 is just a hair longer than a size 5 Shad Rap but it runs the same depth range and it weighs 3/8oz so it is easier to cast than a shad rap. It has worked so well that it has just about replaced my shad rap for early spring fishing.

I still have a stash of the old Yum Buzz Frogs, my favorite followed by the Stanley Ribbit as a close second.

I really like the Rapala DT Flat 7 and the Bomber Deep Flat A but they are very different. The Rapala is balsa but it dives right at the sweet spot for mid fall bass and I've caught a lot of fish on it. The Bomber Deep Flat A is my smallmouth flat crank, it is basically a lipless crank with a lip, and as hard as it is to believe, it actually works in colder water than a Shad Rap. I had a day that the Deep Flat A accounted for 11 good size smallmouth 14" to 20" in a mid December outing with 44 degree water temps. A friend of mine told me to use it instead of a jerkbait because the water had some color and he was spot on, that thing is a fish catching machine. Since that trip 16 years ago I always have a Deep Flat A tied on when fishing md Spring and Fall smallmouth, Apple Red Crawdad and Pearl Shad are the only colors I have because they work so well I never felt the need for any others.

In my opinion I'd say just get a deeper running jerkbait. I'm a big jerkbait angler, it is one of my favorite baits and I have a lot of them from just about every brand out there. Larger hooks and hardware as well as adding weight via suspend dots and strips will get you deeper but not without ruining the suspending property. Line type and size will be the best way to get the bait running a little deeper but it isn't going to get you 3', you need a different bait and there are plenty of deeper baits in every price point.

Matzuo doesn't have any quality control so it will depend on luck on what you get. Some of the hooks will be great while others not so much. I was using their sickle jig hooks, they hold really well and they are cheap, the issue is that out of a box of 1000 I'd have to send back at least 200 and the last time I sent them back it was 347 bad out of 1000. The worm hooks are the same way, you'll buy 5 or 6 packs and the first pack will be fine and then you may get a bad hook in the second pack and by the 3rd pack there is 3 bad hooks. If Matzuo could make their hooks consistentl they would be tough to beat but for me it isn't worth the hassle of wondering if each hook I use is going to break or if they will be defective that prevents me from even tying it on.

Trail and error is the best way. In a tournament I'd go with a T-rigged worm and get a limit fast then use a jig to get some kicker fish. When I'm just out fishing I almost always have a jig tied on but it isn't always a larger flipping jig, sometimes I use small finesse jigs in the 1/8oz to 1/4oz range. I use the weather along with water conditions to determine what I'm going to use, tough conditions I'm going to use a finesse jig or a T-rigged worm and go from there.

1977

Well done!!

I will say that I'm not the biggest fan of Live Target lures either but they make one that works for me. The Bluegill crank is legit, the shallow 70 size in the matte finish, when the bluegill spawn that lure is deadly. As for the hollow craw bait, I'll stick to the regular jig and pig.

That is because Norman Lures was purchased by Pradco along with Bandit and War Eagle.

Bill Norman Lures Lipless crank, you can find them on ebay. They were really close to a Rat-L-Trap but never really caught on as most used the original Rat-L-Trap or Cordell Spot around that time.

I use the Owner 5317 as well as the Eagle Claw 786BP. You can use the Mustad 32786 as well as a few others but I think most heavy wire 60 degree hooks will work in that mold. If you want good performance with good value I'd go with the Eagle Claw 786BP or the Mustad 32786, both of those are great hooks that won't break the bank.

If I were you I'd go with an Arky jig mold and the poison tail mold. The Arky mold I'd get is the Trokar Arky jig mold (you don't need to use Trokar hooks) and the poison tail I'd go with the mold that has the sizes you use most. The poison tail is the most versatile jig I ever used, it uses a 30 degree hook so it works well for swimming but it also has a wider bottom making it a good jig for working along the bottom. The Arky mold just works in most types of cover, it isn't what I would use for thick grass but wood, rock, brush and sparse grass it will be fine. The Trokar arky uses a 60 degree heavy hook and that makes it different from the other Arky molds out there which is why I recommend that one.

The idea with a swing jig is to fish it like a crankbait. you use a weight that is heavy enough to keep contact with the bottom while reeling at a steady pace. The strikes often occur when using a stop and go retrieve or when the bait hangs on chunk rock for a split second and then surges forward when it breaks free. I pretty much thought that anything under 1/2oz wasn't good for anything but a friend showed me a different way to use the jig and it is perfect for lighter weights. I use 1/8oz and 1/4oz heads with 2/0 and 3/0 hooks and fish 3.5" and 4" swimbaits on them. The think is I don't fish them in the normal way of retrieving them across the bottom, instead I just swim it just like I do with a swimbait on a regular jig head. What you get is a swimbait with a little more action, the tail kick now makes the bait move out to the sides a bit and the body roll is a little more exaggerated. I've done well using light swing jigs like this and I'm convinced that the little bit of extra action is getting me more bites but even if it isn't I know it isn't hurting and I haven't lost any fish using it like that so I know that it works as well as if not better than a standard jig head at times.

Pinching the barbs down is your problem plain and simple. The man who the rig is named after does the same and he'd be the first to tell you that you will lose a lot of fish like that as well as catching a lot. I can't remember is the article was in Bass Master or In-Fisherman but Ned talks about the large number of fish he loses because he pinches the barb down on a small size hook.

The rod you have is a 6'9" ML-XF spinning rod, the simple answer is your rod isn't a good fit for the 90 whopper plopper. Even though it isn't a large bait the weight of it along with the resistance in the water is going to create too much strain. The hooks on that bait are pretty stout size #4 trebles, I fish that size plopper a lot and I also have used the rod you have, there is no way you use that bait effectively on it. St. Croix usually have rods that are under rated but in the spinning rods they are pretty spot on, I tried the 7' ML-F and the 6'9" ML-XF in looking for a rod for micro jigs and small hair jigs and while the 6'9" has an extra fast action, it still is a soft rod for the most part . You will be able to cast that bait but I highly doubt you land many fish with it, it just won't have enough backbone to consistently drive the hooks home and as I mentioned before, the rod will under pressure just from retrieving the bait. A lot of ML rods are closer to medium than ML but the ST. Croix Avid and Avid X spinning rods are true ML rods, they are not what you want to use for a Whopper Plopper.

The Smithwick Rogue has a lot of different models, there are 4 different floaters, a shallow diving 0' - 2' model in both a full size and the Jr. model that is 1/2" shorter with only 2 hooks. Then there are the medium diving models that run 4' - 6' in both regular and Jr. models. The shallow running models have a number that begins with "ARB" and a number in the 1200s. That said, look at the Bagley Bang-O-Lure, and the Minnow B as well as the Spro McStick 115.

I use them a lot!! A fluke is sometimes useless when the smallmouth here need the bait to be going fast. This happens a lot when the water is clear, they won't commit to a topwater and they will follow a fluke until it gets too close to the surface. Add weight to the fluke and fish it fast and maybe you'll get a follow but it doesn't have the right action to make them hit it. Throw a Smithwick floating rogue or a Bagley Bang-O-Lure or a Rapala Flat Rap or original floater and work it fast, jerk-jerk-jerk-jerk and a 1 second pause and repeat, it will get your arm broke sometimes. They work better than flukes when the fish are slashing at the bait as well and I can't tell you how many times I've caught big largemouth fishing them fast over shallow grass flats in summer going behind other anglers throwing flukes and topwaters without as much as a sniff.

I'd use a watermelon based color to have it blend in but offer some subtle contrast.

I didn't even think of it until I was out on Wednesday, the Bagley Bang-O-Lure! I use them quite frequently in the summer, I use them as a subtle topwater, they are balsa and while they create a disturbance they don't make much noise.