Nick86794

I usually prefer a white-shad spinner bait, black and blue/black with red flake, and black and blue flash jigs, creature baits such as sweet beavers, and tubes. Whats yours? Color and presentation too if you wish!

I usually prefer a white-shad spinner bait, black and blue/black with red flake, and black and blue flash jigs, creature baits such as sweet beavers, and tubes. Whats yours? Color and presentation too if you wish!

And Im still getting used to football head jigs. So anything helps at this point! Thank You!

Thanks!!! and Im just specifying the jigs that I flip and pitch with. Not casting. and i'll definitely chech it out!!!

Arv, definitely try it. Like I said it takes some time to get used to it. The frist couple times I tried it, I either did it too soft or did it too hard and spooked the fish, it takes some time learning but after a couple times you'll get a feel for how hard to wack it. I love it when fishing beds during the spawn season in the spring for LMB

Tom, I am talkin from both fishing in tournaments and just weekend fishing. I never meant for me to sound like I'm just talkin to tournament anglers, but also weekend anglers as well. As for football head jigs, I dont use as often, however, I never go below a 1/2 ounce in football heads. The reason why is because I usually fish them during the summer time when bass our deep in 15-40 feet of water. I need the weight to get down to that depth, and also, like KVD when he fishes crankbaits, it helps me find laydowns, weedlines, rocks excetra that are on the bottom. Also, football heads are great for fising rip-rap (rocky shorelines). Look up Mark Zona on youtube, and he gets more indepth on football head jigs, he is the master when it comes to them. I go to him myself when learning about football head jigs. As for regular jigs, I usually stay between 1/4 ounce and a 3/8 ounce jig. Half ounce for me is too heavy and bass arent ass attracted to them as they are in the 3/8 ounce. I usually prefer the Archy head because I can skip my jig under docks, where as if I used a round head I cannot do that. The arch head archs up and is flat on the bottom. It is primarily a finesse jig so the skirt is going to come up towards the head. I've been having a bit trouble lately getting my jigs to skip, but I came across a video by Glenn May here on BR. He suggested to pull the skirt towards the hook of the jig so it skips easier also, he says not to have any of the skirt on the bottom of the jig and to have a flat trailer. The netbait paca craw that I mentioned before works well, so I am going to try that and I encouage you to do as well. Hook size depends on the size of jig you are using. I prefer a 4/0 or 5/0 mustad or gamakatsu hook on anything thats 3/8 ounce. Anything lower than a 3/8 ounce I usually stay with a 3/0 or a 2/0. My bitsy bug jigs by strike king however I believe have a 1/0 hook on them. As for week guards, I normally just leave them alone unless I'm fishing a lot of timber or weeds, then I'll fan out the brush guard a bit so it brushes by everything, in other words, it gives it more area than just a small little stick. I never trim them though. Also, you didnt mention that if you seem to be getting hits but cant set the hook on the bass because they are just biting your trailer, trim your skirt up to the edge of the hook, do not go past the hook, just to the edge. This will prevent any misses. Any other questions please let me know! Thank you!

Check you knots, because each knot has its specific job. also, check your line and see if it is banged up. Look for cuts into the line, over tenson and memory in your line that make little squiggles almost that cause that part of the line to become weak. and just as everyone else is saying, definitely check your drag

Username I posted this for isn't Preston its gallowaypt. Apologies for the mishap

I am responding to a request from a BR member by the user name, Preston. This is what he said in my last article about Fishin in the Fall. "I really appreciate articles like these, being so informative for new bass fishermen. Nick86794, in reference to your jig trailer choices, myself just now having bought my first jig, would greatly appreciate any advice as to how you rig/work this type of presentation. Also, maybe the specific jig head types you use with them? Thanks again for such a great read!" For starters, I am a firm believer in using braided line. I usually stick to 50lb Power-Pro, and if I am fishing in clear water, I will put a 20lb P-Line Fluorocarbon leader that is about 20" long. My rod selection is a 7'2" Shimano Sellus Worm/Jig; my reel is a Lew's Speed Spool Baitcaster with a 6:4.1 gear ratio. Now, a lot of guys prefer a faster ratio such as a 7:1.1 or a 7:4.1- they believe that if you hook a bass say in weeds or under a dock, you need something to rip it outta there. I agree with them but I am more comfortable using a 6:4.1 Ratio, try not to stray below that number. My Shimano rod is a Medium Heavy Power with a Fast Action tip and it gets the job done. Some prefer a Heavy Power rods for jigging, but to me it's a bit over kill unless you fish somewhere with a lot of submerged weeds, structure, or Lilly pads- but that is why I use braid, so I can rip my bait outta there and it won’t get torn up like plastic lines. Also, the reason why I use a leader in clear water is because if you just have your jig tied to braid and the water depth clarity is over 5-7ft and deeper, then it just looks like a crawfish being pulled by some rope. The fluorocarbon leader gives me that edge so the bass don’t see me line; I have experienced this first hand. A couple years back fishing in a tournament for my high school, we were fishing the prespawn in some very clear water., and I was using a jig with braided line and saw this bass just sittin right outside a weedline about 4ft down. I danced my jig as best I could but nothing worked. Finally my fishing coach suggested I tie on a flourocarbon leader, which I did, pitched my jig back out there and the bass hit instantly. Okay, now to my jig selection. I have a lot of different kinds of jigs, however, I have about 3-4 jig companies that I always have as my Go-To jigs. The first company I use is Booyah. I use 3 different jigs by them, the: Boo Jig; Swim n Jig and Pigskin Jig. One reason why I choose Booyah is because I love the presentation that their jigs provide for me. They stand up easier and their skirts don’t fold down like some do, their skirts stay up and fan out and provide the perfect amount of bulk; I have them in black and blue, white shad, black and red and green pumpkin. Another Jig I use is the Bitsy Bug by Strike King. If the bite is really slow and light, I'll usually like to tie this on and throw it out there. I have one bitsy bug in water melon, and the other in bleeding black/blue. The third company I use strictly for bulk. The Buckeye Mop and Mini Mop Jigs. These jigs in particular have a tremendous amount of bulk to them and are perfect in stained water. I only have one color and that is black and blue because that's all I use in stained water. Another Jig I use is the Jewel Bait Eakins' Flip'n Jig. This Jig is a finesse Jig and I love throwing this out there during the spawn season. Now I only have one color for this jig as well and that's in green pumpkin green flash- some tend to throw on a trailer that is the same color as the jig but for this color I stray a little and use a Sweet Beaver by Reaction Innovation called California 420; it's important that you have the dark side of the jig facing up. I have other companies I use as well but these are the ones that provide me with the most success when it comes to getting those huge lunkers. Trailer Selection. I only have 3 companies that I use when it comes to trailer selection. My Go-To trailer before any trailer is the Sweet Beaver by Reaction Innovation. They have a great swirl pattern when fished by themselves on a Texas or drop-shot rig, and have outstanding two-tone colors. They are tough and compact and survive multiple hits by bass. They have outward facing ribs that create pressure waves that attract bass like no other. When the water first thaws out, keep the tails together but as the prespwan starts, split the tails apart, just like you would on the appendages on a lizard or brush hog. The Second company is Uncle Josh. They make trailers out of actual pork which gives a great feel, taste and presentation for bass. I use both MAXX Pork and The Original Pork Frog as my trailers. Some say that they are hard to take off your jig since you need to take them off and put them back in their container because they will dry out, but Uncle Josh Provides a little premade hole to put you hook through so you don’t have to go through the hassle of punching it through- being that one side of the body is fleshy and the other is a beveled texture, you want to put the hook through the beveled texture and when you take it off, angle it a little bit, you may have to wiggle it around to get it off, but I've been using them for a while and the more you use it the easier they slide off. The third company I use is Netbait. I absolutely love using their Paca Craw. The paca craw features a small body that has 2 claw "appendages" that are just massive. They add a nice profile to any jig you fish them with. The claws flap when moved and create a ton of vibration and pressure waves. I especially love using them with swim jigs. I've had bass that come up from the gallows of weed lines and just hammer on my swim jigs all because of the trailer I was using. Now, just because you have all these fancy stuff , all you got to do is cast out your jig and trailer combinations and you'll get a bass right? Not exactly; I have four techniques I use when fishing jigs. Two techniques are obvious just by their names. The swim jig I obviously swim it. Just cast it out, depending on the depth let it sink a little and swim it back. Now don’t just throw it into open water and expect it to get bit. A swim jig is basically a spinnerbait without the blades. You MUST fish it the same as a spinnerbait. This means: throw it back behind a fallen tree and swim it back. Over a weeds, next to a weed line, next to cover, on a shelf, under structure, next to structure. And if you hit say a stump, let it fall just like you would a spinner bait. (Cover- Lilly pads, cattails, matted grass, any type of forage that is right on top of the water); (Structure- any type of stump, dock, rock, pillar, fallen tree, logs etc.) The other is obvious as well, jig. Just hop the jig back to you. I usually alternate sequences by hopping it 3 times, letting it sit for 10-15 seconds then hopping it 2 times and so on. It's pretty easy. The other, I like to use to find out what is on the bottom of the water I'm fishing so I can get a feel of what I am fishing- and it'll get you fish too. It's as simple as jigging. Cast your jig out, let it sink to the bottom, and drag it. Don't reel, bounce, jig, swim, anything; just drag. All you got to do is twist at the hips, turn back, reel up the slack, and repeat. This technique I use a lot from when the water first thaws, till it thaws again; it helps me feel for transition points, if there’s grass, sand, muck, structure etc. This also imitates a crawfish scavenging the bottom for food. Now the last one is a bit trick but you can get the hang of it, I call it wackin' jig. I use this mostly during the prespawn all the way through the spawn and post spawn. Basically I do this so I can get a reaction bite out of the fish. There’s times where I'm fishing a bed and the bass is just staring at my jig but he/she won’t bite; that’s when I just wack it off the bottom. It can’t be too soft to where it won’t have any affect, or too strong to where you pull it out of the water, it has to be just the right amount. Since bass don’t have hands, they have to react with their mouths. I've gotten a lot of fish by them looking at it and then just wackin the jig and their instinct is to grab whatever it is. Questions or comments leave below (especially on color selection since I ran outta time to type it). Please and thank you!

yes but you gotta know where to look for them

I know but coming from fishing on a team in high school, some people may not know about it ya know what I mean? and thank you for correcting me because I'd hate to give false info ya know?

What I meant to say was that since the water is murky and stained, the heat from the sun cannot penetrate the water as as it would with clear water, so naturally clear water would heat up faster and murky water would cool down faster. Get it?

Big Hog. Hahah you are right. I got sidetracked writing about that and it must have gotten mixed up stating stuff like that. hahah my apologies. you know what I meant by it all anyways right?

I have a new one posted about fall fishing in the general forums page if you wanna read. it's kinda long but I shared almost everything I know about fall fishin a few baits that never fail this time of year for me

So in my first post, I introduced myself and my backround of bass fishing. Just to sum it up, I come from a successfull High School Bass Fishing Team from Illinois and now attend UW-Stevens Point and have joined thier fishing team who are currently ranked top 15 in the nation! Okay, enough of that talk. Lets get down to why you are reading this. Fall bass fishing. Easy right? Or so you have heard. You can't ignore that fact that bass are moving into more shallow water to feed before winter comes yes? Well do you know exactly why? If you have ever fished in the fall, you would have notice that there are usually baitfish and panfish scattering everywhere. Why? Because bass are trying to eat 'em up for supper so they can fatten up for winter. Now most people know why bass migrate to shallow water in the fall, but have you ever given a thought as to why thier food moves there? There are two good reasons. For one, as the weather cools off from all the rain they shad make kick start thier migration routes towards more shallow water such as creeks and creek arms. As the weather cools, the rain picks up inticapating the cold snow of winter, so all the nutrients from the shoreline and land washes into the water. Also, a lot of the nutrients in the middle of the lake are most likely depleated and with the rain washing nutrients into the waters in the fall, it's natural for them to seek out a new food source. Shad depend on plankton as their main food source being that they are filter feeders, and as the water gets colder, the less plankton there are to chomp on. However, in the back of creeks, the water heats up quicker than it would in the main lakes, so thats is where the last of the plankton are going to be hanging around; thus the shad move towards the plankton in the back of creeks and whose trailing right on behind? Thats right Big Ol' mama bass whose lookin to fatten up for the long winter. As the rains picks up, not only does it wash nutrients into the water that attract shad, but all that runoff water that flows into creeks acts as a air-bubbler. JUst as it would in a fish tank, it adds high levels of oxygen that help give fish thier energy they need to chase after thier food. The deeper you go into they lake this time a year, the less oxygen you will find too. This the the other main reason why bass are attracted to creeks and creek arms during the fall. Now being that it's fall, the weather will bring irregular patterns that'll bring cold weather one day and warm the next. Does this mean the water temperature drops and rises at the same rate as the surface temperature? Actually no. Maybe at the surface it will become a bit cooler, but if you go down about a foot or two, the water is mostly untouched by the weather; so if the weather is warm one day then cold the next, dont be discouraged that you won't catch anything, go out and keep to the same patterns as you did the day before, and switch it up if you find they aren't acting the same as the day before. If you are fishing clear water, keep in mind that it cools at a slower rate than a murky or stained body of water. Why? Think of the last time you wore a dark colored shirt in summer. Got really warm didnt it? It also took longer to cool down too, this is because like a dark shirt in summer, murky and stained water attracts heat and retains it too. As you get into October, bass in clearer lakes may still be in their "summer" pattern, meaning they are deeper than those in murky water who are already in thier fall transition to more shallow water. Even though baitfish are transitioning into shallow water, more than often they will gather up in deeper water, more towards the mouth of creeks; then they all travel as a big ball of shad, or "school" towards the creek. Bass usually lurke under theres schooling bait fish. Bass as you know arent dumb, they will use the surface of the water as a barrier for the baitfish and pin them against is and pick them off one by one. Big lunkers usually hang off behind the pack, pickin off the stunned baitfish that fall down towards the bottom after being stunned by other smaller bass. There are three main places for you to fish this fall. One of them being the back of creeks. Find spots where you caught them earlier in the spring such as places that have flowing water and lots and lots of secondary points, banks that have brushm stums, rocks, standing timber, and log laydowns. If you happen to come upon any vegetation really work that jig. Do not be afraid to get it into the thick stuff. Remember to work outwards towards the mouth of the creek. Secondly, you are going to do the opposite of the first stragety I just told you about. Instead of starting in the back of creeks, start at the mouth and main points on a creek and work towards the back. Here you will find that there might be shad schooling and getting ready for the transition into the creek. Thus, you will find bass attacking shad, and most likely they will be suspended off a major point. Lastly, try your best to find lake flats. This is where most baitfish and bass will end up, particularly smallmouth mouth with stay within a big flat and ambush baitfish coming up from deeper water. The small mouth will tend to move up and down from the shallow flat to deep water in the winter months if they need to feed. Some baits that are good for this time of year are crankbaits; usually in baitfish colors. Crankbaits work well in lakes without a lot of grass. Try trhowin them 8'-10' of water rippin it past or above rocks and or stumps. Crankbaits should be worked pretty fast and smacking the bottom since bass are aggressively seeking food. Do not what so ever give them a chance to see the crankbait. Make them chase after it and gobble it up. Shallow water crankbaits such as the Mann's Baby 1-Minus which I prefer, work well on shallow flats. Fish shallow crankbaits around a stick up, stumps and isolated cover. Anothe great bait to use is the spinner bait. Spinnerbaits work well when teamed up with remaining vegetation which can be found in deeper water. Being that most vegetation has died off in shallow waters, try to stick closer to deeper water like the mouth of a creek where shad school up before moving shallow. I usually throw a 1/2oz spinnerbait with dual blades, usually both willowleaf, and cast parallel to the outside edges of the grass as you would fish a shoreline; use a medium to moderate fast retrieve. Try not to fish spinnerbaits in open water, stick to structure suck as wood, like a dock or a fallen tree on a bank. Along with a spinnerbait try throwing a buzzbait. Since a lot if not most fall feeding is done close to the surface, this is a good way to get any hungry bass to strike. If the water is calm, just get the blade to "chirp" softly and slowly along the surface. If the water is more rippled due to moving or churning water, throw a buzzer that has a clacker which is more noise and creates a louder surface disturbance. I personally prefer using jigs. Usually black and blue and the occational white. Anything from 1/4oz to a 1/2oz is fine, nothing too light or heavey. I usually use a 3/8oz jig mainly because it isnt too heavy or too light. I have multiple trailers that I like to use. One of my favorites that you cant beat is a pork trailer. I prefer Uncle Josh pork trailers because bass love the taste and feel. Another is the Sweet Beaver by Reaction Innovation. My favorite color is Hematoma. Either size is fine but I prefer thier bigger size, the 4.20 over their smaller size 3.50- which has no realation to their color California 420, that I use for spring but thats a whole other story. The last trailer I use for my jigs I recently discovered from my high school fishing coach is by Netbait. The Paca Chunk in 23/4" It is a cross between plastic and pork. You get the action you would with a plastic bait, at the same time, the taste and feel of a pork trailer. There are many colors you can choose from but I ususlly get the chunk in either white or black and blue. Any questions or comments please leave below. You can email me too at welunick@yahoo.com but I would prefer anything left below unless its urgent. Also attached are some picture of the trailers I use for my jigs. Cabela's sells Reaction Innovation plastics while Bass Pro Shops sells Netbait. You can order these online or in store, of if you are lucky enough, you can find them at your local outdoor store such as a Fin 'n' Feather, or family owned stores.

Thanks clackerbuzz! Means a lot that people respect this.

Thank You topdog5050. Happy to be apart of it!

Hello y'all, My name's Nick. I've been using this site for about five straight years now and I gotta say, y'all have taught me a lot of neat techniques and patterns as well as lures to fish off of and I thought that I should give back to the community and become a memeber. I have a interesting past experience that a lot of you I know are going to be jealous of, HIGH SCHOOL BASS FISHING! I know a lot of you know that college bass fishing has gotten really big in the past decade, and same goes for bass fishing in high school, well the past 5 years it has. I originally went to Streamwood High School in Streamwood, IL and folks I gotta say, it's not a school known for it's sports or popularity. I played football there all four years and we just made it to the playoffs for the first time in God knows when back in 2011-2012 season. Anyways, my freshman year (2009-2010), they started a bass fishing team. I knew how to fish since i was about 2, but I have had no previous knowledge of Bass fishing at all. Needless to say both my freshman and sophomore years were spent learning. Luckyly, our school was blessed with 4 amazing coaches, one of which taught at our school, the other 3 were volunteers that belonged to a fishing club, and one of the volunteers was my defensive line coach for football. If you have been reading so far or have gotten to this point, I knew you are probably saying things like, "Lucky kid, we never had a fishing team!", "I wish I was still in high school so I could fish", or "That is really amazing." Well, here are some articles of the success my high school has had in the past four years: http://couriernews.suntimes.com/sports/12277540-419/fishing-streamwood-returning-to-state-finals.html http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20110421/news/704219900/ http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20120420/sports/704209592/ http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20110617/news/706179947/print/ http://center.ihsa.org/reports/bsf88321.htm My partner Zach and I made an amazing team! He is a year younger than me but I know he can hold his own and keep our school's glory going- and maybe join me in college? I can only hope. So heres the facts. My high school is one of three in the state of Illinois, the other two being Monticello and Moline, to have made it to the IHSA Bass FIshing State Final all four years in a row since it was first started back in 2009. I have helped my team go to state twice, back-to-back in both 2011 and 2012. Other schools in the northern area of Illinois where I live know Zach and I by first name almost, if not then they know us by our school just from our success in fishing. I currently attend UW-Stevens Point and joined their bass fishing team called, The Big Dawgs. The Big Dawgs are currently ranked in the top 15 colleges in the nation. No there are no divisions like how there is in football. Everyone fishes thier own conference, we are the northern conference. We compete for sectionals to go to state, then state finalists compete in the conference tournament, then the conference winners compete nationaly. It is a big change for me to go from high school fishing to college fishing but I know I can hold my own and am very confident in myself as a bass angler. I cannot wait to get out on the water this fall and prove myself as a legit college angler. Again thank you to all who have posted articles in the past, they have helped me get this far in my fishing career, and I will continue to always read what y'all have on here. There is no losing in fishing, you either catch or learn. either way, it's better than school or work! I'm just glad I can finally give back and contribute my knowledge and experience to y'all. Goodluck fishing this fall. Well, time to pull out them jigs, tubes, spinnerbaits, and for some crankbaits for some shallow water fishin, be sure to hit the docks and structure. Remember, don't throw it near it, actually cast into that grass or log, and under that dock or pier. thats the only way to get 'em. Sometimes you all you have is that small window to get your bait into the strike zone. Never get discouraged, just keep calm and take your time. Fishing not matter who you are is always a learning experience because you constantly have to adapt, just remember that.