bassinyea

1. LC Gunfish 2. Yellow Magic Popper 3. Deps Buzzjet jr. (also can be used as a wake bait) 4. Cavitron Buzzbait I can cover all different topwater presentations with these baits, if I cant get bit on anything above they aren't biting topwater in my mind.

Yellow magic is my fave.

Cloudy with some wind helps the crankbait bite for me. Sunny can be good too especially deflecting your crankbait off of cover. Sun makes the fish hold tighter to cover and you can create good reaction strikes. Really to me having some wind is more important than whether or not it is sunny or cloudy. And like fish devil stained water is also what you are looking for.

I live on the outskirts of reidsville how about you?

Early Spring and Late fall.

I live and fish in NC and the fish have been spawning for about 2 solid weeks now. A lot started bedding on the full moon early part of april. Water started out colder than normal for March but warmed up very quickly with the warm weather that came in from mid march up until now. It is probably that the fish are still spawning which is tough fishing when you cant actually look at them. Also could be that they have just finished up spawning and are in the typical post spawn funk. I would have swore in the first week of march that the bass would not be spawning until may this year because the water was so cold. First week of march I was fishing in 38 degree water. Last week in the same places water was 68 degrees. Water warmed up incredibly fast for just one month of time passing. When it warms up so fast like that I believe the bass pretty much flood in to spawn at one time rather than in slower waves. I could tell exactly when it started because we went from smoking some big ones on jerkbaits to really slow fishing. Not sure what part of NC you live in but here in the piedmont most spawning activity occurs during april with postspawn generally occurring in May. Granted I am talking about lakes, not ponds.

Make them bang into the posts that anchor the dock into the lake bottom. Figure out what type of cast you need to make to get this to happen. Make a cast past the post and use your rod tip to steer the bait into it. Speed up the retrieve as you get close to contact and when the lure hits the post, let it pause for a second.

I have heard a lot of people saying that their 110s have had bills break off, fall apart, etc. I must just be lucky I guess. Only problem I have had is with the metallic finishes the paint flaking off but I mostly attributed that to fish crushing the bait. I have only lost one jerkbait that I can remember in all my time of fishing them and that was a year ago. It was a lucky craft flash pointer. Caught a fish and unhooked it without realizing the line had wrapped around my rod tip. Jumped up real quick to fire the next cast, line snapped, lure went flying into the water. I had changed hooks to make the bait slowly sink so as soon as it hit the water it was GONE.

They are a great bait no doubt. I have 7 of them I think. Whether or not you want to spend that much on a lure is a choice you will have to make. I will tell you though that of the 7 I have, I haven't lost a single one of them in all the times I have fished them which is a lot. Jerkbaits are more open water type baits so really the only way to lose them is for your line to break. The few times I did get hung up on a log or stick I have easily been able to get it back with my lure retriever. I dont mind paying higher prices for jerkbaits or topwater baits of good quality because you rarely if at all ever lose them. Deep crankbaits, jigs, spoons and such are a different story and that is why I dont buy expensive lures of that sort.

Vanish sucks dude. Red label is pretty decent though for the money. Please do yourself a favor and get the vanish off of your reel ASAP.

Here in North Carolina it is usually Feb-March. Late winter into prespawn is always the best time of year for a big un. Fish are fattest they will be all year.

Here are some tips I would suggest: 1. Use a decently heavy weight for the given depth you are fishing. This helps maintain bottom contact which will help you feel the bite easier. For shallow rigging during the spawn and postspawn I use a 1/2 oz weight for fishing 1-8 foot of water. 8-15 foot I use a 3/4 and any deeper a 1 oz weight during the summer fishing ledges and points. If the wind is blowing hard go up one size. 2. 17 pound fluoro main line is the heaviest I will go. The thicker diameter line you use the harder it will be to keep bottom contact. Especially with a stiff wind that puts a lot of bow in your line. 3. Do yourself a favor and buy a decent rod ($100-200). A good rod will have the sensitivity you need. 4. Instead of hopping your bait like a jig and tx rig up over your head, pull the rod sideways parallel to the water at hip level. Once again helps keep your weight on the bottom and makes feeling bites easier and helps if the wind is blowing keeping the bow out of your line. Set the hook to the side and not over your head. Most strikes that I get are actually pretty easy to detect. You will go to move the bait and a lot of times you will actually feel the fish swimming with the bait. Once you have a few bites and catch a few fish on it you will know what it feels like and gain confidence. Like someone posted above I really do not fish a carolina rig a lot early in the year. I will start fishing one during the spawn to show them something different than a senko or tx rig that everyone else on the lake is throwing. I fish one up through the postspawn and summertime ledge fishing is where it really shines for me.

I use kahara or mustad duo lock snaps anytime i throw a crankbait, jerkbait, or topwater. Everything else is tied with a knot. For jerkbaits and topwaters I use a smaller snap which is size 0 and with larger crankbaits i use a size 1 snap to allow it to achieve the wider wobble that some crankbaits have. I use the smaller size on jerkbaits to make sure not to affect the suspending properties and diving angle of the bait. I use the smaller ones on topwaters to not pull them down on the front and affect the action. With treble baits I fish a pretty light drag anyways and have never had a snap open up on me fighting a fish ever, and that has been a lot of fish over the past 20 years. Only thing to be careful of with snaps is if you get hung up and poke your rod tip down in the water to free your bait, make sure to check the snap after you get your bait back. Sometimes your rod will push down and actually open up the snap and when the next fish hits you will be in trouble.

Buzzbaits usually work better during the spawn than poppers or walking baits because they aggravate the fish more. I think lots of fish hit buzzbaits not to eat them but just trying to kill them and get it out of their area. Once the bass finish spawning and start getting more active again you cant beat a popper or walking bait. The shallower you can fish a buzzbait this time of year the better because like someone just said it is hard for a fish to ignore the lure buzzing 6 inches over top of its head, they will just react to it. Another great semi topwater bait if bass are spawning is a bang-o-lure with a prop. Jerk this thing and dance it around over a spawning basses head and they will crush it sometimes. But yea any time can really be topwater time.

If the moss is growing on the bottom try a drop shot and make sure your leader is long enough to stay out of it. Never heard of moss growing on top of the water, most of the time it is some sort of algae. If this is what you are talking about try a hollow body frog or a senko.

All of my green pumpkin and black/blue chatterbaits get the black sharpie treatment on the blade. It sometimes starts to wear off after a long days fishing so I just color it again. I keep a black, blue, and red sharpie marker in my fishing bag at all times just in case I wanna do some bait modifications on the fly.

Yea I know that there was a bunch of rebranding that took place back in the day with some of those companies. The fat free shad used to be made by excalibur, now its made by bomber.

Definitely a MirrOlure. Very popular speckled trout bait at the coast.

I was under this same impression as well. Used to hear Bill Dance talking about Pradco this and that and he used to endorse the exaclibur baits back in the day. Remember the spittin image?

Vision 110 for me. Have caught so many fish on them its stupid. The paint jobs are one of a kind too. I like the lucky craft flash pointer and staysee a lot too but if I had to pick a favorite it would definitely be the Ito.

Buzzbait all day..

If you are sight fishing use whatever color contrasts the best against the bottom. One of the lakes I fish has a lot of sandy bottom and I like to use a black lizard with a chartreuse tail because I can see it really well. If it is a darker colored bottom, use white or any other bright color that contrasts the bottom. Color does not matter like previously said because the fish are not trying to eat they are trying to defend. You are just trying to tick them off. In the case you cant actually see the fish and are more or less fan casting bedding areas, use plastic colors that usually work for that lake. Senkos are a great lure to fish during the spawn when you cant actually see the fish and are just fan casting. Green pumpkin, junebug, and dark colors work best where I fish.

It is not whether or not they work in the summer, it is the question of are they the best tool for the job. I know where I live I fish stained water with 2-3 ft visibility and the fish are usually 15-20 ft deep and sitting on the bottom. Most jerkbait depth ratings are overrated some and even the deepest jerkbaits like a staysee or pointer dd rarely get down further than 7-8 foot on 10lb fluoro in my experience. It is much more efficient to fish a deep diving crankbait or bounce a jig off the bottom where the lure is at eye level of the fish. Also a lot of times esp later in summer bass dont like to move very far to eat so even if they can see your jerkbait 8 or 10 feet above their head they may not feel like expending that much energy to chase it down. There are always exceptions to every rule though and the body of water you fish may be completely different than mine. For where I live it is mostly a winter, prespawn and fall bait.

Just wanted to share that I have been using fluoro on my buzzbait so far this year, going against most of what you will read about how all topwater lures you should use mono. Bottom line is I love it. You are usually constantly reeling the bait so the fluoro has no time to sink so there is no problem with that. One of the greatest benefits is the abrasion resistance. A lot of my buzzbait fishing is shallow in and around brush, logs, and treetops and the abrasion resistance is very important. I have also used braid some and liked it as well. I decided to stick to the fluoro though because I use a pretty stiff rod for my buzzbaits. Have any of you started fishing fluoro on your buzzers yet?

I am using a baitcaster. Problem has been occurring for me on side arm casts as well as overhead. Wondering if the preformed wire on these couple is just off a lil bit and lets the blades hit against the hook. I think i can fix by putting a smaller willow leaf on it but the big willow it comes with is one of the things I really like about the bait. As stated above I also switched to a smaller trailer hook and that didnt seem to help.