bassinyea

Punching lilypads is really much different than what I would normally think of as traditional punching. When you are punching matted hydrilla or around here it is mostly primrose, you are trying to get your bait right through the middle of the matted up vegetation. With lilypads you are not necessarily punching through the lilypads, you will still be aiming for the edges of the lilypads where they are starting to overlap each other. In the summer I fish a place where there is a 3 acre patch of lilypads and they get so thick it looks like a solid mat but just aim for the edges of the pads and you should easily be able to get through with 3/4 to 1 oz.

Hot Lips is definitely a sleeper and a great bait. Another one is Manns 20+ and 30+. I just ordered a couple of the new EZ Manns 30+ and cant wait to fish it this summer and see how it does.

Keitech swing impact fat. Gold flash color works good round here.

I have recently been using the Mustad version of the spin shot. Not sure what it is called but basically the same thing except with a barrel swivel added to it. Line twist has been no problem and I don't use braid to fluoro leader, just straight flouro on my drop shot rod. I like that the swivel loop on the bottom of the hook also gives you an option to tie on a leader with a shakeyhead instead of a drop shot weight which you cant do with the gamakatsu spin shot deal cause it just has a line wedging piece to hold your leader on with your weight.

The lilypads around here get pretty thick by the end of July and you can get through them with a 3/4 - 1 oz pegged weight.

Aarons magic, sxe shad, and junebug chartreuse.

You could do either but for me flat side down all day every day.

Usually fish a spook or sammy when I am covering water or fishing more open water situations. I usually use a pop r when I am fishing more target specific stuff like laydowns or stickups.

I think it has a lot to do with what type of forage you are trying to imitate with a jig. White spinnerbait or a fluke obviously you are imitating a shad or other baitfish where as with a jig you are more times than not imitating a crawfish which isnt white. One exception would be swim jigs and a lot of them have white and shad colors available. That being said, I have a friend who fishes a white jig crawled on the bottom like a crawfish and catches fish on that. I do know that color can matter to a point but ever wonder if maybe all these different colors mattered more to us as fisherman than they actually do to the fish? I sometimes think that an aggressive bass could care less what the color is they decide to either eat it or not to eat it.

Don't do it bro. I believe you will lose a lot of fish this way. Just because Dudley seems to think this is the right way, what about KVD and all the other pros that believe having a limber rod is better. And personal experience has taught me this as well, I used to actually use a stiff action rod for crankbaits a few years back and lost a lot more fish than I do now.

I have looked at them and just didn't feel it so I never bought any. Kind of a weird thing to explain but I kinda feel that way with a lot of strike king hard baits these days. They just look kinda plain and generic to me, all the way from the bait design to the actual paint jobs. Of course my wallet would like it much better if I would stay away from the lucky crafts and such. Every time I see people around here fishing offshore cranking they are throwing a 5 or 6xd and when they are fishing shallow a kvd 1.5 or 2.5. I think the fish see too many of them around here so I try to fish some different stuff.

I like how on the rapala website they list the wiggle wart as having a "side to side" crayfish action. I personally have never seen a crawfish swimming in a "side to side" fashion. Kidding aside I do like wiggle wart cranks but in NC the lakes I fish they dont seem to be too big of a producer for me. Id love to fish one on some of the ozark lakes sometime though.

Its all good no offense was taken. I do think for early year cold water there are better choices too. My early season baits are a lucky craft pointer and staysee. Right after they spawn around here they chew on a jerkbait pretty good thats when i break out the 110s and flash pointers. I also like the 110s and flash pointers in the fall.

I get what you are saying and you are right it might be more than what someone new to jerkbaits would want to do.

No doubt that the katsuage hooks are sticky sharp but they are also very thin wire hooks. First fish I ever caught on a 110 was a 4 pounder and after getting the fish in I noticed that one of the hooks had started to straighten out. The 110s are really meant to be fished on light line but if you throw it on a 12 pound baitcaster setup like I do I would definitely change out the hooks. If not don't try to horse the fish in and set the drag pretty loose.

Yea I know its made by Rapala but do you know if it is one of the new new ones that are supposed to be using the old molds or if it is one of the first generations made by rapala.

It is very easy to change the suspending characteristics of the megabass 110 by just changing the hooks. The katsuage or whatever that come on them cause the bait to slowly rise in most water temperatures. I put a VMC #6 short shank 1x on the middle hook hanger and a gammy short shank #6 on the front and the back hook hangers (gammys are a lil heavier than the VMC trebles) and it suspends perfectly in 40 degree range of water temps. Keeping the lighter hook in the middle keeps the bait balanced out which causes it to keep the correct diving angle. I have also experimented with adding the heaver hooks on the front with lighter on the back of the bait to try to get it to go deeper but the bait lost some of its action with the nose facing too far down. Sometimes I put 3 gammys on it and it will slowly sink which is supposed to be good for cold water.

Can any of you with wiggle wart experience tell me if this package is the newest original storm series with the old molds or the ones that rapala made with the molds they corrected to run right?

Lews BB1 Pro. Large line capacity, awesome braking system, longer handle for increased torque, lightweight, and it looks awesome. Casts smooth and far with very little fine tuning needed once you get it set.

I like a lucky craft pointer and staysee which runs a lil bit deeper. Same as comfortably numb. I also fish a megabass 110 and 110+1 sometimes too and do well. I have a bunch of old rogues that I used to fish a lot but they just dont cast as well as the others. Jerkbait bite is on big time right now on my home lakes the water temperature recently got down into the high 30s and shad have been dying. Sea gulls are fat and happy and until the water temp gets up all the fish eat around here is shad.

The new ones nowadays are supposed to be made from the original old molds. I have a couple of them and they are awesome. One is custom painted in a green/gray crawfish color and the other one is the red craw color storm makes. I had one of the pre rapala ones that I lost fishing last year in the rocks. I have caught just as many fish on the new ones as the old one I had and the new ones do have a decent hunting action that the old ones are so treasured for.

I would say try to find some shallower fish. Are you sure that the fish you are marking in 40 ft are even bass? Sounds like you didnt catch any to verify. If the water is heavily stained I would think even if those are bass they are gonna be hard to get to bite. Not much light penetrates that deep in stained water so it is hard to get a bait to have a good "presence" at that depth meaning you're only chance will be to literally hover it right in front of their noses. Bass that are up shallower are doing so either staging for spawn or to eat and will be a lot easier to catch in my opinion. Just my 2 cents.

x3

Yes that was sad to hear about his dad. I feel for him and his family. The way he quickly brought it up at weigh in if I remember right is he said that he had either switched equipment or had new equipment that caused him to not be able to fish the way he wanted. First thing that came to my mind other than the rods was his electronics. I imagine he was relying heavily on sonar looking for fish to vertical drop on with a drop shot. Definitely tough to fish that way when your electronics are malfunctioning. I listen to Aaron talk sometimes and he is definitely different and a little nutty, but I also get the impression that he is a really good and genuine guy. Even if this classic doesnt work out to well for him I expect him to do well this elite season. The dude is a straight maestro with a spinning rod in his hand.

Yea electronics makes sense too, I actually thought that might be what he was talking about. His new line of rods have microwave guides, you can see everything you ever need or want to know about them online by googling them. Silly as they look to some I can kinda actually see how they would help out with a spinning reel but cant see how they would help with a baitcaster. If Im not mistaken didn't he switch from using lowrance to the new Onyx humminbirds this year?