Cgolf

That is because many of us were very disappointed/angry that bait wasn’t brought back right away like the lipless. They knew that many would buy in bulk when they rereleased it. I bought 18 of them others in here bought more. I don’t think the DT flat was as popular as the Xcalibur SB.

It is no longer red. It has some color to it but definitely not the red. Maybe tan or light brown.

I use liquid mayhem and seen too many times where it makes a difference to discount it. It isn’t a confidence thing. Only advice is don’t try it on a hot bite when they are basically jumping in the boat, but try it on a slow day. If not liquid mayhem, atlas mikes has worked for me and I believe others that mega strike works. IMO it just needs to be a gel scent. Best evidence I had is father in law went fishless, not even a hit, for an hour while I landed 5 or 6. He reluctantly allowed me to put some scent on the bait he was throwing and had hits in less than 5 casts and a fish in 5 minutes. Does the stuff work miracles, nope, but it does IMO land you more fish.

Liquid Mayhem has 30% off your entire order with the code BLACKFRIDAY30 on their site. Saw this on Instagram last night.

For me we aways bought crawlers and leeches for eyes on vaca and I would try them on a Ned sized jig where I knew bass lived. I think I Maybe caught 3 bass. At least on this lake the bass preferred artificials. if you want to make your plastics stand out try a gel scent like liquid mayhem or megastrike. It will make the artificial smell like live bait.

Last June, I even tried a senko, and no dice, it was one of the strangest bites I had ever seen. We did have super high winds and stacked cold fronts, so that probably didn't help. Probably the toughest bite I have ever encountered in a lot of years up there. Fast forward to September when a warm front moved in, saw the same behavior on the same lake on a bonus trip. I guess I did get one bass on a plastic, but it was on a berkley power wiggler on a 1/64 ounce jig under a bobber fishing for perch lol.

yes this year fishing reeds the plastic bite 99% shut off and until I switched to a spinner bait I was blanking. Had never seen this before but they would not bite a plastic. Also hope it never happens again.

Been there too many times as well!

Then you you can apply those baits and retrieves to similar cover and structure in the same lake, for example fish hanging out at the base of a point in 10 feet of water. For me it is dialing in say the vacation lake the first day to what type of bite they are on, chasing cranks, topwaters, plastics, etc. Also with something like plastics their are a zillion different styles and retrieves too. By day 1 I get fairly dialed in and then the rest of the week is following the fish and adapting to changing conditions and changing presentations to suit that. I usually am a 1/2 step behind, but get it figured out and can stay on top of the bite for the week. If you catch me the first day I look like a junk fisherman and on days when the conditions swing wildly, I probably do as well when I am adjusting to the new location or mood of the bass.

I remember those and have a handful of the rattle baits left and two really goofy looking floating minnows. Wasn’t the cap red and that hung on the shelves? Rattle baits are pretty good even today.

I think it is a modified Rap HJ. Looks like the sides were sanded or shaved. I know bending the nose like that was something In fisherman would print every so often. I will look fo my old clown HJ later. It has to be around 20 years old.

I never get to hung up on gear ratios or inches per turn. I try the bait boat side or shore side and figure the reel speed I want and retrieve it at that. Sure the reels ratio could help me out, but other than burning baits, I find the different ratios overrated. Maybe it’s because I started bass fishing with spinning gear for many years and to fish certain baits, cranks and spinnerbaits, I generated the extra speed not the reel is why this works out that way for me. edited to add IPT along with gear ratios above to not add another derailing reply:)

So back at the beginning the pandemic I got another Dobyns Sierra spin and Champion XP casting rod and my wife made me sign a stupid note that I can’t ask for more tackle during the year. I did work around it for odds and ends (22 war eagle spinnerbaits) that were put away for Christmas. Never signing anything again lol. For Christmas already have a large restock on liquid mayhem scent, quantum icon, another rod holder, couple of fishing books, St Croix musky rod, and have a decent amount to hunt for stuff on Black Friday. Oh and in laws are getting me some non lead Ned heads, Siebert order, and a couple more fishing books and musky leader. I did OK. saying that some of you could way out spend me with a high end combo or two;)

I like this better than junk fishing. you're right that when you are dialing in a bite it looks a lot like junk fishing, but as the day(s) go on, you just make small adjustments depending on what the weather does to the fish once you have the pattern dialed in.

So question for the Junk fishermen on here. Do you all pretty much carry and throw everything from a ultra finesse to heavy power fishing, or do you have a range? On the water I do what it takes to get done, but the whatever it takes excludes a few presentations. So technically a junk fisherman within the power finesse range of baits. There are just certain techniques like the Neko, DS, and Senko I don’t have the patience to fish.

I always thought of myself as a finesse fisherman, but reality is that my style is more power finesse. What you will see in my boat for presentations is 3/16 and 1/4 ounce sliders, swing head jigs, Ned rig, spinnerbaits, squarebills, jerkbaits, shallow cranks, lipless, deep cranks, swim jigs, and spy baits. Probably the Ned and Spy baits are my only true finesse baits. What you won’t see are Neko rigs, wacky rigs, senkos, heavy bass jigs, heavy worm weights, heavy spinnerbaits. This puts a lot of fish in the boat for me. I carry 2-3 spinning rigs and 3-5 baitcasters. What’s your fishing style?

I did a late September trip in northern Wi and the bite sucked because after a cold week we hit a warming trend, which long story short acted like a cold front when we are up there in June. Couldn’t buy a bass on a plastic including a Ned rig once the warmup started. Finally got it in my head to treat it like June’s cold fronts and tossed a spinnerbait on the last time out and caught a bunch after struggling to even get a bite the previous 3 days. Now if a Berkeley power wiggler on a 1/64 ounce lead head under a bobber counts, I did catch a very solid bass on that;) I was surprised that a finesse bait like a Ned didn’t trigger them. I haven’t used Zman plastics in a couple of years for my Ned presentations and feel the effectiveness is equal or better. Since I have a lot of backstock on Ned sized baits, durability isn’t a concern for me.

I might be, but I know keeping the skirt length even with the hook can make a big difference on hookup percentage. I think this is what has kept me from using a plastic trailer, because I am guessing they will grab the back half of the trailer never getting to the hook. If I am missing fish they are ones that completely miss the bait, because most hits I feel now are hook ups.

They are trout fishing staples for me, but chasing bass I never pull them out of the box. Same with inline spins, probably should fish them more to.

I am with you guys I hate trailer hooks too. The only spinner that has one left on is a 3/16 strike king that has a #7 willow as the trail blade for fishing during cold fronts. Got the idea from KVD and besides looking goofy it really catches fish. The trailer hook is needed though to get a hook point out near the end of that big willow.

To exactly what J Francho is saying, wouldn't a trailer hook essentially give you the exact same thing? Seems like the only time I lose fish is when they wrap me around a reed. I just found I had to keep the skirt short to increase my hook up ratio. When I left the long tails on in the center of the skirt I got a lot of pulls without a hookup. Removing the long tails it was game on.

I keep a spreadsheet of vacation baits used, which helps me focus my list, to a point lol, and I will be watching this thread like a hawk to see how many places I will be spending my final Christmas budget on.

Hoping they do the extra off on certain brands too, but I will take the 20% off. Have my list sorta set lol.

Maybe the good luck I had will be passed on to you from a recent purchase from a musky shop. I got a new musky rod recently and no email at all from them and the web link that confirmed my purchase was supposed to update with the current status, never did. 4 business days later I was gonna call the shop and see what was up, but found the rod was sitting on the front porch. The difference here was I know the shop is reputable, others have ordered and I had been in the store once.

For some reason I have had the best luck on this system with 1/4 ounce and 3/16 ounce baits. They must run just the right depth and get bit way more than heavier baits. Since these baits are mostly for the vacation lake that is why I am staying on the lighter side of things. Maybe adding a trailer to heavier baits will get them to ride up a little higher, will have to try that too. For some reason either purple sexy shad or some old smoke purple war eagle skirts were the color this year. I am picking up extra skirts and materials to tie my own too. Years past it was the strike king bleeding bait white and red or white red and smoke. This a pretty clear system that you can see a bait on bottom on a calm day in 10-15 fow. On the war eagles I have I either pulled off or trimmed the long section of the skirt because I was missing a lot of fish. It appears they were attacking the long skirt because the hook up rate increased after this was cut. I have yet to use a trailer on a spinnerbait, maybe if I try heavier models again. I will go with a trailer to get it to ride a little higher in the water column. That particular bait looked good too. I was trying to branch out in brands too. I may give it a try though. Also since I now have a stash of close to 30 war eagles, we will see if the budget allows additions. I have set money to spend on black friday and I have been changing my mind by the minute on what is important lol.