Cgolf

So as a time killing project I decided to make as many of my back stock boxes one style of bait as possible. I was stunned to find that 70 to 80% of the boxes were of different types of worms that I rarely if ever toss anymore. I am more of a grub, tube, or creature bait kind of guy. I must have thought that worms were the thing to buy back when I was still learning about bass fishing. Do the rest of you have large back stocks of baits that you ultimately found didn't fit the way you fish? I know I won't be ordering worms for a lifetime or two.

For me it was the spinnerbait. So much so that I started a thread on it. During my June vaca, it saved the day when the plastic bite along with everything else died during stacked cold fronts. During my mid late September vaca when we got a warm front and everything else died the spinnerbait came through again. They aren't magic baits, but are a valuable tool that I don't fish nearly enough. This changed my black friday plans from a fair amount of jerkbaits to a lot of spinnerbaits and I also got 22 1/4 war eagle spinnerbaits from outlet bait and tackle in July. Never hurts to be prepared;)

That would have been awesome too, but finally catching some bass on a tough fishing trip definitely had a very good feel to it.

I looked back at my vacation logs and the last time I used them at all was 3 years ago. The last time that I used them to capture a lot of bass was 7 years ago. So for me it was a blast from the past.

Back in June on my traditional Northwoods fishing trip, the plastic bite died along with the jerkbait bite due to a couple of cold fronts pushing though. At some point I decided to try a spinnerbait, and they consistently put fish in the boat for me the rest of the week. Fast forward to a bonus fall trip we have never done on this lake thanks to Covid and no other vacations, Saturday to Tuesday (fishing days), leave early Wednesday morning I just got back from and the first day which was after some brutal cold weather I did okay on plastics but at least got hits. The weather shifted the next couple of days with a warming trend and the plastic bite died, jerkbaits never sniffed a hit, and cranks and spy baits zeroed too. I even tried fishing a senko and zero hits on that. Tried shallow reeds, weedlines in different parts of the lake that are known for holding bass and pretty much zeroed the rest of the week. Did catch a bass on a Berkley power wiggler under a bobber fishing for perch in the reeds which really surprised me. Was about to pull the boat out, but the cabin owners said nobody was coming in and we were the last to stay this year so we could leave later. This bonus morning trip let me think some and I realized that dumb me, a warm front in the fall is similar to a cold front when we are normally there. So I tied on a spinnerbait and in dead flat water the next morning, usually a bad sign, I boated 4 nice bass and missed 4 in about an hour of fishing. This saved the trip fishing wise and I definitely learned something. Had I left without putting the final piece of the puzzle together I would have been frustrated and just confused. I really felt good when I boated my last bass knowing that I had finally pieced it together, you all get it and know that feeling. The moral of this story is don’t forget about the trusty spinner bait. It can put fish in the boat when other baits can’t. I would say Never give up! applies too.

My favorites are in no particular order prowler, strike king, Bass Pro tender tubes, swing oil, yum, ISG, and generic. Basically I just like tubes and each brand has their place. If I could have just one brand, Trigger X, well crap the6 don’t make those any more. They were definitely better than other tubes, the rest I switch between all the time depending on the size or color I want.

I would also like to see a comparison picture if anyone has both, I have not seen the magnum yet. Sorry for the slight hijack of the thread.

I still want to read the book someday and have been interested for a long time. Wish they would do a reprint. Could be people are misquoting the scent thing. My point with the bass in a lab thing is if you put me someone who lives in the country in any big city my reactions are going to be way different than someone that lives in a big city. Same thing as moving a pond bass to a lake, it will be overwhelmed for awhile. Not saying something can't be learned, but I have broken so many myths over the years fishing clear water, line shyness, rattles, etc, that I feel bass are all unique individual creatures like us;) Also could be a lot to do with light penetration with the rattles. I have seen color preferences change flat water vs choppy water so who knows. Saying all that I want to replace my terrova with a cable steer because I think it is too loud and I don't catch fish because of it, even though I have many videos that show me hooking up right after I turned the motor. I will say growing up near a clear water lake and fishing one yearly as our vacation lake, I love clear water, I find it easy to fish. I do know it is intimidating to some, but I prefer it over dirty water lakes like we have locally which I find more difficult to find fish.

So doing a lab experiment on a pump flow rate, drug analysis in the lab is easy to control and change variables because what you are testing is not aware of its surroundings and won’t react to them. Even a bass with it’s insanely small brain will react differently to in a lab vs a lake or river. Being aware of its surroundings changes everything. The hook and look guys apparently have done some cool experiments in the field that I should really watch. I haven’t read the book but have heard he discounts scent getting more bites. I have observed the opposite in the field. This is with non believers tossing the baits with it on so confidence wasn’t a thing with them. I work testing products for the scientific field and have a BS in biology with an emphasis in environmental sciences.

So what is the verdict on Midway? I saw comments from people on here that were really happy and it sounded if others didn't have a great experience.

Living in WI I definetley like the St Croix rods I have. But my Dobyn's sierra spinning rods are very sensitive and I would say my Champion XP is a lot more sensitive than my Avid X. I feel both brands have a place in my lineup. My Premier MH moderate action casting rods is probably my overall favorite cranking rod.

In no particular order except the first is truly #1 for me over the years when I chase smallies on the river. Yum Small Crawbug Arsenal Assault Bug Rage Menace Rage Baby Menace Tube Kalin's 5" Single tail grub but really any grub catches fish even the old 2" Mister Twisters Gambler Ugly Otter That's my must haves.

Lipping a few as @WRB said can give a big clue of what baits to use and part of the water column to target. Have done this for years since I never put bass in a livewell to let them cough up what they are eating that is my only option.

No bass boat here. A 2006 narrow beamed alumacraft lunker v16 single console that I made a custom deck for between the front area and the live well to give me room to move around. Gets the job done for me. Eventually want a wider beamed 17 or 18 foot deep v for when we make the permanent move to the lake. I do fish a local river a lot from the bank on the way to work and we just got kayaks last year so I always have a rod with. The main goal of that is to get out with the wife on the river so she only tolerates a few casts;)

Gary is a great interview. A long time ago it was interesting to here him talk about the split grip craze and how it messed with rod balance. He wasn't a fan, but of course had to make them due to demand.

I am just not a consumer of videos. I do like podcasts because I can listen to them while I am working or just doing stuff around the house. Maybe I should make time for videos, but my preference is multi tasking while videos are playing or the TV is on and that is a not a good combo when trying to learn a new technique. I can't even watch a sporting event without doing something else as well lol.

My walmart finds this year have been a little down. I did get a larger shad rap for 2.48, rapala braid scissors for 75 cents and 3 tubes of Liquid Mayhem for 3.30. I passed on the 4 packs of SK gurgle toad plastics that were 70 and 80 cents depending on the color. Had them scanned hoping they were cheaper like others have seen but no go so passed.

I am not ordering till Black Friday, but besides Covid wouldn't the wildfires potentially be impacting shipping too depending on where the package is going?

Not sure if someone mentioned the push hit on a crankbait. This is where you are reeling in and the bait is thumping away and all of a sudden you feel nothing because they have pushed the bait forward. These are difficult to hook up depending on how aggressive the hit was. Definitely feels different than going through weeds because all of a sudden you feel absolutely nothing.

I used to listen to Ultimate Bass radio a lot and enjoyed it. Did listen to Bass talk live recently and it is pretty good as well. Not really technique though. Gary Dobyns used to be on ultimate bass radio a fair bit and was always a good listen. Sorry to Glenn I really don't do videos for fishing stuff, maybe I should but I don't.

For me the 2 easiest baits to fish are a 5" singe tail grub and a tube. They can imitate pretty much anything and will catch anything that will swim. I use slider heads, but the grub can go on a ball head and the tube can be rigged with an insert head or texas rigged. Also a totally underrated bait is the yum crawbug in the 2.5" size. I have caught lots of nice bass on that bait. Again slider head or ball head and they are cheap and last a long time.

I guess I don't have a favorite fisherman, but like reading old books like slider fishing, lunker love nightcrawlers, Don Iovino's finesse fishing book, old infish books etc. There is a lot of very relevant information in there that we can all learn from. I have read lunkers love night crawlers a couple of times after buying it after reading a library copy. From watching some of the bass pros episodes that bass pro sold the DVDs for Rick Clunn's approach always made me think too. I need to get through some of the DVD's I have, lots of good old info there and pros fishing with spincast reels;)

Nice, and I still set the hook, and land my fair share of rockies. They definitely are not afraid to attack large baits. It seems if the rockies are in an area so are bass.

I still won't read on the tablets, but watch most sports on my iPad mini because my wife isn't a fan. Will be a sad day when magazines are gone.

As most are saying, time on the water will learn you, and that learning never ends. Jigging for deep water walleye really helped me learn how to line watch. One of my best outings, over 23 quality bass in less than an hour I was setting the hook on fish for reasons I didn't even understand. Line watching, or just feeling something heavy on the line probably played into it but I was in a zone, as were the fish. A lot of my plastic bites the last couple of years have been let the bait drop to the bottom, pop it in place a couple of times and pause a second or so and sweep the rod gently and start reeling if the fish is there the rod will load up. 95% of those fish I never felt a thing. The hits I hate are the machine gun taps because then you know you have a rocky on the other end of the line.