Cgolf

I support the industry as well, I will just not carry it all in my boat at once. The rest will be available for the next trip. That said a tube and Kalins grub are my 2 best lures of all time, but I too like to learn new to me techniques. I have yet to fish a soft plastic behind a split shot, one of these years I will give it a toss. Not at all, because if I can limit my choices and streamline my thought process that will mean more fish in the boat for me.

That is what is cool about checking the baits that the Elites or FLW guys use. They all thought they had the magic bait and it can be a completely different bait or color from the other top finishers.

I agree with this and justify my tackle choices this way. I will say though that sometimes I get blocked. Say for post frontal bass, I have 10 different lures/techniques I could catch them on and I spend way too much time figuring out which option to use. Maybe I just need to figure out where they are holding, up in the water column or bottom, pick the lure/technique based on this, so that does mean I need to try and carry multiple lures/techniques;)

I actually printed out all of my TW orders and marked off what I have tried, it was pretty sad. Since that time I have been using the unused lures from that list and had some success. It has really made me think harder about my last couple of orders to ensure that I spend $ on lures I am actually going to use vs. having them sit in a box somewhere.

I guess I am not alone lol. my problem is I am very analytical so I of course want to know why they bit what they did and is it a repeating pattern. At the same time at least with plastics I tend to be that junk fisherman switching shapes and colors till I find what works My weekness is I don't switch up techniques often, I will get locked into a bait category, say plastics or cranks, and throw what I have at them. Maybe my New Years resolution will need to be instead of fishing another plastic switch to a popper, swimbait, etc. Hopefully with time I will learn these other baits like I do my core presentations. Maybe I will try to limit my baits in the boat a bit giving me flexibility, but limiting it to a smaller number to choose from. It helps having a narrow beamed 16 ft boat, because I can only carry so much tackle and still move around.

Just reread an old article from Mark Hicks 'Are you versatile or plum confused' where G man talks fishing smart and not having baits that serve the same purpose on deck at the same time. Now that I am going to be adding swimbaits and topwaters to my box, this got me too thinking are we loading up on too much tackle/techniques that it is holding back our fishing. Take my vacation lake as an example. confidence baits: tubes grubs kalins and Menace gambler ugly otter spinnerbaits swim senkos lipless baits square bills deep divers Finesse worms on slider head building confidence: spy baits Swim jigs finesse worms on drop shot ribbon tail worms could throw need to build confidence in: topwaters in general swim baits jerkbaits that list is crazy and I am probably missing some cranks and other stuff. There are years that in a week of 12+ hour days of fishing I don't even try all of my confidence baits much less ones I need to build confidence in. Since a lot of those baits excell in different conditions, I never really feel I get a chance to learn when different baits excell or fall flat. I got lucky last year figuring out when spy baits are really good, but didn't fish them a lot to find other conditions they work in. So so would I be a better fisherman if I limited the baits I fished, or am I missing out on fish if I don't become more versatile. It is crazy though how many different ways we can catch fish. Not sure there is a good answer and just realized I forgot to add the Ned rig to the confidence baits lol.

Had good luck last June with the Arishi Spinbait on post frontal largemouth that wouldn't eat anything else in 6-8 fow. Going to try a Duo and Lucky Craft screw pointer next year. No complaints with the Arishi, I have like 6 now. It was super easy to fish, similar to a countdown rap, slow steady retrieve. Just trying the other brands because of the bait monkey. No idea on stained water, but read an article recently that 2-3 feet of vivibility is go time. Going to try it around docks in stained water next year that gets pounded by other fisherman.

Thanks looking forward to trying out some morels and swim jigs.

I am missing the comparison? The core body shape is similar, but the appendages are very different. I see the rage bait having a lot more thump, aggressive bait while the C-pod would be a great finesse bait, perhaps mojo rigged or a wide body drop shot. To me they are two very different baits for different conditions. If the Cpod wasn't so expensive it would be a great River Smallie bait imitating a baby bullhead.

Was so mad that Booyah did not bring the Xcal SB forward in their line up. The 200 size had such a wide agressive wobble that it fish much bigger than it was. It is a great change up bait to the much more subtle Strike Kings, Excites, and Bandits I toss. If the profound has that same crazy action, may have to get one or two. Does anyone know of another SB that comes anywhere near the agressive action of the Xcal 200? They had a bait that was unlike anything I had seen and then discontinued it:(

Thanks all for the advice. I am glad it is only 8 days away from when I place my Black Friday order, as my list is shifting daily. I might even shock myself and get a Megabass Popmax.

I never understood the bending out thing, I actually saved a few jigs that hung on rocks because the hook would give a bit. With a jig it doesn't take much to set the hook, but I grew up panfishing and walleye fishing, so a big hookset wasn't something I did. I have only had one hook bend out on me and it was the light wire spider classic head on a monster, for northern WI, bed bass when she shook her head at the surface. Looking forward to trying the Morels and see how they compare to what I have been trowing. For what its worth I cut the double barbed collar off the gopher jigs and glue the plastics to the head, because the barbs are a pain with elaztech and distort a skinnier stick bait I Ned rig.

Alright I have 3 savage gear, Strike King King Shad, 2 Cabela's generic swimbaits, a big old creek chub, and not sure if it counts, bug a Lucky Craft LL Pointer. I do really have my eyes on a Jackall Mikey wake bait, they have an incredible perch imitation and the reviews on TW sound good. Plus some others you all have mentioned. If you think I have a good enough starter set, please save me some money and I will work with these next year. In hindsight I should have started with this picture.

I guess I really didn't specify, but I was thinking the harbodied fish imitating swim baits not wanting to mess with the larger plastic swimbaits which like Tom said would get trashed by pike and musky. Saying that though Musky guys love their bull dawgs. I hadn't thought of Keitech like baits as swim baits which I have a few of that I haven't tossed much either. I will likely be tossing those more too and if they get bit off who cares. Too many baits and so little time. Later I will get a pick of what I already have.

I borrowed the video and I will definately be purchasing it, lots of good info in there presented very well. He has any easy way of teaching and managed to keep someone with a short attention span plugged into the video. Also after watching it, the statement 'The tug is my drug' so fits Ike it is ridiculous. I think the dude just flat out loves to catch fish. As soon as he hooks up his whole demeanor changes. It is interesting to watch. While some may not like it, I think it comes from a good place.

I have been to for most of my ned rigging, but man finding them is getting very tough. I am going to give the Morels a shot and see how they work and of course the swim jigs to see if what everyone has been saying is true. Just wish that there were more commercially available #2 and #4 hooked mushroom head jigs.

I never ended up tossing that swimbait this year, but for 2018 figuring out swimbaits and topwaters are going to be a goal of mine, especially when to toss them.

I have some 10 1/4" 6 1/2 ounce storm thundersticks if you decide you need a workout plan Those are a lob cast and to be honest sound like you threw your buddy over board when they land.

I have sadly written off gopher tackle for getting anymore mushroom jigs. So will be getting some Seibert morel jigs and a couple of swim jigs to try for Christmas. How good are the morel jigs for Ned rigging, even though it has a #1 hook. I know the diehards will struggle with this, but I have been looking and all I can find in Ned style jigs is a #1 hook or bigger. The Zman jigs might have smaller hooks, but have a bad rep and are much costlier than other options. Really getting the feeling that moving forward a #1 hook will be the norm.

I have an avid X for smaller swimbaits to an ounce with a Daiwa Viento and the Mojo has a ridiculous range of 1-4 ounces around 8 feet and will either use my Abu Musky reel or my quantum accurist for smaller baits. The mojo will likely have a weight it tosses best, seems like a very wide range.

Yes, I have a St Croix Mojo swimbait stick and a couple of musky sticks that would also work as well.

Unfortunately I am locked into TW this year as a gift from my parents. On my order so far I have 2 of the 6th sense baits and some wiggle room to free up some money for other deals. Really hoping they do extra off on SK and Gambler again, but will see what they decide to do this year. we definately bargain shop too and rarely eat out, so that we can vacation and enjoy the stuff we want to and ignore the rest.

I am likely to pick up a couple of 6th Sense Speed Glide 100s for Christmas and already have a SG Shine Glide I got on trade and 2 Strike King Baby King shads. The question is can I get good swimbaits for 20 bucks or under, or am I just wasting my time? I do fish on a budget so a 50$ swimbait would eat up about a ¼ of it. To top it off we have a lot of Pike and Musky which also love swimbaits big and small, so the chances of losing them or getting them destroyed is pretty high. Are there really conditions where a Bass will only eat a swimbait, or should I just stick to my standard offerings of cranks, soft plastics, and Jigs.

For the boat I toss rigged plastics in a couple of Rubbermaid shoe boxes with holes drilled in the bottom for water to drain out. Cranks I leave on deck in a place I don't walk. This works well for the plastics, I use slider heads, but don't see it working in a yak. In a Yak could put used baits in a Plano hydro flow box or drill some holes in one to make your own.

Anybody toss these and have any feedback? They have a good perch and gill colors I think would do well for me. I have had some luck with the Strike King baby king shad that is about the same size. Next year I want to work some with swimbaits but don't want to spend a ton of money on one specific bait. If we had world record bass swimming in our waters I could justify it, but we have world record Musky around here waiting to steal them lol. The other bait I was thinking of was the 25 size SPRO rat, but the price is a little more than I want to pay for one bait.