the reel ess

The bait I have the most confidence in to get a bite, any bite, from a bass is a 4" Zoom Finesse Worm in either watermelon or green pumpkin. Second is a smallish craw or Hula grub. Topwaters would be Spook, Jr and Chug Bug I think.

Was your point that nicotine is a drug? LOL My friend has a pond where the bass are stunted, hungry and dumb. I caught one on a sour gummy worm from the dollar store on the second cast to prove a similar point. If you're interested in my experiment, it was T rigged, weightless. I really like those sherbet swirled colors. But as the day warmed, they got mushy in the baggie. One of these days, when they're really turned on (or off) I'm going to try this. I call it Gummy Wrench, but haven't tied it on yet. It would probably work as well as a jigging spoon. I tried to keep some gummies around, but they always disappear. BTW, this is really in my box and I'm really going to try it. I may tie on a big bucktail fly I have instead of the gummy.

We've done this year round for a few years. In fact, my buddy tried a chartreuse last time out. He caught one dink and I caught 3 keepers on the gold, including a 3 lb. Our setups are very similar in that we both use 15# Big Game and try to reel as low as possible without pulling up weeds on every cast. I just think they're very keyed in on shiners in this spot and that's thee difference. If they want a shiner more than anything else, I see no need to offer a craw or bluegill. To be fair, red doesn't seem to work well for me anywhere around here. Brown craw colors do OK. My dad and i noticed the same between real shad pattern and silver/black foil pattern Shad Raps of the same size. We got into schoolie stripers on them and he caught two to my one. That was OK because I was still catching. I probably should have experimented, but that's hard to make yourself do when they're fast and furious. This, to me, would be like dropping a goldfish down to stripers feeding on shad. You might get bites, but can you expect equal results? I'd rather offer them an artificial shad imitation than another species. If there's a frenzy on, sure, they'll bite anything. One area that I feel color matters the least is in topwaters where the fish see very little color. maybe it matters in gin clear water, but not most places I fish. PS: This is a good discussion.

I have. Here's a specific example: My local reservoir has gold shiners as the main forage. A gold Rat L Trap outperforms others. I've been the guy in the boat who couldn't buy a bite on chrome, red or bluegill colors. And I've been the guy who caught more by using the gold color. My buddy and I have tried this over and over. Gold significantly outperforms other colors, and usually, it skunks other colors. The only difference seems to be that slight variations on the colors seem to work. ie: chartreuse seems to work OK in cloudy conditions, but the reds, craws and bluegills don't work. And the big gals know the difference. I've done enough testing to stop wasting my time with those other colors. Sure, this is anecdotal and local, but an empty side of the livewell is my visual evidence.

Everyone on this thread who says color doesn't matter still has his favorite colors.

I "feel" that color matters to bass sometimes, maybe often. But I know it matters a lot to crappie. If you've ever trolled jigs and set your rods up for different colors, one color will almost always dominate. And usually some colors get completely ignored. It can change during the day or day to day, with no noticeable reason or pattern. If it matters greatly to crappie, I see no reason it doesn't matter just a little to bass.

It depends on water temp. Below 60, you'd certainly be better off fishing subsurface baits. 60-65, it's possible. Above 65 degrees is one of the techniques worth trying. Let the baitfish guide you. if you see bait near the surface, flicking tails, etc., it's a possibility, especially if you see a fish get after some bait. If the water's cool and you see no bait movement, the odds are not in your favor. If it's too cold for turtles to be on the move, forget it. I've heard Jimmy Houston saying if the turtles aren't active, quick reaction baits probably won't work.When it's cold, I'm usually dragging something on the bottom or fishing a Rat L Trap very slowly in deeper water. But then bass will make a liar out of you (me) sometimes.

Fishing late spring at my favorite lunker-loaded private reservoir. I was fishing a T rigged Hula Grub. But I had the drag locked tight for a frog I just took off. My mistake. I cast toward a little rock pile on the bank and started slowly swimming the bait right off the bottom when it just went the other direction so I set. The behemoth (LOL) discovered it was hooked and made a run toward the boat as fast as I could reel. It went straight down at the boat, headed for deep water and my drag was still tight. The line went slack and I pulled up a straightened out 2/0 Gamakatsu EWG-not a superline hook. My buddy said he saw the shadow of it. I was busy trying to do something with the drag when it went came within sight. He was guessing a 10+ pounder. He had already moved everything in the boat out of the way, hoping to help me boat my PB. He has caught a good many 8+ pounders there and he knows new PB's are about my goal when fishing anymore. It would have shattered my PB by 3+ lbs if it was 10.

Maybe the bag was from Guatemala, baits from USA.

Update: An old BPS white Uncle Bucks brand tandem willow blade white spinnerbait. But I lost a sure PB on a T rigged Yamamoto Hula Grub.

Notice black is good for dirty water even on bright days. And there are darks on the chart for clear water/cloudy days. Thus, dark colors have 3/4 of the spectrum covered. When they aren't the go-to, it'll be quite obvious. It's a sunny day with gin clear water. So watermelon or punkin is in order. I find these almost interchangeable so I can probably boil my plastic choices down to two bags of each bait...maybe three. That said, I still fish watermelon/orange or red flake in stained water with good success, especially when bass just aren't reacting. The less reactive they are, the more I want a natural color and/or a smaller size. At least that's how I see it.

You let it sink and drag it. I do this with trick and Finesse Worms. It forces you to slow way down when they aren't biting reaction baits.

I'd like to add to this. in my state, I only need permission and access from one landowner to fish it all as long as you don't get on others' property. I would also stay off others' docks, even if there's a high water level clause. They may not realize it. If there's a card or permit necessary to have in your possession, you'd better get it. Other homeowners and the DNR or police can ask you for it. Here's one I have. On the back is a list of things I agree to respect regarding property and laws and it's signed by me. It can be taken from me by the owner at any time or the DNR if I mess up.

What is your hook of choice? Straight or EWG? And size?

I've caught more bass on one black/blue buzzbait than all others combined. It couldn't hurt that I fish it more of course. But I fish it because the others let me down a few times. I got tired of always buying skirts just to have them knocked off so i put a buzzfrog on it. They still bite it. edit: I should've read the comments before making mine. But, really, the skirt is just there to show the bass where to strike.

Crawfish Etouffee.

If I told you I'd have to kill you. Two people can only keep a secret if one is dead.

Ours is in Fort Mill, SC, just over the state line from NC. It's been good the few times I've been. I've found what i wanted. It beats everyone around except BPS, but it's easily 45 minutes closer. Since we have Amazon Prime, I usually look there first for things before I drive somewhere.

I see nary a split ring on any of them. they all look like Chinese infringements of patents. I wouldn't pay $2 for the lot. If you buy them expect a good many of them not to swim or run true. Just MHO.

It was a Strike king black/blue spinnerbait with a single black Colorado blade. I caught a small one shallow on about the third cast, then no more. As the sun came out, I started getting bites on the gold rat L Trap. Caught 4. Last time I went it was to a small pond and only could get bit on small, slow lures. Caught all my fish on a weightless Zoom Finesse Worm, watermelon/red flake. I have a spot that always produces on this pond and I called my shot. I told the owner there's always a fish on that point and I caught two on three casts.

You should be OK eating smaller fish that don't necessarily relate to bottom. I ate everything I caught for the first 30+ years. Catfish, carp, bowfin and most really big fish will have the most contaminants. Crappie, bluegill and other panfish tend to have the least. I was told by a chemical engineer once that you'd have to eat the mud to get a dose of PCBs large enough to cause cancer and then it would take longer than you'd live to develop. Most of the advisories will be in the major rivers and lakes because that's where all pollution ends up. Upstream you'll be dealing mostly with nitrogen runoff from fertilizers. If your place is first in a stream or spring fed, you should have no known issues whatsoever. I fish a few very clean places now, but I rarely eat any fish I catch. I'm too lazy to put them on a stringer and drag around on my kayak all day. As mentioned above, our polluted waters have healthier fish in them than do sesspools where swai and tilapia are raised. Fish that are farm raised no not have beneficial omega 3's that wild fish have because they are not fed fish or shellfish. And they're captive in their own filth their entire lives. You're eating fish poop when you eat a farm raised fish. Sadly, most governments prefer you eat farm raised because it's sustainable. You won't hurt world fish populations if you eat tilapia. But you also won't if you eat from your local pond.

Yeah, I was looking at the warranty info.

Hey, the BPS Tourney Special is on sale for $9! http://www.basspro.com/Bass-Pro-Shops-Tourney-Special-Casting-Rod/product/2241080/?cm_sp=Display2014retar_DIS#desc-tab

I have always believed that, but I have learned on one body of water I fish that it can make quite a difference. When you sit in the back of the boat and watch your buddy slaying them with a gold Rat L Trap and you only have silver and craw that can't buy a bite, you'll go get a few gold next chance you get. The same goes for spinnerbaits in this place. But they'll bite black craws there.

I don't know the answer, but I have a ton of black/blue plastics and I try to buy everything I can at least in black/blue and some natural looking colors. Purple is another killer color for soft plastics. But there are times fish will snub them and I'll have to reach for the pumpkins and watermelons. Usually, when I have to do that I also have to downsize and that tells me they're just getting very picky and discriminating. Light or bright blues and even reds don't work well for me around here. I've caught fish in the middle of the day on a black/blue spinnerbait with a black blade. Hey, why do fish bite 6" worms? I don't know, but they do.