OnyxWulf

My order by quality of fish caught: 1) Watermelon w/Blk&Gld 2) Watermelon Bk & Rd Flk 3) Black Sm Rd Flk 4) Random colors (june, cinnamon, smoke, pumpkin, blue)

Yes. Also because it gets to the depths that I like quickly.

I have a Curado 200DHSV and a G.Loomis Crankbait rod. I have now tried 4 different lines on it and my favorite that I have used by far is the Gamma. I use 10lb test. I have tried: Stren Magnathin - too many reties and seems to break easy. P-Line CX Premium Moss Green - too rigid. I couldn't seem to get a rythm with this line Maxima Ultragreen Line - because I had a spool sitting around. Not good stuff. Gamma High Performance Copolymer - Tough, not too much memory, doesn't break easy, comes of the reel nice and the price is right. I will be sticking with Gamma for a while even though I just ordered some P-Line Evolution Smoke Silver, which I will try next.

I have found that burning a DT-6 and DT-10 is the way to catch fish right now. I have tried everything else from Ika's (some luck), to senkos, to jigs, to spinnerbaits, to whatever I have in my bag. I start with a burn retrieve then follow that with a burn pause burn retrieve and I have caught some nice fish.

I was also looking for a good set of pliers. Thanks JustTrying, I am going to order some of those shimano pliers.

There is no number 2 here. The real deal is so real that any other deal wouldn't be a real deal.

To back up RW, I throw weightless senko's all the time but the Fat Ika's are king right now. Anytime I go out I have my Stradic 2500, with 20lb PowerPro, and my Watermelon w/ Black & Gold Fat Ika. The Junebug color seems to be doing really nice right now and last night I caught three over 2.5lb on the Black Small Red Flake Ika. The best way that I have found to fish these are by casting it, letting it sink (be careful here as I get a full 1/3 of my bites on the initial fall). Once at the bottom I hold my rod tip almost at the water and just do a two tap jerk. I then reel in the slack and two tap jerk. I only pause for 5-10 seconds between jerks. I found after playing with this bait in the swimming pool that the little jerks made it look like a craw or a squid or whatever it is is. Using the above method I have caught 4 consectutive fish on 4 consecutive casts. This is my confidence bait and my go to around weeds, in the open, on shore, in cover, around structure, in the grass, everywhere. I would try the Ika instead of the senko and see how it does.

I too am waiting for this. I am intersted to see how and if it works and in what applications I could use it in.

Why was my post removed? I am in no way affiliated with Laserlure. I found thier site in one of the Bass mags, called them up and ordered the lure. I think they are good lures, a good company, a good concept and fun to use. www.laserlure.com

I had this problem too for a while. The Ika's are my go to bait and I ALWAYS have a rod with one on. The trick for me that helped my hookup ration incredibly was a simple cut down the length of the ika. I would take a razer blade and cut into the ida length wise about half and inch. I will then use my Gammy 4/0 hook and rig it normally. The key with this is not to cut it the entire lenght, just the middle part. Also you have to remember that you want to cut the side that is opposite of where you pull the hook through at the top. This simple modification made a HUGE difference in my hookup ratio and didn't effect the drop, the cast or the durability of the bait. Hope this helps.

I throw my sexy Vixens almost every day. I have the black and bluegill colors and I think that they actually hold up pretty darn good. I like these better then a lot of the similar walking baits that are on the market. Like Lightninrod said, you might have got a bad batch.

I had a very sad day the other day fishing. There was three different incidents that made me question and wonder how these fish do. 1) I caught a fish on a 1/2 spinnerbait and the hook set went through the eye. Trying to get the barb out would have cause me to pop the eye and maybe kill the fish. I opted to do the ethical (or at least what I thought was ethical) and proceeded to cut my spinner bait hook and pulled the hook through. The fishes eye was obviously ruined. 2) I was using a fat ika and I felt a tug on my line then nothing. I continued to hop it in and nothing, then something went a runnin. The fish at taken the ika and swam towards me so I didn't feel the bite. By the time I set the hook the fish pretty much swallowed the entire hook and the set made it come out its side and ruin it gills. The fish was bleeding profusely when I got it onto shore. I did my best to try to get the hook out but I don't think that fish made it. 3) This one is similar to #2. I caught a fish on my Vixen but notice something hanging out of its mouth. There was a 3 foot line attached at one end to a swivel and the other end was attached to a large aught hook that was WELL embeded in its throat. It was obviously still feeding as it took my vixen but that hook was buried. I cut the fishing line and threw him back in the water with a little kiss for good luck. I am a purely catch and release fisherman, but all three of these incidents made me question if I should throw them back or put them out of the suffering and take them home for dinner. I am pretty new bass fisherman (only started in July) so excuse my ignorance or mishandling of the above listed situations but I am trying to learn and trying to do the right things. Should I have done something differently? Is it worth it to kill them if I think (not an expert in this) that they most likely are suffering and won't survive?

I have found when they do this to my lake that the frog and top water bite turns off 100%. I will turn to the old t-rigs, c-rigs and crankbaits.

Northern California, Marin area.

Is anyone else having a hard time catching quality bass right now? The lake that I fish that was hot last month seems to have died off to little dinkers. I was consistently catching 2-4lbers every time out using a variety of baits and techniques. Now the only thing that seems to be working is a chrome/blue 3/8ounce rat-l-trap. It is only catching little under 1lbers. I have read the the forums here and tried all different kinds of things but I haven't been doing any good.