Dorado

Interesting what you said about the mayfly hatch hmmmm. I bank fish at night and never turn my headlight on, unless I'm unhooking a fish or tying. With that said, it's too dark to line watch so I'm kinda limited in the various retrieval styles I can employ. I have to fish it like a grub by letting it hit the bottom, then slowly reeling the rig slightly off the bottom with rod twitches. With braid and co-poly leader coupled with a sensitive medium action spinning rod, I can detect the slightest thump. It's so addicting right now.......at least until the weeds start to emerge

Next Night experimenting with the Ned Rig. This time Green Pumpkin Orange and Molting Craw did some work. 8 LMB including one at 3.2# and a surprise Channel Cat.

I'm partial towards the Super Fluke Jr., especially in white ice. They are extremely versatile. I fish them 3 ways: 1) Weightless and fished like I would fish a stick bait wacky style. 2) As a trailer for white chatter baits with a yo-yo retrieval. This is great pre-spawn and fall. 3) For Stripers, pair a white ice fluke jr with a chartreuse head under spin and work it like a jerk bait. I can't think of a more effective technique for catching stripers on a threadfin shad feeding frenzy.

Pearl Blue Shad kills it for me on an Owner Flashy Swimmer

I discovered that the Ned rig is effective night fishing

Well, the Ned Rig works at night. Landed 11 tonight with some dinks mixed with a couple chunky monkeys. Junebug finesse TRD glued on a 1/15th oz shroomz jig head was durable enough to last the entire outing. Ned rig is a fantastic prespawn bait That might be the tiniest jig I’ve ever seen a 4#+ eat. Crazy

You’re going to love the TRICK worm! It saved me on so many hot summer nights. Never tried it wacky but weightless tx-rigged is so hard to beat.

X2

I’m actually picking up some today to try out this spring. Electric Shad is calling my name

Great description. I’ve never used this technique so I’m beyond curious When you move it after the initial drop to the bottom, are you lifting up your rod in a jigging type motion? Dragging it with your rod in a side sweeping motion? Using the reel only to move it a couple feet followed by a pause?

I agree, that added backbone in a ML rod makes a significant difference in your hooksets.

One of the biggest pickerels I've seen in a minute..........nice

For me, buzzbaits and whopper ploppers. They are entertaining to fish with because they are visually appealing, but I’ve never had a single hit. Yet, I still buy more and will keep trying until I finally get connected. It’s just disheartening when I hear so many anglers rave about em. Maybe it’s because I fish ponds that are so heavily pressured?

You fishing Lynx and Goldwater? Either of those places are loaded with crawdads. What works great in those Prescott lakes are small crappie tubes under a slip bobber rig. Trout go nuts on em' and those juvenile bass will be interested. Not sure if you have a kayak or if you're fishing from shore, but PM me and I'll give you some 'local' tips. If it's Dead Horse Ranch, that place is loaded with bluegills. Ned rigs and smaller bluegill colored swim jigs with a 3.3" green pumpkin or bluegill flash Keitech FAT swing impact trailer.

do you use a shorter leader when you DS crawbugs?

I have had a lot of success this year with a 3" Ron's Craw colored Kalin's Lunker Grub. It's already climbing it's way into one of my favorite soft plastic baits. Enhance it with some Megastrike and slowly retrieve it off the bottom with random pauses. A standard jigging motion works too, just depends on the day.

@WRBGreat post! Tis the season here in AZ. Pic was from last week.

Catfish don't eat topwater jitterbugs either................

I personally wouldn’t recommend the Pop X, which is a finesse-type popper at 2.5”. I had to mail it back due to some quality control issues and they handled things quite well. However, at that price point, I wish I didn’t have to go thru that hassle for one little expensive lure. I hear great reviews on the Pop Max, so maybe that model will restore things

This website has hands down made me a better angler. @Glenn you have put together the best resource center available and the members go out of their way to share wisdom. From members sharing their top secret fishing holes to divulging details on techniques, baits, etc - I have attained lifetime skills that I get to pass onto my children. Just wanted to express my gratitude

Last time I seriously respond to a topic like this

^ this was almost mine, exact same color, but in a 4". Since I'm a multi-species guy, 3" Berkley Powerbait Power Grub in Pumpkin Seed or White. I can't pick one color over the other since one resembles a craw color and the other ties to shad. This grub on a jig has personally landed me smallies, bucketmouths, walleyes, saugeyes, channel cats, crappie, bluegill, rainbow trout, and white bass. It's so versatile within the water column. One can effectively work it as a search bait for suspended fish to or a slower, jigging presentation off riprap areas. The spectrum is so wide. Honorable mention: 2.5 " Black Shad Gulp! Alive! Minnow on a chartreuse Roadrunner.