Will1248

I am revaluating my tackle box and im trying to plan out my follow up techniques. For example I follow Zara Spooks up with soft jerkbaits. Squarebills I'll use a shakey head. I'm trying to conceptualize what to follow up certain techniques with. Typically I downsize. But as I started branching out to new techniques things like lipless crankbaits I have no idea what to follow it up with. 1. Spinnerbaits 2. Crankbaits 3. Lipless Crankbaits 4. Chatterbaits (Bladed Jigs) 5. Swimbaits (Paddle-tail) 6. Jerkbaits 7. Buzzbaits 8. Topwater 9. Swim Jigs? Follow up 1. Worms 2. Drop Shots 3. Ned rigs 4. Soft Jerkbaits 5. Shakey head

@Tennessee Boy I assume you don't work outside of work? I did say casual experiments. For the most part you control the rod, reel, line, hook, knot, retrieve, and probe the same areas for a full day. I tie one pattern or brand and fish it the whole day. That way I can tell if there is interest in the particular bait. Pitfalls is the time of day, hunger schedule, repeatability(different fish, locations, etc), and the "magic" @AlabamaSpothunter pointed out. Additionally, I have bedding bass near my dock and can swap baits quickly with the same retrieve to see the interest in each bait. Some patterns like Arkansas shiner literally got no interest. While baby bass got a nose down. And green pumpkin got a nibble. Results seemed to reproduce consistently. I notice bedding bass in my area really prefer white things while on the bed. Ponds with aggressive fish are the easiest to gauge. Just throw a bait for 10 mins around the pond and see the anecdotal results. If I catch 20 bass on one pattern and 0 doing the same method then switch back and get 15 there is obviously something there. I am not going to make an excel sheet and track data for an outdoor hobby.

I am a biochemist so I conduct casual experiments in my free time. I have spent $100s testing out different baits, colors, patterns, materials, etc as I'm sure you all have. My question is why does a functionally similar bait get dramatically different results. A common example is a Yamamoto Senko vs a Yum Dinger. Testing areas: Lake Murray, SC Lake Hartwell, SC Various family and friends pond in SC In my personal experience I have tried dang near every Zoom Super Fluke. I notice dramatically different results between other brands, colors, sizes etc. The Zoom White Pearl Super Fluke catches the most bass by far, followed by Green Pumpkin in stained water. I have tried like 20 caffeine shad colors, yum Houdini, Berkley Jerk etc. I have tried White super fluke and albino shiner with abysmal results except for the albino shiner outperforming specifically at sun up as light starts cresting, so I am assuming it is the light reflection. I have tried all the different watermelon flakes and green pumpkin flakes. But specifically the green pumpkin black flake noticeably gets more attention. Now here is the weird part. I have tried the super fluke jr 4" and fluke 4" and the fluke gets significantly more hits, I use a 2/0 ewg for control. And to top all of that off I notice that specifically white ice and watermelon seed outperforms the traditional white pearl and green pumpkin in that size, EVEN when the fish are biting the larger Super Fluke in those colors. I don't understand! If I swap to a larger size in the exact same colors... no to little attention. Even on a tandem rig. I will even swap the position of the baits with the exact same results. My theory is that the smaller colors being more translucent mimics juvenile bait fish as they typically have newer scales with less coloration. As for the plastic technology, dye, and weight I am at a loss. I have no idea why the results vary so dramatically.

Just fish along the shores like maximum 6 feet from bank and as deep as you can in the winter. Sucks because they are gonna eat each other with no cover and its gonna have to get restocked.

Jigs and swim baits are my absolute worst techniques. What do you look for when fishing them? Any specific advice like wait for the rod tip to bend instead of doing a hooksett immediately etc?

I was of the same train of thought. But then I bought like 15 colors of zoom super flukes on a sale for like $1 a few years back. I promise you the only colors worth anything are white pearl and green pumpkin. And surprisingly only white ice for super fluke jr, they hate white pearl when it is smaller. I fished each color multiple times a day for months. I'm an Analytical Chemist so I systematically recorded the results. Only thing other than those colors that produced was baby bass, but it wasnt much. I could spot fish by docks and believe me I tried everything. Those 4 colors were the only ones that worked. Even something as minor as green pump with chartreuse tail caused a decrease in bites or even interest. They avoided albino shad like the plague even though it looks like white pearl with a blue hue. They hated matte white too. It makes all the difference. But with other baits I've noticed and stuck with shad, bass(green back/white belly), red craw, and chartreuse. Those 4 base colors work for most diving hard baits. And white, green pumpkin, black, and pumpkin for most soft plastics. Not to well for drop shots though I'm finding out. That's my 2 cents but I only fish Lake Murray and Hartwell.

With most soft baits I notice that the main colors white, green pumpkin and black cover most to every situation. Ive fished shakey heads most of my life but now I'm branching out to drop shot more with the weather warming up, and finally able to buy a specialized rod/reel with my first pay raise. With dropshot I seem to always have luck on more translucent colors like smoke and watermelon seed. But I really havent fished the technique enough to know for certain. What are your top producing colors for clear, murky, and stained water?

I think that's just human nature to improve a skill. But at the end of a day I practice to learn a new skill. Some days I will actually just throw one certain color like gray for example. And challenge myself to only use a gray bait today. It surprisingly forces you to discover the best uses for certain colors of certain baits. You discover that brighter colors work better deeper and shallow but not as good in the middle water column. I will challenge myself to only use one type if baits like jigs or swurms to find the best technique to produce more bites. It's called fishing not catching. Catching is the goal, but to say that your success is only determined by that can be misleading. Getting a bite on a bait you dont know how to fish can be just as rewarding than just catching fish on the same thing you knew worked an hour ago and still does.

Discount bait and tackle has a sale right now. Got some cheap war eagle spinners

So whenever I fish with some buddies there are a few that carry huge tackle bags to the boat with 10 or so rods. However, they usually only throw about 5 different baits most of the time and use 3 of those 10 rods that take up space on the boat. I try to have all my colors and sizes covered for each technique I use. But somehow find myself throwing the same 4 baits over and over. I have to force myself to try jigs so I can improve with them, and after awhile I just go back to old faithful. That leads me to the question. How many baits do you actually use from your tackle box? Tournament fishing is different because I will actually switch out things until I can narrow down what is getting bites. But it always ends up coming back to my "confidence baits" anyway. They just produce more. Do yall branch out and try new things only to put them down? Or just diversify what works for you and buy in bulk?

The trick with ponds is they are usually very muddy so darker colors are more natural. To catch the bigger fish, you have to size up the bait a little. I'd use a 4/0 green pumpkin super fluke. And honestly every monster I've pulled from a pond is because I know where the fish lives, then I drag a spinnerbait over its head to tick it off and it bites it. Bass tend to stay around a general area in a pond for years.

I use both but have to say lews is best in market for quality and price. I like my abus for lighter baits such as topwaters and weightless worms, spool spins more freely for some reason. Pflueger for spinning reels though :}

do you really have nothing to do than troll on a fishing forum? thats sad. Please leave me alone

DX 703SF DX 703C DC 705CBMF GLASS DX 746C DX 742C S/H S 6'6" M action F tip with a 6.2:1 6-10lb(8 is best from much experience) C 7' Medium Heavy action Fast tip 7.1:1-6.2:1 10-12lb C 7' Medium Heavy action Moderate 5.4:1 10-12lb C 7'4" Heavy action F or XF tip 7.1:1 or above C 7' M action F tip with a 7.1:1 reel 1.All purpose spinning and finesse 2. All purpose casting, worms, jigs, spinnerbaits 3. Crankbaits 4. Flipping and pitching, frog 5. Topwaters and weightless plastics

This is the budget anglers 3 rod system for cheap effective and long lasting gear. If you want all purpose rigs the 6'6" M action F tip with a 6.2:1 reel with 8lb Trilene XL(best casting distance for the price) is for everything you have, so two things a stout 7' Medium Heavy action Fast tip rod with a 7.1:1-6.2:1 reel ratio baitcaster with 12lb Berkeley Big Game mono(or flouro but this is cheap it works fantastic and lasts longer). This rod covers jigs, worms, spinnerbaits, smaller swimbaits, bigger jerkbaits and more, but can be used for frogs, flipping and pitching light cover if you want to swing that way(joke intended) until you want to upgrade to a 7'6" Heavy action Xtra fast tip for the 2oz artillery weights for really punching through thick grass. And after that personally I would recommend a 7' Medium Heavy action Moderate tip for crankbaits and a few odd baits. With a 5.4:1 gear baitcaster spooled with 10-12lb FLOUROCARBON(absolute must for deep crankbaits). S 6'6" M action F tip with a 6.2:1 6-10lb(8 is best from much experience) C 7' Medium Heavy action Fast tip 7.1:1-6.2:1 10-12lb C 7' Medium Heavy action Moderate 5.4:1 10-12lb Now the crankbait rod can be a Medium action but if you plan to throw any crankbait deeper than 12ft or a squarebill over an ounce then stay with the MH or else you will have a workout and possibly break a rod or reel(strips the drag). So initially a Med. Mod isnt advised. Moveover, look for a very "noodley" rod with a very moderate tip but with a decent backbone so you can fish smaller cranks and not have them pop out and fly toward your face. All this being said I reccomend Lews Laser MG Speed Spool baitcasters they run about $80 but are hands down the best bang for your buck reel in the medium price range of $50-100 and they last forever. For the rods I reccomend Lews David Fritts Perfect Crankbait rod also $80 (they actually have a new combo out called the Crankback for $100 with the right reel instead of a $160 set up) They are very limber, light and set hooks very well again a great bang for your buck. Lastly an Abu Garcia Vendetta 7' MH Ftip rod is very stiff, has a solid backbone and if you catch it right you can get them for $30 but normally about $70. All of these rods will fish pretty much anything you want besides alabama rigs. The spinning and the worm rod are really all you need but if you like crankbaits at all and will fish for hours at a time, if you have the money just get a crankbait rod they help so much and make it more fun instead of a chore. This is all suggestions and just an opinion. Hope that I helped. You should most definitely buy your reel first then a rod or buy them together. The reason is so that you get a good feel for the rig instead of having a giant reel on a small rod or visa versa. -Will