PhishLI

I was happy to find a perch pattern paddletail, but I had doubts about this bait at first as it's action is other than what's been working well for me. I was wrong though. The bass are all over this thing. It casts like a bullet which is good for covering water and getting out to secondary grasslines. Due to the nose's shape it comes through weeds remarkably well. I also swim this thing through heavy pad fields letting it drop in holes or burn it in like a buzz toad. It's super weedless when rigged on an Owner TwistLOCK Light Weighted CPS 6/0 3/32oz #5167-706. It has a belly slot and the hookup ratio rigged this way is great. I'm up to 19 fish on the bait pictured. It looks no worse for the wear. My buddy picked up a pack and has done very well with them too. If this type of bait produces for you then this one's worth a shot.

Good fishing tonight. The bigs came out to play. Almost full moon. Prefront. Chucked several baits, but the Norries Spoon Tail Shad got all of the attention.

I moved to a new location a few years ago. The lake closest to me holds bass including some whoppers, for the northeast anyway. It's a notoriously tough lake though. Most of the old timers that fish there complain about the pressure and reminisce about the glory days of 20 years ago. I'm chatty and talk to most people who fish it. Some guys go weeks or months without a catch there. Truth. I was one of them for the first 7 months I fished it. Granted, I really started there late and it got cold fast. As a matter of fact I didn't witness one bass caught by anyone there from late September of'17 through March of '18, and I fished there alot. I could only manage to catch Pickerel. Around that time I put in lots of work figuring out the bottom contours and weedlines there. No boats are allowed, so long casts with jigs were my only means to examine the place. My catch rate went up, but was sporadic. I had one full week of catches in June, July, and August. The weeks starting on June 22nd, July 12th, and August 10th all yielded 7 days in a row of catching bass. But in between? Rough. Dinks or skunks. The remainder '18 went the same way, random, but was broken up by one day where I caught a giant and two really good fish. As soon as the ice melted this past February I was back out there. A Shadow Rap in perch put me on the fish. I picked up a 3" Megabass Dark Sleeper at the Suffern fishing expo in March and began hammering them immediately. This bait led me to the Megabass Hazedong Shad 4.2" and I started hammering them with that. I'd picked up the Norries Spoon Tail Shad 5" at the previous year's expo, but couldn't find a rigging I liked. Once I did I began hammering them with it. I've caught some really good fish, not the numbers compared to the other baits mentioned, on the Beast Coast Miyagi 5". But it's a much bulkier bait than the others. Yellow perch are in this lake. A few weeks ago I picked up a pack of Berkely "The Champ Swimmer" 4.5" in perch pattern. I've caught fish 8 out of the past 10 trips there on this bait, including a really nice donk. The Storm 360GT 1/8oz has been another killer bait, especially on days when they're not fully committed. All of the other baits I mentioned I rig weedless. The Storm is open hook and tiny. It's hard to miss a hookset with this bait if they bite it. Just a note; I caught exactly 3 fish on anything Keitech at this lake and zero fish on either of the Reaction Innovations Skinny Dipper or Little Dipper. I really tried. The Keitech catches came on a jig head with eyes. All of the baits I mentioned previously have eyes. Keitechs and Dippers don't. My suggestion is this: Try some realistic looking small profile paddle tail baits. Bass feed mostly on small baitfish. Yes, a bigger bass will choke down big bait fish and very small bass will hit a giant swimbait, but they're eating small bait fish for the most part. Once I dedicated myself to this strategy of smaller torpedo shaped swimmers my catch rates at this very tough lake went from sporadic and skunky to logging hundreds of catches this season including several legit northeast mondos. I've caught fish there on most other bait types I have, but none are remotely close to the small paddle tail/boot tail for numbers.

I went through a number of different hook types trying to get the Norries 5" Spoon Tail Shad to run the way I wanted it to. I found the answer in the pictured Owner TwistLOK Light Weighted 6/0 3/32oz. Rigged with this hook I'm able to run it slowly high in the water column. A bonus feature is that it has an unusually long shank. This takes care of short strikers nicely. As it turns out, this hook works very nicely in other torpedo shaped baits like the Berkley HD The Champ Swimmer 4.5. My hookup percentage is awesome even though the hook isn't an EWG. 5$ at TW for a 3 pack.

Bucca time! Bull Wake 6". Bull Shad 6" slow sink. Bull Gill 5" slow sink.

Clever idea. Added to cart! Thanks!

I wouldn't encourage you to do anything that you have no faith in. That said, I've busted off tree branches and dragged logs in with 50 and 65 lb braid while wearing these gloves. They work great and have aided in saving lots of lures. Holding up a thrashing 20 lb snapping turtle with 15 lb braid high enough out of the water to crush the hook's barb in order to release it was a test this type of glove passed. I have zero fear of injury while using them in these circumstances. Just like a pair of needle nose pliers or forceps, I'm happy to have them with me when I'm fishing.

I've snapped the braid at the dowel a number of times losing a ton of line plus the lure using this method.

10 LB Flouro? Between the dense pad fields strewn with lumber and giant Chain Pickerel I may as well just chuck my tackle bag in the water as soon as I get there then go home. This picture was taken 2 days ago. Wall to wall snags. A 2lb bass can't be pulled through this with 10lb anything.

I mostly fish with braid in snaggy waters. I found these gloves after I got a slice from 15lb braid when a donk changed it's mind about getting captured. These gloves are tough enough that I can break 50lb braid at the knot without worry. This past summer a snapping turtle grabbed my son in law's senko. I was able to lift it on 15 lb regular Power Pro. No problem. That stuff will slice a bare hand with ease. There are circumstances where grabbing the line is advantageous. I'm glad I found something that protects me without a doubt in those situations. Does anyone wear something similar? Is there a fishing glove available that claims a cut rating? P.S. I have no commercial affiliation with ATG.

The wife had an appointment after work which meant a later than usual dinner and a quick sesh! Things got going quickly at dusk. Heard a loud pop and saw a swirl. Chucked a frog at the zone and it was on. She ran hard to the right but I turned her. Just like that she shook and spit the toad. It whistled past my head. I then worked my way towards more open water and chucked paddletails rigged weedless. Lots of hits but no hookups. Rigged up an open hook Storm 360gt jig head and a 4.8 Keitech. That was the ticket. A nice little chunk choked it, but then I had to go home. I was bummed. The bite was hot. We ate dinner, then I began plotting. I fed my wife a sob story about how it'll be raining for the next 3 days...She rolled her eyes, then smiled, which meant I could go! I connected with a wading bud and we hit it again at 11. Who needs sleep anyway? I rigged up a Berkley perch swimbait and went to work in a spot where the perch tend to congregate. The bass hit it hard and fought for every inch. Nice way to cap things off.

I'm a chuck and wind type by nature, so I get how certain techniques can seem ponderous. We've had a 40 degree swing down in temps since Wednesday. Hit a very productive lake today with my brother. It still has healthy sections of grass and pads, and good overhanging cover. We threw the kitchen sink at them: Glides, wakes, chatters, lipless, cranks, you name it. Zilcho. Not a sniff. That's until I ran the boat over to yet another sunny bank and started chucking 5" weightless T-rigged and wacky rigged senkos inches from the shore which is lined with brush. Nabbed two 2 pounders, one on each rig, within minutes of each other and the skunk was off the boat! A few two pounders? No big deal, but better than a kick in the you know what. Thank you Mr. Senko.

I ordered some after this epiphany:

The bait looks good. It has a belly slot which is a plus. I rigged two samples with different hooks: Owner Twistlock Light 6/0 3/23oz(5167w-706) and Gamakatsu Weighted Superline(296415-3/16). I think the Owner was the better choice for the bait between the two. The Gammy just sunk the bait like a rock. There's actually more yellow coloration than my photo shows. The action is Meh. Not subtle. The paddle tail is bulky and the plastic is dense. I'm sure that makes it durable but in this case the bait needs to be fished fast to get the tail to kick. At that point the tail is really thumping, but not where the body of the bait is being wagged by the tail though, which is good IMO. However, I'm not a big fan of these types of baits with hard thumping tails. I have much more success with one's that have a tighter tail kick, but especially at slower speeds like a Miyagi. That bait is way bulkier with much softer plastic and a smaller tail. The Megabass Hazedong Shad 4.2", which is more comparable in size to the Berkley, also has much softer plastic and a very tight tail kick at any retrieve speed. It's been is a super producer for me. Time will tell though. I'll fish it and see. I don't have high hopes for it at my local spots as my luck in those places with harder thumping paddle tails is essentially nil. But there's a lake near enough where yellow perch are a main forage species. Here the bait fish get pushed up into sandy bottomed shallows and the predators like lures fished fast. I've hammered them burning a 3" Shirauo Dark Sleeper marked up to look like a perch. But that bait also has a very tight tail kick...

You should check to see if the line roller is frozen or needs lube. That could contribute to the issue, but I doubt that's your problem. More likely it's because of the light baits and slack line at points in your retrieve. I was wading with a friend yesterday that fishes with a Ballistic LT on a Tatula rod. He's basically a weightless 5" senko fisherman. Sometimes he throws other things, but rarely. He got 2 wind knots in an hour. That had more to do with him not taking slack from the line before retrieving while popping the worm than the wind did. I fish with a BG2500 and a Tatula LT 3000. I've never had a wind knot with either, but I'm very conscious of keeping my line tight when I see it get slack in it. Anyway, you can test my theory by throwing some chuck-and-wind baits with good resistance in the water. If your problem goes away then you can trust that the issue lies in what I've explained above. I'm assuming you close the bail manually?

They haven't touched a frog since the dragonfly mating ended. But for a while they were very willing on certain days. The trouble is that bending the hooks enough to get a good hookset also means that I'm contantly reeling back grass. Leaving the hooks in a more weedless postion means far fewer hooksets. Like embarrassingly fewer hooksets. Lots of screaming "NOooooo!"..."Whyyyyyy!"....

That's exactly what I meant. I don't believe that dragging a vegetable mop through the area I'm targeting will help my cause. The grass is still so rediculously dense at my primary spots that certain large sections are barely fishable. The picture below is 2 weeks old. It's actually worse now.

Search "Wading Staff". If you don't want to shell out for one you can improvise. A ski pole will serve the purpose.

I can't fish spinnerbaits in my spots at this time. Even if I find a few open lanes, one rub past weeds with algae on them and the blades foul instantly. On the other hand, I can throw chatterbaits here with far less pain than a spinnerbait. I can clear the veggies most of the time where it would be impossible with a spinnerbait. Wednesday I was targeting stands of weeds that were just poking through the water about 40ft off shore. I'd overshoot by 20ft and would slow roll it right in. Got a bunch of good bites and lost one 4 pounder. It ran, came back, did a full jump then spit. I couldn't convert any bites, but was satisfied that I got some action. Went back the next day under nearly identical weather conditions, but got blanked on the chatter. Got blanked on everything else too. All of that said, I treat a chatterbait like a crankbait that's far more weedless than a treble bait. I can slow roll it on the bottom with a less resistive trailer or add a boot tail which allows it to be slow rolled higher in the water column. I can pitch it and let it drop. The best thing about it is that I can throw it much closer to heavy grass where they're hiding during the day without ending up blowing up the spot like I would with a crank if I get caught up. One plus about a chatterbait: They really try to kill it. The bites are intense.

Yellow perch are in lots of lakes around here, but perch patterned jerks and cranks with trebles are a no-go from May through November around here. Stopped in a B&T, saw these and I was jazzed! I've had so much success this season with realistic looking paddletails with eyes, but hadn't come across anything perch-y until now. They smell like a combination of Fritos and my dog's feet when she's been sleeping for a while. Hopefully the bass dig that.

Yes. Just a suggestion: If you're looking to dip your toe into Daiwa, pick up a Fuego CT. The real world difference in performance is marginal when compared to the Tat 100. While a spool bearing flush and oil really improves it's performace, you can simply add a few drops of oil to them without disassembly. Shimano Bantam oil didn't clash with the stock grease in one of my Fuegos. Very easy to do. Just gotta be careful reinstalling the cast control cap after oiling the bearing under it. It's slightly tricky but very doable with the handle installed.

This September has been alot like last September: Skunked or dinks, then BAM, some chunks. Got the first one in the daylight pics skipping a 6" wacky senko. 24 1/2". Got the 2nd in the grainy night pics on a 5" Norries Spoon tail shad. The fish blasted a Jackhammer first, but spit it before I was able to set the hook. I chucked the swimbait at the general area where it hit the chatterbait and the big girl oblidged. A shade over 23" and fat. My heart's pumping just writing about it. Catching a mondo at night while chest deep in water is definitely a different experience! Hopefully I've turned the corner! Continued.

It's not your imagination, just the nature of the braking system. However, you may notice over time that if you adjust your stroke, meaning less whip, you'll need very little thumb in the beginning and just a touch about a 3rd of the cast and then at touchdown. It took me a while to figure this out. Also, a bit more of a lure drop down from the tip than I was used to and feeling how that loads the rod differently was the adjustment I made compared to centrifugally braked reels. So I ended up doing more of a power casting sweep/stroke with my Daiwas and less of a whip than I do with my Shimanos. Now that it's become second nature I generally prefer Daiwas with Magforce-Z. I'm still happy to use my other reels though!

It's important to master casting technique. Practice never ends for me. I enjoy it. You never know what the fish want on a given day, so versatility is a plus. That said: Your topic is interesting to me as it's been on my mind for the past few months. In the beginning of the summer my brother went nuts buying big swimbaits, wakebaits, glide baits, and the gear to throw them on. He made friends with a guy who's on the same kick. The first night we got together we waded in a shallow cove. They were fairly close to each other, like 30-50 feet apart, and I was oriented about 90 degrees to them about 125 five feet away. They were launching large bluegillgill wakebaits and I stuck with smalli paddletails. Needless to say it sounded as if someone was chucking dinner plates into the water all around me. We absolutely hammered them. One of the best sessions I've had by far. A fluke? Nope. Next time out was in a different lake and it was another amazing night. A few weeks ago we hit a new-to us spot on the boat. That other guy was in his yak. Same thing again. Huge baits crashing into the water left and right, but we stuck em good. There are two lakes I fish where when they're not biting the usual stuff they'll eat a wacky rigged senko. Not a 5", but a 6" and 7". I bomb them out and they hit the water like a hot dog. Big splash. No problem at all. They grab them instantly. All of this makes me think that as long as I'm stealthy, whether when wading or boating, a big splash can be a good thing. If they're alone it gets their attention. If they're bunched up it makes them competitive.

One of my wading pal's confidence bait is a fluke. He probably throws it 95% of the time. He always catches fish. I can't remember a time that he's gotten skunked when we've fished together. I know he has an inexpensive ABU 7' MF rod. The spinning reel is quite old and has so much rash that there isn't any lettering left, so I can't say what it is. It looks to be a 3000 sized reel. He uses 30lb braid with no leader. I'm not suggested you should, but we fish very weedy pad filled spots for the most part. Line choice might matter in some places. It doesn't seem to matter much here. But he catches them in open water too. I think it comes down to how he works the bait more than anything. Chronarch CI4+ on a Powell Inferno 7' MH/XF. Light wire hooks and Berkely Big Game 12lb clear.