2019 Review - Which lures/presentations caught largemouth over 5lbs for you?

[txchaser]

Inspired by the "which lures did you lose the most" thread.

 

I was going through notes today to see what worked well for me this year and to reflect on it and see what I needed to change for 2020 as I'm 100% sure I have some big gaps. The first of which is a better fishing log! 

 

5lbs is a bit of an arbitrary cutoff, but at least in Texas has enough frequency to draw conclusions. Water clarity varied from mud to 10' vis.

 

----Consistent Producers----

Chatterbait - BG and white, mostly keitech upside down or a zako. Nearly always have one on now.

 

Swim Senko - one at 6.6 (black, dyed tail, 1' vis, spring), one at 7.8 (green/white laminate, 3' vis, fall) - both fished slow like a senko.

 

Buzzbait - two over six, lots over five. Probably one of the best big fish lures in my box, if it is on, it's really on. Cavitron with Chart body/red blade worked better for me than anything else regardless of water clarity. But I usually threw it before other colors. Size was better with a watermelon toad as a trailer.  All the bigger fish were spring/summer. Fall was marginal, even with a white one. 

 

Underspin w/Keitech - 3.8" or 4.2". blade depends on visibility. Ayu, bluegill flash, or something shad-ish depending on location/forage.

 

Mag Fluke - Lots. Spring/Summer. Don't know why I stopped reaching for it. 
 

Frog - Black/Red outproduced every other color for numbers and size. Why do I have all these frogs in my bag?
 

BG Swimbait - 6.6lbs and quite a few over five. 3" livetarget my wife bought for me. I guess she had a knack for a snack-size gill presentation. Orange highlights consistently outproduced yellow over multiple lakes. 

 

8" fat JDM worm - weightless on brush piles and docks 

 

--------One-shot wonders----

 

6th Sense Minimag Squarebill - 8.0lbs on a grass point - summer - right place, right time. I think the silent helped. I don't reach for a squarebill often, but I got a tip and it was apparently dead on. Caught a few other large fish but not something I could deploy consistently to get results.

 

Jig/Pig - finesse jig with a GP chunk - mid-winter, pulled over a floating mat and dropped into it. 1 just over 5. Long and skinny. Had hooked up and broken off a weightless lizard I presented the same way. Got my lizard back.
 

Jerkbait - Vision 110 in BG on a weed edge, early spring. Just one over 5. 
 

Whopper Plopper - Late summer in the AM. I think I only caught two fish all year on the WP. A big bluegull (what was it thinking??) and a nice 5+.

 

Popper - Yellow Magic in white with flake - late summer, just before dark.. choked it like she hadn't eaten for a week.

 

Fat Ika - I don't fish it enough, but it sure works. 

 

Zero award goes to the Sprinker Frog. Not even a blowup. Put on a regular frog, game on, fish in the boat. Shrug.

 

For volume of bigger fish, the chatterbait, keitech with underspin, and the swim senko were the hands down winners.  I fish them a lot, so I'm sure that's influencing the results, and more often that not I have weeds or wood, and not much rock. In most cases I got better results and bigger fish by slowing down, and being anchored or drifting e.g. off the trolling motor.

 

For 2020, I'm going to push harder on getting better at reaching for a jig in more situations besides pitching at laydowns and stumps.

 

How about you? What worked, what didn't?

[JediAmoeba]

I do not like this game.  

 

I caught over 800 bass in 2019.  Only 6 were over 3 pounds... sigh.

[A-Jay]

 

And second place isn't even close ~

A-Jay

[detroit1]

I don't like this game either.

[scaleface]

Stanley Ribbet frog . 6.47 lb

 

 

 

 

[rboat]

31 minutes ago, A-Jay said:

 

And second place isn't even close ~

A-Jay

What swimbait is that? and was it all for SM or LGM? Thanks

[A-Jay]

Just now, rboat said:

What swimbait is that? and was it all for SM or LGM? Thanks

It's a 6 inch Storm Wild Eye Swim Shad ~ 

All Big Green Bass 

I have to add that this was all in Mexico.

A-Jay

[Dorado]

8 hours ago, txchaser said:

Inspired by the "which lures did you lose the most" thread.

 

I was going through notes today to see what worked well for me this year and to reflect on it and see what I needed to change for 2020 as I'm 100% sure I have some big gaps. The first of which is a better fishing log! 

 

5lbs is a bit of an arbitrary cutoff, but at least in Texas has enough frequency to draw conclusions. Water clarity varied from mud to 10' vis.

 

----Consistent Producers----

Chatterbait - BG and white, mostly keitech upside down or a zako. Nearly always have one on now.

 

Swim Senko - one at 6.6 (black, dyed tail, 1' vis, spring), one at 7.8 (green/white laminate, 3' vis, fall) - both fished slow like a senko.

 

Buzzbait - two over six, lots over five. Probably one of the best big fish lures in my box, if it is on, it's really on. Cavitron with Chart body/red blade worked better for me than anything else regardless of water clarity. But I usually threw it before other colors. Size was better with a watermelon toad as a trailer.  All the bigger fish were spring/summer. Fall was marginal, even with a white one. 

 

Underspin w/Keitech - 3.8" or 4.2". blade depends on visibility. Ayu, bluegill flash, or something shad-ish depending on location/forage.

 

Mag Fluke - Lots. Spring/Summer. Don't know why I stopped reaching for it. 
 

Frog - Black/Red outproduced every other color for numbers and size. Why do I have all these frogs in my bag?
 

BG Swimbait - 6.6lbs and quite a few over five. 3" livetarget my wife bought for me. I guess she had a knack for a snack-size gill presentation. Orange highlights consistently outproduced yellow over multiple lakes. 

 

8" fat JDM worm - weightless on brush piles and docks 

 

--------One-shot wonders----

 

6th Sense Minimag Squarebill - 8.0lbs on a grass point - summer - right place, right time. I think the silent helped. I don't reach for a squarebill often, but I got a tip and it was apparently dead on. Caught a few other large fish but not something I could deploy consistently to get results.

 

Jig/Pig - finesse jig with a GP chunk - mid-winter, pulled over a floating mat and dropped into it. 1 just over 5. Long and skinny. Had hooked up and broken off a weightless lizard I presented the same way. Got my lizard back.
 

Jerkbait - Vision 110 in BG on a weed edge, early spring. Just one over 5. 
 

Whopper Plopper - Late summer in the AM. I think I only caught two fish all year on the WP. A big bluegull (what was it thinking??) and a nice 5+.

 

Popper - Yellow Magic in white with flake - late summer, just before dark.. choked it like she hadn't eaten for a week.

 

Fat Ika - I don't fish it enough, but it sure works. 

 

Zero award goes to the Sprinker Frog. Not even a blowup. Put on a regular frog, game on, fish in the boat. Shrug.

 

For volume of bigger fish, the chatterbait, keitech with underspin, and the swim senko were the hands down winners.  I fish them a lot, so I'm sure that's influencing the results, and more often that not I have weeds or wood, and not much rock. In most cases I got better results and bigger fish by slowing down, and being anchored or drifting e.g. off the trolling motor.

 

For 2020, I'm going to push harder on getting better at reaching for a jig in more situations besides pitching at laydowns and stumps.

 

How about you? What worked, what didn't?

Great post! I have a couple bags of swim senkos that I’ve never tried and this inspired me to tie one on this year. 
 

Curious why you use a Keitech trailer upside down on your chatterbaits? Different action?

[Jermination]

Several. 

 

year round

 

sexy shad zman chatterbait with an electric shad rage swimmer produced multiples over 5 throughout the year

3/4 oz strike king football head with a bit off rage crawl caught quite a few

mud minnow zman 2.75 ned rig on 1/5 oz zman nedlock

 

prespawn

 

booyah double colorado blade solid chart with white zoom split tail

lucky strike tomato craw squarebill

academy brand lipless cajun craw

 

post spawn/summer

 

7 in strike king rage cut r on a 1/2 oz shaky head

DT16 carribean shad

3/8 pure poison jig w electric shad rage swimmer

 

fall

 

chrome/blue back bill lewis trap

heddon spook chrome/black

megabass 110 jerkbait or rogue

 

winter

 

deadly nedly 

shad rap or lucky strike cb 350

DT 6 or DT10 demon 

 

 

 

 

[swhit140]

My larger fish were on bladed jigs & square bills. Quantity wise was the the buzzbait & frogs for me.

[galyonj]

8 hours ago, JediAmoeba said:

I do not like this game.  

 

I caught over 800 bass in 2019.  Only 6 were over 3 pounds... sigh.

 

2 hours ago, detroit1 said:

I don't like this game either.

I agree. This is a silly game.

[NHBull]

The Fat Ika in the Spring yielded my best results for size and numbers

[fishballer06]

I live in PA. A 5 pounder is quite a feat. 

 

 

Cavitron. Caught in mid October. 

 

 

 

This one gets honorable mention. 4 and change. Caught on a 1/8oz Megabass Okashira Screw head jig and a 3" Hazedong Shad. Caught in early April. Water temps were probably just getting around 50*. 

[N Florida Mike]

My biggest this year was 7.6. Caught on a golden bream Zoom super fluke.I caught a few over 5 in the spring but don’t keep records of fish under 6 . They were all caught on soft plastics I’m sure.

[galyonj]

2 hours ago, Dorado said:

Curious why you use a Keitech trailer upside down on your chatterbaits? Different action?

When you rig it rightside up, the tail curls up and just kind of sits there. Rig it upside down, and it actually has the sashay it's supposed to have.

 

Edit: And that sashay works in time with the blade so it's a more complete presentation.

[BassinCNY]

I don't like this game either, but my only largemouth over 4 pounds was caught on a green pumpkin vibrating jig that I was yo yo'ing in and out of the top of weeds on a spawning flat. The weeds topped out at about 3 feet in 7 feet of water. 

[Tizi]

Biggest fish for me in 2019 was 4 lbs 2 oz, caught on zoom super fluke, bluegill flash.

[Log Catcher]

My biggest bass this year was about 4 pounds. Caught it on a Zoom Baby Brush Hog. This was my PB out of this body of water. Oddly enough the same color of Baby Brush Hog which I won't mention caught my PB on another body of water.

[riverbasser]

Was definately a slow year for fish over 5#. Caught several really close but only one that went 5.6lb caught on 3xd crank

 

Oh but all of the fish that missed my frog were over 5# ?

[Joe_w1234]

...sigh...

 

I’ve never caught one over 3...

[moguy1973]

Only caught one over 5 this year and it was my PB largemouth.  Caught on a wacky rigged green pumkin/gold flake BPS Stick-o worm.

[ww2farmer]

Biggest Largemouth of 2019 was caught on a hollow body frog...6lbs 10oz.

 

Biggest Smallmouth of 2019 was caught on a 5" neko rigged stick bait...5lbs 8oz.

 

Both caught in October, both on "fun fishing" days

 

Biggest Tournament Largemouth in 2019 were caught on chatterbait....5.12lbs, and ned rig...5.27lbs. One in June, one in August.

 

Never caught a 5lb smallmouth in a tournament this year or, another one at all besides the 5-8 in October, lots of mid to upper 4lber's though.

 

Caught a lot of 5lb largemouth fun fishing, on the usual suspects:

 

Frogs, jigs, chatterbaits, neko and wacky rigged sticks, ned rigs, suspending jerkbaits, t-rigged craws and beavers, and probably more I forgot about. It was a poor year for cranking for getting bit AT ALL on that (shallow, mid depth, or deep), I can only think of one good evening outing with a crank all year, and dropshotting produced less numbers than usual, and less size than usual as well, I'm not sure if one fish over 5 was boated while either finesse drop shotting or power shotting all year. I did have two upper 4's in two different tournaments caught on each technique, but they were not fish that got me anything other than middle of the pack finishes because I had nothing but average sized fish at best to go with them.

[Fried Lemons]

Caught far fewer total bass but had a good year for fish over 5lbs. My total this year equaled my total from all my previous years combined.
 

Huddleston 68 special - 6lbs 13 oz in March.

 

3:16 rising son 6.75” - 3 from 5-6lbs in August

 

Working Class Zero Citizen 6” - 2 fish at 5 and change in August

 

Nezumma Rat XL - one fish at 5lbs 4oz in August

 

MS Slammer 9” - one fish at 5lbs even in June.

[LonnieP]

This year I caught bass over 5lbs with a Spro Fat John 60, a Livetarget frog, Watermelon Senko, and a Chrome Rattle trap. 

 

[FishinBuck07]

Black buzzbait with silver blade