my "next new thing" lure for the coming year.

[jimmyjoe]

18 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

I’m going with @MGF’s tube jig suggestion. .... I use them in rip rap. .... You can fish tubes weightless if they get stuck too much ..... also, which part of the country are you fishing?

 

   Tubes weightless, huh?  Wow. I'm gonna look that one up. Watch some videos here as well as other places. Weightless was something a person fishing in the river just didn't do.

   I fish where Iowa, Illinois and Missouri come together, or within 120 miles of there. Almost all my fishing was river fishing until a few years ago, when the guys here started coaxing me (okay, browbeating me!) into fishing lakes. Now lakes are at least half my fishing time in a year, maybe more. After over 35 years fishing rivers, my attitude toward lakes still needs a little ......... adjustment.

   I admit, I might be just a little bit set in my ways.   ???     jj

[TnRiver46]

8 minutes ago, jimmyjoe said:

 

   Tubes weightless, huh?  Wow. I'm gonna look that one up. Watch some videos here as well as other places. Weightless was something a person fishing in the river just didn't do.

   I fish where Iowa, Illinois and Missouri come together, or within 120 miles of there. Almost all my fishing was river fishing until a few years ago, when the guys here started coaxing me (okay, browbeating me!) into fishing lakes. Now lakes are at least half my fishing time in a year, maybe more. After over 35 years fishing rivers, my attitude toward lakes still needs a little ......... adjustment.

   I admit, I might be just a little bit set in my ways.   ???     jj

Ok so I guess if that current is raging and you are on the bank, weightless won’t be very effective. But you might be able to let it sink slowly in some eddys. I just looked up the area where those three states come together and realized exactly what you need to do. Go fishing with @scalefaceor at least help him drink rum and hunt big foot 

[Cgolf]

When I hear shore and rivers I think bandit 100. Fishing for river smallies the bandit 100 and yum crawbug both have far out produced other baits by minimally 20 to 1. I haven’t used it from shore on lakes but have caught largies from the boat so expect it would work there too. 
 

Only thing is watch for sales and pick up 2 or 3. River snags will eat a bait or two. I am embarrassed at my backstock of bandits. 

[jimmyjoe]

2 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

 ...... I just looked up the area where those three states come together and realized exactly what you need to do. Go fishing with @scaleface

 

   He'd take one look at me and die laughing.  ?     jj

[BlakeMolone]

Have you tried a grub on a ball head around riprap? I like the zoom fat albert.

[jimmyjoe]

13 minutes ago, BlakeMolone said:

Have you tried a grub on a ball head around riprap? I like the zoom fat albert.

 

   Yup. I guess you're talking about stuff like Kalin's grubs? They were a very low-producing lure for me. Other people around here had the same luck. Don't know why.     jj

[Spankey]

43 minutes ago, BlakeMolone said:

Have you tried a grub on a ball head around riprap? I like the zoom fat albert.

Love the Fat Albert. The weedless Slider setups should work well in his situation. There is a good selection of various Slider Jigs. And the Brewer selections of soft plastics is endless. The Fat Albert could be rigged with a wide gap hook and pegging the worm weight. I’m thinking a double tail grip also. 

[Log Catcher]

Instead of a standard curly tail worm I try a Zoom Ultra Vibe Speed Worm. You can swim them through some cover without getting hung up.

[jimmyjoe]

   Well, I think I've made a decision. I'm gonna go with tubes, and I'm gonna use them weightless. I'd like to thank @MGF  for the tubes idea, and @TnRiver46 for the weightless idea.

   One of the reason I'm interested in going this way  is that before I quit using plastic worms and senkos, my most productive technique was wacky-rigged. And the most productive way for me to fish it was "pop-n-drop". I miss that. In certain places, it was the best producer by far.

   And although I've taken plastic worms out of bass and seen senkos cut out of bass, I've never seen a tube inside a bass. So I think tubes are probably OK.

   I'd also like to thank @Glenn for his video on tubes.

 

   Now ........c'mon, SPRING!   ?    jj

 

 

[scaleface]

Being you are in the Mississippi valley with lots of small flowing waterways , do you ever drive gravel roads and fish culverts , bridges and such ? Do you fish flood plains protected by levees ? I have caught lots of big bass from  those ditches and culverts   in the flood plain . I use to have an Illinois milk run , but now my balance isnt good enough to fish some of those spots . I still have a Missouri milk run I make from time to time . 

[Lead Head]

Just a thought. The trashmaster jig really does a good job of not getting hung up when compared to other jigs. Maybe jigs could be next in line for something new. Fish them on the bottom around cover, and swim them on the rip rap. You could switch out your trailer between the different cover, but its not necessary. It is nice to be able to go from imitating a craw to imitating a bait fish with just the switch of a trailer though. 

 

Those trashmasters fish almost just like a t-rig to me. So if you were able to fish a t-rig without too many hang-up problems in the past this could definitely be a solution to your "no soft plastics" policy. 

[jimmyjoe]

3 hours ago, scaleface said:

Being you are in the Mississippi valley with lots of small flowing waterways , do you ever drive gravel roads and fish culverts , bridges and such ? Do you fish flood plains protected by levees ? I have caught lots of big bass from  those ditches and culverts   in the flood plain .

 

   Yes, I used to. I fished irrigation ditches and pumper drainage feeders. But nowadays people don't want you on their land.  I grew up on a farm; I understand them perfectly. I could fish culverts, but bass are usually not by the culverts; they're lining the sides under bushes and grass, because that's where the food is. Lotta other fish in those feeders (like catfish), but I don't fish for catfish.      jj

[Catt]

1 hour ago, jimmyjoe said:

jj

 

Well first off I get a big grin everytime I see that, my youngest granddaughter is named Jayel & her nickname is jj.

 

Like many of us on this site I started bass fishing from the bank & still spend a large portion of my fishing time from the bank.

 

While many anglers cast when fish the bank I do a lot of flipping, pitching, & punching.

 

Punching from the bank is not all that difficult because most vegetation here is along the shoreline. It only takes 8" or more water under vegetation to hold bass. I simply walk the bank flipping, pitching, & punching in front of me with either a Jig-n-Craw or Texas Rig heavy enough to penetrate the cover.

 

You mentioned throwing spinnerbaits, if I have enough water to cleanly fish a spinnerbait I can work a Trap in that same water. Throw a 1/4 oz hold your rod tip high & reel fast enough to stay out of the vegetation.

 

Another option is a Johnson Spoon with a Zoom Swimmin Chunk or skirt. Don't fish it subsurface but on top where you would a frog. Throw on a frog rod with braid & like a frog don't set hook to early.

 

 

[moguy1973]

If you are going to try tubes, try rigging them stupid rig style to keep them weedless if you need to have some weight to get them down in current.

 

 

[jimmyjoe]

1 hour ago, Catt said:

Another option is a Johnson Spoon with a Zoom Swimmin Chunk or skirt. Don't fish it subsurface but on top where you would a frog. Throw on a frog rod with braid & like a frog don't set hook to early.

 

   Hmmmm. I'll remember that. the Johnson Silver Minnow is one of the lures that translated to lakes from the river very well indeed.

   I fish them with a twitch, both with just a skirt ....

 

  

 

   ... and with a trailer hook for those places I get short strikes.

 

  

 

   Needless to say, as much as I love my Eppinger spoons ...

 

 

  

 

     ... I still wouldn't want to be without a Silver Minnow.     jj

55 minutes ago, moguy1973 said:

If you are going to try tubes, try rigging them stupid rig style to keep them weedless if you need to have some weight to get them down in current.

 

 

   Most of my tube fishing will be in the lakes, not the rivers. Not only that, but the first six weeks of fishing a river is done by hitting the backwaters and quiet places. They warm up sooner than current cuts.

   However ..... if I do fish them in the river current, I'll remember that.

   Thnx.     jj

[jimmyjoe]

57 minutes ago, Catt said:

It only takes 8" or more water under vegetation to hold bass.

 

   BTW, @Catt ..... the very first time I tried a frog, I really didn't know how to cast it accurately. So I went down to the quarry and thought I'd try just pitching it out there a few feet. Naturally, I was off the first time. The frog only went about a foot out from the shoreline onto the weeds, and I had a minor backlash. As I was taking the backlash out, 

BAM!      a bass snarfed that frog up like it was candy. I wasn't prepared, and lost the fish.

   That ain't gonna happen again, I tell you that!     jj

[moguy1973]

15 minutes ago, jimmyjoe said:

 

 

 

   Most of my tube fishing will be in the lakes, not the rivers. Not only that, but the first six weeks of fishing a river is done by hitting the backwaters and quiet places. They warm up sooner than current cuts.

   However ..... if I do fish them in the river current, I'll remember that.

   Thnx.     jj

If you aren't throwing tubes in rivers you'll be missing out.

[jimmyjoe]

2 hours ago, moguy1973 said:

If you aren't throwing tubes in rivers you'll be missing out.

 

One of the best things that I've learned from BR is to listen to what other fishermen say. So .....I hear ya .... and I'll try it.    ?    jj

 

   Later:

   I just got finished with Zona and the "stupid rig". Man, that guy really seems to slay'em! Now I'm interested!  I think I will be able to use tubes no matter where I fish.

 

   I hope.   ?

[Sphynx]

Poppers, whopper plopper or a cigar style for topwater, swim jig or a bladed jig for subsurface would be my suggestions. 

[MGF]

22 hours ago, jimmyjoe said:

   Well, I think I've made a decision. I'm gonna go with tubes, and I'm gonna use them weightless. I'd like to thank @MGF  for the tubes idea, and @TnRiver46 for the weightless idea.

   One of the reason I'm interested in going this way  is that before I quit using plastic worms and senkos, my most productive technique was wacky-rigged. And the most productive way for me to fish it was "pop-n-drop". I miss that. In certain places, it was the best producer by far.

   And although I've taken plastic worms out of bass and seen senkos cut out of bass, I've never seen a tube inside a bass. So I think tubes are probably OK.

   I'd also like to thank @Glenn for his video on tubes.

 

   Now ........c'mon, SPRING!   ?    jj

 

 

It's funny how one can get stuck in habits. I fish a lot of tubes and a number of weightless plastics but I haven't often thought to fish a weightless tube. It's somwthing to spend a little time with come spring.

[Log Catcher]

Since you say you already have some soft swimbaits you might want to try them on an underspin. I just bought some Owner Flashy Swimmers to try. I have seen them highly recommended several places. I was using the Swormin Hornets but the owners you can rig weedless. I seem to have better luck with swimbaits when I throw them on an underspin.

[schplurg]

On 1/2/2021 at 6:46 AM, Mike L said:

Punching is hard from shore but can be done in the right location with certain conditions. If you can find a mat that you can reach with deeper water not too far off and punch from an elevated position it can be very productive. 
 

Also, as you approach look for beds. 
Scout out an area you want to try a few days before you go. 
If you find any approach very stealthy and cast a few yards farther back. 
 

Point is sometimes bank fisherman walk right by the best fishing on the pond. 
 

 

 

 

Mike
 

Yes on punching. Few months ago my one section of creek was solid mat for 200 yards. Never seen that there before. I avoided it for awhile then said what the heck. Kept my T-rigged worm on and chucked it way out there. Got hit first cast. Caught five from the same spot in 3 feet of water and less.

 

Sometimes they'd hit it on the fall, others would hit it like topwater as I dragged it back. First time I'd really fished a mat.

 

As said above, it was the right section of creek to make it easy to fish - casted from the inside of a bend in the creek and could cast a long way because of it. That was very fun!