One Off The Bucket List

[boostr]

So,went to to visit the parents in Fort Payne Al, and about an 40 minute drive from there is Lake Guntersville... So ya know we had to go and do some fishing. We hired Philip Criss as our guide, and boy him or the lake didnt disapoint. We boated over 20 bass, with my son cathing a PB 6lbr and a 5lbr, I caught a few the wife caught a few Philip caught a few was a great time. We all used a "senko"  stick bait in junebug, we never had to switch out baits... used the same one the whole time lol. We met up with our guide at Waterfront Bay Groceries and Tackle (cool joint and the owner is really nice). After we were done with our fishing trip we went back to Waterfront and met Jacob Wall (didnt know who he was) found out he is a MLF Rookie nice guy. I guess he was there to do a promo with Waterfront... To make it even cooler while they were recording the promo for their FB page the owner invited my son to be a part of it so that was interesting. So yeah, a very awesome day.

Some pics:

 

[Nelson Wormefeller]

Looks like an overall excellent day. ?

[Skunkmaster-k]

Sounds fun! 

[TnRiver46]

Nice! Purple worm still making smiles 

[boostr]

9 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

Nice! Purple worm still making smiles 

For sure, guess it's hot in the south, but can't catch a lick on it up here in the north lol.

 

Philip had some great stories about KVD being his co-angler in the 80's. Guy is a bank of knowledge for sure. Highly recommend him if anyone ever heads down or up that way.

[Fishingintheweeds]

24 minutes ago, boostr said:

For sure, guess it's hot in the south, but can't catch a lick on it up here in the north lol.

 

Philip had some great stories about KVD being his co-angler in the 80's. Guy is a bank of knowledge for sure. Highly recommend him if anyone ever heads down or up that way.

Gets bit there, down south...but not in the north. Das right. You couldn't pay me to tie one in in most places in Michigan. 

[TheBasslayer]

On 6/28/2021 at 10:07 PM, Fishingintheweeds said:

Gets bit there, down south...but not in the north. Das right. You couldn't pay me to tie one in in most places in Michigan. 

Same. I’m in southern Michigan, and I don’t get sniffed. And nice day!

[Fishingintheweeds]

10 hours ago, TheBasslayer said:

Same. I’m in southern Michigan, and I don’t get sniffed. And nice day!

Yeah, I bought some because you're supposed to and because I'd fished other places in the south, growing up, where it made sense...throwing black and blue up here seems like a waste if time and $$$. Sooooo...I still have some sitting in bags that I will probably never use all of and some of the bags I may never open. Ha, and I sure won't be buying anything new in black and blue (or anything similar) to fish up here. Variations on green pumpkin or watermelon and white/grey seem to be the way to go up here, with soft plastics. 

[TheBasslayer]

8 hours ago, Fishingintheweeds said:

Yeah, I bought some because you're supposed to and because I'd fished other places in the south, growing up, where it made sense...throwing black and blue up here seems like a waste if time and $$$. Sooooo...I still have some sitting in bags that I will probably never use all of and some of the bags I may never open. Ha, and I sure won't be buying anything new in black and blue (or anything similar) to fish up here. Variations on green pumpkin or watermelon and white/grey seem to be the way to go up here, with soft plastics. 

Green pumpkin always works for me, and I have to try white/grey now!

[MIbassyaker]

Awesome looking trip, boostr!

 

On 6/28/2021 at 9:41 PM, boostr said:

For sure, guess it's hot in the south, but can't catch a lick on it up here in the north lol.

On 6/28/2021 at 10:07 PM, Fishingintheweeds said:

Gets bit there, down south...but not in the north. Das right. You couldn't pay me to tie one in in most places in Michigan. 

On 6/30/2021 at 12:11 PM, TheBasslayer said:

Same. I’m in southern Michigan, and I don’t get sniffed. And nice day!

 

 

Errrr........yup, no Junebug north of the Mason-Dixon line, especially Michigan. Complete waste of time, so let's hear no more about it!

 

 

Move along, please. Nothing to see here.

[Fishingintheweeds]

31 minutes ago, MIbassyaker said:

Awesome looking trip, boostr!

 

 

 

Errrr........yup, no Junebug north of the Mason-Dixon line, especially Michigan. Complete waste of time, so let's hear no more about it!

 

 

Move along, please. Nothing to see here.

Ha, ha, ha...congrats! But to be fair, your bait DOES have a good-sized chartreuse tail! I've caught them on black and other dark colors but it's slow. I also said specifically said "most" places...because of course they're not all the same.

 

What was the water like there? 

 

In all seriousness, I would be really interested to see how long it takes to get your next pics of catches with black and blue, blue, or junebug hanging out of their mouths. I'm just guessing that, minus the chartreuse, it's not your go-to in the typical clear waters up here. 

 

Don't get me wrong, that's great! And I'm more than happy to let you do the experimenting for us! 

[MIbassyaker]

3 hours ago, Fishingintheweeds said:

Ha, ha, ha...congrats! But to be fair, your bait DOES have a good-sized chartreuse tail! I've caught them on black and other dark colors but it's slow. I also said specifically said "most" places...because of course they're not all the same.

 

What was the water like there? 

 

In all seriousness, I would be really interested to see how long it takes to get your next pics of catches with black and blue, blue, or junebug hanging out of their mouths. I'm just guessing that, minus the chartreuse, it's not your go-to in the typical clear waters up here. 

 

Don't get me wrong, that's great! And I'm more than happy to let you do the experimenting for us! 

 

I don't fish black and blue much -- not because it's ineffective, but because I feel there's usually a better option....junebug, for instance, which is one of my most productive colors.  Yes, even in clear water (I use chartreuse tails mostly in dark water). That lake in the pic is not the clearest water I fish -- it has about 4-6 feet of visibility and somewhat algae-stained.  It's also heavily vegetated as you can see -- thus there is a lot of dark cover, and much of the bass habitat is well-shaded.  I think this is the sort of situation where junebug shines up here, regardless of overall clarity.

 

I am convinced the green flake is the key -- the environment in these weedy, algae-stanined lakes is distinctly greenish, and thus much of what bass eat here are also kind of greenish, as critters tend to take on some of the tints and hues that surround them in the environment as camouflage.  A junebug bait slinking through the weed-stalks and pad stems is a dark silhouette that flashes green brightly as it catches stray, dappled rays of light shining through, and I think this green flash sometimes acts as an added trigger. 

 

Is any of that true? I don't know. Seems as good an explanation as any.  It's definitely true that junebug is productive for me though...at least for Largemouth in weedy natural lakes.

[Fishingintheweeds]

1 hour ago, MIbassyaker said:

Is any of that true? I don't know. Seems as good an explanation as any.  It's definitely true that junebug is productive for me though...at least for Largemouth in weedy natural lakes.

For me, I've gotten them on black in more stained water, and on black and blue pit boss near dark, fishing them like a topwater. So, I kinda feel like it could've been almost any color that I pulled out of my bag. The darker colors have worked for me some...but like you said, when you find a better option that keeps the action going, there's no sense trying to force-feed them a certain lure or color. 

 

And about the flakes, ha, it MUST be true because the purple flakes work like that for me. I said this on another post about colors - I don't WANT to think that color is the deal breaker in fishing, and I don't even really believe that is...but it sure feels like it sometimes. Even between different shades of green/green pumpkin or different color flakes...maaaan, it sure seems like those purple flakes are why the fish are biting! 

[N Florida Mike]

Strangely enough I almost never catch anything with any purple flake bait, but red, green and blue flake work well for me. purple Shad is a great color, but I use more watermelon colors ( and junebug of course) than anything else…

Great trip by the way. 

[TnRiver46]

4 hours ago, N Florida Mike said:

Strangely enough I almost never catch anything with any purple flake bait, but red, green and blue flake work well for me. purple Shad is a great color, but I use more watermelon colors ( and junebug of course) than anything else…

Great trip by the way. 

June bug is what I always call purple 

[roadwarrior]

"Blue Fleck" is Rage Tail "purple".

 

Watermelon/ Black Flake, Green Pumpkin and Green Pumpkin/ Red Flake

seem like staples everywhere. 

[Fishingintheweeds]

On 7/6/2021 at 10:10 PM, MIbassyaker said:

 

I don't fish black and blue much -- not because it's ineffective, but because I feel there's usually a better option....junebug, for instance, which is one of my most productive colors.  Yes, even in clear water (I use chartreuse tails mostly in dark water). That lake in the pic is not the clearest water I fish -- it has about 4-6 feet of visibility and somewhat algae-stained.  It's also heavily vegetated as you can see -- thus there is a lot of dark cover, and much of the bass habitat is well-shaded.  I think this is the sort of situation where junebug shines up here, regardless of overall clarity.

 

I am convinced the green flake is the key -- the environment in these weedy, algae-stanined lakes is distinctly greenish, and thus much of what bass eat here are also kind of greenish, as critters tend to take on some of the tints and hues that surround them in the environment as camouflage.  A junebug bait slinking through the weed-stalks and pad stems is a dark silhouette that flashes green brightly as it catches stray, dappled rays of light shining through, and I think this green flash sometimes acts as an added trigger. 

 

Is any of that true? I don't know. Seems as good an explanation as any.  It's definitely true that junebug is productive for me though...at least for Largemouth in weedy natural lakes.

I've gradually started using all kinds of colors, mostly because my young sons are picking the colors "for us". So, I have branched out some and used colors ranting from don't wildly bright chartreuse combinations to different shades and combos of reds and purples. Usually I would do this when things would get slow with the greens, instead of switching spots or baits.  Sure enough, all of these would eventually get bit too. 

 

Of course, conditions can dictate which colors would be more likely to produce. But I had another thought today that somehow I'd never considered. As the summer has gone on this year, it's seemed like the darker colors have gotten more action. 

 

Is this a thing that other people consider, different colors in different times of the year?