What Happened to the Paddletail Bite?

[JackstrawIII]

I love fishing a paddletail on an underspin of some sort. Through most of the year, that’s a go-to bait for me and catches fish well, whether I’m fishing a lake, pond, or river. 
 

However, in the last month or so, I can’t buy a bite on the paddletail anywhere… and I’m wondering if anyone can tell me why. 
 

I know the bite in Aug/Sept is generally slow, but I’m grabbing a few fish here and there on other types of lures… just not on a paddletail no matter how hard I try. This just strikes me as so strange. Can’t figure it. 

[papajoe222]

I feel it's a forage issue. Simple enough, the fish start keying in on a different form of food for whatever reason. Usually it's because of availability, bass, or bluegill fry have reached a size that appeals to them, or it can be a dietary need like protein, or fat. However, often times it's just  what they do or don't want at any given time.  IMO, that's why frogs and lizards work well year round.  The fish see them as food when they're feeding and pests when the aren't. Either option is moot to us because we're getting bit. 

I killed them on paddle tails for two seasons, jig heads, belly weighted hooks, underspins, they just seemed to want that action and profile. This year, I can count the fish on my hands that I've actually boated using them and believe me when I say, there weren't many bites I didn't hook up on.  I switched to swimming a curly tail worm and EUREKA, I've been killing 'em most of this year with that presentation. 

[WRB]

I have been through dozens of “hot bait”cycles over the past decades. What I believe occurs is the bass that react to a specific lure get caught and learn to avoid that lure.

Tom

[Captain Phil]

For sure.  Paddletail worms are some of the best flipping baits.   Bouncing them off the bottom in cover attracts a lot of attention.  I use them around pier and bridge pilings.

[Kirtley Howe]

I use a lot of paddletail baits....but most of the ones I use are actually designed for use for Walleyes. The Cabalas Walleye Angler series of baits have several paddletail designs that work great as trailers or just used on a 1/4 oz round jighead. They are killers for Smallmounth in the Susquehanna River, especially when the water is low and clear. They of course will produce in almost any water condition. The blue/silver color works best for me, though sometimes white is the absolute bomb. On the occasions that a Ragetail doesn't work (hey....it happens), my fallback is the paddletail walleye series.

[valleyfisherman]

I love paddle tails as well and took to making my own underspins a few seasons ago and had real good success until this season. Actually, I didn't use them last year either due to the same issue. Due to water conditions the lakes I frequently would use the underspin just got too shallow to work one effectively without snagging. Felt like I had to retrieve too fast to stay out of the snag zone, I haven't found a good cheap 1/8 oz or smaller jig head with a decent hook yet to try to adjust. 

I have still had good success though with a weighted swimbait hook and a paddletail, though I have had to downsize (or rather cut down) the bait I use a little bit right now or rig it weightless and jig it off the bottom like a dying fish. 

[Buzzbaiter]

My experience with swimbaits is pretty limited. I only recently started playing around with them. I’ve never had much action swimming swimbaits, oddly enough. However, I discovered this summer that a Keitech Easy Shiner works well for smallmouth when dragged/hopped on bottom like a worm. 

 

The only fish I’ve consistently caught winding a swimbait high in the water column are rockfish. I feel like swimbaits would work better in fisheries with shoaling baitfish such as shad, alewives, or herring.

[Zcoker]

It's weird how bass start off hot on something and then brush it off later, almost as if they 'know" it's fake. I recall when the whopper plopper bite was insane, just about every outing with many explosive hits along with a bunch of big fish. Nowadays, hardly a hit to the point that I rarely use them anymore, mainly at night...which is another story, probably because they can't see it that well they strike. Must be a visual thing with the paddle tails? I don't get hits on them like I used to, either. Only bait that I know of, that never seems to fade, is the plastic worm. They always nail those! 

[JackstrawIII]

1 hour ago, Zcoker said:

Only bait that I know of, that never seems to fade, is the plastic worm. They always nail those! 

So they say… I’ve never really gotten into traditional worm fishing. I like Senkos and shaky heads, but never anything bigger. 
 

The paddletail looks so realistic, you’d think they’d never grow tired of biting it, especially in the fall when they key in to feed on bait fish, but my experience shows otherwise. 
 

My one decent theory has to do with speed of retrieve. I normally fish paddletails very slow, and most of the year it works great. Slow swim at whatever depth I think the fish are at and eventually I’ll get bit. But maybe the fall fish want something faster? Perhaps if I put them on a heavier hook/jig and fished them faster?

[Zcoker]

I like big worms, worms like the Zoom 12 inch mag ol monster. No doubt, the bites come and come and come....tons of fish on a worm. Nice thing about the bigger worms is that I can catch a lot of fish on them before I have to change them out. Smaller ones can vanish in a heartbeat. Those worm bucks can add up! 

 

I've been having great luck using frogs as trailers instead of paddle tails. Just a simple change like that got things going in my neck of the woods. My retrieve speed remains the same on just about everything. 

[JackstrawIII]

4 hours ago, Zcoker said:

No doubt, the bites come and come and come....tons of fish on a worm.

I'd love to hear from some Northeast guys to see if your experience echos our Florida brother here. 

 

4 hours ago, Zcoker said:

I've been having great luck using frogs as trailers instead of paddle tails.

Glenn mentioned that in a video recently, the idea of using a toad as a jig trailer. I've experimented with letting toads slowly sink on a weighted hook... and it does catch fish for sure. 

[Zcoker]

All I use lately, trailer frogs. They're great and catch decent fish. 

 

 

 

 

[txchaser]

Late season, forage is grown up some. Might try upsizing the paddletail.

[WRB]

Back in the day we called worms with a flat straight tail paddle tails or spade tails. The bent 90 degree paddle tails came much later.

Tom

[Mike L]

Alive and well on Big O

 

 

 

 

Mike

[NYBasser]

I’ve had some decent success up north here with the keitech. They bit really well early in the morning but then wouldn’t hit it the rest of the day. Could be any number of reasons, weather conditions, time, color, etc. On sunny hot days they usually prefer a slower presentation over a moving bait.

[LrgmouthShad]

On 9/14/2023 at 12:23 PM, JackstrawIII said:

I'd love to hear from some Northeast guys to see if your experience echos our Florida brother here. 

Ol crickety was having good luck on the mag ol monster this season. I liked using the magnum sized speed worms up in NY, including the gambler 7” burner worm. The burner worm is huge. Shorter than 12”, sure, but it is all body and super thick. I can send photos later to give you an idea. 

[JackstrawIII]

19 hours ago, txchaser said:

Late season, forage is grown up some. Might try upsizing the paddletail.

Makes sense, but most of the guys I watch on YouTube advocate the opposite approach. They claim that the young of the year are now big enough to eat. So, though they’re still very small, the bass focus on them. Apparently sizing down to match the smaller forage can be the ticket in the fall. 
 

But… I obviously am no pro at this. 

[GetFishorDieTryin]

August-Nov can be really inconsistent as far as the bite goes.  Its a time of year when grinding the rest of the day with a couple baits that did well the week before is just a waste of time, IMO.  Ive found downsizing to be really effective.  Small JBs, 1/4oz traps, 1/4 buzzbaits and small spinnerbaits, more times then not, out fish their full size counterparts, both in term of quantity and quality.  If down sizing the paddletail doesnt help, try going to a straight tail swimbait or even a straight tail 4" worm.