Super Fluke in Winter to Pre-Spawn ?

[ChrisD46]

Lots of people throw a Super Fluke in the Post Spawn through the Fall - but what about the colder months ? It would seem that a slow falling super fluke in cold water (maybe even dead sticked) , as well as , a being a good search bait as bass start to move shallower to feed up for the spawn would lend itself to using a super fluke / super fluke jr. set up . Please share your thoughts and experience for using / rigging a super fluke in winter through pre-spawn .

[Pat Brown]

I'm about to do just that tonight at a small grass pond that is absolutely erupting with bait fish activity with this warm front.  I expect it to get crushed!

 

My favorite way to fish them is cast it parallel to a bank and let it sink down and then do soft and sometimes less soft twitches followed by nice pauses and sometimes just slow lifts etc back to me.

 

This works really really well in high visibility and high fishing pressure situations year round when small bait fish of any sort are on the menu.

[WRB]

You describing a saturation bait in lieu of a search bait.

A Fluke to me is a soft jerk bait and doesn’t have any action falling down through the water column. A paddle tail swimmer rigged like KVD demonstrated has action on it’s falling down through the water column, a better choice imo.

Tom

[Kev-mo]

I caught a couple river 'winter' smallies slowly dragging/dead sticking a super fluke a few years ago.

[Catt]

1 hour ago, WRB said:

doesn’t have any action falling down through the water column.

 

Bass would highly disagree with that.

 

My choice would be an M-Pack Shad 7" or a Lake Fork Tackle Live Magic Shad 5.5".

 

It says they're soft plastic Jerkbaits, fish em like one.

 

 

[PhishLI]

10 hours ago, ChrisD46 said:

Lots of people throw a Super Fluke in the Post Spawn through the Fall - but what about the colder months ?

I'll be throwing a 5" Caffeine Shad and 5" Big Bite Baits jerk Minnow a day after the ice is off the lake. It'll get slow dragged after the fall and occasionally lightly shook in place or dead sticked.

[@reelChris]

I'd go the opposite direction and throw a baby z-too on a light ned head for a slow fall rate to keep it in the strike zone longer.  

[Bankbeater]

I would fish it around wood or rip rap to start.

[KP Duty]

I'd probably choose the Jackal Drift Fry.

[PaulVE64]

I'm up near Michigan.

I throw flukes in the fall until spawn in my river for walleye, pike and smallies.

Dead drifting and jerked with long pauses in cold water is deadly.

I also like flukes for topwater and in a donkey rig.

In warmer water I'm probably throwing something more obnoxious.

[ChrisD46]

23 hours ago, WRB said:

You describing a saturation bait in lieu of a search bait.

A Fluke to me is a soft jerk bait and doesn’t have any action falling down through the water column. A paddle tail swimmer rigged like KVD demonstrated has action on it’s falling down through the water column, a better choice imo.

Tom

Good points Tom !

[rgasr63]

I have used Zoom Super Flukes all year long. They work almost as good as a senko. Seems like the dying baitfish works out for a lot of the time. Pearl chartreuse when the water is cold. Tennessee shad works for me when the water is warm 

[flatcreek]

I fish Flukes year round.Weightless most of the time.Winter time I fish them on a Sworming Hornet with a slow retrieve since 2013 when I caught 2 10 pound largemouth on back to back casts.You could say I got hooked on Flukes that day and my best 5 went 41 pounds.I also like to fish them on a Carolina rig in cold water.

[ChrisD46]

Looks like I'll start with a Gama EWG 4/0 Super Line hook (weightless) and a underspin for a slow retrieve near the bottom . As long as you slow down , it's probably hard to fish a Super Fluke wrong in colder water.

[rangerjockey]

Personally no. It may work some but I can't imagine it working as well as a stickbait around here and I'll take 2 or 3 treble hooks over 1 EWG.

It's a post spawn deal for me, it and the ol' floatin' worm.

[ChrisD46]

It occurred to me that a jerk bait (more so a soft jerk bait) is a visual bite - so if your water clarity  is less than approx. 4 ft. you would be better off using a Fluke on an underspin . 

[flatcreek]

Sent PM

[TnRiver46]

Never tried a fluke when it didn’t work