I get it now

[Koz]

Over the last year plus we’ve seen the outcry about FFS and shaking a minnow. While it may make for boring TV, for me shaking a minnow has been a killer technique even without FFS. It’s been even better since I purchased a Cashion Icon spinning rod.

 

So for the moment I’m all in and it’s my dominant technique no matter the depth. To treat myself for Christmas I just spent a few hundred bucks on jig heads and baits (Yum Sonar Minnows and Crush City Freeloaders).

 

Of course, this won’t prevent me from throwing other baits, but more often than not it’s going to be my first cast of the day.

 

Well, until it stops working. But I can see why it has become a dominant technique. 

 

 

[AlabamaSpothunter]

One of the biggest misconceptions about shaking a minnow is that you need FFS.   

 

This time of year, it's almost an unbeatable technique.   We are however going on the third year of this technique taking over the Bass world, and I can't imagine the fish will stay dumb to it for much longer.    On the big derby lakes, it's already getting much harder to catch them on it.    The Spotted Bass on Smith Lake know more types of minnows than I do 😆

 

The Freeloader has won a ton of money, but you really need to try the Jackall Drift Fry and DEPS Sakamata Shad.   Imho, those are the two best minnows made.   Like the Freeloader, both have also won major Elite/BPT events.  

[looking45]

Lots of guys have gotten excited over this new technique. Back in the early 70’s and even now, swimming a 5” grub on a dart headworks just as well. None of my friends have bought any of the new heads or baits  and we’re all still catching lots of fish. This is just a variation of an old technique

[MediumMouthBass]

You guys said no FFS required, will shaking a minnow work if i dont have a fish finder either?

Or is this something that you have to know where the fish are?

[Fishingmickey]

5 minutes ago, MediumMouthBass said:

You guys said no FFS required, will shaking a minnow work if i dont have a fish finder either?

Or is this something that you have to know where the fish are?

You can still "see" fish on your old 2d sonar or side scan or down scan. It's even better if you find a school busting on top. So really you don't have to have FFS.  But it is really cool to see them follow and watching "the eat" is a rush and for that you need FFS. It also doesn't have to be a "minnow" bait. Just about any bait will work.

FM

[webertime]

If you're on shore or fishing shallow off a boat it works great (regardless of electronics).  Deeper water makes it a bit more difficult with electronics.  It can still be done but it's a bit more guesswork regarding depth (how long do you let it sink).

[rangerjockey]

We used to throw the Kalins and BPS grubs on darter heads here too. Scrub them around points and gravel flats. I really feel the minnow shaking deal is a different. Of course you can catch them just blind casting but it sure helps to find the shad balls. we found them for a lot of years on 2d.

With FFS you can get the distance and depth before your on top of them. That's a big advantage

[Buzzbaiter]

I’ve done it here and there before ffs minnowing became a thing. I didn’t find it to be more effective than just working craw imitations on the same jigheads. I might try it again this year now that there are specialized baits for it

[TnRiver46]

28 minutes ago, MediumMouthBass said:

You guys said no FFS required, will shaking a minnow work if i dont have a fish finder either?

Or is this something that you have to know where the fish are?

Works fine without electronics, I do it from the bank all the time. It’s how everyone has crappie fished for a million years 

[AlabamaSpothunter]

43 minutes ago, MediumMouthBass said:

You guys said no FFS required, will shaking a minnow work if i dont have a fish finder either?

Or is this something that you have to know where the fish are?

It's easily one of the most effective baits for schooling Bass that I've ever found.   

 

If you can see Bass schooling and busting baitfish, it's going to be a player for sure.  

 

So I'd say electronics of any kind aren't a requirement, but you still need to have an idea of where the fish are, but that goes for everything.    

[woolleyfooley]

I wouldn’t imagine this would work well for bank fishing small ponds, right? 

[Munkin]

Jackall Drift Fry Mellow Soft Plastic Swimbait - 5.2 Inch — Discount Tackle

 

There is a video in the above link on how to fish the bait.

 

I have had good like the past 2 years fishing this hover stroll whatever you call it technique. While I do have electronics 90% of the fish I catch on this are >5' in clear water. You do not need special jigheads or baits for this either as the best setup for me has been a ball or darter head 1/16oz with a 3-4" drop shot minnow of some kind. The CORE Hover jigheads work but are such a PITA to get straight in the bait I have quit using them.

 

Allen

[Koz]

21 minutes ago, woolleyfooley said:

I wouldn’t imagine this would work well for bank fishing small ponds, right? 

It works everywhere.

1 hour ago, MediumMouthBass said:

You guys said no FFS required, will shaking a minnow work if i dont have a fish finder either?

Or is this something that you have to know where the fish are?

This winter I’ve been catching a ton of stripers and crappie throwing blind to deeper water off my dock. In early fall I was catching LMB in shallower water casting parallel to the sea wall.

[TnRiver46]

29 minutes ago, woolleyfooley said:

I wouldn’t imagine this would work well for bank fishing small ponds, right? 

It sure does, why wouldn’t it ? 

[VolFan]

It works wherever fish eat other fish, which is everywhere there are fish…so…yes.

[Brian11719]

2 hours ago, looking45 said:

Lots of guys have gotten excited over this new technique. Back in the early 70’s and even now, swimming a 5” grub on a dart heads works just as well. None of my friends have bought any of the new heads or heads and we’re all still catching lots of fish. This is just a variation of an old technique

 

It seems like ever since Jacob Wheeler won Guntersville last year the technique got a new name (strolling) and a ton of new lures have come out, but I'd argue that this 'new' technique has been around for a while and was starting to gain momentum a few years earlier which was the topic of this Bassmaster video from 2019.

 

I'm also not sold that an angler 'strolling' with one of the newer lures would do any better than another angler using the rig discussed in this video. I'm not even sure they would do much better than a third angler throwing a similar size paddle tail. Personally, I think Jacob Wheeler is very talented and did a good job of picking a good technique for that day and set of conditions and a great job of choosing a brand new bait he just happened to be releasing right around the same time...then the other lure companies saw people were interested and before you know it the latest neon god was born.

 

I actually spent some time looking for some actual data or a comparison that shows this technique really is all that and a bag of chips but wasn't able to find much. I did find this video and in this case they were walleye instead of bass, but I don't think the results would be different with bass and my guess is if you did the same video 100 times in deep bass lakes where they were suspending and the conditions were ideal for this technique you would find that a new strolling lure, a classic damiki rig, and a paddle tail swimbait all did about the same, and just like the guy that shot the video says at the end of it a paddle tail might do slightly better when a constant retrieve would work better and the other might do a little better when you want to just 'hang it' above their heads more and retrieve it less, but either way it's still about getting a lure in front of the right fish. 

 

I do think the one thing this technique and the new lures that have come along with it have proven to be the best at this year is separating anglers from their money, but I'm completely open to and willing to consider any hard / factual data that shows otherwise. My guess is you won't find much but I could be wrong. Please keep in mind I also don't consider feelings from regional sales managers at tackle companies or tarot cards factual data. 

 

And on a side note if you are fishing from shore (and especially if you are at a pond) I'd focus on figuring out what the bass are actually eating and throw the bait that looks the most like that rather than worrying about shaking a minnow at them so you can be like Jacob Wheeler (in a completely different set of conditions with an expensive FFS setup).

[Koz]

33 minutes ago, Brian11719 said:

 

It seems like ever since Jacob Wheeler won Guntersville last year the technique got a new name (strolling) and a ton of new lures have come out, but I'd argue that this 'new' technique has been around for a while and was starting to gain momentum a few years earlier which was the topic of this Bassmaster video from 2019.

 

I'm also not sold that an angler 'strolling' with one of the newer lures would do any better than another angler using the rig discussed in this video. I'm not even sure they would do much better than a third angler throwing a similar size paddle tail. Personally, I think Jacob Wheeler is very talented and did a good job of picking a good technique for that day and set of conditions and a great job of choosing a brand new bait he just happened to be releasing right around the same time...then the other lure companies saw people were interested and before you know it the latest neon god was born.

 

I actually spent some time looking for some actual data or a comparison that shows this technique really is all that and a bag of chips but wasn't able to find much. I did find this video and in this case they were walleye instead of bass, but I don't think the results would be different with bass and my guess is if you did the same video 100 times in deep bass lakes where they were suspending and the conditions were ideal for this technique you would find that a new strolling lure, a classic damiki rig, and a paddle tail swimbait all did about the same, and just like the guy that shot the video says at the end of it a paddle tail might do slightly better when a constant retrieve would work better and the other might do a little better when you want to just 'hang it' above their heads more and retrieve it less, but either way it's still about getting a lure in front of the right fish. 

 

I do think the one thing this technique and the new lures that have come along with it have proven to be the best at this year is separating anglers from their money, but I'm completely open to and willing to consider any hard / factual data that shows otherwise. My guess is you won't find much but I could be wrong. Please keep in mind I also don't consider feelings from regional sales managers at tackle companies or tarot cards factual data. 

 

And on a side note if you are fishing from shore (and especially if you are at a pond) I'd focus on figuring out what the bass are actually eating and throw the bait that looks the most like that rather than worrying about shaking a minnow at them so you can be like Jacob Wheeler (in a completely different set of conditions with an expensive FFS setup).

As someone who has fished a ton of paddle tails over the years, I can tell you that for me there has been a marked difference in getting bites on an FFS jig head and a pin tail minnow versus throwing a paddle tail on a traditional jig head.

 

Shaking a minnow has produced considerably better results. I don’t do much hovering, but rather keep it shaking and moving. I don’t see much in the way of suspended bass where I would be more apt to hover the bait for an extended period of time.

[Team9nine]

3 hours ago, looking45 said:

Lots of guys have gotten excited over this new technique... This is just a variation of an old technique

 

2 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

It’s how everyone has crappie fished for a million years 

 

Yeah, I'm in this camp ^^

 

Lots of new baits (soft plastics) being released, new jigheads being created - all refinements and specialization of similar techniques used in the past. FFS (primarily on tour) is the driver behind it all currently, IMHO, now that you can watch everything go down on your screen, especially in regard to controlling your bait relative to the bass/baitfish/structure, etc., so easily these days. The data from the top level tours supports this. My investment in the tackle and technique has been minimal to this point, because I just haven't seen it pay off on my waters beyond what I can do with what I already have.

[Brian11719]

1 hour ago, Koz said:

As someone who has fished a ton of paddle tails over the years, I can tell you that for me there has been a marked difference in getting bites on an FFS jig head and a pin tail minnow versus throwing a paddle tail on a traditional jig head.

Never said it wouldn't do better for some people...just saying if you zoom out and were able to look at the actual results from 1000 people (and not just what they think did better) the resulting data set might resemble what you would get from a coin toss. Also completely get bass do silly stuff sometimes. There's absolutely 0 shad in my local pond but I thought it would be fun to throw a shad colored fluke in there at some point anyway and one of the biggest ones I've ever caught ate it almost immediately.

 

So I guess overall my advice would be to figure out (and hopefully have fun while doing so) what lures work best (and maybe start with something that looks similar to what they eating most of the time but realize the best lure might not always be that one) and then go with what's going to land the most fish or at least be the most fun to throw. In my case I'm not sold on this one but that's from my own experience and doesn't mean that someone else is wrong for disagreeing...and it's entirely possible they have a very good reason to feel that way. As an example one of the best lures I've got right now is a simple og junebug yamamoto sensei worm on a drop shot. Not sure why to be honest there were some others that I tank tested that looked better to me but apparently the fish around here disagree...but if I was going for small mouth up north in a body of water that wasn't always dirty my results would probably be different.

 

ALSO throwing a soft minnow bait with FFS is SOOO 6 months ago...haven't you heard? The latest, latest thing is throwing a hard minnow...but not a suspending jerbait...it has to sink...and it has to be one from the 60s...nothing else will dominate the way this lure will...

 

* Disclaimer I like Matt's channel...in fact if I mention any youtube channel here it's because I like them (or at least find them very entertaining).

[Pat Brown]

It's fun from the bank.  If swim jigs hardly work at a small pond you fish - try shaking a minnow just beneath the surface.  The wakes I see on that little minnow are comical - they shoot to kill with those minnow baits for sure.

[WRB]

Strolling is term taken from trolling, moving the lure with your trolling motor.

The master of targeting suspended bass using small soft plastics was Dick Trask.

Trask didn’t stroll but he did catch suspended bass using 1/16-1/8 oz dart head jigs (the original Hoover jig) with 4 1/2” Flutter Craft curl tail worm and 3 1/2” Screamers.

Trask didn’t have today’s sonar units but he knew where and how deep bass suspended. Trask was also deadly with split shot presentations during the 80’s won 7 fully rigged bass boats and more tournaments then I can recall.

Dick had suspended bass to himself and had to complete the bottom feeders with Don Iovino and Zank.

Tom

[FryDog62]

It works, and yes it’s an old technique. Jimmy Lindner and others “Moped” and won tournaments in the old days. 
 

Spinning is great, but doesn’t mean you can’t with BFS either. Retrieves vary, the key is that it looks different and hovers or retrieves slowly at the right depth. 
 

23 incher hovering on BFS hooked me.. yep it works - 

 

 

[softwateronly]

@Koz I'm right there with you.  I don't have electronics, but throwing them where I would swim a jig or paddle tail or even drag a jig is exactly where I get bites when those other techniques might be ignored.  I like to think of it as a slow motion finesse scrounger or a horizontal damiki rig.  I can't see this ever leaving my arsenal just like a jig and a worm, it seems like it'll always have a place.  Big fish will always eat small fish.

 

scott

[Hogs_n_Logs]

Jighead + plastic like others have said have been a staple for any predator species for decades. I think the "new" label comes from bass fishing up until recently being so cover orientated, and open water fishing being dominated by bottom techniques or hardbaits. Up until 10 years ago or so the common knowledge was bass are always stuck to structure or on the bottom, much prefer slow moving presentations etc. Nowadays its becoming more common knowledge that bass are simply just a very versatile predatory fish, and can feed like a tuna or a catfish depending on its environment and seasonal conditions.

 

As for the "new" style plastics and jigheads, ya old style plastics that have been around for years will catch fish. But the new style ones make it much easier to efficiently fish this way, as is the case with most "trendy" lures that fans of old lures love to hate on. Stuff like the sakamata shad are much more stable and hold horizontal position better than old style grubs or flukes on a jighead. The fish will hit a old powergrub or a fancy hover bait if its presented correctly, the new style plastics just make it much easier to present for longer each retrieve. 

[rangerjockey]

5 hours ago, Hogs_n_Logs said:

Jighead + plastic like others have said have been a staple for any predator species for decades. I think the "new" label comes from bass fishing up until recently being so cover orientated, and open water fishing being dominated by bottom techniques or hardbaits. Up until 10 years ago or so the common knowledge was bass are always stuck to structure or on the bottom, much prefer slow moving presentations etc. Nowadays its becoming more common knowledge that bass are simply just a very versatile predatory fish, and can feed like a tuna or a catfish depending on its environment and seasonal conditions.

 

As for the "new" style plastics and jigheads, ya old style plastics that have been around for years will catch fish. But the new style ones make it much easier to efficiently fish this way, as is the case with most "trendy" lures that fans of old lures love to hate on. Stuff like the sakamata shad are much more stable and hold horizontal position better than old style grubs or flukes on a jighead. The fish will hit a old powergrub or a fancy hover bait if its presented correctly, the new style plastics just make it much easier to present for longer each retrieve. 

100% The biggest difference is that with the new jig heads like the Queen the bait stays flat when you pause it right over their heads.