I'm sick of keeping this a secret

[Brian_Reeves]

And it might not be that big of a secret. But I've never seen anyone else use it.

So far this year I have had one of my best bass seasons to date. It seems that on almost every trip, I'm getting close to a limit of nice fish. I'm going to let the cat out of the bag on one of my secrets.

To those of you who read my posts, you'll probably notice that I'm not a finesse fisherman. I have very few baits that come even remotely close to being "finesse." That's probably my biggest drawback in fishing. So how am I not fishing dropshots, shakey heads, and split shot worms and consistantly catching tons of fish on nearly every fishery I've been to? One setup has produced more than any other. Ok...here it goes...

I'm using a big bites swimbait hook with a rage tail craw or an * baby beaver craw as the lure. There, I said it. I couldn't keep it to myself any longer. If y'all try it, let me know how it works out for you.

All I'm doing is fishing this rig EXACTLY like Roadwarrior fishes his fat ikas and senkos. I'm sure it will work with other soft plastics, but I'm really, really partial to the rage craw and the baby beaver craw. Gotta love what works for ya, right? This might be a "finesse" application that is worth giving a shot on your home waters.

[BassinBoy]

Wow, thats very interesting and makes sense.  Your right I have never heard of anyone doing this but it sounds like it would work.  Thanks for the tip

[Brian_Reeves]

The funny part is how I discovered it.  I was ticked off at a hollow bellied swimbait not working, so I ripped it off and sent it sailing.  Being too aggitated and nearing the end of my fishing day anyway, I just strung on a rage tail craw onto the swimbait hook.  I was too lazy to tie on my usual jighead or T-rig, so I just rolled with it.  Ten fish later, I had developed a little bit of confidence.

I've used a ton of different soft plastics with this technique, but the rage craws work best for me.  The baby beavers come in a close second for when I run out of rage craws (which doesn't happen much anymore lol) or when the bite is really tough on pressured water.  I want to try some salt craws, but haven't needed to yet.  

[islandbass]

Can you post a pic of the how it is rigged?  I am not familiar with either the hook or the bait can't really visualize it. Perhaps I finesse fish too much.  ;D

[Brian_Reeves]

I don't have a digital camera for it right now.

http://www.***.com/descpageHOOKSFALCON-FBJGH.html

The rigging is texas rigged on a hook like that one above.  No other weight is used other than the weighted hook.  It's just a regular old weedless rigging.

[wagn]

thanks for the tip, i'm definitely going to be trying this. I just recieved my first order or ragetail craws yesterday and they look great in the water (read bathtub). I'm hoping to give them a real tryout this week.

The keel weighted hook must give it a really interesting action compared to just pegging a weight at the front

[jvox]

Def. send a pic of that setup. I dont understand how you would t-rig it without putting the weight on the hook through the lure.

[Red]

i t-rig my live magic shads with a hook like that.  you can do it like normal and just force the weight through the bait, or you can do it before you tie the hook on by just inserting the hook eye up through the nose of the bait, then tie your line on.

Cliff

[Brian_Reeves]

Yeah, Red has the right idea.  The weight will tear the bait up some, but not that much.  I prefer just pulling the hook eye through the nose of the bait.

I don't really know a better way to explain it than this.  Look at a regular texas rig.  Instead of threading the entire plastic on from the hook point to the eye, all you're doing is forcing the eye through the bottem of the nose.  The end result is that it looks the same as a regular texas rig.

I don't have a digital camera right now.  It's in a box because we're moving.  So, sorry about that.  But basically, just T-Rig the thing lol

[Catt]

Dude you learned what RW,myself & others have known for years "finesse power baits".

Finesse does not have to mean small baits with light lines  

[scottyd26]

Its funny - I had a similar situation happen to me with the same style swimbaits . I was using a hollow bodied swimbait throwing it to a line of willow trees in about a 1 to 3 feet of water in the middle of the day trying to hit some shade. I was being kinda of conservative picking my spots making a effort to be real stealthy without any results. Well finally out frustration i reared back and threw it as hard as i could and as luck may have it -it skipped and skipped and skipped way back in to a small opening in between some willows. About a turn and a half latter 4lber. LIGHT BULB went off . Swimbaits skip good but a 3 1/2 green pumpkin tube with a lake fork 3/0 hook gets a lot more bites than a 5 inch swimbait skipped into all those willows. Tubes skip well enough as they are but with that style hook you can put your bait in some nasty stuff . Anyways haven't tried the rage tail yet .Do you swim it with a steady retrieve or just fish standard like a worm?

[Brian_Reeves]

I'm fishing it just like a senko or a texas rig.  I'm sure swimming would work too, though.  I haven't needed to alter those two presentations yet.  It's still a new concept for me and I'm still playing with it.  The more I play with it, the more I think I need to buy a mold for swimbait hooks lol.

[MNGeorge]

Do you see any reason why a weighted hook with a keeper spike would not work?  It would eliminate having to retie every time you needed to put on a fresh craw.

http://www.***.com/descpageMUSWRMHK-MPLP.html

[islandbass]

Thanks! I am definitely going to try this after my right ankle heals. Oh yeah. 8-)

[JShrock07]

Thanks Brain for the pointer. I will be heading out today to hit up a local lake and I will post on here how well it did/didn't work for me. But I am going to put a lot of time into it since you say it has been a good producer.

[Painter Dude]

It was just this mornin I was looking at www.ragetail.com and it shown an alternate riggin of the toad with the swimbait hook. The Rage tail craws are my fav plastics and I thought the next time I was out I would give it a try with the craw. It seems like a very weedless pegged weighted system. Thanks for the verification

[Sam]

You should find these type hooks at your local tackle shop.

Green Top has the Falcon Bait-Jerker Hooks that are used with the Money Minnow swimbaits.

Excellent set-up and all owe Brian our gratitude for sharing it with us.  

[Big-O]

Brian, Please don't try that hook with the New Rage Tail Anaconda Worm thats coming out soon....... I don't want you to get hurt trying to fight the giant that hits it.    

BTW the video is just about ready...... and its gonna have the RT Lizard and the RT Space Monkey and the RT Lobster.....Oh Baby, I can't wait !!!!!!!    

Big O

[Brian_Reeves]

Sure, Big-O...I won't try it

: ;D  lol

I haven't tried this rigging with the screw-on type hooks.  I don't see why they wouldn't work.  I just don't have any to play around with.  I've been kicking around the idea of trying some.

[Brian_Reeves]

Here is a picture of how I'm rigging these things.  Look at the second rigging of the rage tail shad.  The Carolina Rigged Swimbait one.  

http://www.ragetail.com/ragetailshad.html

[jvox]

Definitely picking up some swimbait hooks and checkin it out.  

[fisher of bass]

thanks brian, was reading this thread last night, my buddy and i tried it out this morning, it works, 2 smallies 2-2 1/2 # each and 3 largemouths thanks again  8-)

[Brian_Reeves]

Nice  

[Wayne P.]

Another choice for screw in type weighted hooks

http://www.reactionstrike.com/

[bmadd]

Big O- I saw Chris back at the Elite on KY Lake and he gave me one of the Anacondas and one of the Space Monkeys. AWESOME. I really love the Anaconda   Been keepin my mouth shut about um though  :-X