Let's Be Specific...What and Where?

[roadwarrior]

This spring the operative phrase has been:

"Anything Rage Tail". Smaller baits (Baby

Craw and Rage Lizard) fished on and around

structure. Generally, in 10-20' of water. Also,

lipless cranks, especially the Stike King Red

Eyed Shad.

Now, topwater in lowlight: 3/8 oz Cavitron

Buzzbait, Sammy, Spook, Pop-R and Pop-Max.

Otherwise, bigger soft plastics (Anaconda,

Rage Hawg, Thumper and Kut Tail on a Shak-e2).

Coming soon, DT16, DD22, 3/4 oz Ledgebuster

Single Willow Blade, Mizmo 5.5" Grandes, Smokin'

Rooster, Eeliminator and GMAN Mop jig/ Lobster.

Also in the mix, the new MegaStrike spinnerbaits.

What's in your bag of tricks?

8-)

[berkley]

Fishing shallow grass

Senkos,finess worms,lizards,spinner baits

Topwater

rage tail frog,horny toad,buzzbait,and jitter bug

docks

jigs,tubes,brush hogs

Deepwater

dd22,anaconda,and ol monsters

These are places I fish at this time of year.I cant wait to get started too.

[bigtimfish]

Topwater- H2O sammy type, devils horse, pop r Shallow- stanley wedge and or vibrashaft, blk/gold x rap, river2sea cranky m, luhr jensen speed trap, wordens timber tiger Middle- H2O model d, strike king series 3, bandit 300, x rap deep Deep- BPS tube darts, yum big show paddle tail worms, BPS 12" squirmin worms, 12" mann's jelly worms, big bite baits fighting frogs and yo mommas, Grande Bass rattlesnakes, and a ton of other plastics on c rigs and tx rigs. For cranks DD22's, bomber big fat free shad,spro fatcrank 30, and bandit 700

[SoFlaBassAddict]

I'm primarily a plastics guy...

9:30/10:00 am till I leave around 1:00 pm or so:

My most productive set of lures so far this year have been anything in the Rage Craw lineup (baby craw, craw, lobster). Toss it out with a pegged weight in almost any depth. I've really started to like a 1/2oz tungsten flippin weight pegged to the lobster and just drag it along the bottom. I've added into my arsenal the 7" Anaconda in blue fleck, which is producing really well also. I'm also very quickly getting addicted to jigs with a rage chunk on them.

Haven't had the chance to get out early enough for a solid topwater bite. Xcalibur Xt3D jerkbaits are working really well for lakes that have peacocks. The Xr50 (I believe) in tilapia is fairing pretty well also. The only lipped crank I've had any success with this year is a Series 3 in Sexy Sunfish. No size, but plenty of smaller fish on it.

I've also got a few 12"-14" worms for the larger bite. I've picked up a few really nice fish this year on a 14" worm poured by a local company. But this is Florida, monster worms are always good to use.

I'm starting to use tubes more down here when I'm not in thick grass. Coffee tubes in Golden Shiner with an 1/8oz tube jig have done fairly well on both Peacocks and Largemouth.

[Dr Pigg]

Roady--all your suggestions are good baits. The only thing I would add is the Bronzeye Frog.  Early and late, or alot of cloud cover and slick water--they've been deadly.  They are new to me this spring, and a no-brainer to fish! 

[Nice_Bass]

You can not beat the tex rigged powerbait bouncing across points...but, Senkos have been clearing them out tex rigged weightless around stumps, at all times of day.  Been a lot of fun fishing them on a spinning rod as well, makes even the 15 inchers seem like 20's. 

[J Francho]

Lake Ontario and Finger Lakes. There are active beds, cruising prespawn females, and a million rats looking to steal your bait. Pick your poison, if it gets wet, it will get bit.

[kild1]

This spring the operative phrase has been:

"Anything Rage Tail". Smaller baits (Baby

Craw and Rage Lizard) fished on and around

structure. Generally, in 10-20' of water. Also,

lipless cranks, especially the Stike King Red

Eyed Shad.

Now, topwater in lowlight: 3/8 oz Cavitron

Buzzbait, Sammy, Spook, Pop-R and Pop-Max.

Otherwise, bigger soft plastics (Anaconda,

Rage Hawg, Thumper and Kut Tail on a Shak-e2).

Coming soon, DT16, DD22, 3/4 oz Ledgebuster

Single Willow Blade, Mizmo 5.5" Grandes, Smokin'

Rooster, Eeliminator and GMAN Mop jig/ Lobster.

Also in the mix, the new MegaStrike spinnerbaits.

What's in your bag of tricks?

8-)

it does sound like u have been to pickwick a time or too

[WRB]

Adding the Rago BV3D swimbait to the arsenal is something new this year. Expanding the use of the finesse nail head rig (Neko or izzy) with the Gamakatsu wide gap weedless finesse hook, into weed bed pockets is putting a lot of quality bass in the boat.

Rediscovering the green weenies or purple weenies with blue flake, are still working.

Giving up on several high priced FC lines after several mid line failures over the past few years and going to P-Line FluroClear is paying off.

Going back to Gamakatsu #114, 5/0 jig hook for my hair jigs was my best decision this year.

WRB

[brushhoggin]

I fish a 33,000 acre reservoir system, chock full of hydrilla, hyacinth, and lily pads. Right now, we start churning ribbits on Zoom's 5/0 twistlock through the pads early in the morning. As the day progresses, they move out onto the edges of the pads, chasing shad closer to the river channel. We go after em with a combination of bandit's footloose or 200 series in rootbeer or threadfin, a 5" mission fish in shad color on a 6/0 Stanley swimmax hook, or a strike king's premier plus SB with the skirt replaced with a 3" money minnow, depending on water clarity. Then we like to hit up our pockets that have hydrilla filtering the silt and mud, improving water clarity. Here, we throw pearl swimming senkos with 1/16 oz pegged weights and destroy bass workin and jerkin em over the grass. And as it gets hotter than Georgia asphalt, we move to the backwaters and in the backs of creeks and target hyacinth mats over deeper water, flipping double wide beavers, zoom brushhogs and lizards through them with a 1 oz. Denny Brauer flippin' weight. We alternate that with tossin GMAN's flukes and letting em fall on the outsides of the mats, all the while fishing progressively slower and slower. Eventually we move out onto the main lake and fish deep on old lake beds with lucky craft's Rick Clunn XD crankbait, rapala DT 20, big *** jelly worms on a 5/0 owner J hook with a 1/2 oz bullet weight, and a weightless magnum fluke, doing tricks in 25 feet of water.

[Red]

Topwater early and late with a Cavitron or Spro Bronzeye.  Then it will be flippin heavy timber in shallow water (less than 5 feet) with a Paca Craw and/or Jig.  Spinnerbaits, Trick Worms, and Flukes will be in the mix when the others aren't producing.  If all this fails I may try cranking some chunk rock in deeper water or flippin the deeper docks in the marinas.  On this lake though, even in the heat of the summer, they are usually in the heavy timber, very shallow, even the big girls.  One other thing I may get into trying this year is throwing some hard swimbaits.

[aarogb]

Shearon Harris Lake (grassy lake):  Secondary and main lake points with a lipless crankbait.  Also a shakey head or dropshot with Roboworms thrown to the grasslines in 5 to 10 feet of water.  You also cannot forget the topwater bite!!  Lucky Craft G-Splash!!! fished around the grasslines as well.

Jordan Lake:  Buzzbait and the G-Splash in the morning around rip rap.  Then as the day goes on switch to DT-10s on the corners of the rip rap and C-rigs on main lake points and other structure and cover.

[senko_77]

Spro Bronzeye frogs and Buzzbaits are my 2 big fish producers this time of year. Other baits I have tied on.....

Fluke on 8lb fluorocarbon

1/2oz Mop Jig

5/16oz G-man finesse jig

T-rigged Zoom Mag II worm

1/2oz Hidden weigh spinnerbait - white skirt/white willows

All of the above dipped in JJ's

[Catt]

The last couple months I've changed my habits somewhat, instead of relentlessly hammering the Toledo Bend hawgs I've concentrated more on teaching & fishing the Calcasieu River, Lacassine National Wildlife Refuge, and a secret honey hole near home.

I received these nice little Jewel Pro Spider Jigs along with some Tiny Paca Chunks that have proven to worth their weight in gold around timber on the river and secret honey hole.

Rattle Head spinner baits have replaced my ole standby Wedges lately!

I've been a sucker for ribbed lure since the early 70s, they offer a thicker profile while having less plastic for the hook to penetrate & this one is killer.

[Nitrofreak]

6" cotton candy lizards

6" cotton candy u-tail worms

6" green pumpkin lizards

6" watermelon/red trick worms (my go to bait for docks)

8" swamp crawler green pumpkin

8" watermelon/red trick lizards

all produced by Zoom

5" Kinami flash oxblood/purple worms

5" smithwick rouge suspending jerk bait rainbow trout color

3" lip less shad Cordell super sport

3" rebel crawler

3/8 cavitron buzz bait

[Fish-r]

-8" Producto worms(junebug and red shad)

-Zoom trick worms

-senkos

-home-made chatterbaits with skirts and a small 3" grubs or  fluke or grub trailers

-furbit frog or buzzbaits

-spinnerbaits

I've done well with all of these

[Redlinerobert]

Horny Toad + Lake X =

[timothy_spain]

lipless crankbait, super brush hogs, baby brush hogs