BASS Fishing - What do you use?

Post by **Spezza_Fan** » Wed Jul 14, 2010 10:53 am

Hey guys,
I'm heading out to a money bass lake tonight and wanted to try a couple of new techniques for catching some bass. I have almost always fished bass with topwater poppers because I love the action of getting that one fish to jump out of the water and attack the lure. However, many of the smaller fish are found at the top of the water while the big beasts tend to be deeper around vegetation and cover. Don't get me wrong, I've caught a 5 pound smallie on a top water in 30 FOW (don't ask) so I know they come to the top I would just like to fish with something else. I've heard people catch some with Spinnerbaits, Buzzbaits, Crankbaits but I just wanted to know what works for you and how you fish for them. What should I look for when fishing in deeper water? Any feedback would be awesome. Pictures will be provided tomorrow with a report if I catch anything.

Big D.

Post by **MichaelVandenberg** » Wed Jul 14, 2010 11:06 am

As you said, top water is exciting. It isn't surprising that you got a big smallie over 30 FOW on top water. I was out last weekend and was catching smallies busting the surfaces over 40-50 FOW on a zara spook.

Spinnerbaits, cranks and buzzbait all catch their shared of bass but those fish are usually active. To get those neutral or inactive fish you need to slow down. Texas rigged plastics (worms, tubes, craws, creature baits) fished in the weeds or on weeds edges work great. Flipping jigs are also notorious big bass baits. Weightless wacky rigs are great too. Drop shot any plastics can also turn on those inactive and neutral fish. Don't forget about those frog fish in those shallow weedy back bays.

The wonderful thing about bass is the endless ways you can catch them. Some days it may seem impossible but stick with it and you'll get'em.

Good Luck!

Mike

Post by **Hookup** » Thu Jul 15, 2010 7:55 am

I've been focusing on crank-baits so far this season, with good/average success. I tend to always have one tied to a rod and use it well over 50% of the time...

My wife has been fishing with me quite a bit. She is relatively new so i've been setting her up with a jig and minnow (gulp! or gulp!alive) combo. She has been out fishing me 2 to 1. (as of last weekend I also now have a jig and minnow on a line).

What I've noticed so far is that I'm catching bigger fish, she's catching more fish. The minnow is 3" long so I think that were onto bigger schools of smaller fish and the smaller jig is to hard for them to resist.

Anyhow, last year was spinner-baits, worked very well... this year i'm a crank-bait (white big-o) fiend.... so far...

Man I love bass fishing...

Post by **Spezza_Fan** » Thu Jul 15, 2010 8:39 am

Hookup wrote:I've been focusing on crank-baits so far this season, with good/average success. I tend to always have one tied to a rod and use it well over 50% of the time...

My wife has been fishing with me quite a bit. She is relatively new so i've been setting her up with a jig and minnow (gulp! or gulp!alive) combo. She has been out fishing me 2 to 1. (as of last weekend I also now have a jig and minnow on a line).

What I've noticed so far is that I'm catching bigger fish, she's catching more fish. The minnow is 3" long so I think that were onto bigger schools of smaller fish and the smaller jig is to hard for them to resist.

Anyhow, last year was spinner-baits, worked very well... this year i'm a crank-bait (white big-o) fiend.... so far...

Man I love bass fishing...

About 8 years ago I was always a crankbait fisherman until a friend from school told me about the Chug Bug. I decided to go to my local Canadian Tire and purchase one. After school that day I went down to the Marina to test it out. First cast, BANG!!! A nice 2 pound Large Mouth and since then I've been hooked (no pun intended). This year, I have gone out on seperate occasions and my goals were to catch fish on spinnedbaits (check) and buzzbaits (check). I had never fished with those before so for me it was a challenge. The Big-O was always my favorite but Frenzy did make a mean crankbait back in the day. I'd have to pull that one out of my tacklebox one of these days to catch some deeper fish.

Post by **Hookup** » Thu Jul 15, 2010 9:27 am

I've always been addicted to top-water lures... who hasn't right?

But I'm just not happy with my skill at catching more and bigger fish... (who is right?) and being a one-trick-fisher (all topwater all the time) really isn't that good.

I'm at a point where i'm more confident in cranks than top-water right now... and for slower presentations, i'm starting to flip/pitch craws/creatures, and really get into 5" soft-plastic minnows on spinning gear...

Now I have to start fishing different water... and that right there, for me is the hardest thing... the habbit of casting onto 1-6 feet of water is just so darn hard to break... sitting in 20feet of water casting cranks that dive 6-8 feet... feels wrong...

Fishing new water, different structure.... that's the hard part... but i'll get there...

Catching a fish, at or deeper than 20feet of water, (not on topwater haha) is my goal for next week (i'm at the cottage fri-fri)

Post by **Spezza_Fan** » Thu Jul 15, 2010 10:44 am

Good luck with your goal. You know that when you will get that bite it won't be these little 4 inch bass trying to jump on your lure. It'll be a big lunker. You may get fewer hits but the hits you will get will be decent to trophy fish. Let me know how it goes.

My next challenge is going to be catching bass on a wacky rig or texas rig setup with a Senko worm. This was recommended by a fellow FH member so I'll see how it goes. I've read up on it and this setup should produce some big hits in deeper water. I can't wait to get out again!

Derek

Post by **bl8ant** » Thu Jul 15, 2010 10:47 am

BerkleyÂ® PowerBaitÂ® 5" Heavy Weightâ„¢ Fat Sinkworm rigged wacky/weightless on weedless wide gap hook (I use red) with a weed guard.

the weight of the worm is enough to penetrate moderate vegetation but light enough to fall slowly. It is pretty much the polar opposite of fishing topwaters so you have to fish it painfully sloooow.
Give it a try when the top water bite dies. Try it in a place you have confidence in as well, that helps when trying new baits I find.

Now that I look at it this may not target the zones you are looking for. I don't fish it must past 10 feet, most often targeting weed flats in the 6-10 foot zone

Post by **Yannick Loranger** » Thu Jul 15, 2010 12:05 pm

I'm new to largies given I only moved here from up north 3 years ago. Last summer I was all about frogs. I had decent success with them and I find that 1 topwater blow-up = 5 subsurface strikes when it comes to excitement. This year, I can't get anything but snot flares (snot rocket would be too much a compliment) to look at my frogs, so I've been forced to experiment and have discovered the money minnow. I like working it on a 5/0 weighted hook in areas that are a little too thick for a spinnerbait. I've also had success on white senkos.
One of my goals for this year is to diversify my bass arsenal to include flipping craws and tubes and continuing to improve on my spinnerbaiting. Good luck to all.

Post by **Spezza_Fan** » Thu Jul 15, 2010 12:09 pm

That's awesome bl8ant! I sure have to find myself some of those weedless hooks. I'm heading out to Le Baron tonight. I think the trip might cost me a little fortune. I'll let you know what I can find. I can't believe I'm going to make a list to buy fishing gear. Pretty pathetic. LOL

Post by **bl8ant** » Fri Jul 16, 2010 10:22 am

5" YUM Houdini Shad rigged on a 4/0 weightless offset hook is a killer soft plastic jerkbait combo.

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Post by **Graembo** » Fri Jul 16, 2010 10:47 am

This year i played with heat shrink tubing, seems beauty. Pick a colour, cut your length, slide it on easily, heat it and go! I found the o-rings, on a good (read: missed fish) hookset would still cut through the bait and lose it/effect action.

-not my pic but it gets the point across.

Post by **cprince** » Fri Jul 16, 2010 10:54 am

Graembo wrote:This year i played with heat shrink tubing, seems beauty. Pick a colour, cut your length, slide it on easily, heat it and go! I found the o-rings, on a good (read: missed fish) hookset would still cut through the bait and lose it/effect action.

-not my pic but it gets the point across.

I like!

I have a bunch left over from a job I did last year.

Thanks for the idea.

Craig

Post by **Hookup** » Fri Jul 16, 2010 12:23 pm

Graembo wrote:This year i played with heat shrink tubing, seems beauty. Pick a colour, cut your length, slide it on easily, heat it and go! I found the o-rings, on a good (read: missed fish) hookset would still cut through the bait and lose it/effect action.

-not my pic but it gets the point across.

I use the exact same hook, but go for larger bodied soft-plastic minnows... first I "texas" rig them... after a while (a few hook-sets) they are ripped up at the head... so I wacky rig em...

works for me... well, works for the bass.. which works for me..

Post by **msdumo** » Fri Jul 16, 2010 12:42 pm

I was just thinking about trying shrink tubing as an alternative to O-ring and and saw this post. It looks like a great solution and I'm committed to trying this.

Another idea I had was to use a 1 inch finishing nail and insert in the middle of the worm and place the hook under the nail. This would add some weight and strengthen the worm against tearout.