Discussion about fishing lures used to catch bass.
We’ve had a few cold nights here in New Jersey. Fall has arrived. I’m excited about that because it’s one of my favorite times to fish for bass. Big or little, they’re aggressive so you don’t need a tackle box that weighs 40 pounds to catch them. All you need to do is find the forage and throw any of the five baits I’m going to tell you about over the next month. You can’t put too much importance on what I just said about the forage. There is no time — and I do mean NO time — of […]
I fish a plastic minnow-like jerkbait under almost any conditions from now until the water gets real cold, and even then one will get you a few bites. The only time I don’t fish one is when the water’s real cloudy or muddy. They don’t work very well for me under those conditions. Basically, I rig my bait one of two ways. The first is with a 4/0 or 5/0 offset worm hook in the usual manner. If I want the bait to ride high and touch the surface occasionally, I’ll push the hook into the plastic all the way […]
I’m asked a lot about how to pick the right style of treble hook. The answer is pretty easy, really. There are three basic styles of treble hooks. There’s the traditional round bend where the hook point is away from the shaft. That’s the first one. Then, there’s the extra wide gap (EWG) style where the hook point is bent back towards the shaft. That’s the second one. And finally, there’s a hybrid design. I use all three depending upon what’s happening with the fish, and regardless of what type of lure I’m using. The round bend is at its […]
We’ve talked about blade baits in the past but I think we should take another look at them, especially now that we’re heading into fall. A lot of guys fish blade baits only one way. They throw them out, let them sink to the bottom, rip ‘em up as hard as they can and then let them fall back down on a slack line. You can catch a few that way. There’s no doubt about that, but there are other ways that’ll catch more than a few. I go with three basic techniques when I’m fishing a blade bait. The […]
Those of you have been following what I write and preach know that I’m a big believer in scent products. Some anglers think they attract bass. Others think they mask foreign odors. I say that misses the point. What they really do is work. Nowhere is that more true than with smallmouth. All bass use their senses to eat. They feel with their lateral lines, they hear some way, they feel and they can see. They also have a sense of smell and taste. Smallmouth bass seem to be able to smell and taste better than any of the others, […]
Every so often something comes along that I would use even if it wasn’t made by a sponsor. That’s the way I feel about the new Berkley Powerbait Bearded Grass Pig Swimbait. It’s a true upgrade to the swimbait class of plastics. The best way to describe it is to say it’s a new design based on the original Grass Pig — a more traditional-type plastic swimbait — that adds a skirt at the front along with a collar that’ll secure everything. The skirt and collar give this design a fuller body and helps create a bigger, more robust profile […]
Sometimes a concept comes to reality and that reality creates something special. That’s what happened when we designed the new Rapala RipStop. Probably the best way to describe it is to say it’s a finesse jerkbait with a special tail that makes a world of difference in how it performs and in what the bass sees when it’s in the water. It’s new so it won’t be available for a few weeks but when it is I’d strongly suggest you put a couple of them in your tackle box. They’re 3.5-inches long and weigh 1/4-ounce. The initial offering will be […]
The new things that catch my eye at tackle shows like ICAST and really get my attention aren’t the new colors, sizes or minor modifications to existing baits. Anybody can do that. I’m not saying that those things don’t matter. They do, and they often make an existing product better. But the stuff that’s on the cutting edge of bass fishing is what gets me going. Berkley’s PowerBait Maxscent soft baits are in that category. They’ll be a game-changer. I’m sure of it. You’ll notice I called it a soft bait, not a plastic bait. The reason for that is […]
Most anglers who fish a lot with crankbaits like balsa. It’s buoyant and has a unique vibration in the water. The thing is, though, it also has drawbacks. Handmade versions are expensive and not every one reacts the same. Buy a dozen and you’re sure to get a few duds. Buy two or three and you might not even get one you like. Another thing is that balsa is soft. Make a 50 foot cast into a rock that’s only 30 feet away and you’ll often see a military-like explosion. At that point there’s little you can do other than […]
Whenever I’m around a tournament, a sport show or the dock I’m often asked about jigs. The prevailing wisdom seems to be that a jig is a jig. Why should anyone spend their hard earned money on a new one? Well, the answer is because a jig is not a jig. There are good ones and ones that are no so good. The new Missile Baits Flip Out is one of the good ones and that’s because we — John Crews and myself — took the time to do it right. We tried to do everything right from the very […]