The Ultimate Cold Water Bait

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The Ultimate Cold Water Bait

This is one technique I never wanted to give up to anyone, but you fellow bass-heads make all of this possible, so it’s only right that I let you in on one of my most effective cold water techniques. That is the Rapala Shallow Shad Rap. It’s the perfect crankbait for cold water conditions. It has a tight wiggle and no rattle. I do, however, modify it a little bit. First off, by cold water I mean anything from the middle 50-degree range on down. And, by little modifications I mean swapping out hooks and adding a split ring or […]

My Bait for Extreme Conditions

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My Bait for Extreme Conditions

Here we go, guys. We all know that spring is almost here. That’s a good thing, but it also presents us with problems — wild weather and extreme conditions. On Monday it might be a picture-perfect day, but on Tuesday it’ll be spitting ice and snow. When that happens I reach for the one bait I know they’ll eat — a hair jig. I’m talking about when all of the standard finesse baits and techniques don’t get you even one bite. The thing is, though, about hair jigs is that no lure made has more small, seemingly insignificant differences to […]

Wintertime Colors

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Wintertime Colors

It’s getting late into the winter. Depending on where you live spring is right around the corner, or it’s still weeks away. Regardless of that, something has happened to everything that lives in the water. Their colors are getting dull, almost like they’ve been bleached. And that has a serious effect of how the bass relate to our lures. If we want to catch our share, or more than our share, we need to fish with dull colors. I have six favorites — three hard bait colors, three soft plastic colors — that have worked for me over the years. […]

Try Spoons for a Hot Winter Bite!

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Try Spoons for a Hot Winter Bite!

Here we go: This is the last of my three-part series on heavy metal baits for wintertime fishing. It’s going to cover the venerable spoon. It’s a lure that’s been around for hundreds of years but it still catches bass. We’re not talking about just any spoon, though. It’s winter. The water is cold. I’m talking specifically about a flutter spoon. It’s the perfect imitation of a big dying baitfish. The one I like the best — it’s elongated, cupped and for the most part already tricked out — is the Molix Mike Iaconelli Lover Spoon. It comes in a […]

Jerkbait Choices for Right Now!

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Jerkbait Choices for Right Now!

OK, so the water’s cold and the air is even colder. I don’t care. I want to go fishing. And, I want to catch some bass so I’m going to break out my jerkbait box. They’re one of my go-to baits for right now. But, I don’t carry just one size, shape or type. No, I carry a whole collection of them. The differences between them might be subtle, but they’re important. Let me say it again: Subtle differences are important in cold water. Don’t forget that! I carry at least three different ones for three different sets of conditions. […]

Tailspinners are for Right Now!

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Tailspinners are for Right Now!

Last time we talked about blade baits. This week we’ll talk about a forgotten lure — the tailspinner. Do you remember the Little George from back in the 70s? Well, that style of lure will still catch ‘em in the winter. The difference is that we now have a modernized version made by Molix. It’s called the Trago Spin Tail. There are three things that make this lure the best, in my opinion. The first is that, like the Trago Vib Blade Bait, it has a flat head. This gives it stability on the fall or retrieve and makes it […]

Heavy Metal Blade Baits In The Winter

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Heavy Metal Blade Baits In The Winter

OK fish-heads, it’s getting cold and that means water temperatures in the 40s. When that happens I grab my box of metal blade baits before I head out to the water. They give me exactly what’s needed to generate reaction bites from lethargic winter bass — vibration, flash, finish, size and depth control. My favorite is the Molix Trago Vib Blade Bait. It has a flat nose which keeps it level on the fall but with a little bit of wiggle, and it has three line tie holes on its back so it’s really easy to change the action of […]

The Braid Trick for Spinnerbaits

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The Braid Trick for Spinnerbaits

I know we don’t think much about spinnerbaits at this time of the year, but they do sometimes work when there’s a long warming spell and the bass become more active. And, it won’t be long before spring comes along in much of our country so it won’t be long before a spinnerbait is one of our go-to lures. As good as they are, spinnerbaits have a problem. When you tie monofilament or fluorocarbon line to an open loop in front of the bait the line sometimes slips down the wire and fouls everything up. Your bait runs crooked, on […]

Winter Water Jerkbaits

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Winter Water Jerkbaits

One of the best winter lures in the whole world is a suspending jerkbait. Now, when I’m talking about winter conditions. I’m talking about water temperatures below 50 degrees all the way down into the 30s. That’s right now in most of our country. I use two models depending on the depth of the water I’m fishing. In water that’s less than 8 feet deep I go with a short bill Rapala Shadow Rap. If the water’s deeper, maybe up to 15 feet, I’ll go with a long bill version of the same lure. They both have an internal, fixed […]