Bass Fishing

[Gardenfly]

Well we are a month into the new season. What has everyones goto bait been so far this year? Mine would have to be a toss up between a white tube with blue flakes and a powerbait bungee tail worm in a punkinseed color. A close second would be the Kiami flash june bug color..
Tightlines,
Mike

[jigworm]

Firetiger spinnerbait early in the season. Lately its been a smoke/silverflake tube, a green pumpkin Mann's Finness Worm and a Pop-R.

[YPSIFLY]

Cork poppers and foam spiders.

Yesterday I did well with small Countdowns. Chrome with black back, as well as gold with black back.

[Handlining Rules]

zoom flukes in either albino or white color

[fishwhore]

Inland lakes- Purple Zoom lizards and silver flake Bass Assasins fished around docks and pulled weedless through the thick stuff.

[ESOX]

White spinnerbaits, Deer hair poppers, Dahlberg Divers.

[DaveW731]

Another vote for white Zoom flukes.....sometimes dip the tails in chartreuse worm dye...

[subocto]

I have been using purple culprit worms texas rig, and orange/crome tot that has been producing nightly. hot weather really turned the fish on in my lake. :D

[wickedcarpenter]

Get a 100 count bag of Sencos in wartermellon and fish them wacky #1pick...poppers are doing well also, i've have gotten the biggest bass on a large crome Z.spooks walking the dog early morning and evening.Tubes have not been very productive but spinners with willow colorado combo in white on the bluegill beds have gotten the bass. work a lure no more than 5 mins and try another. try to match what their feeding on be it bugs(top warter) or fish feeding on guarded fry(the beds look for fry jumping outta the warter their being chased)Early morning work the north banks after a cold night the sun warms the rocks there first. If it's a clear lake and sunny go deep,hit the edge of the shores where the muddy warter and clear comes together or tfor the thick cover(lilley pads) with a weedless crome spoon with a trailor.For the deep warter i'll use cranks(shad raps) or pig in jigs with crawdad trailors (green or black n blue)and always use kick N Bass! i keep shad and crawdad handy and never toss a unscented lure everything helps! every fish has seen the same lure before you need that something special.Take a look at the trout magnet by leeland lures these are so good it's scarey catches everything from panfish to big bass eating fry i've landed 5lbs with them.Most luck is with gold or silver but i bought 2 kits with all colors for $17 a kit Cabelas sell them i got mine on line. They work!!!Good luck but it's not about luck it's what you know and use.

[Beave]

I caught 20 bucketmouthes in 2 days recently.

I caught 9 of them throwing a weedless frog popper with my fly rod in the early morning. Toss the fly up onto the pads and skitter it across the top, pulling it from pad to pad. When it hits open water try to pull it like a frog swims... Tug for a foot, let off, tug for another foot, let off, etc. 90% of the hits come after you've moved the fly over open water at least once. I think they bass tend to see the fly the first time, key in on where the fly is, and hit it the next time it's in the water. I have seen them hit the bottom of a lilly pad they know the fly is on though.

With the warm topwater temps now they're moving deep in the late morning. I caught another 8 bucketmouthes fishing dropoffs of with natural colored soft baits. I like a Berkly powerbait crayfish style in a brown color, and a texas-rigged worm of just about any color. Purple was the hot color last weekend.

I had my last three right at dusk fishing topwater baits just after sundown. Floating rapalas got me a bunch of crappie and one bass, and I got a monster 21" fish on a jitterbug.

They're definitely out there and feeding.

[TeamPolarisracing]

mine would be a floating minow, white spinner and a crank bait have all been good to me so far

[BilgeRat]

bps 3" triple ripple on plain jig head with steady retrieve. motor oil with specs or lime green with silver specks. Even pulled a 22 1/2 inch pike with it. Those triple ripples seem to work pretty good for me.:D

[Gardenfly]

I took a short float tuesday night and tried out some small poppers on the grand river. After getting all the dust off my fly rod I started fish. What a blast! It was the first time I tried this method of fishing for bass. Iam hooked now;-) I only caught 2 small bass but missed so many it made things very interesting. I will be trying this again soon. Is this a pretty good method on lakes?
Tightlines,
Mike

[Gillslayer]

Smail- silver and black- floating rapalas
Gambler- jerk baits
Rebel PopR

[discdrag]

green tube jigs have been the ticket-as well as a bitsy bug jig with a green mister twister on it, i got two 20"+ bass on one earlier this spring.

[LittleMac]

I have never used a senko because of the price, in substituting, I found a much better alternative that falls much more slowly, is cheaper by far, casts like a bullet, skips well when rigged texposed on a number 2/0 hook, and doesen't tear up like a lot of the current baits. Can be wacky rigged and fished well that way also.
I buy from Bass Pro Shops and order the Ultra Vibe Speed Worms in Watermelon/Red. I then cut off the tails one inch up from the actual paddle type tail, leaving the worm body which immediately resembles a senko...fine ribbing, also nearly identical in size, but nicely slow falling and costing only 20 cents each. When wearing out, hook punctured and torn, I repair them with a pencil soldering iron from Wally Mart, under 5 bucks, with one slight alteration....I wrap a piece of wire (about the size of pencil lead) around the tip three times and let about 3/4 inch protrude off the end. I use this heated wire for repairs...works well.
The worm body does not have a "smooth ring" like the senkos, but the fish don't mind. The fine ribbing seems to do the trick. They are also pre-salted, and do not require a scent. Watermelon/red outfishes all the other zoom colors in my Eastern Tennessee location as well as in southern Michigan for large and smallmouth.
Fishing the lure......texposed on a 2/0 offset shaft worm hook, cast to likely cover, let sink to bottom and wait (watching line always) 30 seconds, lift slowly to feel for fish, if nothing, let re-fall and wait an additional 20 seconds. Lift again, slowly, if nothing...reel in and cast to another likely spot.
My wife casts, lets sink, waits 15 seconds with thumb and forefinger on line, then takes two s-l-o-w cranks on reel handle, waits another 15 seconds, two more slow cranks......until the lure has gone about 10 to 12 feet across bottom. This method works well also.
On the initial cast....sometimes helps to throw a high arc to get a good splash upon entry, sometimes works well to skip the lure. On weedbeds, sometimes reel in so the lure skates across the top and then letting the lure fall at the near edge of the bed works well. In thick weeds, I reverse the worm on the hook...narrow end pointing toward me....if the lure still hangs, switch to a zoom lizard, watermelon/red, texposed and fish weightless also, the very same way. Lizards will even crawl over lily pads with rod tip up and can be dropped into little pockets....I wait 15 seconds after drop and then add a couple of twitches before moving on.
Wacky rigged...I use a number 2 octopus hook from Wally Mart, again, fishing weightless I use two retrieves....one is to let fall just under surface, begin reeling slowly with intermittant syncopated twitches...after 30 seconds of s-l-o-w reeling an gentle twitch, reel in and try again. Otherwise, I will let it slow fall to bottom, twitch several times, let rest...reeling in slack and begin twitching again.
If you want an even more slow falling lure and a lure to be even more supple, core out the center. I cut a telescoping radio antenna into sections and sharpened each hollow section on one end using a countersink on a drillpress. After sharpening I noticed a slight flare on each sharpened end....using wet/dry automotive sandpaper, I sanded on the sides by laying the section flat on the paper until the flare was gone. Even a small hole down through the middle makes a big difference in fall rate and flexibility. This tip I received from BassBob5 on the smallie board. Works extremely well.
The concept of slow falling is to give the bass a lazy bait, no hurry, easy to grab.....also lets the bass get an eye on lures before they drop into the submergent weeds. The concept of pausing on the bottom, deadsticking, is used to draw out the territorial instincts.
I did find, when the wind was drifting the boat, that the use of a Slider hook helped get the lure down before the drift took over, it was the snagless head 1/16, but mostly, no weight is necessary. I've since internally weighted upon rare occasion with a little piece of wire inserted between eye and point of hook somewhat just under the "skin".....best not to use any weight if possible.
Hope this helps, I ran out of things to say....Good Fishing, Mac