Fallback baits!

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Tag Watson on March 4, 2009 at 6:09pm

My confidence baits are the swimbait and the jig. If they aren't biting those, I go to my backup pattern....head home and go back to sleep.

Permalink Reply by Mark Maderos on March 4, 2009 at 6:12pm

Tag Watson said:

My confidence baits are the swimbait and the jig. If they aren't biting those, I go to my backup pattern....head home and go back to sleep.

The back up would be putting your back up next to the mattress then huh???? LOL

Mark

Permalink Reply by David Parnicky on March 4, 2009 at 6:27pm

My Early spring/fall confidence bait for smallmouth is the hula grub on a football head jig. My summer time confidence bait for smallmouth is a tie between the LV-500 and a Super Fluke.

My early spring confidence bait for largemouth is a tie between the jig n pig and a slow rolled spinnerbait. My summer confidence bait for largemouth is a tie between the buzzbait and a Senko.

Permalink Reply by Abbottola on March 4, 2009 at 8:45pm

If times are tough give me a jerkbait. Customize the spead and depth to the current fish behavior. Somedays you never put a jerkbait down, as the sun gets higher and the fish move deeper add a couple of suspend weights to get the bait down in the strike zone. Last August this saved our butts in a NW qualifier.

Permalink Reply by Brian Walters on March 4, 2009 at 9:29pm

Mark that will be enough of the NON Hetro comments. LOL


Mark Maderos said:

Tag Watson said:

My confidence baits are the swimbait and the jig. If they aren't biting those, I go to my backup pattern....head home and go back to sleep.

The back up would be putting your back up next to the mattress then huh???? LOL

Mark

Permalink Reply by Daniel Bavery on March 6, 2009 at 5:28pm

I will be agreeing with good ol Tag here. Swimbaits and the jig, I dont think I will be seen with much else, except frogs i suppose. If those arent working, then Ill just throw them more. No backups here.

Permalink Reply by Eric DeLay on March 6, 2009 at 8:11pm

I am like you Chris, I will throw a spinnerbait a lot from when fishing 0- 14 feet. I have a ton of confidence in it and catch big fish on it. Next would be a jerkbait. When I first started bass fishing I would hit Sammamish all day with one and caught a ton of fish on it.
If they are deep or not hitting the running baits you can't beat the dropshot or football head. Not as fun to catch them this way but a heck of a lot better than not catching at all. Plus, almost all of my smallmouth over 5lbs and my biggest largemouth (6.5-7) came on a dropshot.
One exception is if I see fish chasing I throw a topwater. It works every time.

Permalink Reply by Nick Berto on March 6, 2009 at 9:28pm

A hula grub is definitly a go to I think for everyone...

I agree with Eric, a dropshot all spring/summer/fall in shallow or deep is very versitile and can work for most applications with the right bait and works good! And a jerkbait is so much fun to fish and can catch and fire up a lot of fish if they are in a school it seems. Thanks for the advise abbottola on the suspend weights, ill have to give it a whirl. I like to throw 'traps but not matter what i do to the hooks it seems like the hook to loose ratio is just too much some times, especially with summer time smallies that like to come loose out of the water.

Largemouth is definitly a jig/pig combo or a lightweight pegged texas rigged beaver.

Permalink Reply by T Dot on March 6, 2009 at 9:40pm

bigbaits, but more so the buzzbait - anytime anyplace all day. i threw it 1/2 the time last year, and im going to see if i can actually put that rod down for 1 full year.

... we will see how well that goes.

Permalink Reply by Keith Brooks on March 7, 2009 at 8:16am

When searching for pre spawn smallies its hard to beat the Lucky Craft Pointer, I use one to scout areas along spawning grounds as I am looking for even the earliest signs they are moving shallow... When i get bit on the Pointer I will work the area for more bites then go back over it with a grub and/or drop shot. It is always good to have a Senko ready to go as a backup bait if a fish hit but fails to hook up... For the LM I hit every thing with hula grubs or texas rigged creature baits, and of course I always have a senko ready to go. Once the water warms up and we are in a more stable fishing pattern the deck always will have at least one rod rigged grub, one drop shot, one senko and one lipless crank. Most days the grubs or drop shot are my go to... Love to drop shot (maybe to much)...