Favorite Bassin' Techniques

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by mayfly on December 2, 2008 at 7:03pm

I did a bit of the dropshotting with the lizards this year, that is a blast!!! My son who is 5 loved it, non stop fish even though we were after bass. And boy do the big ones taste good!!!! J/K

Permalink Reply by Jordan Doucet on December 2, 2008 at 7:16pm

mayfly said:

And boy do the big ones taste good!!!! J/K

LOL!!! Your a funny guy Mayfly. Glad the tips helped out there.

Permalink Reply by Mike Guenther on December 2, 2008 at 8:11pm

I grew up tossin Heddon "Lucky 13's" for LMB and Northern Pike in Minnesota. It's still my favorite especially in the early morning with a real slow retrieve so it's barely below the surface but still creating a wake. A Floating Rapala can do nearly the same action.

Permalink Reply by RB on December 2, 2008 at 8:27pm

In virginia I used to kill em with a floating rapala and c-rigged power worm. I always threw the c rig. As for washington I have to agree with the wake bait bite but have had my largest bass come off 5inch senkos thrown t-rigged into structure in 5ft of water. I am going to try and get more techniques in my tool box this next year. I've never drop shotted before

Permalink Reply by Tag Watson on December 2, 2008 at 8:51pm

Great topic, JD

The last two seasons I have become addicted to punching heavy vegetation. 7-1/2 to 8 foot flipping stick, 50-65 lb. braid, 3/4 oz. to 1-1/2 oz. tungsten weight, snelling a Reaction Innovations BMF Flipping hook and flipping into the thickest, nastiest foliage I can find. While buzzbait, frog and wakebait strikes are very exciting, for me nothing beats punching a soft plastic through a 3 inch thick mat of "cheese" and practically getting your arm broken they smash it so hard. 8 months until July!!!!

My least favorite technique is anything that involves smallmouth.

Permalink Reply by Jordan Doucet on December 2, 2008 at 10:23pm

Tag Watson said:

Great topic, JD

My least favorite technique is anything that involves smallmouth.

LOL! Except swimbait smallmouth I suppose huh?

Permalink Reply by islandbass on December 2, 2008 at 10:24pm

What I have found is that there can be a difference for me in what is a favorite technique to work and what technique is productive or effective.

Favorites
For example, I love working poppers and hard jerkbaits and walk the dog baits. They are so fun to work and develop cadences and rhythms and I really really it. However, while they have caught me decent sized bass, I can say with reasonable certainty that they have not only caught the least amount of bass for me.

Most Productive
Crankbaits rock. It was the first lure I ever used and first lure I caught my first bass. Crankbaits and I get along just nicely. Whether I tie direct or carolina rig this baby, it is a fish catching tool and that is how I see it.

The Drop Shot is fast becoming a favorite or most loved technique and will be the exception to my findings. I will tell you that in the beginning I thought it was terrible but that was mostly because I didn't know what in the world I was doing until I attended a seminar held by Ron Hobbs at OE a while back. It was like a revelation or the turning on of a light bulb. Ding ding! The DS quickly became the most effective bass catching method for me. In 2007 I caught over 100 bass using it. 100% of the smallies and about 80% of the LMBs I caught came off of the Drop Shot. And the coolest thing was they were all caught from the shore.

So thanks to Mr. Hobbs.

-Alex

Permalink Reply by Tag Watson on December 3, 2008 at 9:24am

Jordan Doucet said:

Tag Watson said:

Great topic, JD

My least favorite technique is anything that involves smallmouth.

LOL! Except swimbait smallmouth I suppose huh?

You have a point there, JD.

As far as my most effective techniques, I would have to say a jig-n-craw for largemouth and a swimbait for "brown perch".

Permalink Reply by jdna on December 3, 2008 at 10:09am

Only out of a canoe and no electronics, the only thing my son and I were ever successful with when we did go out years ago was tossing a chartreuse or green strike king lizard into the pads at Roesiger, Cottage Lake, and Big Lake. We couldn't seem to hook anything with the other lures and plastics.

Permalink Reply by S Hwang on December 3, 2008 at 3:22pm

Tag Watson said:

8 months until July!!!!

Ugh dont remind me...

Favorite is definitely throwing wake/floating swimbaits for the big green girls. I do like working short walking baits like poppers and the like as well as long as they have some heft to it. I find it a little more rewarding to find the cadence as well as the speed vs just a straight wakebait sometimes.

I have to say tho the frog is quickly coming up right behind it - watching them wake through the cheese or blow up under the pads to crush it is about as good as it gets IMO. I am going to concentrate more on open water and pre-spawn frogging this year as well.

I tried punching for the first time this year after hearing about Tad's exploits and my one fish in my limited experience with that did crush that beaver good.

Most productive back in the day was dragging small grubs and splitshot lizards but big fish were few and far between plus I sold off most of the small stuff.

Permalink Reply by Troy Pattillo on December 3, 2008 at 4:48pm

I spend most of my time dropshotting or dragging a shakey head. Both have been very productive for me this past year. Pulling a big chatter style bait through weeds and pads was a kick in the pants too,especially when crushed after banging off a stump. Looking forward to putting the C-rig on in my arsenal after reading countless articles on it.
Good luck

Permalink Reply by Nick Berto on December 3, 2008 at 4:49pm

Well I found a few new things out this year I have really like to fish.

Like Tag said, flipping cover. I did not do much flippin until this year and started off right. One of my first big fish 8+lbs this year, 2nd fish of the day, I punched through about 4in of canopy to get to the open stuff and just about had my arm ripped off... Ive been hooked since...

2nd Like most, a frog has been fun in the summer. Big explosions and vicious strikes. Another 8+lber this year on a frog.

3rd would be a crank, more or less a rat-l-trap. I threw it a lot this year, spring and summer. And did very well on smallmouth and largemouth. With the trap, crankin it fast and having a smallmouth kill it then fly out of the water was a blast. And the largemouth tore it up too! And also throwin a norman crank for smallmouth seemed to be very productive in the spring, especially in the evening and wacked some nice ones that were very aggressive.

And last, the good old swimbait. MS slammers especially. Slowly walking them on the surfuce and getting a good blow up. It blew some of my buddies mind this year watching me throw this huge bait and seeing fish come unglued after it!!!

Productivity this year has been the drop shot, especially for smallmouth and even got some finicky largemouth to suck it down.

I have learned soooo much this last year from a couple great guys! Special thanks to Jordan, Tag, and Uncle Billy for the help! Can't wait for what next year has in store and to develop more!

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