Productive baits and techniques of 2010

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by eric mccarthy on October 14, 2010 at 9:08pm

P.J this is my first year fishing tourneys as well and I am addicted! I have an aluminum boat too. I caught most of my fish on a lucky craft pointer 100. I am throwing it with a 6"8 st croix mojo fast action rod a revo sx 7:1 with 12lb berkley flouro.
My tourney partner and me both picked up dropshotting this year and it produced a lot of fish for us. I am using quickdrops and gama 1/0 hooks mostly I played around with a braid to flouro union but ditched this as I felt the time to re-tie especially in a tourney was not worth the extra sensitivity.
These were my most productive baits although I did catch a few topwater fish this year on sammys and different poppers.
I saw your spinnerbait LM that was a toad looked bigger than 5.5 my buddy caught a 5+ lb smallie on a spinnerbait this year pre-fishing on the Columbia.

There are still some tourneys left this year we plan on fishing.
The Whatcom open by Borderline Bass club
The Frostbite tourney @ banks

Permalink Reply by Austin Heyer on October 14, 2010 at 10:42pm

This year i went in to learning jig fishing and was able to land some fish on jigs which was really nice. I picked up fishing creatures by pitching and flipping too which accounted for some fish.

Like most i relied alot on improving my dropshot and it killed for me this year with the biggest smallie being a 6lb 4oz. I used it mostly on the small lakes i fish but when i was able to hit a big lake it proved crucial for me. My go to setup was my lamiglas xps702x with a pfluger trion reel with 12lb power pro to 8lb pline flouro. I was using quickdrops mostly 1/8 to 1/4 oz. My fav baits were as follows sniper snubs and bolts, panic minnows and roboworms all produced many big smallies for me.

Next year i plan on getting into the tourney seen more as i only fished two this year but had a blast in doing so.

Permalink Reply by Ronald Hobbs, Jr. on October 15, 2010 at 10:26am

This year I came to the conclusion you only need a few baits to do well.
Smallies you need a drop shot panic minnow or snub, and a football head 3/4 oz.(beaver, hula grub)
and for Largies you need a brown jig a black jig, a chigger craw and a flappin' Hog II and beaver. For fishing thicky icky stuff a Paycheck or Skinny Bear punch skirt gets the nod with a 4/0 gama superline hook.
For reaction baits a Spinnerbait with double gold willows gets the nod for both and to round it out a small popper and a Paycheck baits Repoman.

Also throw in a pack of senkos in a brown/green color 4" to 6" for both, color doesn't seem to matter let the water coloration dictate it.

Easy, I think this year more than any others, simplifying my lure selection has helped me improve my catch. I could add a bunch more baits that I did catch fish on this year, but why the bulk of my catch came on these simple but deadly baits I listed above.

Permalink Reply by Rodney Heupel on October 17, 2010 at 8:04am

This year I did best with drop shot using Quick Drops, spring time I preffered a 3 inch senko in the 300 color. Drop swimming the Panic minnow will be used more next year. After the spawn I used various drop shot baits finding the Robo worm 4 1/2 inch straight tail in Aarons magic and spring craw as my top producing colors. The LC Sammy in a bone color was my best top water producer. My go to spinner bait for smallmouth is the Mini-Me TJ Special 1/2 oz with double willow blades in gold and nickel.

Permalink Reply by Ronald Hobbs, Jr. on October 17, 2010 at 10:40am

It is the same exact bait as the R.I. Vixen if you are familiar with that bait, I think paycheck has done better with their color selections. It has 3 trebles instead of two and it sits flat in the water unlike the sammy, it also has a higher pitch rattle than a super spook. It is a little thinner in profile then a super spook as well, also comes with a feather unlike the sammy and the spook series. Hope this answers your question.

Craig Taylor said:

Ron, I have herd a ton about the Paycheck Repoman and have never had one in my hands before. What does this topwater bring to the table that seperates it from other "walk-the-dog" topwaters?



Ronald Hobbs, Jr. said:

This year I came to the conclusion you only need a few baits to do well.
Smallies you need a drop shot panic minnow or snub, and a football head 3/4 oz.(beaver, hula grub)
and for Largies you need a brown jig a black jig, a chigger craw and a flappin' Hog II and beaver. For fishing thicky icky stuff a Paycheck or Skinny Bear punch skirt gets the nod with a 4/0 gama superline hook.
For reaction baits a Spinnerbait with double gold willows gets the nod for both and to round it out a small popper and a Paycheck baits Repoman.

Also throw in a pack of senkos in a brown/green color 4" to 6" for both, color doesn't seem to matter let the water coloration dictate it.

Easy, I think this year more than any others, simplifying my lure selection has helped me improve my catch. I could add a bunch more baits that I did catch fish on this year, but why the bulk of my catch came on these simple but deadly baits I listed above.

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