My 2019 List of Productive Baits ~ 2025
A-Jay reply :
With what can only be described as a surprisingly early end to this year’s late open water season, it’s time once again to look back at the baits that were most productive. As my quest for bigger brown bass rarely changes, how & where I did it this year, certainly did. While I did fish many of my ‘old favorites’, there were a few very notable additions that bare mentioning.
Please feel free to share your own list of baits to this thread as the mood strikes you.
(and I like pictures)
This time around I’m going to go through them in the order that I fished them throughout the season.
Open water was available for me the third week of April this year and as usual, I was on the water the afternoon the ice went out. Baits that produced for me were: 3.8”, 4.3” and 4.8" Keitech Swing Impact Fat Swimbait in Ayu and Perch as well as the 3.75” and the 4.75” SK Rage Swimmer also in AYU and KVD Magic. As sort of a mid-line finesse deal, I presented these on or near the bottom with medium spinning gear 10lb braid and an 8lb or 10lb FC leader. My jighead of choice here was the Keitech Tungsten Super Round Jighead ¼ oz that sports a quality 3/0 hook.
My Jerkbait addiction hasn’t waned and while I threw a few different makes & models, the Megabass Vision 110 and the 110 plus 1 both in GP Pro Perch as well as the SK KVD 300 and 300 Deep also Ayu & Perch did quite a bit of damage for me again this season; both early & later in the year. Honorable mention goes to the LUCKY CRAFT Slender Pointer 127MR; an older model ‘real skin’ brown trout pattern.
The Hair jig is usually a deadly early season approach. For me this do-nothing presentation seems to produce best in calmer conditions with super clear shallower to mid-depth waters. I only fish one, the Outkast Tackle Feider Fly Marabou Jig in 1/8 oz ~ black or brown.
Then there’s the Ned Rig. This one has almost replaced my hair jig fishing – almost. I’ve only been fishing it a couple of seasons, but there’s no denying it effectiveness. Last year I fished the 2.75” Z-Man Finesse TRD almost exclusively. And while I got bit, there were a ton of smaller fish included with a few of what I was looking to target. So this season I fished the 4” Z-Man Big TRD exclusively. The first Brown bass with this one in May was a goby turd shy of 7lbs. So it was hard to put down after that. Green Pumpkin only and on a 1/8 oz Owner Block Head Jig Head that has a solid 1/0 hook.
Did some early & mid-season cranking this time around most of which happens in the 7-12 ft zone. The Spro Mike McClelland Rock Crawler 55 Crankbait in Red Crawfish & Phantom Brown were once again getting choked. Honorable mention must also go to the 6th Sense Crush Flat X75 in Baby Bluegill; solid producer in areas of less than 7-8 feet for me.
The vibrating jig ~ I employed this one early & often. And although the late season bite I got on in 2018 never really materialized, the April & May bite was on fire ! A 3/8 oz & a ½ oz Z-Man Evergreen Jackhammer in green pumpkin and B-Hite Delight patterns were making it happen. I use the Yamamoto Zako trailer in green pumpkin and green pumpkin pearl mostly. A SK Rage Bug gets rotated in here routinely as well. This is one of my favorite bites any time & every time I can get on it.
And how about the swinghead ? I have this one rigged & ready every trip it seems. ½ & ¾ oz covers it all for me. There’s a ton of them out there but I’ve narrowed my preference down to two basic deals. A tungsten football style that I use for deeper area and a Lead head model for just about everything else. I like to be able to choose & change my hook as needed and both of these accommodate that ability.
The deeper bait starts with the RPE Tackle Tungsten Swinging Football Jig which is sold in bulk and comes without a hook. This one features a rather unique rigging deal that takes a little getting used to but offers everything I need. Note: I do add a #2 Owner Oval Split Ring to the front (line tie) of this rig to prevent the tungsten head from moving forward and wearing away at the knot (a simple & effective fix).
The other head I really like starts with the Freedom Tackle Stealth Swim Jig – I am just using the head here. With the line tie on the front this one slides nicely along the bottom and fairly easily through whatever medium to light cover may be there.
I will fish three trailers: a SK Rage Bug (Green Pumpkin), a 4.75” SK Rage Swimmer (Ayu) and the newest deal, the Rage Tail Eeliminator (also Green Pumpkin). These are Texas rigged onto one of two 4/0 hooks. The regular wire Gamakatsu EWG or the Owner Wide Gap Plus Black Chrome.
As the waters warmed and post spawn moved into more of a summer deal the drop shot rig made its annual appearance. I fish this more out of necessity than desire or favor. Truth be told – I’m not a big fan. They are about the only way to get bit sometimes so . . . .
I don’t do anything special or even interesting here – I’m usually drop shot fishing in at least 20 ft (often much deeper) with 3/8 to ½ oz tungsten D/S weight, a 1/0 or 2/0 Gamakatsu Aaron Martens TGW Drop Shot hook or a Gamakatsu G-Finesse Worm Light Hook w/ Tin with one several D/S baits; - 4” or 5” Strike King KVD Perfect Plastic Caffeine Shad, A custom hand poured goby bait by Paul Krew, or a 5” Reins Bubbling Shaker Worm. Plan on doing more with a Neko rig next year.
And then we moved into topwater time, all of which for me is done in totally open water over shallow to mid depth flats. I fish two styles mostly; a walker & a popper. My walking bait needs were covered by a few baits. As I prefer the larger sizes here, the 4.5” 7/8 oz SK Sexy Dawg, the 5” ¾ oz River2Sea Rover and the 4.75” ¾ oz Reaction Innovations Vixen. In each I lean toward more of the shad or natural patterns. With each of these I am hoping to reproduce the wild success I had with The Repoman, before a Pike stole it. Results have been close but not complete. Honorable mention here goes to the Megabass Dog-X Diamante which has several awesome patterns but the sound seems a bit ‘off’.
My Popper needs are amply filled by one bait and one bait only. The Megabass Pop Max in Perch has been flat out killer for me accounting for several very memorable smallmouth catches. Love this one.
Did some say Umbrella Rig ? While I’ve had some fantastic catches with it, over this past season I’ve developed a bit of a love / hate relationship with the thing. Does it catch fatties ? It certainly does but I’ve also fallen victim to losing big bass as a result of the bait ‘failing’. Until recently my rig of choice has been the short arm Strike King Tour Grade Titanium Umbrella Rig. However this summer I lost ‘several’ would be picture fish, when the titanium arms broke off during the fight – grrrrr. Not a fan. So I tried the Strike King Tour Grade Bladed Titanium Umbrella Rig with the blades – seems a bit heavier – NOPE. Same deal – big bass busting that stuff all over the lake. So I’m currently looking for a viable replacement. Like the rig to be able to ‘flex’ during the retrieve – but not when it cost me fish. Been trying an offering by Hog Farmer – no doubt stout but might be too much so – more to follow on this one.
BTW – I use VMC Boxer heads – 1/8 & ¼ oz with 3.8 or 4.3 Impact Fat swimbaits. Similar sized SK Rage swimmers work as well – AYU.
Right about the same time the umbrella rig bite comes on, Spinnerbait action picks up. I am usually presenting these in light to moderate cover near the top of the water column over shallow to mid depth flats. The ½ oz SK Burner and the ½ oz & ¾ oz Biovex Stangun single & Double Willow bladed baits are a staple for me here. I like a SK Blade minnow trailer with no trailer hook as well.
Interestingly enough, I didn’t do much shallow cranking through the summer and into the fall like I often do. SK Red Eye Shad (2 Tap) is usually my bait as well as a 1.5 & a 2.5 SK Squarebill – Brown Craw & Orange Bream are usually hot for me.
As the air & water temps start to cool and head towards turnover and eventually go through it, my blade bait action begins to pick up. There’s a lot to choose from here but I try to keep it simple (relative term). A ½, 5/8 & ¾ oz Silver Buddy has been good for me – gold on cloudy days; but I like fishing in the sun better. Something I’ve mentioned (perhaps ad nauseam, sorry) is fishing a rattle bait in cool to colder water deals like a blade bait, can be very effective. While many bait makes & models will and do work, I really like the ¾ oz Duo Realis G-Fix Vibration Tungsten Lipless Crankbait. The Ghost Gill and the newer Tule Perch ND are two fan favorite patterns. Think about it.
Lastly – Treble hooks – I change them. All my topwater, jerk, rattle, square & crankbaits, even blade baits & spybaits (not mentioned above) all get aftermarket trebles. And topwater baits that have feathers, also get changed out, I just tie up my own. (So easy, even an A-Jay can do it)
Mustad KVD 1x Strong 2x Short Triple Grip Treble Hook, Gamakatsu EWG Treble Short Shank Magic Eye and Owner Short Shank Treble Hook ST-35 all adorn my baits. Especially like that Owner ST-35 (Not for a tail hook though) as it features 150-degree Premium Point Position design, which splits two hook points out 150-degrees versus the typical 120-degrees between all three points. This allows the hook points to be positioned slightly farther out from your bait and help increase your hook up percentage. Opening the gap to 150-degrees also minimizes damage to your bait from the hook points, while keeping the hook points sharper over time as well.
Note: Owner Stinger ST-35 Short Shank Treble Hooks are designed to be used with baits that have the hook hanger in line with the length of the bait. These will not hang correctly on lures that feature any hook hanger that is perpendicular to the length of the lure – some of the offerings from Megabass for instance. Had to include that because as great as these trebles are – they do not work in the situation described.
Any & all questionable split rings are traded out for Owner Hyper wires. (including Line ties)
In conclusion – I can openly admit that there are a few glaring omissions from this list ~ Namely, Jigs, Swim jigs, Stick baits, Tubes, Deep Cranks, Hard Swimbaits, Glide baits and any type of frog. There’s probably a few more I’m missing too but I am pretty certain that I can count the number of times I threw any of these in 2019 on one hand – which is probably a mistake. May need to address that in 2020.
Either way, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
A-Jay
(below are previous editions of this same theme)
MickD reply :
How do you fish the Keithech swimbaits, snapping off bottom or slow and steady or. . .? My best SMB this year came on a New Money Ned Finesse, 6-7. The swimbaits were not as effective as usual. A DNR guy told me they worked a lot better last year than this. Interesting. MY best cranks were the Rapala DT series in Iconelli Smash color. Most fish on tubes, some version of green.
Very nice write-up, A-Jay, thanks. I don't know how you have time to rob the banks.
A-Jay reply :
On 11/9/2019 at 11:33 AM, MickD said:How do you fish the Keithech swimbaits, snapping off bottom or slow and steady or. . .? My best SMB this year came on a New Money Ned Finesse, 6-7. The swimbaits were not as effective as usual. A DNR guy told me they worked a lot better last year than this. Interesting. MY best cranks were the Rapala DT series in Iconelli Smash color. Most fish on tubes, some version of green.
Very nice write-up, A-Jay, thanks. I don't know how you have time to rob the banks.
Thanks @MickD.
I've had decent results slow crawling them on or near the bottom.
Get a fair number of walleye doing it do (cue the hot fat!)
And if it's sand (especially coming up a slope or point) actually slow grinding the bait up the slope through the sand has been a real winner. Fat brown bass seem to take great pride in slurping that bugger right off the bottom.
A little hard to feel the bite at first but the bait will get heavy, just stop or my favorite - go weight-less. Boom.
I was doing it here ~
A-Jay
Columbia Craw reply :
Where did the season go A-Jay? It seems like last month you showed your season's best producing baits. I enjoy your recaps. Do you even own a flippin stick? I also gave the Ned rig a serious amount of time and guess what? The big TRD was the deal and green pumpkin was the best color. Unlike yourself, I had to drop shot a lot and it was very successful this year but deep, up to 48 feet at times. Lastly a shaky head with a trick worm in any color as long as it was green pumpkin proved it's value. The 6th Sense Curve 55 is a new favorite, thanks to you. Great stuff!!
scaleface reply :
I plan on going tomorrow and there is a good possibility it will be the last for 2019 . My list of effective lures are rather small this season as I relied on the same few all year . Deep lures were Dredgers and Jelly worms but most of the fish I caught were shallow in the grass and algae mats . Spinnerbaits , toads and Texas Rigged Dingers saw the bulk of action .
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Harold Scoggins reply :
On 11/9/2019 at 10:48 AM, A-Jay said:LUCKY CRAFT Slender Pointer 127MR; an older model ‘real skin’
I wish they would bring those back. I had (key word "had") one in blood Table Rock. Good producer when I "had" one.
Bluebasser86 reply :
My list was a lot shorter this year than in years past it seems. Winter was pretty much ruled with the standard 1/8oz shakyhead and zoom mag finesse worm, but this year I also mixed in the homemade ugly spinnerbait, 5/8oz with double copper Colorado blades and a chartreuse split tail. Had some of my best days tossing that.
Ned also had some good trips, as well as a Strike King 300 series (chrome sexy). Had some really good multispecies trips early on with a 4" KVD swim-n-shiner.
Then;
With the lakes flooded, cover was everywhere, and a homemade flipping jig, and a swimjig made by @Munkin were big players for awhile.
My purple nitro and "Pepe the Slammer" were both good to me this year.
The little Duo Rozante 77 jerkbait was great all year again, most notable among it's catches was my new PB smallmouth at 5.82 pounds. It was also my best bait our first trip to Table Rock this year.
Once the water warmed up the "Code Blue" homemade bladed jig started catching them and never really slowed down.
A black popping pad crasher was really good once the weeds got going.
By some miracle, I managed to figure out the whole dropshot thing and it really took off for me. A Zoom shakyhead worm in plain old green pumpkin was just a killer for me. I probably went through 5 bags of them this summer and caught so many quality fish. Always sweet when the light bulb goes off and you feel like you finally get it when trying to learn a technique.
The Big Bite Baits Yomomma was big again, specifically the sapphire blue, but also did well on the politician and black neon/watermelon red colors too.
A lot of fall smallies were caught on KVD 1.0's and a 1/2oz War Eagle in either white with copper blades, or gold blades, both with a chartreuse split tail trailer.
Only real notable new addition I can think of would be the 6th Sense Provoke jerkbait. Like the bait, colors are great, price is really good, EWG hooks on a jerkbait is my only complaint but that's an easy fix. Caught a lot of fish on a couple different colors of it already.
Harold Scoggins reply :
On 11/9/2019 at 7:41 PM, Bluebasser86 said:Then;
I think I cried when I saw that scene, I know that rain.
90% of my fishing this year was at night and the winner is the Spro King Daddy frog in Black Rainforest or all black.
Others:
9" Blackberry Jelly Worm
6" HooDaddy, Back Neon and Blackberry Saphire
Sieberts Dredge jigs
Gantarel Jr
A-Jay reply :
On 11/9/2019 at 2:25 PM, Columbia Craw said:Where did the season go A-Jay? It seems like last month you should your season's best producing baits. I enjoy your recaps. Do you even own a flippin stick? I also gave the Ned rig a serious amount of time and guess what? The big TRD was the deal and green pumpkin was the best color. Unlike yourself, I had to drop shot a lot and it was very successful this year but deep, up to 48 feet at times. Lastly a shaky head with a trick worm in any color as long as it was green pumpkin proved it's value. The 6th Sense Curve 55 is a new favorite, thanks to you. Great stuff!!
I can certainly relate ~
And Yes, I do actually own a flippin stick, but my addiction to hunt brown bass seems to rarely have me in water where I need the thing. Maybe I'll start using it as a push pole just to get my money's worth . . .
And 6th Sense makes several quality fish catching baits.
Casey Sobczak's 6th Sense brand has evolved into the highly reputable fishing tackle supplier.
Thanks for sharing
Have a safe winter Sir.
A-Jay
MIbassyaker reply :
On 11/9/2019 at 7:39 PM, Harold Scoggins said:I wish they would bring those back. I had (key word "had") one in blood Table Rock. Good producer when I "had" one.
I got a lot of mileage out of the slender pointer 97MR in "ghost sunfish" early in the season....and then it got bitten off, and I had to scour ebay for a replacement...
Other producers for me this year:
Green bass:
--Bladed jigs: (1) Jackhammer in "Brett's Bluegill" + GP Yamamoto Zako; (2) Siebert Fogy GP/Purple + SK blade minnow
--Paddletail swimbaits: 1/8oz Mustad weighted Power lock hook + (1) GP rage swimmer, or (2) Biospawn Exoswim
--Topwater: (1) Black 3/8oz Cavitron buzzbait; (2) Booyah Pad crasher "Cricket Frog"; (3) Megabass PopMax "mat frog"
--5" GP Hula Grub on a 1/4oz Title Shot Jig
--Texas rigged Zoom speed worm
--5" Senko & Berkley General stick worms
--shakyhead/Finesse worms: (1) Zoom trick worm in GP; (2) Biospawn plasmatail; (3) 6" Roboworm
Brown Bass:
--1/4 double indiana copper War Eagle spinnerbait
--4" keitech swing impact + 1/8oz owner brush head
--stick worms: 4" SK ocho and 4" senko
--grubs: (1) Yamamoto 5" grub + 1/8oz owner brush head + (2) 4" SK rage menace + 1/8oz Slider head
--topwater: (1) whopper Plopper 75 in perch; (2) 1/4oz Booyah Boss Pop
12poundbass reply :
Nice write up A-Jay! I’ll be adding quite a few of these to my future purchase list.
Bankbeater reply :
I have a short list this year.
- Shallow running crankbaits were it right up through the end of September. Make, model, and color really didn't seem to matter as long as I was pulling it over submerged vegetation.
- SK Bitsy Flip with a Zoom super chunk. Either in blue/black, or green pumpkin.
- 4" watermelon Zoom finesse worm fished on a split shot rig.
- Zoom ultravibe speedcraw in watermelon red fished on a 1/8 oz. t-rig.
fishballer06 reply :
Not a single Shad Rap. I'm disappointed in you as a fellow northerner.
A-Jay reply :
On 11/10/2019 at 8:27 AM, fishballer06 said:Not a single Shad Rap. I'm disappointed in you as a fellow northerner.
I can't blame you, I'm just as disappointed.
Especially since I have a few killer ones, just nevergot around to throwing them.
A-Jay 
ww2farmer reply :
I caught tons of fish on a lot of different stuff. Same as I always do.
My biggest largemouth of 2019, a 6lb 11oz fish, came on a frog.
My biggest smallmouth of 2019, a 5lb 8oz fish, came on a 5" neko rigged stick bait
I won 5 tournaments this year (2 solo, and 3 with a partner), and cashed in 6 more (3 solo, and 3 team).
Ned rigs, chatterbaits, and 5" stick baits (either neko, or on a wacky jig) did most of the heavy lifting. Jigs, flipping craws/beavers, drop shot, frogging, cranking and spinnerbaits were productive this year fun fishing, but seemed to be slow on tournament days. A few key fish in tournaments were caught on those techniques, but not as much as last year. I also fell on my face HARD a couple times throughout the year trying to force things. That stuff runs in cycles....next year..who knows, something that was not great this year, or vise versa will be next.
OG Crankster reply :
Thanks for this post, it was a very good read. Just curious, did you try a Dark Sleeper at all this year?
A-Jay reply :
On 11/11/2019 at 5:15 AM, OG Crankster said:Thanks for this post, it was a very good read. Just curious, did you try a Dark Sleeper at all this year?
Thanks ~
I did not.
But if you'd like to supply me with a few, I'll fish them.
While it does seem to be an effective swimbait, when that was. The deal, the ones I fish were as well.
A-Jay
JackKlassen reply :
Are those Tranx 200s in the picture A Jay? If so, how do you like them?
A-Jay reply :
On 11/12/2019 at 2:13 AM, JackKlassen said:Are those Tranx 200s in the picture A Jay? If so, how do you like them?
They are 300HG's and I love them.
I switch out the power handle for the double paddle, prefer it.
It's a BIG Reel and one I only use south of the border.
But I certainly need them there.
Finally I do not have any 200's but I would certainly entertain the idea when the time came.
A-Jay
OnthePotomac reply :
On 11/9/2019 at 11:43 AM, A-Jay said:Thanks @MickD.
I've had decent results slow crawling them on or near the bottom.
Get a fair number of walleye doing it do (cue the hot fat!)
And if it's sand (especially coming up a slope or point) actually slow grinding the bait up the slope through the sand has been a real winner. Fat brown bass seem to take great pride in slurping that bugger right off the bottom.
A little hard to feel the bite at first but the bait will get heavy, just stop or my favorite - go weight-less. Boom.
I was doing it here ~
A-Jay
Look, A-Jay, you have to stop showing off that monster, it is really depressing LOL. I would be lost on your water when 99% of the time I am slogging around in 6' or less fighting the spatterdoc, milfoil, elodea, hydrilla and eel grass, which narrows baits to buzz baits, chatterbaits, lipless, spinnerbaits, baby1-,, top waters, frogs, and lots of Senkos, craw and creatures.
Hillbilly Bennett reply :
On 11/9/2019 at 10:48 AM, A-Jay said:My walking bait needs were covered by a few baits. As I prefer the larger sizes here, the 4.5” 7/8 oz SK Sexy Dawg, the 5” ¾ oz River2Sea Rover and the 4.75” ¾ oz Reaction Innovations Vixen.
Hey A-Jay, how’d you like the Vixen compared to the old Paycheck bait style spook? I’ve been a fan of that Vixen for a while now.
A-Jay reply :
On 11/13/2019 at 9:12 PM, Hillbilly Bennett said:
Hey A-Jay, how’d you like the Vixen compared to the old Paycheck bait style spook? I’ve been a fan of that Vixen for a while now.
It's close - very close.
And this might just be because I no longer have it, but that Repoman just had a way of calling in the fatties.
A-Jay
btw - SK just released the Sexy Dawg Hard Knock - snagged a couple last week.
Be a while before they get a chance to prove themselves but we'll see how it stacks up . . .
https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Strike_King_HC_KVD_Sexy_Dawg_Hard_Knock/descpage-SKSDHK.html
Hillbilly Bennett reply :
Well, 2019 was a different kind of fishing year for me. In the prespawn I was faced with a LOT of dirty water and that limited how much I could throw my beloved jerkbait, but it did allow to me have a love affair with an old favorite of mine, the squarebill. It loaded the boat early this spring and was responsible for a 27+ lb 5 fish limit that my buddy and I put in the boat at Chickamagua on our annual spring trip. A Strike King 2.5 in Chartreuse/black back was the biggest fish catching squarebill. When I did get to throw a jerkbait a variety of Lucky Craft Pointers caught most of my spring jerkbait fish. Spawn and post-spawn was dominated by the evil Senko as the bass on my smaller local lakes just won’t stop hitting the thing. In the post spawn a shakeyhead and spook/popper combo almost always puts them in the boat but for some reason this year was different. The shakeyhead really let me down and just flat out didn’t catch many fish. My topwater fish mostly came on Cavatron Buzzbaits and they were responsible for my biggest bites throughout the early summer months. A 75 sized Whopper Plopper also caught a lot of keeper bass in Eastern KY and quickly became my go to early, and late. As the heat of summer set in so did a drought in eastern KY. The bass were lethargic most days but the tried and true Texas Rigged Missile Baits D-Stroyer caught me several keeper bass. It even helped me luck in to my 2 best PB Muskie on my home lake on the same day. As the heat set in I spent more time chasing brown bass in my local rivers than I did on the reservoirs in my area. They destroyed the Zman TRDs and Big TRDs on Ned rig. Also the Zman Crawz on the Bulletz heads were an absolute hammer for the river smallies as well as 3 and 4 inch senkos wacky rigged. These two presentations yielded some huge numbers days and some big bass as well. As fall got close temps stayed really high until they suddenly weren’t and the fall bite went by really fast. Texas rigged Zoom Lizards caught the biggest bass in my area this fall and I finally tired out the A-Rig. I loved the way it got bit but hated the way it lost fish. A flat sided Lucky Craft 1.5 and a strike king 4.0 squarebill in natural Shad color also caught several quality fish after the water cooled down as well. The first fish in my pics was on a squarebill this fall, second was my 1st A-Rig bass and 3rd was my first “big” bass of the year at 6-1. This turned out to be my biggest LM of the year too.
Tizi reply :
My 2019 Most Productive Baits:
1. Zoom Super Fluke - Bluegill Flash
2. Strike King 3XD - Yellow Perch
3. 5 Inch Yamamoto Senko - Smoke Black & Purple Flake
4. River2Sea Whopper Plopper 130 - Munky Butt
5. War Eagle 5/16 Finesse Spinnerbait - Mouse
6. Keitech Swing Impact Fat 3.8/6th Sense 3/8 Divine Swimjig Head - Ghost Rainbow Trout
A-Jay reply :
On 11/14/2019 at 1:29 AM, Hillbilly Bennett said:Well, 2019 was a different kind of fishing year for me. In the prespawn I was faced with a LOT of dirty water and that limited how much I could throw my beloved jerkbait, but it did allow to me have a love affair with an old favorite of mine, the squarebill. It loaded the boat early this spring and was responsible for a 27+ lb 5 fish limit that my buddy and I put in the boat at Chickamagua on our annual spring trip. A Strike King 2.5 in Chartreuse/black back was the biggest fish catching squarebill. When I did get to throw a jerkbait a variety of Lucky Craft Pointers caught most of my spring jerkbait fish. Spawn and post-spawn was dominated by the evil Senko as the bass on my smaller local lakes just won’t stop hitting the thing. In the post spawn a shakeyhead and spook/popper combo almost always puts them in the boat but for some reason this year was different. The shakeyhead really let me down and just flat out didn’t catch many fish. My topwater fish mostly came on Cavatron Buzzbaits and they were responsible for my biggest bites throughout the early summer months. A 75 sized Whopper Plopper also caught a lot of keeper bass in Eastern KY and quickly became my go to early, and late. As the heat of summer set in so did a drought in eastern KY. The bass were lethargic most days but the tried and true Texas Rigged Missile Baits D-Stroyer caught me several keeper bass. It even helped me luck in to my 2 best PB Muskie on my home lake on the same day. As the heat set in I spent more time chasing brown bass in my local rivers than I did on the reservoirs in my area. They destroyed the Zman TRDs and Big TRDs on Ned rig. Also the Zman Crawz on the Bulletz heads were an absolute hammer for the river smallies as well as 3 and 4 inch senkos wacky rigged. These two presentations yielded some huge numbers days and some big bass as well. As fall got close temps stayed really high until they suddenly weren’t and the fall bite went by really fast. Texas rigged Zoom Lizards caught the biggest bass in my area this fall and I finally tired out the A-Rig. I loved the way it got bit but hated the way it lost fish. A flat sided Lucky Craft 1.5 and a strike king 4.0 squarebill in natural Shad color also caught several quality fish after the water cooled down as well. The first fish in my pics was on a squarebill this fall, second was my 1st A-Rig bass and 3rd was my first “big” bass of the year at 6-1. This turned out to be my biggest LM of the year too.
Nicely Done @Hillbilly Bennett ~
Any pics of those toothy fish ?
A-Jay
Hillbilly Bennett reply :
On 11/14/2019 at 4:08 AM, A-Jay said:Nicely Done @Hillbilly Bennett ~
Any pics of those toothy fish ?
A-Jay
This is the smaller of the two and it measured 30 inches. The larger of the two was 38 inches long and we were unable to get a picture. I measured it on the back deck and it started flopping. Nearly knocked a rod in the water and when I put my foot on it to try to stop the flopping it nearly put me in too. Lol It rolled off of the boat before I could ever regain a good grip on it to get a pic. Whole lot of fun though!
A-Jay reply :
On 11/14/2019 at 9:26 AM, Hillbilly Bennett said:This is the smaller of the two and it measured 30 inches. The larger of the two was 38 inches long and we were unable to get a picture. I measured it on the back deck and it started flopping. Nearly knocked a rod in the water and when I put my foot on it to try to stop the flopping it nearly put me in too. Lol It rolled off of the boat before I could ever regain a good grip on it to get a pic. Whole lot of fun though!
Nice Musky ~
By catch can really be a Blast
A-Jay
afree reply :
I fished Northern Minnesota and Wisconsin a ton this Spring/Summer and had a decent year.
My top 5 baits of the summer were:
- Z-Man Elaztech Finesse TRD (Ned Rig.) 1/15th oz in shallow water, 1/10 oz in deeper. Green Pumpkin and Hot Snakes were the colors typically but caught more on a lot.
- Booyah Baits Pond Magic Buzz-Bait. Red Blade, Black Skirt.
- Whopper Plopper 110 - Black Loon Color
- T-Rig- BioSpawn ExoRibbon
- Strike King Red Eyed Shad - Delta Craw color
Biggest this summer was 6.81 LMB on the Chippewa Flowage with a Finesse TRD in mid-August.
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