The Luhr Jensen Speed Trap is an excellent search bait when the fish are chasing bait fish and chewing on crawdads and you can get them to react. I personally like to throw the delta craw color most of the time when I use this bait just because where I fish the fish get in the grass around lots of rock where crawdads live and this bait gets them going. The thin walls of the speed trap provide it a different vibration than other types of crankbaits and the squared bill bounces and deflects off all kinds of cover. You can pitch the speed trap around all kinds of wood, grass, and rock and the bait will deflect off and keep on running true or just get swallowed by a big fish.
The Lucky Craft Sammy is an excellent walk the dog style topwater lure. These baits have a nice swish swish motion through the water that largemouth bass are attracted to during the late spring, summer and through the fall transition. These lures let you target better quality fish through an attractive reaction bait offering.
The Lucky Craft bait finishes are second to none and the Sammy comes in all of the best fish catching colors. In clear water a ghost minnow bait can be an excellent choice. Other favorite colors for the sammy is white and blue aurora which is like a blue metallic side with a black back. The Sammy flat out catches the fish.
If you dont have a pair of polarized sunglasses when you are out on the water you are missing out. The amount of cover you can see under the water with polarized glasses vs. without polarization is phenomenal. If you want to take a crack at doing some sight fishing it is an absolute necessity to have polarized glasses. Without it the fish are even harder to pick off the bottom and by the time you can finally see them you will be on top of them and they will be swimming off the bed.
You don’t need to spend lots of money especially if you are just a casual fisherman, even though the high end glasses will give you a better experience on the water the glasses you can find on the rack in your local tackle store will be sufficient as long as they are polarized.
These hooks are strong enough to handle any size largemouth bass and sharp as can be. I use Gamakatsu Superline and the equivalent in Owner the 2x on a regular basis. These are the hooks you want to be using in the thickest of cover or when going up against really big bass. The only time I ever had a superline hook by Gamakatsu fail me was when I hooked into a really large striped bass with 65lb powerpro braided line. The hook did open that time, but never on a largemouth bass.
The EWG Superline Worm hook is an excellent hook in the 5/0 variety when needing a big strong hook for baits like a 7inch senko, a large flipping tube, or a texas rigged lizard for flipping onto a bed. In all of those situations you need to have a hook with a nice size bite that will ensure the hook penetrates the fish and strong hook so you can horse the fish out of the cover and into the boat no matter what the size of the fish.
Gamakatsu Hooks – Superline Worm
The Superline Spring Lock hooks are an excellent choice for the soft belly minnow type swimbaits. These baits swim excellent when rigged onto a hook that locks the bait’s nose to the hook like the Spring Lock. Some versions of this hook will have a small weight attached to the shank of the hook. The ones with weight are an excellent choice for letting the swimbait sink a little deeper. The hooks without a weight are perfect for a Zoom horny toad. Both the swimbait and the horny toad is likely to put you in the situation to catch the biggest fish in the pond, so it is a good idea to have stout equipment. That is why I choose a Superline type hook for this kind of fishing.
Gamakatsu Superline Spring Lock Hooks
I am a big believer in power pro braid. In my opinion it is the best braided line currently available on the market for a host of different applications that braid seems to excel over mono filament or fluorocarbon.
I feel braid is the best option for most topwater applications such as throwing a spook, frog, buzzbait, although small poppers and propbaits mono still seems to be the best option. If you are tossing a bait that is known for the big ones to chew on, then braid is a great option, especially with topwater, it floats, the baits are reaction type lures so the fish don’t get a good look at them, and you can set the hook from long distances due to the no line stretch factor.
I use braid exclusively for heavy pitching and flipping as the braid will help cut through the vegetation when you are hooked up and it has the overall strength required to haul a pig out of the trash. Nothing more fun than seeing a toad finally pop out of the salad and grind them all the way on top back to the boat, whether they ate a topwater frog in the cheese or smacked a flipped bait in the hyacinth or other matted grass.
A few standard braided line tips are to make sure you have a little mono backing when you spool up the reel, since braid is expensive compared to other lines and I use it on my flipping reels I will put more mono on those reels than one of my casting rods for top water since flipping only uses a little bit of line at a time.
The other braid necessity is a big permanent felt tip marker, I prefer black, some people use, green, brown, or even red to color their line so that it does not look like a white clothesline coming through the water. All braid fades its normal color pretty quickly so put a slice in your marker and place the line through it and paint the line up black or your preferred color and get to fishing!
Here is a great video on how to snell a hook. The snell knot is an excellent choice when rigging up a heavy punch weight set up for heavy cover. This technique is using a large weigh from 3/4oz – 2 oz to smash a bait through the densest of cover to reach the fish. The straight shank hooks used for this technique require a snell knot to keep the bait hitting home at a high percentage.
The brush hog is a cheap alternative for a compact punch bait. But you first need to remove the two long antenna like appendages. Those will catch and stick on vegetation when flipping the heaviest of cover. However, once removed the brush hog is an excellent solution to making a slim profiled bait that will get to where the fish are living. I go with a Junbug for off color water and green pumpkin or a watermelon when the water is clear.
Zoom Soft Plastic Baits – Baby Brush Hog
Just got done watching the ESPN coverage of the BassMaster Classic Day 2 at Lay Lake. The top leaders of the tournament are all fishing near each other in Beeswax creek and it seems that they are all on a similar pattern throwing lipless crankbaits. Since they are all fishing relatively close to each other and there is a heavy load of spectator boats each angler is fishing very specific locations and just grinding it out. The lipless bait is on in Beeswax creek. They are all working the bait the same way chucking into pretty shallow water and working the bait around small little patches of grass. They were all working the bait in a similar fashion just slowly reeling the bait and giving their rod a little pump occasionally these light sweeps of the rod let the lipless crank drop just a little bit in the water column and helps trigger that reaction strike the lipless crank bait is known for in cold water situations. Beeswax creek seemed to have a little better water color and with the sun warming up the water the bite got better as the day went as you saw with Jeff Kriet’s quality fish late in the day. Kevin VanDam, Jeff Kriet, and Todd Faircloth, were the anglers being the most consistent with finding success grinding out their spots with the lipless cranks, while Michel Iconelli was seen catching some fish on a shakey head and Tommy Biffle and Takahiro Omori were both catching some fish, using a jig around wood in locations more along the main river even catching some spotted bass. But the largemouth bite in Beeswax was the deal and it will be interesting to see how everything pans out for the top 25 tomorrow, especially those fishing inside Beeswax Creek.
Kevin VanDam was using the Strike King Red Eye Shad bait – it appeared that he was using the black back with gold sides and he mentioned that he upgraded the hooks to size 2′s to catch those fish that were just slapping at the bait.
Todd Faircloth was using a Sebile Flat Shad
I’m not sure if Jeff Kriet was using a Lucky Craft LV500 or some other bait, it appeared to be a lucky craft, but I didnt catch them mentioning exactly which bait he was using.
All of these newer versions of Lipless crankbaits are all baits that are built upon the classic Bill Lewis Original Rattle Trap a proven fish catcher across the country. My personal favorite colors are red and silver with blue back in the 1/2 oz size you will catch fish anywhere you go if they are willing to react.
From ESPN: Two-time Classic champion Kevin VanDam grabbed the early lead with a limit weighing 19 pounds, 8 ounces. Understandably guarded with his details, VanDam said he was using a trio of baits to “effectively cover the range of water in the area that I’m fishing.”
With the lake temperature remaining in the low to mid-40s, VanDam said he found the fish mostly concentrated in small areas, but he expects the next two days — with more sunny conditions in the forecast — to see the fish spreading out.
“People see the big weights that some of us caught and they may think that fishing’s easy, but it’s not — it was a struggle today,” VanDam said. “You’d catch several fish and then go two hours without catching another one.”
If Kevin VanDam is leading the tournament with water temparatures hovering around the 50 degree mark there is a good chance one of the baits he is using would be a jerkbait. He remained tight lipped about the specific baits he was using to catch his leading bag of fish, but I would bet a few came while ripping and pausing a jerk bait of some sort.
The Lake Fork Tackle Hyper Freak is really an exceptional bait. I was very surprised with the action that this bait put off in the water. I am a big fan of flipping reapers, which are similar in shape to a large tear drop. I saw this bait in the local tackle shop and since I am a big fan of the Lake Fork Magic Shad, I decided to give this bait a try and they had some of my favorite colors so I picked up a few packs to try at the lake the next time I went out.
Well they are much different than a reaper once in the water, but I really liked the action. I though the bait would not have a ton of action in the way of making vibrations but I was totally wrong.
This bait when given a pop off the bottom has a very strong kick. I guess the paddle tail section of the bait is heavy enough and the connection between the body and tail section is small enough in diameter that the tail really thumps hard.
I was using this bait on a very light weight rig since it is late winter I wanted a slow fall, because the water is still below 55 degrees where I am fishing. The bait surprisingly just kicks off a ton of vibration and I imagine will do so even more with a little heavier weight.
I know this bait will really excel once I get the chance to use it flipping the heavy vegetation with a big 3/4 oz – 1.5oz weight and yo yoing this bait under the mat. It will certainly have the kick in the tail section to get the fishes attention.
Of course the colors are great, I personally just picked up green pumpkin and Bama Bug, but the whole selection Lake Fork provides in the Hyper Freak bait will allow you to find a color that works on your local lake.
I think this bait is unique enough from the traditional flipping style baits like brush hogs, beavers, and craw imitators to allow you to have that special unique look that other anglers are not presenting to the fish. This bait is certainly worth giving a shot this spring when the fish will be chewing the flip baits and long into the summer as you need to penetrate the heaviest of cover with a slim bait that will get in the cover and provide the type of action needed to entice the big girls to locate the bait and bite.
If you fish a lot during the summer and you should because it can be an awesome time to enjoy great weather and a good bite. You need to be prepared to care for the fish you catch and choose to put in a live well if fishing in a tournament or for taking a picture of later before you release the fish. There are several ways you can reduce stress on fish. First make sure you have the right overall livewell equipment. Make sure that you have live well additives to treat the water making it an extra healthy environment for the fish. Then, it is important to begin looking at the tools you use to manage your fish like what type of cull buoy’s you use. Caring ice to cool the water temperature on a hot day can make a big difference, same with having a needle to be able to pop a fish that is in need of equalizing its swim bladder.
Live well System
The pump is the number one component that you need to make sure is properly functioning. The next most important thing to remember is to run your pump on a regular basis. As long as you are in decent water conditions turn that pump on at regular intervals. I try and turn on the pump while fishing and luckily enough have a switch right up in the front next to the trolling motor so it makes it easy to turn on and off. Many boats also have automatic switches so you don’t have to worry about turning the pump on and off you can just set the timer and every few moments the fish will be getting fresh water. If I am on better fish and have full live wells I also like flush out some of the water as toxins can build up in the tank from secretions from the fish and so it is good for the tank to get flushed occasionally especially during the stressful times of the spawn and the summer when the water is warmer.
Water Additives
The salts and chemicals found inside of the various live well additive products really do help the fish stay healthy and protects them from potential damage inside of the live well by protecting their outer slim layer. The formulas are designed to help the fish protect any wounds they may have from infection. One of the biggest effects I have noticed is it really seems to calm the fish down while they are in the box and this seems to really help their survivability since they are not thrashing inside of the live well.
Extra Tools
If you are planning on using cull buoys to tag your fish while in a tournament use the kind cull kit that does not poke an additional hole in the fishes lip. The plastic clips work just as effectively and do not cause any additional stress on your fish. If the weather is going to be very hot and you have water temperatures north of 85 degrees, I suggest having a few water bottles frozen the night before and place them in your cooler. In the middle of the day you can place on bottle in the live well occasionally to provide some cooling to the water to help the fish. Do not place regular ice in the live well as there is chemicals that can kill the fish and do not place to much ice in the well at once as the temperature shock can also have harmful effects. It is a good idea to switch your live well tank into recirculation mode so that you don’t flush the cold water back into the lake. You can also use an additional oxygen bubble tool to produce dissolved oxygen in your live well. If you are fishing a waterway that does not have a high oxygen level in the water it can be a good idea to use one of these battery operated devices. There are ones that can be professionally installed into a live well system and their also smaller devices like the Mr. Bubbles that provides a portable solution you can choose to use just in the high stress times of year to preserve your catch.
If you plan on fishing at any depths deeper than 20+ feet I suggest you carry a needle and understand how to properly needle a fish to release the air from its air bladder.
If you don’t have a fizz kit go here Don Iovino Fizz Kit this will do the trick and you can learn more about this special technique that will save fish from the problems that can arise from being caught deeply.
Here are two videos about fizzing a bass caught deep with a needle.
Fizzing the bass in the side
Fizzing the bass in the mouth
Here are a few of the products needed to have a great live well set up.
Mr. Bubbles live well aerator
Mayfair Bilge Pump
Portable aerator – Great solution for people in smaller boats or using homemade ice chest live wells
