Year in Review

So what bait or technique worked well this year? Time to put away the boat for me.

•T-rig Pit Boss on deep weed edges in the metro area for bucket mouths

•Drop-shot Dream Worms on Mille Lacs for bronzies

Between the Strike King Pure Poison and D & M Baits Piranha, chatter jigs were my top producer this year. Followed by Craw Tubes and then the Zoom Horny Toad.

Finally forced myself to learn how to use a 3/4 oz jig and pig in deeper water. Used the drop shot rig quite a bit last as a result. Fun

Rippin Rats and Husky Jerks on deep breaks off of structure and reefs.

Spooks on the Croix. Was quite the crazy summer of bass fishing.

6″ bluegill under a cork.

CH,Husky Jerks on deep breaks? How do you get them down? Or do you? Bluegills under a cork!? I do that here in Minnesota and I’m in trouble.

I had a blast sight fishing a sand flat on our lake for smallies
Using wacky worms and topwater baits.

tim hurley wrote:

CH,Husky Jerks on deep breaks? How do you get them down? Or do you? Bluegills under a cork!? I do that here in Minnesota and I’m in trouble.

Yes you would. You didn’t specify a region.

I’ve only actually done it a couple times. It’s easier to pick up a dozen shiners.

And truthfully, live bait isn’t employed often.

I don’t know what technique worked best for me this year, but I will say the chatterbait proved invaluable. A majority of fish were caught at the crack of dawn with fish chasing bait up against the shoreline. The chatterbait shined because it can be fished so many different ways until I figured out which presentation they liked. Straight retrieve, buzzed, crawled, slow rolled…

Second best technique was skimming a fluke through thick pads. I suggest you slop fishermen give it a try. Rig it weightless and swim it on top at varying retrieves. Sometimes you can burn it real fast and get a great reflex bite.

Pug- You gave me an idea for next year about fishing Flukes in the slop. Thanks!

I’ve caught my bigger bass in the pads with them. The fluke tends to swim in the channels and pockets between the pads and not get him up if you fish it fast enough. And since you fish it faster than a frog, my theory is the bass just react, they have no time to “decide”.