Bass Fishing: Swim Baits

When it comes to bass lures, a lot of the focus tends to be on crank baits and spinners.  There's good reason.  They're both very effective.

That said, we've all had days where we struck out with one or both.  On those days, don't forget about another option:  swim baits.  Take a look.

These baits look like something a bass would hit.  This design is red on the bottom, which helps them show up in stained water.  However, there are numerous designs, including a realistic gizzard shad.  Here's what they look like out of the package.

That large tail is key.  The action on it mimicks the way a minnow swims.  I recommend sliding a bullet weight onto your line first and then tying this bait on.  This will greatly increase your casting range.

Here's the bass I caught with my swim lure.

I released her to fight another day.  Tight lines!

Best Way to Guarantee a Catch (Almost)

Here in the U.S., the pecking order of coveted game fish goes like this: bass, catfish, crappie.  However, these game fish are not easy to catch.  Not by a long shot.

So here's what I suggest.  In addition to whichever game fish you're trying for, rig a pole for carp.  Granted, they're not exactly beautiful.  In my opinion, they're not the best to eat.  All of that said, pound for pound, nothing fights like a carp.  They get big too!

I was trying for bass yesterday evening and decided to set up a carp rig as insurance, in case the bass weren't feeling the red crank bait I had to offer.

Guess what?  The bass weren't feeling it, but this 5 lbs carp was!

In fact, the fish nearly got away with my pole before I could grab it!  All you need is a little size 6 bait holder hook and some whole kernel sweet corn.  It may not be a bass, but it's a lot better than catching nothing!

There's always a chance that even the carp aren't biting, but they're the closest thing you can get to a guarantee!  Make sure corn's legal in your area.  The fish was released unharmed.

Tight lines!

Bass Fishing: A Great Crank Bait for Murky Water

Over the passed week, I've caught three different bass on the same crank bait.  That's fantastic consistency, especially for our turbid water here in West Texas!  A picture's worth a thousand words, so here they are.

That's an RC Series 2 crank bait.  The pattern  on the side is actually a crayfish, which makes the lure all the more appealing.  Tight lines!

Bass Fishing: Picking the Right Color

When it comes to lures, the variety can be overwhelming.  There are big lures and small lures that are designed to imitate almost anything a bass might possibly eat.  The color combinations are endless.

When you think about color, don't worry about specific colors.  It's not about green vs red.  It's actually about the clarity, or lack of it, in the body of water you're fishing.

Bass have great eyesight.  If the water's clear, they'll be able to see a lot of detail. In that situation, your lure needs to look similar to the actual prey that a bass would attack.  In the picture below, the crank bait has the same color as an actual gizzard shad.

You'll notice that the water in the background above is murky.  I might very well have caught more than that one bass if I had gone a different color direction.  Here's a closer look at our water in this area.

You can see that with only a few inches of this murky water, the bottom is no longer visible.  You can't see very far off at all.  Guess what?  Neither can the bass ... at least not well enough to distinguish one color from another.

In this world of murk, what a bass most likely sees are silhouettes.  Regardless of the color on these crank baits, the silhouette will be the right shape.  How visible the silhouette is will depend ENTIRELY on the color.

In murky water, bright colors make the lure visible to the bass.  What we see is a brightly-colored, ridiculous object.  What the bass sees in murky water is an outline that's brigher than the rest of its world, and that outline has the shape of a fish.  Score!

Look at that bright red crank bait!  It delivered with that little bass and then with a much bigger one.

I literally caught them within five minutes of each other!  So if your water's a murky mess like ours in West Texas ... think bright.  Think neon even!  The same is true for your plastics like worms, etc.

All fish were released unharmed.  Tight lines!

Big Mudcat

When I think mudcat, I think small.  That's for good reason.  Most will not exceed two pounds.  However, there's an exception to every rule.

That bottom bullhead was the largest.  I don't think either of them broke the two pound marker, but they were fun to catch.

One other thing to note, the largest one hung me up on something toward the bottom of the creek, probably a tree root.  I fought the snag for a few minutes, and I could still feel this fish on the line.

The thought finally occurred to me to let the fish do the work.  I gave the line some slack, and voila!  The fish swam out from behind whatever had the line snagged.  Then I was able to land the fish.

The baits were worms and hotdog weenies.  All fish were released.  Tight lines!

Small Creeks Run Deep

When you see a small creek like this, you might be tempted to write it off.

You can see that the creek is not very wide, and the cattails give the impression that the water is not deep.

Here's the thing about creeks.  They can be deep.  Much like rivers, there's also one side that's deeper than the other.  In this case, it was the near side of the bank, and I measured off about five feet of water.  The most shallow part was actually the far side, over by the cattails.

When a creek has that much water, it's time to go fishing.  My daughter had worms, and I had hotdog weenies.  We caught some FISH!

Don't ever write a water hole off.  Release some line from your pole into the water.  See how much line it takes to hit the bottom.  This gives you a rough depth estimate.  Remember, it only takes a little bit of water to conceal a BIG fish!

The turtle and all of the fish were released unharmed, including the fish that bled a bit from the gills.

Tight lines!

Video: Fishing with Hotdog Weenies

http://youtu.be/6MGsCnraQGA

Lubbock County Fishing by Species

In the City

Bass
Andrews
Buddy Holly
Canyon Lake #2
Canyon Lake #3
Conquistador
Dunbar Historic Lake
Huneke (War Memorial)
I-27 & S. Loop 289
Leftwich
Mackenzie
Mae Simmons
Remington
Stone Lake
Tadpole Lake

Bluegill
All locations.

Carp
All locations.

Channel Catfish
(Bass lakes plus the following.)
Buster Long
Casey
Elmore
Higgonbotham
Hoel
Legacy
Maxey
McCullough
Ribble

Crayfish
All bass locations.

Crappie (by report)
Andrews
Canyon Lake #3
Conquistador
Dunbar
Huneke
Leftwich
Mackenzie
Mae Simmons

Shad
Conquistador
Buddy Holly
Canyon Lake #2
Mackenzie
Mae Simmons
Dunbar
Elmore

Sunfish
All locations.
NE side of Hoel for orange-spotted sunfish

In the County

Buffalo Springs Lake, all species

Don't Forget the Crappie House!

I think that sometimes we as fishermen get too big for our britches.  We start to think we're "above" certain things ... like the crappie house.

I went fishing at night.  As you can see, I had the place to myself.  It was well lit, and it was raining.  Night fishing with the sound of rain on a tin roof.  Does it get any better?  Well ... there's only one way.

As usual, the fish was released.  Don't snub the crappie house!  

Tight lines!

Catch Bigger Catfish

Catfish are a fun species to target.  They taste good, and they can get big.  The trick is to know the difference between the species.

There are three main sub-species:  bullheads, channel, and blue.  If you're looking for a big cat, you can ignore bullheads.  Most only grow to a pound or two.  See below.

That leaves channel and blue.  In order to target those bigger cats, the first thing you have to do right is the time of day.  Catfish will bite at any given time of the day, but their activity increased a LOT during the wee hours of the night.  With a moon like the one below, you won't even need a flashlight!

Next up is the bait.  If you want to avoid the little bullheads, stay away from using worms.  Instead, I would use one of four baits:  hotdog weenies, cut bluegill, cut shad, or cut carp.

I'm a BIG fan of hotdog weenies.  There's a separate post on here that will show you how to put them on the hook.  Bigger catfish seem to hone in on them quick enough to beat their smaller counterparts to the dinner table.  Case in point.

As usual, all fish were released unharmed.  Tight lines!

Berkley Cut Shad Powerbait Review

I've never had a lot of success ... or confidence ...in dough baits.  But, as the cliche goes, the proof's in the pudding.

Here's a pic of the product.  It works!

The package recommends a treble hook, but I prefer a size 2 barbed plain shank.  The fish was released unharmed.  Tight lines!

Targeting Bass Near Cattails

Bass are predators.  That's one reason they hang out near cattails.  That's where the bait fish are.  The other reason is that the cattails provide protection for the bass from their own predators.

Here's the reed line of the creek I fished tonight.  The lure I used is in the foreground.

You can see that the creek isn't very wide.  Crank baits are heavy, and they tend to sail when you cast them.  Fishing the cattail edge requires a very gentle, finessed cast.  Ideally, you want to land right at the edge of the reed line and reel the crank back toward you.

By the way ... you'll still over-cast from time to time.  You'll probably even loose a couple lures.  Just accept that now.  The more you do it, the better you'll get.

I hooked this guy on the far side of the creek at the reeds' edge.  He put up a fight about twice his size, and he tried to run back into those reeds.  Be prepared for that.

As usual, the bass was released.  Tight lines!

Choosing the Right Bass Crank Bait

In my opinion, the best way to pick a crank bait is to go to the lake first.  Observe the bait fish.  If it's legal in your area, you might even toss in a cast net and see what types of bait fish you pull out.

In my case, what clued me in was a thunderstorm that stranded baitfish in the grass when the water receded.  I saw lots of dead gizzard shad.  So I went to the store and got a lure that looked like a gizzard shad.

As you can see, I've had luck with it.

Here's a better look at the fish.

Not big, but fun all the same.  Below is a snapper I saw sitting on the side of the road.

I released the bass, and I left that snapper where he was!!

Tight lines!

Sunfish and Bluegill Fishing

Sunfish and bluegill are fun to catch.  This is especially true if you're fishing with kids.  Find a school of these panfish, use the right bait, and your kids won't be able to keep their hooks or lures in the water.

So let's start with step one - where to find them.  Bluegill and sunfish frequently hug the shoreline, especially when there's cover like grass or rocks.  Check this out.

That rock pile screams fish, including bluegill and sunfish.  Take a closer look.

Lots of cover, and deeper water in front of the rock pile.

Now the bait.  I'd say the big three are worms, corn, and the Rebel Crickhopper.  Today we just had corn and the Crickhopper.  As you can see, we caught some large sunfish.  The kids had a blast.

If you use corn or a worm, I recommend one split shot weight and a size six baitholder hook, which is a small hook.  To rig the Crickhopper for these fish, you need only tie the lure to the end of the line.  No weight needed.  You want to fish it on or close to the top.

All fish were returned to the water unharmed.  Use extreme caution when fishing on or around structure.

Tight lines!

Rebel Crickhopper Review

So I'm perusing the fishing aisle at Walmart on Sunday, and I'm looking at the lures.  Slowly but surely, I'm building my collection of plastics and lures in order to do more bass fishing.

Out of all those lures, what caught my eye was this very realistic-looking grasshopper lure.  So I take a closer look.  The package says that this will catch trout, bass, and panfish.

I often use non-game panfish as cut bait for my first love - catfish.

I'm thinking about my usual process to catch these panfish.  It involves going to the store, buying nightcrawlers, and then heading to my lake.  I can't help but think that it would be nice to have a lure that would catch a non-game panfish, so that I could go straight to the lake and skip the store.

So with a great deal of skepticism, I made the purchase.  Then I tried for a panfish.  The first two casts resulted immediate strikes.  Cast three resulted in this.

That lure is a Rebel Crickhopper, and that's a sunfish, my friends.  Below is the catfish that followed the sunfish.

Let's also not forget that this provides a solution to worm hands and worm dirt still caked around your fingernails after the third wash.

Last pic.  Check out that moon!  Nothing beats night fishing.

Tight lines!

How to Fish with Hotdog Weenies

One of the many beauties of fishing is how cheaply it can be done, and it doesn't get much cheaper than hotdog weenies.

Many anglers find this bait to be challenging, because it's difficult to keep on the hook.  This is especially true when attempting to cast for distance.  So let's conquer this together!

First, the hardware.  I recommend a size 2 hook.

Next up, tear off a section of the frank that's anywhere from a half inch to an inch.

Now let's thread it on the hook, fairly close to the middle of the piece.

Keep threading!

Now turn the piece 90 degrees.

Now just gently pull/push the hook up until the bottom is up against the weenie.

Notice that both times we pierced the frank, we went through the outer casing first.  It's much stronger than the meat.  See the difference?

Follow these steps, and most likely you'll end up with some nice channel cat like these!

If the cat are biting slow, you can tear a small piece of frank off and put it on a small hook, size 6.  Just make sure you pierce the casing.  Then gently cast a few feet off the bank, and hold on tight!

All fish were released.  For goodness sake, use the cheap hotdog weenies that are less than a dollar a package.  Don't use the good stuff that should go on the grill and then in your mouth!  Also, make sure your reel has no tangles that will stop the hook in mid-air as you cast.

Tight lines!