phantoms

[seaner]

I have been raising some nice fish on soft tail phantoms the last couple times out. The fish have been on them pretty tight up to the boat, but have not landed one on these yet.When i start the 8 it loses it's walk the dog motion, and the fish seem to lose interest.

My question is, how do you guys figure 8 these lures? is there something I should be doing to help trigger a boatside strike?

thanks for any help

[bronzeback]

I've not yet had a follow on a phantom-type bait (but I did stick a nice walleye the other week) The best looking, though maybe not the most effective figure 8 technique I've used goes like this: while i'm pulling tye bait along side the boat I will zig-zag towards and away from the boat with the rod on the straight aways to keep the bait moving in that side-to-side motion(the shape of the lure will help it make those nice turns), then turn and zig-zag again. It looks great in the water, but I haven't had the opportunity to try it on a fish yet.

[AWH]

Jerkbaits are not very effective figure 8 baits. There's only so much you can do with them. But you can still get that Phantom to do some of its walk the dog action by continuing with light taps of the rod as you're doing your 8. Don't worry about doing a smooth action with your rod as you would with a bucktail. Even though you're making more noise by splashing your rod in the water, an active fish that wants to eat will often be oblivious to it.

Aaron

[brad coin]

a local guide/pro uses a technique called the "endless cast" if you see a fish comming on you glider/phantom/walk the dog topwater,,,hit the trolling motor slow forward or if your buddy is running it yell to him,, with your bait trailing behind that way you can still glide it with fish in trance

[JRedig]

Endless cast works good, i've been able to keep it walking by just twitching through a big circle. The rubber tail one's have a nice steady sink rate and wobble with the tail flickering if you let them drop, sometimes that gets bit!

[Zelmsdawg]

With my phantoms or other similar baits i start twitching upward as it approaches the boat so they break the surface a couple feet out.

It has produced strikes a couple times and if the fish loses interest because of the increase in speed to get it up I feel she wouldn't have hit boatside anyway

Zelmsdawg

[brad coin]

If you guys want soft tail phantoms you better grab em quick..I talk to Todd pretty regular were actually going to see 'hairball' this saturday at uptown Famous Daves,,Softtail phantom sales are up 1/3 from last year and they are having a hard time keeping up.

[HugoBox]

I had a follow on one last Friday and contrary to conventional wisdom after a couple eights and seeing nothing I freespooled and dropped it to the bottom (about 10 FOW) I gave it a few rips and then back up for more 8's. The fish didn't eat but did come back in for another look.