What worked? What did not? 2013

[th64]

We had some kinda post like this last year was interesting.

Last year I did well early with small senkos on light jig worms-stuck with this all year and had

a great #s year but the size dropped off late in the season.

[Nhamm]

River smallies loved the bfishntackle white paddletails with a pink/white jighead. Progressed to blue jigs with 2.5" plastic minnows, and now with the cold and clear water peanutbutter jelly paddletails with darker jigheads.

[Ray Esboldt]

I really didn't fish bass as much as I have in past years. Heck, I didn't fish as much period. I got hooked on this dog hunt test stuff. Probably a hobby I didn't need.

Anyway, I am about the worst shallow water fisherman you'll meet. I am lost when I am by the bank. Throw in lily pads or rushes, and my lower lip begins to quiver. But, I did find something I could throw up there and catch fish. I was throwing 5" paddle tails (or maybe they could be called swimbaits) like the Big Bite Cane Thumper. I didn't really swim them. It was more of cast, reel to an opening, let it drop scenario.

All I know is finally found something I could catch fish on up there. I also caught way more fish on a jig and chunk this year than I have in the past. Never had a good jigworm day or crankbait bite.

[bassfshin24]

Compared to last year my jigworm fishing was terrible. I don't think I fished it as much as last year though. This was my first season with SI on the boat so I did a lot of learning and a lot of deep water fishing. This was by far my best year for deep diving cranks though. Jerkbaits were also a big part of my spring and fall success. Can't wait to see what next season brings.

[Juan Grande]

I seriously need someone to teach me how to jig fish. I tried throwing one almost every time out and didn't get a fish all season. Not sure what I'm doing wrong.

[thatoneguy]

I did a lot of exploring on Leech this summer, and experimented a lot with different ways to really detail areas that held fish. I fished frogs a LOT more than I ever had before - especially from midsummer on into the fall - and I experimented more with weightless and other finesse presentation.

Put a gun to my head and make me choose one presentation, and I would still take a jig with a craw trailer, but my confidence with frogs and various finesse rigs went wayyyyy up this summer.

Put tons of new GPS spots in this year and tucked more away for exploration next year

[Lals]

It was a fun year.. Most fish were caught on plastics (t-rig, Carolina- rig, wacky) until late summer and fall and had good success with Spinnerbaits, Buzzbaits and Squarebills.

No real success with deep diving crank baits or drop shoting. Need help finding mid depth rock areas. The few that I know were very consistent producers even in the worst conditions.

Jigs produced some of the bigger fish but the issues with Jigs for me are as follows -- effectively skipping docks! understanding and getting confidence in the best head designs for these applications eg. skipping docks, pitching pads, pitching milfoil, deep weedlines.

I caught 6 fish over 20"

1 on a Wacky Senko

1 on a Football head jig

2 on a Northstar jig

2 on a Spinnerbait

[RuddyDuck]

Caught alot of Bass on Squarebills and lipless cranks. Certain times of the year a DT1Fat was producing and fun to catch them on. It's a new bait I just started fishing last year. Forced myself to use some Texas rigged tubes and had some success. Tried more swimbaits now and then with limited success. Not alot on 16ft plus crankbaits, but some on the ones that run in the 10-14ft range.

Texas rigged worms and creatures produced their share of fish as usual.

Pitching and Flippin jigs produced some fish, but still not alot of confidence in them in certain conditions. Swim jigs might be the best to start with for those trying to use jigs. I just fish them where I would a spinnerbait and had some success. Zero fish on skirted Football jigs, but I usually pull the plug on them pretty quickly. Same goes for wacky rigged worms, they just don't work for me, but I will give them a try again next year.

One local lake that use to be decent for me, really shut me out this year. But I discovered a few new lakes that I will be giving a shot again next year. All in all a decent year of Bass fishing.

[RK]

Hmm. Haven't really had time to sit back and think about this too much yet. Off the top of my head though...

- Kind of an off year for deep cranks on some lakes I usually do well with them on. Not sure why, but the deep weedline crank bite was very late developing and fell apart earlier than usual. Good while it lasted, but short-lived for some reason.

- Deep weedline jig bite was very good to me this year.

- Had some great days on football jigs in August and September. Had gotten away from using them so it was fun kind of rediscovering them. What might have been the best day of the summer in terms of numbers of big fish came on them during a brutal cold front. All off one spot (gravel seam in the middle of a weedbed) and basically without moving the boat for two and a half hours.

- Fished frogs more than I ever have this season. Fun. Frustrating.

- Rediscovered straight-tailed worms on Texas rigs this season too. Used to be a standby, hadn't thrown one in years. Forgotten how good they can be. Jelly Worms and Producto Worms. It was like a trip through the Wayback Machine.

- They quit making Smoke 4" Power Grubs AND Watermelon Jungle Jigs in the same year. That's 2/3 of my smallies and half my largemouths right there... Guh!

- I don't think I caught a single fish in the rushes pitching a Brush Hawg-type bait this year. Beavers. Yes. Jigs? Definitely. Hawgs? No, no, NO! Not for lack of effort either. It was weird. Usually a favorite. Water stayed extra-clear on some of my usual rush lakes though. Might have been the reason? Love to know why...

- Side imaging definitely worked. What a tool. Fished a lake I know extremely well. Knew about 3 rock piles. Found 6 more in one trip with SI. Costs me actual fishing time, evens out with learning spots over time.

- Every year I tell myself I'm going to fish swimbaits more. Every year I don't.

[Duffman]

- Every year I tell myself I'm going to fish swimbaits more. Every year I don't.

I have a few of those "Every year" as well.

[bassfisher123]

A 4 or 5 inch senko texas rigged with a 1/4 ounce bullet weight worked for me 90% of the time

[th64]

If you are fishing with a novice who can't or won't cast accurately a swim bait on a weedless jighead is a great option.

[Nick Kuhn]

Anyway, I am about the worst shallow water fisherman you'll meet. I am lost when I am by the bank. Throw in lily pads or rushes, and my lower lip begins to quiver. But, I did find something I could throw up there and catch fish. I was throwing 5" paddle tails (or maybe they could be called swimbaits) like the Big Bite Cane Thumper. I didn't really swim them. It was more of cast, reel to an opening, let it drop scenario.

I like to use weightless rigged senkos to do that, works incredibly well. Find a good patch of pads, and fire it across as many pads as you can. Then it's the old drag and drop. Slowly slide it across the tops of the pads, and let it fall into every little opening. Then drag it up onto the pads in front of that opening. Repeat. Pay attention to the last pad your line is laying across, it will usually move when the fish grabs it on the fall (although sometimes they hit it right on top of the water).

[thatoneguy]

+1 on the weightless senko in fishing heavy cover. I did a lot of that the latter part of this year, and had great success. Another plus of that presentation is a ridiculously high hookup percentage.

[Ray Esboldt]

I have done the t-rigged and weightless senko ever since I discovered that style of bait. I do like it around docks. This paddletail/swimbait deal has just worked way better. Almost to the point where I like fishing shallow water.

[TR21HP]

Yamamoto swimming senko weighted was absolutely lights out this year.

Crankbait bite was off for me this year.

[RK]

+1 on the weightless senko in fishing heavy cover. I did a lot of that the latter part of this year, and had great success. Another plus of that presentation is a ridiculously high hookup percentage.

The problem I have with this, just because of my personality and fishing style, is it's sooo....painfully....sloooow.

I know it works and I've done it and caught fish, but I really have a hard time making myself slow down enough to do it for any length of time. Weird, because I can fish a jig slow all day. But for me if I can't get shallow heavy cover fish to hit a spoon or a frog, I'm much more likely to use a punch rig or heavy jig and pick pockets. Honestly I think I can get some of the same fish that would hit a slow falling senko to hit a fluttering Barney spoon or PT spoon anyhow.

It's mostly in my head, but man I have a hard time with fishing that slow unless I'm really fishing a specific spot. Big stretches of pads or rushes? Forget it... Can't handle it

[Craigums]

This paddletail/swimbait deal has just worked way better. Almost to the point where I like fishing shallow water.

How are you rigging it?

[Raider4ever]

Once again I took great pride in not catching a fish in water over my head. Other than a ton of fish on Spooks and spinnerbaits, my frog percentage jumped greatly compared to last year. I like to just take them and just fire them into the middle of the junk and twitch back. What I found was that if I snipped the legs down to about 1/3 of their starting length my % went up. I figure that through the garbage I was dragging it, the fish didn't care if they thought it was a frog or a mouse. I left them about 3/4 starting size if I was playing in open water.

[thatoneguy]

Quote:

The problem I have with this, just because of my personality and fishing style, is it's sooo....painfully....sloooow.

I'm with ya, RK. I use it in very specific spots, like if there's one hole in a big patch of thick cover, and the fish that day prefer a slower presentation, or if I get a big fish to blow up and miss on a topwater, and I know she's in the area.

Otherwise, yeah...it's not much of a search tool

[bassfshin24]

I absolutely hate using a senko. There is something about it that I find really boring unless I am skipping it under docks. I know I am probably missing out on some good fishing with it but I can't get myself to just let the thing sink and wait, wait, wait. That is probably one of my biggest fishing weaknesses though. I fish way too fast and really need to slow down sometimes. Maybe I'll work on that next season.

[Juan Grande]

I'm honestly sick of senko fishing because I too like to fish fast. They work so well though, it's tough not to throw one when the fish aren't real aggressive.

They are also great for novice fisherman as you can't fish them wrong and the hook up ratio is very high.

I say this every year, but I'm always torn between throwing a senko and catching fish or trying new things and not catching anything. I guess I'll never become a better fisherman unless I force myself to leave the senkos in the box.

[TurnUpTheFishing]

If I cast a senko out 95% of the time Im casting to a dock or over-hang. Do you guys really fish weightless senkos down a weedline? Sounds painful.

[Juan Grande]

Not a deep weed line, but if I'm fishing scattered weeds in 8 feet or less I will throw a wacky or t-rigged senko. Works well in situations when bass are feeding up off the bottom, possibly on sunnies higher in the water column.

What is your bait of choice in an area that is too weedy for cranks?

[Lals]

Something that worked for me was fishing a senko with a light "weedless" jig head along the weedline. In some of the pressured and clear metro waters it worked very well and it let me fish faster as the fall rate greatly increased. It was still slow but a great improvement.