Went today to Lake Monticello and thought I was going to do well. It was going to be cloudy and maybe a sprinkle or two, good weather for water with 5 foot visibility.  There were lots of schooling bass, 2 or 3 ounces from 3 pounds, that were moving fast and hard to catch. A Rapala DTF-3 did a good job of catching the schooling bass. The Robo Worm E Z Shad caught a few too as well as the FOD of 5 – 0. In my recent swimbait post I noted the eyes of the E Z Shad coming off but the fish didn’t seem to mind. It alternated with the 5 1/2 inch Bass Magic which caught nothing today. There have been 6 or 8 fish caught on that same E Z Shad and other than the eyes missing and looking like it got hit with sandpaper, its good to go. The neat little hook hider is a big reason for  that.  Since you don’t have to pull the hook through the plastic, the bait can be made with harder plastic, thus your little screw in spring will hold a lot longer.  A lot of tentative bites today.

EDIT: Hal called to report on Beaverdam. It’s usually not too good when the water cools but he and Richard caught 30. They had none 3 or better but got their line stretched 30 times. Duck season is coming so they are going to have to quit fishing there soon.

Got a text from Taff reporting on the tournament at Wolf  Lake. It’s high and muddy so the winners had around 12 pounds for the 4 fish they are allowed to keep there. Big fish was just over 4 pounds. It took 16 to 18 pounds to win there this summer.

I have been trying to learn about swimbaits for the last year or so and I thought it might be interesting to relay my experiences with them.  This is not intended to be “the everything you need to know about fishing swimbaits” post but just what I have learned or think I have learned. First , a photo of most that I have tried, and a poor one at that.  It’s good enough to show the basics however.The names of the players:

1. Storm wild eye 2. Luck-e strike Bass Magic 3.5 inch (rigged two ways) top, 3/0 weighted hook with screw in keeper, bottom simple jig head 3.Net Bait 4 inch, smelt color, rigged with a 5/0 Gamakatsu hook with no screw in keeper and 1/4 oz weight 4. Bass Magic 4.5 inch, natural shad color, rigged with a 5/0 Gamakatsu hook with no screw in keeper, 1/4 oz weight  5. Robo Worm E Z Shad 5 inch, SXE Shad color rigged with a 5/0 Gamakatsu hook with a screw in keeper, 1/4 oz weight  6. Bass Magic 5.5 inch, natural shad color, rigged with an 8/0 Gamakatsu hook with a screw in keeper, 3/8 oz weight 7. Strike King King Shad, Ghost color, with suspend strips (if you look closely) 8 & 9 are hooks to be detailed later. I have tried two other swimbaits  but have none to photograph. They are a Strike King Shadalicious and a Bass Pro Brand 5 inch swimbait.  You might notice there are none of those $100+ baits on my list.

My observation of swimbaits in general are they are most effective in clearer water, 2 feet of visibility and more. The more vibrations you can feel in your rod tip the better. Since the water is so clear the more the appearance is like a baitfish the better. A swimbait must be rigged perfectly straight for it to have the right action. Hook slots make it much easier to rig it straight. They seem to catch the larger fish but probably not as many numbers as other baits. They work better with a slow retrieve where you can feel the tail thumping. The slow retrieve helps to keep the bait deeper. The soft plastic baits have the tendency to run shallower the faster you crank. A heavier weight, and a pause in the cranking to let it sink, will help this situation.  Some of the best results have been by letting the bait sink all the way to the bottom and then starting to retrieve. A lot of fish have been caught on the fall, so watch your line. I’ve had better luck hesitating before setting the hook except with the King Shad. A 7 foot rod does a good job of setting the hook. The ones with the Texposed hooks or hooks sitting on the top of the bait are  very weedless.

1. Storm Wild Eye:  This is the first one I tried and the first one I caught a bass on. It has a big chunk of lead in the head and will go deep quickly. Very sharp exposed hook that comes with a cover on it. Not as much vibration as I would like.

2. Bass Magic 3.5 inch: First started using it with the weighted hook but it had to be retrieved too fast to get the right action.  The jig head seems to work better, especially in open water and if the fish are smaller. Even with the jighead, it needs to be retrieved faster to get the right action.

3. Netbait 4 inch: Has a slot for the hook for easier rigging.  I’ve used it with a 5/0 hook but it would have probably had more action with a 3 or 4 /0 hook. The color is good.

4. Bass Magic 4.5 inch Natural Shad color: Has been my mainstay. It’s shown here with a hook that does not have a screw in keeper. I start off with a screw in keeper hook and when the plastic gets torn up ( after catching a few fish ) so the hook will not stay in, I use the hook without the keeper to get some more use out of the bait. This one is shown with the hook Texposed but I’ve started to use the hook just sitting on top of the bait.  It seems to get a higher percentage of hookups that way and is still very weedless. The bait is hollow and I drop some scent in the hole in the tail, because out of the package the baits have a strong chemical scent. This bait has a good vibration at relatively slow retrieve speeds and good tail action on the fall.  I’ve caught more fish on this bait than any other swimbait but I’ve used it more too.

5. Robo Worm E Z Shad 5 inch SXE Shad color: It’s shown here with a 5/0 hook with a screw in keeper and a 1/4 oz weight. Notice you can’t see the hook point. It’s in an indention between the two small dorsal fins. Neat idea. It has a hook slot for easier rigging, The slot is also a good place to apply the scent that is needed to dispel the chemical scent. This bait has a different wiggle than the rest. It has more of a tail “swish”  than the others. It looks just like a fish swimming. Has good tail action on the fall.The others  seem to have more of a body roll. The minus on this bait is the eyes come off and it is slightly more expensive than the others, $6.75 for 3 on the net, the only place I could find them.  A place in TN had the beat deal on the shipping, $3.75 for a $18 or less order.  This one is my new favorite. A detailed photo of the hook hider. Pretty cool.

6. Bass Magic 5.5 inch 8/0 Gamakatsu with a screw in keeper and a 3/8 oz weight: I thought this might have been a little large for around here but the first one I caught was 2 1/2 pounds. Small bass not afraid of it at all. Notice the hook just sitting on top of the bait. Good for hook sets.  This one makes a good “thump” on the retrieve. Caught the FOY (fish of the year), so far, an 8 1/4, the first day I used this one.

Here would be a good place to tell about the ones not pictured. Strike King Shadilicious: Had a good action but the skin was tough. I was Texsposing the hooks then so that was a factor in a reduced hookup percentage. Not good then but if you were just  laying the hook on top it probably would make no difference. Bass Pro Shops brand:  It just did not have an action I liked. The action was “rolly poley”. I could not feel it on the retrieve like the others.

7. Strike King King Shad, ghost color, with stick on suspend strips. This is the second swimbait I tried. The hooks are so sharp I’m afraid of them. With the strips the bait might go as deep as 5 feet.  It makes a good vibration and in clear water the fish will come up a long way to get it. No hesitation with this one, just set the hook.  This one is a great cold water bait.

8 & 9. Gamakatsu 5/0 hooks with 1/4 oz weight. Eight is with the screw in keeper  and nine is without it.

Swimbaits are a “California thing”, relatively new in the South. I’ve been determined to try to learn how to use them effectively. No matter how old you are, if you listen or pay attention you can learn something new every day, or in this case every year.  I certainly do not claim to know it all about swimbaits but my knowlege base is growing. So far this year on swimbaits, I’ve caught 4 bass over 7 pounds, and one of those was over 8. I say this not to brag, but to show how effective a swimbait can be, especially in catching larger fish.  Perhaps sharing this information will help someone make their fishing more enjoyable, as the information that they have shared with me has made mine more enjoyable.

It’s been a long time since I’ve been to the Garhole but I made it back Wednesday. I did not know what to expect so I took a lot of hardware.The water was the clearest I’ve ever seen with a 4 foot visibility. There was something new too, coontail moss. The moss was only around the edges as the banks of the garhole are steep and a boat length from the bank it will be 15 feet deep. In the center it was 36 feet deep. It took over two hours for the first bite to finally arrive and then it was just a bump on the swimbait. When the next one  bit the swimbait, I let it run with it to make sure the fish had it before I set the hook. It did have it and here it is.The swimbait, by the way, is a new one for me, a Robo Worm E Z Shad in the SXE  shad color. I really like the swimming action it has. I m going to have a swimbait post soon give my observations on all the different ones I’ve tried. After this fish came 21 more, most on a worm, however. Four were over 3 with the FOD @ 3 – 10 and a lot between 2 and 3. It’s going to get nothing but better because there is a big crop of small bass. They quit at 2:30 and it was funny that they quit on Hal at Enid at 2:30 too. He caught 42.  Got doe number 2 out of the way this morning so the deck is cleared for more fishing soon.

Edit: Please excuse.  Hal caught 52 at Enid, I have been notified.  Honest mistake.  What’s 10 here or there.

The rain has delayed the fishing this week. The farmers are catching hell getting their crops out because of it.  They are the ones that have the right to complain.  Four mornings this week I’ve awakened at 4:30 to just look at the radar and go back to bed. This morning was no different but at 8:00 the rain had passed Monticello. I started fishing  at 11 and was able to watch the first bass swallow my swimbait right next to the boat at 11:40.  3 – 13.  Later I caught a 5 -5 when it ate the bait on the fall. It made an all the way out of the water jump but the 8/0 Gamakatsu hook had him so well I had to get the pliers to get the hook out. Ran into some schooling bass later and caught  one on a Rapala DTF 3. They kept schooling but I couldn’t make them bite. Finally I put on a 3  1/2 inch swimbait with a jig head and caught one but it was a stripe rather than a black bass. Most of the schoolers were stripes. The wind started to pick up and the sky began to darken so at that point, frustrated by the schooling bass, I quit.

Hal went back to Enid today, I think, trying to break 100.  Did not quite make it. Only 87.  A lot of 1 1/4 to 2 1/2s. FOD was, 2 – 13 or thereabouts. They were caught on spinnerbaits, buzzbaits, and shakeyhead trickworms.  Some were caught in a small creek and some were out of the creek in the 3 foot shallows.

Went back to the 8 – 3 lake with visions of catching some more good ones. It was not to be. A 2 – 13 saved the day. Got some bites but they just didn’t really want it. I saw a guy fishing with a tripod, camcorder attached,  sticking out of the hole the back seat pedastal goes in . I guess he wants the video when he catches a 10 pounder.  If I did that, I would not catch a fish for a month.

Hal just called and said he caught 74 on Enid today. He caught them in one of the flooded creeks where the water was a couple of feet over the bank of the creek. Most were caught on a spinnerbait, but later when they would only bump it, a small worm was needed to seal the deal. FOD was 4 and most were 1 1/4 to 2 1/2. He said he did not really find the fish until 2:30. He’s going back Wednesday and I get the feeling he’s going to try to break 100.

I have been thinking about trying florocarbon on one rod and reel that I use a lot in clear water to fish a swimbait. The line is said to be hard to see underwater and sinks, which will help the swimbait stay down on the retrieve.  Flurocarbon line is a complex subject so I found a good objective reviewing spot on the net http://www.tackletour.com/menulines.html , two good in depth articles at this site. There were large differences in the performance of different brands.  Taff was also nice enough to give his perspective since he uses it. I’m still a little confused because there are so many factors to look at: line brand,  price (much higher than mono), wet and dry strength, abrasion resistance, underwater visibility, wet and dry stretch, and knot strength just to name a few.  The only definite conclusion is the Palomar knot holds the best, but still less than 90% than the line’s rated strength. One important subject not covered is castability.  That may not be a big issue with a swimbait as they are big and heavy and are lobbed rather than cast.  I am nervous on that subject however because I am a professional overrun specialist. Line conditioner may come into play in this regard. I hate to say it but some professional fishermen have been winning using the stuff.  It’s one of those things you might ignore but at your own peril.  I’m still confused but I am narrowing the field.  Am positive on two things so far, Palomar knot and line conditioner.

When I arrived at the lake today it was high and over the dock  but clear (4 foot visibility).  Usually this time of year it’s more like 6 foot visibility. The fish were schooling within eyesight just like Guntersville.  I launched and went straight for them and caught one right away on a buzz bait. Could catch no more on the buzzer. Then I broke out, for the first time, the 5 1/2 inch Bass Magic swimbaits with a 8/0 hook with a 3/8 oz weight on the shank. It was attached to a new 7 foot Basspro $34.99 medium action rod.  The swimbait went to the bottom, and when the bait started to move, one scarfed it. It was a 2 1/2 pounder.  He was not afraid of the big swimbait.  Here is a picture of the bait and a 4 – 14 that was the FOD when the picture was taken You may be able to see from the photo the hook is only laying on the back of the bait and is not pinned. That really helped today with hookups. The big fish today hit relatively close to the boat and I put a pretty wimpy hookset on it but it was well hooked. The new rod and swimbaits are a great combination. Here are a few pictures of the 8 -3 FOD which was the last fish caught. You can see in one of them the scales indicate 8 -2 but when allowed to settle they were on 8 -3. In the last one, as Willie would say, “That smile is for real”. Caught 10 in all today, other two biggies were 4 -8 and 4 -14.  My found lure collection had a good addition today of a Fat Free Shad that was hung up so high in a snag that I could barely reach it with my “gitter”.  It was a good day.

Stabbed the first doe late Wednesday. Made a bad shot so no blood but found the deer Thursday morning. Plotting a fishing trip Monday but it really depends on the weather.