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Tagged with: California Swim Jig
It’s nighttime! Why would color selection matter at all? Matt Allen of Tactical Bassin’ teaches you exactly why color does matter at night and which colors you should be throwing when you beat the summer heat with a little night fishing.
I love fall fishing! After a long summer the lake finally feels alive again. The baitfish are schooling, the bass are feeding, and the fishermen are wrapping up their tournament seasons. Whether you want to catch more bass, win the AOY race, or win a new boat, these 5 baits will get you headed in the right direction.
Its never easy to limit yourself to just 5 baits but if I had to choose one season to do it, it would be the fall. As the bass group up and feed they become much simpler to target than they were throughout the summer. In no particular order, my top 5 baits are as follows:
1) The jig: The bass are gorging before winter and one of their favorite meals is a crawdad. Stick to a simple craw profile and you'll succeed. There are a lot of great jigs out there including a plethora of colors, head designs, and colors but if I could only choose one it would be the Dirty Jigs 3/4 oz Pitchin' Jig in "Molting Craw". That color, coupled with either a Sweet Beaver-style trailer or a Twin Tail Grub-style trailer creates a phenomenal crawdad imitation.
2) The Spook: Walking-style topwater baits work great through all the summer months but their effectiveness peaks during the early fall. Bass are gorging on baitfish and baits like the super spook (see our video on the top 5 walking baits for ideas) are a perfect imitation. Choose a color you have confidence in but you can never go wrong with whites, silvers, or even a little chartreuse to draw the bass away from the 1000's of other easy meals swimming around. Try The Super Spook in "Okie Shad" or the Rover in "sooner" if you need a place to start.
3) The Glide Bait: Glide baits have taken the industry by storm the last couple years. If you aren't throwing one this fall, you're missing opportunities for great fishing! I'm particularly partial to the S-waver in the 168 and 200 sizes in "Warden" or "Light Trout" (See our S-Waver Video and S-Waver 200 Video to see why) The S-waver is easy to use and won't break the bank but is by no means your only option. Check out the Gan Craft Jointed Claw, The Slide Swimmer, or if you're in to the custom baits, the Hinkle Shad is hard to pass up. These are all baits that we've seen success with over and over again. They're big, but they get bit and fall is a great time to build your confidence!
4) The Deep Crank: Whether you're throwing a big 10XD, a Rapala DT-Series (because Ike says so), a slim profile like the Deep Six, or my old standby DD-22 you can't go wrong with a deep crank. We throw a lot of the shad patterns including those with lavender, chartreuse, or brown backs. We even branch in to the craws a bit. Whatever it is you choose, the deep crank will let you cast farther and reach deeper to catch those fish other anglers are overlooking.
5) The Lipless Crank: Who could possibly overlook this crank? Whether you're burning through the fading grass, fanning flats, or ripping off the bottom around docks and cover, the lipless is probably the most versatile bait during the fall. Again, stick to the shad patterns. If I could only choose one lipless it would be the Lucky Craft LV-500. Like many Western anglers I've discovered the benefits of the fast sinking, loud rattling bait. Try Chartreuse Shad, Ghost Minnow, Wakin if the fish are really active, or even Crack if the water has some stain to it.
What "Top 5" list would be complete without fudging and including some extras? Because 5 baits really is tough to do, the rest of the baits that really should have made the cut are the Swim Jig (California Swim Jig to be exact), the spoon (both Jigging Spoon and Flutter Spoon, The Jerkbait (ripbait if you live on the west coast), and the paddle tail swimbait (I'd go with the 6" basstrix or 4.8 Keitech on a Dirty Jigs Swimbait head).
Put these baits to work for you and have a great fall. Good luck out there!
Is your favorite bait on the list? Did I miss something? Let's hear what's on your top 5 list.
As a follow up to our recent post Swim Jig Season, we decided to revisit how to modify a swim jig. While many jigs are effective right out of the package there are some simple changes you can make to the skirt and weedguard that will immediately increase your success rate.
Some swim jig/swimbait combinations (The California Swim Jig coupled with a Roboworm EZ Shad for example) have excellent action out of the package but other need the skirt to be thinned or shortened to gain the proper action. Follow the simple steps outlined in this video to get increased action out of any swim jig, especially when combining it with a swimbait trailer that has either wide action or low vibration.
The post spawn is the perfect time to lure bass out of the grass beds with the swim jig so put these tips to work right away and catch some of your biggest bass of the year!
The swim jig is a great bait throughout the year but it really shines in the spring! As the bass are moving off the beds and beginning to feed again the swim jig stands alone as a bait that can be thrown into virtually any cover. Aside from the way it comes through vegetation, the secondary action is what sets the bait apart.
We've been on an awesome swim jig bite the last few weeks using a two-pronged approach. First, we're using the California Swim Jig around spawning beds. The defensive fish can't resist a bluegill color! The second pattern is to target the post-spawn fish that have begun shifting into their summer patterns. As the fish pull out into the grass beds to recover from the spawn We've been able to draw the fish up out of the grass with shad colored offerings.
Instead of filming a whole new video about throwing the swim jig we decided to replay this video on the California Swim Jig. This bait revolutionized swim jig fishing, catching giant bass from coast to coast after this video hit youtube. Understanding why the bait works works, how it works, and when to throw it, will have a huge impact on how you target bass during the post-spawn season. Good luck out there!