surefire baits for smallies?

[Al Agnew]

Everybody knows I don't fish soft plastics much. Mitch gave me a good supply of his craws, and I've been tying one on most trips...and then only throw it a couple dozen casts at most. I'll be writing a long trip report about today's trip, but suffice it to say that Mitch's craw produced a couple on nice largemouth the couple dozen times I casted it

[Guest]

deleted

[Gavin]

Will give them a go this weekend Mitch. You know where. C' mon down with the fam. Thinking family float Sunday & Monday. Fish float early Saturday before the river lice get on the water.

[Jeff Maberry]

A bone colored rebel crawdad, I have not seen them in at least 10 years but they would catch everything all the time

[joeD]

Once you take yourself out of the equation, fishing simplifies. Everyone thinks that "they" are in control. By lure choice, or line choice, or retrieve method. That fishing "success" is dependent on what "we" do.

That is just silly talk. Fish hit when and where they want. Has nothing to do with us or our abilities. As if our sheer determination and skill and lure choice will overcome and overwhelm the fish into biting. Hubris of the highest order.

Just go fishing and have fun and hope they are biting. Don't worry about others who say they "absolutely slayed them" when you did not. Chances are they are lying.

Fishing success is in the doing.

[Al Agnew]

There is a lot of truth in what JoeD said. Sometimes they just don't bite no matter what you throw or how you throw it. But if they ARE biting, sometimes what you throw and how you throw it means the difference between catching an average number of average fish, or more and bigger ones.

Lures are tools. Some tools work better for certain situations than others. Walk the dog topwaters are tough to work in fast current, but buzzbaits aren't. Buzzbaits give the fish one quick chance, while you can work a walk the dog topwater in one small area for a lot longer, so if the fish are tight to cover the topwater is the better choice. Spinnerbaits excell in fishing in the wood, but a deep diving crankbait isn't. On the other hand, deep diving crankbaits can not only be fished deep, but also fished in shallower rocks, letting them root and bang against the rocks, something a spinnerbait doesn't do well.

I tie on different lures on five rods in the canoe...and during the day I'll use every one of them as I come to situations where one will work better than another. Some days, the bass only want one or two of them, and eventually I'll be forcing those ones or twos to do things that another lure would do better, just because the fish are hitting the one or two and not the other one. Other days, every lure gets a workout and every one of them catches fish.

But the biggest difference between the better anglers and the average angler is not the lures they use, and not in how they use them, but in how efficient they are in handling their watercraft, handling their tackle, picking where to cast, and getting in as many quality casts to as many good places as possible.

[joeD]

Let's not forget. One must go fishing to catch fish. And do it over and over and over again, many times, each year, all year, over the years. It's the only way to become a good angler.

[Eric rickard]

My name is Eric from WV,, any pointers on the hydro wave, just bought one and not really sure if it's working. Catching SM but we was before. For this time of year which is sept 27 2015, what would b the best setting, our weather temp is around 65,,

[Steve McDonald_1164]

Just got these babies to try on table rock from DHP baits

[Guest]

Surprised no-one has written about an ultra-vibe speed craw for smallies.  That's one of my favorite baits.