brands

[Mitcher]

i was looking today at other places rather than wal-mart and noticed a huge price increase but there were a few brands that were cheaper. I think rebel was one of them, i know cotton coredel was rather cheap, and the Berkley Frenzys were pretty cheap. all these ones were around 2.99 to 4.99 while some of the other ones (the ones that come in a pretty little plastic case) were more like 6.99 to 9.99. What im wondering is are those 3 brands i mentioned bad or does price not always matter. Of course there wer some brands i coudl tell that were complete junk but those 3 looks good but just alot cheaper.
and also along those lines how are "Zoom" plastic worms, can they compete with the Yum and other brands or stay away from them.

[lizardsrule]

ROTFL,

All these are questions you will need to answer for yourself. I like a lot of different brands, and swear by a few of them. Zoom is a good manufacturer, and availble most everywhere. I have some Rebels, Cotton Cordells(love their traps personally), and some Berkley Frenzys. Not a huge fan of the Frenzy though. Everyone swears they have the best bait when the catch a good days worth or a big ole hawg. Every single bait will catch fish somewhere, at sometime. What you want to do is start working on 1 thing at a time, and once you get that down then work on another one. Lots of good advice on the other post of yours, but IMO you need to quit buying all these different types of baits, and start fishing them. Cranks, topwater, plastics, jigs, c-rigs, t-rigs, and spinners etc.... are different tools. Get used to the hammer, before you decide to build a House.

Lizards

[flbassman]

Zoom worms, in my opinion, beat the mess out of yum. They are my favorite brand for most applications. As for rebel, they make a great popper. NOt familiar with cotton, and I am not a fan of berkely products. Fishing is very individual though, and everyone feels differently.

[m cress]

I agree with Lizard. Get confident in your ability to land bass with one type of lure, then move to something else. Otherwise you are not going to be very good at ANY technique.. T ake it from me. When I first started to get serious about bass fishing, I seemed to only enjoy topwater lures. Probably because they were exciting and I could actually "see" the action I was putting on the bait. Because of this, good or bad, I ended up fishing topwaters exclusively for a whole year. This limited my learning curve with other baits, especially worms, but I think it was the right way to go for me. I have sooo much confidence in my topwater ability, that I will still take them out when no one would ever use one...Bright clear sunny day with sun directly overhead, and be able to produce with it. Buying a large variety of lures will probably just hinder you at this stage.

[Rebbasser]

Yep, Mitch, the bait monkey is firmly attached to your shoulder .

Rebel, Cordell, Berkley and Zoom are all great brands. I have more bags of Zoom soft plastics than you can shake a flipping stick at. The bait monkey is an affliction we all deal with. I stopped at an Academy Sports and Outdoors this afternoon to kill about 15 minutes and walked out with a new spinning rod and 8 bags of soft plastics. The plastics I "needed ", the rod I didn't but the price was too good to pass up. Dang bait monkey.

[JB]

I prefer zoom over Yum, plus zoom has been selling great baits for decades, the yum line is only a few years old

[Mitcher]

in my last 5 to 10 trips to the bait store i havent bought anything yet. I wanted to so badly but before i did i wanted to make sure i was getting something worth while, and wasnt going to waste tons of money.

As far as the worms with some telling me yum and most telling me zoom i guess ill buy a bag of each and see which one does better for me. The salty yums just look too good to pass up, i could almost bite into one

I guess ill go get some of those worms and just stick witht he top water i have and the womrs and try and master that. Along with worms i saw lizards which are cheaper and crawfish, is there any advantage to using these. or is it a whole different technique that i shoudl stay away from until i master the worm.

Thanks for all the info by the way.
mitch

[bassinbob]

The Zoom Horny toad. The rest follow. Some baits are not as popular as others thus the "cheaper" price. Senko's are too costly for me but Zoom is affordable. My PB came on a Strike King plastic. I buy stuff when it is on sale a lot. Mostly cause of the dang monkey. Just gotta feed him something.

Bob

[Rebbasser]

Mitch-you can fish any soft plastic like a worm pretty much-there are a couple that work better weightless, but that is another topic. If you are looking to get some soft plastics this time of year there are some that really work well. I'd get some Yum Dingers or Tiki Sticks-another brand of stickbait-that you can rig either weightless-like a Texas rig with no weight-or wacky in watermelon seed, watermelon red, or green pumpkin-probably watermelon red, and a Zoom Super Fluke-a minnow imitating bait-in smokin shad color. These you rig weedless and work with gentle twitches of the rod tip.

This time of year both soft stickbaits and flukes will produce real well. To give you an idea, while I have a boat loaded for bear if I am fishing from the bank in a stock tank(Texan for farm pod ) I take one rod, a bag or two of Yum Dingers or Tiki Sticks, a bag of the flukes and a few extra hooks in a small box. I can stuff it all in my pockets and walk the bank. I have that much confidence in these baits.

Speaking of which, the one thing that makes all the difference is confidence in your bait. As you progress you will develop what most call a go-to bait-the one you throw when nothing else works. Everybody has one-it is the one lure you KNOW will catch fish on it. That's confidence in your bait, and it usually works. You'll develope your own as you fish more.

[omahabasser]

I really don't depend on brand. I usually buy what is cheep or on sale. I've found I can catch fish on a generic 10 cent plastic worm as well as a worm out of a $9.00 bag of 10.

The best advice I'v ever taken is to always use scent. That seems to make the difference for me.

[Mitcher]

got 2 questions.
1. When i rig up a worm wacky do i use weight with that and drag it across the bottom or is that a top water deal. Also with the fluke is that, weight or no weight and if so what kind.

2. From omaha does brand matter with scent, or do you make your own, or are there some good ones to check out and what is the best way for application
Thanks
Mitch

[omahabasser]

Mitcher -- I buy scent. I usually get what ever wally-mart has on sale. The scent masks what ever I have in my garage, back of my truck, or trunk of my car. I heard of guys using garlic flavored PAM. You know the stuff you spray on your frying pan.

If you fill the boat up with gas, wash your hands with that fancy soap, or handle something funky your soft plastics will have that scent on them. My garage smells like an old leaky lawn mower, and that where my tackle box sits. I use the scent to mask that order and flavor. It has a tendancy to keep the bass from spitting out the bait.

[Mitcher]

ahh cool, yea i looked for garlic pam couldn't find any at wall-mart but ill check the grocery store and if nothing head back to wal-mart to buy some of the cheap stuff they have. As far as application is it good to just squirt alittle in the bag and then just rub it in like that, or do you just squirt alittle bit on each individual bait.

[omahabasser]

mitcher -- I thought about spraying it in the baggies, but when I go fishing from shore, I like to travel lite, so I usually put a bag or two in my pockets and I don't want them to leak all over my shorts. So I just bring a bottle and spray some on my bait every now and then while fishing.

[Mitcher]

good thinking once again, i probably would have had to get garlic scent all over me before i figured that one out. Thanks
Mitch

[Rebbasser]

1. When i rig up a worm wacky do i use weight with that and drag it across the bottom or is that a top water deal. Also with the fluke is that, weight or no weight and if so what kind.

Nope. You want that wacky rig to be up off the bottom-slowly sinking in the water column. In deeper water the only weight I add is to stick a small finishing nail in each end to help it sink a little faster, but you want that bait to be up off the bottom most of the time. However: there are times when being on the bottom is a good thing. I've caught quite a few deadsticking the bait-just let it sit on the bottom. Don't move it, shake it, anything-just let it sit. There seems to be some corollation between that and picking out a backlash, but I haven't figured it out yet if there is .

[m cress]

Originally Posted by Rebbasser

Nope. You want that wacky rig to be up off the bottom-slowly sinking in the water column. In deeper water the only weight I add is to stick a small finishing nail in each end to help it sink a little faster, but you want that bait to be up off the bottom most of the time. However: there are times when being on the bottom is a good thing. I've caught quite a few deadsticking the bait-just let it sit on the bottom. Don't move it, shake it, anything-just let it sit. There seems to be some corollation between that and picking out a backlash, but I haven't figured it out yet if there is .

ROTFLMAO Rebbasser! You are soooo right with that one. I'll sometimes try to duplicate a particularly heinous backlash, so I'll get hit. There has to be some minute movement transfering to the bait while picking out the worlds largest ball of twine!

[crankybait]

honestly ive decided to quit asking questions like which bait line rod or whatever works best cuz ill get too many answers all different. i figure ill just see which one i like the best. taking some advice here, like if a few people say frenzy isnt good, dont try it. the rest is up to te angler

[Rebbasser]

Ah, you are showing signs of wisdom, young weedhopper.

You are learning to use what works for you, not someone else, which is pretty much trial and error. You are correct, also, if you get several bad reviews about a particular piece of equipment that it is wise to not use it.

[Mitcher]

well i did alittle wacky did alittle texas rig, caught... nothing. I think its my spot, there is a cow farm like 400 yards up stream and i dont know if they are crappying in the river or what but i dont think there are any fish in this part of the river im fishing on. I haven't seen one swim by or felt any bites. Though i was using my mini torpedo and i saw one jump up at it and i think he missed cause i yanked and it shot back at me. So i dont know, i go to this place all the time and cant seem to catch anything there. After we got done fishing for the day me and my daughter went around looking for a new spot and i found a spot that looks pretty good, alot of room for her to run around and some downed trees and and a variation of some rapid moving water and slower moving where 2 streems come together. So i'll try that tomorrow.
Dont know what else to do, but if i keep going to this spot and have this kind of luck its gonna be tough to keep up my excitement for fishing.
Mitch

[zooker]

trees are your friends.. look at the creek bends notice which way the water flows. the place where the water flows the fastest against the banks at the turn is the place to fish..

zooker

[Rebbasser]

Definitely fish different spots. They may not be in one area and stacked up in another. Don't pack it in-you WILL eventually get bit.

[Mitcher]

HAHA atleast someone has confidence that i will catch a fish. The place i saw that i thoguth would be good is right at a bend in the riverand it looked pretty quick moving so it may be a good spot. We will see, i will keep that in mind as i search around for a good spot.
thanks
Mitch

[crankybait]

Originally Posted by Rebbasser

Ah, you are showing signs of wisdom, young weedhopper.

You are learning to use what works for you, not someone else, which is pretty much trial and error. You are correct, also, if you get several bad reviews about a particular piece of equipment that it is wise to not use it.

thanks im feeling pretty smart right now. hopefully this wisdom can catch me a fish... i dont suck at fishing i just cant go enough