What do you catch 'em on?

[WatterBoy]

OK, so I'm a bit of a numbers nerd, somewhat of a spreadsheet geek, and it's the middle of winter here. That all leads to me going back over my 2010 data and coming up with the "lures I caught 'em on last year" info you see below.

I already knew this before charting the numbers below, but I absolutely love fishing senkos and topwater lures. This year, though, I really want to learn how to use jigs, tubes, shaky heads and swimbaits. I know it will be hard for me to try something new when my "favorites" have been so successful for me the last couple of years!

I know this has been done before in prior threads, but feel free to share the breakdown of what you catch 'em on, whether it's approximate or exact.

Senko - Wacky-rigged (114 bass; 41.3%)                    
                       ##    %     Biggest 2010 fish caught on this lure
  - 5" Wacky Senko     70  25.4      4.3, 4.0, 3.7, 3.6
  - 7" Wacky Senko     44  15.9      4.5, 4.0, 3.6, 3.2, 3.2, 3.0

Dropshot             ( 96 bass; 34.8%)                    
                       ##    %     Biggest 2010 fish caught on this lure
  - 5" Wacky Senko     89  32.2      4.8, 3.12 (SM), 3.11, 3.4
  - Split-tail Grub     7   2.5      4.0 (SM)

Topwater             ( 36 bass; 13.0%)                    
                       ##    %     Biggest 2010 fish caught on this lure
  - Pop-R              18   6.5      4.0 (SM), 3.11, 3.3, 3.0
  - Poppin' Frog       10   3.6      6.9, 6.0, 3.7
  - Money Hound         5   1.8      5.1
  - Buzzbait            2   0.7      5.2, 3.2
  - Super Spook Jr.     1   0.4      ---    

Crankbait            ( 21 bass;  7.6%)                    
                       ##    %     Biggest 2010 fish caught on this lure
  - Lipless            10   3.6      ---    
  - DT 16               6   2.2      3.5
  - Square lip (DT 6)   5   1.8      3.11

All other            (  9 bass;  3.3%)                    
                       ##    %     Biggest 2010 fish caught on this lure
  - Night Crawler       6   2.2      ---
  - Marabou Jig         3   1.1      ---

       2010 Totals:   276 100.0
      (2009 Totals:   185 100.0)

[jdw174]

I wouldn't even try to break down my totals like that, so I'll just say that my top lures were:

5" Yum Dinger/Watermelon Red Flake fished wacky rigged (sometimes t-rigged).
Bomber Square A in their version of Sexy Shad color.
5" Hags Tornado fished on a shakeyhead in California Red color.
4" straight tail worms fished on dropshot.

[BigBassin144]

I didn't get out much this year, but my top producer was actually a Yamamoto Swim Senko. I fished it with a pegged 1/16-1/8oz bullet weight, followed by one of my prototype Riggin' Skirts (my version of the punch skirt), and a 5/0 Owner Twistlock hook. This rig probably accounted for half or more of the few fish I caught this year.

I did pretty good in the evening on an XCalibur Zell Pop (the bigger one).

The rest of my fish were caught on cranks (Bandit 100 in various colors mostly), a few on a shaky head, a few on a DS, a few on regular t-rigged worms and YUM Dingers, and one on a spinnerbait.

BB

[coachpurdy]

Zara Spook Jr.
Bandit Crankbait
Tube
In that order.

[bassboogieman]

Not bad, here's mine, while I don't keep exact records or have any supporting documentation...........

Senko - quite a few
Crankbait - many
Dropshot - several
Shakey head - a couple
Topwater - not many
Spinnerbait - a lot

Total -

Numbers don't mean much to me. You could likely determine, by the non-numerical numbers above, which baits I throw most often and therefore produce for me. Actual numbers would not add any more defining information.

If that works for you great, but it's way too much trouble for me.

[walkeraviator]

I didnt have a whole hell of a lot of luck this year...But here is what i do remember...

Pre-spawn... lots of luck on shad raps
Post Spawn... lots of small fish on rattle traps
Night Fishing in the summer... T-Rig 7" Yum Ribbontail
Late summer early fall... citrus shad fat free shad crank
Fall fishing... zero top water luck... caught good quality but no numbers on smithwick rogue jerk baits....

Best fish was caught night fishing with a T-Rig 7" Ribbontail in Black Neon.


This year was toatlly screwed up by mother nature. Blistering cold kept water temps down later than usual, followed by massive flooding to the point most lakes had no usable ramps left. The high water screwed up the spawn cycle. By the time the water got down the water temps shot up into the 90's and stayed there until the fall draw down... then it got cold quick and caused us to miss the fall top water rush...The big thing to do around here was catch whites in teh jumps all summer.

[66KingFisher]

My best producers this past year had to be a close run between Bandit crankbaits, and Jig-plastic craw combo's......I also caught several nice fish on Senko's and several of the Ragetail plastics.....But all in all I'll bet my biggest producer of fish was a Bandit crank...but it also caught alot of fish that weren't bass.....My best big bass producer has always been a jig/craw combo.

[bamabassman]

do DINKS count? hahahahaha!!!

[lilmule]

Year before last spro popping frog,last year king spro frog 1 oz and a Bully Wa 85

[bcklash]

Originally Posted by bamabassman

do DINKS count? hahahahaha!!!

Yes sir they count.

Alot of bass on a Bandit 100 in the rootbeer
Bigger bass on the Yum craw pappi

[keithdog]

My top producers last year were as follows. And in no particular order. The Strike King KVD 3/8 oz. spinnerbait in either white or bluegull, colorado/willow gold blades. Took my personal best bass of 8 pounds last year on this one. Excaliber 3" popper, T-rigged Reaction Beaver black blue with 3/8oz. tungsten weight, various holllow belly soft swim baits in the early spring worked through shallow weedbeds, and lastly various crankbaits, especially Bandit and Norman.

[96ecss]

Originally Posted by bamabassman

do DINKS count? hahahahaha!!!

Bama, you don't catch dinks.

I heard you call a 5 pounder a dink.

Dave

[96ecss]

Watterboy, great spredsheet. I could never keep accurate records like that. I caught fish on a bunch of different lures in 2010. No one lure really stood out above the others.

Texas rigged Senkos - Green Pumpkin and Black/Blue mostly
Various top waters - best were Rapala Skitter Pop and Skitter Prop
Various crankbaits - Bomber and Rapala DT mostly
Spinnerbaits - Booyah Blue/Chart/White
Jigs and or creatures - not many.

Dave

[bcklash]

Originally Posted by 96ecss

Bama, you don't catch dinks.

I heard you call a 5 pounder a dink.

Dave

He don't catch 5 lbers either!!!!! Lisa does!!!!

[96ecss]

Originally Posted by bcklash

He don't catch 5 lbers either!!!!! Lisa does!!!!

Oh, now I understand.

Dave

[tim4081]

I'm not organized enough to keep such records (wish I was though) but here are my top producers from 2010 in no particular order:

4 and 5 inch senkos t-rigged or wacky style...green pumpkin best color
black or green pumpkin single tail grubs on shakey head jig...dynamite in early season and again at end of year
jerk baits...xraps and pointers
LC silent cranks
t-rig berkley power worms and chigger craws
Damiki armor shad (fluke) t-rigged weightless
Yozuri lipless cranks
Stanley ribbit frogs

Two biggest fish of the year came on 4" t-rigged weightless dinger and a jig and plastic

[fish4942]

No way I can break down by fish and outings how I did this year. I mean, really?
Anyway…I found success this year by pitching senkos in the trees and brush. Stuff I’ve avoided for year. Now I got to lakes looking for this stuff. The senkos / plastic worms range from 5-10 inches. Most success came on the 5-6 inch stik-o from BPS. Also had great success on Berkley Chigger Craws. Topwater and crankbaits didn’t were just okay. Plastics is where it was at for me this year. I’ve also had success with shaky heads…although I just called it a plastic worm on a jig. I do plan on working the skirted jigs this season.

[WatterBoy]

Originally Posted by fish4942

No way I can break down by fish and outings how I did this year. I mean, really?
. . .

Yep, really.

I just started keeping track of details about my catches two years ago and found out that I like being able to look back at it and slice/dice it however I want to during the off-season. I know it's insane, but I enjoy it.

[walkeraviator]

Originally Posted by WatterBoy

Yep, really.

I just started keeping track of details about my catches two years ago and found out that I like being able to look back at it and slice/dice it however I want to during the off-season. I know it's insane, but I enjoy it.

How do you do this? do you keep track of it on the water or do you wait til you get home and write down teh day's events?

[WatterBoy]

I keep track of it on the water by filling in info on pre-printed sheets that I take with me. Stuff like who caught it, species, weight/length/girth (for ones worth weighing/measuring), lure, location, time, and sometimes other "interesting notes" if I think there are any. I fish on the same lake 95% of the time, so a lot of what I record on the water is in my own made-up shorthand notation, and then I expand it to a readable format when I enter it in my spreadsheet later. We're usually up at the lake for several days at a time on many different occasions throughout the summer, so I usually just wait until we get back home (we don't live on the lake...yet) to transfer it from the paper notes to my spreadsheet.