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I decided to head back to a lake near my house in NW NJ that I haven’t fished in a couple years and finally caught my first swim bait bass on the Citizen 6. I’ve been mostly throwing the TK and the Citizen and endlessly reading through the forum the past few weeks to regain interest in swim bait fishing. Not the biggest bass but enough to gain some confidence.

I think it was @captainhookset maybe? Who wanted to see all the slammers together forever ago. Here’s the best I can do. This is what 178 slammers looks like lol IMG_8746.mov

We found a big school boiling and took full advantage. Finnbaits dash shad and little grandpa took care of business In the last video the fish rolled and my line hung up on the back hook. I grabbed the line to land it by hand because my brother had the net to land his own fish. Although the fish was exhausted it had one last run and snapped my line and swam off with my little grandpa Also a bonus small jaw on the dash shad. It was a fun day GOPR0003_1698005546171.MP4 GOPR0005_1698005934564.MP4 GOPR0006_1698007224370.MP4 GOPR0007_1698007540345.MP4

Please share your fish catches caught on anything by Chuck Baits! I’ll kick things off with a nice 5lb 9oz Massachusetts Largemouth. Caught using a Chuck Baits Victim Gill, flat joint style with the longer bill. Good for waking and cranking down just a little bit.

Beautiful fall day here in NJ had them biting. Consistent winds combined with a warming trend had them on the sunniest warmest banks.

I also have a 14ft aluminum row boat that I created a deck for, what I did was after I had the deck and the supports all screwed together I took it out of the boat as a whole and painted it with 3 coats of marine grade paint. I believe I got the paint at my local hardware store but I think you could get something similar at Home Depot, maybe a paint for outdoor decking would work. Next after my paint was dry I sprayed some 3M adhesive on the wood and stretched some Carpet over and stapled it to the underside. Put it back in the boat and it’s been solid ever since. I keep a cover on my boat so the wood is always out of the elements just to prolong the life of the deck.

I had this happen to me with a Dobyns 867. I found a guide repair kit on Amazon for fairly cheap and it came with 3-5 replacement guides for each size. I believe they’re stainless steel inserts. I cleaned off the metal part of the guide with some rubbing alcohol and a Q Tip and did the same to the insert and put some super glue inside the guide and slid the insert inside and took a small spring clamp and clamped it together. It has held up great now for 2 years and hasn’t popped back out catching fish or throwing heavier baits like the 250.

F5 and I have one coming out...Early November.

I have a couple in mind if I can remember to get a pic

Great fish

I have found that I have to put a vent sprue right at the edge of the undercuts. Makes for a a bit of a clean up on every bait but i'm not mass producing anything so not so bad. Also bondo lol.

Any kind of outdoor wooden deck sealer will work just fine

Spar varnish should do what you want.

Swimbait fishing in north jersey is a futile effort - real talk - south jersey is much better LOL Just kidding - solid healthy well proportioned bass.

Plenty of youtube videos out there on this and plenty of places that sell ceramic replacement rings

Not a bad one at all for NJ this time of year. Well done.

It’s water dependent but they’re 100% not overrated. Commit to them and you’ll find out. One of the best swimbaits ever made.

Connecticut here. 250 is my confidence bait and holds my smallie PB. Lots of trout waters but they work everywhere.

Legit design wild side big bait travel rod fits in a backpack. It's freaking amazing. Best handles up to 3.5 oz. Can do a little more but the ideal weight is the 1-3 range

I fish in Maryland which isn’t really northeast but is in your neck of the woods. Up until this year I felt the same way as you and would throw the 250 here and there with sporadic success. This year I dedicated a lot of time from March-June to mostly throwing the 250 and a few other big baits, and things finally started to click. It resulted in more exciting moments and more heartbreak than any of my previous years of fishing. I landed a couple fish in the 5lb range, dumped a mid 6, dumped a giant tiger muskie, and had many opportunities at 5-7lb fish. One of the main factors was focusing on waters with either trout or gizzard shad as major forage. I have had very little success with getting bites or even follows on lakes lacking one of these two forage items. The second major factor was wind-every bite I had was in moderate to heavy wind. Sunny or overcast/rainy didn’t seem to matter. The areas were no secret-laydowns, rock piles, long points, all with immediate deep water access. It was a matter of hitting these spots at the right time and from the right angle in relation to the wind and so the fish can pin the bait. Third and final factor was commitment. On my best trip when conditions were ideal and fish were fired up, I got 5 bites, but most trips were a grind for one good opportunity type of deal. The important thing was not to downsize, and almost without fail, the opportunity would come.

PA is so far from the northeast lol. I’m in Maine and here’s my two cents….. Glides are dang near obsolete for me. I haven’t broke 5lbs I don’t think on a glide in two years, and not because I haven’t caught many 5s. Here, there’s a good 2-3 week window for glides. And maybe 2 weeks in fall. If you’re fishing a glide here in summer you’re catching about a tenth of the fish you could be on wakes and cranks. Glides def have their time and place, but it’s limited. That being said, I’ve caught some good ones over the years for sure, but mostly big shad glides it seems.

Fish I caught in Thailand. 7 pound toman on the Toxic Whippersnapper, 40 pound Mekong on the UFO 6” Wake, 45 pound Mekong on DRT Joker, and two 4 pound barramundis on the DRT TiK and Toxic Wade Hoggs.

I’m using a 200 Tranx 7:1 for 6” magdrafts, TK, 168 S Wavers, etc on my junk rod. That’s a 13 Defy H cranking rod with the top 5” broke off and I replaced the tiptop. I kept this for kayak fishing because of the short handle but I’m surprised how good this works off my boat for skipping and twitching those baits above. the reel works great but it’s getting a little geary. I suppose after 2yrs I should open it up clean and lube it?..

They go nocturnal... Seriously though, at least here in CO there are a handful of lakes that are known to have decent (for Colorado) bass fishing and they get hit a lot by people who are pretty good sticks. I'd call those pressured waters. There are others that are hit a lot by trout anglers and just the amount of bank activity is likely enough to keep the bass from moving shallow, at least by day (or on the weekends). Nighttime is a different ball game, though, especially if some of the trout have been gut-hooked and released and are flailing feebly on the surface. I'd say that if the fish are seeing multiple presentations per day (or even per hour), then you've got a pressured situation. I dream of finding a lake where the only person fishing for bass is me, and where I go three or four days without seeing any other angler - oh, and the bass would have a solid 6+ average to boot! A guy can dream...