NoahFertick

I've been a huge wakebait and crankdown fan for long time, and that's more recently pushed me towards exploring the rat game. I've been tossing them around for a bit now, but definitely don't have as much experience with them as I do regular wakes and cranks. Unfortunately I'm stuck at home for a bit with covid, but that does give me time that I haven't had to get back in the garage and build some rats to the style I like. Working on them has me thinking, what is everyone's thoughts on what makes a good rat? There's a lot of people here with much more rat experience here than me, and who fish water in areas outside of my home in the PNW. I have my preferences, but as a builder I'd love to hear what other people's experiences are! I lean pretty heavily on waking single joint rats, and tend to get the bigger bites on ones that will swim at REALLY slow speeds. Having a rat that floats very low seems to be pretty key for me as well, and I'll often add some lead tape to the belly to make sure I get that super super low float on them. Looking forward to hearing everyone's input!

In

So far I've only made baits out of wood, but now I'd like to get into making resin baits. So I was wondering, what material do you guys use to make your masters? Is there anything better than wood to make them out of?

I went over 30 hours dedicated to big baits with nothing, then finally got 2 bites on Friday. The first one was BIG, I hooked her on the WCZ Citizen but she came off because I was so shocked that I hooked one that I forgot to grind. I'm too used to the fairy wand fight, but I'm not making that mistake again. Later while picking out a backlash this fish ate the 3:16 Baby Wake. She was only 4lbs 3oz but anything over 4 where I live is the size of fish that I'm after. I'm mostly a finesse fisherman, but this combo hasn't left my hands since, I've stuck with big jigs and swimbaits in search of those giants and I don't plan to stop anytime soon.

There's a guy selling 3:16 Baby Wakes in the black market right now. I love mine, its really versatile and super tough, and it has a killer action.

The bite has been ok, but according to the guide I went with it's a lot worse than normal. The past few days were easy but today I had to work to get 2 at a different spot. The two I mentioned were the only sizable ones that I've found so far, all the rest were 1.5-3 pounds on average. The water is murky so it's a pain to find or catch big fish.

Everything in the universe is either a potato, or not a potato.

I was fishing at Clear Lake (which is FAR from clear) this morning and got a small bass on a popper first cast. The lack of water clarity has made it difficult to sight fish, but I spotted two really nice bass on a bed. After a few minutes I got the male on a Roboworm, which was 4lbs 2oz, then it took a while to get the female. She was pretty finicky, but a few big carp swam into her and bump her, which made her MAD. I took the opportunity and tossed my drop shot with a Megabass Spark Shad into the bed and she hit it almost as soon as it got in. I had to maneuver her around poles and walk her down a dock until I was low enough to grab her. I missed the first grab and almost lost her, but I grabbed her and got her in. She was 6lbs 9oz, my PB swimbait fish and the biggest bass that I've ever put on the scale. All of this happened in the first one and a half hours that I was awake!

Nice! I'm going to be there in just over a week, hopefully I can get my first big swimbait fish. I got a couple of mattlures gills and magdrafts, so I think I should be able to get at least a few.

Probably the most important thing that I learned was a bit more of bass behavior. I had a pretty crappy year for largies cause I was usually trying to force a finesse bite that just wasn't there, but I started using other baits (like big baits) much more often and had a really good fall. I've only been fishing consistently for a bit over over 3.5 years, and the past 10 months or so I've been noticing that I actually understand whats going on forthe most part in high detail, and I'm having a lot more success because of it. Make sure to push yourself out of your comfort zone as much as you can, cause I only got good at bass fishing when I started to do that.

I love using the smaller Megabass Spark Shads, and I've known about a 7" version of it for a while but its really hard to find. I found a guy selling it but it ships from France and I don't want to pay $40+ for shipping. Do any of you know where to get one without paying that much or should I just stick with the Magdrafts and Magslowls?