168 Rookie

"hey boss" "hey boss" "no problem boss" We had this idea in high school where if someone called you "boss" either he thought you were a goofball or he was a FOS ingratiating weasel. Nice to see 25 years later the theory still holds. "shipping next week boss"

^^^I second everything above, couldn't say it any better: you have every bait you need already in your box. They're all proven baits; fish them til you've got confidence in all of them, you don't need to spend another dollar.

Maybe they should package it in one of those Savage Gear clamshells, then they could sell it for 30 bucks.

This summer's been tough, boys--granted, I haven't gotten out a ton, been super busy but still, yeesh. Woke up this morning and it was raining so I decided spur of the moment to try a small pond near the house; lucked into a TK bite, first fish in over a month. Keep grinding, they'll come eventually.

JITTERBUG, that's the one I was looking for. Arbogast, not Heddon. Thanks.

Interesting, I've never seen a bib on the front of a lure like that. Seems like it would be a bigger, super exaggerated version of that cicada-looking topwater we all grew up with, with the smaller, metal bib across the front, what was the name of that one? It was the size of your thumb, it kinda walked/chugged/skittered across the water. Think it might've been a Heddon lure...

Agreed--the issue with quads isn't hookups, it's releases. Those things are a pain to remove if the fish has all four hook points closing his lips (two in the top lip and two in the bottom), or God forbid he's swallowed the bait from the back and has the whole rear quad in his tongue and roof of his mouth. I never thought of that until it happened and I spent more than a couple minutes tryna pry them out. Just something to think about whether it's worth the change.

Man, whoever told you swimbaits don't work during the summer is either trolling you or just has no idea what he's talking about. All summer, every swimbait you have will get bit; glides, swimmers, topwater, softies, everything. The key is figuring out what's the best part of the water column to attack for your fish (top, mid or bottom) and what times of day. But please don't stop throwing em now--swimbait season is in full swing and will be until your water ices over, if it does.

There's one happening in a couple hours. If you sub to his email list you'll get these updates.

Broooo...would you leave your newborn firstborn son laying around in a hot LA garage for a couple summer months?? Shame on you bro, just...shame.

Man I can't get bit on em to save my life--I tend to run em low and slow, regardless of season. Do you find a medium-to-fast retrieve higher in the water column to be productive?

This past week I started fishing a knockoff of the Raid Japan Deka Dodge Crawler. I've seen crawler baits for a while, finally pulled the trigger over the winter after I saw a Raid Japan vid of some guy fishing em. I test swam it one day after ice-out and it's a cool bait, kinda finicky and takes some tuning to get just right. I took it out to a forest preserve lake on a couple of those drizzly nights (ninja sessions cuz this place technically closes at sundown) and got a couple bites. I noticed, on these nights anyway, the crawler seems to get bigger bites; when I fish the Spook or the Boogie Back at this place it gets bit by all sizes, but the only two bites I got on the crawler were both tanks (for my waters): a 19", 4.04lb and a 18.5", 3.79lb. I'm looking forward to getting out with this one a lot more this season.

Freaking tank man, nice work. You shorebound or in a boat?

Yeah yeah yal talkin loud...but who's got RECEIPTS

That looks like a perfect size for most standard big baits, nice find!

Hit up one of the clear water forest preserve lakes around me--fish were on beds and cruising around chasing gills. I got a couple (an 18" and a 17.5) on a softbait, my first softbait fish in two seasons I think. I wanna say this lure is a 7" Shellback Customs but I'm not sure; I got it in a trade last season but I don't remember what it was. I've got a 6" Shellback and this lure's design is about the same. Anybody know otherwise or recognize this bait? Also, after I got these fish I tried to google Shellback Customs but I can't find a thing--is he still pouring them?

Swamp Trout plastics is like WCZ if you cam find em. Edit: just realized you said NOT weedless.

Eight months later...I just googled this bait, cannot find it anywhere. Anyone know a link to the product? I'm not on Insta or any social media by the way--I'm tryna direct someone else to a site where they can buy.

I, for one, disagree that softbaits are all around better producers. Not even close for me, hardbaits produce in way more situations. As to why there aren't as many; how many different ways can you make a boot tail? How many different styles of wedge tail can there be? There's basically a few tail styles and that's it, so it makes sense to me that we don't see a ton of different makers.

Low pressure=better fishing?

For rats in the 2-5oz range I like the Dobyns Fury 806, hard to beat the price too ($129.99). Also a good all-around treble rod.

With this warmup in northern IL the last couple days I decided to go out overnight last night and see if the rat bite had started yet (checked my records from last year and my first rat fish was May 26th). There's a Public Works lake about a 20-minute walk (lot is closed of course so you gotta walk in and ninja it) that gets really weed-choked by mid-June so early season is the best time to hit it before it gets pretty much unfishable for everything but frogs. Winds were a constant 20mph with gusts up to 32, dang near whitecaps on the water. I did get a double-tap on the rat but not the usual kill shot, no doubt about it-type blowup so I think we might still be a week or two away from them committing yet. As usual, though, the TK came through with this 3.59lb chunk at 12:30a. This bait just gets bit everywhere.

Actually it's lip in, tail up (Mode A?) Cranking it down then dead-walking and pausing it, cranking a little more, switching up the cadence. Yeah lip-out tail-down was how I was fishing it late summer and early fall last year when the water was still warm, they were smoking it. Can't wait to run that mode again here once the fish get higher in the column.

Man it's such a fun bait, I cannot throw anything else right now.

A couple smaller TK fish from the past week, same spot but completely different conditions. The first fish was Saturday, when it was 72 degrees here. Second one is this morning, 40 degrees and windy after getting below freezing last night. Can't wait for this weather to stabilize.