For me, the year was a lot about teaching an old dog new tricks, when it comes to plastics. Tubes had been my main plastic for years. But, I'd seen a growing number of people who swear the stinger tail type plastics are better, and I had seen days where they outproduced my tubes. That seemed to become more frequent after my move to Cedar Creek Lake. So I set out to learn more about the stinger tail baits. And tinkerer that I am, I was already thinking about making my own.

I can now say that I know a lot more about these baits, am more comfortable fishing them, and am making some that really seem to work well. But, looking back, I'm surprised at how much bad information I found about these baits, especially in the lure making forums. Pretty much all of the "experts" there seem to have it wrong, especially in two areas:

1. Hardness. While a bait with a curly tail might need to be really soft to have a good swimming action in the water, there is no such need for a stinger tail bait. A really hard stinger tail bait still has great tail action. I bought and tried more plastics during 2014 than I had in many years. And lots of the plastics I tried were way too soft, much like the Bass Assassin Shad Assassins I'd used in years past. Crappie really like them, but they just get torn up so quickly. I think there is just no need for a stinger tail bait to be soft.

When I started injecting my own baits, I had one of Lane's Thump Chubbie's nearby as a sample of the hardness I wanted. Knowing I wanted a hard bait, I started out the the hard (salt water) formula of plastisol, and added a small amount of hardener, just as the bottle instructed. When I finally got the bait as hard as I wanted it , I was using mostly hardener, and just adding a small amount of plastisol. Who knew?

2. Oil. Ever since some curly tail worm or grub fisherman so many years ago discovered that a bait covered with oil would slide through cover much better than one without it, we've been soaking our plastics in one kind of worm oil or another. Well, plastics soak up oil, and I have proven to myself that, without doubt, an oil soaked plastic bait slides down a hook easier. If you really want your stiff plastic bait to stay on the hook while you catch (and miss) a bunch of crappie, don't let it anywhere near oil beforehand.

So there you have it, my lessons for the year. If you don't agree with my thinking, that's fine. It just leaves more crappie in the lake for me.

So what did you learn in 2014?

crappie nibbles work...

I learned, that there are many different ways to fish, and that boat fishing is a whole different game!

To trust my own instincts and experiences more and some of the information given on this forum is not true (I should have known that).

There are a ton of different baits out there, which all do pretty much the same thing. With that said, the important thing is not the bait, it's finding actively feeding fish...

i like several kind of plastics and some have subtle movement qualities that i think enhance my ability to entice strikes . that's said if they are in the "feed" mode hard they are pretty ignorant fish it seems to me and will strike darn near anything you drop that's small
the one thing i think i have come to realize that's probably the best thing i learned in 2014 is that crappie are available from the bank year round .

Biggest thing I learned was that there are times they will hit a feather jig and won't touch a plastic and vice versa. I also learned that some people don't value friendship the way I do. I'm a very loyal friend (and fishing buddy), but the return isnt always the same. Oh well, there loss, not mine!

Who'd a thot a crappie would plumb swallow a jig that looks like "DIRT"!

I learned that crappie, like they have always done, will flat out attack anything that's presented properly, whether it's brand name, or off the Wally World clearance rack. Not rocket science. Stab a plastic jig on an unpainted jig head, get it in the water in a likely looking crappie spot, and if it's presented properly, you are gonna catch a few.

Bait presentation!

Come on , you have known that for years


I learned I need more Brushpiles in 20 plus feet. .
Mo

I learned the word "KABOOM"

Me too...and I like it!