Today was slow day, but the combination of bass biting odd lures at a weird time of day and good quality pan fish, made it all worth it.

I got out on the water by midday and didn't know what to expect. Sunny sky, calm - breezy and water up from recent rains. The north end of the lake has changes in depth and weed clumps in different areas. When I go fishing, my priority is lure design - which designs do better and why? A camera photographs important catches an is proof a lure worked by catching more than a few fish.
Presentation and location is noted because certain areas/depths require certain presentations.

Just because I start out using pan fish grubs doesn't mean I don't expect to catch bass - I do! In this particular lake, panfish are huge for my area: 13" yellow perch, 15" crappie and 7.5" sunfish and on light tackle, they all fight and feel like large bass. Though the lake has few bass over 2 lbs., they're are still fun to catch regardless the lure.

Okay, so I started with a grub I poured and modified.


After catching a few bass and pan fish to confirm it's fish catching quality, I moved on to a lure I never expected to catch bass on: a snake-like worm, no weight, Texas rigged and cast into 4' or less water near weeds.


Five bass caught in less than 20 minutes at 1:15 pm in shallow water!
There was another lure but with a straight thin tail that was as successful when I came back to the area an hour later. I added the thin tail using a candle flame after cutting off the prong tail. Worked great as a T rigged jerk worm and bass clobbered it!


At 3:30 pm I lucked out catching six big schooled perch in 7' (all a foot long!):




Here was my next to last fish of the outing: a 14.5" crappie caught on a 4" Yamamoto KutTail Worm rigged on a 1/16 oz jig head - one lure that always works for various species.


This bass was the last fish caught on the same lure in 6':


37 fish boated is nothing to brag about (yesterday I logged 74 on a different water/ fish quality poor). But what made the day so special were the fish caught on a few lures I either haven't caught fish on or used for over 15 years. Plus, I caught fish on certain lure modifications thereby confirming their effectiveness for future outings - you can never take along too many good lures!

There are more pictures of other lures that worked, but you get the picture:

So peaceful - until fish hit!

That looks like a very fun day no matter the size or type!

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Nice fish. Great post.

Today was a numbers day - 95 fish boated per counter. No great quality on this water like the one I fished two days ago, but lure design questions were answered.

I own a mold that makes spike tails for grubs. I can the spikes on 1/64 oz jigheads under a bobber and probably catch fish, but adding them to grub bodies using a candle flame, makes them far more effective. But which soft plastic bodies? I attached tails to at least 10 different bodies and rigged them on 1/32 oz jigs.

The dying algae is a clue that the lake is beginning its fall turnover seeing as how night temperatures are in the 40's to 50's. Fishing doesn't slow down, but fish respond better to slow moving lures as well as downsizing. In Oct. it won't matter and 1/16 oz jigs and longer lures can again be used in my neck of the woods.

Here are a few photos of the lures used and the fish that bit them:


The above hybrid lure was a combination or a Bass Pro Spring grub body fused to a Joker ball-tail). The combination below consists of a grub body fused to a Crappie Magnet tail.


The below image demonstrates the fusion of a Joker body to a hand poured thin tail:

Bass were also caught on hybrid lures:


The bass on the right bit the lure even after a sunfish bit off part of the tail.

Here's a perch that bit a new hybrid lure:


In conclusion, there are probably hundreds of soft plastic lures that could be improved using a candle flame and parts from two lures fused together. I keep adding to the list of lures that always get bit once fish locations are revealed. Not the all fish bite them (as in the fish shown on the sonar directly beneath my boat), but continually casting and retrieving slowly at the right depth, made the trip worth it by revealing the variety of lures some fish must attack.

Nice job. Loved the illustrations. Thanks for sharing.

Great posts and pics!