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Unorthodox Methods

8K views 47 replies 28 participants last post by  jfrancho 
#1 · (Edited)
What's the most unorthodox method of fishing a particular bait
that you've been successful with this year ?

I'll give you an example......

Early spring, fishing an Outcast Tx with Bassrat. Hoping for a good jerkbait bite.
But they wouldn't eat it on the jerk and pause.....
Feeling that we were on fish, I started to slowly swim the bait instead....I mean
pain stakingly slow.....absolutely killing the action.

That did it......They would crush it.....but only if you retrieved it that way.....Weird.

We both limited out.

Then there is this thing that I do with a jig.........

Oh, forget that.......I'll save that for another time..... :laugh: :peace:
 
#4 ·
burning a crankbait in January and Feberuary. I tried this last winter out of boredom. I tried soft plastics, very slow. nothing happening. I got bored and threw on a shallow crank and reeled it very slowly. Nothing interested. Out of boredom, I started cranking it and nailed 2 bass in a row. all winter i did that and it worked pretty good. I even caught bass when the air temperature was around 25 degrees. Not a lot of fish, but a few over the course of the winter.
 
#5 · (Edited)
larger plastic swimbaits dragged slowly along deep structure or outside weed edges.Instead of using a traditional weighted swimbait hook and corkscrew,I cut a little bit of the swimbait head off and threaded the bait onto a 3/4 oz swim jighead with a comprable hook.I was able to successfully swim it in 10-20FOW with solid results.Exposed hook.
 
#6 ·
Mojo-rigging or C-rigging a Zoom 'Super Fluke'.
 
#9 ·
long, wide, and low to the water pier on the potomac.
boat is parallel to the pier pilings and the current pushing my boat up against them.
water is about 7 feet deep.
heavy jig on the bottom gets nothing.
letting t-rigs float under the with the current dock is getting nothing.
bunch of other junk gets nothing.

pulled out the drop shot rod and rigged it up with about a 6 foot leader. stuck 3 or 4 1/4oz drop shot sinkers on the end of the line.
dropped the line in at the edge of the pier and let the current take my bait underneath it.

so, basically, i have a bait way up under the pier, but still midway up in the water column, just suspending there and the current is wiggling the worm.

had to leave the bait stay in the same spot for about five minutes, but i caught two good fish that way.
 
#14 ·
Over the years the only thing I really think I do that is a break from convention is I will fish tube jigs in the middle of the water column.

1/4 to 1/2 oz heads depending on depth and speed of fall.

Cast out, let sink x to xx seconds depending on depth and fish it back with 2 to 4 hard jerks just like a jerk bait and then the kill it for 2 - 3 seconds.

I really like this presentation on those days when I see, arches suspended high in the water column and visually see smallies following the bait back as I was quickly reeling in to make another cast.

Soon as I see those indicators - I will go to this presentation and more often than not start getting results.

The other thing you can do is just cast the tube jig out and reel it back, slow and steady. Has zero action, but somedays that is the deal...
 
#15 ·
Almost everyone I meet that fishes a Super Fluke, fishes them weightless.
Not world shattering in originality, but it works well for me.


Plus, how many guys here even fish a C-rig or mojo-rig, honestly? :laugh: :laugh:
Seems to me that many guys here on NYBass shun or HATE fishing them.
Those rigs work well for me, too.
 
G
#17 ·
I was out chasing smallies in ealry spring. They would crush hard jerkbait in the shallows, but once they move deep 15FOW+. They won't take any soft plastic, So drop shot 10# X-Rap and came up with some good fish.
 
#24 ·
Not too unorthodox, but this is something I do in a current situation, once in a while. I'll toss a senko or hard jerkbait out, at the "end" of the cast or wherever I want to, I'll just stop completely and hold the rod, the jerkbait will just stay in place with a subtle wobble depending on strength of current. Wait... that's when the smallie will hit it. The one draw back is you will miss a fish now and then because of the lack of give.
 
#25 ·
This one is kinda silly but it did lock in $800 in a tournament in 2009. There was about 15 min left until weigh in with 13 pounds in the tank and we had not had a taker in two hours. Descent bag, but I knew it would not be enough to win that day. My co-angler decides in frustration to put together a frankenstein presentation. While flipping pylons in about 16 fow next to weigh in, I look to the back of the boat and see what I could only describe as frightening....He had tied on the biggest white coffee tube he could find on a 3/0 hook, pushed the hook all the way through, then proceeded to place a large berk blue chigger craw and a 10" fat zoom worm on the hook. Pitched it next to one of the pylons and boom....4.89 pounder. Come to think of it, that presentation did have all of the colors that were working that day....brilliant!
 
#32 ·
I read this somewhere. Kinda ridiculous but makes sense.


Lets say you know there's fish under the dock or you miss it the first time. The next time you fish it, tie the boat to the dock. Let everything settle down. Remain quiet for a few minutes. After what feels like an eternity, drop a wacky senko in the space between the dock and the boat. Then hold on!


LOL.



Joe
 
#35 ·
Senko, wacky on a Spot Remover.
The Japanese have been doing this wacky senko on a jighead thing for a while. I think Dennis and a couple of other guys have posted about it too.

Heavy tube retrieved like a jerkbait..
If it's white in the day, or black at night on a bare hook, no reason not to. I haven't done this yet, but there's no reason you can't fish a tube like a fluke.

C-rigged tubes for brown trout.
Now you've got my attention. I really want to screw Pete's mind up with this.

Dead stick a Sammy.
At night, in a bad neighborhood.

Fish a spinnerbait like a jig.
Hrmm. Maybe.

Dropper fly on a floating Rapala.
Twinkler fly in front of the Rapala, Grasshopper

Treble on the back blade of a spinnerbait.
Not the optimal weed presentation. Yeah they hit the blades - trim the skirt.
 
#37 ·
Flick shaking is the shit, but the Senko on a Spot Remover is totally different. Just cast it out. Let it settle. Pop it gently, and wait. The thing just sits there, quivering an inch off the bottom. Use a heavy one, though, with a 4" Senko. The Evolution Shake2 jigs work too.
 
#38 ·
D - what got me thinking was not daytime stuff, I toss fluke-rigged white senkos for smallies - no mystery there. But what about big, fat black tubes at night on weeds or any area you really can't work a chugger or a swimbait?

That's interesting. I'll have to try that this summer.
 
#40 ·
Biggest rainbow I ever caught (7+) came on off a dock at Candlewood, fishing a white tupe, unweighted, like a soft jerkbait.

Years (decades, now that I think of it) ago, I was fishing the National Federation Championship at Kentucky Lake. Water level was down 30+ feet, and there was precious little cover in the water. so naturally, every little stickup and peice of brush that actually touched the water and was visible along the bank was having trouble going more than about 10 minutes without getting fished. I was no different, and was running around casting at tiny pieces of cover that had been fished too many times already. I thought that a finesse approach would help me get a bite or two from fish that might've resisted standard presentations, so I went to a T-rigged, 4" Mr. Twister Phenom, with a 1/8 oz slip sinker, on 6# line. After hitting 5 or 6 spots with it, without so much as a nudge, In the middle of working it through the branches of a bush, I lost confidence in it, and decided to try something else. I just started reeling the worm in quickly. As soon as it broke the surface, about half-way back to the boat, it got hammered by a bass. Next bush, after three or 4 casts, pulled it out of the cover quickly, and cranked. BAM, happened again. And then again. So I retraced my steps, going back over the 8 or 9 similar spots I'd already fished, and caught a dozen bass, doing the same thing. I had to bounce the worm around in the cover first, then just start cranking like mad. Almost all the hits came within a few feet of the lure breaking the surface. Nothing huge, but I culled out an 11 pound and change limit. Of course the pattern never drew another bite the next two days, and the only other fish I weighed in was a 2-1/2# spotted bass I caught on a Big-O.
 
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