All right, let's talk about the art of selecting soft plastic baits, starting with flipping and pitching. You know, pitching is arguably one of my favorite things to do. I absolutely love doing it. Flipping ranks right up there with it. The reason being is you can get right in there where the bass are lurking, right? It can be a thick cover, heavy weeds, and you can still throw it in and around docks, open water, stumpy areas, throw it in blowdowns, whatever, and without the risk of getting hung up. So, a Texas rig soft plastic bait is great, but which one to choose? I usually go with just two basic lures with a third kind of as a backup.
One is the Rage Craw. The Rage Craw is a crawdad imitation. It's got a lot of vibration. The tails just kick a lot when it falls and gives that action that the bass really like, but also slows down that fall as well. So that I like to throw a lot, especially around the springtime, early spring, when the bass are really feeding up on crawdads. It's a really good lure to use. The rest of the year, I like to throw the Rage Bug.
Now, the Rage Bug, there's a lot of ways to rig it, but this is the way I like to rig it. This is just Texas rig with a quarter ounce or a 3/8 ounce or 5/16 ounce weight, something like that. And, again, throwing it in and around weeds, bushes, any kind of cover where it might get hung up is a great place to throw it. But the reason why I choose that is because it's got that bluegill kind of profile to it. And that is what bass, that is a primary forage species for bass, is bluegill. So that bait works especially well in the warmer months when the bass are just gorging on forage. And that works really well during that time of year.
Now the third one that I...kind of as a backup, but your good old-fashioned ribbon-tailed worm. I like to throw that as well, especially in the warmer months. That's got a nice slender profile. I like to throw it around more open cover. The reason being is that the tail likes to wrap up around, get hung up around tiny branches of bushes or trees. It sometimes can get tangled up in thick weeds. But when you're fishing along the outside of weed edges or along docks, in a rocky cover, things like that, the worm excels. It does really, really well for that. Or when you're pinpointing isolated cover, like a stump or a boulder, that's when the worm works really well. So that's kind of what I choose in those situations.
Let's move on to finesse baits. Now finesse, if you guys don't know, I'm from the West Coast and I've been throwing finesse baits since the early '80s when they first started to come out. That was where it started, in the U.S. at least, and really it wasn't popular in the U.S. until the late '80s. I've been throwing them before most of the country even knew about it. And for that reason I have a lot of experience in it, and I really do enjoy throwing finesse baits.
Which ones to choose and when? Well, let's first talk about finesse. Just briefly, a lot of folks think finesse means drop shot and drop shot only. And yeah, that is a finesse technique, but that is certainly not the only way to fish plastic baits. And we're talking about choosing plastic baits. So for drop shot, for split shot, there's a couple of baits that I use for that.
The 4-inch finesse worm works really well. I used to throw hand pours an awful lot. Now I throw, like, Roboworms work really well for that. They are like a hand pour, but they're not.
The Aaron Martin's Magic color works exceptionally well, especially in clear water. I'm not exactly sure why. I just know it stands out a lot. It's kind of a real light, light color, and maybe that's the reason why. But that worm works really well on a drop shot as well as a split shot rig.
Now moving on, there's a lot of other baits you can throw. I mean, on both those rigs. You can throw two baits, you can throw three-inch Senkos, you can put, you know, shad style baits. I mean, the choices are endless. But let's get it beyond the split shot and the drop shot for a second, and let's throw things on a jig head. Now I like to throw.. Well, I guess I'll throw the secret out. I like to throw hula grubs. Yamamoto hula grubs on an 1/8 ounce Gamakatsu football head jig. That is my favorite. And the colors to pick are really easy during this time of year. Actually, any time of the year. Smoke or clear with salt and pepper.
Matter of fact, I'm replenishing my boat right now. I've got a couple right here. Here's the clear with salt and pepper, and here's the smoke color. And these two colors are killer. I do exceptionally well throughout the year. One other color I'll throw out is the number 176 color. It resembles...you know, there's a lot of sculpin in my area, and sculpin are kind of this brown mottled color. Hard to say. Say that fast. Brown mottled color. I still can't say it. Anyway, throwing that color works really well in my neck of the woods or anywhere where you have sculpin as a forage base. That is an exceptionally good color. But those are like the three colors I pick in a hula grab. And because it's on a football head jig, I crawl that on the bottom. Although a lot of times, especially on the warmer months, it'll get slammed before it even hits the bottom. Just on the fall, it's an exceptionally good bait.
Tubes also. Holy crap. Tubes are great to throw. I love throwing a three and a half inch tube. The color is, I call it old ugly because that's the original color that I found years and years ago. And also I call it old ugly's cousin. It's basically old ugly with a pepper flake in it. And those, I mean, I love tubes so much. I mean, look at this. I buy them by the 100 pack, guys. I buy them by the 100 pack. So this here, this company, I don't think makes them anymore, but a lot of companies do make this color and size. As a matter of fact, I'll link down here in the bottom of the video so you guys can find those. I'll find them for you. I'll just link to them, make it easy for you to find. But anyway, that old ugly color, I've thrown it all over the country various times of the year, and it's always produced and produced very well for me. So I don't think you really need any other color. If you really can't find that color, go with green pumpkin. Green pumpkin's always a great standby and use that.
Another great finesse bait to throw is the three-inch grub and the five-inch grub. Again, going all the way back to the very beginning of when finesse fishing started, putting a three-inch grub on the back of a split shot rig was standard protocol. It worked exceptionally well, and it still does today. It still fools fish, and it's very good, especially when the bite is slow, that works really well. It just mimics a little small bait fish slowly crawling on the bottom. You lift and drop. You can use various colors that come in all plethora of colors. But again, going back to that smoke color, the smoke pepper color, green pumpkin, clear with salt pepper, those are the standbys that I still throw today.
Quick pro tip here is size up to a five-inch grub when the bass are biting crankbaits and you're on a good crankbait bite and then it kind of dies off. Maybe the sun gets really high and bluebird skies or the wind dies off, whatever it may be, but the bite kind of drops off and you're not getting very many in a crankbait, tie on a five-inch grub that's roughly the same color of the crankbait you've been throwing, and you'll be surprised how quickly the bite picks up again. Yeah, quick pro tip.
All right, let's talk real quick about offshore baits. We're talking fishing humps and ridges, ledges, long tapering points, drop-offs, things like that, creek channels, those type of things that you can find just offshore. With those, you want to fish it with either Carolina rig or a Texas rig. Now, typically what I pick is a lizard. I really like fishing a lizard behind a Carolina rig or behind a split-shot rig works really well. A worm, just your standard 7-inch ribbon-tail worm works exceptionally well. In the early spring, I tend to use that lizard more. And then as the water warms up and you get past spring into summer, they like the...a lot of times the bass like the larger size bait. And that's when I'll use like a rage tail lizard. Like it's a little bit larger size, or I'll use a rage hog, like a brush hog. That's a larger size brush hog than the Zoom version, and it's got a lot more action. That works really well in the summer months.
As the water cools down or if you've got maybe a good front that comes through and the bite's a little tougher, then I'll use a Zoom brush hog instead. It doesn't have as much action, a little bit slimmer profile, a little bit smaller size too. That tends to work when the bite is kind of off. But I'll use both Texas rig and Carolina rig, and just drag them over that structure and cover I just mentioned before. And depending on activity level of the bass, I might lift and hop or just slowly drag it on the bottom. The less action is when the bass aren't as active, and the more action when the bass are really chasing down and biting a lot of lures.
Let's talk briefly about swimming baits. That's a trend that's really getting more and more popular in bass fishing these days, and that's casting out your lure and then reeling it back in much like you would a spinnerbait, kind of just under the surface. Swimming worms come to mind on this. Now, swimming worms work really well for this. And boy howdy, they are productive. I've been enjoying throwing the 5.5-inch swimming worms, maybe the 7.5 swimming worms. I like the ones from Big Bite Baits, but a whole bunch of other companies make swimming worms. The key with them is twofold. One, you want to pick a color that resembles the bait fish. So typically a shad colored bait, one that's got a little sparkles or flake in it. Green pumpkin is always a good standby. I've caught plenty of fish on a green pumpkin swim worm.
The key about fishing them is to make sure you don't use a heavy weight. Use like an 1/8 ounce weight, nothing heavier than that because these lures are very light, small in stature, and it's easy to overpower them very quickly because there's not a whole lot of bulk to these baits. So use a small eighth ounce weight, and if you have to, use a little bit heavier weight or something, move up just in 1/16 ounce increments. Trust me, guys, it doesn't take much with these worms. But that's how you choose them. It's just a little bit smaller size bait throughout the summer works really well. Into spring, even in the fall, it works well. I find the larger ones work a little bit better in the wintertime, like the 7-inch, 7.5-inch ones work really well. You got to get it down deeper then, so that's when I'll move up to like a 3/16 ounce to get a little bit deeper in the wintertime.
All right, let's talk jig trailers for just a second. I know it can be really confusing because there's a lot of options out there. So I like to keep it simple. Just narrow down the choices very quickly. And one is if the fish are active, and the other one is if the fish aren't active. And basically, if they're active, you want some more action out of that trailer. So a Rage Craw works really well. I tend to use the standard size Rage Craw on all my jigs, the half-ounce and 3/8 ounce jigs. If I need a little bit smaller profile, I can go to the Baby Craws, match it just perfectly. I like to match my jig trailer color with the jig itself, so it gives a better profile to it. It's all kind of one natural piece. There's a lot of guys who like to have contrasting colors. So they'll have a black and blue jig with a blue trailer. They'll have a green colored jig with a chartreuse trailer or a white trailer, something real contrasty. And that works really well. But I like to use the same kind of colors.
If the bass are actively feeding, Rage Craw. If they're not feeding actively, for example, a big cold front has come through, or it's in the wintertime, then I use something with a lot less action like a V&M Cherry Bug or a V&M Mud Bug like this one right here. This is what I like to use. They don't have as much action to it. They fall naturally in the water and it kind of matches the activity level of the fish. And again, green pumpkin, green pumpkin, green pumpkin. I mean, it's pretty easy to choose the colors here. If I were using a black and blue jig, then I would use, you know, like a black trailer or a black with maybe some blue flecks in it, something like that. Nothing too crazy on the color chart, nothing too crazy on choosing a whole bunch of different trailers. That's really all I do is stick with it and it seems to be very successful for me, so keep it simple.
One quick note, guys. I'm not sponsored by these companies. These are what I actually do use day in and day out. No one's trying to get me to hawk product to you. So unlike other YouTubers out there, I don't have an agenda to try to sell you something. This is really what I do use. You can look at my boat and you'll find them.So anyway, that's quick and dirty quick ways of how to choose the right plastics for all the different situations. Hope that helps. For more tips and tricks like this, visit Bassresource.com.
