Bass Fishing with Lures

[SteveH]

Hey guys, I'm looking for some lure tips to catch bass. I normally go fishing with live bait (herring or shiners) and we have some luck with that (caught my 2 biggest bass ever this year!) but for the life of me I cannot catch a bass on a lure. I've tried crankbaits, both shallow and deep, bought a few spinners and tried those, I've tried texas style rigged plastic worms and even some buckaroo jigs and topwater plugs.

So far: 0 bites.

And this is over the course of a couple years!

I fish lakes in new jersey, specifically Round Valley reservoir and Merril Creek reservoir. Right now the water temp is 82 degrees at the top (smoking hot for jersey).

So what am I doing wrong? What locations should I be using what lures at? How exactly does one correctly fish a texas style plastic worm? (I've got the setup down right, I'm talking more presentation).

How about a spinner? or a topwater plug? What the heck am I doing wrong?!

1 very frustrated fisherman.
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[gdn443]

When in doudt throw a weightless senco. Watermelon with red flake on sunny days, black with blue flake on cloudy days. Summer brings them deep, but you can fish docks,weedlines and drag it on top of lilly pads. Work it slow. Most of us haven't used bait in a long time, and just use plastics. It's all about learning their location.
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[bigpikeguy]

Yeah gdn hit the nail on the head when he said its all about location. You need to find the fish before you can catch them. I like to wacky rig Berkly Heavy Weight worms this time of year over deep weed beds. That seems to produce the most bass for me this time of year. Im from PA so we are kinda in the same area. The key is fishing really slow. Just cast out let the bait sink till it hits bottom. Then just twitch the tip of your rod and make the bait pulsate in the water. After you do that for a bit drag the bait about a foot or so and repeat. You should see some results from that if you are fishing in the right location. Point is if u think you are working your bait to slow, go even slower lol.
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[SteveH]

I need to pick up some senko's and some hooks but ill give that a shot, anyone have any thoughts on other types of lures? I'm really looking to expand the arsenal at my disposal. Livebait works pretty well but its tough to fish in certain locations and it can be a pain when something goes wrong and it starts dying. Half dead bait never really catches much.
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[albinotrout]

I've caught bass on spoons before.
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[Mrs.Pike]

They are right... depends on location, natural food source, hatches, water clarity all those things and more!

I love fishing bass with skidder poppers... on of my favs... #2 mepps have produced for me as well!

Give some more info about your water.. I can help!
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[SteveH]

First I'd like to thank everyone for the assistance, I caught my first 2 bass on some weightless senko's today, wicked wacky worm style! It was very encouraging to be successful with the senko's my first time using them.

Information on my water? Well I fish in central jersey typically in reservoirs, Round Valley is very clear water and a pretty deep lake, 200 feet in the deepest areas. The natural food source is herring and freshwater shrimp (those are more for the trout I understand).

The other reservoir I fish is Merril Creek and its a murkier lake, with plenty of herring for food as well.

Round Valley has a lot less vegetation than Merril Creek, its much more open and offers less cover in general, where as Merril has loads of flooded timber going into water 30 or 40 feet deep, and it also has an overabundance of weed beds.
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[bigpikeguy]

I told ya the wacky rig would work . Im really happy everything worked out for ya. All it takes is a point in the right direction and a little patience. Anyway keep in mind and study the area and the time of day you caught the fish. Find more areas like this and go to them different times during the day and see when they produce. Before you know it you will have a pattern going and when all is good you will be catching bass all day long!
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[SteveH]

Question about texas style rigging. Every time I do it I wonder, how the heck does the hook get into the fishes mouth? Seems like a lot of plastic you have to drive the hook through to get to the fish. Is there some secret to using the Texas style rig that I don't know?
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[fsh4fun05]

I use extra wide gap hooks when using thicker plastics and do it like this.

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[SteveH]

Does that take a strong hookset or just a regular hookset?

Also, went down to the Deleware river canal a couple days in a row, caught a total of 8 bass on wacky rigged senkos, 7 smallies (which absolutely slam into the senko) and one largemouth. They were mostly pretty small, the biggest one being 12 inches, but still pretty exciting to actually have some success with plastic worms.

I have 4 different colors of the senkos, and the 5" pearl with silver flake was the most successful by far. I also caught a few fish on the 5" red shad patterned, but the two 4" ones didn't produce much action, the watermelon with pink flake and blue with bright blue flake. I'm not sure if thats because they were smaller at 4 inches and had a different action or whether it was actually the color scheme that did it. The silver ones outfished the others by a wide margin though, I must have missed a dozen fish that but on the silvers.

As a side note, carp aren't very interested in senkos. Watched a couple monster carp float by without even looking at them .
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[fsh4fun05]

Well, when I know a bass has my senko I make sure I set the hook good...real good! I lost a nice smallie today which cost me first place because I didn't know he had my tube. I got him to the boat and poof! gone. Swings are free, I should have set the hook better.
The size of the carp I saw today would have put up a good fight. Better than any of the dink smallies I caught [frown].
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