I have just begun fishing for larger bass this past year. I had caught big fish before (8 lbs) but wanted to see what could be caught on the larger "BUBBA" baits. I am used to jerkbait type fishing so I ordered some from a friend on another forum. I have put them to use in the regular jerkbait fashion but have only gotten follows no strikes. I had a cormorant take one, but missed him too! Another friend had recycled a old musky lure in rainbow trout pattern and sent that to me also, so far I have caught 2 on it one of them 4 lbs. but that is it. Any suggestions would be appreciated. these are the baits I have.

........mac

Take a kid fishing

Attachment #1, (.jpg file)

here is the other set of lures

Take a kid fishing

Attachment #1, (.jpg file)

The Suick (sp?) in the first pic might or might not produce well for Largemouth. The 2 Suicks I've seen in action seemed to have a very wide rolling wobble. I'd throw it and retrieve at a steady slow pace most often, occassionally throwing in a more jerky retrieve. As for the other 2, I haven't seen them before but I might try the same retrieves with them too.
Tight lines,
Wade

The second two baits are jerkbaits. They have virtually no action on the retrieve. When jerked, however, they roll and flash like crazy. The first bait is a musky lure and does have a wide rolling wobble on a slow retrieve, that is how the 2 bass were caught. The first two have rattles in them and my follows have come on the rapid jerk-jerk type retrieve, I've had nothing on the jerk pause or pull pause retrieves, I was hoping for a direction to follow on using these. I have only seen the broken back type or soft plastic type baits used so far. Are there any hard bait(wood)lures used for big fish?

........mac

Take a kid fishing

Most of the 1 peice big hardbaits that I've seen are more deadstick baits and either have to look very realistic or are used in low light conditions with the occasional attention getting jerk and then up to 10 minutes of deadsticking. If you are going to work them like a classic Jerkbait, I'd suggest going to a bass looking paint job. Stocked trout rarely dart around unless they are already dying as in the deadstick scenario. They are far more likely to swim straight, slow and steady. The 4-Eyes swimbait and a few others do a very good job of imitating a steady swimming stocker.
Tight lines,
Wade

That is something I didn't know. I chose the trout pattern after seeing the bass slaughter the stocked trout when they were being stocked at Spring Lake. One left a washbasin sized swirl as she got lunch one day, the other flashed when she got her lunch, and she was easily over 20 inches long and fat. Gave the kids fishing on the dock something to talk about for a while. Those trout kept swimmming in the big circle. Thanks for the info.....

.......mac

Take a kid fishing

The trout you watched swam around in a big circle, oblong or other pattern while going slow and steady until they saw something that they thought they could eat or they figured out that those big green things (Bass) would eat them if given a chance. Right? The bass on the other hand just kind of slowly moved into the area, found a good ambush point and launched darting attacks on the un-wary stocked trout. Right? Smaller bass feed in the same way on shad and other schooling minnows. The shad and other minnow usually know that the bass are their predators and will try to get away, unlike a truck fresh stocker. When there aren't any trout around, big Bass feed on smaller Bass, especially while the smaller Bass are busy feeding.
Tight lines,
Wade

looks like i'm gonna have to start copying down some answers here! Thanks again.

mac

Take a kid fishing

Understand that this is the very short simplified version. Every time out, you may not realize it, but you'll pick up another peice of the puzzle, however small it might be. They also feed on Craws, etc. etc.....basically anything they get an opportunity to get into there mouths. The more successes they have with that particular feeding the more likely they are to repeat it, but it also means that they refine what looks right and what doesn't for that type of feeding.
Tight lines,
Wade