When most bass anglers think of lures for fall bass fishing their attention usually targets spinnerbaits, buzzbaits, jerkbaits and shallow-running crankbaits.
What's one bait that is often overlooked? A swim jig especially when fishing around shallow wood in the backs of creeks or on points!
Cobining it's extremely snagless design, the range of weights available and the ability to use a variety of different trailers, a swim jig, the swim jig can be the perfect choice for a presentation to work through woody cover that many fall bass never see!
Take a moment and watch the following short video discussing the use of swim jigs for fall bassin'
Though the video discusses one company's swim jig, the same principle can be applied to your favorite swim jig brand as well!
Check out Omnia Fishing's great selection of swim jig gear by clicking on the following link!
When it comes to chatterbaits, I have always been a little late joining the party (like it was almost a decade after it hit the market before I fished one!). So I guess it's no surprise it took me almost a year to finally buy a couple of ZMan Big Blade Chatterbaits this past summer.
Since I often use a 3/8 oz for much of my chatterbait fishing, I purchased the smallest size available, the 1/2 oz in green pumpkin candy and black n blue candy; two staple color patterns for all my blade baits as well as jigs. Shortly after receiving the order, I rigged one up to try at one of my favorite bank fishing ponds.
After a few casts with my new Zman Big Blade Chatterbait I noticed a couple of key features almost instantly: 1) the vibration is much more intense then other chatterbaits I use and 2) though the bait weighs 1/2 oz it rides high in the water column even on a medium speed retrieve. I quickly thought of several conditions where this bait should shine particularly through the spring and early summer.
As I was scanning YouTube today, I came across a cool video from the folks at W2F regarding an application for the big blade I hadn't considered; fishing it around receding vegetation patches in the early to mid fall.
A little innovation with one of the oldest bait rigging methods can he highly effective for catching bass under a variety of conditions. Most of us likely started fishing with bait like nightcrawlers by simply tying on a hook, adding a split shot weight a short way up the line then rigging the worm when fishing for anything that bit!
By simply changing the hook style, the split shot rig can be adapted to a wide variety of soft plastic baits sush as the "trick" style worm in the following rigging video from the folks at Big Bite Baits:
I first started fishing soft plastics (a Creme 6" Scoundrel in "Live" color) using a straight shank, light wire worm hook in the spring for bass moving into the shallows as they prepped to spawn.
In later years I've used a similar approach with lizard and hellgrammite baits or changed out the hook for a Gamakatsu split shot hook and nose hooking 4" and 5" grubs with great success!
Your own split shot rig adaptations are just aquick experiment away...
If interested, links to Big Bite Baits, the Creme Scoundrel, Gamakatsu Split Shot hook and grubs are provided in the description above!
