Chatterbait Trailer Tips to Save $$$

Matt gives two quick tips that will help you improve your chatterbait fishing. Bladed swim jig trailer options are endless but these two stand out from the crowd! 

Using paddletail swimbaits as a trailer on a bladed swim jig is no secret. However, running your swimbait upside down or running it with a modified tail will set you aside from all the other anglers. 

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Matt explains how to use each of these methods to maximize the effectiveness of your chatterbait the next time you're on the water. Forget the traditional trailers and put one of these tricks to work for you!  

Baits Shown In this video...

-Chatterbait
-Revenge Bladed Jig
-Keitech 4.8" Fat Swimbait
-Rage Swimmer

Paddle Tails Swimbaits for Big Fall Bites!

Its that time of year again! Its time to pull out the paddletails and hollow bellies in search of big bass! The bite is just beginning and will continue to improve over the coming months. 

Whether you prefer a Basstrix or a Keitech, a swimbait head or an underspin, its prime time to pull out your confidence bait and begin loading the boat! 

In this video Matt and Tim show how to rig swimbaits and paddle tails a variety of different ways. They even show how to make your own underspin with a swimbait head or weedless swimbait hook! 

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If you're planning to creep the bait through heavy cover we recommend using the Beast Hook. If you're fishing around docks, wood, or other isolated cover the Matt Allen Swimbait Head is the way to go! If there are large schools of baitfish present you should either use the Spintrix Head or the Matt Allen head with the added belly blade.  

Hook options and baits shown in this video are as follows... 

-Matt Allen Swimbait Head
-Owner Beast Hook
-BladeRunner Spintrix Underspin
-Small Spinner Blades

-Keitech Fat Swing Impact

-Basstrix Hollow Belly Swimbait

We hope you find these tips useful this Fall as the bass begin corralling the baitfish and feeding heavily before Winter arrives. 

Breaking Down a New Lake: The Finale

Part 3 of "How to Breakdown a New Lake" picks up right where part 2 left off. The duo move into the Eastern arm of Lake Sonoma in search of shallow water largemouth. They begin by fishing in the marina where they flip a senko into boat slips and skip a keitech swimbait into shade pockets. 

Almost immediately Tim and Matt encounter a wolf pack of schooling largemouth bass along a shade line. If you look closely in the lower corner of the video you'll see a 6-8 lb bass swimming out of a brush pile toward the boat. They are able to lure a topwater explosion from the bass on a hollow body frog but they it doesn't fully commit. After plying other offerings like the senko, keitech swimbait, and even a wakebait they agree to return to the marina later after the fish have settled. 

After leaving the marina the pair briefly fish the bridge pilings. 
When summer bass fishing in a lake with bridge pilings, this is a key place to catch large numbers of fish. Largemouth, smallmouth, and especially spotted bass love to school around vertical structure.  Matt throws a senko on the pilings while Tim is casting an Alabama Rig, both to no avail. They quickly move on to another set of docks where Tim catches back to back bass fishing with a 2.8 Keitech coupled with a Revenge Dart Head. 

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After leaving the docks behind Matt and Tim fish cove after cove and point after point in search of schooling fish on deep ledges or shallow shade pockets. They spend much of the afternoon fishing standing timber in open water but aren't able to get consistent bites. Finally, as the redwoods began leaving large shade lines on the water Matt is able to catch a nice largemouth on a hollow body frog lure. After a few more stops Matt and Tim return to the marina and head for home. 

We hope you were able to take valuable information out of this video. Whether you are bass fishing in California, Texas, Alabama, or New England, we tried to fish different types of cover and with different techniques that could be applied to every location.

Breaking down a new lake and learning how to find bass is not an easy task. However, If you follow the steps we outlined in this fishing video, you should be able to locate bass much more quickly in the future. We hope this helps! 

Baits used in this video to locate and catch fish...

Yamamoto 5" Senko (Green Pumpkin)
Keitech Fat Swing Impact 2.8"
Revenge Darter Head
Yamamoto 5" Senko (Natural Shad)
Alabama Rig- Yum Ultralight
River2Sea Bully Wa in “Dirty White”

Equipment Used:

Tim's Keitech Combo:
Rod- Dobyns 742 Champion Extreme 7'4"
Reel- Daiwa Fuego Spinning Reel
Line-Power Pro Braided 15 lb
Leader- Sunline Leader Material 8 lb

Matt's Frog Combo:
Rod- Dobyns 736 Champion
Reel- Shimano Curado 70
Line- 65 lb Sufix 832
Leader- None Used

Part 2: How to Find and Catch Bass On a New Lake

Fishing new lakes can be very intimidating. The key is to quickly identify prey species and structure that should hold fish. Of course you also have to balance time of year, water temp, clarity, depth, weather, boat pressure, fishing pressure, etc... No big deal, right? 

With preparation, its really not a big deal. In this week's video Matt continues breaking down a brand new lake and takes you along for the ride.  From catching fish on multiple spots to eliminating water quickly, you'll see the steps and the mindsight behind developing patterns and dialing in the best spots on a new body of water. 

As you'll see in the video the key is to keep your methods simple while still keeping an open mind. Start with reaction and cover water. Stick to your game plan until the lake leads you in a different direction. If you find active fish, repeat the pattern around the lake for the remainder of the day. remember you aren't try to catch every bass in the lake, you can begin fine tuning patterns and locations on subsequent trips. 

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On this Lake Matt found his best success with a 3 pronged approach to active fish. When the fish were most active he was able to get bit on a River2Sea Rover topwater. Once the fish began moving out he was able to catch them on a crankbait. He used both a Norman Deep Lil N and a Strike King 5XD. Lastly, he downsized to a small Keitech Fat Swing Impact to catch the remaining aggressive fish as the day warmed up. This bait selection let him continue to catch reaction fish long after the reaction bite had slowed. 

We hope you're able to take these tips and tricks to a lake near you and quickly develop patterns to catch fish as you break down the lake. Don't let new lakes intimidate you! Make a plan, put it to action, and follow through until you begin catching bass. 

Keep an eye out for Part 3 later this week!