Was shown this technique with a Big O in a farm pond back in the 70's. The old bird would cast, take a drag on his cig, pop it, another drag. Explosive. Most folks don't have the discipline. You'll have to be in the mood for this pace for sure. Classic tip. Be well.
“Let all the ripples” go out is reminding me of my Dad instructing me 30 years ago about how to fish a top water. Great stuff Randy giving away all the ol timer secrets lol
its funny that the techniques mentioned are spring time success for you and late summer fall for me. The floating flourescent orange and black rapala caught me a fish so big it broke off the treble hook! Close to 10 pound largemouth. Your channel is great! Rocknrollfishinpole!
Ha! I have a TON of those with rusty hooks in the bottom of a “miscellaneous” tackle box. Time to resurrect them instead of buying another $25 MB Vision 110! What size/brand replacement hook would you recommend? Thanks for dropping yet more wisdom.
Here in Minneapolis, in the shadow of Normark/Rapala Corp., there's a two week window when you can throw a size #9/#11 floating Rapala in dead calm, shallow bays. Bass will come from thirty feet to smoke 'em. Oddly, and as you say, I never use them the rest of the season.
I caught 3 smallies yesterday 2 on a tiny rebel craw crankbait and one on a Berkley Flicker Shad. They didn't want to hit any of the other baits my son and I tossed.
Hey Randy your right as far as spring I been fishing the rapala since I was a young kid I like the #7 gold I catch fish all year after post spawn I fish areas such as stump fields average dept 4 ft especially in the morning I don’t know how many bass over 5 quite a few I’m located in SJ so we have low land lakes that most were created to run grist mills so the average dept is around 3 to 4 ft that bait will never get old it just gets side lined for new baits the other thing is that the shape is what the bass prefer slim and long also I think it displaces just the right amount of water when twitched to mimic a dying bait fish .and thanks i really enjoy your show you keep it real been chasing them for over 50 years
I might be wrong about the size I use one that’s about 4 inches long with 3 treble hooks the other thing is it is quiet no rattles I also add a split ring or tie it with a loop so it can quiver
I have caught hundreds of smallmouths on these in spring and fall, worthless in summer. But then I switched to a senko and outfish these 10 to 1. But I keep one tied on in spring because they also catch walleyes at night and Musky’s too.
@@VaLULrant you are probably over fishing it. Cast it out, and let it sink all the way to the bottom. We call it the don’tdonothing bait. Let it sit there for up to 30 seconds, give it a twitch or two, watch your line. If your line starts moving, you have a fish. I have caught most of mine on a weightless Texas rig, not wacky style. Best all round color in Wisconsin is green pumpkin/pearl belly, for smallmouth, bright lime green, orange, white, hot pink, any bright color. The more ridiculous the color the better for SM!
@@Tom3013 I actually live on one of the Bassmaster series lakes and I generally catch fish on Crankbaits, Jigs so I think you're right I'm probably over fishing them. I watched another guy bag 2-4 pounders left and right about 30 yards from my spot yesterday while I got skunked and my only bites were on texas rigged zoom u tails. I happened to ask him on the way out what he was catching them on, green senko wacky rig. Figures haha. I really appreciate your help brother. I'll keep in mind what you said next time I go out.
I absolutely slay the small mouth up shallow in later spring with a rapala ripstop jerkbait. Tell people that and they think youre crazy casting a jerk bait up in the shallows lol but twitch twitch and it gets hammered on the pause
That's one of my oldest tricks! I learned it on a Bagley bang-O-Lure I have caught monsters on this technique for many years! I call it teasing up a bass. I like using a 2" model for smallmouth around rocks, a 4" and a 5" for Largemouth. I think the belly color makes a difference. I have had great success with an orange belly, a white belly, or a chrome belly. Lots of times sunfish will pop it and that seems to trigger the bass to hit it! I own a lot of old bang-0-lures for this technique and hunt them down to use.
I actually took my Mystic rouge and I know it’s more of a walleye bait I believe but Randy I put a little bit of chartreuse glitter on the sides of it and get a whole orange belly and believe it or not the last two years I’ve caught more fish with that jerk bait than any other thing in my box besides swim baits keitech creature grub but I’ve always been afraid of a football jig I don’t know if I don’t have the patience but I can work a swimming jig my biggest problem is when some of us out here that love the sport and just doesn’t have the finances maybe if I would’ve bought cheaper rods I could probably afford a nice depth finder and fishfinder but I guess you know I like to keep up with good equipment and having a home I don’t come from a family I’m a 42-year-old man that isn’t likely to say I have a mother or father a grandparents but that makes you have more desires to go out and enjoy yourself but I wasn’t born like that I was born to share fun to make a day to see other people happy not just about myself so I catch myself when I’m fission I’m actually showing people things and I’m not doing it I feel this last six months I’ve been watching you Matt Stephen and Edwin Evers, and I first started on a jerk bait with three hooks I believe it was the repeella, and then I went to the x-ray/bait and I’ve always did good for some reason I can work a jerk bait unbelievable I have three ways of doing it I pop pop pop pop stop it and for some reason the way I pop it if I had underwater footage I think sometimes it’s like the fish is having a stare off with a Jirkbaits and before I get the pop it they smash it, wish you luck in all your tournaments brother up here in Maryland pretty boy Reservoir the small is a start spawning in two more weeks and you got to get them back to the flats in about 6 feet of water from 2 to 6 feet is where they’re active right now and you can’t get a boat back there there’s like 40 guys up there this morning and kayaks
Those 2 baits are a couple of my favorites! Some of my greatest catches were on both of those baits. I have many in my "Old School" box! Thanks Randy for all you do! From another Old Dude!
Last Friday I was on the snake river in Idaho. Water temperature is 45°. I caught a smallie on a Rogue jerkbait jerking! I got just one and used a whole bunch of other different things and they didn’t produce. I like my rogue!
A floating Rogue is my favorite bait of all time. It is deadly during the spring. But also deadly during all year long. Most of my biggest fish have come off this bait all year long. If you are looking for a big fish during summer , this is it. You won’t catch many but like a jig or big swim bait the ones you catch will be big ones
Same! I lost mine to a gar in a small pond a while back. I replaced it but every time I fish that pond I look for my old lure. He's gotta shake it sooner or later.
Alway remember my grandfather having a green yellow and red Rapala pop-lar in his box. When I got back into bass fishing I went an bought one caught over 8 bass a day when top water was hot. Trust an believe I go with what grandpa runs. I love old school fishing baits
I agree with you Randy. I have used those baits for years like that. Now since I no longer tournament fish my favorite time to fish is during the top water season. Here's one of my secrets...I have a #11 Rapala, black/silver tied on a spinning rod, 6 or 8 lb test Trilene XL for my comeback lure for miss topwater strikes. Twitch it and let it float up and fan cast the strike area maybe 6 times. Works great.
One of the best days fishing I ever had was using a #11 Rapala in overcast misty rain on a small municipal city lake. I was fishing a very shall upper end of a creek, and using the exact technique.....I caught 8 bass over 5 lbs that morning. Was May 5th, and they just kept hitting the thing! I musta caught 20 that morning! I am your age Randy and still use it today! The rogue hooked me a hybrid in the same area of the lake on another trip, and using the same technique, the over 10lb hybrid stripped all the line, all, I could not turn him, using only 10 lb line! You do speak the truth Buddy!!
I feel like a winner. Was the first too see this show. On top of that, the title screen shows gold and black jerkbaits had me reminiscing smallmouth fishing with my cousin. Thanks Randy! Keep it up. Good stuff.
On the silver black back I took a q tip and dip it in chartreuse spike it and put a stripe down the side and the sparkle that flashes off it seems to really attract bass. Spring is bedt
That Rapala is a killer "finesse wake bait" in glassy water. It requires a painfully slow retrieve to produce a wake. Use the smallest one with 3 trebles.
Totally agree they are great in the spring! I had maybe my best day ever, on my home lake in OH, fast-twitching a floating Rapala minnow in the back of the coves in April.
My first love, not to be forgotten even today. I've got a few other tricks with them to. Don't be afraid to experiment alittle if the bite is off. Good walleye bait to.
I was always a big fan of the old Cotton Cordell Redfin and CC Minnow. They're both basically the same thing as the old Rapala, but it's plastic instead of balsa.
Water temp has been in the mid 60’s here in Northern California. But they just aren’t there yet. Still suspended in 10-15 feet of water. The lake I fish is 30feet in the deepest part against the dam
When I was introduced to that technique it was and ole timer with a yellow Whopper Stopper Hellcat, still the only one he fishes, I thought it was silly at first but that changed quickly
Yeah, my father bought me a rapala broke back minnow. It was my first lure and I was in aww, it look so good, how could a fish not bite it. He brought me to the river and I caught my first bass and 2 bass that day out of the same tree top. That day I was hooked for life and I will always have that memory of me and my dad.
Don't know if you've been watching Iaconelli's series "Never Give Up" but he talks about catching his first bass on a Rapala. Myself my first bass came on a Rapala on Norfork lake about 1977 or 78, my dad tied it on my little spincast combo that he started me on and told me to put it in a little pocket in the weeds, when it hit the water there was an explosion and I thought I was going to get pulled into the water. Seven or eight years old, my first bass was just under 3lbs on a Rapala, love those baits!
These are some great tips and I see that you have split rings on each one, nice!! I have used this technique like you mentioned and even did the old standard retrieve like a crankbait at night and caught some nice smallmouths,, they were not big but fun. Thanks for a great video!! :)
I still use them in Florida over submerged eel grass. A deeper diver, suspending, sinker get too fouled in the grass. Also throw Bomber Long A. Caught a 42” Musky on Pomme De Terre years ago on a Rogue
Been fishing each as long as I can remember... during the spawn on Barkley and Kentucky lake, my dad would have 2 rods.. white spinnerbait and a gold Rapala or rattling rogue just like those 2! I have multiple of both! LoL
35 years ago I used to catch a lot of smallmouth in the Susquehanna river with the rapala minnow , but as time has gone by the success I had with them waned.So they , over the years have collected dust, maybe it's time to retry them.
I started my bass fishing with a man’s belly worm purple an a R minnow, blue an silver worked the best for me ,I have a smith wick minnow I bought from a garage sale in chrome gold .but that R minnow caught the most. Back in the day we ate all the fish those fish stomachs would have feather’s in them maybe that would explains why they were under those overhanging bushes along the bank
Randy if you like the old school rogue that are pre 1982’s or 1980’ s win they changed it a lil but the deep diving mainly i now where there’s hundreds and hundreds of pounds of them for sale go watch RETRO BASSN ‘s video from from Sunday morning I no you watch him but I don’t now how much and this is one you don’t need or want to miss anything
@@andykurlovich9827 yea my dad fished them and I have been fishing them for 40 years I have some traps that I kill them on even when they stop biting them because everyone’s throwing them for months they are the red river traps with copper bb’s to a couple has a cupel lil glass bb’s in them the other ones have the regular bb’s they used that was before Bill Louis had rattle trap and worked for red river lure co. If you go to retro bass’s video the owner of Bacons at the end he tells about how it got started I live in southeast Louisiana and worked for go devil and the owner Warren Coco and Bill fished together and and has a lot of photos and old baits and boxes of bleeding shads and hand painted stuff Bill would do trying deferent things but I got what I have at deferent shows as a kid may dad and uncles his friends and I always have my eyes scanning for lil golden nuggets brother 🙏god bless
