Great choices for rip rap Miles! An IMA Suspending Vibe 70 can be very effective. It gives great flexibility, you can fish it slow, pause it, allow it to suspend. Early in the year Megabass IxI Shad Type 3 and TX. Reel to diving depth then a slow sweep of the rod followed by a pause.
My home lake has miles and miles of riprap and very dark stained water. During the summer, a wacky worm is deadly for smallies but it must be thrown within a foot of the bank or they won't hit it.
Around the shad spawn a lipless fished parallel to the rocks can be fun, that noise under the water bouncing off all those rocks seems to drive them crazy. We fish riprap a good bit and if you do so you will lose baits, it is just part of the deal.
I was surprised that you aren't especially a fan of a football jig around rip rap. I absolutely love them in that situation and a 3/8 - 1/2 oz football jig has done me good more times than I can count. I have broken off, but not really that often. Maybe the rocks I fish are different than what you do. I know they use big ones around here combined with chunks of broken concrete. Yeah, Berkley has some really goofy names! I like the Stunna, but I wish it had a weight transfer in it so it casted better. The casting on them is kinda bad.
Chatterbaits work ok if there’s grass growing in the rock, and can certainly catch them if the rock is especially shallow, but chatterbaits will hang pretty often if allowed to contact rocks.
Great tips, thanks. My version of the title is “best lures to lose in rip rap”. On my home lake in TX some guys kill the bass on shaky head in rip rap while I get snagged on nearly every cast.
Lol, I feel your pain. Definitely still try a shaky head, but try downsizing the weight to no more than an 1/8oz and try a buoyant worm like the Zman Finesse WormZ or SMH Worm.
Great Choices and it makes me feel good knowing that I use them myself and yes, I lost a brand new Slingblade because of a backlash into the wind and it lodged 😮😂 and I lost a DT 6 after I caught a nice 4 lber and got too cocky and snagged it broke off🤓 I did learn though about the lighter jigs, and that is appreciated. I’m definitely a ZMAN Fan 💯 but I’ve been trying a few jigs in 5/16 oz and the Hella Craw and the Goat stilll fit great✊ Thanks again Miles, old dawgs can learn new tricks😜
