I've been throwing the ROF5 Huddleston here in Texas. The water typcially averages about 4 foot visibility, and i'm throwing the bait along the outside edge of a hydrilla line where the water breaks from about 8 feet to 20 feet deep. I've noticed that i'll occassionally get a number (2 to 5 or so) of small bass followers that range from 8 to 12 inches swimming right along with the bait. A few (4) times i've noticed a "big" shadow, swimming just out of sight, right under the bait. What is the deal with the followers, what do i need to look for,,is this a time to troll with the troll motor to keep the bait in the water, and in a strike zone longer.
I've got a "big bass only" tourney on Nov. 21 and will the throwing the big baits all day, out of 150 boats, i'm reasonably sure i'm the only guy doing it.

A few things,
1) What is that in your Avitar, a Monster 'gill or a hybrid?
2) Are you using a good scent?
3) Once you've seen a Big shadow, are you backing off and maybe throwing a Big jig after 5 minutes or more?
These fish are either hot and want to eat something, but something isn't perfect with the presentation or they're a little more active than neutral and your presentation is good enough to grab there interest. Either way they'll probably eat a jig with a trailer and plenty of good scent like SmellyJelly's Bass Feast or Crawdaddy if it's dropped on their door step without the delivery man around, now that you know there address.
Tight lines,
Wade

Alan,

My first question to you is, are there trout in the lake you are fishing or no? Next question is, what color huddleston are you throwing?

Your comment that you're getting a lot of small bass coming up on the bait might help answer your question about what to do. If those big bass are sharking after your bait, maybe they're wishing it looked more like a small bass than a trout :)

So many times the answers are right in front of us, we just have to take a step back and think logically. In any body of water, there will be some type of fish that are 6 to 12 inches long. That's why bass will hit a swimbait at any lake, no matter if there are trout or not. To get more dialed in, you gotta figure out what type of fish those 6 to 12 inch long fish are. Could be trout, hitch, gizzard shad, golden shiners, carp, goldfish, and of course other bass. Maybe if you can match up your bait more closely to whatever you think these big bass might be eating, you'll get the bites.

As far as followers go, I used to stress a lot more on getting followers to bite. Now I just focus on the basics. If the fish are following it, I try to get more sneaky. Back off further, drift up to key areas, and either fish slower or fish faster. If they still don't bite, at least I know where they are so I can try them again on another day, maybe a day with bad weather, or if night fishing is an option, at night. If you're in a tournament, obviously that's not an option, but just do what you can :) I've never had any luck throwing follow up baits or coming back later in the day. Never once can I remember stuff like that working for me. In fact, I'll rarely go back to a spot where I get a lot of follows the same day because I figure if I already showed them my best stuff and they didn't hit, they just aren't going to bite. I'd rather go somewhere else and put my bait in front of some fresh fish.

Good luck and thanks for visiting the site all the way from Texas :)

thanks for the tips. I'm fishing a lake with no trout, and i'm throwing the rainbow pattern. The forage here is gizzard shad (i've seen some big ones!), and sunfish, with the carp throw-in. I'll try some of the other colors. i'm throwing on the 25lb triple fish camoescent that you guys recommended to me earlier, great line.

The fish in the avatar is a 2.63lb redear sunfish, it was 2 tenths off the Texas State record. 14 1/2 inch long and very THICK. I caught it on Town Lake, which runs thru downtown Austin, fishing out of a small boat. I kept the fish alive in a cooler, until i could get it to some certified scales. It was about 11pm when i convinced some young sack boys at the grocery store to let me weigh it in the "butcher" area, I told them if it was a record i would need to have them witness the weighing and sign their names. The one kid said, this is the most exciting thing that has every happened at the store,,,,,,then the other kid said, "well there was one time where this guy had a stroke" Anyway the fish was short of the state record, and i did not get a lake record because the record fish was caught out of Town lake about 2 years earlier.

That's a huge sunfish! You might have missed the record but it's still an awesome catch, for Texas ;)

I haven't had much luck with followers either.I usually don't see too many, when I do it just gives me more confidence in that spot. The next time I come to that lake I will just try and throw to that area at a different angle and maybe make a slower retrieve.

Trev-

If the fish are used to seeing gizzard shad, you might try the 3:16 shad bait

http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpageSWM316-MFS.html?from=calfish

There was another guy on here, I'm pretty sure he said he was from Texas, who said he had done really well on the 3:16 shad.

Years ago I got on to a good bite with the castaic gizzard shad, but it just gave me fits because you would lose like half the fish that you hooked. The castaic gizzard shad does definitely get bit if you don't mind losing a few! The 3:16 shad should land more fish just because of the the bait slides up the line when you hook a fish on it.

I'd definitely be chucking the baby bass 9" or 7" MS Slammer too :)

-Rob

Mike Long said that Huddleston will eventually be coming out with a baby bass bait (he said this at the Bassathon this past weekend).

Yes, definitely get a hold of a 7" Slammer. Mine got pretty chewed up this summer.

Made a few online purchases and phone calls.....I got in the fabrication que for a couple Slammers, ordered the 3:16 Shad and a Castaic Gizzard Shad from TW, and a Hitch from Huddleston. So i'll be all ready to hit the water, only trouble is that we have had about 10 inches of rain in the last 4 days and everything is flooding, even had some tornados in the neighborhood yesterday. Looks like out Big Bass tourney on Sunday is in jeopardy, they have Jimmy Houston lined up as the guest weighmaster. The water right now looks like chocolate milk, and it's all part of the (Texas) Colorado river system. I'll send a report on how I do.

doh... Muddy water can kinda kill a swimbait bite. If the fish are still really tight to cover you might get them on the Slammer. It makes enough disturbance/wake/noise that fish can hone in on it a little better. When it gets really muddy, I start fishing a Slammer about how most people would fish a spinnerbait. Cast it right into trees, around logs and straight parallel down tully lines. If they can't see it or hear it, they aren't going to bite it, so you gotta get tight to the junk when it's muddy. good luck man.

>i'm reasonably sure i'm the only guy doing it.

Nah, that was my plan as well!! What's up Alan? ;) It'll have to wait until the make-up date...;( Lake is closed till Monday at the earliest. I'm headed to Fayette instead with my 3:16 Baby Bass }(

damn dave,,thought i had a monopoly going,,these guys really know their stuff,,,,but looks like Rob's site has a cult following in Austin now. When the water clears up let's meet on the lake and compare our big bait setups. I know we'll be in trouble when HHJ, Swimbait (KP from texas), Triton Outlaw, Skeetermark, and those other rocket scientists start researching here.

Alan, you're way ahead of me on swimbaits. I have yet to get a sniff at my baits, but I'm going to keep trying! I got the Okuma Heavy rod based on the review here at calfishing.com and I currently have a 3:16 Baby bass, 6" Charlie and 9" Osprey. I'd like to check out the MS Slammer when you get it.
I figure that tip of following up the shadow with the big jig ought to pay off for you. Alan is the man on Austin for big fish on the big jig, well one of 'em, but he's dedicated to big fish fishing out there!

Hey Dave... Are you talking about Fayette County? The pond below the Nuclear plant that discharges hot water? If so... throw swimbaits definitely. I've fished the lake once and caught 2 over 10 pounds along with about 5 or 6 other good fish. I was throwing a 9 inch Stocker Trout at that time. The fish were stacked on the rock jetty coming out from the discharge facility.

Good luck.

Yes, Fayette County the power plant lake east of Austin, but it's not nuke, just coal fired. Never heard of anyone throwing swimbaits there, and I never have, until this weekend... I will report back success or failure, hopefully the former! :-)