Just finished reading an article in the new Bassmaster on "Swimbaits" where Art Berry recommends "deadsticking" large, floating swimbaits. Do any of y'all do this? "20-30 minutes" spent not moving the bait?

Dan

I think I’m too much of a tournament fisherman.
1 to 2 minutes is way to long for me.

Although I’ve caught fish, waiting for more than five minutes and caught good size fish not tournament fishing.

I feel if the fish need a bait slow in their face, I give a tug now and than to make the bait make a crackle eating on the surface kind of thingy.

Results on times are deadly with an addictive explosion!

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Dan,
20-30 minutues you say? I am no expert on this tecnique but I would think the fish would probably loose interest after the bait had not moved in 1 minute or so? Lets get Robs opnion.

"20-30 minutes" was a quote from the article. I too have a hard time imagining a Bass finally hitting a bait that just's lays there doing noyhing but that pro, Art Berry said they would/might.

Dan

From the Huddleston Deluxe website, Ken says:

"Unless I have inside information I usually start my day with a swimbait. I will hit my first 4 or 5 spots. If I consistantly get followed, but no strikes it's time for me to deadstick.

So now I have 4 or 5 spots that I know are holding fish from my previous follows. I know where they are positioned. These fish are active enough to follow but are not feeding. Using a Deluxbow ST, R.O.F. - 0 feet (floating), tie your line to either the top eyelet or mouth eyelet and start by making a long cast, letting the lure sit for at least 10 - 15 seconds. Lightly twitch the bait just enough to move the tail fin slightly. The lure should move no more than 6 - 12 inches. Pause, again 10 - 15 seconds, lightly twitch moving no more than 6 - 12 inches. Use this retrieve well past the spot of your follows. If your follows were right to the boat, use this retrieve right to the boat.

That's the easy part. From there you slow it down. This may sound easy, but seconds seem like minutes and minutes seem like hours. In extreme cases I have had 20 minute spans between twitching.

Keep in mind you know that there are fish on the spot your fishing. In clear water you will see fish move up on the bait and go back down to return 5 minutes later, and go back down then a twitch will bring it back up and so on. It reminds me of teasing a cat with a string. Sooner or later he will slap or pounce. Sometimes you may need to switch light twitching to a more firm twitch, and even chugging at times. But as a rule with deadsticking, less is more."

nate

Thank you Nate.

Dan

the big wood baits will move a little bit on there own doing the deadstick. 20 minutes is not a problem when you finally get one to blow up on your bait after it sits there for a few minutes of doing nothing. the hardest part is to keep your slack line strieght to the lure. it works and it works well.
chip gilbert .... bassaholics clothing

Good stuff nate,thanks.

Fishing a Rof-0 just to the point where it's tail just barely wags is about as slow as I can fish, it's painful sometimes. But I have caught a few fish just creeping it along so I will always give it a try.

Early morning right before the wind picks up at all is where I have had the best action crawling baits on the surface,as soon as the wind kicks up I lose all confidence, especially if I can't see my bait.

trev-

I just gotta put in my 2 cents on this. There is not a single lake that I fish that doesn't have some small wind current going 95% of the time. Keeping a deadsticked bait in the zone for 30 minutes isn't possible then. It does allow you to drift a bait over a target though. So while I have no doubt deadsticking a big trout bait will catch fish, the idea that you can consistently deadstick for 20-30 minutes doesn't make sense to me. So my take is that there is a teeny bit of exageration going on here. Maybe a couple of times a year you might hit perfectly dead calm conditions (and often even then theres a bit of current), and then you "might" have the opportunity to try the 20-30 minute deadstick, but I can't imagine this being consistent enough to spend a lot of time doing even if the conditions were right. Meanwhile slowing way down, and even deadsticking for brief periods will absolutely catch fish at times. Still my first approach is almost always a SLOW and steady retreive that says as Rob puts it "I'm a stupid lost hatchery trout please don't eat me".

BobH the point is to throw it in the wind. if its dead calm the bait wont move. You want it to bob around in the wind.

I tend to agree with Matt; that kind of dead-sticking requires current or wind.

There is this old Bass West article where Mike Long talks about deadsticking those old wooden Castaics. He says that he soaks them for days before a storm because he likes the way a waterlogged bait sits in the current.

I'm gonna have to agree with Bob H - I don't believe Art will go out and fish 10 hours on the lake and make a total of 20 casts. Lots of the info in magazines and what's told on stage at tournaments is pure smokescreen to keep people off the trail.

hey all, this is ben, havent replied here in a long time,

does deadticking only workin cler water, cause here in maryland, there is mostly foggy water, and i'm afraid deadsticking would be a waste of time

thanks for the help

BEN

I hate to say this, but you obviously know nothing about Art Berry. Hes been doing this on San Diego lake for years. I know he does this, although it is not an every day technique, nor one that he practices in tourneys, unless he knows of one fish that will put him over the top, and he already has located that fish. Sean