New products, Tick Shakes and Custom Tickler Kits

Ask 100 anglers what their 3 favorite ways to fish a 7” straight tail worm are and you’ll find that  ”on a Shakey head, Texas rigged and Carolina rigged” will be the majority rule. Each technique has a time and a place where one presentation will out-perform the other two based on the mood of the bass and how they want to be fed on a specific day. But look inside any tournament angler’s rod locker today and 99% of the time you’ll find a rod (or 2) designated specifically for Shakey head fishing. Why? Because Shakey head fishing is a serious producer, period. Bass love worms (always have and always will), but there’s something about that little tail dancing before their eyes that bass can’t seem to resist.  And the 7” Tickler is the perfect match for a Shakey head. The bait itself is already neutrally buoyant which is key for Shakey heading, but the undercut tail design topped with its textured profile is like someone waving a mouthful of your favorite desert under your nose. It’s not a matter of “if” they’re going to bite it, it’s a matter of how long can they hold back before they inhale it.
                           

We now have Football style Shakey heads on our website called Tick Shakes that are the perfect complement to the 7” Tickler. The heads boast a 5/0 Mustad hook which fits the worm perfectly and allows for plenty of bite when you drive that hook into a big bass’s mouth…a must for when you’re hauling in hogs! They’re available in Green Pumpkin or Black and come in 1/8 and 1/4 oz sizes. The powder coat paint is double baked for durability and you will NEVER find a blocked eyelet…it’s our guarantee. 

You pick your 7” Tickler colors! You pick the weight and colors of your Tick Shakes!

That’s right, you get to customize your own personal kit to suit the waters you fish! Our New Custom 7” Tickler Kits are slam full of what you need to keep you catching bass for months. You get:
  • 80 pcs 7” Tickers (4 colors/20 of each)
  • 8 Tick Shakes (The perfect match for the 7” Tickler in either 1/8 or 1/4 oz, black or green pumpkin)
  • 5 ea 2/0 Gamakatsu EWG hooks just in case you need to T-rig .
  • To top this off, this entire arsenal  comes conveniently packed in a sturdy Plano Pro Latch 3600 utility box for easy storage and to help keep you organized.
Plus, for the next 10 days, each Custom 7” Tickler Kit that goes out the door will also receive a FREE pack of 5” Sick Sticks(also excellent on the Tick Shakes) along with the kit in one of our 6 hottest selling colors…and yes, you get to choose the color of the pack of Sick Sticks too! So build your own Custom 7” Tickler Kit today and start adding more big bass to your photo album. One hook set at a time!  

 

My new personal best 11.46lbs

This entry is a little late but I finally had a chance to sit down and write a blog about the day I caught my 11.46 lbs personal best bass and how I caught it. Each year a couple of my buddies make the drive from PA to VA for a shot at one of the giants that lurk in Briery Creek reservoir, and this year we all decided to fish from kayaks versus boats. Briery is an addictive body of water with good reason and it’s only short 15 minute drive from my house. The lake record is 16.2 lbs and that alone draws people from all over. Plus there’s no question that a new state record is swimming somewhere amongst all the standing timber that fills the reservoir as well (it’s literally a flooded forest). So my buddies come down the night of March 23rd and we head out to Briery the following morning around 11 a.m. A bad cold front moved in right before the guys showed up with air temps dropping into the high 20’s at night so the water temps were in the mid 40’s when we got to the lake. Not the conditions we were hoping for but you have to play the cards Mother Nature deals you. We had just released the new 4.8” Swinging Hammer and I had been dying to get that bait on the water and introduce it the Briery bass. I was using the color Money and had it rigged on a Falcon Tackle 1/4 oz weighted swimbait hook fishing it on 30 lb braid with a 20lb Fluoro leader. Although the water was cold, I figured some big girls were going to be scouting out bedding areas in the shallows so I concentrated my efforts in 2 to 8 feet of water in dense timber.

Now here’s where all hell breaks loose!  I’m firing off the Swinging Hammer and bumping as much timber as I can on each cast (at Briery you can easily bump a dozen trees in a single cast). During a long cast my swimbait suddenly comes to a dead stop on a tree in 3 to 4 feet of water. Convinced that I got hung up on the tree I was bumping against, I yank back on the rod 3 times trying to free the bait from the tree, and the next thing I know, the tree I’m stuck on slowly starts swimming! Then in a matter of seconds, line starts peeling off my reel and my kayak is taken for a drag.  I thought for sure I must have foul hooked a big carp because this thing was so powerful. Then about 40 feet from me, this giant mouth shakes at the surface and I now realize I’m fighting the biggest bass of my life through standing timber and I’m doing it out of a kayak! Talk about almost having a heart attack! I thought for sure this pig was going to wrap me up in the trees and break off. But through pure luck, every time the fish went around a tree, it turned around and came out the same way it went in. What a miracle! After a battle that felt like a heart pounding eternity (even though it was probably only a matter of minutes), I grabbed the beast and hoisted her on to the kayak. WOW!! My buddies quickly came over and were freaking out just as much as I was about the size of this monster. We put her up on the scale, took some pics and measurements and put her back in the water. She was exactly 25” long, 21.5” around and weighed in at a massive 11.46 lbs! Needless to say I was still shaking for at least 20 minutes after the whole ordeal was over. What a rush and what a cool way to start a trip! Not only did I catch my new PB bass, but I did it on our brand new Swinging Hammer swimbait and had 2 great friends with me to share in the whole experience. Good times! It’s been a month since I caught that fish and the experience still plays over and over in my head on a daily basis…just like it happened yesterday.  

            

Fishing The Late Winter Into Pre-spawn

      February fishing has its ups and downs, that is a fact. We go outside and it might be 20 degrees or it might be 70 degrees. But just because you are bundling up or taking it off doesn’t mean that the fish are feeling what you are. I’ve gone out when it has been 76 degrees and when it has been 30 degrees all in the last month. The difference in the water temperature has been 3 degrees from both days. Why is this important you ask? Well I know for me, and for most bass anglers out there, we tend to move faster and fish faster when it is warm out. A 2 degree jump in water temp isn’t going to put those fish on the feed bag and fire up their metabolism. They might move slightly shallower, but they aren’t in the back of the coves or creeks getting ready to spawn (YET!) Fish are sluggish when the water is still cold regardless of the air temperature. They don’t want to move fast or far for a meal. And when they do move for a meal, they want it to be substantial enough to sustain them for a good while before they have to eat again. All you have to do right now is look onto wherever you get your fishing information from, and you will see that there are some HAWGS being caught right now and most are taken on bigger baits. So how do you get yourself one of those hawgs? Simple, SLOW DOWN and think outside the box. Finesse techniques may work for numbers right now, but that isn’t going to get you that big bag or that kicker fish you need to take that tournament or your personal best.  You should be throwing something big enough for a bass to want to eat it and not have to eat again really soon. If you are reading this blog, you are probably a big fan of Power Team Lures already, and here’s what I would be throwing if I were out there right now.

#1- PowerTeam Lures 10” Ribbon Hinge worm. This worm has the right action that says “I’m alive, so eat me” but still doesn’t put fish off by being too active like a lot of ribbon tail worms. The subtle action that’s halfway between a straight tail worm and a ribbon tail will call them in with water displacement and won’t appear out of its natural cold water element. Pair it up with some Hog Tonic to get them enticed and really think its FOOD! Texas rigging with a slow drag or subtle hop on the main lake points, creek channel swings, and the first 1/3 of creeks are where you are going to find those big fish right now that are looking to eat. Don’t neglect steep rip rap banks either. If you have temperatures that are fluctuating, the bass will move up on the rocks to warm up because the rip rap will hold heat better than other types of structure. The bottom of the banks where the rocks meet the lake bottom can be a great place to catch them!

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#2- 4.5” Conviction Craws and 4.5” Texas Rig Jigs. The subtle action on the appendages of these baits won’t look out of place because the craws are cold this time of the year too! I fish these 2 baits multiple ways. I like them on a football jig as a trailer and on a Carolina rig too. But the best way I’ve found to fish them is on a football shaky head, dragged along the same places as the Ribbon Hinge worm. I pair mine up with a ½ oz to a ¾ oz jig head and a 7’3” MH rod, 6.4:1 reel and get a good distance off the bank so I have plenty of area to cover. If you think the fish want more subtle bait, I like to cut or pinch the top skirt half off the Texas Rig Jigs so the skirt is only underneath the bait and it looks like the little legs underneath the tail section of a live crawdad.

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     Just experiment with retrieve speed, hops and shakes, or straight dragging speed until you find what the fish want. Fluorocarbon will help out a lot when it comes to these techniques. I prefer 14 lb for these techniques. The limited stretch will help you feel the subtle bites this time of the year. It also helps to “fool” the fish into thinking its live bait, as they can’t see the line.

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Contributed by:

Chris Allard

Power Team Lures Pro Staff

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Scrounging Up Bass

Offering bass a presentation that they’re not unaccustomed to seeing day in and day out is an excellent way to increase your catch, and fishing plastics on a Scrounger head is a sure shot way to do this. Rig a 3.6” Hammer Shad on one of these bad boys and you’re definitely in for a treat. The Hammer Shad/Scrounger combination offers a unique action in a downsized presentation that can produce when other moving baits won’t, especially in pressured waters.

Here’s the best way to describe the action of the Scrounger; put your arm straight out in front of you with your thumb pointing straight up at the ceiling (imagine your thumb would be the hook). Now take your hand, rotate it counter clockwise 90 degrees, then back up to center, then 90 degrees clockwise, then back to center. Do that about 5 times per second and you’ll get the visual. Because of this unique action, laminate colors like Money, Slam Shad, Perch Fry, Smoking Minnow and Tasty Tilapia are perfect for the back of a Scrounger because the contrasting colors add a tantalizing element of flash to every rotation. What you end up with is a perfectly sleek 4” baitfish presentation that combines flash, wiggle and a pulsating” thump” that’s unlike any crankbait or swimbait out there.

This combo can be fished shallow, deep, around all kinds of cover and in current and it’s excellent for all species of bass (and a multitude of other species too!). It’s extremely effective in any water temps 50 degrees or above but will also put them in the boat in water temps as low as 45. A 6’6” to 7’ med action spinning rod with a fast tip rigged with 10 or 12 lb Fluoro is all you’ll need to toss this set up and bury the Scrounger hook into a basses mouth. As far as retrieves go, a standard “chuck and wind” retrieve is very effective. But getting creative with different retrieve speeds, or adding quick snaps with your rod tip or brief pauses during your retrieve will help you dial into what the bass are responding best to.
So if you’re looking to add a simple yet deadly technique to your box of skills, rig a 3.6” JP Hammer Shad on the back of a ¼ oz Scrounger Head and start bending that rod!

Source: powerteamlures.com

Great tips for winter drop shotting with the Finicky Tickler

Source: powerteamlures.com

Panic Plastics

        

“Man today was a tough day on the water. The bass just wanted nothing to do with anything I threw at them!” Well what did you throw and how did you throw it? Did you throw what you needed to throw or did you throw what you wanted to throw? More times than not, the answer to that question is the latter of the two. Fishing for negative bass can definitely take people out of their comfort zones. If an anglers strength is power fishing or chucking and winding cranks and blade baits, switching over to a finesse rod and just barely crawling small plastics along the bottom can be as boring to them as watching grass grow. But if the bass aren’t chasing baits, making this important switch is the best way to avoid having to say the first 2 sentences of this article. When the realization sets in that what you’re doing isn’t working and that your day is going to have a grim outcome unless you make a change, this is when you need to break out your box of “panic plastics” along with your bag of patience.  For me, I keep my box of panic plastics simple. It consists of 3.5” Craw D’oeuvres, 3.5” Food Chain Tubes, 3.6” Hammer Shads, and 5” Finicky Ticklers in a small variety of basic color hues along with the terminal tackle needed to rig them (jig heads, small tungsten weights, small hooks and stuff for drop shotting). I choose these 4 baits for a couple reasons. First, they’re all down sized baits with very subtle actions which plays the key role in sparking a negative bass’s interest . Second, I can rig them all on the same terminal tackle to make things even easier on my patience. For example, if I’m fishing in or around cover and need a weedless presentation, I can tie a 2/0 ewg hook and an 1/8 oz tungsten weight on a single rod and be able to Texas rig any of these baits on it. This goes for drop shotting, Shaky heading and split shot rigging all of these baits as well. This way I can easily alternate between baits and colors until I figure out what color and profile the bass are responding best to without having to constantly re-tie.

                                

       How you work your bait is just as important as the bait choice itself when the bass are negative. Forcing yourself to “soak” your bait during a cast can make all the difference in the underwater world. Getting into the habit of letting your bait sit in one place for 30 seconds after the initial fall is where it starts. If an angler starts working the bait directly after the initial fall, 99% of the time the angler will pull it out of the negative bass’s “interest zone” before the bass even makes the decision to come inspect what just fell through the water column. After the initial soaking, the rest of the retrieve should follow suit. Little shakes, tiny hops and a lot of long pauses in between those movements. If you make the bait appear as an effortless snack, you’ll raise your odds of getting that bass to expend the slight amount of energy needed to acquire that simple snack. Think of a negative bass as really lazy people sitting on a couch watching TV. They won’t get off their butts to get themselves something to eat, but put a bowl of their favorite candy within arm’s reach of them and see what happens.

      Just like anything else, practice makes perfect. Once you gain confidence in soaking finesse baits, your box of panic plastics will soon become your security blanket every time the bite gets tough. It will also help you through the winter months when the water temps drop below 45 degrees. Contrary to what many anglers think, bass can definitely be caught on plastics in the frigid temps…as long as you know what to throw and how to throw it. 

      

Source: powerteamlures.com

Going Tubular

Going Tubular!

When some anglers hear the word Tube they think to themselves “man, I haven’t thrown a Tube in years”. But the fact of the matter is, tubes work just as great now as they did back then. Hardcore smallie anglers keep tubes in the forefront of their tackle boxes because they know it’s a sure shot for putting fish in the boat. However, many largemouth anglers slowly steered away from tubes because they’ve been inundated with all the other appendage induced creature baits that flooded the market. The funniest thing about that is, the tubes never stopped working, anglers just stopped throwing them. Don’t get me wrong, there’s a time and a place for every bait and appendage out there, but the effortless appearance of a tube passing through the water holds a place in every hungry bass’s stomach. Along with all of the multiple ways to fish a tube (Texas rigging, pitching, flipping, punching, Carolina rigging, drop shotting, hopped Stand up head, dragged on a tube jig, fished weightless across vegetation), one of the many benefits of a tube is that it can mimic bait fish or crawfish depending on how you rig it and fish it.  

Pro Staffer Jeff Barrentine takes 1st Place on Smith Lake using the 4.5” Food Chain Tube.

Our 3.5” and 4.5” Food Chain Tubes are perfectly suited for all of these applications due to their profile and neutral buoyancy.  Being able to control the rate of fall from ultra-slow (for swimming, stroking, or crawling over mats), to super-fast (for punching, darting and reaction strikes) is the key in covering these multiple techniques with these awesome tubes. Plus once on the bottom, the neutral buoyancy of the Food Chain Tube allows it to stand at attention for a longer period of time which absolutely drives bass nuts.

                         3.5" & 4.5" Food Chain Tubes
So if you haven’t thrown a tube in quite some time, you’re truly missing the boat on a lot of bass. The Food Chain Tube can get you back to your roots, and help you start putting plenty of those missed bass back in the boat.            
 

Pro Staffer Dave DeLeeuw wins on Lake Winnebago. Also weighing in the largest bag ever on the lake. All fish caught on Food Chain Tubes and Diesel Craws.

1st Place win on Lake Winnebago

Source: powerteamlures.com

PowerTeam Lures Soft Plastics for Late Summer / Early Fall Bass

       

The recent low night time temperatures and obviously shorter days have put a nip in the morning air across much of North America. As Mother Nature and Father Time bring change to our world and we move into the late summer, early fall transition period the water temperature in my home lake dropped from eighty-nine degrees down to seventy nine degrees in only a few days. The quickly changing environment beneath the water surface is controlled by the temperature of the water and the length of sunlight.  The last few years has taught me to stop looking at the calendar and watch for the changing conditions, especially changing water temperature. Watching the calendar will cause many anglers to miss out on some of the best bass fishing all year. 

  A simple way to pattern fall transition bass is to remember where you found spawning bass in the spring when the water temperature had not yet warmed up.  The upper lake creeks and pockets containing cover and current can be the best place to locate the bass that are preparing for the fall transition. Summer patterns may still be holding on lower ends of the lake. This is where keeping a journal or record of water temperatures and weather patterns on good days on the water will pay off.        


  Many bass anglers know that the water temperatures control the activity of bass and not the calendar. It is a common belief that when the water drops down to seventy and below to the sixty-five degrees is the magic temperature range for the fall migration to begin.  However a rapid change of water temperature dropping eight to ten degree can stimulate early fall migration activity in the bait and in the bass.  This transition can begin to happen when the water temperature is in the upper to mid-seventies. I larger lakes this can occur in the upper end of the lake  several days even weeks before it happens in areas near the dam at the lower end of the body of water. Several anglers miss some prime bass fishing waiting for the temperature to reach 70 throughout the lakes they fish. Again, it is the condition, not the calendar that anglers must learn to fish.       

  Late summer and early fall rains affect this trend along with cooler night time temperatures and wind.  The days getting shorter as we move closer to fall also affect the activity of bass. The moon phases and shorter days associated with solstice and equinox are the basis for calendar years, and their influences do affect fish, but it is water temperature that has the most drastic effect on their behavior. That is not to say that we could have a warning trend that will heat the water temperature back up into the upper eighties, but I for one will be on the water this weekend rain or shine fishing with both late summer, early fall tactics.    
 
    There are a number of successful lures that can be used in the summer to fall transition. Lures such as spinnerbaits and crankbaits are among the most popular and there are those top water anglers who live for the early fall top water season. In times of low light, buzzbaits, poppers, and walkers all have their respected place in fishing for this in between season.  Early fall bass will begin to move along the migration routes between the deep water and the shallow areas feeding upon every opportunity. Rising water from seasonal rain will send the bass into grass and brush to feed. The bass will begin to follow the bait fish toward the new water from the rain making these areas great for flipping and pitching soft plastics. 

 Soft plastics such as the worms, grubs and food chain tubes by PowerTeam Lures can now be fished much shallower than in the previous weeks before. These are a good choice as bass tend to be shallower for longer periods in a now much wider strike zone. The five inch “Sick Stick” on a weighted wacky head gives anglers the ability to control the amount of action needed to trigger strikes in the early transition areas. This neutrally buoyant stick bait is comprised of a square core encased in round rings which gives a better visual stimulant and flash to the bait along with a controllable shimmy as the bait falls. When rigged on a 1/8-3/16 oz. weighted wacky head for a wider and faster fall for the aggressive bass. This bait can also be rigged on a shaky head, Texas rigged or Carolina rigged for the active late summer, early fall bass.  
    
 
  Another good quality of the PowerTeam Lures soft plastic baits is that they can punch through heavy shallow cover. In late summer and early fall the mats and grasses are there thickest.  The bass transiting from the deep water to the shallow areas will use the grass for cover in the sun and to remain shallow on colder nights. Heavy wood and grass provide not only cover but ambush locations for the bait that is moving shallow as well. The mats and grasses of this season are difficult to fish with any other lure making a Texas rigged soft plastic the best choice to penetrate the cover.       

  PowerTeam Lures offers many different shapes and sizes from craws to creatures in a continually growing color selection that gives anglers a variety of soft plastic form these days. And with the perfect blend of salt and scent to them, known as Sow Chow, bass cannot resist engulfing these baits. Scent becomes more useful as the seasons change and seasonal rains may cloud water from run off.   


 The large variety of soft plastics that can be rigged weedless offer anglers an effective arsenal for both largemouth and smallmouth bass in this early season of change. A weedless rigged food chain tube can swim imitating a bait fish, or pulled across the top of thick grass beds for a reaction strike. These tubes have a unique design that provides action that can simulate a crayfish when fished on a Carolina rig. Just as the 3.5” Craw D’oeuvre and PowerTeam’s other creatures and craws can be cast upstream into current and allowed to flow back into eddies for some moving water action.       

  The change in water temperature means that the bass are moving. Their aggression is heightened as competition for food becomes more abundant. In a world where big fish eat small fish size is important. Eating to maintain size through the coming winter is nature’s way of ensuring survival.  The sudden and constant drop in water temperature is telling the bass to prepare even if the calendar is telling anglers it is still summer. 


 PowerTeam Lures offers anglers some of the best soft plastic baits on the market today. Their unique designs, scent and colors offer anglers an advantage at a very affordable price. In this season of change, as the bass change, and the leaves hint of change, try changing your late summer, early fall tactics to include shallow soft plastics.       

Happy Fishing!     

Mark B.

Visit PowerTeam Lures New Site at:
http://www.powerteamlures.com/  


Source: worldfishingnetwork.com

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