We had incredibly positive feedback on our jigs. We were honored to have some big names stop by our booth and talk with us, including Skeet Reese, Cody Meyer, and Kent Brown. Some not only gave us outstanding feedback and encouragement, but also walked away with some Jig Monster Premium Bass jigs in their hands.

There were a lot of great products represented – here are a few of our favorites: Hardcore Bass Fishing Apparel, JSJ Baits, and Little Creeper. You can read a comprehensive rundown on Tackle Tour here: http://www.tackletour.com/reviewbassjam09pt1.html

Jig Monster was lucky enough to be included in the Tackle Tour rundown – see what they had to say about us on the second half of this page: http://www.tackletour.com/reviewbassjam09pt2pg7.html

Thank you to everyone who stopped by and we can’t wait to see you at next year’s Bass Jam!

Joe & Emily
http://www.jig-monster.com

*photos courtesy of tackletour.com & thewiredangler.com

The Front Page (nice shirt!):

The article inside:

 Read the whole article here: http://www.marinij.com/marinnews/ci_12872287?IADID

Me using the Savage Pro Swim Jig in Baby Bass.

Chris using a Savage Pro Swim Jig in Tilapia.

A little about our Chaos Pro Football jigs:

• Optional Magnum Rattles
• Hand tied with wire for durability
• Outstanding professional paint jobs
• Full 66+ Strand Bio-Flex Skirts
• Ultra-Sharp 6/0 EWG Hooks (1/2, 3/4, 1 oz.)
• Ultra-Sharp 4/0 EWG Hooks (1/4, 3/8 oz.)
• 5 sizes: 1/4 oz, 3/8 oz, 1/2 oz, 3/4 oz & 1 oz

Two New Maverick BH Minnow Colors
Hand poured BH Minnow swimbaits from Maverick baits in Lakeport, California at Clearlake. Detail, epic weedless swimming action, and the ability to keep it’s tail moving while falling or dragging at super slow speeds. We’ve added two new awesome colors: Blue Chartreuse & Baby Bass.
 

Some of these baits have been long-time secret weapons of the master Maverick bait designers, and while we know it must have hurt, we truly appreciate their generosity in bringing them to the market.

Located in Lakeport on the edge of Clearlake, CA, every Maverick Premium Bass Fishing Lure is created and tested-by-fire by world class bass fisherman on this world class lake.

Learn more about some of our favorites below:

#1. The Bugly

Why it works: While the Bugly is big and meaty it’s also made of extremely buoyant hand-poured plastic. It has incredible attention to detail, always defaults to a defensive crawdad posture, and it’s something that the fish definitely haven’t seen before. The colors are meticulously dialed in.

Cold Clear Water Tips:
Colors to try - PB&J, Magic Blend with Red Flake, and Swamp Water. Rig it Texas style with brass & glass on 15 lb. fluorocarbon, or use the Jr. as a jig trailer with a Jig Monster Chaos Pro Football Jig. Fish on main lake structure and points, and get into the rocks while intermittently shaking and dead-sticking it.

Cold Muddy Water Tips:
Colors to try - Black/Red Craw, Black & Blue. Rig it with brass and glass on a 3/4 ounce bullet sinker. Drop it to the base of standing timber and shake it on the bottom, pull up a few feet and shake, pull up a few more feet and shake, and repeat this process and hit each “floor of the high-rise” on the way up. If the water is high then pitch to the base of tulles or into grass on a pegged Texas rig.

See it now >>

#2. The Bass Buster

Why it works: It’s a monster 10 inch stick worm with substance. It’s big profile tempts bass that have started to shy away from the big swimbaits.

Cold Clear Water Tips:
Colors to try - Summer Moss brown, Green Pumpkin Red Flake, Peanut Butter & Jelly, Watermelon Candy. Rig it Texas style with a pegged sinker and fish it like a big worm, or Carolina rig it to drag across main lake and secondary points. Joe’s personal favorite is to rig it with a 6/0 weighted Falcon hook and fish at a snappy pace along break lines on the shore specifically in Summer Moss Brown because it looks like a gopher snake. Gopher snakes are like bass candy – they can’t resist them.

Cold Muddy Water Tips:
Colors to try - Grape Blue Neon, Maverick Mangler. Use all the same rigging techniques as above for clear water.

See it now >>

#3. The Shark

Why it works: It’s bigger than your average leech type bait and softer too. This is one of the most versatile baits you can have and the Maverick color options are the most vibrant we’ve ever seen - they just light up the water.

Cold Clear Water Tips:
Colors to try -Magic Blend & Summer Moss Brown. Rig this bait with a darter head, drop shot rig, split rig, Caroline, or jig trailer…really get creative with this bait – it’s constantly proving and reproving its effectiveness in new ways.

Cold Muddy Water Tips:
Colors to try - Grape Neon, Ed’s Candy Craw. Use all the same rigging techniques as above for clear water.

See it now >>

Bon Tempe
As I write this, lake Bon Tempe has been stocked with trout four or five times already and whilst not known as a bass like, it is this time of year that you have your best chance at catching giants on swimbaits like the 6-8” Huddleston, 6” Basstrix, or my favorite the BBZ-1 slow sink in matte rainbow. This is not to say that you can’t fish for bass with traditional techniques, as drop-shotting small worms on light line around stumps and boulders has produced both smallmouth and largemouth bass, but I prefer Alpine for that kind of thing.

Alpine
On again, off again is the best way to describe Alpine right now as just before each cold front guys are getting largemouth up to 8lbs on Senkos, jigs, crankbaits, and swimbaits, then during the rain on a spinnerbait but once the front passes it gets tough! And the best bet is wither dead-sticking football head jigs on rocky points or drop-shotting in the creek channels off main lake points and throwing small cranks on light line along the break lines

Chaos football jigs: http://www.jig-monster.com/jigmochfohej.html

Mayhem flipping jigs: http://www.jig-monster.com/jigmomafljig.html

Happy Fishing!

Lake Pheonix
Phoenix is kind of quiet right now. Some guys are reporting fish up to 6 lbs but it’s not my best pick right now. That’s not to say it’s dead though. If you live nearby, or you just love that area by all means fish. Best bets are 6 lb line dropshotting with 3”-4” Natural color soft plastics or shakeyhead jig with 4”-6” finesse worms. When the afternoon wind picks up try a white double willow 3/8 oz spinnerbait right under the surface. The swimbait guys are getting a lot of followers, but the bite is pretty dead.

Lake Kent
Kent is fishing much like Alpine but the best bets are crankbaits, football head jigs, and 6”-7” Texas rigged Senkos. Also the water levels are so low that you can do yourself a huge favor by photographing, sketching, or remembering all the structure that is high and dry so you can dominate when the water levels top out in spring.

Falling water means it’s easier to get around. But the question is which spots are worth getting to if falling water levels push the fish off the shallow cover.

I fished three of the last six days from the island; one day a 1 hour hike into the backside from the dam and one day from the island and from the back side near the school house. Every trip the water was lower and in total about 4-5 feet lower by the end of the third trip. Some spots still had good wood cover and grass, and I found a lot of 2-3 lb fish on these spots using a Jig Monster prototype white/chartreuse ½ oz spinnerbait, a ½ oz chatterbait in green pumpkin with 2/3 of a green pumpkin senko for a trailer, a ¼ ounce speed trap in red craw, a wacky rigged Baby Bass 5” senko and my two best fish (4/48 & 6.11) both hit a ½ oz Jig Monster Mayhem series flipping jig in Bludgeon & Lava Craw.

I took a quick hour out there today and found that some of the spots that are high and dry had break lines or rock piles within 20 feet of shore and I think a lot of the fish holding on lay downs have pulled out to these nearby breaks and ledges because in three similar spots I had multiple bites on the speedtrap in red craw and the Jig Monster Chaos football jig in ¾ oz Bludgeon and Brazen Bluegill. My best fish was about 4 pounds (left my scale in the car) or so but this was all in one hour so I can’t wait to get back out and revisit all my good wood that’s high and dry to see if there are breaks and rocks close by. It’s like pre-spawn but backwards.

Clearlake

Off shore weed beds on the north end are kicking out fish in the 3-5 pound range with bonus fish in the 5-8 pound range being not uncommon. Best baits are big soft plastics like 10” worms, magnum lizards, and super flukes on a Carolina rig, or 5-7” senkos rigged on weighted wacky jigheads. Top water fishing is hit or miss, but walking baits, poppers, and floater swimbaits like the JSJ Snack Size Trout, MS Slammer, and BBZ-1 have taken fish up to 9 pounds in the last 4 or 5 days.

As for the south end, 1 oz Jig Monster football head jigs in Bludgeon, Green Pumpkin Chartreuse, Brazen Bluegill and Sexy Shad are taking fish in the 4-8 pound range off some of the deeper docks and rock piles, with brass and glass rigged beavers, sharks, and paddletails or 5-6” senkos on a weighted wacky head producing good fish as well. I’m starting to hear reports of a deep diving crankbait bite but the fish are still in transition and that bite has not peaked yet.

As for night fishing I’m told that 1 oz spinnerbaits and 10” worms on brass and glass are producing well for guys fishing rocky areas around shag rock.