First Time Bass Fishing With a DICE BAIT!!! Urchin Bait Bass Fishing
I’ve seen dice baits and urchin-style baits showing up in bass fishing videos, but this was my first time actually fishing one. I had a Strike King Tumbleweed available, and with the bluegill fishing running a little slow, it seemed like a good time to find out whether this strange-looking lure could actually catch a bass.
It did.
I wasn’t sure what to expect from an urchin bait because it doesn’t look much like the soft plastics I normally fish. The Tumbleweed has that odd ball-of-tentacles appearance that’s become popular with this style of finesse bass bait. Sometimes a lure can look ridiculous to me and still look good enough to a bass.
Catching a bass on my first trip with one was enough to get my attention. I’m not ready to replace the proven soft plastics in my tackle box after one fishing trip, but the Tumbleweed worked well enough that I ordered some larger urchin baits to try next.
For a lure I had never fished before, that’s about the best first test I could ask for. I went from wondering whether these weird dice and urchin baits really worked to wanting to see what a bigger version might catch.
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When It’s TOO HOT To Go Fishing! What Does Realistic Fishing Do?
Sometimes summer gets hot enough that I don’t even want to stand on the bank. If I’m not going fishing, there’s a pretty good chance I’ll end up looking at fishing tackle instead.
I recently found a lure sale on Whatnot and picked up a bunch of fishing lures for one dollar each. Cheap tackle is always interesting because I never really know what I’m going to get until I have it in my hands. Some inexpensive lures turn out to be surprisingly useful, and others look like they were probably worth exactly what I paid.
After going through the one-dollar lure haul, I also put together another giveaway with Googan Baits, NetBait, PowerBait MaxScent and more.
The summer heat might have kept me off the water for the day, but I can still dig through some cheap fishing tackle and give somebody else a chance to get a few new baits. Sometimes that’s about as much fishing as I want to do when it’s miserable outside.
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Why Do You Fish The SAME SPOT Over & Over? Go Fishing Somewhere Else
People occasionally ask why I keep fishing the same places. The obvious answer is that I fish where I think I can actually catch something, but I decided to put the other idea to the test.
I went to four different public fishing spots at Old Hickory Lake. I started at the log, moved to Skeletor Park, tried The Corner and finally went to a fourth spot even farther away.
Four fishing spots. Not one fish.
After all of that, I regrouped and went back to the small lake. That’s the place where I’ve actually been able to catch fish lately.
Fishing somewhere different sounds like an easy solution when a familiar spot gets repetitive, but a new location isn’t automatically a better location. If I spend my time driving between public fishing areas and don’t get a single bite, eventually I’m going back to the water where I’ve been finding fish.
My local lake fishing has gotten frustrating enough that some of those old spots just don’t feel worth the aggravation anymore. So why do I keep returning to the same place?
That’s where the fish are.
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Bass Fishing With Texas Rigs! (Crawfish & Swimbaits)
When I’m bass fishing from the bank, I don’t always want to carry the entire tackle box. This time I kept things simple and brought two soft-plastic options: Texas-rigged crawfish and swimbaits.
I started with the crawfish and caught a few smaller largemouth bass. Since the little bass were cooperating, I switched to the swimbait hoping it might tempt something bigger.
That didn’t work out quite like I planned. Instead of catching a larger bass, the smaller fish kept biting the tail off the swimbait.
I eventually went back to the Texas-rigged crawfish and caught two more bass, bringing the total to five largemouth bass for the trip.
The swimbait didn’t produce the bigger fish I was hoping for, but the Texas rig kept getting bites. With fall getting closer and my attention shifting back toward bass, crawfish and swimbaits are both going to stay in the rotation. On this particular trip, though, the Texas-rigged craw was clearly the better choice.
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Summer Fishing From The Bank For Big Bluegill (Hot Summer Fishing)
Hot summer fishing can be uncomfortable enough that timing starts to matter almost as much as what I’m throwing. Getting out early in the morning gives me a chance to fish before the worst heat arrives, while the water hasn’t had all day to warm up.
This time I was bank fishing for big bluegill with what I call my desperation rig: a Gulp Alive Minnow on a jig head underneath a float.
It worked extremely well. I caught a bunch of big bluegill, with most of them measuring more than eight inches.
There’s nothing complicated about this setup. The float suspends the small jig and Gulp Minnow while I work it from the bank, and bluegill are exactly the kind of fish I’m willing to target when summer bass fishing gets frustrating.
Getting there early also made the trip a lot more tolerable. Instead of waiting until the sun was beating down on the bank, I was already fishing while the morning was still relatively cool and the fish were shallow.
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Summer Fishing From The Bank When Its HOT (TOO HOT FOR FISHING)
There are hot summer fishing days, and then there are days when standing on the bank feels completely ridiculous.
This was one of those days.
I went fishing anyway, with sweat pouring down my face and my clothes and hat getting soaked. After putting up with all of that heat, I caught exactly one fish: a bluegill on a Rebel Wee Craw.
The bass weren’t biting, the sun was beating down and eventually I had enough.
Instead of forcing myself to stay outside just to say I went fishing, I headed back to the studio and checked out some fishing lures that had arrived in the mail. I also picked a new comment for the Yamamoto Senkos.
Sometimes realistic summer fishing means knowing when the heat has won. One bluegill isn’t much of a fishing trip, but that’s what happened. The show still goes on.
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Want To Catch MORE FISH? Go Fishing EARLY in The Morning!!
One of the simplest ways I’ve found to make summer bank fishing more enjoyable is to get out there early.
I started this trip at about 6:30 in the morning and fished for bass and bluegill with a Slider swimbait grub. The bluegill were active, and I caught a bunch of good fish around eight inches long. I also hooked a few bass because they were interested in the Slider too.
Going early gives me two advantages during hot weather. I can fish before the worst heat of the day arrives, and I get a chance to work the water while it’s still cooler. As the sun gets higher, I’ve often seen the fishing slow down along with my desire to keep standing out there.
You don’t necessarily need some complicated summer fishing trick. Sometimes changing when you go is more useful than changing everything in your tackle box.
If the afternoon heat has been making bank fishing miserable, try getting out around sunrise. On this trip, an early start, a simple Slider and some cooler morning conditions produced plenty of bluegill and even gave me a few shots at bass.
