I found some fluke tail gobys in the clearence section at BPS. They caught my eye, should do well on smallies on green bay WI. Looking at them they look like they might be good for dock skipping as well for LG mouth.

Anyone try these yet?

Bassin
Butch

What these little guys?



The main characteristic that is important with the Goby types baits is the over-sized head section. I have tried these and many other goby imitations and they all seem to work pretty good. My personal favorite however is the 3 1/2" Bass ProShops Tender Tube, stuffed with either a 1/4 oz. or 3/8 oz. Ball Head jig. There something about the tube that just really out performs a lot of these other goby style lures when you are fishing on the bottom and also looking for hits on the fall. They come in 25 packs for about $10.00... (they used to be really cheap). For the money, those Zooms are a pretty good buy $3.49 for 15 count...

As far as a drop shot lure (which I assume is how you will be using these), they work OK, however, I prefer a softer plastic because the head is so big and I use very small Gami Drop Shot hooks (#4).

Well that's my 2 cents.

BC

Brendan I find the tube as my go-to bait for smallies, I normally use luck-e strike (Rick Clunn BPS) series in watermelon/purple flake with awesome results. I prefer 1/8 weighted tube jig heads to present a slow fall rate. If the tube bait is off: I switch to single tail grubs. And if they are aggressively biting I love catching them on Zoom Flukes. But with the fluke tail gogy priced at .77 a pack I couldn't pass this up.

Smallmouth's are nirvana

Bassin
Butch

I'm with you there Butch... just look at my avitar (profile picture). Those two giants came from Lake Erie... I sometimes wake up in the middle of the night with the memories of those pigs ripping the rod out of my hand in that crystal clear water. There nothing quite like ripping a jerkbait in clear water watching wolf packs of 5-7 lbs smallies chasing it down!

Back to the tube bait for a minute... I like using a light head also, however, when Gobies are present, that oversized head makes a huge difference. They don't really care about the rate of fall as much as they like seeing that fat head. If you give this a try, you'll see what I mean. It can be a little tuff getting the jig head inside the tube, but if you wet the tube first, it's not too bad.

There is a head specifically designed for this purpose called the "Bite-Me Big Dude Goby Head Tube Jig" (You can thank Mark Zona for the name).



As for the Fluke Tail Goby at $0.77 a pack... I hear a bell ringing and a carnivale announcer shouting "winner!". Great find, I'm sure they will go to good use.

Brendan we are like minded! another for you: I found that Zoom speed craws rigged on a pre weighted 3/0 or 2/0 wide gap worm hooks are magical when dragged on rock bars and humps. On a trip up to Hayward WI on new water to me I fished all of the GPS spots found on my Lowrance. Upon coming back in and catching a few SM here and there I headed in for lunch.

Back at the dock a local guy told me to be careful in the bay as a rock bar extends out into the bay. "It is not marked and a lot of guys have hit it over the years" he said.

That was music to my ears: after hitting the water I carefully maneuvered via TM to it. Caught back to back 5 pounders on consecutive casts. Many 3 and 4's to boot, all came off of the speed craw.

I love both LG and SM Bass, given a choice between the two I would chase the Smallies any day!

Bassin
Butch

You gotta love days (and places) like that. That is without a doubt one of the best parts of fishing... finding those little areas. It's even better when you find that little sweet spot that seems like no one else even knows about. I've never used the speed craw unless it was on a jig as a trailer. I know they can be deadly... I'll have to give that a try sometime. I had a friend who used to do the same thing with the berkley power craws... I just couldn't get myself to use it because it really looks out of place (to me) without a jig at the front end...

In case someone reading is wondering what the Zoom Speed Craw loks like:



Butch hace you ever used the Paca Craw, or Paca Chunk?




The craw works great by itself and on jigs. The Chunk is perfect for smaller jigs (you know the ones you would use for the bronzebacks)

BC

Brendan never tried the Paca as I have already enough craws and tubes to stock an army of anglers. (Nice looking lure) Have you ever used senko's for smallies? I bought several in the 3 in size but never gave them enough time on my line to really give them a fair evaluation. Use them a lot for LM though!

Bassin Butch

Yes, I have used them in certain situations. Here's an interesting technique from a talented guy in one of the Bass Clubs I am a member of:

The Senko Jig

Let me know what you think...

Thanks! Very interesting, I have had a pack of smallies follow a fluke all the back to the boat. Think I will try the jig head senko next year!

Have a happy thanksgiving and think spring

Bassin Butch

I fished the shore of Lake St. Clair for largemouths all season. My favorite early season bait was Bass Pro's Tournament Series green pumpkin 4"Goby. I experimented with a variety of ways to rig it, but found the most successful one to be a simple octopus hook through the SIDE of the Goby's head, twitched across the bottom unweighted. After catching 3 bass on 4 casts, I figured it wasn't a coincidence and used the technique successfully until the early season bite tapered off.

Hi JP,

There's something special about unweighted soft plastics. The slow fall really drives bass crazy. Thanks for sharing your experience with us.

BC