BFT Paddletail success?

Hello,
Just curious if anyone has been experiencing any success on the river using the BFT paddletails? I had a chance to get out on the Wisconsin river at Wisconsin Dells over the weekend and they were the only thing putting fish in my boat. The orange chartruese tail was the hot bait for eater size fish, putting over 20 in the boat. We didn’t put a single fish in the boat with ringworms, hair jigs, or curly tail grubs, but the paddletails worked like magic. Just curious if anyone has been using them on the Mississippi?

Thanks.
John Schultz

Yes, the paddle tails have been putting fish in the boat up here on Pool 2. I fish them the same way as a super doo. Hold em’ just off the bottom…….bam! Blue, Purple have been good.

-J.

I caught more fish on paddletails, casting or vertical jigging, than I did on ringies this past fall. They’re a very good vertical jig bait but don’t overlook them as a casting bait when fishing wingdams or shorelines.

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The catalpa orange was also my favorite this fall with the chartreuse pepper and oystershell coming in tied for second.

Do you guys find specific jig head colors to work better with these paddletails? Seems I remember a while back a lot of us were fishing jigs with no color at all..just curious.

Seems to be streaky for me. This fall a lime green head or an orange chartreuse head was the ticket. Over the last couple weeks a white, black or plain head seems to be best in the clearer water. With the run-off coming, I’d expect a contrasting head color to help quite a bit as it did last spring.

See what you started….Just ordered 1 package each of all colors from BFN! Are they as effective on lakes as they are on rivers? I have tried the ringies several times on Lake Vermilion without much success.

James or anyone–Do you ever use stinger hooks with your plastic and if so would you shorten say a ringworm? Or do you leave them the same length?-John

Stinger hooks? Never. Shorten them? On occassion I’ll pinch off 1/4 inch off the head of a ringie but not normally.

About lakes… I just started fishing the p-tails this last fall and haven’t had a chance to try them on lakes but I’d bet the farm they’ll be deadly on smallies and walleyes around / in weeds.

Will B-Fish-N have a booth at the QCCA Outdoor Show in the Quad Cities this weekend?

No… but they will be in Madison the following weekend.

What size jig heads do you use with the p-tails or ringworms? Does the fihing technique determine the jig head size?

Sandbar

When casting I’m rarely heavier than a 3/16ths. When vertical I’m rarely heavier than a 5/16ths. Going as light as possible (I know this must seem like it is over-stressed at times) is really a HUGE key to success when fishing plastics, especially when casting.

For some ideas on jigheads for fishing plastics, check out the BFT Precision Heads

Eyejacker.

I tried ringworms and kgrubs on LOTW this past summer for walleyes on shallower reefs with limited success. I did catch fish with them, but not nearly as fast as your typical live bait presentations. I think when it comes to lake food, the walleyes do use their sense of smell/taste more than what they do on the river.

The key to these babies working in the river is that it it more of a reaction bite. Where if the eye doesn’t eat it, she don’t eat…..But you have to have the right presentation to get her to react.

On lakes, the fish have a little more “time” for lack of better words to pick/choose their food. On the river, it is “you snooze-you loose”.

Now, where the ringworm prevails is the absolute “limp” body and the smoothness of the twistertail. This allows the plastic to actually swim with the flow of water, whether you are drifting or casting.

There’s so much info shared about fishing plastics in rivers now that MANY more anglers feel confident using them in those situations but fishing plastics in lakes gets over-looked when they shouldn’t. I believe there was an MTT tournament won on Mille Lacs last summer by a pair of guys snapping plastics on shallow rock. I’ll have to check back in some old copies of Midwest Outdoors to be sure which tournament circuit it was. I’ve had super success snapping plastics around cabbage beds for walleyes and bass. I’ve heard of guys catching numbers of walleyes off of rock reefs on mille lacs fishing ringies when the bobber n’ bait bite was dead. So there’s plenty of situations when anglers should be considering them.

Gary, mendotaeye and James,

Great info guys, you have renewed my confidence/enthusiasm …..gonna give the ringies (and soon to arrive, paddletails) some serious lake time this season.

Look to Steve DeZurik to drop some reports from LOTW in June that should point you in the right direction regarding the use of plastics in lakes for walleyes and bass. He does an annual family trip up there and they pretty much go “live bait free” all week and routinely do 50 – 100 fish days on plastics… plus the occassional pike or muskie thrown in.

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Gary, mendotaeye and James,

Great info guys, you have renewed my confidence/enthusiasm …..gonna give the ringies (and soon to arrive, paddletails) some serious lake time this season.

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I dug up one of Steve’s reports from last season >>> LOTW – June – 2004

Thanks for the heads up, James, I’ll make a note to keep an ‘eye out for Steve’s reports!(i.e. if I have any, that is )

As long as I am increasing my plastics arsenal with the addition of a variety of “paddletails” to the considerable “ringie” collection I already have, do I need to add the “super-doos” also, if so, what colors and sizes?

The doos are available in 4″ only so size isn’t a consideration. I’d opt for a few light n’ bright and a few dark n’ naturals to get me started.

Brights – chartreuse pepper, sour apple, brite craw

Naturals – silver minnow, grape shad, ice blue pearl, catalpa orange

These are just a few of my personal faves… I’m sure lots of guys could point to different patterns as their personal “go to” colors but this assortment would get the job done in most situations.

Don’t overlook these baits as early season smallie catchers.

Done…ordered “doos” in exactly the colors you suggested James! Thanks!
I see that my “paddletail” order has already been shipped! That’s what I call service!

James,

Last year Berkley decided not to make their 3″ Power Tubes in white anymore. Those were one of the best colors for Mille Lacs smallmouth that there is. I think you could pick up a large market if you were to offer those ‘Doos in a solid white, not pearl, but plain old white. I experimented with some (wht/chart) last year, and am sure that you could easily pick up that market that Berkley has dropped.

As long as were talking colors, let me also mention this. GOBIE patterns. Bass and walleyes LOVE to munch on gobies in those waters where they are found. I don’t know if your market areas include any of the great lakes, or other waters where there are gobies, but if they do, people will buy them up pretty quickly. Most people are just now learning how much the walleyes and bass like them.

I fish for smallies all the time using paddletails. Great bait for them. I also had one good time on the pond for eyes up north on the rock/sand transition area. I think we had 30-40 fish in a couple hours. I like a pearl with chartreuse(sp?) tail. But I will say that I do not use BFT’s I will try them this year.
Ron