Salted Carrot baits???

[ghostbaits]

Ok guys, I have a question. I fished with a carrot for a bit over the weekend but the vegitation here does not allow you to have and open hook or a lightly weighted jig head in the bait. Either way, the baits hang in the vegitation and won't get bit.

My friend took me to school with a z-nail while I struggled with the carrot and a good way to rig. I have seen where many are going to use this bait instead of a senko type bait.

My question is... how are you going to rig it to get an effective presentation when you are fishing in areas of semi-thick vegitation. I'd like to see a salted pour and the action it imparts.

Our lakes are already topped out with vegitation is many areas and it is just mid-March. Keep in mind also, the lake we were fishing had a max depth of 6ft with the majority of the lake being 3ft deep.

Is anyone pouring these with heavy salt to see how the action is?

Flip side is, I took out my popping Spro frog and gave him a lesson in how to get the bigger fish to bite!!!  

Jim

[TAE73]

I haven't but couldnt you pour the head section with salt and leave the tail alone?

[Underdog]

I also was thinking of salting the carrots. I my try using the mf sinking plastic were you don't need as much salt.

[ghostbaits]

I don't have a mold (yet) and am getting bombarded with senko type bait requests again.

I don't like to sell something I don't feel comfortable fishing myself so I really need a salted bait I can rig weedless that gives the same (or better) action as a senko type bait.

Jim

[CasterCreekTackle]

Figuera made me some salted carrots, but they were not heavily salted and I havnt gotten the chance to use them yet.

[figueira]

The ones i did I used about 2 t.s.p. of fine salt to 8oz of plastic I havent fished them because of the winter

[Jason]

Is the grass to thick to use a weighted swim bait hook?  How would you fish a Wutz-It in the same area?

I would either try pegging a bullet weight or a weighted swim bait hook (I use the weighted swim bait hook).  They inject fine with salt, but I don't like what it does to the color.  The action is still better than a Senko because it is thinner if you go the salt route.

Jason

[t-billy]

 There's a guy on ebay selling "Pro tip up jigheads." His ebay name is coddy13. You should check them out. Similar to a spot remover pro,but he makes em in 3,4,5/0. 1/8-7/16 oz. Great quality. 25 for about $20.  A carrot looks great rigged on one of these.  My copy of the magnum fineke worm has incredible action standing nose down on one of these. Might be just what yer lookin for.

[ghostbaits]

Thanks but I am looking for a weightless solution as with most that throw a senko style bait. Not many baits can replace that action and fish catching ability when the bite is on.

Adding weight in any way throws off the way the bait falls and the fish do not react to the bait in the same manner. You get bit less for sure. Only a fluke style bait is close in bites, again, it must be a weightless presentation.

The slow fall shimmy of a senko style bait is what I need. I just hoped a salted carrot might be a replacement.

Jim

[Jason]

I'm going to start by apologizing for the video quality.  We did this on the fly to give a quick comparison. 

Here is a video of the 6" Carrot and the 6" Senko - both Texas Rigged, and the last two just on a free fall.  We used 1 cup soft plastic and 1/4 cup salt.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSgb74TMJjE

While the Carrot truly excels as a wacky bait, jerk bait or on a shaky head, you can see it also matches up well against a Senko Texas rigged, making the Carrot an extremely versatile bait.

Tight lines!

Jason

[ghostbaits]

MONEY!!!!!!!!!  Exactly what I ws talking about on the horizontal fall and the rate of the fall.

Not only does this demonstrate exactly what I was talking about, it also shows that the carrot has a similar action when falling t-rigged.

Awesome job Jason as you nailed the bait side perfect as well!!! Great job all the way around! Seriously, you demonstrated EXACTLY what I was asing about, in video, in 8 hours!!! WOW!!!!!!!

Were those 6" baits?

Jim

[Jason]

They were the 6".  I didn't have any 5" Senkos.

Thanks Jim.

Jason

[pieterbez]

Nice video Jason.
Makes me thing I have to get me some of those suckers

[mradamh]

Yep, sold!  Next up, 4" and 6" Next Level Smooth Sticks!

[MonteSS]

Very nice. So that was the CC soft with 1/4 cup salt per 8 oz plastic. No other softener was added? It looked pretty soft still. How is durability?

Thanks...Bill