Hey there, angler – welcome back for another “Living Room 2 Lake” unboxing video with Travis Moran!

“Living Room 2 Lake” is a video series that features Travis unboxing his monthly Lucky Tackle Box and explaining how, when, and why to use the baits, lures, and tackle inside. Then, he takes us to his local lake to showcase the new fishing gear in action – both above and BELOW the water!

This month, Travis is talking about the baits from the October Bass XL box:

– Lurker Lures – Lurker Shad
– V&M – Straight Shooter
– Classified Lures – Area 51
– Toads Tackle – Fathead Minnow
– XPoint Hooks – Offset Round Bend Forged
– Highliner Lures – The Jerk
– Cold Blooded Baits – Thermocline

According to Travis, “These baits are tools. Once you understand the capabilities of these baits, then you will have a better chance of throwing them in the right conditions and have more luck when you’re out on the water.”

Right on, Travis!

Here are the top 3 lessons from the October “Living Room 2 Lake” video:

  • 1) Bass are slow and lethargic during cold winter months.
    • When the water temperature drops, bass like to swim along the bottom of the lake and they don’t like to travel far for their food, which makes a sinking jerk bait like “Classified Lures – Area 51” perfect for fall and winter fishing! The “Classified Lures – Area 51” bait sinks approximately 6 inches per second, so you can estimate exactly where it is at all times. Travis likes to rig up a sinking jerk bait on a semi-slack line and give it a “jerk, jerk, pause” motion to give fish the opportunity to bite. That “jerk, jerk, pause” motion will also allow the lure to reflect more light, making it especially easy to see in cold, clear water.
  • 2) Invest in baits that can work in many different applications.
    • During late fall and early winter, fish tend to scatter across large bodies of water, so it’s essential to invest in baits that can work in many different fishing applications. Travis loves soft body swim baits like “Toads Tackle – Fathead Minnow,” which can be used in clear water and dingy water situations. In clear water, the soft body swim bait looks very similar to a shad bait fish or a juvenile bass, both of which are easy meals for hungry bass. In dingy, dark water, Travis likes to put a soft body swim bait on an underspin or chatter bait, which makes it flash and vibrate so fish can easily see it, swim to it, and – hopefully! – bite it.
  • 3) When all else fails, learn to perfect your finesse fishing skills.
    • Finesse style worms are an excellent choice during cold winter months when bass are especially sluggish. Travis likes to rig up a bait like the “Straight Shooter – V&M Baits” with a basic split shot rig, with the split shot weight anywhere from 12 to 18 inches up the line from the worm. Then, he makes his cast, drags the bait through the water, reels in the slack, and then drags it again. Alternatively, Travis will let his boat drift while the bait meanders down along the bottom of the lake, bumping over little rocks and fallen tree limbs. When used properly, finesse style worms look like such an easy meal that even the most lazy, slow-moving bass will bite!

We post “Living Room 2 Lake” videos and blogs every month so you can maximize your luck on the water! Stay tuned for the next video in December, when Travis will go through all the new gear from the November Bass XL box. We have a feeling it’s gonna be FIN-TASTIC.

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“Living Room 2 Lake” October/November Video Transcription:

What’s up Lucky Tackle Box family. Travis here with my dog Leo, and we’re going to be looking at the October box in another episode of Living Room 2 Lake, where we go over this month’s box and I talk about each one of the lures and help you better understand how to use them and go to your local waters and have more success. That’s what it’s all about. These baits are tools, and once you understand the tools and capabilities of these baits, then you will have a better chance of throwing them in the right conditions and have more luck when you’re out on the water. So, let’s get right to it.

All right, our first bait is Toads Tackle Fathead Minnow. This is a great little soft bodied swim bait and it can work in a lot of different applications. One of my favorite ways to throw it is just very simply on a football style jig head.

This is going to allow that perfect great little tail action of this bait. That football head will make the bait roll a little bit side to side, which seems to be very effective at getting fish to strike, and I like throwing this in some clear water conditions, because it just looks very natural. Looks like some kind of bait fish or a little juvenile bass, which the bass love.

Now, the other way to throw it, if you have a little bit dingier water, you could throw it on an underspin, or you could put it on a chatter bait… that little flash will draw in fish from a little further away, and that chatter bait will really put off a lot more vibration. So, if you’ve got dingier, darker water, those fish will be able to hone in and key into it a little bit more. So, there’s little altercations that you can throw this bait on to really have some success.

What’s next? Next up is the Straight Shooter from V&M Baits. This is a finesse style worm, which is an excellent choice as we go into these colder months. I like using one of the most basic rigs there is, it’s called the split shot rig. Basically, I just rig this up Texas rig, with a little worm hook, and then I put up a little split shot anywhere from 12 to 18 inches up the line.

And what I do, is I’ll make little casts and I’ll either just drag it, reel in the slack, drag it, or I’ll even let my boat drift if I’m fishing from a boat and I’ll let that boat drift along, that rod tip down, and I can feel as that bait ticks over any kind of rocks or any kind of limbs down there. And what that’s doing is that bait’s got a real natural little look. That weight isn’t really digging down in there. I want to use as light of a split shot as I possibly can, so you’re really getting the natural flow of this bait. It looks like it’s just kind of meandering around down there.

Sometimes these bass, these cold months are really lethargic, they’re down towards the bottom and an easy little meal like this, is a perfect opportunity. You can catch fish on a very slow day. Pick this bait up, and you can really have some success. Now, speaking of that split shot rig, the XPoint Hooks that came in the box, is the perfect hook to rig up on that straight shooter from V&M Baits. So, you’ve got a nice little combo right here. Just add in a little split shot and you’ve got a great late fall through the wintertime bait that’s going to catch you some more fish when other guys aren’t.

Next up is Lurker Lures, Lurker Shad. This is a little medium diving slender crank bait. What I like to do with these, you can cast out and just retrieve it in like a normal crank bait, but what I like to do is drag and then retrieve the slack. So, what I’ll do is with the rod tip down, I’ll drag that bait two or three feet. You’ll feel it vibrating down there, because that bait’s working as you’re pulling it. Then reel in the slack real slowly, and then pull it. Reel in the slack, and repeat.

A lot of times as you’re reeling in that slack, that bait is basically sitting pretty much still. That’s when you’re going to get your bites. So, as you pull, and you’re reeling that slack back in, be feeling, because all of a sudden you’ll see your line jump, or you’ll even feel that fish hit it and you want to lean back on it. Don’t set it hard, on creek baits, you don’t need to get a hard hook set. All you want to do is put tension back on it and that fish as it’s pulling away, those treble hooks will dig in to where they need to be, and you’ll get a good hook set on that. Now that’s also important why you use a moderate tapering rod. You want that moderate action, because the rod will give, so that fish can’t get the leverage to yank these hooks or tear these hooks free. Very important when you’re using any kind of treble hook bait.

All right, now next up is Classified Lures Area 51, which is a sinking jerk bait. Guys, jerk baits, rip baits are fantastic lures mid, late fall, all the way through early spring. When you work these baits, you want to give it jerks. That’s where it gets its name on semi-slack line.

The reason you want that line to be semi-slack is so when you jerk it, it doesn’t just pull it right to you. On slack line, when you kind of whip it, that bait has the freedom to radically jerk around. That’s what triggers these fish. They see that erratic motion. Then you give it a pause, then you give it a couple more jerks, and then a pause. And so, that flash that these shinier baits give off, because this has got a nice reflection to it, this fish will see it. And, when it pauses, that will give them that moment, or that opportunity to come seize it.

Now, this is a sinking jerk bait. That’s critical to know when you’re using this. This thing sinks about a half a foot every second. So, if you cast it out and count to 10, this bait will have sunk down about five feet. A lot of times, if you’re fishing some deeper water and get suspended fish, or if you’re fishing like a bluff, and you want to let that bait get down there a little bit, or around some docks, where the fish are suspended in there and they’re not willing to come up and travel very far, that’s when you throw a sinking jerk bait like this. You can let it get down there. Those fish don’t have to move as far. You can get down to their smaller strike zone. Sometimes these fish, their strike zone shrinks up a little bit, so you’ve got to make sure you throw a bait that’s in that zone.

Let’s keep it moving. What’s next? All right, next step is Cold Blooded Baits Thermocline. This is a medium diving crank bait. Mimics a shad and this time of the year, late fall, early winter, these fish are really scattered. You need a bait that can cover some of those shallower depths and a little bit deeper to find where these fish are actually hanging out, and where they’re looking to feed.

The other thing is the nice little action looks like a little shad in the water. You’re able to cover water quickly. You can cast this out a long ways, not parallel, a little bit parallel to the bank. I like to position the boat 10 to 15 feet off the shore and make a cast up shallow. And so, this big comes out at kind of an angle. So, I’m covering different water depths. You can do the same from the shore. Instead of casting it straight out, you want to cast down the bank and a little bit deeper, and you’ll bring this bait at an angle right back up the shoreline so you can cover the water depths and figure out where these fish are located. A great little bait. I think you guys are really going to like this. Crank baits can be fantastic this time of the year.

All right, now the final bait in the box is The Jerk from Highliner Lures. This is another jerk bait. Travis, what? Why is there two jerk baits? Because this one’s different. This one actually suspends. So, where the other one was a sinking jerk bait, this one suspends, which is more of a traditional style jerk bait. Now, you’re still going to work it the same, right as you’re jerking it, boom, boom, boom, pause. But when you pause, it’s actually going to suspend right there. It’s not going to sink, and it’s not going to float. This bait, as you’re jerking it, will get down to about three, three and a half feet, and that’s going to be kind of the deepest depth it’s going to get to. And then as you jerk and pause, it’s going to pause, then jerk again, pause.

And what you’re trying to do, is these fish, they’re used to feeding up this time of the year. There’s so many shad, they’re eating those shad up, and when they see something erratic, and then pause, erratic, pause, it looks like a wounded bait fish that’s kind of just meandering around up there and they see an opportunity. The clearer the water, the more these fish will move to come up there. So, if you’ve got clear water conditions, this is the bait to use. These bass should come up from deeper water to come hit this.

Also, this isn’t a reflecting or shiny bait. This is more of a flat finish, which works more in low light situations. Meaning, first thing in the morning or in the evening or if you’ve got any cloud cover, this is the bait you’re going to want to go with, or this color is what you’re going to want to go with.

All right, guys, that is everything in this month’s box, and that concludes another episode of Living Room 2 Lake. The whole idea of this is to not only introduce you to new baits, but then teach you how to use them. If you understand the ways they work for me, what they look like underwater, you can then start putting them into your game plan.

These are just tools, and the more ways you know how use those tools, and understand those tools, the more you are likely to be able to put them into the right conditions and situations on your local body of water. And if you are able to do that effectively, you’re going to catch more fish. It’s basically putting the right baits in front of the fish at the right time, and you’ll catch more fish. We are trying to help you do more of that.

If it does work for you, share it with us. Myself and the entire team here at Lucky Tackle Box want to see your fishing pictures. So, use the hashtag #LuckyTackleBox when posting on Facebook or Instagram, so we can share in on your fishing adventures. Anyway, guys, I’m Travis Moran, with Leo who has now passed out on the ground here, and we will catch you out on the water.

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