Top 10 Baits from Shasta
The baits that got the job done when the going got tough
A lot of Shasta staples showed up in the Costa FLW Series Western Division event presented by Minn Kota, but there were some original choices as well. If you’re headed to Lake Shasta in the spring or late winter, you should probably consider taking along some of the following baits.
Greg Gutierrez’ winning pattern
1. Greg Gutierrez caught fish on a jig and a Carolina rig, but his bread-and-butter bait was a ¼-ounce Frenzy Baits NAIL shaky head, made by his company and designed by him. He rigged it with a 4.95-inch Reaction Innovations Flirt Worm in either green pumpkin or watermelon and fished it on 15-pound-test braid with a 6-pound-test Gamma Edge leader and a 7-foot, 1-inch medium-power iRod Genesis II spinning rod.
2. Richard Dobyns caught his second-place stringer with a ½-ounce Ganns Performance Tackle Stiletto Spinnerbait, a Megabass Ito Vision 110 and a 5-inch green pumpkin-colored Yamamoto Senko. Naturally, he used Dobyns rods and chose a 734 Champion for the spinnerbait, a 704CB Champion for the crankbait and a 7-4, medium-power Champion Extreme 743SF for the Senko.
3. Ken Phillips kept it simple and relied on a gold flash minnow-colored Keitech Swing Impact FAT with a dyed tail on either a 1/4- or 3/8-ounce ball head.
4. Joe Uribe Jr. says he caught his bass on a 5/8-ounce Phenix Pro Series Football Jig with a Yamamoto Double Tail Grub for the trailer, as well as a 3.8-inch Keitech Swing Impact FAT. He tossed the jig on a 7-2, heavy-power Daiwa Tatula casting rod with a 6.3:1 gear ratio Daiwa Tatula 100 with 30-pound-test Sunline SX1 braid and a 14-pound-test Sunline Super FC Sniper leader. For the Keitech, Uribe says he used a 7-foot Performance Tackle spinning rod with a Daiwa Exist spinning reel and the same line/leader combo with 20- and 7-pound-test.
5. Just about everything he threw caught fish for Bryant Smith, from the Megabass Ito Vision 110 he fooled the tournament big bass with, to a float n’ fly rig, to a wacky-rigged Yamamoto Senko.
6. Jeff Michels caught the fire out of them on day one with a medium-running crankbait that even he couldn’t name and added to his catch with a Yamamoto Senko later in the week.
7. Miles Howe was all in on the swimbait bite and relied primarily on a River2Sea S-Waver and mixed in a 6-inch custom swimbait from Pro Point Lures. He tossed the S-Waver on a 7-5, heavy-power G. Loomis NRX casting rod with a Shimano Core reel (6:1 gear ratio) and 15-pound-test Seaguar InvizX.
8. Fishing his first FLW event as a boater, Rick Grover primarily utilized a YUM YUMbrella Flash Mob Jr. with Keitech Swing Impact FATs thrown with 20-pound-test Sunline and an iRod Genesis II Bama Rig Special.
9. Tommy Cardoza says he fished primarily with a 7-inch Top Shelf Magnum Deep Runner swimbait with 20-pound-test Seaguar fluorocarbon, and a Shimano Cardiff 300 on an 8-foot Powell swimbait rod.
10. Roy Hawk rode a crankbait bite until it died. His bait of choice was an unnamed knock-off of a Wiggle Wart that he tossed on a 7-6, medium-heavy-power Tiapan cranking rod with 12-pound-test Yamamoto Sugoi fluoro.
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