Product Review: PowerTeam Lures Bass Attack Pack

Now that the water is warming up and everyone is dusting off their kayaks, it’s time to start restocking your arsenal of freshwater soft plastics.  Since there are thousands of different shapes, sizes, and colors to choose from, deciding on what you are going to buy can be tough.  However, if you are looking for a good quality soft plastics kit to get you started this season look no further than the PowerTeam Lures Bass Attack Pack. 

I bought this kit and decided to put it to the test against winter and prespawn bass under numerous weather conditions and on several different lakes to see it this kit would pass the test, and let me tell you, it did and with flying colors!

OVERVIEW: 

The Bass Attack Pack comes in two different color options: lighter blues/browns and darker browns/greens/junebug colors.  I chose the darker kit based on the water color I normally fish. The kit includes each of the following:  6” Gators, 7” Ticklers, 5” Sick Sticks, 3.5” Food Chain Tubes, and 3.5” Craw D’oeuvres.  It also includes terminal tackle like: Pea Heads, Tick Shakes, FCT Tube Heads, and 2/0 EWG Hooks.  Hog Tonic capsules are also included in the kit. 

6” Gator

The Gator is a lizard style soft plastic.  These baits can be killer during the spring time while the bass are spawning.  A lizard looks like a salamander which is a natural predator and bass won’t hesitate to attack one near a bed.  I have had success pitching a Gator on to a bed, but my most successful method has been a Carolina rigged gator.  For those who don’t know what a Carolina rig is, it is normally a ½-1oz. egg sinker that is above a swivel. On the other end of a swivel is 2-4feet of 10lbs fluorocarbon leader.  Slowly dragging a Carolina rig with a gator near a spawning flat will drive the big females crazy. 

18" Bass on the Gator 

7” Tickler

The 7” Tickler is the perfect worm for shakey head fishing.  This bait rigged on one of the Tick Shake heads is hard to beat when the fishing gets tough.  On days after a wicked cold front has moved through, this may be the only bait that catches fish.  I like working this bait over long main lake and secondary points, as well as on ledges.  The key to using this bait effectively on slow days is to work the bait extra slow.  Most of the time I won’t even move the bait once it hits the bottom, I will only shake it.  Even the most finicky bass will be tempted to eat this worm and don’t let the size fool you; I have caught bass from 10in to 20in on this bait.

An early prespawn bass couldn't resist a 7" Tickler 

5” Sick Stick

This bait is by far my favorite out of the kit. The 5” Sick Stick is a soft stick bait style plastic that will catch bass any time of year under any conditions.  I have fished it in so many different ways and have caught fish every way I have tried.  If I had to pick one way to fish this though it would be weightless on one of the EWG hooks that comes with the kit. This rig will catch bass of all sizes, all year.  The retrieve is simple; just throw it out and let the bait sink, then use a jerk, jerk, pause cadence to bring it back in.  Vary the length of the pauses, depending on the water temperature.  The colder the water the longer I pause.

One of many bass caught on a Sick Stick

3.5” Food Chain Tubes

The Food Chain Tube is an excellent bait for bedding bass in the lakes around Tidewater VA.  I will rig the Tube with the FCT Tube heads that are included in the kit.  I use this bait when sight fishing for Largemouth’s guarding beds.  I will pitch the tube directly on top of the bed and let it sit there until it gets the fish’s attention.  Once the fish locks on to it hop it a few times.  This should drive the fish crazy and make it eat the bait. With the hook being exposed, it helps with hook ups too.

 Spawning Bass can't pass up a Tube!

3.5” Craw D’oeuvres

The Craw D’oeuvres are the most versatile bait in the kit.  You can Texas rig them, Carolina Rig them, jig it, use it on a shakey head, or use it as a jig trailer.  I have caught fish using each of these methods, but using this bait rigged on a Tick Shake has produced the most fish.  During the late winter, and early spring, this produced some of my larger bass fish.  Slowly hopping this bait along the bottom mimicking  a crawfish produced the most action. 

Big Winter time Pig on a Craw D

Add Ons:

Even though the Bass Attack Pack is ready to fish now, I have added a few pieces of terminal tackle to fully equip it.  Some of these things are: Bobber stoppers for Texas rigging, some bigger worm hooks, and a few bullet head weights in assorted sizes. 

The PowerTeam Lures Bass Attack Pack is an awesome kit that is good for beginner and experienced fisherman alike.  You can pick up a kit at Appomattox River Company and on their website. 

Spring is here and its time to go out and catch yourself a HAWG!!!

Cranking and pitching into Spring

Fun Size crankbait fish

The winter curse has finally lifted here in Southeast Virginia and the water is warming up! After a week of warm spring temperatures I was excited to get out on one of my favorite lakes for some prespawn largemouths.  I rigged my Cuda 14 up and hit the water.  I planned on throwing swimbaits and crankbaits around stumps and submerged brushpiles.  The first hour was slow with only a few hits, but I went up a large creek off the main lake and found the fish.  My first fish nailed a swimbait that I bounced off a stump.  I kept running my swimbait and crankbait near stumps and picking up small fish. 

This fish crushed a swimbait near a stump

The bite was never heavy, but it also never stopped.  I caught most of my fish on the crankbait, with a few of my larger fish on the swimbait.  I also picked up a few pickerel on my crankbait as well. 

Hooked Up

The next day I went back out to the same lake.  The temperature had dropped about 10 degrees and there was a stiff north wind.  The rising barometric pressure made the crankbait bite tough, so I switched to pitching heavy cover. I caught 5 fish on laydowns and submerged trees in around 6 feet of water.

 This takes a lot of time and patients on days like today. I would work one laydown for about 10-15min to find fish. I also had to experiment with several colors and baits until I found the right combination.  A PowerTeam Lures 3.5” Craw D’oeuvre in green pumpkin red flake was the hot bait.  I would cover the bait with PowerTeam Lures Hog Tonic to give the bait that extra edge on the fish.  These fish were in the tightest, thickest part of the cover, and took a stiff rod to get them out.  I even pulled a pickerel out of a huge laydown. 

Spring is here, and it’s time to get out and catch some big pigs!