SC Citizen Rig

Last spring, me (JS) and the rest of the SC crew made our annual trip to the Beauchene Wilderness lodge.  It’s a lodge in northern Quebec, Canada and the lakes are fully loaded loaded with Smallmouth Bass.  

For the trip, my partner Pat received a bunch of Working Class Zero Citizen 6’s to test. 

At this time of the year, the smallies were hanging on the ledges in about 7-8 feet and were coming up from the bottom to attack the bait head first.  When we figured it out, I decided to rig the citizens with the material I had at the moment.  The idea was to expose the hooks on the belly for a better hookup ratio and to experiment with different sink rates.  We had a cold front for a few days which caused the topwater and hard bait bite to be slow.  The citizen rigged that way helped us to fish slower and deeper and ultimately put us on some really good fish. 

STEP 1

With a long and sharp tool, like a nail.  Drill a hole from the middle of the nose to the middle of the belly of your Citizen.

DRILL A HOLE

STEP 2

Cut about 6 inches of fluorocarbon.  A bit longer than what you really need so you can find the proper length.  We used 60lbs fluoro which worked fine.  I wouldn’t recommend a smaller size.  The Bigger the line diameter, the harder it is to tear the Citizen during a fight.

CHOOSE YOUR FLUORO WISELY

6INCH IS ALL YOU NEED

STEP 3

Use a double barrel sleeve to make a loop with your fluorocarbon.  Make sure to use the proper sleeve diameter that matches your line size.  We used 1 mm diameter sleeve with 60 and 70 pound fluoro.  You could insert a split ring on the loop if you like a bit more play between the bait and the line.

CHOOSE THE GOOD DOUBLE BARREL

DO THE LOOP

STEP 4

Tighten the loop and crimp it with crimping pliers.

CRIMP IT

STEP 5

Insert your fluoro with the loop into your Citizen.

INSERT YOUR FLUORO

STEP 6

Insert a sleeve onto the other end of the fluorocarbon.

INSERT THE SECOND SLEEVE

STEP 7

Insert the fluorocarbon into a split ring/ treble hook and close the loop in the sleeve.  For the Citizen 6, we used Owner size 1 ST36-BC hooks and size 6 hyper wire split rings.

CHOOSE YOUR HOOKS

CLOSE THE LOOP

STEP 8

Tighten the second loop.  Make sure the hook sits tight in the slot on the end.  Before tightening the sleeve, make sure the fluorocarbon and sleeve are properly in the bait.  You should only see the loop on the nose of the bait.

TIGHTEN IT

STEP 9

Once you’re satisfied with the hook and fluoro placement, crimp it the second sleeve and cut off the excess tag.

CRIMP AND CUT

STEP 10

Now you’ll need to add some weight to the bait.  At the Beauchene Lodge, we used TG grenade weights (3.5g) for the Citizen 6.  They make it easy to clip onto the belly split ring.  It was in cold water and on a lake, The weight will vary depending on the situation (changes in water temp and current).  The baits sink more in colder water.  You could also use nail weights. The Decoy 1.2G are the perfect size to fit in the side fins of the Citizen 6.  Depending on the time of year, you will need to add or subtract weight for the fish you are targeting.  This rig keeps it simple to adjust the bait the way you want.  The Grenade and nails weights make it easy to make these changes on the fly.

1.2G NAILS

NAIL THE FINS

CHOOSE THE RIGHT GRENADE

GET READY TO BE BATTLE SCARED

RIGGING VIDEO

HOPEFULLY THIS ARTICLE WILL HELP YOU TO REACH CONFIDENCE AND SUCCESS WITH SOFT SWIMBAITS. THAT TECHNIC COULD BE APPLY ON MOST SOFT PLASTIC SWIMBAITS. fURTHERMORE THE DESIGN OF THE wORKING cLASS zERO cITIZEN AND bATTLESHAD ARE AWESOME FOR THE HOOK POSITIONING.

CHECK OUT WORKING CLASS ZERO STORE FOR AVAILABILITY. MIKE GILBERT AND HIS FAMILY HAND POURED ALL BAITS. LOTS OF LOVE AND PASSION INVESTED IN THOSE BAITS. THEY DESERVE ALL OUR SUPPORT.

LINK TO WCZ WEBSITE http://www.workingclasszero.net/

WORKING CLASS ZERO INSTAGRAM https://www.instagram.com/working.class.zero/

JS FORCIER

Big baits angling in Canada

Since a few decades, the hype about throwing big swimbaits for many species is constantly growing. Born in the southern states, the movement grew through many states and countries, drawing the attention from multiple different anglers across the world. The idea of throwing an oversized bait to catch a fish of a lifetime is a real dream most anglers wish to accomplish.

In Canada most of our anglers that already throw big baits are doing it for musky or pike. Avid musky anglers probably already catch monster walleyes or a monster bass on musky baits from time to time. They all know what the hype is all about. Casting a bait that could catch you a fish of a lifetime...

As a bass angler the task isn’t nearly as easy, casting a bait that automatically discards smaller bites is hard to keep confidence levels high. With very few bites a day instead of many. Starting with swimbaits can be very rough and you need the right tools to not only throw such large baits, but also to be able to control a fish of record magnitude when an angler becomes fortunate enough to have an encounter. Whether that be a lake record, province/state record, country record or even a world record.

As a multi species angler i have fished all the ways we can imagine in my local waters, from musky fishing to fly fishing and tying my own flies to bass tournaments. Throwing swimbaits and having consistent success with it is one of the most difficult challenges I have had to face. As musky fishing you need to grind big baits, and fly fishing you need to perfectly match the hatch. Adopting a good cadence, balanced rod/reel and lines for each type of swimbait. Success is achieved when all things line up and a fish commits to your bait and the fight is on.

So, where to start:

The internet, Facebook groups, Instagram are full of information. Lots of groups can help in getting started in swimbaits.

The swimbait hype comes from California, the home of swimbaits. Legendary baits and big bass fisherman become famous from here, just thinking about a few famous swimbaits; the Hinkle Trout, Deps 250, 8 inch Huddleston… These baits are designed to target world class largemouth bass, specifcally bass over 10 pounds, and lots of people have accomplished that magic weight using the baits listed above with many in the teens documented on the baits, Mike Gilberts 17.4lb largemouth on the hinkle trout, Butch Brown's mid to high teeners on the Deps 250 and 8” huddleston deluxe.

But as Canadians, before jumping in the hype train and invest a lot in those swimbaits we need to question ourselves. Are we throwing big baits to be a part of the big swimbait community or are we are really doing it to really catch a monster.

2 major differences between our neighbours from the south and us, Canadians.

1)                  In US we can fish almost all year round. In eastern Canada we can’t fish until the spawn. Generally our season is June to November. A small window including summer time where fish can be more difficult to catch on big baits.

2)                  The Florida strain largemouth bass, double digit fish. As Canadians we are not blessed with Florida Strain largemouth, thus fishing for smallmouth and northern strain largemouth where 6-7 pounds are monster of a lifetime for most.

So we need to think out of the box. What is considered a big bait in Canada and what does really catch bigger fish for us. How can we, with our different conditions, start up as a hyped, new, big bait thrower to be a successful swimbaiter.

My experience tells me that:

I started fishing for walleye and bass early 2004. We were fishing local spots and catching plenty of both species. A few years after we began to have an interest for musky and start fishing bigger and bigger baits. In the same areas, where we started years ago, we began catching musk's on a regular basis. Why do big baits work for targeting musky? Because 2-3” baits just weren't  enough to provoke a strike from the ultimate predator in our waters. The fish don't want expend more energy catching a meal than the meal is worth. While we were musky fishing, every once in a while we would catch very large bass and trophy walleye on these huge baits, more trophy fish than any of us had caught years prior.

Other things to consider, fish will attack for multiple different reasons, defensive behaviour, anger and feeding. What you need to have for consistent success on big baits, is to fish with a profile that the fish are used to seeing in your body of water, match the hatch. Trophy fish don't get big by not eating, that's why on some days the bite will be dead but, you will catch one big fish, that is because a fish needs to constantly eat to maintain its body weight and live. Using this information, the best option of targeting the biggest fish in your body of water is with a slower more methodical bait that a large fish will analyze, and than decide to eat instead of lashing out in anger or defensive behaviour.

Don’t get me wrong, I already catch big bass on 10 inch baits. But different factors are to be considered, as competition in the water body, etc. But in fishing, it’s all about percentage.  I really think that considering the factors that I mentioned will put you right in the middle of the window that you want and gives a better percentage to catch big fish on regular basis. Then that gives you the confidence you need to become a successful swimbaiter.

A good rule of thumb is: not too small, but, not too big

For smallmouth in eastern Canada my favourite size baits range from, a large profile 5.5 inch to 8’’. For northern strain largemouth a 6.5 to 9 inch baits are my preferred choices. So almost 35% the length of the fish we target. 19 to 23 inch long. As the year gets longer we increase our size of baits as by late fall/early winter the bait fish still surviving are the largest they will be all year

For the thrill and a challenge, I will throw bigger baits. And sometimes, I will throw smaller baits when the fish are more keyed in on smaller bait fish

As a conclusion, learn from your own experiences, try different things to adapt your area. Another key thing is there is no such thing as a magic bait, all baits have a time and place. My suggestion is to start with a topwater, slow sink softbait, fast sink softbait, a glide bait and a slow sink multi joint hardbait and learn those baits until you can consistently have success with each of them and than expand from there.

J-S. Forcier