JWB

Thanks Nova. Cant wait to get the baits. That new one looks pretty good too!

Sorry Willy, Fish Belly white is one of my tennesseeisms. I would think it would be need to be somekind of off white although I have no idea how to do that. Hanging out on this board and reading some of y'all's posts have made me think about trying to do some of this myself. Joel

The picture is a Central Stoneroller. I lifted it from a University of Michigan biology website. It still doesn't match exactly color wise but it is pretty close. Once I get my baits from Nova, We may tweak the color a little bit to get a closer match. There still needs to be a little silver in the sides because the real thing has them....especially when they are stressed out and loosing scales. May need to put a little fish belly white too. It needs to be pretty close because this creek I fish has EXTREMELY clear water (tap water clear) and most of the year doesn't get deeper than 6-8 ft. It is maybe 15ft across. The fish are SPOOKY of baits, sudden movements and noise. It is really more like hunting with a rod and reel. If I drop in size below 4 inches I cant beat the sunnies and redeye off it long enough for the smallies to pick it up. Besides the bigger fish like that bigger bait.

Would there be anyway to put silver in the side/belly area? Those look good!

Stonerollers I suspect are like Red eyes, rock bass, goggle eyes, shoal bass.....They are called whatever they are called based upon what ever region you are in. Stonerollers are called Horny Heads up in east tennessee where I grew up.

It is a type of sucker. In a couple of creeks I fish they are the happy meal of the local smallmouth population. They seem to like the 4-5 inch size although they will smack a larger version if opportunity arises. I don't make my own plastics but was thinking about having something made to imitate. I guess I could go with a fluke type bait....I also thought sometype of goby bait might work....I also thought some kind of 4 to 5 inch grub might be the ticket.

These things vary from creek to creek but here is one pretty close to color.

Any of you guys pouring something that is a good imitation of a stoneroller?