"Broodstock II" Top Baits

By Marty Hughes

Presented by Omnia Fishing, where you can purchase most of these baits and get a $50 gift card when you purchase their Omnia Pro app ($60) by using code KASPRO

Our final stop for the Kayak Adventure Series was in Franklin, Pennsylvania and it was another dandy tournament!  The “Broodstock II” provided an opportunity for anglers to catch both largemouth and smallmouth bass in some of the most beautiful scenery our country has to offer from the kayak.

Here are the major baits used by our top anglers in this event:

Alex Miller of Pennsylvania (1st-106.25”) put up big numbers with a 5” Seduce Minnow in Tennessee Shad with a custom 3/16th ounce jig head targeting schools of fish suspended in 20 feet of water. His secondary setup was a Crush City Mooch Minnow in Green Shad on a custom ¼ oz. jig head targeting individual fish on the bottom in 20-25 feet of water.

Alex Miller with his top two baits used to win the Broodstock II event, a 5" Seduce Minnow and Crush City Mooch Minnow.

One of Miller's top baits. The minnow worked well in catching fish deep with his spinning outfits.

Rus Snyders of Tennessee (2nd-93.5”) found the diverse bodies of water which included the Allegheny River, smaller streams, lakes, and ponds with shallow water produced a good limit for him. With three days of practice and moving to three ramps each day Snyders found a good area late on Friday using a “Dice” lure with his IRod Quercus. He also caught his bigger fish with a Zaldangerous 6” swim bait on his Quercus Toxic Swim 764 rod. It is a specialty rod for 5-6” swim baits. Day 2 was tougher fishing but Snyders went to work with a black wake bait on his Sniper IRod with 40 lb. braided line. These three main rods and lures helped Snyders to a second place finish and KAS Angler of the Year along with the team title paired up with Steve Baker. His kayak, a Bonafide RVR and Torqueedo Travel Ultralight got him to the places where the big fish roam! Snyders is looking forward to next season with the KAS and gives praise to Drew Gregory and Jake for the great work they do in organizing these events. 

Snyders with his top three baits including a black wake bait, dice, and Zaldangerous swim bait.

A closer look at Snyders' baits helping him garner a 2nd place finish in the Broodstock II.

Matt Ball of Ohio (3rd-93”) used a ZMan Thick-StickZ with a FishingOnline tungsten worm weight  with his Cashion Icon Worm and Jig rod paired with a Shimano Curado reel. Ball fished this rig targeting timber along the deeper river channel casting to the trees and any wood structures found in 4-6 feet of water. 

With his Cashion CK Series 7’1” medium heavy rod and Shimano Curado reel, Ball used a ZMan CrossEyeZ Jig with a Rage Craw trailer to catch two of his biggest fish on in this event. He was throwing this bait to deeper covered wood banks and dragging it through the limbs letting it sit after he would pull it into the structure. 

Another bait that provided Matt Ball with success in catching fish was a frog on a Cashion CK Series 7’6” Medium Heavy rod paired with a Shimano SLX DC.  He caught many of his fish midday once the sun got high throwing his frog into open patches within a shallow lily pad field. 

Matt Ball with one of his many nice largemouth caught during the Broodstock II.

Lily pad fields provided a great way to pull fish out with a frog for Matt Ball.

Matt Ball's lineup of baits included a ZMan ThickStickZ, ZMan CrossEyeZ Jig, and a topwater frog.

Joshua Brewer of New York (5th-90.75”) started out fishing a Choppo on a Douglas LRS SC724F 7’2” spinning rod with 20 lb Vicious No Fade Braid on a Kast King Royal Legend Glory 2000 reel along a rocky bank that dropped off into a channel. That is where he caught most of his fish on Friday evening. Saturday, he started out in the same area and had numerous blow ups on the Choppo with several misses. Then, in the afternoon the bite picked up and Brewer started to get some bigger fish along the shore and along the grass line that dropped off into the channel. 

Brewer and his Choppo that caught most of his fish.

A closer look at Brewer's Choppo.

Toby Foster of Virginia (6th-90.75”) said, “It was amazing event in a beautiful area and still can’t get over the outstanding local hospitality!” He said, that he would definitely go back there again and is looking forward to the 2026 season. 

Foster’s “go-to” rod and reel combos included a finesse approach that had him using a Cashion Icon spinning rod setup for his Neko rigged lures. “If it can be Neko rigged, I will make it happen!” He used two of the Cashion Core spinning rod setups for other finesse tactics as well. His St. Croix casting rod was used for the heavier swim baits. 

A more detailed look at Foster’s lineup:

1.       Cashion 7ft, Fast, Medium Icon spinning rod with Shimaro Miravel 2500 HG reel with braid to fluorocarbon leader. 

2.       Cashion 7ft, Fast, Medium Core spinning rod with Shimaro Miravel 2500 HG reel with braid to fluorocarbon leader.

3.       St. Croix 7ft, Fast, Medium-Heavy casting rod with Shimaro Curado MGL reel spooled with fluorcarbon. 

Lures:

1.       A Neko rigged Jewel Baits Sculpin, 4” in rootbeer-pepper.

2.       A Neko rigged “Natural” 4.25” Nikko Hellgrammite

3.       A Berkley Choppo 75mm in “perfect ghost” color.

4.       The Yamamoto Neko Fat Worm (in a dress ), 4in, watermelon-orange, Neko rigged with a Z-man rattle inside the tail.

5.      Keitech Swing Impact FAT swimbait, 4.8in smallmouth magic weedless with a Z-man rattle inside the tail.

Gear:  

“My Bajio Zapata sunglasses were one of my most important pieces of gear. In the challenging low level, grass filled river, they allowed me to locate the fish and see random deeper holes and channels in the weed beds. They are created by anglers for anglers and in my opinion are second to none!”

Foster with his lineup of baits.

Foster's baits included a Neko rigged Hellgrammite, Fat worm, Berkley Choppo, and a Keithech Swing Impact FAT swimbait.

A closer look at Foster's baits.

Josh Sims of Pennsylvania (7th-90”) used one lure on both days. His ⅜ oz ZMan Baby Jackhammer in Clearwater Shad with a Geocrack 2.8” Bellows Shad trailer caught all of his fish. His rod and reel of choice was a St. Croix, Victory medium heavy-moderate and the reel was a Shimano Curado 7:1. He spent both days on Lake Wilhelm fishing a rip rap bank about 100 yards from where he launched. 

Sims and his Baby Jackhammer tipped with Geocrack trailer.

A closeup look at Sims' Baby Jackhammer.

Jody Queen-West Virginia (9th-89.25") picked an area on Lake Shenango where he could motor between four bridges that contained a lot of rip rap. About 90 percent of Queen's fish caught in this tournament were on the Spro Rock Crawler. He was cranking the 9-14 foot diver on rip rap in 8-12 feet. He used different crayfish patterns with these cranks. Queen went to say, "Switching back and forth when the bite slowed gave them something a little different to look at."

Queen rigged up a Cashion ICON Series Rattletrap rod, a Lews Tournament Pro reel with a 7.5:1 gear ratio and spooled with 12 lb Gamma fluorocarbon to pull his Rock Crawlers along the rip rap. Queen loves to use this Cashion ICON series Rattletrap Rod for this presentation. "It has just the right forgiving tip for this application and it's 7'5" length makes for great distance casting," Queen went on to say. He hit his targeted depth easily and once the lure was down far enough he would slow down his retrieve to bump the crankbait off the rip rap.

Queen used a Spro Rock Crawler to catch his fish.

Jody Queen brought a nice selection of Spro Rock Crawlers for this tournament.

Queen with one of his many smallmouth bass caught during the Broodstock II.

Dwight Bartlett-Ohio (10th-88.5”) used a Zman GOAT ToadZ in white rigged weightless on a Mustad KVD grip-pin 5/0 soft plastics hook, Bassmafia Daingerous Loaded 5” Deep 1oz Swimbait, Keitech Easy Shiner 5 inch in Sight Flash rigged Texas style with a 1⁄4 ounce tungsten weight behind a bobber stopper, and a ZMan Baby GOAT in Canada Craw rigged weedless on a 1/10 ounce Zman Finesse BulletZ to catch his fish.

Bartlett's equipment included:

Rods:

Spinning: Yakrods Blackline 6’6” medium light fast 15lb braid to 10 lb fluorocarbon

Casting: St. Croix Premier 7’ Heavy fast 30 lb straight braid

Lews TP2 7’4” medium heavy moderate fast with 30 lb straight braid

6th Sense TEAM 6 7’2” Heavy 30 lb straight braid

Reels: Shimano SLX DC 150xg 8.2:1

Abu Garcia Revo SX 7.2:1

Shimano Stradic 2500

Line: Yo-Zuri Super Braid 30 lb, 15 lb

Yo-Zuri T-7 fluorocarbon 10 lb

Bartlett's full lineup of baits.

The ZMan Goat ToadZ in white rigged weightless o a Mustad KVD grip-pin 5/0 soft plastics hook.

Bartlett holding his 18.25 smallmouth caught on a Goat ToadZ in the final 10 minutes of the tournament.

The Bassmafia Daingerous Loaded 5" 1 oz. Swimbait was fished in 4-6 feet of water through boulders making sure to have plenty of bottom contact as Bartlett fished. Success was dependent on getting the bait through the water clean, and was no easy task with the thick eel grass present.

Not every fish was a giant but, they all thought they were! This massive 5.5 inch specimen was caught by Bartlett on the 5 inch BassMafia Daingerous Swimbait.

Not every fish was a giant but, they all thought they were. This massive 5.5 inch specimen was

caught on the 5 inch Dangerous Swimbait.

The 5 inch Keitech Easy Shiner in Sight Flash was rigged Texas style with a 1/4 oz. tungsten weight behind a bobber stopper. Bartlett fished it fast through the entire water column. Thrown in shallow and deep water with the most success found near ambush points in deeper water. He made the move to this presentation when the grass became to thick to handle.

The ZMan Baby Goat in Canada Craw rigged weedless on a 1/10 oz ZMan Finesse BulletZ. This lure caught good numbers and size of bass for Bartlett with a 100% hookup rate. Two retrieves were working for him. In the medium flow areas where he could get the kayak positioned below boulders he would dead drift back towards the kayak with a tight line. The second and most productive retrieval was in fast riffles. He would paddle upstream and allow the bait to tumble through the riffle while high sticking to keep the line from being grabbed by the water. While the bait was tumbling downstream he would open the bail and allow enough line to play out to reach the bottom of the riffle. When the bait reached the bottom he would close the bail which would sweep the bait in an arc and almost every pas would trigger a strike.

One of Bartlett's 18 inch smallmouth.