Top 5 Tournament Baits of 2013, #1 Buckeye Lures' Mop Jig

Taking the top spot for my tournament baits of 2013 is Buckeye Lures' Mop Jig. The mop jig is a custom made jig with double rattles, Mustad flippin hook, and heavy living rubber. For me what separates this jig from the rest of the jigs I have used in the past is the heavy living rubber. Once this jig hits the water all of the pieces of its rubber skirt flare out giving it a much larger profile in the water than it has out of the water. The full size mop jig in water will flare out to approximately the size of a baseball. When the skirt flares out it leaves pretty empty core, which is accommodated perfectly with my number 3 tournament bait of 2013, Berkley Powerbait's crazy legs chigger craw. This larger profile makes this bait one of the best big bass baits in my tackle box. Not only does the mop jig hold my personal best largemouth, but it holds my personal best day for largemouth. It just so happens that both personal bests occurred on the exact same day.

July 27, 2013, Buckeye Kayak Fishing Trails Summer Slam Online Tournament

The morning started out pretty rough, we had a major storm system passing north of us which completely threw my original game plan out the window. I decided to hit a lake that was an hour south of my first option. I got on the water a little after daybreak and started working my way toward the shallow end of the lake. I worked the mop jig for 2 hours without a single bite, and then all of a sudden I got hit by a freight train. I set the hook with no more than 15 feet of line out and I quickly realized I had hooked a new personal best bass. After years of laughing at Mike Iconelli for over dramatizing his excitement I finally realized how he feels when he lands a big bass. My hands were shaking, my heart was beating, and to be honest I wanted to scream.....but I didn't.  The 21.5" largemouth went just over 5lbs.  An hour and a half later I get my second bite of the day, and I hook into yet another good bass. I quickly bring it into the yak and it goes 19.75". At this point I'm thanking the good lord above for such spectacular day of fishing.... Little did I know that the day was far from over.

I had a pretty long dry spell after that, 4 hours to be exact. However at 2:49pm I hook into a good bass while pitching the jig to pockets in the lily pads. It quickly wraps me up in a pad stem but my braid quickly cuts the pad and I bring both the pad stalk the fish up into the yak. This fish was smaller at 18", but still a good fish. A few minutes pass and I hook yet another fish while pitching into the lily pad pockets, my smallest of the day at 16". At this point I'm pretty sure I'm having the best day of my life. Its been raining on and off all day, its now almost four. Amanda and I are wet and hungry, I want to keep fishing but Amanda does not. I tell her that if we fish till 6pm we can go home then, she mumbles under her breath so I take that as a "ok". I keep fishing and quickly, I mean really quickly, land another fish. I'm pretty sure I'm dreaming at this point. I land the largemouth and throw her on the hawg trough and I cant believe my eyes........19". I had fished from 7am till 5pm and landed 5 fish. Those five fish just so happened to all be WELL above average for Ohio. For the tournament I had 3 fish that went 60.25" combined, which was good enough for first place. On the day I had broke my personal best by half an inch with the 21.5" bass, and shattered my 5 bass total for a single day with 94.25".....all of which came off of a Buckeye Lures Mop Jig in black and blue with a 4" Berkley Powerbait Crazy Legs Chigger Craw.

7/27/2013: Top 4 fish on Hawg Troughs....Top five total of 94.25"

7/27/2013: Three Bass For Buckeye Kayak Fishing Trails Tourney.....60.25" total

If that wasn't enough to justify the Mop Jig being in my number one spot, how about a few more Mop Jig Pigs from the 2013 season?

Now that my ego just went through the roof, I think I'll go crappie fishing to bring me back down to earth. Seriously though, if you haven't tried a Mop Jig yet give it a shot....you wont be disappointed.


Check out my #2 Tournament Bait of 2013
Check out my #3 Tournament Bait of 2013
Check out my #4 Tournament Bait of 2013
Check out my #5 Tournament Bait of 2013

I hope you guys enjoyed my Top Five Tournament Baits of 2013 as much as I enjoyed writing it. Thanks again for reading.

Sean