Dougs Custom Lures 5" Soft Plastic Stickbait

"The 5-inch stickbait is the most versatile soft plastic in your box. It can be rigged six different ways and catch bass in almost any condition — shallow, deep, clear, stained. I never leave the dock without a full bag. When nothing else is working, I go back to this bait."

Cast it weightless and let it flutter naturally. Most strikes happen on the way down — keep your line semi-tight and watch for the tick.

Work it along the bottom to mimic a worm or leech on the move. Short hops, long pauses — let the bait do the seducing.

Its slim profile skips under docks and tight cover with ease. Get it into spots other baits can't reach — that's where the big ones live.

Short snaps with your rod tip trigger a wounded-baitfish action. Fan cast large areas to locate fish — it covers water fast.

Nail weight in the nose, hooked wacky-style. It stands up nose-down on the bottom and quivers in place — deadly for finesse presentations over hard bottom and rock.

Heavy egg sinker on main line, long fluoro leader, bait floats freely behind. Drag it across deep structure to cover water and locate roaming fish fast.

Add an O-ring to your wacky hook. It slides over the middle of the bait so the hook slips through the O-ring instead of tearing through the plastic — you'll get 5–6 fish per bait instead of one or two. Cheap and easy, it pays for itself on your first trip.

Go natural, subtle, and translucent. Bass get a long look at the bait — anything too flashy gets refused. Colors that mimic local shad or panfish win here.

Step up to higher contrast — you need an outline bass can track. Two-tone colors and slight flash help them zero in through tannin-stained or off-color water.

Dark bodies produce a silhouette bass can locate by lateral line. Black and dark-flake colors are the go-to — solid color outlines read better than subtle patterns when light is gone.

When fish follow but won't eat, drop a shade darker. If you're throwing blue craw and they're tailing it but turning off — switch to black red. Nine times out of ten that one shade of contrast is all it takes.

Five inches is the middle of the range for a reason. It's big enough to attract quality fish, but subtle enough to still get bites when they're finicky. It also covers the most rigs effectively — the 4-inch can feel too small for flipping, and the 7-inch limits your finesse options. When in doubt, the 5-inch is the answer.

Wacky rig, weightless, with a size 1/0 hook and O-ring. Cast it out, let it fall naturally, and force yourself to wait. If you can make yourself watch the line and count to five before you start moving it — that's when most of your bites will happen. It works everywhere from open water to dock edges.

Doug's stickbait is poured in Milwaukee in small batches, so quality control is hands-on. The salt content and plastic density are tuned for the natural wobble Doug prefers on the fall — not too fast, not too slow. It's made by an angler for anglers, not mass-produced in a factory overseas.

Absolutely. Neko-rig it over rocks and gravel flats in clear water — smallmouth go crazy for it. Drop shot also works great in deeper clear water scenarios. Natural colors (blue craw, kiwi) tend to outperform darker options on smallmouth in most conditions.

For wacky and weightless, a medium-light to medium spinning rod (7'–7'2", fast action) with 10–15 lb fluorocarbon is ideal — it loads up on the cast and you'll feel the subtle bites. For Texas and flipping, a medium-heavy baitcaster with 15–20 lb fluoro or 40–50 lb braid gives you the backbone to pull fish out of cover.