I’ve had great success fishing with Cabela’s Livin' Eye Paddletail soft plastic bait. I’ve caught a lot of fish on this soft plastic bait, and big ones too.

I’m using a 6-inch bait in Natural Shad, Pearl Foil, and Clear Foil color patterns. I rig the bait with a Cabela's Livin' Eye lead jighead with bait holder wire in the 1 3/8-ounce size. Cabela's sell this leadhead with the 6" paddletail in a package - two lead jigheads with four bodies. You can also buy bodies and heads separately.

Cast the bait on top of points or underwater humps, then swim it back down the drop-off. Once the bait heads down the drop-off, make contact with the bottom every few feet all the way back to the boat.

When I see big fish on the locator I’ll us a vertical jigging presentation with the bait directly below the boat. I usually rip the bait about two to four feet off bottom and let it fall back down on a semi-slack line, maintaining control of the bait all the time. At times I’ve caught fish swimming the bait in mid-depths where baitfish are suspended. I count down the depth (approximately 1.5 feet per second) then use a steady or fast retrieve with my rod tip in the eleven o’clock position.

I'm using baitcasting equipment to fish the Livin’ Eye bait. My rod is a seven-foot Cabela’s model TXS-Vll rated for baits up to two ounces. My reel is an ABU-GARICA EON model E3601 spooled with 20-pound test Cabela’s Fluorocarbon line.