jc2bg

Speaking of speed, I've had days (not lately) when the smallies absolutely pounded tube baits dragged on Fireline, which as you know sinks very rapidly and jumps wildly off any structure the bait encounters. I always keep one rod in the boat rigged with Fireline just in case. When they are jumping on a fast-moving tube, you can't beat braided line. When the water is calmer, normally they won't touch a bait on line they can see.

We all have to try different combinations of jig weight and line test to determine what works best. For me, the differences are subtle yet important. If I use 10 lb. test fluoro with either a 1/8 or 3/16 oz. jig, I get lots of bites, have plenty of feel, and importantly, the line holds up pretty well against the wear of rocks and zebra mussels. If I use 8 lb. test line, I still have to figure out which jig head gives the presentation the fish are wanting. And frankly, I've seldom seen a situation in which they reacted positively to a 1/16 oz. jig. Some of that has to do with the jig being manufactured properly: very little lead but still the right sized hook to rig well and stick the fish well. If I had a jig between 1/16 and 1/8, it might be perfect for 8 lb. line, but where we fish in Erie, the 8 lb. is almost twice as fragile as 10 lb. line (frays too fast), while in some areas I'd never get 6 lb. back to the boat. I had one occasion when I caught smallies very well on Erie's north side with 6 lb. fluoro and 1/16 oz. jig, but it was unusually shallow and few rocks or shells on the bottom. Normally they hold much more on structure, and I guess we're fortunate that they also don't mind the heavier line so long as it's fluorocarbon. -- JC

Really just depends on the forage size where you're fishing, water clarity, etc. On Lakes Erie and St. Clair, relatively clear and relatively northern, the best colors in cranks are crawdad browns and perch finishes. Medium sizes work best. But walleye trollers catch nice smallmouth on larger, walleye-sized cranks, often in brighter colors. My reasoning is that they're dragging these baits deeper than we normally cast crankbaits, so a larger size and brighter color make them stand out better in the lower light of deep water. The perch finish is one that is often overlooked, but almost everywhere there's smallmouth (at least up north), there's abundant yellow perch, and the smaller perch (2.5 to 4 inches) are clearly a preferred smallmouth target. -- JC *Revised to add "duhhh!" I should have looked at all the posts in this thread. The Fat Rap pictured in the thread above is smokin' as a smallmouth bait on Lakes Erie and St. Clair, and also on our deeper in-state impoundments where perch and smallmouth mingle.

Here's a thought. Although the common logic is the smaller the line, the greater number of bites, in tube dragging (Erie) I've found that smaller line sometimes isn't an advantage. My reasoning, or at least the difference that I can feel, is that the smaller line allows the bait to sink faster and also to "jump" higher when it contacts an obstacle on the bottom such as a rock, mussel shell, etc. In tube dragging, the lighter line also causes the bait to present more vertically than horizontally. Erie smallmouths, when they're being picky, tend to look for their targets a certain distance from the bottom and "acting" or moving in a certain way. Heck, maybe it's just a matter of the lighter line (which sinks easier) causing the bait to be too close to the boat, thereby spooking the fish. I just know that in our typical deeper water tube dragging--generally 18 to 26 feet--10 lb. fluoro outfishes 6 or 8 lb. most days, and by a clear margin. 12 lb. even gets us more bites than 6, and about the same amount of bites as 8. 10 lb. is clearly the fishes' choice, with the caveat that we don't try the lighter lines every day, having learned early on that it's not worth the effort. -- JC

I live close to Erie, and I can tell you that anything under 20 feet is considered small on Erie. The boat of choice there for bassers is a Deep V like the Ranger Fisherman series, 20 to 22 feet. The south shore smallmouth population, at least as far east as Cleveland, has been decimated in recent years by overfishing. The lake is also much clearer now, which might have something to do with smallmouth reductions in the shallower, near-shore waters. Boat runs of 25-40 miles are the norm now to get from a much-used launch area to the best smallie action. Do not try a run that long in a small or shallow boat. -- JC Yup, even in the inlets of Champlain you can get 4-5 footers and the main lake can be 7-8 footers. Erie is the same way. If you are running in a boat that isn't glass or under 18 feet, I would advise to stay away from these lakes because it can be calm as glass in the morning and a few hours later you cannot get back. Any wind on Champlain straight from the north or south is deadly.

As Bassnleo wrote, a 1-2 foot chop is good fishing on Erie, but I've caught the absolute whales in waves as big as I'll fish, which is around 5-7 feet. We use two drift socks on those days, the big ones, and you'd be surprised how much two drift socks will do to stabilize the boat. Of course, that doesn't keep a rogue wave or [50] from flooding the boat, which is why we also have two bilge pumps, one manual and one automatic. A few years ago I took my then-19-year-old daughter out for a day with dad in five to sevens. She about killed me before we got to the spot (18-mile run), but once we got the drift socks out, she was ready to fish. Almost immediately, she complained that her bait was hung on the bottom, but when she handed me the rod, I handed it back and told her to start reeling!! Eventually she got that 6 3/4 in the boat, and she caught a couple of fives a short while later. We only fished about 2 1/2 hours, but still caught 50 pounds of bass. We don't go out in the middle of the lake in that kind of weather anymore (my daughter and I), but she'll tell anyone who will listen about the big fish she caught. We're talking a bass whose head looked pin-sized because his body was so big.

Depends on how much rain you get, and how strong the front is that accompanies it. Two things in addition to newly flooded cover (and forage washed in) might account for the shutdown. These two things are the big barometric change that follows a large front, and the big PH difference that occurs when a lot of runoff goes into the water. 20 or so years ago, Doug Hannon got everyone tuned into watching PH (the balance of acidity and alkalinity in a body of water) for predicting fish behavior. I lost my PH meter a long time ago, but I remember very large swings in PH readings just after a heavy rain, and 5 inches is HEAVY. Your drainage is better than ours up north, so your 5 inches may be equivalent to our 2 inches. But I still wouldn't be surprised to find the fish with a very small strike zone for several days after a major rain event. Like any "trauma" situation where bass are concerned, look for them in the tightest cover and fish them slow, possibly with smaller baits, until they get more aggressive again. They may not have gone far, but are just holed up with the covers pulled over their heads for a while. -- JC

Your experience is [probably] unique, especially the part about fishing while naked and your gf nearby. Must have been a long night. But anyway, my most humiliating experience came a few years ago while fishing a club tournament on my "home" waters, Lake Erie. I'd been fishing bass tournaments for 20 years, had won two state championships, and been #1 in my annual club standings at least a half-dozen times. The day in question, a non-boater with less than a year's experience--and no outstanding tournament results in that time--was paired with me. So what happens, naturally, is that this guy catches nice keepers all day long, in every one of my hotspots and on every bait he ties on, while I get 2-3 small keepers total. Most of the 20 club members limited that day...I had either the worst bag or next-to-worst...while my non-boater partner had the best bag. Everybody looked at me a little funny, like "I don't understand, were you doing drugs or what?" Just impossible to explain how sometimes you do everything right, and sometimes you do everything wrong. That's fishing. -- JC

I agree with Roadwarrior. It could still be quite hot (90s) even at Table Rock late August, but much more likely to find the water cooling and the fish "stocking up" at Winnebago or points north. If you're fishing around Winnebago and aren't prejudiced, you might find the largemouth even more eager at that time than the smallmouth. The Fox and Wolf rivers have some killer largemouth (and smallmouth) action. Especially fun is the topwater bite (flukes, frogs, etc.) around dense weeds. It's been my experience that largemouths get aggressive earlier in the fall than smallmouths, but in the rivers, you might get both! -- JC

Rock on, Bizzo. I don't have any bass waters near my home, so I'm forced to play golf most nights after work, and only fish on days off and weekends. I *** your opportunity, not to mention the fun you're having! -- JC

My last boat was a 22' Stratos with a 225, but I downsized recently to a Fisher 170 Pro Hawk (17' 2", w/87" beam) and a 90 Optimax. After just 1 time on the water, with an upgrade to a high-performance Vengeance prop, I can tell you already that your boat seems like a sweet deal. With the 90, mine is very quick on acceleration, but a 90 will only go so fast. Here's the thing: it marks 45 mph at 4500 rpm, with plenty of trim to go, but if I lift the bow any higher, the front end gets way too "loose" for my comfort level. Even a good aluminum hull does not dig into the water [apparently] the way a good fiberglass design does. So be careful. I ran my Stratos and several Javelin models full-bore on many tournament blastoffs and never felt a bit out of control (unless there was heavy wave action), but I won't be running my aluminum rig beyond 85-90% of its potential speed. The fastest SAFE speed or controllable speed is the only speed that counts, no matter how badly you want to beat your competitors to that honey hole. -- JC

Some great ideas here. Honestly, when I've encountered suspended bass, I've usually gone on searching until I found a more active, structure-oriented group. But I have seen a couple of instances, Lake Erie smallmouth fishing, where a vertically dropped tube bait on a light jighead, barely moved, got some bites from smallies that were suspended halfway to the bottom. They don't bite well or take the bait very deep when they're suspended, so like Lucky Craft Man says, your hooks had better be sharp! -- JC To a certain point RW is correct, suspended fish are mostly on "inactive" mode, doesn 't necessarily mean they can 't be catchable, it means that they are hard to catch ( sometimes really hard to catch ) if you are patient and stubborn you can still catch a few. One way I attack them is with a suspending crankbait if I can reach them with it, a dirty trick is to increase the size of the hooks to the next size up in a Rapala Shad Rap, the added weight of the larger hooks is enough to make the bait suspend, cast the fartherst you can to make the bait dive so that when it 's running at it 's max diving depth it runs to the level at which the fish are holding, stop and twitch the bait, twitch and keep twitching with an ocassional jerk so the bait moves right in front of their faces while you reel in the slack line. I catch a few by doing that. Another way I attack them is with a soft plastic jerkbait ( like a Shad Assasin and more recently with a GYCB Shad Shape worm ) or a small sized paddle tail or curly tail grub or minnow ( 4" ) rigged on a 1/16 - 1/32 oz jighead, with 6-8 pound test and spinning gear and a ML rod ( or L ). Cast an let it sink ( about a ft every 2 seconds depending upon the shape of the bait ) until it reaches the depth at which the fish are holding. Once it has reached that depth it 's time to start shaking the bait, small shakes of the rod tip ( nothing fancy ) while you reel in the slack, three or four turns of the handle, let it sink again for a couple of seconds and begin shaking again while you retrieve. Usually I can milk some fish while doing this, when you feel the fish do not set the hook like if you are trying to cross it 's eyes, just lift the rod and reel in, the fish will hook itself. Another method requires the use of a kahle hook and a nail weight, same setup. Grab the bait and about 1/3 of the length you insert your kahle hook like if you were wacky rigging the bait but instead of rigging it in the middle of the bait you are going to rig it ALONG the bait, then insert the nail weight in the head. Cast, let it sink and do exactly like I explained previously. RAZOR SHARP hooks please !

In a similar vein, I was fishing a small impoundment last week, up in a creek channel I've fished many times, flipping medium-sized plastics to scattered stickups washed in by spring floods. This is a favorite summertime pattern of mine, as most people just go down the banks and ignore the widely scattered branches, etc. that floods deposit on the flats, up to 200 yards either side of the creek channel. Anyway, on one of these stickups I got a bite, set the hook, and eventually landed a 16-inch largemouth that had a softball-sized bulge in its stomach. Having caught a 4-pounder one time that disgorged a 10-inch-long muskrat in my livewell (yuck!), I didn't look too closely down the throat of the 16-incher, but just released it quickly. Why a fish with a meal that size already in its stomach would hit my creature bait, I can't imagine. The fish was absolutely bloated. I was glad that I wasn't fishing a tournament, as I'd have hated to answer the questions I surely would have got at the weigh-in, like how many sinkers did I feed that fish anyway?

Congrats on your catch. Please tell us a little more about your fishing area, techniques, etc. I may never get to your stretch of the Mississippi, but then again I may!

Smallmouths on soft jerkbaits. Doesn't get much better than that... Thanks for sharing! I live up near Lake Erie, where a lot of our smallmouths look like they have a pinhead ('cause their body is so big). But "big" is relative to the day, where you're fishing, and what you've been catching. Since I haven't caught any smallmouth lately, yours look great to me. -- JC