Dwight Hottle

You could always get a drift bag & deploy it to slow your drift. You can roll them up for transporting.

Ghoulardi was his name out of Parma, a polish suburb of Cleveland.

X2 They often relate to cover, bottom changes, rock reefs etc. They can be found nearby if not directly on the structure.

Got any topwater baits?

X2

If the braid is digging in from a pull from a snag that will cause your cast to stop when you get to the spot on the spool where the line has dug in. Any time you snag and hold the spool from slipping as you pull back it will cause the braid to dig in on itself.

Ryan you should check out the 7'0" or the 7'-3" inch model in a light medium heavy rated 3/16 to 7/8. It's even a better option than the regular Helium medium heavy for jerk baits.

Long casts cover more water and keeps your lure in the zone for a longer time. Absolutely worthwhile especially when searching for fish.

Jerk baits are killer dead sticked.

Luhr Jensen hot & tots absolutely crush smallies.

Welcome to BR. I would guess it weighs 4.5 lbs. It's got a 6lbers head & a 3lber's body.

X2 I have 2 Z bones along with several Heliums & a KLX. I think the Z bone compares favorably with my St Croix legend elite & legend extremes. Also my Loomis NRX & GLX & Megabass destroyer. The Z bones are built on the very best blank Gary Loomis produces currently. They are well balanced & built with quality components & workmanship. Much better than NRX's build quality. I have only owned Kistler's within the last 5 or 6 years so previous production on inferior blanks does not cloud my judgement. If your patient you can always get Kistler's on sale at a good price direct from Trey. I don't own any Conquest's to make a comparison there but the public consensus about NRX versus Conquest is not very compelling regarding sensitivity only balance issues & build quality being superior.

Sent you a PM.

I don’t know what it weighs or how well done it is but it sure looks good.

Sweet brown PB.

Suspending almost always for smallmouth except in really skinny water. I did really good last year with an Ima Flit 120 sp.

You can either reel it down or pull it down with a long sweep of the rod. Then pause it before starting your jerk cadence.

I'll be up at Rainy Lake in Ontario on the 12th. The first bait I'll be throwing is a jerk bait all day & all week. I do have some hair jigs in case it's really slow. Sounds like you have it covered. Good luck.

Hawgtech hands down. If you ever have any problems which is highly unlikely they have the best customer service.

Send him a PM. Highlight his name & a message button appears in the lower left corner.

They are old school especially the "silver buddy" but they excel at what they do which is catch fish.

Nice one. Did you fish the main lake?

Why don’t you just use 6 lb mono or 8 lb flouro since they don’t cause a problem? Seems like an easy solution.

My last three fishing trips have all involved hooking a gator underwater on treble hook baits. One on a jerkbait & two on a lipless crankbait. I have also previously hooked a gator on a 10" worm fished on the bottom. Two of the gators were hooked inside the mouth. The other two never surfaced so I don't know if they were snagged or not. It sure seems like an awfully high hookup percentage for not targeting or casting towards visible gators. So what has been your experience?

I just ordered & received #2 & #4 black hyper wire black split rings. Your right the #2 are just a little too small but they will work. The #3 are probably the best size for smaller jerks & cranks. The #4 are a good size for medium/large baits. The #2 being so small are harder to see & work with because of their size.