Dwight Hottle

Glad to have you Zach.

I fish it like any other jerk bait. Early season I utilize a lot of pulls rather than twitches or jerks. Moving the bait with 90 degree movement of the rod from pointing at the bait to side sweeps. I also mix in the typical twitches & jerks. Speed the bait up then slow it down waiting to see if you get bite. Most of my setups consists of medium heavy moderate rods with 10 lb braid & 10-15 lb mono leaders & a snap.

Almost everyone goes by surface temp or transducer temps because that's what is measured in most boats. Guys that correlate fish behavior with water temps are mostly using surface temps for their conclusions. In the early spring surface temps are actually warmer than main depth temps. As the year progresses surface temps are warmer than than main lake temps leading up to turnover. Comments about spawning temps are based on surface temps mostly. I get daily water temps as reported in the local newspaper based on a reading coming from 12 feet deep. Those temps pretty much follow my own surface temp reading during prespawn.

Great start to the new season.

Congrats & Great picture.

Ordered a new reel on Friday from Japan & received it the following Tuesday.

We used to buy Binkleman's jigs from him.

I like to fish braid on moderate action rods with or without a leader. That combo can be used for all treble hook baits; topwater, jerk baits. crank baits & vertical jigging blade baits, spoons & lipless traps. You can use that same rod for bladed jigs & some swimbaits too.

Smallies will be moving from deep water to shallow as the water warms. If you have underwater humps, rock, hard bottom to soft transition areas start looking for them there. They probably will suspend over those areas as they move shallower. 45 to 50 degrees is the magic time where the bite gets going for me. Once you hit 50 degrees the bite will be on until the spawning urges takes over around 60 degrees. Early prespawn finds the smallies moving shallow but they will pull back to deeper water with bait movement in deeper water. So you have to follow the bait most times to find the fish. Suspending bait balls will find the fish suspending & roaming as they feed up. If the bait only consists of bottom dwellers & crawfish the fish will be mostly on bottom or feeding down. If you have an incoming water supply like a creek or river which will be warmer than the lake water temps look shallow around that area. Then expand out from the area deeper until you find them. For clarification I would define deep as 20-40 feet & shallow as 6-15 feet. Often times the sweet spot is 15-20 based on water temps. Good luck out there.

My two angler inspirations were Al Linder & Billy Westmoreland. Al is a master angler for multi species through out the US & Canada. Billy was picked because of his smallie dominance.

I first got into jerk baits after being schooled by a very proficient angler using a floating perch colored rebel minnow bait. Fishing the edges of a weed line this guy twitched up bass after bass & destroyed a lot of big walleye as well. He would tie on that rebel and proceed to outfish me all day long. I tried anything & everything trying to catch up but nothing worked as well as twitching a floater. I finally relented & joined him after he gave me a bait to use & keep. It was definitely a bought lesson that opened my eyes to a new way of fishing.

Yep.

RIP Guido Hibdon. Your family legacy still lives on.

If the side plate is an issue just buy the JDM version. They have removable side plates.

X2

I have never purchased a reel based on bearing count. My answer is no.

Welcome to BR & congrats to your brother for his trophy.

It is in the picture.

95% for me.

Sweet. Not a bad picture at all considering the circumstances.

Nice bass, if your scale is digital it might just need a new battery.

This is what I do. Run a 250 on Erie with a 9.9 kicker. Best of both worlds.

I order a new Shimano Bantam MGL 5.5:1 on ebay for $301 with free shipping from Japan. Ordered on March 2nd (Friday) & delivered today on the 6th (Tuesday). 99.5% positive feedback rating. He email when shipped with EMS tracking service. Great transaction.

Check my drag. Check water clarity to determine bait color. Check water temp via depth finder.

Yea and it's only March.