Dwight Hottle

Great PB. Congrats & welcome aboard.

What bothers me about this post is the OP is asking can he use a goby for bait Does he mean a replica bait or a real live goby.

Over the bar.

Great fish man.

You might not have gobies but could have sculpins which look almost the same. Go ahead and give them a try.

I like to use the loudest rattle jerlbaits when the water is off color or dirty. Clear water it can be a toss up.

His smile says he had a great time Lou.

Congrats on the new boat. Sounds like the dealership is going out of their way to make everything right & keep you as a customer. Enjoy!

So that's how you are putting a whoopin on me!

Both to answer your question. If the fish are suspended in 20 fow over 40 fow you want a jerkbait that runs at that depth or higher based on visibility. If the fish can see a bait they will come up to eat it. When the fish are located on or near bottom you want to try to get down close to them. I always run two rods drifting with jerkbaits. One high rod & one low rod. After you see a pattern developing you can just work baits high or low. I let the fish tell me. Sometimes they will come up & chase. Other times they want the bait near bottom. Some times the fish are moving away from your boat in shallow water & you don't mark them but they are still there. I often get bites from suspended fish that I don't mark, especially prespawn.

Great news.

Well now you know where they live. I hope you have another smithwick. There is a learning curve with everything so your making progress. Hope you stick a good one.

You could always take a chain saw & open up a small area to cast into from shore.

X2

The confusion about the flash pointer 115 and the flash pointer 115MR is that the 115 is a slow floater while the 115MR is a slow sinker. The 115MR is a 7-9 ft depth while the 115 is a 3-5 ft depth. The smithwick perfect ten is the deepest runner of the shallow divers. It will get down 10-12ft for me. For deep divers you should look at the pointer 100 DD and the pointer 100 XD and the staysee 90 & 120 version in lucky craft. Other good deep divers are smithwick rogue DD, rapala husky jerk DD, duo realis 100DR and some misc other baits. I use mostly all 10lb braid for jerkbaits with a mono leader between 8lb-15lb depending on conditions. I like to use a mono leader for abrasion and to help add some give (stretch) into the overall system between rod action & braids lack of stretch. The thin diameter of 10 braid gets the baits deeper. I always use a small snap & do not find the snap to be a problem in the weighting of the jerkbait or loosing fish because of snap failure. Will straight braid to jerkbait catch fish? Yes. I have seen 6lb smallies hit a jerkbait on straight braid on lake erie. The whole braid versus mono/floro argument can be very contentious. If you are fishing very slowly & have clear water then use a leader. If you are ripping a bait & fishing off colored water it probably makes no difference. I have never gotten a fish to answer the braid versus leader question so I can only go by what works for me on any particular body of water. On your color selections I like gaudy high visibility colors for off color water, like clown, pink or chartreuse. For clear water I like indigenous bait colors (match the hatch) & I like white/bone.

For sure. A jiggin spoon is a jiggin spoon. Just might have to down size based on the species you target. I personally have bought a lot of saltwater specific baits to use in freshwater. And the converse holds true.

Go back on the site & look for the shipping label program. It's on the left hand side of the warranty & sevice tab You buy a preprinted label for 15.00 fed ex shipping. It's a special program they offer their customers. Then all you have to do is take your rod in a shipping tube to a fed ex facility for shipping.

There is NO sense in responding to this.

Welcome aboard.

I don't have an answer for you but if you take a lc pointer & compare hook sizes the lc baits descriptions like on TW will show what the hook sizes are.

Jeff you are a brown trout catching machine. Very nice. Congrats on the new PB.

Sweet. Got love when they outfish you since you taught them.

The lucky craft staysee was made expressly for bedding bass.

Best time I have found for pike fishing is in the spring shortly after ice out. Pike spawn under the ice or right at ice out time. So you would be fishing post spawn during or after their recovery from spawn. You can find them shallow at that time best around emerging weedbeds. Best baits are inline spinners like blue fox vibrax in firetiger color #5 or #6. Inline spinners work better than bass style spinnerbaits from my experience. Spoons, jerkbaits , plastic swimbaits, glide baits & jigs will all work very well. Your baits mentioned will all work but topwater may be slow during cold water periods. Bass tackle is fine. Just use a light weight steel or titanium leader or heavy floro leader. You can get tieable leader spools & make your own with a swivel, leader material & coastlockor crosslock snap. If you wait once the water gets warm over 60-65 the bigger pike will go deep seeking colder water. The small pike will still be shallow. Hope that helps you. Don't forget long nose pliers & a jaw spreader to make unhooking easier or use a boga.

I have never caught a spot do I can't say but you know my guess.