Dwight Hottle

Your entitled to your opinion. My fishing buddies & I all weighed their walleye, pike, musky & lake trout catches. That was the norm. We did weigh the trophy pike & lake trout in cradles to minimize any trauma. We also got the length & girth on PB's. I can weigh a fish on a boga grip pretty fast as well. Just saying.

That's a poor excuse for somebody that wants to know what a fish actually weighs.

I just wear a clothes pin.

No new material that floats.

My favorite gear for jerk baits is braid with a copoly leader. To add in some give I prefer a moderate action rod or moderate fast in MH power. I like to use the best quality blank I can buy because they are crisper & deliver better bait movement with minimal effort. If I decide to use mono instead of braid I'll switch to a fast or extra fast action rod because the mono line offers plenty of give or stretch to the system. My hook up ratio to fish landed is pretty high using the moderate action rod.

Definitely mono over braid. I have had 60lb fluoro leaders cut through by pike. So go with the highest poundage you can deal with. The best solution might be light wire with a simple snap for changing out baits.

I would recommend switching to low vis copoly line for smallmouth. Or braid with low vis leader.

The answer is called a fly rod. The line weight cast the little bug rather than an additional weight.

Welcome to BR from a past PA resident.

Cast to the top of the hump area first. If nothing you might relocate over the top of the hump then fish coming up the sides of the hump from deeper water.

Never admit your bad performances as it just throws you back into the general gene pool. LOL

You have to buy a dozen incase they discontinue that color or bait.

Funny thing is I have fished Rodman about a dozen times & have never seen a gator unlike southern FL.

Is that all?

Link worked for me.

Stick with the white baits they love white. The bondy baits work well for lakers too. An effective way to fish for them after locating them with your electronics is regular jigging. Also try dropping to bottom with a few jigging motions then try a fast retrieve upwards like half way back to the surface. Lakers will often chase a bait when they sense it is getting away from them. Also they sometimes ram a bait with their heads before coming back to eat it. So if you are getting hits but not hooking up be aware that the 2nd hit you feel is when they are eating it.

If your fishing bottom contact in rocks I would highly suggest you move up to 10 or 12lb leader and like @T-Billy suggested check your line often & retie as needed. I really don't think the thicker line diameter will cost you any bites.

Sweet!

And that sir is the reason jerk baits are so effective for big smallies. When they are feeding up jerk baits rule.

Basically there are only two types of spoons. Regular spoons & flutter spoons. The lightweight flutter spoons look like a regular spoon but are thinner & lighter and have a slow rate of fall. They glide when falling or flutter & are fished on semi-slack line. Regular spoons are made from thicker metal stock & are used for casting & jigging applications. Most spoons sold for jigging purposes are thicker & shorter in length to enhance their drop speed or rate of fall. Regular spoons when long enough mimic a flutter spoons action but fall much more quickly. Most guys fishing deep water structure use a heavy spoon with a fast rate of fall because they don't have the patience to wait for a flutter spoon to get to the bottom.

Look at the tail on the last one and you have your answer.

All my biggies have been prespawn April & May on lake Erie. Although the fall fish in Oct & Nov carry great weight.

Your main lake temps are just bordering on the start of the spawn so your best bet is to check transition areas next to spawning areas.

Passing another boat while on plane is less disruptive than slowing down & coming off plane. Especially noticeable in the narrow canals & cuts in Florida waters.

Great story & message Sean. Keeping a positive attitude really does make a difference.