arthurspooner13

Now, as far as the retrieve, would method would you recommend beginning with? For tubes, for example, would dragging it slowly be the best presentation? And for cranks, is bottom bouncing it off rocks a good presentation? Also, how fast of a retrieve? I've heard some say that you want to burn it while i've heard others say a slower retrieve. As for jerkbaits, is the pump-and-pause the best method? Or would simply retrieving it work best? And one last thing... Is Fluorocarbon the recommended line while fishing tubes and cranks/jerks for smallies?

Awesome - thanks a lot.

Would many of the river presentations also be considered the best presentations for lakes? I'm going to be fishing lakes. Two in particular, with much different structure: The first lake i will mainly be focusing on fishing rocks, from the shoreline points. So i'll be casting up towards shore into a couple of feet of water and it drops down to 8-12 ft. The second lake probably doesn't sound much like your classic smallmouth lake. It is shallow and weedy(also holds an abundance of walleye, pike, and largemouth). It's a very large lake but only has an average depth of about 7 ft. It holds a good number of smallies and a lot of decent size fish are taken regularly from my understanding. Like i said in my previous post, i rarely fish for smallmouth so i'm pretty new to this. Would i be going about it the wrong way if for the first lake(rocky pts) i started with a tube, and for the second lake(shallow weeds) i fished a jerkbait? Also, what about spinnerbaits? Being primarily a largemouth fisherman, the spinnerbait is my go-to-bait and the bait i'm most comfortable/confident with. Would there by any succes with throwing these?

When i was younger, 12-16 yrs old, me and my buddies used to always walk or ride our bikes to some local smaller bodies of water and fish for Carp and Catfish from offshore. It was a very fun experience. The two biggest carp(common carp) that i personally landed were both 30inches, and although i never carried a scale on me, i have to imagine that they were easily in 20lb range. And for a teenager to catch a 30inch, 20lb fish, it was quite the thrill. We'd fish them on the bottom using bell sinkers about 18 inches above a hook rigged with a hotdog slice. We tryed bread, homemade doughballs, and manufactured stink baits but none of them came close to the production that hot dogs brought. What we'd also do is bring another rod, to walk along the shoreline and cast into the shallow weeds for bass... After we lost a rod(pulled in by fish), we quickly learned to leave the spools open and we'd constantly keep an eye on the line while fishing the nearby shoreline. Now that i usually have access to a boat i'm going basically always fish for bass (and pike occasionally). Casting to shallow structure is half the thrill of fishing for me, so i'll do that over still fishing every day of the week. With that being said, i'm sure that sometime when i have kids i will take them carp/catfishing to experience the thrill of landing a large fish.

Well, i wasn't really limiting myself to just these 3, i've just rarely ever fished lipless cranks before and was trying to get a general idea - and figured that Rapala and SK are two brands that i trust, and Rat-L Trap seems like the original brand.

Yeah, i found out the hard way. While unhooking one of them my finger accidently came in contact with their teeth and it gave me nice little cut. I've never actually targeted them, and as long as there's bass in the same water i probably never will, but you can basically catch them on any lure that you would for bass or pike - but they do seem to particularly like horizontal presentations. Whenever i'm throwing a vertical presentation for bass like a texas-rig, i rarely catch dogfish. But as soon as i pull out the spinnerbait it's a different story. From my experiences they also seem to love the real heavy cover. I've caught a lot of them while throwing a spinnerbait over the top of very heavy milfoil. Bass is my real passison, and probably always will be, but hooking one of these guys occasionally can be a thrill - until you're actually attempting to get them in the boat and/or unhooked. They simply never stop fighting. Lately i've been trying to just unhook them at the side of the boat because they are a riot once they get in the boat, but it's difficult because you can't grab them by the mouth like a bass because of their teeth, and you can't really grab them like most smaller pike because they are much wider. So getting them unhooked can be a bit of a hassel, along with them tearing up your lure... If you don't use a Terminator spinnerbait, there's a very good chance that your spinnerbait is going to get reshaped.

I'm a big fan of YUM.

How many of you guys have caught one of these? Are they found in southern waters? Here in Michigan, if you've fished for bass(particular largemouth in shallow, weedy waters), the chances are that you've hooked one of these before. I know that they're considered "garbage/predatory fish" since they will eat anything that swims and are considered bad for gamefish, but man are these things ever strong as an ox. Pound-for-pound, i would put them up against any other freshwater fish - including bluegil and smallies. And the fact that pike and muskie were also once considered garbage/predatory fish makes me question the killing of these fish by many anglers - but that's not the purpose of this topic. I'm simply here to bring up how hard these fish fight. One of my favorite bodies of water here is loaded with bass, pike, and bowfin. And every time that i hook one, i always say, "well, i've either got a 20lb pike, the state record bass, or a dogfish." I've caught a ton of these things while bass fishing, the biggest one being 29 inches and pushing 9lbs. Just interested in if many of you guys have experience with these fish or are they completely foreign to a lot of you?

Living in Michigan, i'm finally going to take advantage of some of the fantastic smallmouth waters we have been blessed with this summer. I've got a couple of questions regards lures... What style/brand of tubes would you recommend - and what size? Being primarily a largemouth fisherman, often times when i throw a tube it's when flipping and most of the flipping tubes on the market are more bulky. Would you go to something smaller for smallmouth? Also, what type of rigs would you recommend? Carolina-rig? Texas-rig? etc? Would i be at a big disadvantage throwing them on a texas-rig? I'm most comfortable/confident with a texas-rig is why i ask. Also, i have a couple of question with cranks... Would you guys recommend jerkbaits(like KVD's wild shiner) or lipless cranks? Which one would you consider the most productive for smallies, or which one would you choose if you could only bring one. Thanks a ton...

It looks like a mouthguard. Wouldn't there be some concern that they might not get to the hook?

Some i'm getting the sense that the Rapalas would probably be the best choice?

How would you guys rate these 3 lipless cranks? What does each brand offer that makes it different? Stengths/weaknesses? I've rarely ever fished lipless cranks but i'm going to be a fishing some new waters this season and i've been told that lipless cranks are the go-to-bait. So what would you guys recommend?

For me, the Terminator T-1's: The most consistent true running spinnerbait i've fished. Because of their snapback frame, they rarely need tuning. A lot of the waters here in Michigan that i fish for bass in are also heavily populated with Bowfin(dogfish) and Pike. It only takes hooking one of these fish to reshape many spinnerbaits. With T-1's this is rarely an issue. Their skirt system speaks for itself. Their chartruse/white combination skirt is deadly. I'm a big fan of their blades, particularly their willow blades. They're lightweight and give off a great flash. And most of the spinnerbait fishing that i do involves using a double willow. Their 3/8 oz double willow(my go-to-bait) also tends to land very softly in the water. When fishing very shallow water structure, as i often do, this is a feature that i look for. That pretty much sums it up for the T-1's.

Yep i've got a bunch of them that i bought for pike fishing here in Michigan. I too also rig them with a soft plastic trailer. And the action is fantastic. I also have some Johnson Silver Minnows, which are also a weedless spoon. They have a much wider body but also provide very good action, but probably are not as weedless due to the wide body. I have found to have much more success on spinnerbaits, however, both for bass and pike... Therefore i'd consider the weedless spoons as "situational baits," meaning that i'll only use them if using a spinnerbait is out of the question. There is no question that they among the most weedless baits out there, especially for powerfishing heavy cover. Unlike topwater baits you can fish them below the surface in the heaviest of cover. You rarely ever get snagged with these things. It defently doesn't hurt to carry a few of them in your bag.

I'm also from Michigan and the spinnerbait just happens to be my go-to-bait. As for a pure spinnerbait, the Terminator T-1 is the best in the business in my opinion. You rarely have to worry about them running true and their skirt system is top of the line. I have had Terminators break on me before, but this was after catching over 100 bass/pike/bowfin with the same lure. So you won't want to hang onto the same bait for too long because you'd hate for a break right after hooking onto a lunker. As for a "secret weapon" spinnerbait... For me it's hands down Bass Pro Shop's "Tornado." It actually might be my favorite lure in the bag these days. It's kind of a combination between a spinnerbait and a buzzbait, and i've had a ton of success on them. As far as skirts go, i'd highly recommend buying a bunch of individual skirts, which can save a lot of time compared to tying on a new lure. Terminator and Northland "limber leg" skirts make a variety of differently colors and for the most part will fit on any spinnerbait.