MNGeorge

On Tuesday night, I believe we'll be having the Big O presentation for dessert, not desert...another case of spell checker not catching a correctly spelled word used incorrectly.

Rage chunks were by far the best producer last year for river Smallies. The comment about letting the jig drop and fishing it like a regular jig for a bit then resume swimming it is right on...deadly presentation. If you think the fluke is too big but want a minnow imitator, try the 3" Big Hammer swim bait body...smaller profile, but great tail action. One other trailer that has produced very well during the summer is a 6" ribbontail worm. You can shorten it a bit if you think it's necessary, but that long ribbontail waving behind the jig has proven to be very productive during the warmer months.

Big Tex and Dirty Craw have both been good producers for Smallmouth here on the upper Mississippi River. I dip the tips of the claws in merthiolate JJ's Magic...produces a nice orange color and provides scent as well. You needn't worry about using the Rage Craw for Smallies under 5 lbs., especially river Smallies. We've caught tons of Smallies weighing less than 5 lbs. on Rage Craws, both the regular size and the baby ones.

If you fish rocky areas at all, I'd stay away from the Xcalibre jerk baits. My experience with them has been they have very fragile lips on them, especially considering they aren't among the cheaper jerk baits out there. If money is the primary consideration, Bomber suspending long A's have performed very well for me. Otherwise, shop the flea market and you can pick up LC Pointers for very reasonable cost and they are an excellent hard jerk bait as Lee said.

I've had a MBR 844 IMX rod for years and absolutely loved it for weighted soft plastics. Last year, my first GLX was a 844 and I was amazed at the difference between the 2 rods. I always thought the IMX was a sensitive rod, but the GLX is just awesome...you will love it.

3" stick worm, texas rigged on a 1/0 light wire EWG offset worm hook with as little weight as possible. It's a dink magnet for sure, but every so often it produces a good one too and it almost always will produce some action...even on the slowest days.

MNGeorge and Tombstone are both in for this one...thanks for the invite.

I have a REVO STX HS on mine and love the combo.

There are many excellent Smallmouth lakes in Minnesota as well. I just prefer the river Smallies...usually more aggressive and fight like there's no tomorrow.

Subwart and minus-1 have both brought many a river Smallie to the boat...love them both. The Ima bait is great, but too too spendy to use where there are toothy critters eager to bite you off.

I read a book by Dan Gapen..."River Fishing, a Happy World". Went fishing on the upper Mississippi here in Minnesota, caught a bunch of river Smallies and the rest is history...30 years later, I'm still fishing the upper Mississippi here in Minnestota and still catching river Smallies, my favorite fish also.

One of my brothers lives not far from the Plano Tackle Box factory where they have an outlet store. a couple of weeks ago, he called saying he was going over there and asked if I wanted him to pick me up anything. I asked him to get me 2 shallow 3700 size boxes. Fast forward to Monday of this week...I'm going through stuff getting ready for Roadtrip VI and what do I find...2 shallow 3700 size boxes, brand new, forgot all about them. Now the problem is figuring out if old age is catching up with me or do I simply have too much stuff?

I'm sure you didn't find as funny as I just did...sorry, man, but...

Tackle Warehouse says they have more than 5 packs of the one you're looking for. http://www.***.com/Yum_Chunk_8pk/descpage-YC.html

A classic example of a brown fish...nice goin'.

I bought one last Fall, strictly going by the action and power ratings from Lamiglas...I never held one in my hand until the one I have arrived from TW. While I like the one I have, the comment about them being over rated for weights they can handle is right on. Mine is rated for 1/4 to 1 oz. and there is no way it could handle even a 3/4 oz., much less a 1 oz. bait. I also think their action ratings are either different from most other rod manufacturers or else they too are a bit on the over rated side. Mine is rated as a fast action, but compared to other fast action rods I own, the Lamiglas is more of a moderate action. Like I said at the start, I like mine, but because I've found other things I can do with it, not because it will do what I bought it for. I would be reluctant to buy another one without first being able to handle it and evaluate for myself what it's capabilities are.

He calls it the Cousin It jig now. http://www.siebertoutdoors.com/index.php/g-mop-jig I don't have the FLW article so I'm just linking the jig. Thanks for the response...since the magazine article still refers to it as the G-Mop, it might be a good idea for one of you guys who know him to suggest he link the G-Mop to the Cousin somehow. I'm sure I'm not the only one who will have trouble locating it on his website.

Couldn't find the G-Mop on the website shown in the magazine article. Is there another website?

I beg to differ...I've got mono that is well over 10 years old that is still good to go. So long as it hasn't been exposed to high heat, prolonged direct sunlight or chemical fumes, it will last indefinitely. I have one rig with mono on it that I change the line on every Spring...using the old mono hasn't been a problem yet. Why do I have mono that is so old? I used to do some work for Berkley and we got bulk spools for cheap.

Tossup between YUM Houdini Shad and Lake Fork Magic Shad...caught many a river Smallie on both of them. I like the look of the one from Bruiser Baits though...may have to give them a swim or two this season.

X5 from me also...never had a bad experience on Ebay, but I always check to see they have a good history.

My boys talk openly about they plan to divvy up my tackle when I'm gone. ;D

Glad you explained that "crepuscular" thing...heaven only knows what Google might have come with for that one. ;D

Don't forget white of some kind...by far our best producer on river Smallies.

One of the guys in our Smallmouth club is a big crankbait guy and he swears by them...says they have reduced his number of fish lost to thrown hooks significantly. They're a bit too pricey for me as I don't throw crankbaits all that often.