Team9nine

A couple ‘firsts’ yesterday; my first bass on a spinnerbait in over a decade (I just stopped throwing them), and my first bass on a straight monofilament/nylon/copoly setup in over a decade (usually all fluoro on casters except for one braid outfit). Actually caught ten total; the 75 is my crappie counter from the same trip (mixed bag).

Oops - thought it would merge replies.

Super popular up north. Binkelman popularized it and laid the groundwork with his 1966 book, “Nightcrawler Secrets.” Bill was out of Wisconsin, and they could get by with crawlers on their lower productivity waters. Further south, we have tons of catfish, carp, bluegills and yellow bass in our highly productive (eutrophic) waters that will eat you alive trying to use a whole crawler for bait for larger predator species.

Most fish caught on a single Z-man bait (255):

Yeah - super cool folks over there. Even if I only get a measly 100 bass per individual bait, I think your math is just about right on. I’ll probably have to list who gets the unused bags in my will upon my demise - lol

Z-man care package incoming...this should last me a little while

Baby Boos are nice jigs, but the hook is a little lighter than the Bitsy Flips - may or may not be an issue for you. I've caught a lot of bass on them though. I also have a lot of Bitsy Bugs and Bitsy Flips...I just put my own skirts on them and trim accordingly (same with Boos). Makes for a solid, relatively inexpensive jig compared to most these days.

Fall frog bite is just beginning here in Indiana as we are starting to see summer weeds die back. It will only get better as the season leads up to the big fall frog migration which usually happens after the first couple hard freezes of the year in the upper Midwest. Got a bunch of blowups and bites yesterday fishing the slop.

Is there a “wrong” way to fish a spinnerbait? Indiana blades work at any depth, just like the other blade types. All depends on what you are trying to achieve. They’re actually a nice middle ground for fishing shallow or deep, kind of a “do it all” design IMO - very versatile.

Going to need a screenshot or two to help diagnose then. All kinds of things one could imagine being the reason, but nothing better than us being able to see exactly what you're seeing in order to render judgement.

“Was” a thing back in the earlier days of finesse, and popularized by guys like Zaleski and McKinnis, as well as some of the TN smallmouth gurus ...and yes, was almost always associated with clear water. You still hear about it every now and then, like the Ozark guys who soak their smoke grubs in water overnight to give a milky hue, but popularity seems to have switched to many of the more modern color patterns.

No bead here. Only time I’d consider it was if I had a spotted bass lake where I could deep ‘Doodle’ em, or if I felt I needed to protect a knot from a tungsten sinker, but there are other options in case of the latter.

The Spoonplug by Buck's Baits. It was phenomenally successful in the upper Midwest in the 1960s and 70s, and still catches fish to this day.

This is more prone to affect ponds and smaller bodies of water, as well as hypereutrophic waters. Also sections of larger waters where vegetation is overly abundant. It’s why you frequently hear of “summer kills” in these smaller waters. If you dig a little, you’ll also find it the reason why Ned does all his Midwest Finesse fishing in the middle of the day, usually between 11-3:00. Personally, I never go fishing in the mornings any more. Did it for 25 years when I tourney fished, but everything now days is Noon until dark hours. Never was a morning person, and now that I’m retired, I can finally operate on MY schedule.

^^ Pretty much where I’m at. Braid only belongs on a baitcaster when it does; and when it does, it doesn’t require a leader. Otherwise, nearly every combo is fluoro. Spinning combos are majority braid/leader setups except when I can’t get away with it (winter supercooling).

Just found this excerpt from Steve Quinn and Ralph Manns on the subject that was part of an In'Fisherman article on the subject. Ralph has long espoused that there is no such thing as a "reaction strike," arguing instead that a fish that bites is one that had at least some inclination to feed already, and that a truly dormant or inactive bass can't be made to strike. Interestingly, John Hope came to the same conclusion in his book, "Trackin' Trophies," stating that if a bass was "suspended in a resting mode, it is 'non-catchable.'" FWIW...

This old thread on the subject hits all the biological and scientific high points by Manns, Jones, etc. for me:

From the pic it first appears to be some type of milfoil to me. There are both native and invasive types. You can probably do a search online and simply compare a small fragment to the ID pics showing the differences between each.

@J Francho provides the counter-point argument against "tip flex." It's not the one the angling media pushes much, witness David Fritts and Rick Clunn as mentioned, but there are proponents of the stiffer rod theory. David Dudley is one of those, as is David Wright, another Carolina cranker on par with Fritts. You can Google 'David Dudley Heavy rod' to find a good article explaining his thoughts (link not allowed). I personally can't stand the Fritts/Clunn degree of "tip flex" when cranking, and always go at least a little more toward the stiffer side with this technique.

Bandit, Strike King and Pico all make a line of popular cranks in crappie colors. They would be the best options, but crappie will bite a variety of cranks. Some of the more popular ones are smaller sized Shad Raps and Flicker Shads, Bandit 100, 200 and 300 cranks, or any other smaller sized mid depth crank (Arkie, Jenko, Mr. Crappie). I’ve actually caught quite a few on some of the larger DT series of baits.

This ^^ Don't overthink this one too much. Today I caught a bass on a shad colored soft plastic fished aggressively that had half a crawdad in his throat when landed.

Absolutely nothing wrong with spincast or underspin reels at all. We’ve just about all used them, and some still do. But weight especially, and to a certain degree balance, are critical keys to sensitivity. So adding a nearly 1 pound reel that sits high on the rod is going to kill much of the sensitivity you are looking to gain by purchasing a more expensive rod. It’s more about helping you save your time and money until your setup is better able to detect those subtle differences you want to achieve. Just so happened no one asked about your reel choices with this outfit.

Three pages and 60 responses later just to get to this finding - ? I think we can lock this thread now before it goes too far south...or someone gets hurt ?