Marty

For 25+ years I have been fishing a Lake Ontario pier for smallies in the summer. It's not a real long pier and only extends to a water depth of about six feet. It's certainly fun to catch them, but I consider it 95% luck. Those fish move in shallow and move back out and you have to be there at the right time. It's a crapshoot. They're either in shallow or they're not.

I use Fireline on one reel and use a snap tied with a Palomar, so I don't have to retie very often. Another thing that comes to mind is to use a mono or fluoro leader to save the braid.

I've been using Firefox for two years, ever since the computer got infested with spyware and I had to pay a guy to clean it up.

Wide-gap hooks, size 3/0 and 4/0, respectively. I'm usually fishing weed cover and rig them weightless and Texposed, skin-hooked if necessary.

I've used homemade, Mister Twister, Kalin's and others. They've all worked well, at least I haven't been able to note much of a difference in effectiveness.

I use internal weights. I never keep the hook inside the body. Generally, the point is Texposed, or if it's picking up weeds, then I skin-hook it.

Good luck. Grubs on jigheads, along with crankbaits, are one of the best lures, in my personal experience.

If you can't find an answer elsewhere, you might want to e-mail BPS. They answer product questions.

Most of the trebles I use are #4 and #6, with a few #8s and an occasional #2. A standard 1/2 oz. Rat-L-Trap has a #4 on the belly and a #6 on the rear.

I'll take the opposing view. It's been shown time and time again that every conceivable lure color works, and I think these college lures would work as well as any other color selection. Why not have some fun if an angler gets a kick out of using a lure with his favorite team's colors? I seriously doubt that he'd be reducing his chances of catching fish.

Don't know, I've never used topwater for them. But they will readily take a variety of artificial lures. I used to use a small Kastmaster spoon, but these days I use small crankbaits, mainly a Rapala Mini Fat Rap or Rapala Countdown, size 3. I suspect they would also take inline spinners, jigs and other appropriate-size lures.

Up in my neck of the woods, that water temperature is good for horizontal baits like cranks, spinnerbaits and inline spinners.

Zoom calls them Salty Super Flukes.

I wouldn't settle for anything less than titanium pliers from Van Staal. They might be a couple of bucks more than some are willing to spend, but you get what you pay for. ;D ;D ;D Order Qty Our Price Item Number Description Size $279.00 38-423-516-00 TITANIUM PLIERS 6" * $314.00 38-423-518-00 TITANIUM PLIERS 7"

Talking about soft plastics, I set the hook when I think I have a hit, which is usually indicated by the line moving off to the side. I feel that bass normally engulf the bait, so setting the hook soon is not too early. I believe that when letting the fish run with the bait, two bad things can happen: 1) the bait is taken deep or 2) the bait is spit out. Thus, my rationale for early hooksets.

I'll take your word for it. I've never experienced the pleasure of handling slugs (except with a piece of toweling between my hand and the animal) and I'm not actively looking to do it for the first time. ;D However, are they really slimier than pike and pickerel? How about eels (which I've also never handled)?

I don't know where to get them like that but I'm confident that you don't need them to succeed. Soft jerkbaits, such as Slug-Gos, Slimy Slugs, Flukes and Assassins are excellent producers in a wide variety of colors, most of which don't resemble slugs.

Texas Tackle makes pliers that are outstanding (and expensive). The small size is excellent on small-to-medium split rings. They're available at Cabela's for an arm and a leg.

I don't know that there's a right or wrong way. These are versatile lures and can be fished many different ways. In my personal case, I use them in shallow water over submerged weeds where I would otherwise be using crankbaits or spinnerbaits and I retrieve them like those other baits, with retrieves ranging from steady to erratic, nothing fancy.

Good stuff, that's a new one to me. ;D

Since you're fishing mostly clear water, it wouldn't do you any harm (and it might help) to try some non-rattling cranks. My first choice would be the Original Rapala Shad Raps in whatever models are appropriate for the depths you're fishing.

It's possible that you just weren't on fish when you were using the Chatterbait. When you were not catching anything on them, were you changing lures and starting to catch fish from the same areas that produced nothing on the Chatterbait?

In my personal experience, it has been extremely rare for a fish to strike a second time. If it tries to strike and misses, it will often try again, but if it strikes and contacts the lure, I hardly ever get another strike.

If you mean right now as in time of year, that might not be a bad idea, depending on where you're located. If you mean right now as in while you're boatless, the answer is absolutely not! I've done a huge amount of fishing from the shore for many years and I catch fish on a variety of lures. In no particular order, soft plastics, topwaters, crankbaits, spinnerbaits and inline spinners. Just choose your lure in accordance with the conditions, like cover, structure, water temperature, weather conditions, etc. Another factor is that in many waters, fishing from the shore offers no visible targets to fish, so you have to cover water and you can't do that as effectively with bait and plastics as with faster moving lures.

Either a bad batch or something weakening the line that he isn't aware of. I've used Trilene XL in various sizes for 35 years and have never experienced breakage problems.