rocknfish9001

A 3 inch mann's stingray grub, smoke w/an 1/8th oz. jighead Also a 3 inch brown tube on an 1/8th oz insider head

definatley everybody trying to launch their boat. Could be some good bloopers there.

4lbs. Caught it on a 3" manns stingray grub, advacado color, on an 1/8th oz. jighead. St. Joe river, of course.

I tell any and everybody where i was fishing, what i used, how i used it, boat position, colors, depth, time of day, day of week, etc, etc. If they ask, i tell. Even in the river. Everybody know how i caught my 10+lb. walleye, what i caught it on, and how i caught it. I tell everybody who asks. As a matter of fact, it was just north of the bridge in berrien springs below the dam on a #10 black a silver huskey jerk casted upstream, and drifted downstream, then s l o w l y reeled in. The fish hit it on the way back towards shore. Do i care? No. If there is somebody else on my spot, oh well. If there is a line of people there, thats just too bad and ill have to wait my turn. I can actually benifit from having somebody in my spot. It gives me an opportunity to try something new, maybe ill hit it big somewhere else i would have missed earlier. Now i will sound very cockey and maybe ill come off as an @$$hole, but i usually outfish somebody in my spot after i tell them every little detail. Am i a better fisherman? Id like to think so. I have fished side by side with somebody fishing the exact same lure, same color, same jighead, same everything. I outfished him 7-0. They think im holding something back, but trust me, i do anything i can to make everyone a better fisherman.

Beetle spins are real killers for smallies. But before you just open the pack and throw one around, cahnge the blade. Put a much larger willow leaf blade on, the kind that you find on most of your normal bass spinnerbaits.

to clear it up even more, there is NO current in the lake, it is a natural lake. Very clear, and the bottom type (weeds/sand) is very visible. There are not any rocks in the lake and there is no timber/wood. The entire shoreline is developed, and there is a house ever 10-20 yards with a dock. The middle of the lake is shallow, all under 5' deep. The sandy shoreline on the east is no deeper than 7' and is a very featureless bottom with no points or humps. The island surrounded by sand is usually one of the better smallie areas, but underneath the island in the SW corner, the water goes up to 45' deep or so, and very quickly. I have heard that this area is good for all speciese in the lake. I doubt there are any weeds in 40' of water, but im not sure what the bottom is like, i have never fished on that section of the lake.

There are no rocks in this lake. And the deep water is fairly featurless, just maybe slightly rolling, but it is consisting of a simply plain sand/mud bottom. That sandy flat in the middle of the lake is where a friend of mine caught a 5-6 lb smallie, the didnt weigh it. This is a normal lake, not a resivior.

So by bling bling are you refering to the type of people that own the mansions i see along the shoreline? Im sure every one of those people have a speed boat with a billion horse motor.

In this lake there are lots of 6 lb. smallmouths. I have never caught much of anything as far as smallmouths go, but i have got lots of largies and pike. Now i am really thinking about catching those brown bass, where at in this lake would you go? It is super clear and has weeds up to 10 feet. The bottom is pretty much all sandy. The map isnt very detailed with depth contours, so i tried to help with what i remembered. The text describes the area circled next to it.

Correct me if im wrong, and i may be. But from what i hear, smallmouths in lakes tend to gravitate towards the steeper drops, and do not populate the gradual drops or points as much, is that right?

kb, if you are talking about the south bend dicks, they have fat ikas. Usually only about 4-5 colors, but they are always pretty good colors.

I used 6lb. vanish for a while, then threw it all away because i had to tie about 20 knots to get one that doesnt break. But when i did get a good knot, you couldnt break that line no matter what. Some lures held knots better, and some could never hold a knot. I tried palamor knots with no improvement, so im assuming that it was the line that is giving me problems. And by the way, i did not think that the line was very abrasion resistant at all.

i love them. Their basically german metallica. No complaints here. By the way, the voice of their singer is sweet!

well for x-mas, i got a couple of big, 120+ page binder like books that contain topo maps, descriptions, stockings, and census records of about a hundred lakes in the area and surrounding counties!!!! They all sound so good right now. Off the top of my mind, lakes that i need to hit this upcoming season are north lake south lake big bass lake magician lake round lake eagle lake skegmog lake burt lake green lake barron lake paw paw lake cadillac lake rose lake thunder lake pine lake (state record was caught here) gun lake garver lake lime lake stone lake N and S scott lake diamond lake juno lake shoot, ive got a lot of water to cover, thats not even all of them i am serious about hitting up/

I am a high school athlete, a runner actually. And i have come to notice most of my friends i meet are usually runners as well. Im talking about distance and cross country runners. Not those sprinters (although i tend to do a pretty good 400) which just arent the same. Now it seems that us runners are different. And by that i mean way cooler than other people! lol. Any other runners on this site? Just like fishing, us runners have our own stories to tell, and have our own tales to brag about. Lets see what we have here........

I caught a 21 lb. carp smallie fishing. Caught it on a medium power rod a 6 lb. test line. Also, i have caught snapping turtles, and once i was using a popper in the dark of night, had a blow up, and caught a 28" pike. Half of its mouth was deformed, it looked like one side was almost ripped off. That could be why it was as skinny as a broom stick.

try strike king's 3x finnesse worms. They float and have a great action on jigheads

i havent seen too many baits come and go, seeing im only 17, but for really old lures that continue to produce, im going with the original rapala. It has got me a few 20-30 fish days when nothing else really works.

I usually fish it in an aggressive fashion. Trying to twitch it just right to make it go side to side perfectly. If you get good at it, you can use it as a topwater, a slow twitch bait, you can even make them jump out of the water. They do all sorts of cool things. But mainly, i fish them shallow enough where i can see the bait during the retrieve. Let is sink every now and then, but i usually dont fish them on the bottom, although slow jerking a fluke is a good technique to learn

Alright, i have always been convinced that these HAVE to catch bass, and i noticed you said use them where i would use a spinnerbait. Now that is great advice that makes tons of sense. Now should i use the same colors i use on a spinnerbait, which is usually a chartruese color. Of course i know that is really up to the fish. Also, what sizes do you have the most success with?

I do find myself rambling sometimes when i get a post in just to get myself on the board. Honestly completley useless posts bug me, but you know we all have done it

I admit i havent used them all too much. Actually, hardly at all. Now i never fished those shallow weedy flats im talking about with a manns 1-. I have had success on them with tubes, t-rigged plastics, and spinnerbaits. Now do you fish these really slow so they make a wake on the surface, or just let them dive and fish it like any other crank?

In my pond, there is a killer senko bite in the spring, where i cant catch them on anything but stickbaits. I used kinami flash, gycb senkos, luck e strike jogger worms, yum dingers, and gulp sinking minnows. Believe it or not, the gulp baits get the most strikes every time.

Everbody talks about how good these things are. I have never caught a fish on one, but i have two. I know some great spots for them, or so it seems. We catch lots of bass in the keeper range on these weedy 3-5' flats, which seems perfect for a shallow runner. Not a lot (if any) timber in my home lakes. So any suggestions where to fish these.

boondocks- The thing is, i know people who have caught 12 lb walleyes in the river, and as a matter of fact, sombody caught an 11 the same day i caught my 10. So im going to keep it in the freezer for a little while just to be sure i dont hook into a bigger while. A big walleye would be awesome on the wall