blackrain

Hope you find the rod. If there's a bright side at least you fell in during the Summer when water is warm 🙂 I've lost a rod and reel overboard but it was April and too cold, windy and too deep to try and find it.

Great thought process. My achilles heel is I usually fish too fast because in the back of my mind I know I need to get off the water by noon, typically. This works fine up until postspawn/Summer, which is usually mid-June through July where I'm at. I do not mind slowing down but I guess I'm wired more like KVD (without catching 'em like KVD). I also would rather land one big bass than 10 keepers so I guess I need more patience.

I am anything but a pro and really don't follow what they do. Mostly because I typically can only fish 4-5 hours max each outing so my time is valuable, just for a different reason. What I've been doing this season is throwing one type of bait the entire time to work on improving my 'weak' presentations. But I always seem to fall back on what is tried and true after a couple hours of being skunked 😄

The few times that has happened, I practically have a heart attack! To be honest I don't throw a buzzbait much at all. Probably why I only have one in my arsenal, lol. Maybe I need to start!

Thanks for all the replies. I agree with making long bomb casts, in open water. And that many more times have gotten bit closer to the end of the long cast, compared to almost never close to the boat. Yes, I have gotten bit by many followers but that is more often with crankbaits, chatterbaits, and swim jigs (subsurface) than topwaters. I'm also in agreement that more casts means more fish see my lure so my tendency is to reel in after I'm past what I feel is enough time to trigger a strike. And I also fish impatiently, lol such that it's tough to fish a popper (my favorite and most consistent) all the way to the boat after a long cast.

So I've been throwing topwaters a lot the past few weeks - poppers, prop baits and frogs. I am not a topwater expert by any stretch so I'm curious just how close to the boat folks stop retrieving their bait? Meaning am I missing any potential bites by reeling in when the bait is about 20-30 feet (boat length) away? Note that I usually fish clear water and on little to no wind days, of course. How many get strikes or follows very close to the boat?

I believe that rod has been Lake Erie legend Steve Clapper's tube rod of choice for many years.

I appreciate this advice, especially your mention of changing depth. My gut tells me there were more fish but they moved away and this is where ffs would perhaps help me track where? I also need to get better about changing up the presentation as you mentioned. I can get too locked in (stubborn) to a retrieve thinking “it worked for these bass” and continue doing the same thing for too long and miss out on more fish. The mystery continues, lol.

Great advice changing angles of the cast. I have heard this can trigger them or give them a different look at the lure. I’m heading out tomorrow and will give all these suggestions a try, assuming I find active biters again of course. Thanks.

Thanks. I admit even at 66, I am still too impatient and love fishing fast too much for my own good. Next time I’ll try a Senko or worm and pick the area apart before giving up. I’m hoping to try that area in a couple days and hope they’ve reloaded.

Thanks, that was my first thought. I typically never livewell my fish but I know at times this helps from spooking the others. It is a huge area and I did search around, with some success but was just curious if I missed some fish by not trying something different.

I have a question for everyone who has encountered this scenario (we probably all have at some point, lol). I had a good day early this week throwing a swim jig in sparse eel grass clumps just adjacent to an island on a large river with moderate current and landed four nice bass in 10 casts, but then there was a 5 minute "lull". I knew there were more bass in this area so the first thing I did was switch to a jackhammer. After about a dozen casts, I switched to a stupid tube. Nada on both. I kept methodically covering the area with the swim jig but either the fish moved, they were spooked by my releasing the ones I caught, or they didn't want what I was offering as an alternative. My question is, what is the first thing you do when you encounter an active school and they stop eating the bait you just caught some fish on? Do you change colors, change lures, or throw a different lure (say a Senko as an example)? Or all the above? Note: I do not have FFS so I cannot know for sure there were more bass in the spot, but it's a picture perfect location and conditions were perfect.

Why? If you cannot effectively cast lighter/smaller lures with your MH. If you fish very clear waters or deep water and need to drop down in line size/lb test. If you find it is difficult to work and place certain lures with the MH. If I were to do it all over again putting together a bass arsenal with baitcasters, I'd start with a 7' M, MH, and H (fast action of course) and then branch out from there. You can throw probably 95% of all bass lures with those three powers. A lot depends on what cover you usually fish and the size of the bass, of course. Get out of here with the salmonid and fly talk! I'm kidding of course, I lived in the Pacific NW (Seattle) for 10 years and miss those waters, and fish, dearly.

I don't do the BFS deal but I agree with the above posters about Seaguar Invisx, though I'd opt for Tatsu. Yes, the price tag is much higher but IMO, it is that much better of a fluorocarbon line and with 6lb test, there's no room for error.

For most topwaters, I use straight 15-20lb mono, no knot to deal with. Like you, I use SV TW reels also. 15lb for longer casts, smaller poppers, and no cover. 20lb for all other situations. Especially since your rod is MH no need to worry about good hooksets. I just find that braid without a leader on treble hooked baits is a pain to deal with (I fish in windy conditions half the time). But - since you want to use that setup for both, which isn't ideal, braid is the way to go. And add a mono leader for topwaters. I'd also drop to 30lb braid as mentioned. Definitely use a fluoro leader for the swim jigs. If your budget allows, consider adding a separate swim jig setup so you don't need to be tying different leaders.

I'd spend a lot more on reels than rods. All my rods would have Stellas, Steez SVs, Exists, and Aldebarans.

Falcon Swim Jig rod, the USA Cara ST version. Switched to using the ALX Dream and Deputy now and recommend all for throwing swim jigs. If using braid I would't go heavier power or else use a mod-fast action rod.

Awesome fish by everyone! Thanks for sharing! I typically don't photo document my smallies unless I catch a PB (lengthwise), still trying to catch that 23" and up. My experience has been the same as AJay in that all my 21"s and 22"s have been landed in the April/May coldwater season on St Clair or the Detroit River. I wish I could get out in the Fall coldwater season more but my work schedule usually doesn't allow me time off like in the Spring.

Dropshot Tube Grub/swimbait Ned (very last resort)

As a long time mono/copolymer (McCoy) and fluorocarbon (Tatsu, Invisx, Sniper) user, my experience is that I absolutely feel more slack line bites with fluorcarbon. Line stretch is about equal. Visibility also about the same, and I fish zebra mussel-infested waters in Michigan. Abrasion resistance is better with Tatsu though some coploymers are just as tough, but they handle worse than FC. I use all 3 types of lines available.

Since cost is no issue then GLX or NRX 843 and 844 MBRs. Since you're already familiar with G Loomis MBR.

I'd swim a smaller Keitech or a hair jig in 6-8 ft just above their heads. I don't throw spybaits or do the moping thing but those would be two things to try as well.

MBR843c in whatever line you can afford. I use a GLX with 15lb. Tatsu. I've also used a Falcon Cara Finesse Jig and Head Turner rods and highly recommend those as well.

For those depths, ALX Ikos Hustler.

I don't have the 844c MBR but I do have and love the 843c MBR and for me and the size of bass in the waters I fish, I don't require anything heavier than the 843c. The TB guys catch way bigger (largemouth) bass than I do and thus Matt seems to throw much larger and heavier lures than me so unless you fish for kong-sized bass, I wouldn't recommend a H powered rod for topwaters.