basspro48

I fish a lot of smaller rivers for smallmouth so a kayak is my favorite choice. I fish out of a 12' Loon right now but I have my eye on one of those Hobie 'yaks.

I always thread my chunks onto a jig, I don't know if it makes a difference to the fish but I mainly do it because it just looks better to me.

I like ZOOM only because they have proven fish catching designs and colors. I don't use any of that Berkley stuff because I have never caught a fish on it, but I know that if I throw a brush hog in some grass I am going to get bit. I just have a lot more confiednce in the ZOOM designs.

Also, the Slender Pointer 112 is deadly for smallies and Kentucky spotts. My top colors would be American Shad, Chartreuse Blue, and Aurora Brown.

Sorry about the really late reply Sam. The tournament was during a full moon so there was an extreme tide, it was low in the morning but we fished an incoming tide the whole day so there wasn't enough water in the creeks until about the last 3 hours. I tried fishing a drop-off in the morning but adandoned it after my dad caught a fish off the mouth of a creek. And no I didn't fish any jerkbaits, the water was a little to dirty fer that IMO.

Headed out to the Pamunkey River early this morning again with my dad and buddy Conner, aka Triton9. We got to the ramp at about 6:20 and headed upriver to a nice long riprap bank. Me and Triton9 both doubled up on smallmouth twice in only 4 casts. And Conner caught a 3lb. 6oz. smallie on his first cast :o which is a real pig fer that river. But when the sun came up the bite completely died and we didn't get another hit the rest of the day. A pretty good day on the river compared to the last few times we've been there And I caught my 2 smallies on a Rootbeer Shad Bandit 200 series, and Triton9 caught his 2 smallies and the monster on a Taco Salad Bandit 200 series.

AWESOME FISH!!!! Great job on hooking and landing that fish, and she looks a little bigger than 5 to me too

Haven't tried marabou yet, but i will be very soon. Thanks man

Hey senko77, do you tie the marabou to the shamk of the hook or incorporate it into the skirt somehow? Because I have made a few bucktail/silicone skirt jigs and I have always tied the bucktail to the shank of the hook. Just wondering how you do it.

Trilene Big Game and Stren Original are the only mono's I use anymore. They have low memory, low stretch, and good abrasion resistance compared to other monofilaments.

I use to be a big fan of All-Star rods but after I picked up my first Kistler it was all over. All-Star still makes a decent rod for the money but I am just blown away by the Kistler's lightness, strength, durability, and insane sensitivity. I highly reccomend a Kistler rod to anyone who hasn't tried them.

I always add split rings on all of my popper/spook type baits. The split ring gives the bait a wider range of movement, which gives the bait more action.

I would say a 7' Medium Kistler Crankbait Composite rod and a Shimano Curado 6.3:1 ratio reel. I prefer a faster reel because I can crank more line in if a fish swims towards me, I just crank the handle slower when fishing the bait.

I was jealous of the guys in the treestands saturday, it was opening day of blackpowder season. We heard a lot of shots and saw a guy after the tourney with a nice 8 pointer in his truck. I can't wait til I can get out to my stand finally.

Fished in a tournament with my dad saturday on the Pmaunkey River and was it COOOOLD. Boat check was at 5:45 and it was only 23 degrees when we got to the ramp. We launched around 7:30 and a 15 minute run in 23 degree weather is almost unbearable, after stopping off at our first spot and taking 15 minutes to get feeling back in my body we started throwing cranks around old pilings. We left that spot after the tide dried that place up. My dad got our first keeper, a 15 inch Kentucky bass, on a shad colored Bagley B-Flat 2 from a deep laydown. We decided to fish those deeper laydowns with the B-Flat the rest of the day and only ended up with 3 keepers for the day. We only had about 3.5 lbs but it was still a decent day for our first tournament on that river.

lovecranking, if you wanna save money on feathered trebles then instead of buying expensive bucktail or flashabou hooks just buy a small pack of marobou and CDC feathers. Get some kind of thread and take a small pinch of marabou and 2 or 3 CDC feathers and tie them on to the rear treble. This saves money and doesn't require much skill to do.

I make many mods to many different kinds of baits, here's a couple. Jigs- I always trim the weedguard and I trim the skirt back so it is even with the shank of the hook. Also I either add or remove rattles depending on the conditions. And one other thing I do is, if the jig has eyes in the jighead I always pop them out. Crankbaits- I swith-out the normal split rings with the oval split-rings and if the bait has cheap hooks I switch out the hooks. I try to sharpen all the hooks after several uses. And if I dont like the paintjob on the bait I either modify it with acrylic paint or I completely redo the bait with an airbrush. Topwaters- Again I always switch out the split-rings and the cheap hooks. And I will also modify or completely redo the paint on a topwater. Also if the line tie of the bait doesnt have a split-ring I will add one. Spinnerbaits- I sometimes drill several small holes in the blades to create a different vibration, and I will either trim the skirt or add another skirt depending on the conditions. Buzzbaits- I always drill at least two 1/8in. holes in the blade to create a better bubble trail and to make it throw more water. I will also either trim the skirt or add another one on a buzzbait. Brush Hawgs- The brush hawg is my favorite soft bait to mess with, several things I like to do to it are to cut the little arms on the top of the bait so they dangle in the water, split the big paddle tails down the middle, and I sometimes remove the two ribbontails.

They've started schooling up real good ,in about 11 feet of water, around here. I've been catching the most fish trolling an 1/8oz. white roadrunner but I've been catching the bigger ones by casting a small suspending jerkbait like a pins minnow. Not much longer and I'll be able to really slay em on jigs in the trees

Nice fish!!! I love catching pike, especially on light tackle. They fight hard and they'll smash anything that crosses their path. Here's a pic of good one I caught during a bass tournament.

My favorite jig setup is my 7' MH Kistler Graphite Plus paired with a Shimano Curado. If you plan on fishing jigs from 1/4oz. to 1/2oz. I would suggest a Medium Heavy action rod, but if you plan on fishing anything over 1/2oz. I suggest a Heavy action rod. For line I mainly use 17 or 20lb. fluorocarbon, but if I'm faced with heavy cover then I switch to 50lb. P-Line Braid.

I aslo live smak dag in the boondocks here in VA. and I LOVE IT!!!! I've been told that I have a pretty thick southern accent and people used to make fun of it but pretty much everybody around here has at least a trace of a southern accent, heck our high school is the Lee-Davis Confederates

Last winter my buddy and me were fishing suspending Super Rogues along steep banks and we must have caught 20 or so crappie. Then another time we were trolling small roadrunners on little UL rigs for crappie and we doubled up with bass, a 4lber. and a 2lber.

A jig, a 3/8oz. black/blue one to be exact. I always have one tied on no matter where or what I am fishing.

Very nice fish man, and very nice boat. I wanted a G3 so bad and had found a really good deal on a '04 175 but the guy sold it before I had a chance to do anything, oh well I still ended up with a pretty nice boat

I don't have a pic but my biggest LM is 7lbs. 4oz. caught on a white 1/2oz. Lunker lure buzzbait in my homelake. But here is my pb smallie, 3lbs. 7oz., caught this past august on a small matzuo jerkbait in the Rivanna River.