Crookedneck

8 to 10 lb mono 5" senko baby bass color. Rigged either wacky or weightless t-rigged. Long casts. A little bit of patience & you'll be reeling em in.

Finished up a 12 week long bass tournament series tonight. It was a 12 week long series that you can weigh in 1 fish per week, 3 hours of fishing every Thursday night. Longest fish wins every week, and there is a running total for the end of the year. I had a good year. And ended up finishing 1st by a quarter inch and I got most improved angler (I asked if that meant I sucked last year). There was 38 anglers competing this year. Anyways, tonight I finished up with these fish. A 21" early in the night And a 21" and a 21 3/4"

The ability to cast great lengths can be a good thing. & it is a mixture of the rod/reel/lure combo. I have several rigs set up that I can literally bomb some lures with. Unfortunately, there are times when you can actually out cast the hook setting ability of the said rod. Which can then lead to missed fish or fish that are able to shake the hook.

This is a funny thread! My younger brother is a weight lifting-meat head, several weeks ago he was home and I took him fishing. We were fishing on Green Bay in some 3-4 footers for smallies. After about an hour he started whining about how sore his calves were. He said it felt like he was doing 240 lb calf squats for the last hour. He had to sit down to keep from crying. If you were to fish for days like this I could see where PED would be an advantage. LOL! I would have to say that from some of the reactions I have seen when a fish is missed there is some Roid Rage going on in the pro's.

Deep cranking is one of my favorite fall patters for smallies. The 6xd is not too big for a 2-3lb smallie. Try it. If they aren't hitting and you want to down size...Another option is to use a 3 way swivel tied to your main line with 12" leaders. On one put a 1/2 oz weight & the other a shallow diving square bill 1.0 or 1.5. & if that doesn't work drop shot a 3" senko

I agree with alot of the points above. When the wind is blowing, it can bring the smallmouth into a feeding frenzy, if you can find them. I usually start on the most wind blown, wave smashed shore line. I start with a search bait. Crank or jerkbait are a good start. My personal favorite is a 1/2 to 3/4 oz spinner bait. The heavier weights make casting in the wind easier, and believe me when I say they are not too big for smallies. Colors and blade types I will leave to you. I personally like a willow colorado duo, in chartruese or chart/white. I like to use a trailer with a trailer hook. The heavier spinner baits are more versital when it comes to retrieves. The one disadvantage to the heavier spinner baits is if they decide to come to the top and dance...you'll tend to loose a few. Just one of my methods.

Thanks for the comments guys. It was a lot of fun. Wore me out though at the end of the day. A couple things, that came into play was the type of weather, cloud cover and water clarity. It started dark and dreary, spitting rain, high winds and the water was stained. So I went with baits that were highly visible and ones you could cast in the wind. So I chose a 3/4 oz spinner bait with a mixture of a willow and Colorado for the flash and the thump I like the Strike back models as they have the dual color blades chartreuse in color with a chartreuse trailer. When I got tired of throwing that I switched it up to a brightly colored Strike King 4S in black back/chart and Green Tomato. The wide wobble coupled with a the bigger body made it irresistible. Both of these presentations worked well, but I did notice that in the retrieve if I just paused randomly, that pause would elicit a monster strike. I finished up with throwing a chart/white laminated Senko to entice the finicky eaters. I had it T-rigged weightless with a 2/0 EWG. (I think a 3/0 might have been better, but no complaints) This was my first real experience using a Senko. I have tried it randomly, but never had much success (probably because of my lack of patience with it). I am now hooked and will be fishing it more. Yesterday was a true testament to, good gear goes a long ways, and having it set up properly causes less headaches in tough conditions. Short of my net, which is being replaced this week with an EGO rubber net, and not switching out the hooks on one crank bait (hooks broke on a pig of a smallie the front hook busted off at the split ring....), my gear performed flawlessly. Even in tough wind and pounding that the fish put on it. Again, thanks for the help on here. The Senko thing was 75% Bass Resource info and 25% a buddy of mine swearing by them.

KVD square bills, just about anything SK. And when not using those I like the Mann's Baby 1 Minus. Lots of wobble.

Way to go! Glad you got to spend some time on the water with the kid. One of my favorite things to do is fish with my boys and wife.

Great fish!

After fighting the wind & waves for hours, the wind settled down, and a couple livebaiters decided it was ok to anchor 50 feet from me.. So I cheated....I put on a senko and kept smashing away....LOL! It was funny watching them trying to figure out what I was doing... After hours of hot fishing, just as many missed fish, tore up hands, I got tired and left. Pulling out a buddy of mine was pulling in. So I gave him my bag of Senko's and told him where to go and have fun. Everything today came on a 3/4oz Strike back spinnerbait, shallow diving square bill, and Senko's t-rigged weightless. I am going to take a nap now....

As you can see the wind is blowing...I hate that net..can't wait for my new one to get here.. A largemouth for good measure

Then some more After about an hour and a half of slamming them it started to slow down.

I headed to a new body of water today to pre fish for a tournament next Sunday. A cold front moved in last night. 15 mph wind and spitting rain made for cold, difficult to control the boat type of day. I told my wife I probably wouldn't be gone long. I got on the body of water, cruised around a little using my graph and that looks good, intuition. I decided on a shallow shelf that went from 2 feet down to 12 feet. With the wind pushing up against it. 45 minutes in. 30 minutes later 20 or so minutes later

Not sure why the pictures aren't showing up? Usually when I post a pic from photobucket it posts versus posting the link.

My wife had to work today for a couple hours. So the guys went fishing. We had a blast! %5BIMG%5Dhttp://i1235.photobucket.com/albums/ff431/crookedneck/aidansmallie_zpsef230c17.jpg http://i1235.photobucket.com/albums/ff431/crookedneck/bigsmallie_zpsf18ce8b1.jpg http://i1235.photobucket.com/albums/ff431/crookedneck/bradysmallie_zps8b23e722.jpg http://i1235.photobucket.com/albums/ff431/crookedneck/bradysmallie2_zpsb0df7773.jpg This one is a plane ole slob. 22 1/2" 6lbs 14 oz. I thought I was going to jump out of the boat my 4 year old was excited! Dad did a good job netting this one. I was so happy for him! http://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/uploads/gallery/category_5/gallery_27674_5_75415.jpg Dads 17 incher looks small! http://i1235.photobucket.com/albums/ff431/crookedneck/bradysmallie3_zps31e10f59.jpg A couple walleyes to eat. http://i1235.photobucket.com/albums/ff431/crookedneck/bradywalleyes_zps65e065bc.jpg And if there was a beast of the week I believe this would be it. The boys were a little freaked out by this one. My 4 year old thought it was a shark! LOL! 8 lbs Seagaur Invizx Floro carbon does the job! http://i1235.photobucket.com/albums/ff431/crookedneck/dinosaur_zps77e28218.jpg

Good choice! Good job!

I don't think it should be an issue...I agree with the bacteria though. Probably the one concern if there is one.

They have been pounding the smallies over in Sturgeon bay the last week or so. Last Sunday a buddy of mine had 31 lbs with his biggest 5. But that one in the picture sure is a toad...whaa!

rodbuildingforum.com is also a good site to visit. Lots of help. No conflicts on the site and lots of people willing to help. If you have any specific questions feel free to PM me. I am more than willing to help.

I lost 5 customs last year with new reels first time out in the new boat. Blew out the side running up river. Spead over 100 yards. Dreadged w treblehooks & an ugly stick for 2 weeks. Gone...talk about feeling sick. Wont run w out strapping down ever again.

2 options. Take some water proof wood glue with cork shavings or golden oak wood filler

For me a spinner bait works well on windy days.

I hate ivy. Poison Oak or Sumac is worse in my opinion. It is painful!!!! Best fix other than avoiding it is to see the Dr. Get some Prednisone. I have also found that there must be different strands of poision Ivy. I have no reaction to it in some parts of the country and in others it is horrible.