webertime

Fished Mallett's Bay last Friday and Sunday. Friday started out cruddy rain and sort of windy and ended gin clear and calm. Fished from 9am to just after 7pm. We boated 83 Smallmouths, 78 of them on Jerkbaits, nothing smaller than 1.75lbs! 5lbs was the lunker, also got one random Brown Trout and some Lucky Craft Eaters (AKA Pike). Sunday was sunny and clear, but really windy! We boated 43 Smallies all 2lbs+! Their bellies were so stuffed with Perch/Alewives that they were bright white from being stretched so tight! You could feel the fish in their stomachs! Again jerkbaits ruled, but the biggest fish came on soft swimbaits. The boat next to us go doubles of 4lbs 14oz and 4lbs 9oz! I don't think I can make a jerkbait motion for the next week after those fish! On Northern Champlain right now find 6-10fow with bolders and you'll find them!

Arrowhead can be pretty goofy, all the spots that look "bassy" will often have nothng but pickerel or sunnies, then you go to a sandy/silty flat and they are all over. Fish around that bridge in your pix, especially now with the smallies running up into the Lamoille now. It can get nasty brown in the blink of an eye after a good rain and it can get a pretty crazy current. There are some big fish in there, but they are few and far between. There are some BIG Bowfin in there though. Senkos, Fat Ikas and Pit Bosses!

Doesn't your DSG carry Citica's? or Orra's? The current Escalade is just a Quantum Code with a blue paint job.

A Dobyns would be a great rod for sure. I have a Phenix Recon 766 and absolutely love it. I have two Recons and they are light, very well balanced, have top notch construction and very sensitive. I can't argue against a Dobyns, but a Recon should be on your short list too.

MegaStrike and Smelly Jelly Bass Feast.

X2

Spawning Male (teal fins) in the 5-6lb range.

Currently 23 members. We averaged 7-9 boats per club tournament. Sorry for the delay in responding.

I have been using the snell knot on all my T-rigged baits since ice out last spring and have found that there are no negatives to doing it if you are using a quality hook. Straight shank (with the black heat shrink tubing bait keepers) do "Kick" the hook point further, exposing the point to the fish better. However I was tearing up baits more and they did slide around a lot still. EWG-Type hooks worked fine, but due to their geometry the hook point is sort of "tucked" in more not exposing the hook point as well (see my attachment). Enough to lose more fish? Maybe 1 in 100 hooksets. But with all the other variables involved in a hookset, I'd say there's not a significant effect. Some regular offset hooks like this Mustad http://www.mustad.no...oduct.php?id=33 allow the hook point to be way more exposed on the hookset than an EWG and hold the bait on better (IMO) than the straight shank. Best of both worlds. However if you are flipping (50lb braid on a flipping stick) with a lighter hook like this you could/will bend some of them open a bit as they aren't as beafy as the straight shanked hooks. If you are using fluro or mono, or just fishing them like a regular T-rigged worm on lighter than flipping tackle, the bending is of far less a concern. I've only had an 11lb Bowfin basically twist out and open up a hook doing the snell knot. Usually an 11lb Bowfin will also rob you at knife point and steal your girlfriend, so bending any hook on that should be expected.

The old style "visine" bottle will allow it to dry out. Those are the ones I see at Dick's in the clearance section for $2. The nailpolish style bottles work very well. Makes Rage baits (and Hudds) far cheaper over the long haul. Fun to make frankenbaits too! My Rage Ika's are killer!

Phenix Recon 715C with a Shimano Curado 201E7 spooled with 16lb Sunline Sniper. OR Lamiglas Excel 703S with a Pflueger Supreme XT spooled with 8lb YZH.

What weight are you looking for?

The Chittenden County Bassmasters are currently accepting new members. We are a TBF/FLW associated club and require that you be a Vermont resident. During the season we have 8 Club Tournaments on Lake Champlain (last one is a 2 day affair) mixed evenly with picks and draws. We sponsor 3 Opens as well including 2 during the amazing fall bite on Champlain. We have a large Junior program as well. We have 5 club members representing Vermont in the TBF Divisionals this fall and have several members with 20-40 years of experience on Champlain, the knowledge you pick up is amazing! A great group of guys from all different backgrounds. PM me or check out our site for details http://www.ccbvermont.com/

A T-Rigged and snelled Berkley Pit Boss with a 3/8oz. weight. Flip it, swim it, catch fish with it!

You're a Hudd fiend!

Lots of the guys in my club, including AOY's, winners of TBF Divisionals, and guys that have participated in some very high levels of competitive bass fishing use the Tourney and Graphite rods and love them.

The reel shifting in the seat can cause a "Creak" noise. I had a 7'6"H LTX (previous version of the PG) and I pulled up a brush pile from 15 FOW with it AND a 3" diameter underwater cable as well, with no issues.

Good point about the hooks...

I've been looking for a cranking rod for a while now. That being said I mostly throw weightless plastics, T-Rigs, C-Rigs and swimbaits, so it's not like it's been a super hard search. However I know how effective Cranks can be and feel it's an area I can use some growth in. I fish Champlain and all over Vermont. Lots of rock, and places where there are a lot of weeds mixed in. Grinding and snapping are the name of the game. I toss Strike King 3,4,5's occasionally an XD or Rapala DT16. I have acquired a DD-22 and a few LC BDS, XD's to try this year as well. (I fully understand a DD22 is a different beast than a SK3, so lets say 90% of the time a SK5 will be tossed). I have used a Lamiglas Excel 734 (7'3" Med MF, early production run) and found it to not have the back bone to snap a bait through the weeds and got shook all over the place with larger/harder thumping cranks (SK5's). I then got a Kistler Magnesium MgCbCGGM70. Now this rod is pretty sweet for BOMBING baits, it's rated for 1/8 to 3/4 oz. and it DOES handle that range pretty well. It doesn't feel like it's getting thrown around by bigger cranks, which I like. However, it's slowish action (flexes to within 8-10" of the front of the reel!) still keeps me from getting a good snap through the weeds (I'm thinking of going with braid on it to see if that would help, thoughts?). So I am looking at a few alternatives. The Powell Diesel, Lamiglas Excel 705G, BPS Cranking Stick 7'6" mh XF, St. Croix Mojo 7' MHM (has me the most intrigued). Anyone have any input on these, I know they are all well respected and "great deals" , but given where I fish and what I'll be doing and the baits I'll be tossing does anyone have an opinion on which direction to go? If it matters I can swap between a Citica 201E and an Abu C4 Winch (3.8:1 baby!) for reels and I have more darn line to spool up than is healthy, so that's not an issue. Thanks for looking at all this. Chris

To my knowledge the PQ Spinning reel is based off the Pflueger Arbor. The back to back angler of the year in our club has a few of the PQ Spinning reels and likes them.

Sebile Soft Magic Swimmers are excellent DS baits

It's a great crank.

Aside from the matching part, and assuming you are a righty... gender mtn has shimano citica e's for 70-90$.

Any reports on the Cranking models?

One of the ponds in my mother's neighborhood is 50' x 12' and I've pulled some really nice fish out of it.