Bluebasser86

Yes, I work midnight shift from midnight-8am Thursday night at midnight-Tuesday morning at 8am. Makes finding people to go with me difficult but it's so nice at the same time because there's far fewer people on the water during the week. Welcome to the forum! This is a great forum and this particular thread is one of the best area specific threads I've ever read. There's a great group of guys on here that are more than willing to share what we've found to be working and where. I think most of us are just about as excited to see someone else on this thread catch a good fish as we are when we get a good one ourselves.

The hook quality does seem like it has gone down with the Zman chatterbait, they blades also tarnish very quickly. I've started making my own and had great success with them. The Zman bait does get hit a lot but I've had a lot of fish come off or just never hook up with them.

There may be no trout but if there's big bass then there's little bass and they aren't shy about eating each other. You may want to check out something like a Mattlures bluegill if they don't eat the Hudd. Pretty much every body of water with bass is going to have bluegill in it and you won't find better bluegill imitation.

I don't have any 8" Hudds, yet, but I do have a few 6" baits. Our bass just don't get very big very often. I have yet to catch a big fish on one of my 6" Hudds but I have been fishing them at a lake that is normally tough just to catch a 15" keeper largemouth and catching quite a few very solid 16-19 inch fish that I'm convinced must ignore every other presentation.

I have a Pfluegar Supreme MG in the 35 size on my shakyhead rod and feel it's about the perfect size for that rod. It balances well and holds enough line to allow me to make long casts without being cumbersome. I have the same reel in the 25 size on a ML 6' 10" rod I use for castings grubs and drop shotting. Same deal, balances well and does what I need it to do. Personally I'd rather have a reel that was a little too large instead of a little too small because a large reel will still function fairly well with lighter line, it's just going to use a lot of line if you're filling it with a light line. However, if you're using anything heavier than 8lb a 20 size reel and trying to make long casts it probably isn't going to hold enough line.

Agreed, brand loyalty is a silly thing if you can get a better deal on another quality product that will perform equally as well.

Congrats! That's a heck of a way to break into the world of smallmouth bass fishing! They are pretty addicting to catch for sure!

I'm in the same boat. Put a new sight on mine over a month ago and haven't even started to dial it in with the season a month away

What you're describing is much less trolling and a lot more driving the boat around and hoping. Kind of like just letting the boat drift across the lake or going down a bank and just casting blindly. Someone who knows what they're doing will follow contours or structure, adjust baits, colors, speed, line weight and type, potentially use a planer board, trolling weight, or downrigger and have to adjust different variables with those, while reading electronics, controlling the boat so lines don't tangle. If it took no skill then why are some people so much better than others at it? I'm terrible at it but I don't enjoy it at all so it doesn't really matter to me.

That's quality entertainment right there!

Probably about as thankless an occupation a guy can have it seems. I've only been doing it almost 6 years now but I could count the "atta boys" or sincere "thanks yous" without taking my boots off. People love you when they need you but hate you when they don't. Doesn't bother me, I do my job and I do it well. I make decent pay, have a good time with most of my coworkers and some of my supervisors, but above all I'm going home at the end of the day. Getting the occasional overdo pat on the back just makes me appreciate them that much more.

Not sure what it is but doesn't look like what I know to be an emerald shiner. They're typically a very slender fish and nearly transparent in color. http://www.google.com/imgres?q=emerald+shiner&um=1&hl=en&safe=active&sa=N&biw=1040&bih=888&tbm=isch&tbnid=i4CWp_hxtnRSIM:&imgrefurl=http://www.studyblue.com/notes/note/n/fish/deck/74722&docid=swATSw_zDtGgaM&imgurl=http://www.cnr.vt.edu/efish/families/images/jpegs/emerald.jpg&w=432&h=287&ei=d-QxUIqWJOr5ygGKz4GQCQ&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=723&vpy=169&dur=531&hovh=183&hovw=276&tx=148&ty=115&sig=115030931878620941267&page=1&tbnh=162&tbnw=206&start=0&ndsp=16&ved=1t:429,r:3,s:0,i:84

A 3" Gulp minnow on a 1/8oz jighead is by far my favorite artificial for walleye this time of year. In the spring they love hard jerkbaits, longer and more slender baits seem to work better like a rogue, RCX, vision 110, or slender pointer have been my better baits but I did have one spring I wore the paint off a LC 78 pointer in Nishiki (clown) color. Rattle traps and shad rap or flicker shads are very good baits for them at times or baits like the original Rapala or countdown minnow are good too. Swimbaits and grubs are both very effective at times also. It's not a dependable thing but some of the biggest walleye I've caught have been flipping weedless finesse jigs into and around shallow wood or rocks. I catch a lot of walleye fishing for bass with squarebills and spinnerbaits at times also.

What kind of line are you using and are you referring to hard jerkbaits or soft baits like a fluke? I normally fish hard jerkbaits on a casting rod with 10lb mono but if I'm fishing smaller baits or in clear water where I want a long cast I'll switch to spinning gear. Line conditioner and a quality line with low memory is a must. I don't like fluoro for suspending jerkbaits because it sinks and messes with the baits ability to suspend. Stren original works very well but I really liked how the new Pline C21 fished a jerkbait. I fished it a bunch at the White River in Arkansas for brown trout with jerkbaits and had zero problems with it in 4 days. I know some guys like braided or fused line for jerkbaits on spinning rods with a mono leader and have great success with it. If you're fishing a soft jerkbait you may need to add a small, quality swivel to prevent line twists.

It was my understanding that the new Chronarch was basically a repainted Curado E series that cost $20 more? With that in mind and Curado E series still out there for basically the same price they were selling for why would anyone buy a chronarch other than for the name? I know if I was in the market for a new reel I'd be finding an E series somewhere instead of their new lineup. I like their products but the competition is running them down quickly and I'm starting to look harder at the Pfluegar and Lew's. Pfluegar's spinning reels have already won me over, their casting reels may be next.

Depends on how thick the cover is. If I can run a squarebill through it there isn't anything that triggers quite as well as that seems to. Make sure you spool up with quality line doing this though. I use 15lb fluoro to help with the abrasions and check your line often and retie when it's needed. Best tournament I ever had was running squarebills through wood at Truman Lake in Missouri. A spinnerbait, swim jig, buzzbait, or topwater fished through them can be great too. Of course there's always the obvious flipping a jig or your plastic bait of choice into it also.

Think I'll just stick with senkos....Not surprised you caught one on it though. The biggest bass I've ever caught out of one of the local state lakes ate a big chunk of cut bluegill that I had laying on the bottom for catfish, just shy of 6lbs. I've caught several quality fish casting weightless chunks of bluegill to weedlines for catfish, they usually hit it on the fall or while I'm slowly retrieving it.

^ What he said. It's like an even faster version of a snap. Works well with most cranks and spinnerbaits with a closed eye.

That Purple gold/black flake looks like the color YUM calls mardi gras, I've never been able to find it in anything other than their dinger or ribbontail worm. It's a killer color for smallmouth around here, they love anything with purple or gold flake. Combine the 2 and they can't stand it! Hopefully one of the BPS by me will carry them. They have a pretty limited selection of colors now as it is.

TP in a big empty Folgers container, best waterproof TP container I've found. Spotlight first aid kit sunblock spare fuses hose clamps electric and duct tape spare fuse holders 50lb digital scale 100lb spring scale (a guy can hope can't he ) hot hands line conditioner megastrike gulp spray JJ's, chartruese and clear bug spray and a Thermacell if I'm night fishing 2 headlamps 2 or 3 flashlights and spare batteries throw net anchor measuring board pliers of all types 2 drift socks 6 rod holders Obviously some items are not in my tackle box but in my boats storage.

You still have to figure out what depth the fish are holding at, what areas they're holding in, what they're feeding on, what speed you need to troll, and a host of other variables, just like when you're casting and retrieving. I get what you're saying, sort of anyways. It sounds to me like you're talking about people that just pick the first bait out of their box, put it in the water and just drag it around and hope they stumble across a fish, a lot like a lot of people do when casting and retrieving a bait. However, some people have it down to a science. In a larger body of water I might even argue that it's more difficult to troll because you're structure fishing, not casting to visible cover like most anglers do. So you have to be good at reading your electronics, topo maps, and knowing where the fish should be on a given day and what baits will catch them where they're at. Personally I can't stand trolling for anything. Probably why catching marlin or sailfish has never appealed much to me, because trolling is one of the main techniques to catch them. I'm getting a hint of "holier than thou" mindset, like a fish caught trolling is somehow less of a fish, like some guys think of livebait/artificials or flyfishing/traditional gear. Either that or someone is trolling your lake and catching fish while you're struggling and it's hurting your pride.

Anyone want to fish Wyco for a few hours Tuesday morning? I don't get off work until 8am so it would probably be around 9 when I got out there and I'm only going to fish for a few hours so I can get a little sleep that afternoon.

Depends on the time of year but if you get a 3" Berkley powerminnow and put it on a 1/8oz jighead and cast it to the dam or flat, rocky points and just reel it fast enough to keep it off the bottom you'll catch lots of them. Probably the biggest smallmouth I've ever hooked ate that exact combo off the dam at Melvern and promptly jumped and spit my bait right back at me. I'm guessing she was in the 6lb range, maybe bigger. I did catch a 4 pound smallie on that rig at Milford off the dam too, along with every other fish that swims in both those lakes. Shakyheads, cranks, spooks, spinnerbaits, traps, jigs, and jerkbaits in the spring and fall are all good baits. The smallmouth in my avatar ate a tiny Lucky Craft CB zero in American shad color on a flat point in about a foot of water last fall at Melvern.

Be faster to drive to Melvern from where you're at, probably an hour closer than Milford is. Either lake mid April-early June and then late August-until the water drops below 45 are good times to be at either lake. Milford is my favorite of the two but I fish Melvern more because it takes an hour instead of 2 hours to get there.

I'll usually have between 5-12 rods in the boat. If I have 12 my starting lineup is usually: 6' 2" M/XF Avid/50E popper/jerkbait rod 6' 6" M/F Mojo/Revo S spinnerbait/buzzbait rod 7' M/F Mojo/200e7 T-rig/light jig rod 7' M/M Pro Glass/200e5 cranking rod 7' M/F Premier/200BSF trap rod 7' H/F Mojo/Record 50 swimbait rod 7' 3" MH/F LTB/200e7 C-rig/jig rod 7' 6" MH/F LTB/200e7 pitching/flipping rod 7' 8" MH/M Mojo/PQ deep cranking rod 6' 8" ML/F Crucial/Symetre 1000 light shaky/dropshot rod 6' 10" ML/F Rage/Supreme 30 dropshot/grub rod 6' 10" LTB/Supreme 35 shakyhead rod