Bluebasser86

Probably, catch a lot of them in dirty water in the warmer months too though. Yes, my #1 bladed jig trailer. A Rage Menace is great rigged the same way.

Find your most expensive, favorite bait in your box. Pike will be all over it. Spinnerbaits and inline spinners are good options, along with the old standby casting spoon.

Yeah, I'd still check out the gravel/sand banks. It's still where I've caught them at from the dam, Schooner, Big M, Viola, Big and Little Cow, Indian, Mill Creek, and Shell Knob. They seem to switch to the steeper, bluff, stair step type rock when the water temps drop.

I've moved several times in the last 10 years. Hoping the house we're in is where we stay for a long time now. Moving sucks and there's no way to sugarcoat it.

Oh yeah, I use it a lot and it's a good seller too. A customer with his new PB first time fishing it.

Strike King Series 1 in Sexy Shad color. Kind of looks like one of the special runs they do for tackle stores like DSG though because the color isn't exact. All Pro-Model crankbaits feature lifelike 3-D eyes and free floating rattles. Strike King Series 1 A small, shallow diver with high buoyancy, the Series 1 is designed to be thrown around heavy cover. The square lip design makes it excellent for deflecting off of cover and triggering reaction strikes. https://www.dickssportinggoods.com/p/strike-king-pro-model-series-1-crankbait-15skiupmsrs1sxyshlur/15skiupmsrs1sxyshlur Kind of what I suspected, picture on DSG looks much closer than the one on TW but both listed as Sexy Shad.

All those beautiful broken, chunk rock and boulder banks on Table Rock, but most of my smallmouth come off boring gravel or sand banks that look pretty plain. I fish in the James a lot around Aunt's Creek to Hideaway Marina when the family goes camping down there. This one was from the shallow, gravel banks at the end of the point where Camp Barnabas is. We caught several off that point on a spinnerbait, dropshot, and grubs. My oldest was wearing them out swimming the trusty 4" smoke grub.

Winter, usually November-March. Takes away a lot of my lake options, but the water is a whole lot less crowded usually. We'll see this year though. With so many more people fishing, and I finally decided to take weekends off next spring to try and fish kayak tournaments, which means my days off will be on weekends instead of weekdays like normal, so the empty lakes might not be the case anymore.

I mean, 2020 is almost over, but it isn't like a big reset button is going to be pushed on 12/31/2020. 2021 could be a whole lot worse for all we know while we're trying to rush the days by.

Well, a lot of variables went into my decision. In the end, I wanted something stable enough I could stand and fish in, pedal drive for hands free fishing, and something that had those features without being a huge boat that was difficult to get around or carry if I wanted to. There's good options out there, and I'd suggest you look around to see what would suit your needs best. I ended up going with the Old Town Sportsman 120 PDL because it had what I wanted, plus their drive system switches instantly from forward to backwards just depending on which direction you pedal. The amount of control I have now is amazing. It's not on the level of having a trolling motor on the bow of a bass boat, but it's really good for a kayak. I love being able to put it in the back of the truck and just go without worrying about having batteries charged, gas in the tank, is this the trip a tire blows or wheel bearing spins out, none of that. It makes me fish more thoroughly also like when I was a kid in my 2 man, which I think makes me a better fisherman than when I can run around and search for fish. It's still plenty mobile though, that if I want to make a decent run, holding that 3-3.5mph peddle speed to get across the lake or around a bend is no big deal like when I was paddling.

Same can be said for our lakes where 10' is deep water. Of the 2,250 bass I've caught so far this year, no more than 50 of them were from water deeper than 10' I promise.

I use ML and M spinning rods for smallmouth. The ML rods are Ned rig, dropshot, and small paddletail/grub rods. The M rods are for small cranks/jerks, tubes, shakyheads, wacky/soft jerkbaits. Walleye rods work just fine for smallmouth also. A friend of mine uses a St. Croix Eyecon all the time for smallies.

I've got a 6' 10" St Croix Avid MH/F that telescopes. It's an older rod that I never use anymore. Thought about trying it for a kayak flipping stick but just not a fan of the full handled rods.

I just rock Crocs and bare feet. Best wading shoes out there. Put the strap down when I need to lock the 4 wheel drive in.

That's odd, I lose very few on the 65. I've got them all set with upgraded Owner ST36 #8 trebles, fishing it on a 6' 8" M/F spinning rod and 8lb mono (although the rod feels more M/MF to me). A fish just looks at that bait funny and it's stuck and those little trebles dig and don't let go.

I'm still lost in the dark with these things. A jigging spoon I can catch fish with. When I catch one on a blade it feels like a total accident. I keep trying and maybe one day I'll figure them out. BTW, he said cast it to around 3', did he mean into 3' of water? I'd have never guessed to fish one that shallow.

Welcome!

As far as what kayak to get?

Really enjoying it. The new kayak helps a lot with having so much more control and being able to stand and fish is great. Just a whole different experience from boat fishing.

I'm going to guess it's a Swamp Darter.

I've got a few of the Falcon Bucoo SR rods that I really like. The Trap Caster and 7' 4" H/F that I use for frogs are both great rods that perform well above their price imo.

It's been a lot of trial and error. You can get the bait to act differently based on how sharply you bend it, how far back you bend it, and how straight the bend is.

Don't have to be that fancy though. I did one for a buddy when I ran out of the red/black/red glitter that was just orange and red and he caught his PB from one of the local lakes on it.

Don't buy her a cheap rod and reel (unless she'll on use spincasting, then you're kind of stuck). Buy something that works well because if it's constantly tangling and messing up, it's not fun for either of you. Take her somewhere she'll catch fish, they don't need to be big, just hungry. It's honestly kind of like taking a kid fishing. Bring drinks, snacks, take breaks, and don't overstay your welcome. My wife was not a fisherwoman when we met. She had a hand-me-down 20 year old Zebco 33 that I couldn't even tie a knot in the line without the line breaking the first time we tried to go fishing. Now she loves going and chasing smallmouth with her St. Croix Avid Pearl/Quantum Energy PT spinning combo and holds her own pretty well.