Will Wetline

My choice for a blade bait costs less than $1.50 apiece because I assemble them from Barlow's components. The 5/8 oz. "body blanks" cost $28.12 for a 25 pack. Then I add hooks, split rings, Duo Lock snaps and 3-D eyes to complete. And I do not use any makeup (paint or decals) on the face of this "plain Jane" bait; she gives off a vibe my clear water smallies go for.

The blade baits I use cost less than $1.50 apiece because I put them together from Barlow's components. Buy a 25 pack of 5/8 oz. "body blanks," whatever hooks you want, a pack of split rings (unless you're using double hooks), a pack of Duo Lock snaps and 3-D eyes. http://www.barlowstackle.com/Vibrating-Blade-Lure-P2631.aspxIt's Too, it's less painful to leave one of these on the bottom than say, a Damiki or Lucky Craft bait. And last year my clear water smallies weren't fussy about brand names.

You do know your water and presentations! I congratulate you, Mainebassmaster.

I fish smallmouth in very clear water. I have a lot of baits that produced for me this year. Some are fairly new to me while others I've been using to trick smallies for the past two decades. You can be sure I'll have a LC Pointer in a perch pattern tied on, either a 100 or a 78 size, when the water temp is in the 40ºs to low 50ºs. The 5/8 oz. blade bait is assembled from Barlow's components. The sharp-eyed will note that I've deleted the front treble. Don't think I missed fish by doing so. I lift and drop this bait off the bottom when the water is in the 40ºs. I grin whenever I think about small (1/8 oz. approximately) bucktail jigs - they've produced so well for me in cold water. Don't think that a double tail trailer won't work in water in the 40ºs, either on a jig or on a GYCB Hula Grub (an all-season staple of mine for years). With water in the 40ºs and low 50ºs, drag it, pause it, drag it, pause it . . . It was my first season throwing the LC Staysee 90. I ordered a backup on sale. This was my third season slowly working a Duo Realis Spin Bait 80 through the water column. Its magic started to work when the water hit the mid 50ºs. When the water reached 60º I added a Strike King Denny Brauer Bitsy ElazTech trailer to the small hair jig that had been producing undressed at colder temperatures. My trailer looks chewed on after several decent smallies but I think it will last until I wedge the jig between the rocks. I bought a Duo Realis Pencil 110 because one of BR's most prolific posters, A-Jay, spoke highly of it. Well, Hell's bells, on my first cast with it this year it produced a 4+ lber. before I could even start it walking! On the next cast it made a zig, a zag and a zig before getting crushed by a 3 1/4 lber. You might wanna get one. I wacky rigged a 4" Senko when I noticed "dimpling" on the surface of the 69.9º water, informing me that a hatch was happening. Would this little stickbait approximate whatever kind of insect was struggling out of its casing and making its way to the surface? Yup. You want a slow, twitchy retrieve. This 1/2 oz. tandem spinnerbait (made from Barlow's components) is what you want to be throwing on a sunny, windy day. This design has worked for me for years. Started using Z Man's Hula StickZ during June when the sandgrass was thick. That's a Gamakatsu 1/0 standard wire EWG hook which turned out to be thin enough and sharp enough to set using 6 lb. Tatsu and a 7' ML rod. My strange human logic was disappointed that the tentacles on the tail of this little bait clumped up but that didn't bother the smallies whatsoever. Next year I'm looking forward to fishing more of Z Man's ElazTech products and replacing baits only when I break them off. Projects while Quabbin is covered with ice will be molding, painting and dressing jigs from Do-it's new Midwest Finesse Jig mold and their Poison Swingtail mold. Winter well, smallies. I'm comin' after ya in April . . .

Wish Arbogast would reintroduce the Mudbug. Here's a photo from a trip to Lake Champlain in the mid '90s. Note Mudbug on the rod above the walleye, smallmouth and pike.

About 45 years.

Scott, that is a classy setup.

Judging from the photo, I'd say that monster weighs 49 lbs. 17oz.

Here's my room for storing and making tackle: http://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/169690-2016-tackle-room/#comment-1923875

Great fish, good work.

That's bigger than the dreams of most smallie guys. Congratulations!

It amuses me greatly every time you express mild disappointment in a 25 lb. bag.

I emailed Lee Precision, the manufacturer of the Production Pot IV, with a question about using pewter in this pot. The response was that pewter is okay but "Avoid alloys of pewter that have zinc in them. Otherwise you will have multiple holes in your melting pot, and a hot mess."

When the water temp was in the low 40ºs - 50º this spring, I caught smallies on bucktail jigs without a trailer, slowly dragging them along the bottom. With water in the high 50ºs, I hung a Strike King Denny Brauer Bitsy Chunk on an 1/8 oz. hair jig and smallies liked that combo. For a 1/4 oz. jig I'd use a small chunk - 2 1/2" -2 3/4" or maybe a 3" double tail grub. Remember never to hurry a hair jig retrieve. They stay in my box when the water temp is above 55º.

Here are the Massachusetts regulations. There was an extensive study done on loon mortality and you can read about it here: http://www.mass.gov/ All the serious fishermen I know were more than a little bit agitated in 2012 about replacing their weights and baits with tackle that's considerably more expensive but there's no other way to comply. I've made the switch and I'm catching fish legally and not noticeably poorer than before. For those who don't mold their own jigs and weights here, again, are sources of legal supplies: http://www.siebertoutdoors.com/ http://cadmansjigs.weebly.com/ http://www.leadfreebassjigs.com/store/c1/Featured_Products.html (The Ned Head appears to be from the Worm Nose Jig Mold that Do-it Molds manufactures.) http://www.magslureco.com/about-us.html You may turn up more if you do a Google search for "lead free fishing tackle."

Massachusetts enacted the same restriction in 2012 and it is a major inconvenience at considerably greater expense than a lead equivalent. Do a Google search for "lead free fishing tackle" and follow up on related searches. Also check out what Siebert Outdoors has to offer and get cadman's catalog. I use tungsten bullet weights for T rigging and mold my own jigs. My source for lead free metals (bismuth, tin and pewter alloys) is: www.rotometals.com

It didn't take long to figure out that the fish wanted no part of a popper or a crankbait or a Spin Bait. I was not ready, however, to believe after a half hour of casting, that there were no fish on or around this choice hump. It was more likely they were in a weather and/or post spawn funk and needed to be seduced by something subtle, sexy . . . which is to say a wacky rigged soft stickbait. Don, who had been working hardbaits too, joined me patiently sinking, twitching and pausing an unweighted soft stick, sometimes as deep as 15'. Between us, we CPRed 15 fine smallmouth in 4 1/2 hours. This trip was not the first when the fish refused a variety of other baits but inhaled a Senko (or other brand) soft stick. Speaking of "inhaled," I've greatly reduced the number of gullet-hooked bass since I switched to circle hooks. I use a size 1 Gamakatsu Octopus circle for a 4" bait and a 1/0 for a 5". When bit, train yourself to reel down until you feel the fish then simply reel faster. The hook should set up something like this: Yours, wackily, WW

The past two holiday seasons I've taken advantage of a major online retailer's sale to buy Seaguar Tatsu. I fill the spool of my Shimano Stradic 2500 with 6 lb. and it has performed perfectly for Spybaiting, casting an 1/8 oz. hair jig without a trailer and delivering a 4" Slim Senko to smallmouth. The only other fluoro I've tried is Sunline Sniper, also good stuff, but I like the Tatsu a bit better (it's softer so it casts better). I'll pay the price for the Tatsu - it's the best on the market.

Weather forecast was great as far as comfort was concerned: sun, light wind, mid 70ºs. Let's start on my favorite pile of rocks at 7:00. Decided to offer the smallies a hearty breakfast in the form of a Duo Realis Pencil 110. On the first cast, I hadn't even started the retrieve when KABOOM! Second cast, zig, zag, zig . . . a smallie of about 3 1/4 lbs. ate it. No pic because after I got it and the two #4 treble hooks out of the net, I dipped it in the 69.9º water and lost my grip on it. Action calmed after that and so did the surface. Looking into this 400 billion gallon aquarium I saw small perch swimming. And I saw a smallie bust the surface. Aha! A "bug bite" was happening. Insects were hatching and little fish were eating them and bigger fish were eating both. Thought about rigging a large A Just A Bubble float with a wacky rigged 4" Slim Senko underneath but decided to try just the bait first. It worked and with a slow, twitchy retrieve, accounted for six smallies between 1 1/2 - 3+ lbs. Fun on 6 lb. fluoro and a 6 1/2' medium light rod. Here are two: Afternoon was spent searching flats with a Spin Bait 80. Water temp 71.7. Only a couple of hungry fish were found. Here's the better of the two: I felt satisfied after a short, ten hour day on the beautiful Q, and headed back to the dock. Scott joined me Saturday. We covered a lot of water in the morning but netted only a few fish. Weather got increasingly hot and humid. Here's an afternoon smallie fooled by a Duo Realis Spin Bait 80 in their Komochi Wakasagi finish: At 3:00, we're working the steep breaking edge of a flat. I'm hot and bored and, to amuse myself, I worked a popper to make a commotion, stir up the surface at least. Huh! It's 4:45 now and we're on a long, offshore structure with a lot of empty beds. I started with the 4" wacky Slim Senko and hooked a decent fish which had a companion. While playing it, I said, "Scott, why don't you throw something at the follower." This 4.12 lber. was the day's best. Maybe the popper would work again? Scott walked a bait briskly to entice this one: It's almost 6:00 now and I've unrigged three rods. Only one left with a T rigged Hula Grub on it. On the fourth last cast I connected: Our charge in the last inning made for a fine finish on this long, humid day. One last detail: water temp 76º!

The Accu-Cull scale has been working fine for me. Cost $34.95. I added the spring clamp so I won't have to puncture the fish's mouth with the big dull hook. It's not shown in this photo, but I have added a short length of 1/8" I.D. neoprene tubing to the hook to retain the spring.

Hey, I've got Sweet Beavers and a chartreuse marker . . . A Smallie Beaver in the Corndog color (brown body/chartreuse tail) has saved the day for me on more than one occasion.

*Hootie, I don't remember "the Out House" catalog but while thinning out my stacks of magazines I saved these: Guess we're both in the Graybeard Bassmaster's League, huh?

Iluvsmallies, you've got the hair perfectly distributed around the head and a very neat collar but I too think it's too heavy a hook. Maybe hang a chunk trailer from it and see what happens. Try as neat a wrap on an 1/8 or 1/4 oz. light wire jighead and throw it when the water is below 50º without a trailer on 6 or 8 lb. line. The smallies will love it.

I bought an Accu-Cull because A-Jay recommended it in a post last year (?). Have been pleased with it.