Spankey

Sweeeeet!

This is a great post. Was a fun read. Gut feelings, intuition, experience telling you, just plain feeling it about a situation and going for it is all good stuff. Has you doing the happy dance when you're out there and it pays off.

A million options for you with hard and soft plastics. Just pick up a few of the different styles and go at it. Buy the colors you like. The colors you believe will work. You'll get results.

Just an FYI. With the help from a BR member informing me that Wally World was clearancing out Falcon Rods I was able to get the BMS-7M 7 ft. Cranker Spin Rod for $44.00. They had it down to $79.00 but showed the manager the text he sent me that showed his purchase of the same Rod and he honored it. This is probably the best fishing deal I've ever gotten on a quality item in my life. I'll try the braid and Fluor leaders with this set up. This will be my first use of braid. Will order up a new Sahara or Symetre for it. This will become my 1.0/1.5 Strike King setup.

33 years old? 33 years young. Sure wish I was 33 years young again. I got hooked on smallies when I was 16 years old. My school buddies and I were out trout fishing in a stream section we never fished before. The four of use were spread out pretty far, not fishing on top of one another. Had the whole stream to ourselves. I found this one spot in the stream that had a slight natural fall to it. I caught my trout limit in no time with worms, corn and Velveeta Cheese. Wasn't ready to call the quits, was only there an hour. Than I switched over to throwing Mepps, Rooster Tails and Panther Martin spinners with the intention to catch and release any trout that I caught there after. I don't remember how many I caught (? 2+ dozen) but smallies hit those inline spinners like freight trains, I was hooked for life after that day. Those stream smallies were only 10"-12" fish but that's all it took. I still pick off a few of those smallies when I go through that section 42 years later when trout fishing. One of my favorite fishing memories. I see those guys once in a while. None of them have fished since we were kids or at least stuck with it.

Guy you got about the best crankbait advise you can get. Won't throw in too much more about color because I use all what is mentioned above. Wouldn't BS you but you can't go wrong having a 200 Bandit in solid black and an olive green with a strip red belly. Bomber in bone with an orange belly. Use it like a change up if the bit slows down and you want something different to throw. Not sure what they see them to be, maybe they just see them as a shape. Just something that works for me when things get real slow. Solid colors are hard to come by. I'd like to get a solid brown, deep purple and an orange and try them. Just hard to find.

I have the blahs to. Big time blahs. I'm a river rat also. In my case they don't have a lake to go to they are in the river system. If I were to go out Saturday (I'm not, just not time yet) when the air hits 55-60 deg. I'd be fishing the deepest part of my home stretch. Real slow in 13-15 feet of water just dragging a grub, craw, jig and pig, or a 4.5 worm of some type. Just my opinion. I struggle early spring but look forward to it. I'm really Jonesing big time to use a few new baits/patterns that I got for Christmas and have picked up over the winter. A lot of variables associated with river fishing but anticipate a good upcoming season. Had a killer year last season. Gonna do a bit of tweaking to how I normally fish and see if it pays off for a few nice ones. Oh.......And good luck this season. Smallies.........what an addiction.

It's amazing the aggression these fish have. Regardless of size. Or size of baits.

I throw a few red versions of the RES but for the most part I'm a Rat-L-Trap guy.

Guys thanks for the reply. I'm gonna go for one or both. I know I can get them at a decent price after haggling some. The 7 ft. Cranker spin Rod is a nice rod. The 7 1/2 casting Rod feels fantastic. I'm always ready to be eyeing St. Croix stuff that I never give anything else a chance. I'll try mono on them at first. I'll switch to braid if I have to. Braid will be something else new to me also. I've fished mono/fluoro my whole life.

I do not own a Falcon rod. Do know they are a quality rod made in the USA. The highest percentage of my rods are St. Croix that I've been very satisfied with them. At the tackle shop I found (2) Falcon Rods that I've seem to have fallen in love with. Feel, lengths, tip speeds, split handles and grips I like. *BMS-7M medium, moderate, 7 ft., 8-17 lb., 1/4 to 1/2 lure wt. (Crankbait Spinning) *BMC-76MH med. hvy., mod. fast, 12 - 25 lb., 3/8 to 3/4 lure wt. (Cranker II Casting) I do not own a rod with a Micro Guide setup on it. The guide system has more guides than what I'm use to in those lengths and naturally smaller. I'm for the most part a mono user (quality mono) and I use quality reels for the most part or a least I think I do. Are these Micro Guide rods set up for braid primarily? Will quality mono work well with them? A bit confused as to why the high guide count. Must be to take the whip out of the rod under pressure. Not sure. Your thoughts on the Micro Guides is greatly appreciated.

Like others I've been fishing them my whole life. Various tail versions. A handful of mfg's. Power Worm, Robo Worm, Culprit, Mr. Twister, Manns, BPS and I'm sure others. No one time better for me. I switch up worms much like I do crankbaits. Just try to give them a different look while out.

With the buying power these companies have their prices don't have to be a high as they are. Too many people are in the corporate level. Can be ran a lot more lean. Restructure and pass that on to the consumer.

They just opened one within the last 6 months in S.E. Penna. about 20 minutes away for me. Be a shame if they don't last a little while. But, here today gone tomorrow. Won't be too surprised if it happens. I despise Wally Worlds and DICKS fishing departments. Easier ride than BPS and Cabelas for me. Oh well.

I think they are a quality bait. I fish a few SK patterns that are red. Been using red a bit more as of lately, had no confidence in it at all at one time. But I'm a creature of habit and find it tough to think anything is better than the Bill Lewis Rat-L-Trap. I feel the Rattling Spots are very productive. I have a nice selection of these baits but find chrome w/ black back, chrome / blue back, gold w/ black back, and bone w/ orange belly are the most productive for me.

I have all my stuff rigged before. On soft plastics rigs I have them rigged with my worm,craw whatever in a snack size zip lock. No sent applied till I get on the river.

I've only fished the Case over the years rigged similar to the Trout Magnet version you fish. Sometimes on a real slow day I break out some UL/L stuff and it saves the day. I don't ever recall catching a respectable bass on them, mostly dinks and runts but that's because of the way I was fishing I guess. I'll try the Gulp version, have not looked for hellgies for a long time.

Berkley Power Worm

Great post. I'll hang a bit low on opinions. Can only comment about my experiences. I'm more of a river rat so I'm dealing with water that has a tendency to stain to various degrees. The last couple of years in my area the rainfall has been on the low side and not many big storms. More of a moderate thing just enough to keep level from dropping off too fast during the heart of the season. With the water being a lot clearer, I've been throwing many more natural color crankbaits. But the patterns of blue gizzard shad, green gizzard shad, blue back herring, chrome w/ blue, chrome w/ black back to me seem to draw the same reaction strikes. Black, black w/ blue, blue w/ black, Alabama craw, brown w/purple, olives, blue w/brown, I use equally in the variation of stain. I've long been a fan of the fire tiger patterns and chrartreuse patterns but have not had to use them much the last few seasons due to cleared water conditions.

Thought I caught a few state record smallies only to be a foul hooked runts.

I my opinion or findings is that this happens more with juvenile fish. A few smaller fish will run right along with the bait and bump at it. Any nice bass I've ever caught in my lifetime has never been foul hooked. A foul hooked always feels bigger than it really is. I would say this situation is just very rare but not totally unlikely considering how aggressively they hit and feed at times

Doesn't happen to often when I'm out but certainly not uncommon. This was from August of 2015 and pretty sure I've had foul hooks since. "Ouch" is all I can say. He want back and took off like no problem.

I don't do anything with mine. Just properly discard them. But I heard many moons ago one of the manufacturers came up with that color roadkill camo by remolding (recycling) a variety of soft plastics.

I don't have an in with Rapala I have to buy my $#it the same way you guys do and some times I sort of have them on some pedestal. But believe me I've done as well with Bandits and Bomber. Strike King puts out a few variations I really like and have been doing well with. Some days I don't even throw a Rapala. But every once and awhile I'll buy a Baker, Lucky Craft or Live Target in something similar to a DT or Shad Rap style for a comparison and they in my opinion don't fish as well. To each his own. I'm as serious as a heart attack in stating that the Live Target and Baker stuff I've fished sucked but to each his own. I'll get those Scatter Raps to work. I could have been fishing them too fast. I'll slow it down, thanks for the advise.

I use the jointed Shad Raps. I have a place for them. This is a typical situation for me on a day out that I use the river current for a slow drift while bank fishing. It's common that I have a DT, Shad Rap, Countdown and a Jointed Shad Rap all tied on. I'll just throw one awhile and switch up. Than switch up again. I'll change up the color patterns of the different styles and just fish on. Depending on my results I'll pull the same drift with cranks again or if I think the bite is real slow I'll go back through with soft plastics. And over the years I've nailed some nice Smallies that were looking for plastics. My first thought was to not go back through. But was glad I did.