Spankey

I have a pen as well in the truck all the time. Yellowjackets will get me sicker than heck. Worse than a wasp. Don’t know how some people do it by never getting bit by nothing more than a misquote their whole like.

The Rebel Craw crankbaits are a very productive bait. They have a Wee Frog crankbait that works as well. A few frog colors. Don’t know if they are recognized as a frog, they have the same type of action to them as the craws. Good reaction bait for river smallies.

Surface temp get picked up by my depth finder. Pool thermometer in my live well that I can sink lower over if I want to.

Yeah man that sucks I can feel for you. A few years ago I got bit by a wolf spider on the inside of my elbow. Same thing swollen 3x 4x time that of normal. Couldn’t bend my arm and the lump was hot/warm as heck. Hope ya get to feeling better.

Zeko’s most of the time, other times Crocs. Nice to walk around bare foot as long as I’m not toasting the tops of my feet.

I’m aluminum it makes it tough. I don’t have power poles but thought about that power spike. Never went any further than thinking about it.

I caught a nice mini-pig 15”+ two weeks ago on a YUM craw. Been beating that area for a larger one. I’ll get a glass morning soon. I’ll #iss and moan about conditions sometimes but I know we all have been through it. A lot of you guys get slammed with severe stuff. We need rain here. I think they (state government) are declaring drought conditions here tomorrow.

I was doing a bit of that also. That worked out well along rock banks. Just want to catch an AM this week without any wind for a couple of hours.

Call me crazy, heard that a million times by near and dear loved ones but, I couldn’t resist trying something that has been rattling around in my head since last season. Sort of joked around about it in a few threads on here last season. I picked up some Anchovy paste (ground anchovy, sunflower oil, salt). Gonna try rubbing into craws, grubs, tubes, ribbed finesse worms and bugs and see what it does or doesn’t do. Curiosity has gotten the best of me. After fishing on this one section of the river I have to pass this Italian Bakery/Market on my way home. Always in there getting tomato pies, bread and rolls. Always have this Anchovy paste catching my eye. If it’s a dud with the smallies I can try it in my spaghetti sauce.

As my luck has it today, it’s a dead no wind condition and bluebird sky. But I have a door I’m working on this morning keeping me homebound. I’ll be out mid week, might get a morning like today.

I fish a lot of SunLine mono. Got hooked on it a few years back. But I also spin fish with XL, McCoy and Stren. I don’t run across many line quality issues.

I don’t find this with SC’s I ever bought. I don’t believe I’ve ever ordered one by mail. Bought from a dealer. Some still in plastic sleeves, but no shrink sleeve on cork. But I think if you received ones with plastic cork protection that’s a positive. Most of my Abu rods have come with shrink sleeve. Good fishing.

The last two days have been dealing with killer winds. When the winds are blowing as you are heading out the driveway, it’s gonna be interesting. But I just had to try to deal with it. This is something you all have faced many times. Just could not find a way to use it to my advantage on the river. I opted for the river over the lake because I thought for sure the lake would have chop I couldn’t deal with. To make things work I had to fish under an Interstate highway and railroad pilings that ran parallel and span the river. Was not a total wind relief but better in general. My smallie total and sizes were not great. Managed (4) 13”-14”ers bank/drop off fish and numerous dinks and runts off the pilings. Yum craw variations, Dry Creek finesse worms and 1/4 oz. Joes Flies in-line spinners majority were caught on. I got hung up fishing the craws because my better bites came off of them. I think if I had it to do over I’d have stayed off the pilings but the wood log jams could not be passed on.

The cup is not easy to win and the game is so fast. Things change and the tide changes in a split second. I’m impressed how well these new expansion teams have been doing for their short time in the league.

I live in the heart of Flyers country but am a Bruins and Devils fan. The Boston series was a disgrace seven ways to Sunday and for the Devils getting past NY it was great for them. A young fast team is fun to watch. Hope they can pull it together again for next season. Boston they need to clean house big time. I’m rooting for the Kracken.

I should pay more attention to sun protection but I really don’t give it that much thought. Like most here I have shirts, buff and hats I use. But what I have on that particular day is more less what I jump into when I get up. I don’t like getting bit up. I have a couple of different protections on the boat all the time. I’ve used the Bullfrog Bug and Sunscreen for a long time and I like the Sportsman that contains deet. Late August and September can get crazy with horse flies. I keep prepare for that.

I may try that with some left overs. I usually don’t buy a bunch of dozens at once. Most of the time what few I have left over as I’m leaving the water I’ll give them away to someone in passing. I’m lucky enough to have a small crick behind the house where if I’m out in the evening trout fishing and head out the next morning they hold up well in the galvanized wade pail. But I think I will try that freezing of them. Got grandsons who are into the panfish fishing after we are done bass fishing for the day. Your idea is worth a try and keeps from wasting them. Thanks for sharing the tip.

4” Zoom

I may just have to try that. The other day my middle grandson and I found this new section of creek that I’ve never trout fished before. I’ve know this area for 50 years and overlooked it because of private property butting and running to the creek banks. Semi rural and even if you are respectful people will still get an attitude. That never existed. Everything was cool. Basically in my backyard. 10 min. from the house. We kicked butt there. Beautiful water conditions. For the most part caught on Panther Martins, Trout Magnets and worms. The Browns do love worms but this creek section has the biggest darters, chubs, fall fish and daces I’ve ever seen. Worm doesn’t stand a chance there. We didn’t have minnows with us. We’re going back on Saturday and I think Minnows could be a killer there, drifting them at the right depth. I think when I stop to get them one wading pale will be with water, the other will spike with the sauce and see how thing pan out for us. Was your sauce top shelf?

For soft plastics, grubs, tubes, craws and creatures I don’t use any rattles. Majority of my crankbaits do but I do have silent cranks that get a lot of use. I’d like to try a rattle in a tube.

Great post. Nice looking bait. I have yet fish that yet. But many of my crankbaits are very bluegill like because the lake here at home bluegill and gizzard Shad are prime forage. Don’t know how these work out for you guys but these live image baits that are out there, Rapala has them, LiveImage Brand, even Cabela’s has a line of them. It’s like a real picture somehow processed onto a hardbaits. I CAN’T DO CRAP WITH THEM. Channel cats on the river occasionally love them. I’ve stopped fishing them for quite some time and would never buy one again. But could just be me. They don’t work. The original old school Rapala bluegill (still available) being very very productive. I have a couple of them that I faded by letting sunlight hit them. Being As productive. 6th Sense, Lucky Craft, Googan all have great patterns that depict a bluegill. They don’t call it bluegill but some corny nickname for their stuff. Bandit use to have some great patterns looking like bluegill variations. Even Special run colors, but I think that company is in the toilet these days. SPRO may have some, I use their crawdad patterns. If I want to try a new crankbait (bluegill) I look for the light pink, light purple, a matted light grey through it, I’m in favor of the dot on the side.

Creek points, rock banks, shoal like areas. I just kicked off my bass season Sunday. Didn’t set the world on fire but managed a few runt smallies. I’ve been at this a long time. I never could figure out all the spawn stuff. I’ve always been a loss with that stuff. I think smallies up here spawn late. And not all at the same time. I think our weather is gonna break for the good this weekend. Start putting these colder temps behind us. I Trout fish creeks here that hold smallies that generally would be hitting by now. Baits I’ve thrown so far, would have been hit in the past season. They’ll turn on like I light switch. I can’t overthink something I don’t know much about.

Watched two of the JC YUM YouTube videos. Good stuff. Forward facing sonar would be a nice addition. But I’m gonna remain optimistic that fishing them at points and trolling river bank fishing will produce fish. I’ll order some of those YUM jig heads to compare with existing jig heads I was planning to fish. My plan was primarily shallow water with 1/16 oz. heads. I feel these were designed more for off shore use with a heavier jig head. It’s all good.

I’m not that sophisticated having front sonar like a lot of the guys. But I thought jig heading them and bouncing them around like a head down feeding minnow would draw some attention. Fan casting them at feeder creek points. Fishing the drop off back to me bouncing them. There is nothing special to them. Most likely a 1,000 very similar. Size caught my eye. They were not very expensive to give a try.

Was at tackle shop today to pick up a bulk spool of Stren I orders. I generally don’t impulse buy and things don’t catch my eye that easy. So I find myself aimlessly walking around a lot. I stumbled across these YUM FF Sonar Minnows today. Like a soft jerkbait but shorter, they’re 3 1/4” long. Forked tail, soft and decent tail action. Couldn’t tell you if it’s a new design for YUM or not. To me they have river smallmouths all over them. Gonna jig hook them and fish them like a grub. Probably bite the head section off than jig hook them 1/16 - 1/8 oz., I see them more for jig fishing than a swimbait. See them working on a dead fall or as a stick bait. I’m going to find out. They were relatively cheap at $3.29 a bag and they had a few natural colors.