Spankey

This is a great thread. I hope you don’t quit. No reason to quit. I don’t know you but what may be a big problem is that you are absorbing too much too fast. Please do not take that as any negative. In today’s world it is easy to happen. There is endless baits out there, endless manufacturers selling a ton of stuff. Don’t get hung up in all that stuff. Not right now, something for later on. I don’t think you need to be chucking a ton of stuff. I’d keep it simple as a few others have said. Try it to perfect some fishing with soft plastics (worms), will generally always draw hits and will get you bit. Basic type of worm PowerWorm, Culprit RibbonTail, RoboWorm Straight Tail, Zoom Finesse or curly tail. Fish slow and pick apart your cover available. Leave everything else at home. This will force you to fish them. It will give you time to perfect and become one with the worm or soft plastic you throw. If bass are there, I have to believe they are or you would not be there. I think you’ll start getting more out of it. I might get poo poo’d here on my thinking on the line of worms. Things take time. Get some fish under your belt. Then move on to some basic crankbaits or fish a jig and pig. Or just jig fish with Fat Albert’s or PowerGrubs. It’s a good bottom contact bait that is a proven fish catcher. Don’t quit. Hang in there. Use some of this seasons short falls to help you for mental season. I think you should keep it as simple as you can with baits and colors right now. You have a lifetime of trying new things. Try to make starting out more productive and enjoyable.

In the crankbaits world the colors are endless and patterns are endless. Having confidence in a pattern can be felt before you even fish it or might become a confidence bait after you fish and catch bass with it. Shape of your bait to me may be more important than color. I like fishing crankbaits, a big bart of my fishing. I’ve had many of times that I start out with a favorite DT, no takers. On to a SK flat side with no results. Start fishing a Shad Rap style and putting fish in the boat. I believe shape and action my have been the leading factor to get a reaction.

Thanks for the heads up on that parts info.

I’ve been having fall like conditions here. Actually some beautiful weather but that doesn’t equal great fishing all the time. Looking forward to some rain. Fishing in some rain. If we can get some rains without flash floods I’m looking forward to this fall.

Happy holiday guys and gals. Enjoy it. No water for me today. Being a home body today. Kids and grandkids will be over. Hooked up and ready to roll at before first light tomorrow, gonna pull off a couple of back to back day. Have been trying to beat down the river smallies. Been catching some decent numbers, only a few respectable fish so far. If you’re on the water today good luck. If at home enjoy your time.

^^^^ I could not agree more. The Sahara is another great reel in that price range. I’m a fan of the old Symetre. Shimano lost the trade name of Symetre and the NASCI came out of that with upgrades. The Core Seal sold me on them. But I’m not using mine in salt water, some brackish and they rarely are going in the drink. But you never know when that may happen. They don’t break the bank for sure.

They have been a big part of my fishing the last handful of years. Trouble free and no issues. 1000, 2500 and 3000’s. Been a Shimano fanboy my whole life. My reels seem to hold up. But not to say some just wore out over the years and I’m not complaining. I’m fishing with the first and second generations and have a preorder in on a 3000 that should be in by October. 2500 and 3000 are the same reel, 3000 has a larger Spool. Same size, weight and ratio. The new version has an upgrade to the drive and bail guide is gonna be one piece. Price not going up that much. 9% per dealer. I’m looking forward to improvements to an already great product. I have my older grandkids in these reels. They are hard on stuff. These hold up without issues.

I agree. The bass are predators who are seeking prey. They are opportunistic feeders, instinctive feeders and reactionary hittters of live creatures or artificials we throw with the intentions of killing that particular creature. I love crankbaits fishing as much as the next guy, probably more. You won’t find me fishing real image crankbaits (baits with a real picture of a fish on it), they do not work. They don’t work for me. I don’t waste my time with them. BUT, they work for other, Im sure of that. I’m a Rapala junkie and back some years ago when they came out I had to have the live image Smallmouth Bass in the DT and Shad Rap. Bigger Smallies and Greenies had to hit that small live image. Bigger fish eat little fish. One of my most productive crankbaits to this day is the Rapala original bluegill. The bait is a basic looking bluegill. Tried fishing the live image bluegill. There is no comparison between baits. The real image is a dud in comparison. In a heavy stain water condition (not muddy) a solid black or a dark green olive crankbaits has been a great producer on the river. The sound and profile draw the bite. Total Realism and exact color matching means little to me.

I’ll go back and read the article. I don’t think I have read it. But I believe I’m going to agree with him and you on the fact that bass are not necessarily identifying what they eat. I’m sure at times maybe most times if fishing a worm, craw, jig or river bug relatively slow the bass can and will look at it 7 way to Sunday before they strike it. Not knowing what it exactly is but I guess instinct makes them hit it. It’s a meal. Y’all have had times where you pitched a worm and no sooner than it hit the water a bass was all over it. Not seconds, but millisecond in time. That just reactionary reflex on the fishes part. There are times that as soon as a crankbait hits the water they are on it and have it. Without a turn of the reel taking place. My thoughts are the fish doesn’t know that it is a Shad, bluegill, frog or a mouse that fell into the water. They just assume it is something within their environment and instinct tells them to jump on it. And I believe they can detect if it is to their liking or spit it out faster than you can set the hook. Possibly hit it, spit it out and hit it again.

Great, I’m glad for ya Mo. Especially your grandson. $40 or $400 no life expectancy should be 15 minutes. Like you I’ve never had much in the way of major problems. Sure some stuff wore out. Reel issues were easy enough to fix myself. Over the years I had a repair and a couple of replacements with St. Croix and they went very easily. Defective and they stood behind it.

I would never tell anyone how to spend their money. Without even knowing you I don’t think you need a $600-700 rod. Or a $400 reel. There are plenty of quality and far less expensive rods available to step up your game. I think once you start trying to get dedicated rods for certain techniques you will start to see the difference. Power, action, lure weight and line size all have an importance in the rod you select. A place like BPS or Cabela’s has a wide range and variety of house branded rods and I would not overlooking them. Buy what feels right to you. Matches the technique you are using it for. Don’t feel compelled to own a high end rod. Especially just to own it. Too many other things that have to come first. Kids, wife, the house and car.

Just done a preorder today to get a new NASCI 3000 when they come in. Could be in during September (hopefully). If not, no big deal, don’t really need it. Looks like price increase is only about 10%. Expected it to be higher. Has a few new features that I like what I see. I fish quite a few of them now. No complaints and never a problem.

I’ve also had great results with the SunLine SuperNatural. 6, 8, and 10 lb. test on spinning reels. McCoy has a co-poly that I like also. It’s green tinted called Mean Green. Have been using it to fish lighter crankbaits on spinning set ups. I’ve fished Trilene and Stren for a lifetime and honestly I have never been let down by it either. I’ve alway been a bit anal about my lines and know that I change them out a bit prematurely. I buy most of my line in the bigger bulk spools.

Crawfish info I found to be very useful over the years. DNR, bass site guys, professional articles. But believe it or not I found to do something as simple as putting a few river smallies in the livewell for awhile and checking out what they regurgitated.

How I got hook on bass (smallmouth) fishing. It was May of 1976. I was 16 years old. Trout fishing was (and still is today) a love of things to do. A couple of my buddies I grew up with wanted me to take them to where I’ve been going. I’m not saying they knew nothing about fishing, I’m not saying they didn’t know how but they certainly were not trout fisherman. It’s all good they were buddies I grew up with. Like brothers and that’s more important than anything at that time. So it worked out that we skipped church on that Sunday and I drove us over a couple of counties from home to a creek that I had been taken to by an old retired guy that I worked at his farm. The trout stream was a feeder stream to the river which was fairly close to the stream sections I took them to. I dumped them off at a couple of spots and told them to fish there for a bit and slowly fish their way down to where I was gonna be. A spot I’d never fish before but it was a good spot to park the truck and I’d figure the creek out. I fished these two natural spillway type dams. Caught trout pretty quickly. Than I had to start releasing them because I had one short of my limit and wanted to keep fishing and eventually the guys would be coming my direction for when we finished. I was fishing minnows (a trout favorite of mine) and I was getting these killer hits that were stripping my minnows off. I thought that it was maybe some of those bigger old breeder trout the state puts out once and awhile. Well I’m about out of minnows and I’m down to all my spinners, spoons, kast masters and a chunk of Velvetta Cheese 🧀. These were pre Power Bait days. I opted to tie on and throw some Mepps and Panther Martins spinners. The best move I’d ever chose to do in my life. The two sections I was fishing had a bunch of smallmouth bass in them. The fish were only 10”-13” size fish but were ferocious. A real eye opener. I was hooked on Smallies from that day until this day. Over the years I’ve caught bigger Smallies in that section. Some 14”-15” fish. From that time on I started concentrating on the river. I believed the river was their home. I really don’t know much about smallmouth migration to this day. That day of trout fishing had turned me on to being a river rat. That day was all it took to get me hooked on bass fishing.

Back in the late 60’s and 70’s as young guys we use to do that stuff up at the farm a lot with fly and spinning rods. Not a real competition just to mess around during lunch or break time. We would bass fish but it was more about trout fishing when I was a kid. But it is all the same. It’s all good practice. Especially in the backyard.

Yes. My grandkids.

Every time I try to attach a pic even if only one pic it goes on to say the file is too large. What file is too large? Am I suppose to transfer them before I try to post. Any help is greatly appreciated. Sorry for being Smart Phone stupid. Thank you.

I have not I will search them out. I Slider fish a lot on the river. Thanks for the reply.

My favorite of all time. I sill have a few left. I thought the world was going to come to an end back in the day that production stopped on those guys. Some of my nicer river smallies have come off of them. Many of the crawfish being made today are too realistic and I don’t think it gets you anything. The Zoom Craws are close to the GB’s. I wish Zoom would put out a couple more basic colors. I’ve been fishing the Z-man craws some. They have been working but have not caught a respectable fish yet on them.

I can’t say I’ve fished that exact grub but do fish the Fat Albert. Looks like a good choice. Go for it. Many ways to fish them.

I’ve played with some colors over the years with the Traps and Spots. But truthfully all I really need is a Chrome w/black back, Chrome w/blue back, Gold w/black back and a Firetiger. The fire-tiger has gotten a handful of flathead catfish also. The model “A” Bomber in the fire-Tiger has gotten some channel and flatheads also. I’m not gonna say a muggy water color for me but for stained water. I generally don’t fish muddy water.

I use to fish a Rat-L-Trap a lot back in the day. But it doesn’t go unused by any means today. More of a river lure than lake use for me. Why? I don’t know, just the way it has worked out. For me they are a fish locator lure. All structure and areas with limited structure areas. Over the years they have worked well on days that you can’t seem to buy a bite. I’ll tie on a Rat -L-Trap and tell myself I’m not going home until hookup on a smallie. Not caring if he’s 10” or 15”. And they have come through. They can cover a lot of water, a variety of depths and action types. Good luck, good fishing.

I have a Frabill that uses “D” batteries. Works great for how we use it. I only use mine for trout minnows. Once to the creek we transfer them to 2 1/2 qt. Galvanized wade containers. Keeps my minnows alive and healthy. It’s insulated. I don’t fish live bait for bass. I’m not sure how well it would hold up in 90-100 temps.

Some of the best crawdads of all time are not produced anymore. But that’s only my opinion. Many out there that are very productive. Being a river rat they are a go to soft plastic for me. I’ve been doing well with the Z-man TRD craws. Have only fished them a few seasons. Color does not mean that much. Everything I’ve used has worked. I believe that extra bit of buoyancy helps and they hold up great to the bite. They seem to last for a few fish. I do want to step up my game and try the bigger larger version of them. I have not tried them yet. I’ll try to pick up a couple of packs for the fall. Forage should be at full size and a larger bait might be worth a try.