Spankey

Don’t feel bad, that to me is not considered old school. I do remember somewhat of first fishing it. Maybe mid 90’s. Do you know when it came out? I don’t remember. Maybe earlier in the 90’s ? Late 80’s

? YES! Success!

The Shad Rap I use it from when I start off my season until I pull the plug. Cold water bait? Maybe true. But 84 deg. surface water temp. bait also. I use a # 7 the majority of the time but I’ll use a #5 & 8.

You have so many options that it’s crazy. Endless. Hard baits, soft baits. I don’t want to say if it looks like a Smallie will eat it, it will eat it. But, if it looks like a Smallie will eat it, it will eat it. Keep playing with some natural patterns and mix in some chartreuse and firetiger. Play with some tubes and grubs.

I agree. If that company is meant to be, give us a little something and modify that a bit. I no nothing about Pradco, but what I see overall is a cheap poor job. ? 100% with you on that. My old Wiggle Warts are pretty much old standard patterns. They have everything and anything going on now days. I have a small hand full of the old Risto Raps. As much of a Rapala fan boy I am I should of jumped on the bandwagon years ago and bought more up. Honestly it was like they were there and then they were gone. And I certainly missed out that they were going to be replaced. Just missed out, wasn’t paying attention.

Sure the newer manufacturers have not truly reinvented the wheel. Have a bit of a new twist on things. I’ve be fishing squarebill more and more. I realize a squarebill is nothing new by any stretch. Rapala original bluegill pattern is one of my all time favorites (Not the real image/live image they put out). I won’t buy another live image bait again. Just can’t do anything with them. But for a bit of an old timer I’m into the Lucky Craft and 6th Sense squarebill in the bluegill patterns. They put out some nice stuff that works. And the Spros I bought them as a Bomber A Comparison. They are great lures. But I realize we are talking reaction baits and the will get it.

I think Bomber is about down the toilet. Real shame. Barely anything out there. Old great patterns don’t even exist. Love it. I’ve always picked that up by your posts. Ok we are talking reactionary baits but still. Tying on something that maybe you have not touched in 6 or 8 years, maybe more and nail a fish in your first or second cast. I love that.

You and I are the same age and I pick up we do a lot of the same style of fishing. Just being done many miles apart. Thanks.

Guys I guess I’m a bit older than the majority here. By what I see of some pics posted here. I fish a bit on the old school side with some of my baits. Rapala fan boy since I was a kid in the 60,s, Bombers, Rebel TW & Craws, Hedons, Bill Lewis, fished Bandits before the state of PA ever got their first shipment, Hula, Mepps and many others. I’ll just keep it to hard baits for now. But over the last handful of years I’ve gotten on board with new stuff (new to me) from Megabass, Strike King, Lucky Craft, Spro, Googan (booo), 6th sense maybe 1 or 2 more. All very productive. I believe there is not one thing that did not catch a fish. I have no connection to Spro or Lucky Craft but I do like their baits. The same can be said about my soft plastics. Old mfg. and new mfg. of them. I gravitate back to a lot of my old crankbaits. I’ve had days this season where everything I threw were 80’s baits. Was curious if you young guy reach to tie on some of those older school crankbaits. There certainly is no push to sell anything like that. Sort of like they have been written off. Most have been sold off to Schlock jobs companies that ran them to the ground. Companies that are down to nothing in the market but the names are still out there. I was touching up some hooks on Rebel Deep WeeCraws and some WeeCraws and thought many guys on here probably ever threw one or had the desire to throw one. Sorry for being so long winded, good fishing.

We were dealing with that related smoke out here in the mid-Atlantic last week. Had a storm move through and did clear it out. Late day yesterday toronados were in the area. Tore a lot up, big damage. Did get a lot of rain in a short period of time. My borough was not hit. Next county over got slammed. Storm crossed the whole lake. Hate to have been caught on that lake with my pants down.

The river is one I spent my whole life on. Back a handful of years ago I started noticing the degrading. I hung in there with the degrading for a few seasons. My bass fishing world was there. Got to the point where I knew I was a better bass fisherman than to deal with the crap set of cards Mother Nature dealt me so I pulled the plug on it. Moved onto a lake (big in size) and caught onto it pretty quick and have been doing pretty well there. Was the best thing and decision I could have made. Saw the other side and like it. For 3 or 4 seasons my boat and rods did not touch that water of the river. Last fall the river started playing on my mind some. Over the years the end of Septembers and Octobers I've pulled off some nice smallies. I was itching to get back on it last fall and was going to. Some big rains came in and I stayed off of it. Blessing in disguise really, broke my PB last season at that time on the lake. Over the winter I made a decission to get back on it to see where it was going. I've been giving it a hard honest effort dissecting it. Since spring I have not gone back over any spots yet. Maybe a couple points. Catching quite a few fish but not in the sizes I want, but pulling a half decent one now and again, it's been enough to keep me going back. I made the right decision to get back on it. The river is trying to rebound. I expected worse. The lake bass are going nowhere. Chasing the river smallies has been fun, maybe I'll stick to the river the whole season and reevaluate over the winter to what next seasons plan will be. Good luck to ya, fish as hard as you can.

I took note of that on a recent trip to Maine. ME fish commission had posted placards on that. I believe I took a pic of one. Shame. Not like there are no bass waters up there. If I’m piecing this all together right of the post I responded to. That poster is seeing a decline or rapid decline of big Smallies for the dinner table and killed Bass coming off of results of tournament bass fishing. Less fish to eat. Shame I guess to have that happen.

“M” nice bass on that spy bait. I’m good for a couple of Bass a year on them. Those sunfish and bluegill are common to the lake I fish here. I’m not gonna get on that issue that color means everything or color means nothing. I could never win the argument either way. Wish I could pull some baits and take a pic (at work) but like y’all I fish natural Shad patterns, craw patterns, chartreuses, purples and blues. I’m referring to some of my crankbaits. They all have a resemblance to something. I don’t use those real image, live image baits. I can’t do anything with them. But many of my patterns can be seen in your forage fish. As well as gizzard Shad and herring patterns. We get those light color bluegill here with purple pink thing going on with a lighter off silver/white body, a cb close to that works great. Many out there. The original Rapala bluegill (not live image) is a ticket here in the river or lake.

Not sure what you mean by that. Pretty easy and straight forward approach. Not sure about the running around, the people and burning a lot of gas. I guess they could have Bass tournaments in a row boat style. The MLF style of immediate release is no different than you or I catch and release fishing on the River or Lake. Most livewell and proper use of them can maintain fish for quite a long time. I have them and they work. But an 8 hour day can but a lot of stress on a fish.

You got me thinking about my productive river crankbaits. Many have some amount of orange on them. Good post!

Do them MLF style.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Over the length of the creek. The bed, floor composition can/will change. Maybe rock, gravel, silt, slab rock.

Where is that happening? Don’t let me get in the way of anyone eating them if that’s your bag. I’m not at fish eater. But where are they killing them?

Don’t know about under $50.00 but sure you could find a real decent rod in the Abu Garcia Veritas line or the St. Croix Bass X line. Not bank breakers. But I don’t feel comfortable spending your money. They are good rods for the money though.

I don’t see where you have a problem. And I’m not even going to discredit your ability. No need to. Quite the opposite. The perch fillet strip is the answer you found. It’s working. Stick with that. I hope you are not feeling any shame because there is no need to. Go get um.

?

Smaller 4-6” Trig worms, grubs, tubes, beavers. Crankbaits, spy bait. I’m a sucker for rock and stone. Maybe your finder will put some fish there if available at that lake. Start out with some pop-r type. Old Rat-L-Trap is always good for locating some fish. Fish what you have confidence in. Good luck, have fun.

Trolling and drift fishing from the bank back to the boat is producing nothing?Not even smaller Bass? Not even crankbait reaction strikes from juvenile fish. Generally smaller Bass will hold to the bank and related structure there even if only small amounts of rocks. I don’t know the water you are talking about so no use me pretending to come off as any expert. I realize you, me and the next guy are not out to catch small fish. But I find as the water depth starts to drop off bigger smallies will lay in those areas. I guess a lot of your bigger fish relate themselves to the lake. But have to believe the river sections have to have Smallies that take up residency there as well. Every Smallie can’t be 4 lb or nothing. Don’t know the area, but keep fishing hard. You’ll make something happen.

I’m pretty persistent I’ll get that to work at least once. Of all my years of river Smallie fishing I’ve never caught one on a hollow body frog. But I never fished it. The Rebel hard bait frog that resembles a Rebel craw, that’s a different story. Don’t know how long it will take, but will keep trying. The stretch of river I’ll be covering this weekend has a few spots that I’ll Chuck it around some. But putting down those hard baits down for a bit. Gonna slow things down some. Tomorrow I think we are gonna get hit with some big rain. Hope it doesn’t mess the river up. Will lake fish if I have to.

I’m from Eastern PA, clean good looking Bass up there. I’m retiring a bit early next spring. I’m gonna make it my plan to get to a few of these places and meet up some guys from this site. Really would like to meet all y’all. Won’t have the pressure to be at work and be able to enjoy the water more where I’m at and where I’m going.