Spankey

Color selection is just part of the game. At least y’all are smart enough to switch up to make things happen. As Mike L said “give yourself some credit”. I guess a guy can be successful being a one trick pony and keep throwing the same thing but I don’t think so. I know a guy from the river who probably has $2000 of fishing tackle in his boat. He would buy almost anything and everything. Well this dude got to listening to the game warden (big mistake) that preached to him that all he needed was a firetiger crankbait on the river. Over the years he did catch a few nice fish. He had to have had. He put time in on the river weekly. But that one trick pony would pull that rig up the highway skunked on many of days. That’s a fact. I’m not implying a Bomber Model A crankbait is not good. I’d like 10 cents for every Smallie I’ve caught on one. I know for fact that there are other patterns far more productive then the firetiger. And he had the stuff on that rig. Just chose to not apply himself. At least many guys on here choose not to be a one trick pony and apply their skills to make things happen.

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Their moderate actions have been working out great for me. The medium power Winch series fall right in line with my lure weights. Rods load up real well and I like the cast ability. Can’t beat the price. I’m considering one more Veritas in their line up of rods.

I sort of agree with you. When I come across a nice lay down that looks too good to not have a fish on it, I fish it hard to draw the reaction strike. A lot of times that first and second casts doesn’t draw the strike. I realize every situation is different but my river Smallie fishing is very reactionary. But slowing down with trigs, tubes and grubs I find has its place. No luck involved. I fish hard and don’t see luck as part of that.

How has the transition going for you? It’s been a couple of weeks, what have you been trying? They turn off and on to different baits. To keep from getting frustrated just keep it simple and basic. The minute you think you are going to make a killing on a particular bait they go after the complete opposite. Build up to that handful of confidence baits. My river home waters have been bad for a while. Multiple factors I guess. Story for another day. Have become a laker the last 4 or 5 seasons and have been doing fine but I’m a river rat and that gets in your soul. This season I turned back to it and am doing my homework again. Trying my hardest to make things happen. Fished early mornings Sunday and Monday from 6:00-9:00. Did not make a killing but I’ll take it. Caught approx. (20) under 12” and (3) respectably fish 15+ to 17”. I was doing the happy dance and the man upstairs casted a ray of sunshine on me. May pull back from the lake and fish the river hard. Top producing lures were Rapala Shad Raps, DT’s and OG Slims. Natural type patterns. Managed a few on firetiger, spring craw and orange craw, trig worms. Clearly reaction strike bites, water heavy stained w/ low flow. Let us know how you are making out. If the transition is a struggle, that’s ok. Plenty on here to help you with that.

I’m all about Berkley plastics. I’ve been giving the MaxScent an honest try. I have had limited success with the Hit Worm. Felt real good about it which is half the battle. But I can honestly say I my case the MaxScent does nothing. I prefer the PowerBait original. I’ll continue to throw the Hit Worm as a change-up.

I’m catching bass. My sizes and numbers have been sucking but I believe the nice one is coming. I lost a heck of a nice fish last season. We made eye to eye contact and he was bigger than my personal best. I believe it could have been over 7 lb. Decent PA largemouth. I’m fishing the area I lost him. And continue to get some casts through that spot when I’m out.

I believe you are correct about how they want to take in a bait. They hit it and stun it and orient it to the position they want.

I throw a couple of Veritas Winch casting rods. All is going fine. The front of my reel seats doesn’t not resemble yours. I don’t like the way it looks and question the function of it as far as proper reel grip. But I do see the crack in the rear part of the seat. Not sure of the generation of rod. That fish is a peanut and can’t see that is being part of the problem. Fit, fit stress and or alignment of reel most likely the issue. They will replace it. Good luck.

Pretty oppressive in eastern PA. 95/100 range. Was out this past weekend but we were not to that point. My plan for this weekend was to do Saturday (lake) and Monday (river). I believe we have some heavy hitters moving in later today and even heavier on Thursday. Will effect both but hope the river will be fish able. Lake condition may get better. Stained higher water level sometimes works out better for me. You guys stay safe in the heat and have a great holiday.

I should have it tomorrow and wanted it for the weekend. But went against my belief of never buy a rod or reel without seeing or touching it first. Bought a BPS Pro Qualifier 2 Spinning Reel. 2000 w/ 5.0 ratio and fairly low recovery. About 26” pt. Have a half decent soft tip Falcon crankbait rod for it. Might be a keeper. Should work out ok. But, was trying to be cheap. Time will tell. I throw slot of smaller Shad Raps and DT’s. Lower ratio and recovery was what I was after.

Weedless, peg your weight and don’t expose the hook. Fish weightless.

Don’t get discouraged and give up. Stick with it. Never give up. I don’t know the place or situation but assume the Bass are there by your description of how others are doing. You’ll get 1001 answers to your problem. But I think I’d stick with T-rigging, split shotting, and wacky rigging a few plastics. Use the basic productive colors. Everyone has their own gig. I would scale yourself back quite a bit and stick with a technique or two. You might be throwing too many types.

I use them. I got away from fishing them for awhile. Since the spring I’ve been using jerkbaits like crankbaits and hope to continue to do it all season. Granted only small fish so far this season. But that has been with everything I’m using.

I fish the same as you with 2500 and 2000 reels. The 2500 and 3000 Nasci are basically the same reel. Size and weight. The 3000 having a higher gear ratio and a slightly different spool capacity. I fish with both and a slew of Shimano reels. For potential Nasci fans. Nasci spools are not braid ready. At least on the 1000, 2500, 3000. Easy to make braid ready with rubber tape. Just an FYI.

?Thanks. I saw a show on the sportsman’s channel not that long ago where they were at Berkley Labs. Was pretty good. They are certainly no fly by night company. I don’t use Berkley exclusively but have been using some of the soft plastics since the 80’s. I’m using some MaxScent but not really setting the world on fire with it. Pretty much have the same results as the original. I do well with the Hit Worm.

You guys bring up two good points. This weekend I’m gonna get back on that spot and try the Zoom Horny Toads I put on my buzzbaits. I’ll try EWG weightless first. I do have some weighted if it looks like I need a keel weight to keep them positioned better on the water. I’ll try them before I order anything. I don’t think the Horny Toads float. I work around that.

Sunday caught Smallies on a mixed bag of baits. Skitter Pop, Shad Rap, DT’s and T-Rig 4” & 5” ribbon tails. All Dinks and runts so I’m not gonna sugar coat any of them to be more than what they were. I broke out my frog rod for a while. Did get looks, slashes and short strikes. I was happy with just that. I don’t think over the years I’ve ever thrown them in the river. Believe it was a first time. I was using them over rocks. Casted up onto shore and popped and walked them back. My thought are they might be a bit too large. Thinking I might be onto something new for me, but might have to scale the size of them back some. I see where Zman puts out a soft walking and popping frog 2 1/4”. Not sure how well them will cast on my MH setup which is overkill for the river anyway. Are any of you guys throwing smaller soft hollow frogs on spinning gear? Medium w/ 8lb. test. Should make casting smaller frogs easier. River is not choked with heavy vegetation as the lake so I don’t see horsing a fish as an issue. Just some thoughts. Not opposed to picking up a couple smaller versions and trying them. Catching a river Smallie on a hollow body will be a first.

Pop-R’s, Chug Bugs and Skitter Pop.

It’s going to be a big transition for you but you have the overwhelming desire to fish and that should be half the battle won for you. There is so much info here. Unlimited cyber stuff, manufacturer info. Just try not to get overwhelmed with all the baits out there. Pick some proven bait technique and fish it hard and thoroughly. Even if you only fish that one technique for that outing. Leave your live bait at home. If you bring it you will fall back on it as a crutch. Your mind will tell you to use it if artificial don’t get instant results. Personally I’d take out a couple of pop-r types you feel real good about. Fish them early. Smallies love pop-r’s. Even if you don’t get a hookup. But if they slash or short strike it on you to me that is 100% success. Throw it again the next time out and again after that. The hookup will come. On a normal time out for me I start fishing some crankbaits from that point. Rat-L-Traps, Shad Raps and DT types. Chuck and wind baits are an attention getter for Smallies and productive but these baits are easy to fish. But I think fishing soft plastics is an area that is pretty rewarding. Small Trig of 4”&5” worms, grubs, tubes, craws. Bottom contact baits fished slow. Most likely if you think you are fishing it slow your still are not fishing it slow enough. What I like about them is it’s a bait you have good control of. Hop it, slide it, drag it, swim it, drop it. I believe soft plastics is the best place to start and put most of my concentration time in at. Fish them exclusivly. Your whole outing if necessary. You are very dedicated. You’ll learn more on your own than any video. The video might be just an intro for you.

See that with schools of gizzard Shad. Have seen them swim up and pass around the boat when stationary. Seems like you could net them. But I’ve never tried.

Case, Roadkill Camo, 1/8 oz.

I think you are on the right track. Take all that stuff out of the boat and leave it home. Put yourself together a nice little care package of a few sizes and color of worms/soft plastics, couple of natural pattern crankbaits to cover the water column you fish (throw in a firetiger or chart. w/ black bk.), a topwater or two, couple jigs & trailers and a spinnerbait and have at it. All that stuff is too much for you to grab at. Cuts down all your options and builds confidence in what you brought.

I Guess for the most part all my St. Croix are black/gray. My Abu Garcia rods are white for the most part except for this one “Ike” Series that sort of changes color in the light like a chameleon. Might be purple one minute and midnight green the next. Rod is different as Ike is I guess. Color aside that is a great finesse soft plastics rod though. Have a few older BPS rods that are a green color. Extreme series. Don’t give a lot of thought to gear color. Baits a different story.

The last few seasons I’ve been using the heck out of the SunLine Super Natural mono. I love it. But I can’t bash Trilene or Stren. Have used them for a life time. Using some McCoy copolymer and like that also.