NoBassPro

Start pitching it to your swimbaits

Thats how I do it as well.

Beautiful fish. Plenty of time left for some bubbly too

As a general rule, a couple floating minnow baits and some inline spinners are all I have ever needed for summertime river smallies. What is the river like you are fishing?

Is there a lake front property owner's association or anything similar? If so, I'd contact them with my concerns about the fishery. If it is a public lake you'll have better luck presenting a case to the DNR as a group, and if its private you can hope to get enough support that they will at least look into the cost of getting a professional to assess the lake.

Its been my experience that bigger fish of many species often don't have the fight of some their smaller brethren. They don't get fat by working hard lol.

Got this today and a family trip to Bass Pro in the near future. My wife's pretty good to me.

Great to way to spend some holiday time with family! Looks like you and your dad had a blast.

Merry Christmas everyone!

The tree will be such a beautiful site once it is sunk..

With braids, choosing a good line of the proper diameter is probably the best thing you can do in terms of manageability as far as I'm concerned. I'd go that route before purchasing a new reel, anyway.

Outside of my thoughts on the rig in general, this is one spot where'd I go with 80 lb braid. With heavier/harder pulling baits, a larger diameter braid seems to help keep it from digging into your spool. I can't really come up with a reason I'd go with mono or flouro here.

My opinion is location and time on the water are key, I believe when it comes to catching larger fish in any given body of water, details can matter, and we often make subtle changes to our presentations without really thinking about it. However, for any rule you want to make about fish and fishing, there's bound to be an exception. Keep fishing long enough and there's bound to be a fish or two you'll catch that will make you wonder how they ever lived that long.

I'd want to try to move the artificial cover honestly. Just to see the reaction.

Why doesn't anyone ever follow those guys around and punch some gps coords if that is true?

We have some small dams that don't do much except slow the rivers down. I've found they seem to stack up in the deeper holes just on top of them when the water cools. I'd guess they stay in the same locations throughout the winter.

If there are rivers around with smallmouth, I'd recommend giving those a shot. For whatever reason, it seems I've had better luck with smallmouths in late fall. Never really tried this late, though.

So you plan on making a career of fishing? I guess that is something she should know.

Those look good to me. I'd recommend putting some cement on your threads, though (or at least it looks like you don't). Just wait until you catch a few on your own baits!

Well you stated you had financial woes, I thought maybe she was trying to help you decipher your ledgers. Honestly, its not something I would bring up voluntarily unless she also likes fishing.

] So what I want to know is if she is totaling up your receipts or if these were purchased on credit and she saw the bill.

Zoom U tails and Culpirt 7.5" are my staples. Zoom has a smaller profile, and they have slightly different color selections, but I haven't noticed that fish have a distinct preference for one over the other at any time.

When I first started fishing it seems like 5 to 6 foot rods were standard for most applications. He may just be resistant to change *edit* In the late 70's early 80's 5'6" casting rods and 6 foot spinning rods were what we used for pretty much everything. a 6'6" rod was considered long. So yes, I have used them, but wouldn't go back. With todays rods I can cast accurately enough with 6'6" rod and get far more distance.

I can't really answer that. Prior to Rapala purchasing Storm, Hot N Tots and Wiggle Warts were our top cranks for steelhead and salmon in the rivers, while Rapala's were our go-to cranks for bass and pike. We were excited about the merger until the following year's salmon run. Even after they brought back the original series Storm baits, I haven't really had the same success with them. I also haven't been able to fish near as much, which may be a large part of the reason. That, and the L. Michigan salmon fishery has undergone some changes since then.

I don't know the others as well, but on days you can't get on Bay de Noc, the surrounding rivers also offer some excellent SM bass fishing.