BradH

One nice thing about walleyes and sauger, they like to get stiff as a board when you handle them! As opposed to pike or sometimes bass anyway. Of all the gamefish they might be the easiest to handle. I just grab them behind the head or on the gill flap while supporting the belly as was already pointed out. I'm a big fan of rubber or coated knotless nets if you plan to release them.

Norman DD22HD, Storm Smash Shad, Rapala Scatter Rap.

I don't think I've found a color or size that won't catch fish. I've had quite a bit of luck with the Excalibur One Knockers in Tilapia in the 1/2 ounce size. That might be because I bought a giant heaping pile of them for 1.88 each The other day I had the best results tossing a 1 1/4 ounce Bomber saltwater rattle bait. It's pretty much anything goes. Rip and pause!

When I get mine I'll do a thorough review. I plan to do some serious SMB fishing around mid April and I should be able to compare them to the shad raps, flicker shads, squarebills, DTs, rattle baits and jerkbaits I throw that time of year. I don't really buy into all the hype, we'll see. I'm guessing they will best be used with a spinning rod or M/ML casting rod due to their light weight. I've got a ML crankin' stick with a 50e that will probably be my #1 choice. Should be interesting.

Anyone had much time on the water with these yet? I got curious and ordered some with my points built up on my card. Looks like the shads have shipped but the cranks won't be in until mid April.

Even when the water is cold play with different pause durations. I was out a few days ago (Northern Nebraska less than a week from ice out) and had to really snap it fast to get hit. Long pauses were ignored. Switched over to some one knocker lipless baits with a rip/pause and it was game on. Changed back to a jerkbait with a snappy retrieve and it was no longer ignored.

The heavy rods, reels, lines and leaders serve more to get the fish in the net and released quickly than anything else. Still, I have not had to fight any pike to 20 pounds for very long using MH and H bass rods. A couple of my favorite bass spots are loaded with pike so when I go fishing I'm pike fishing as much as I'm bass fishing. I have used the big stuff and I still will when it produces best. That said I've reduced my use of it due to the damage it does when smaller pike, hungry bass and musky take it. I've pretty much taken the double cowgirls and giant plastic creatures out of use and found a good balance of gear that works for me.

Those look slick. I've launched a few hemostats overboard unhooking a thrashing hammer handle that decided to hit my bass plug. I might have to find a set of those and put a dummy cord and float on them. Thanks!

Just match the rod/reel/line to the lure & hook size and use some kind of leader to prevent bite offs. I see so many guys buy into the huge rod & reel thing for pike/musky and toss 1 ounce baits on 150# wire leaders that would be better fished on a regular MH or H power bass rod with a much lighter leader. You'll cast farther, have better action on the lure and stand a better chance of keeping the fish pinned when you get it next to the boat. If big baits are the key then I will be tossing big baits on a big rod to match but it does not have to be that way all the time. The big rods & reels are to match the big lure, not the fish. Last Fall I caught a 15 pound 4 ounce pike on a HJ14, 30 pound braid/12 pound fluoro leader, 6'3" daiwa jerkbait rod and Curado 200E7. That was fun. I just kept the drag where it needed to be, played the fish and stuck it in the net. That same rig has probably put as many pike in my net as any other setup in the fall, winter and spring. A 7' H/F and some 3/4 to 1 ounce spinnerbaits (with a trailer hook!!!!) is another good setup. Stuck a 40"/20 lb. fish in the net with that rig. As far as ugly sticks go I can't comment because I have not used or handled one in years. I will say Cabelas has their Fish Eagle II rods for about $40 online right now and I would probably choose that over an ugly stick and it might even be cheaper.

You might be able to rig something up with a clothespin and a baseball card. Kidding haha. Seriously though, that's a nice rig. For bass fishing I've never needed a casting reel to make noise. The only time I need a casting reel to make noise is when I'm trolling and have rods behind me when I'm facing the port side of the boat running the tiller outboard. I have the drag backed off enough so it will slip instead of tearing the hooks out. I hear the rod, grab it & thumb the spool, set the hook, adjust the drag and land the fish. That's more of a walleye & pike thing but I do catch bass doing it sometimes.

Husky Jerk, McStick, Excaliber and most recently Storm Twitch Stick. I still have Bombers, Rogues and others that get tossed sometimes.

Not really a topwater but the Rapala Subwalk has been effective in cold water. It's like a spook that runs 6" deep. You can work it slow and pause it or bring it back quick and snappy.

I keep it simple. My pocketknife. If a knife won't cut braid it is dull and needs to be sharpened. No need to make it harder than it is.

And on the cast! Probably the biggest downside to a spool clicker. You can accidentally activate them or forget to shut them off.

Yes, either way the reel clicks when the drag slips. The older ABUs I was referring to have both, spool and drag clickers. I am aware that the newer reels are spool clickers only.

The older round pre IAR ABUs had a drag that clicked even if the clicker was not engaged. In their day they were great but for bass fishing the modern low profile reels would be much better. The newer ones you need to jump to a 6000 size reel before you get a clicker and it must be turned on to get any noise. You could buy a 4600 and add a clicker by swapping the sideplate out and adding a couple parts. The only time I find a clicker to be of any use is if I'm trolling for walleyes or pike and I have a bunch of rods out. It's not really something that would be of much use for 99% of the techniques used to bass fish.

At first I found the LMG Shimano posts to be really annoying even though I fish with Shimano as well as ABU and others. Then I "got it" and enjoyed the laughs and humor.

I use those. Dirt is my favorite color. I would call them neutrally buoyant but it depends on water temps. I wacky rig them on a jighead or nose hooked on dropshot and they work great for that. The SK KVD elaztech worms float. Some of those plastics that sink in the summer float or are neutral in the winter so you just have to test them out.

I switched from braid with a leader to all fluorocarbon for finesse, other than drop shotting and vertical jigging with a spinning rod, still running braid and a fluoro leader there. Thank you BR! I got the idea here. I get a better feel when there is slack in the line fishing weighless or lightly weighted soft plastics by running 100% fluoro and I have seen a dramatic reduction in bite offs from toothy fish. I tried Vanish at one time but after trying different brands I switched to other fluorocarbon lines. The Berkley 100% in the gold box is good but I'm fishing ML casting rods with 50e reels so I have no idea how it would perform on a spinning rig.

I use fluoro leaders for bass sized jerkbaits. Play with the hooks and split rings on the bait to get it to hang the way you want in the water. A husky jerk 10, 12 or 14 hangs pretty good out of the package tied to a fluoro leader, even with a snap on the bigger ones. 12 to 17 pound gets the job done without killing the action. Alberto or back to back uni to the mainline and whatever knot you like to the lure. I avoid the steel leaders they sell in the store like the plague. Those things will kill the action and cause the bait to take a nose dive on the pause. They also break fairly easy when you attempt to pull a snag loose. I check the leader and retie after almost every toothy fish.

I use either a Crucial 7' MH crankbait with a Citica 200E for squarebills and lipless or a 6'3" Diawa S jerkbait rod with a Curado 200E7 for jerkbaits and lipless. Both are faster than the average crankbait rod and the jerkbait rod is a blast to fish them on with a rip/pause retreive.

That's still a great deal at Gander. Between cleaning off the racks at Cabela's a few times and TW when they have everything discounted I should probably stop looking at McSticks for a few years!

TW has about the lowest McStick price I've seen. A few years ago I bought some from cabelas online for $5. I wished I had grabbed more. I've also seen them on their shelves in the store for $5-$8 a few times. I clean them out when I see that.

Nebraska??!! I picked up some Storm Twitch Sticks last year from TW when they came out. All signs point to awesome. The bass loved them last fall. Solid hardware, killer roll and $5. I put them away to troll minnow baits, drop shot and jig all winter but the jerkbait bug has bitten me again so I'm eager to get back out there. I don't really follow the Classic but I did hear one of the anglers mention that bait.

For those light topwater baits that don't cast well I use a 6' ML BPS Crankin' Stick with a 50e. It's spooled with 20 pound braid and I tie on a chunk of mono, maybe 10 pound, for a leader. That leader is to keep the hooks from fouling all the time. It works well for lighter treble hooked baits in general. Shad raps, flicker shads, tiny torpedoes, etc.