mod479

My champion 703SF skips tubes, beavers, and senkos like a dream. If you fish a lot of cover you might want to bump up to the 704.

Accu Cull

As far as I know, some waters in Germany have smallmouth populations

Yeah I should feel bad for owning nice gear. I'll think about that while I work 14 hour days. What a stupid post.

You won't flip and pitch your way to victory on every body of water in NY. Fellow Upstate NYer....I can tell you throwing cranks in the summer is not pointless. Topwater could be a primary pattern on any given day, and I've had days like that, how can you discount it? Spinnerbaits definitely work from spring to fall when conditions are right, and a carolina rig is one of the most productive techniques for finding fish on unfamiliar waters..............in upstate NY.

Nice smallie, quite a gut on it

Depends on your bait and how you decide to rig it. I use as small as a #4 for nose hooking tiny soft plastics, but a good starting point would be a # 2 or 1 dropshot hook. Larger EWG hooks can be used for bigger baits and heavier line.

Got both, fished both the last 2 weekends. I put 2500 sized reels on them for balance. Sustain FG on the 7'2" cumara and a Ci4 on the 702DX. I prefer the M/XF cumara for dropshotting. Better tip, more backbone, lighter.

In for the anti shimano and anti daiwa thread. Some good laughs already.

Never tried, but Tackle tour did a review, check it out. http://www.tackletour.com/reviewsufixtrit.html

What #lb test or diameter is it? Is it new/fresh? Soak it with some line conditioner if you can get some. (I like the KVD stuff) I like all the colors, but back in the day, my Walmart carried it in only the purple smoke color. I used it for years in the same super clear waters with much success. The green or clear would be better, but dont get hung up on whether they'll see it or not. It is still part fluorocarbon after all. Hybrid breaks at significantly higher loads than it's labeled. 6lb for instance breaks around 10 to 12 lbs. As I've said, it also has excellent abrasion resistance, which is good for dragging jigs through rocks. I wouldnt hesitate to use the 4 or 6lb hybrid for smaller jigs at all.

Use the lightest line you can get away with. I regularly use 4lb test fluoro for clear water. Clear means different things to different people though, I'm talking 20+ feet of water clarity. Yo-zuri hybrid is good stuff, very versatile line, super abrasion resistance. If you can find the 4lb or 6lb, it will cover most anything you'll need to do on that lake if cover is not an issue. Get the camo green color, or clear. I'd concentrate on rock shoals, sandbars, and underwater humps made up of gravel/chunk rock. If they arent spawning yet, they will be staged off those locations in deeper water. In some bodies of water where little cover is present, smallmouths will just follow and ball up schools of bait all day. Find some forage, and the smallies wont be far away. Dont just beat the banks, unless you're seeing fish up that shallow. Find them with a suspending jerkbait or crankbait, and then slowly work the area over with weightless flukes, tubes, football jigs, stick worms, and a dropshot. If you take one thing from my post....get a flashy suspending jerkbait and take the time to tune it. Make sure it suspends, or ever so slightly sinks. Lucky Crafts (pointers) tend to come out of the package ready to go. Most other brands require some modifications. Suspend strips work good, add weight to the bill so it suspends nose down. You can also add split rings to the front hook eyelet to get the same effect. Good luck!

Some nice bucketmouths right there, well done.

Your rod and reel will work well. XF is good for DS. Hooks: I do well with both VMC spinshots and Gamakatsu DS hooks. Weights: Finesse dropshot weights, they have a special eyelet that tapers thin. I like tungsten weights for a smaller profile. As for line, a lot of guys are gonna tell you to go braid and use a fluoro leader. I dont care for braid unless I'm fishing weeds, deep water, or heavy cover. It will rip these tiny hooks out on hooksets if you dont go easy... So, I use straight fluorocarbon, 4-8lb range, depends on where your fishing really. I fish super clear and rocky lakes, so I run 4, 5, and 6lb fluoro mostly. Some lines that work well on spinning reels are: Sunline sniper FC, Seaguar Tatsu FC, Sunline Finesse FC. Those 3 have given me the least amount of issues overall, all 3 have good abrasion resistance. Also keep in mind that it's very important to put the line on the reel properly, and treat it with a line conditioner (I like the KVD stuff) If you find you get some coils, or problems with twist, I suggest you tie your line to something solid, and walk til its just about all pealed off the reel, then stretch it. Do this gradually, do NOT stretch it to the limit...this will cause deformation of the FC. That is bad. Just a little pressure on and pressure off until the line starts to straighten out. This takes a few minutes, and multiple periods of stretching, but it is worth it, just reel it back down to wherever you tied off, add some more line conditioner as you do that. Lures: Good suggestions so far, the cool thing about this technique is the # of baits which can be utilized. Experiment! -Straight tail worms -finesse worms -Gulp minnows -craw baits -small tubes -stick worms -creature baits

John hit it on the head, pretty ironic statement from that guy. Crappie fishing is in full swing up here, lots of kids filling buckets. Not hard to do at all really if you know where to go. Never heard of someone acting like prespawn bassing isn't fun. Catching them in the heat of the summer is fun too, love a challenge as much as the next guy, sometimes its not a challenge in the summer either......... In my county, NYS regulations are daft, and I have to travel to get my prespawn fix. Good thing walleye and pike opens this weekend.

I'll never part with my supertuned 51e curado, ever. It's gonna have to explode first. I've also got a core 51, what the major difference? The gear ratios plus the core feels "tighter". Someone else already mentioned this, but it's spot on, the core is somewhat smoother than my curado with orange seals. But it should for 2x the price even after upgrades. Hawgtech CF handles on both, and they are just a joy to fish with.

Well, I caught 2 smallies this afternoon, hooked and lost a 3rd before I paddled in to go to lunch. Water temps ~34 to 38 degrees. An old timer told me the ice has been out for about a week on this lake, and I came up here to do some trout fishing originally, but caught these guys instead. Both fish in textbook locations, staged far off gravel shoals/humps in ~20 FOW. Knowing the lake helped today. Both fish taken with a dropshot. ~6" of space between hook and weight. #4 spinshot, 3/16 oz tungsten DS weight. First fish on a 5" Bento Minnow in dace. Just a little guy...but he thumped it...then proceeded to give up pretty quickly. 2nd on a 4" Robo Worm Scuplin in ayu. ~17" or so? No scale, and not really a contender anyhow, just thought I'd share.

I've got one thats chipping all over the place, especially near the fore grip for whatever reason... doesn't really bother me though.

This is exaclty what I wanted to hear, thanks guys. Will report back this weekend!

Wow, some nice brown and green fish already guys, well done...seems I am late to the party. Hoping to put one on the board this weekend. My county doesnt allow any bass fishing until the 3rd Sat of June, so I am making a trip to a remote Adirondack lake in a different county farther to the Southeast where its legal to C&R. Ice has been out for about a week and a half...water is gonna be real cold, but I am thinking tubes, baby rage craws, hard/soft jerkbaits, and dropshot to start... Supposed to be 80 up there on Friday, so I hope it warms the water some and gets the bass moving around. Would I be crazy to throw a spinnerbait this early?

BL? Are you referencing Black Lake?

Right on, we have the same DS setup! Mines the older grey cumara though, havent got to play with a new one yet. My favorite is a Dobyns champion 703SF with a Sustain 2500 FG (profile pic). Awesome for tubes, grubs, lighter football jigs, shakeyheads, and smaller hard jerkbaits like a pointer 78 or 97MR.

^^^^ Beat me to it. OP.....I can see your point, but it's really no different than tossing a wacky worm and letting it sink 20 feet, rinse and repeat all day long. Is that guy less lazy or somehow more skillful than the dude tossing a minnow under a slip bobber next to him? I don't think so. Successful livebait fishing with my lazy grandfather is the only thing that kept me with it in the first place, especially when all my friends were watching this new saturday TV show, or playing some video game, I was filling buckets with perch, sunfish, and bullhead. Now I'm fishing some tournaments, who knows whats next? I have to thank the old man for that. RIP

I still like both in the right situation. Only 2 rods with braid spooled these days, one for dragging tubes and football jigs deeper than 25 or 30 FOW (I want little to no stretch, still use a fluoro leader too) , and one for flipping/pitching cover (I need the strength and weed sawing ability of braid, again still using a short fluoro leader) Everything else is spooled with Yo-Zuri Hybrid, Tatsu, or Sniper FC.

My mistake, if it's not too soft of a rod it will work for now. I just have no experience with Ugly Stiks, they were always too whippy and soft for anything I doing. Maybe someone with that rod will chime in and help you out further.