Scott F

Years ago, my partner and I were getting bites on every cast using Senkos. As it happens with Senkos, they were really getting torn up and we were running out of them. We did have a bag of one of the scented Berkley Gulp worms. We watched as the bass would swim up to the Gulp, get close, then swim off. When we put Senkos back on they’d hit it every time. I doubt that the same thing would happen in every case, but I only had to see it once to see scents can have a negative effect. My other experience with scents is having some spill on the deck of my boat. Scents are no longer allowed on my boat!

The first time I fished with a guide I was with a friend and we were on Rainy Lake in Minnesota fishing for walleye. I was in the front, my friend was in the middle and the guide was in the back. We were fishing a drop off it was about 5 feet deep under me and dropped off to about 20 feet under the guide. We were all fishing. Guess where all the walleyes were. Exactly at 20 feet. I was getting skunked while the guide was getting one after another. He never even attempted to reposition the boat so my friend and I had a chance to get some fish. First and last time I ever let the guide fish while I was paying.

As a kid, my mom had to stretch her food budget to feed my dad and 5 kids so she always bought canned veggies. Canned vs fresh or frozen vegetables are the absolute worst. I attribute those canned veggies as to why I won’t eat many of them to this day.

I have had type 2 diabetes for over 10 years and gave up eating as much sugar as I could since then. If just cutting out sugar was all it took, I’d be down to about 12 pounds by now.

Whether a bass can see the line or not really doesn’t matter. What does matter is, does the line prevent them from trying to eat your lure. In my experience, the line bothers the fisherman more than the fish. If you believe the fish won’t bite because of the line, it affects your confidence and how long you’ll stick with your presentation. I’ve seen it here dozens of times. Many guys here always use leaders with braid and are convinced it helps with the number of bites they get. I never use a leader and am convinced the bass don’t care. Try it both ways, look at the pros and cons for you, and decide which suits you best

I’d pay more attention to the vibration and sound the lure makes than the color. The fish will follow the vibrations they feel.

It sounds like you need to buy a wading staff. Use the staff to test for sudden drop offs or mud. They are especially useful if the water is stained and you can’t see your feet. Just make sure to tether it to yourself so it doesn’t float away. Current will generally flush any mud or silt away and deposit it into eddies and slack areas. That’s where you have to be careful

It’s that kind of thinking that keeps guys from using inline spinners. I’ve caught nearly every species of freshwater fish that swims in lakes and rivers with spinners. Muskies, pike, largemouth, smallmouth, panfish, stripers, you name it. An old school lure that is easy to use and catches fish.

If I’m getting them on a particular bait and my fishing partner doesn’t have one, I’m giving him one of mine. It’s happened many times. Same thing the other way. My fishing partners often share baits with me when they are working. One of the reasons I’m not a fan of fishing as a competition, is because I don’t see my competitors sharing baits that are working with me so I can catch more.

So you think this bass thought that this lure would fit?

Physical therapy. The arthritis in my knees used to be pretty bad. I started wading rivers. The low impact walking against the river current strengthened my legs and I haven’t been bothered by arthritis in my knees since

For a while, I was using nothing but custom made rods that a friend would build for me for just the cost of materials. He was building rods because he could make them for less than half the cost of buying it from a store and he could make the rods that suited him.

One of the main reasons I target smallmouth bass in rivers is because they fight so much harder than their lake dwelling brothers and they never quit fighting. Big pike (over 36”) will fight hard at first but often give up, at least that’s what I experienced when doing fly in trips in Canada. I was on a trip fishing for trophy sized brook trout where they need to be 20” to be considered a trophy, and those fish would literally fight to the death. When caught in current, some of them were dead when we got them to the boat. The river we were on was 100% catch and release so we weren’t even allowed to keep the dead ones for a shore lunch. It broke our hearts to see these beautiful fish die for our sport. After the second or third fish came back dead, we left them alone and fished for pike and walleye.

While I don’t choose one rod over another because of weight, I do like fishing with light rods better than heavier meaning I’d rather fish with light action spinning rods and small, light lures for river smallies than medium heavy action bait casting gear and big lures for large mouths.

I’m a veteran of dozens of fishing trips with groups of friends. While the names of the guys on the trips usually varies, sitting around a campfire in the evenings is a constant. During the day, we split up to fish but the evenings campfire brings us all together. Definitely one of my favorite things about a fishing trip!

For me, it doesn’t matter if I use the reel handle to close the bail or do it manually as long as I make sure there are no loose loops of line on the spool. Many times, if you use the reel handle to close the bail, you just start winding without checking for loops. When you close the bail by hand, you are already in a good position to pull on the line and tighten it on the spool. Twisted line will cause loops easier

Because I mostly float rivers, there is often stretches between prime spots where the depth and current create high percentage spots. I don’t pass by the low percentage areas without casting. I’ll often find “sleeper” spots that don’t fit the ideal. Some of the rivers have rock ledges that run parallel to the shoreline. Fish often hold close to that drop off. The water on the surface doesn’t give any indication what lies below. You might float right past and never know it’s there. Weed beds for me aren’t easy to fish but often hold bass. I never pass by overhanging tees and shade lines. Some days the high percentage spots don’t produce so you need to know where else they might be.

I usually skip unweighted Senkos under docks and under overhanging trees using a spinning rod. It took a bit of practice to get the bait where I wanted it to go. One of the things I learned was I need to be in the right position for me to be accurate. I can’t do it backhanded very well and I need room to swing the rod low to the water. If the head of my trolling motor is in the way, it’s not going to work for me.

A remote river in the UP of Michigan. No way to get to this spot except by floating.

One of the best things about the northern part of our country are the thousands of lakes and miles of streams and rivers. Bass are a low priority up north and underfished. I’ve spent days on huge lakes in the middle of vacation lands without seeing another bass fisherman. I’ve also fished several lakes empty of other anglers that were easily accessible by car and a short walk. I’ve also spent many weeks on remote Canadian lakes and rivers accessible only by float plane chasing pike, walleye, trout and grayling. I’ve read here on these forums about the enormous amount of fishing pressure a lot of you are forced to deal with and it makes me feel better about the thousands of miles I’ve put on my truck to take advantage of the opportunities available “up north “.

If stability is your main issue, I’d look into a personal pontoon. They inflate and assemble in about 10 minutes and will fit in the trunk of a car when you want to transport. You can attach a trolling motor if you are covering a lot of water and use oars for moving and positioning. They are extremely stable. You sit on a seat between the pontoons. You will have your feet and legs in the water. I use it 90% of the time floating rivers. On a small river, they are one way transport. motors aren’t practical and you can’t row them upstream. I use a seat from my bass boat as it’s more comfortable than the supplied seat

I’ve got an inflatable and the first sticker that I used from the state cracked and broke apart when I inflated and deflated the boat a couple of times. Others have attached the sticker on a board and hung it on the side. I just kept my second one in a pouch and showed it to the CO when he requested it. He understood the issue with sticking it on the inflatable and gave me no problem because I had it and was registered.

The anti-reverse clutch/ roller bearing is easy to replace. Just make sure you put the new one on correctly and not backward. The clutch on the reel I use for jerk baiting takes a lot of impact and I’ve replaced it before. I now even carry a spare.

This time of year, the biggest fish are more difficult to catch, but for me, smallies are easy to find. While floating downstream, I look for deeper spots near current, breaklines, eddies, downed trees, shade lines and weeds. But current is most important. Fast water, riffles and rapids add much needed oxygen to warm water. Concentrate your time on the spots I listed above especially if they are near fast water.

Single strand wire, even the light stuff, is very stiff. You can’t easily tie anything to it. You need a tool like this to work with it. The tieable wire while tricky to tie, is easier to tie to anything.