Scott F

20lb braid.

I use inline spinners over the rocks. You really can't fish them too fast, The bass will catch them. Unweighted senkos are perfect they sink slowly but are easy to keep out of the rocks. Just let them drift with the current on an almost slack line. When the line stops drifting, take up the slack. when you feel the weight, set the hook. The bass are used to food moving with the current and are looking for it. If you have fish weighted baits (and you don't) try using hooks like the Luck E Strike Jig heads or Charlie Brewer Slider heads. Both of these come through the rocks sooo much better than most other jigs. Luck E Strike Slider Head

A phone book? Does anybody still have a phone book around?

I see a lot of posts naming lures that will catch smallies in the fall but the bigger part of the puzzle is where do you look for smallmouth when the water cools? How deep do you fish? In natural lakes, do you find fish on points, submerged islands, deep flats, shallow flats, wood, weeds? I have fished a Northwoods lake where we get loads of smallies in the spring, but when I go back in the fall, they are nowhere to be found. I've called every guide in the area but none of them can tell me they have a good reliable pattern for fall smallies. Anybody have a fall pattern for location (not lures) that works for them?

Just because you don't believe it doesn't mean it doesn't work. No one ever claimed it works 100% of the time. Nothing ever does. It's worked for me more often than not for 30 years and I'll continue to search with search baits.

According to one survey, Bobby Douglass did not even crack the top 20 worst quarterbacks in NFL history (he was ranked #22). As a matter of fact, 3 other former Bears were rated worse the Bobby D . Bob Avallini was rated 8th worst, Mike Phipps #7, and Rick Mirer was number 3. Ryan Leaf was rated the worst quarterback of all time. She got off easy, she could have met JaMarcus Russel (#2). http://www.complex.com/sports/2013/09/worst-quarterback-nfl-history/

35 incher's generally weigh about 10 pounds, so your guess of 10 to 13 is probably pretty close.

If you are fishing new water and don't know where the fish are, you need to locate them before you can catch them. The purpose of search baits is to cover a lot of water quickly. Once you locate bass, you can slow down and spend your time fishing where they are instead of spending a lot of time fishing where they aren't.

It's about marketing. Tackle companies are in business to make money selling fishing tackle. As with most fishing products, it doesn't matter if the lure or hook catches more fish. The important thing is that it catches fishermen. Every day someone comes out with a new product to make you think you have to have it to give you the edge to catch more fish. Anybody remember G finish? How about the Color Selector? Red hooks, red line, square bills, fluorocarbon line, HydroWave, the list is endless. Some of the new stuff does work, most of it is just another way to get you to open your wallet. Red hooks probably won't hurt, probably won't help either.

Stocked trout that have been raised on "trout chow" are not used to feeding on natural foods like insects that wild trout feed on. Not that this is the traditional way of trout fishing but, Berkely PowerBaits in the trout variety work very, very well. A small ball of it on a hook with a split shot under a float has out fished anything else I've ever seen for STOCKED trout. In the small lakes that I've fished for stocked trout, they swim in schools around the lake in circles. When the school passes by your bait, the action is on, Once they pass by, nothing happens until the group comes your way again. Maybe where you will be fishing, like a river, they don't use floats and dough baits, but if their methods don't work, this will.

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You don't say what kind of line you are using. Braided lines, with almost no stretch, will transfer all of your hook set movement right to the fish.

Is there a reason you think that black plastics would not work during the day? I never fish at night, I'll use black plastic stick baits at any time of the day. Next time out, throw those black w/blue flakes, they'll do just as well as any other color in the daylight.

I use black senko's all the time. Senkos are one bait where every color catches bass at least for me. I often change to a different color after I lose one to a fish. It never seems to matter.

Inside turns on small rivers are usually shallow and slow tapering. Can you give more details on fishing inside bends? And what is a drain?

Are you wading, floating or bank fishing?

Like I said before, I don't know the Grand River, and I don't know what part you are fishing. Here is a link that I found that might help you with location. http://www.flyanglersonline.com/features/greatrivers/grand/

More important that the lure you chose is the water you choose to fish. If there are no bass there, no lure is going to work. A little research on the Grand River shows me that most of the river up stream from Grand Rapids is wadeable which means If the water is 25 feet deep, which is VERY deep for a river, you must be fishing above a dam. It's the only place where the water could possibly be that deep. Are you sure about the depth? Are there a lot of power boats that run that area of the river? If you are looking for smallmouth, you should be below the dam. Water above a dam has little oxygen and a lot of silt. Not good habitat for smallies. If there is a lot of current, you need to find a spot where the fast water is blocked by rocks, trees or a point of land. The bass will hold on the edge of the fast water waiting for the current to bring food to them.

It's probably because most men can't handle being beaten by a woman.

I adapt the lures to the type of water the river. I don't know the Grand River. How deep it the water? How much visibility? How much current is there? Are you fishing eddies? Are there riffles, or rapids? In relatively clear, shallow, slow water like eddies or in behind rocks or wood, I throw un-weighted plastic stick baits. In deeper flats with slow water, I'd go with a weighted plastic like a tube or a crankbait that runs a tiny bit deeper than the bottom so it bumps along the bottom. In fast water, where I'm finding them now, I use In-line spinners or spinnerbaits.

Make sure you do not over fill the spool. Too much line will let loose loops spill over the lip and create the wind knot.

Nothing but 8lb Fireline on all my spinning reels. I've never has any issues with the line breaking at the wrong time. 20lb Suffix 832 on my baitcasters.

I think you're fishing where they ain't! You probably need to cover more water and find the depth where the fish are hanging out. Different baits will help on different days but you should be able to catch fish consistently on a worm. You know where the fish aren't biting, so you have to search more. More than likely, if you put that worm in front of more bass you'll get more bites.

If your drag is set to tight and you get a snag, pulling on the line causes it to dig in. Lighter drag allows the line to pull out without digging in. I never use more than 20 pound test on my bass rods. I never have problems with line digging in because my drag is not too tight.

I have fished in lakes that were privately owned and managed for trophy fish. Believe me, it is not as easy as it sounds. It is not open to the public, you have to be a member or the guest of a member to fish there. The lakes are loaded with huge fish, but being small lakes, the fish have no place to hide. There are only a few people allowed to fish on each lake each day, but someone is fishing there all the time. The bass have learned to avoid the (small) boats and are hard to catch especially for someone who hasn't spent much time there and hasn't learned the tricks to get them to bite Maybe the guys who frequent this site are not the prime customers for this type of operation. The place I was at was run like a private golf course country club. Members are well to do business men and companies who bring customers out to do business while fishing instead of golfing. They also offer duck and pheasant hunting as well as trap and skeet shooting. There are a lot of guys with more money than time who would like a short cut to a wall hanger. I don't think many of them post on these forums.