Scott F

We use Lucky Craft Pointers that have 2 treble hooks.

During pre-spawn fishing for smallmouth, we often find the bass schooled up. Catching them on every cast for half an hour to an hour for two guys in a boat is not uncommon. They kind of start a feeding frenzy and you can get two at a time on a single bait.

Beds in 50 degree water? That would be unusual.

I moderate a forum for my fishing club. The club besides being about fishing, is also about conservation. If we were going to make any mistakes, it was going to err on the side of caution. We made a rule that you were not allowed to post specific spots on the open forum. One thing the guys who wanted to post spots had to say was that most people who use the internet to get exact locations aren’t good enough fishermen to catch fish even if you put them on the best spots anyway.

I know what it feels like in these times. My 95 year old mother went into a nursing home just as the stay at home order went into effect back in March. We couldn’t visit her at all. She was fading fast and was transferred to my sisters home, where she passed after just a few hours last weekend. We were allowed a small service at a church where we had to maintain social distancing. Not being able to mourn with the rest of my family together just seemed cruel. My sisters and I are all high on the list of people who are most susceptible to the virus so we had to adapt. I know mom wouldn’t have wanted us to get sick because of her passing. jbmaine, you have my deepest sympathy.

I use 20lb braid for everything I throw on a bait caster. When I’m going “light” for smallmouth, I go 10lb braid on a spinning outfit.

Centipedes can have a very nasty bite. I think I could find another critter to use for bait.

For color, it’s the same thing. Feeding smallies sit in a calm spot next to current and watch for food coming downstream. They don’t have time to think. If they hesitate, the food is gone. On different days, they might prefer a different color. No way to predict what they may want. Choose a color you have confidence in. If it doesn’t work, change.

I don’t think you’ll find a $60 reel that will handle heavy baits for any period of time without wearing out. Ask any musky guy and he’ll have a bunch of worn out reels from casting musky baits.

I’ve always found river fish are not very picky. I talk to a lot of stream smallie guys who are good stream fishermen and they all catch fish on different lures. Pretty much anything you like, when you put it in the right place, and presented properly will get them.

Around here, we call that spring.

I wasn’t even aware Frogg Toggs offered high end gear. I checked on their web site and found some jackets and bibs with a waterproof fabric called, DriPore Gen 2 with prices considerably less than similar Gore-Tex. The jackets they offer at near $300 aren’t listed as rain gear or even waterproof. I wore a rain suit from Gander Mountain for years that did not grow with me so I just replaced it with a Cabela’s Guidewear Gore-Tex jacket and bibs. Haven’t worn them yet, but I like them.

How important is price? What’s your maximum for both jacket and bibs? For me, Gore-Tex is the only way to go. Nothing with a Gore-Tex label is going to be inexpensive. I’d never waste my money on Frog Toggs again. Just a suit made of house wrap with bad, leaking, seams.

Posts about red eyed bass have come up before. It seems like red eyes are more commonly seen in pre-spawn bass.

It is compatible. Minn Kota sells the adapter cable that replaces the transducer cable for the Lowrance. Plug the adapter into the depth finder, and the the "spare" plug into the adapter and the built in transducer in the trolling motor is used instead of the transducer you might have mounted on the trolling motor.

Isn't that for using the built in transducer? You hook up an adapter to mate with whatever brand of depth finder you have.

Last summer, I did a three day trip To my favorite river with a friend, his son-in-law, and his grandson. The river was running high, fast and off color when we arrived in the early afternoon. I took the son in law out in my river boat, while grandad took grandson to a good wading spot. No one had much luck. The next morning, we switched and I took grandson while the other two went wading. Same results as yesterday. In the evening after dinner, I took my friend, the grandfather out in my boat. The high fast water is supposed to put the bass tight to the shorelines in eddies and slack water, but it wasn’t working up until that afternoon. I motored upstream and drifted back toward the cabin, dropping anchor to hold us in place in the fast water while we cast Whopper Ploppers close to shore in the eddies formed by flooded grass and bushes. For the next couple hours until dark, we had constant action on big smallies whacking the heck out of those Whopper Ploppers. They’d hit the bait in the tiny eddy then swim out into the fast current where they were nearly impossible to move. Several times I’d have to lift the anchor to chase them down river. We’d just get one in the net, and get another on the next cast. It was just the type of fishing you always hope for but seldom actually have. The river has many shallow hazards that make it a challenge to navigate even with my jet motor so we had to quit before it got too dark. Action was so good, we didn’t want to stop to take many pictures. We we hoping that pattern and action would hold up for another day, but the following morning was back to the slow action we started with.

Magnets generally don’t go bad. Baits however, do get cracks and water gets inside where it can cause a bait to sink, or rust the interior weights that keep them from moving.

That’s why if you own a boat or even just marine electronics, having a volt meter is a good idea. Checking voltages or for blown fuses saves a lot of time and makes troubleshooting problems so much easier and cheaper that spending money on things that aren’t broken.

Not any more difficult at all. Using split ring pliers makes it easy.

$10 bucks for a blade bait? I get 3 of my favorite blades for $10. I’ll be waiting for them to wind up in a bargain bin.

I can see on the surface where having information like that might be useful to some people, but I think accurate info might be hard to come by. Correct me if I’m wrong, but aren’t pros known to say that they used a sponsors bait regardless of what they actually caught their fish on?

How do you know it’s the line that causes them to swim away? Isn’t it also possible that they see you or feel your presence and that’s what spooks them?

If you really feel the need to use a snap and swivel, do yourself a favor and purchase some of better quality. The snap in the photo is very weak. It doesn’t take much force to open the snap and lose a good fish and your lure. Cheap swivels are also prone to not working, besides not providing any benefit.

My prayers are with you. I lost my mother yesterday.