iceintheveins

I think that was the area actually.

Amen. Closing lakes is Un - American, especially when the lake is closed by unelected persons.

Baby Brush hogs are great. I like them in somewhat clearer water and I catch somewhat better numbers on them than the full sized brush hogs.

I always rig them on a jighead for smallies. For largemouth I will texas rig or split shot them with an Xtra Wide Gap hook when fishing near weeds and brush. Smallmouth usually like a faster, bottom bouncing retrieve. Vertical jigging with them is good for passing over deep structure though. I prefer a tube for vertical presentations, and the grub for horizontal.

We have roundtail chubs around here, and they are notorious bait thieves if you are catfish fishing, they will also take jigs, spinners, and cranks. The suckers and chubs here are overpopulated, so that's why I call them trash fish. Lots of carp in the Colorado River too, but I would rather catch them than a chub. The spot I fished was actually closer to Vestal than Owego I think.

River smallies are a blast. I'm lucky to have a river as special as the Yampa nearby. Lots of 2 - 5 pound smallies and plenty of big pike as well.

I like watermelon, green pumpkin, motoroil, white, and other various crayfish colors. For murky water blacks and neons are good too.

Much better ideas up there. However, they forget that waterfowl are a primary means of transporting aquatic hitchhiking species. Larvae can be all over a duck or goose.

I prefer glass for any fast retrieve lures like cranks, spinners, and topwaters. An overlooked, good crankin' rod are the Ugly Stik' Lites. Soft plastic rods call for stiffer, fast graphite rods. I like the Rapala series for that.

No kidding? I live in Binghamton, twenty miles upriver from Owego. I fish that stretch all the time, and there is great fishing all throughout the Susky around here. When were you here last year? The spring bite was short last year but fast and furious. The water dropped, warmed and cleared up so quick, the fish were on the prespawn like gang busters. Sorry to hear about your river, it must be really bad if you think the Susky is nice and yours is garbadge filled! The Susky has had some serious problems, its been on Americas Most Endangered Rivers List (or whatever its called). Its still a serious smallie factory though. Waitin for the action to heat up! Its been a good winter of fishing on the river, but I cant wait for Spring! The Colorado around here is a decent Channel Catfish fishery with a few scattered Smallmouth and Largemouth bass. The main problem with the Colorado is that most of the fish are trash fish like suckers and chubs. It's a bit bigger than the Susky, so I think a switch would fit. When I fished the susky it was extremely high and muddy. I fished at the mouth of a culvert where clear water was coming in, which created a back eddy where some fish were holding. I wish I could have floated and fished it during low water. I looked online this morning and it looks like the Susky is pretty high right now.

I bought one, thinking it would be like a jointed rap on steroids. WRONG! It hardly had any wiggle at all. Bad action, total waste of money. The regular pointers are great though. So what are some of your experiences with the live pointer?

Nothing like new tackle to get the vast energies flowing through you. Makes for stronger lightning to use against bass poachers too, heh heh.

Sometimes cranks and fast presentations do outfish soft plastics, and badly. You need to be good at both techniques to be a good smallie fisherman. When water is low, clear, and it's daytime, breaking out the tubes and grubs is usually the way to go though.

Hey susky dude I fished the upper susky near Owego NY this time last year when it was in full flood. Caught a couple on spinnerbaits, along with a channel cat and had a 35" musky follow. What part of the susky do you hail from? Wish I had that river here instead of our trash fish filled Colorado.

Get ready to start a ballot initiative drive guys. That's your best bet.

You guys are getting shafted. You need to sue.

Rapala Skitter Pop Cavitron Buzzbait Heddon Torpedos Jitterbugs Strike King Spittin' King Accent Lures High Rider Buzzbait

I use topwaters during cloudy weather and during the twilight periods, or when they are busting bait on top. The rapala skitterpop is my best topwater lure by far. Buzzbaits are also really good though, and tend to work a bit better during sunny conditions, especially in the shallows that are choked with weeds and cover.

Do you guys do well fishing the Yum crawbugs and other soft craws for both largemouth and smallmouth? How do you fish them?

I like tubes and grubs from 2.5" to 4. Crawdad and baitfish colors are best. For tubes I like gitzits and power tubes. For grubs, I love power grubs, kalins, yamamoto single, double, and skirted grubs, and also yum gonzo grubs. I usually give the cranks and faster presentation a try first, because when the bite is on they will outfish jigs. But when they aren't catching that many, nothing will get you into smallies faster than grubs and tubes. Don't forget hair jigs and yum crawbugs either though.

Do you mean crawdad cranks like the rebel wee craw?

Don't forget the John Day River, it's loaded with nice smallies and isn't that far away.

My best presentation for river smallies is actually an inline spinner like a Panther Martin. I like the sizes from #6 to the biggest, which is #15. Even a 9" smallie will hammer the #15. Cranks work well though as well. Shallow to medium crawfish colored ones are great, as are lipless cranks. The spinner seems a bit more consistant though. I catch almost all my river smallies on the following presentations: 1. Panther Martins (gold, chartreuse, black, orange) 2. Two and a half to 4" grubs and tubes in crawfish colors 3. Crawdad pattern cranks 4. Buzzbaits (LETHAL in shallower sections where current is slower) 5. Spinnerbaits 6. Soft Jerks Carry a couple poppers and prop baits though too. That list should be enough for you.

I catch quite a few largemouths and smallmouths through the ice here in Colorado. Usually it's by accident when fishing for perch and crappie with small jigs tipped with a perch eye. Small jigging raps can get you into bass though. They are surprisingly active at times through the ice. Bass generally hang right where the perch and crappie are during ice season. They make a meal of the smaller ones.

With the full sized spooks I would go with 12 pound original stren.