SpinLight

Great input! Thanks everybody.

Anybody here dropshot with 4 lb. test line? I have not, but am curious about how it could be done. I enjoy using light and ultralight tackle and understand that 4 lb. line is too light for this application for most if not all bass fishermen. But if you do, then what line, lures, hooks and weights do you use?

Agree that the smallmouth is the best fighter of the two, and that you need to use similar tackle to compare them both. Also that the spotted bass is a close second to the smallmouth. A smallmouth hooked on 4 or 6 lb. line in a clear Tennessee stream thinks he is a bird, and tries to fly through the air repeatedly! I have used light and medium-light spinning tackle almost exclusively for nearly 60 years from the streams and rivers in Tennessee to the inshore bays of the Florida Panhandle. On one of my last trips to Pickwick Lake, I was fortunate enough to catch a few bass of both species. One that occasion, the 3lb. smallmouth fought every bit as hard as the 4 lb. LM I caught on that day. It is hard to compare bass to other species typically caught on much different tackle. I have caught large fish of other species, like a 17 lb. striper and a 31 lb. redfish, both on 8 lb. test mono. I have jumped a tarpon(who did not stay on for very long) and have been spooled by a jack crevalle. A Mack truck will outpull an F-150, but each is a different species. You can compare a smallmouth and a largemouth since they are both Micropterus cousins. As they say, it is not always the size of the dog in the fight that matters, but the size of the fight in the dog. We all enjoy battling a fish that acquits itself well for their particular species.

I use bright green flourescent Varivas mono in 3-8 lb test and bright orange 10 lb. Sunline Super mono for all my fishing, including saltwater. Catch plenty of fish. Don't think fish are line shy much, if any. I do agree that thicker line can have an adverse effect on lure action, including sink rate. Several JDM light line trout monos come in high vis colors also.

Just went out in the garage and rigged one "flat". I stopped by Tom Mann's store near Lakepoint on Lake Eufaula and visited with him for about 30 minutes years ago. Flat is the way he fished it at the coast for speckled trout, flounder and redfish, on 10 lb test Stren, with a lift and drop motion. I have been fishing the Stingray grub for over thirty years, from Destin to Carrabelle, along the FL Panhandle coastal bays and rivers for speckled trout, flounder and redfish. It is a very good lure. The plastic is very hard and will last through many fish. It has a gliding motion with a slight sideways wobble as it falls. I use both 3 and 4 inch grubs. I have not tried it for bass yet as a Ned rig, but will in the future. Have not tried the Ned bomb yet, but already know that the Stingray is much more durable. The Stingray picture below is a 3 inch version, rigged on a 1/16 oz. Morel jighead with a no. 1 Owner hook, not the XL hook. The head of the lure sits perfectly on this jighead. Beside it is a TRD for size comparison. Other jigheads will work in a 1/0 size, like the Owner blockhead. I have used 2/0 hooks a lot at the coast when I don't have to worry about hanging up and losing a rig.

It seems to me that the "three knot problem" is not a problem here. When you use this Decoy DS, Gama Swivel Shot or VMS Spin Shot rig, you still have only one knot between you and the fish, right? The other two knots connect the drop shot weight to the swivel and will not weaken the line on which we fight the fish. We will be losing a few weights to snags, regardless of whether we use one knot or three knots. One benefit of using the hook-on-a-swivel dropshot is that you can tie a weaker line to the swivel below your hook so that the weight will break off before the hook does when the weight gets snagged. One disadvantage of this "three knot" kind of rig over the "one knot" drop shot approach is that it takes more time to rig up after breaking off. Another disadvantage of the three knot swivel rig is that it costs more than the single hook used in in the standard Palomar one knot dropshot rig.

Will be fishing from a small bass boat with good TM and electronics.

While I fish swimbaits and jerkbaits in the winter for spotted bass, I also throw a lot of soft plastics in the 15-30 ft. depth range on steep rocky banks. I use mostly light and ultralight tackle with mono with these soft plastics. Wondering what you all prefer and think about the merits of the above methods of presenting small soft plastics in deep, rocky water for spots? Also small jigs? All comments are welcome. Thanks.

Got an order in from them last week, about two weeks after I ordered it. Order was correctly filled. Spent a little over $100 dollars, mostly on mono line. Shipping was $50 dollars, by DHL (maybe the only choice?). I still saved more than enough on the line, which was less than half price anywhere else, to pay for the shipping costs. Some of their stock is a good price and some is similar to other Japanese or US stores. Stock at fishingshopkiwi seemed to be limited on some items, like all Japan online stores. Many items were listed as "preorder", meaning they did not have it in stock. Look out for shipping costs at 'kiwi. Had earlier bought a nice reel at a great price from Digitaka, who advertises free shipping on this reel, but they still charged a $20 handling fee, which was reasonable, IMO.

Since I use mostly light lines, I prefer mono over fluorocarbon due to better knot strength. Sunline is one of the largest fishing line companies in the world. On one of their webpages (could be on the JDM site), they state that mono knots break at 84% of line strength, fluoro at 70%, and braid at 40%. As for line color up to 10 lb. test, in my experience bright colors in line do not prevent me from catching lots of fish. I use the brightest chartruese, green and orange lines for spotted bass and all other species I fish for. I fish a clear water lake for spots and catch several almost every time out, except sometimes in the summer. I fish bottom baits and moving baits. Your mileage may vary.?

100% spinning, UL to Medium rods, 3 to 10 lb., occasional 14 lb for frogs, for over 50 years. Fished bass club tournaments for 10-15 yrs. Caught the most lbs. and ounces one year and won a few tournaments. Besides bass, caught tons of speckled trout and white bass, plus several sauger, crappie, redfish and other species.

I plan to fish a lot in a deep highland reservoir for spotted bass between now and next spring. Four spinning rods will be on my deck. One will have a swimbait, another will have some sort of Ned rig. What would you throw on the other 2 rods? Thanks for your suggestions.

Lots and lots of spots, almost all on soft plastics, all under 4 pounds.

If I catch several, it has been a good day?. If I only catch a few, then not so good?.

I looked through all the Senko faqs titles and did not see anything on how deep in the water column a Senko can be used practically. They may eventually sink to 50 ft. or more, but.... I am guessing that most people fish them in water under 15 feet. Assuming you are using 5 or 6 lb. line with a 4" weightless, Texas-rigged Senko, what is the deepest water you would fish it in after letting it sink to the bottom?

What he said. Excellent summation of the relative qualities of the two line types. I have been fishing for about 60 years. Now I fish mostly light and ultralight soft plastics for spotted bass with only small diameter/high quality mono, although I do some inshore/saltwater and lily pad fishing with heavier line. Some monos perform better than others, also. I would also add that line color or visibility does not seem to have an effect on the size or numbers of fish of any kind that I catch . I want to be able to see the line/bite. Trout have good eyesight, yet many of the Japanese trout fishermen fish brightly colored lines. If bass are not bothered by the visibility of all the metal lines hanging off the umbrella/Alabama rig, then they will not be bothered by a single strand of fluorescent green line. IMO, the "invisibility" qualities of fluorocarbon lines are mostly a product of the marketing/promotional departments of the major fishing line companies.

3 inch Easy Shiner and 2.8 Swing Impact Fat, Smallmouth Magic, 1/8 oz. head, #1 and #1/0 jigheads.

Several of you guys have some some unusual bycatches. Some great pics! Most of my fishing nowadays in on Lake Martin in Alabama, where I throw a lot of small swimbaits at the local spotted bass population. My occasional bycatches are channel cats, white bass, stripers, crappie and various sunfishes. I grew up fishing the Tennessee River, and still fish it several times a year. Like the other boys on the forum here who fish the Tennessee, I have had a lot of bycatches. Some types of lures we use for bass, like hair jigs and soft plastics, also attract other gamefish/non-gamefish. This river has a tremendous variety of freshwater gamefish swimming between its banks. Over the last few years, while I have fished below Pickwick Dam with the same small swimbait I use here for spots (not truly targeting just bass, but whatever happens to bite), I have caught smallmouth, largemouth, spots, white bass, yellow bass, hybrids, stripers, drum (lots of them), sauger, white crappie, black crappie, buffalo, bluegill and other sunfish, carp, channel cats, blue cats, shad-river herring, and gar, all hooked in the mouth. I have also snagged a few fish who are filter feeders and who don't normally hit lures, like paddlefish (spoonbills), carp, buffalo and bottom feeding shad. Most unusual bycatch in one day had to be about three years ago when I snagged and landed four Asian carp. Of those four Asian carp, three of them were different species.

1/8 oz. Decoy Nail Bomb, No. 1 EWG hook, 4.5 inch Roboworm in Morning Dawn purple (although I would not call it an EWG hook, but more a WG hook). I am a light and ultralight spinning guy. I also fish for other species occasionally. Wanted to say 3" Easy Shiner, but sometimes it is just not going to find the spotted bass here in East Central Alabama.

Lure companies learned several years ago that they can use scent to market their soft plastic, perhaps following the lead of David Bethshears, the Bruceton, TN pharmacist who invented Fish Formula, one of the first widely sold spray-on fish attracters, back in the 1970's. From Baby Oil and anise oil to garlic, crawfish and squid scent and Berkley's foul-smelling concoctions, several of today's soft plastic baits smell awful!? I think they believe that by making them smell worse, they can sell more of them. ( Everybody has their own opinion on this, but I am not a scent-added fan. I don't believe it makes a difference to bass, but catfish may be different.) I have recently bought and used some 13 Fishing worms that have a "donkey sauce" slimy coating. "Donkey sauce" smells like they collected it from the chicken house floor. Perhaps that's why it is so "fowl" smelling. Let's have a scent-sitive discussion. What soft plastic lures smell the worst to you?

I have caught a lot of smallmouth in Tennessee streams using water dogs, salamanders, or spring lizards (and crawfish). But it takes a few hours to catch enough for a fishing trip in the small woodland streams, where they hide in the leaves. Glad I can use small slider worms now, and don't have to catch bait!

Another nod to vintage tailspins. I bought and lost dozens of them below Pickwick Dam and caught lots of smallmouth and white bass back in the 1960's and 70's. I preferred both the Pedigo Spinrite, with an Indiana blade, and Chism's Little Whiz, with a Colorado blade, over Mann's Little George. Their spinners seemed to work better. If you google Pedigo Spinrite and look at pictures, some of them are mislabeled. The Spinrite had a smooth, continuous curve in the front. Look at the pictures of the original Spinrites still in their blister packs. Some of the pictured lures are not Spinrites. They have a sharp indentation above the bottom (kinda looks like a mouth) like the Chism's Little Whiz. I preferred the single treble to the double treble with maribou on the Spinrite. Less hangups!

Anybody throwing one or both of these tiny jigs? If so, what lb. test line and what trailer?

They are programmed to hit live bait tossed in front of them, like big minnows, wiggling spring lizards or crawfish. I gave us using live bait years ago, but it will work if you want to put food on the table. But I don't believe they are that smart or get lure conditioned too easily. We "caught" the same bass three times in one day on the Tennessee River near Clifton. He bit my T-rig then broke off my 8 lb. test line in a log jam. We continued fishing the area for a while. My buddy then set the hook on a fish. The fish jumped out of the water and you could see my clear, blue fluorescent line trailing out of his mouth. He continued fighting and finally shook off my buddy's lure. We fished down river for a few hours and hit that same area again on the way back to the ramp. I stuck the fish the third time, got him in and removed my first plastic worm with line attached, and my second one he had just bit. We have also both caught the same fish simultaneously and reeled him in with both lures in its mouth, after slowly crawling soft plastics close together on the lake bottom. Like others have said, they may hit because they are hungry, aggressive, putting fat on for the winter, protecting a bed or just genetically programmed to strike what they think they can injure, scare off or get in their mouth. Or not bite at all!

Thanks for posting the weight of your Daiwa BLX spinning rod. I am looking for the weight of the Daiwa BLX 6'10" Light Sensitive spinning rod. Which model do you have that weighs 3.3 oz.?