MIbassyaker

Wheeler, Lefebre, Powroznik, Card, Pipkens. Basstrakk leaderboard position as of 2:06PM EST: 40, 7, 25, 16, 43

The only smallie to show up on a five-hour river float today (but I'll take it):

Yes, you can fish weightless and light texas rigs just fine with your setup. Where you are likely to have problems is in heavy cover and with heavy weights (over 1/4oz) , and heavy-wire hooks. Just keep things relatively simple and light, and you'll be fine. Three more things to look up that are incredibly effective and should shine with your setup: --ned rig --slider fishing --split-shot or mojo rig

There is a lot of disagreement about whether bass are line-shy at all, or if so, when. But in heavy vegetation, opaqueness is pretty much a non-issue -- everything they eat is already scurrying, crawling or swimming through stalks, stems, fronds, leaves of stuff...to the extent that they register the existence of braided line at all, it's just another tendril of something that is in the way.

(Shudder) No thank you. I would consider a muted green or a dark green. But I will not be fishing with anything that might be confused at a distance for a ninja-turtle Kid Caster.

First thing I thought of too.

No need to speculate about the weights of St. Croix Rods -- they publish them on the site. The medium power graphite Mojos are all under 4oz, both casting and spinning. Only few of the long and heavy-power casters are over 5oz. The weights are all very compeitive at the price. Here's the mojo listings: http://stcroixrods.com/products/freshwater/mojo-bass I own rods by St. Croix, Cabela's, and 13 and never once have I looked at them and thought the comparison was like "a broomstick compared to a needle". And my versions of latter two are even ML power, while my croixs are mediums. The premise of this thread makes no sense.

Don't why it should ever need to be said, but the old school stuff --the grubs, tubes, torpedos, slider worms, hula poppers, floating minnows and what-not-- have never stopped working.

Great tip on the library above! Actually your own local public library may be able to help you locate a copy to check out on inter-library loan. If you're patient and check Amazon, Ebay, Alibris, and other marketplaces regularly, you may find a used copy or two put up for sale for much less than that. I have seen a few copies listed off and on for about $50. I actually bought my own copy for 25 a couple years ago. The market values of rare and out-of-print books seem to obey strange laws I do not understand. I have a very hard time getting my head around the idea that there are actually people buying copies of "Knowing Bass" for $100-$200. It's a very good book. I'm not sure it's that good.

Hastings...on the Mississippi, just upriver of LaCrosse? Are you fishing the river? Check this out: the top 10 lures from the recent FLW tournament that was held in May on the Mississippi at LaCrosse: https://www.flwfishing.com/news/2017-05-22-top-10-baits-from-the-mississippi-river EDIT: Ah, I checked the map...Hastings is farther up than I remember it being.

weightless and lightly-weighted plastics and any kind of hardbaits you would fish with a popping/walking/jerking/twitching action, like topwaters and jerkbaits up to about 5/8oz.

Clockwise in the northern hemisphere, counter-clockwise in the southern hemisphere.

Thanks all -- ETS fans say repair, DVT says easy fix....I believe I will look into repairing. Will do!

Got out on the water this morning to find one of my Elite Tech Smallmouth casters unuseable when, upon picking it up, I felt the reel wobble in my hand and could not tighten it down -- It seems the threads that secure the foregrip to lock down the reel have come unglued (silver piece below now slides freely above the cork inlay): Should I send this in for a warranty claim, or try to repair (more likely, have somebody else do it, since I know nothing about rod repair)? If my prior (happy) experiences with Fenwick's warranty system are any guide, they would likely replace it with a comparable new model of the current Elite Tech Bass line, with no extra cost to me beyond what I spend to send it in. Normally, this is what I would do. The problem is...this particular rod is a uniquely excellent model -- it is a 6'10" medium-heavy, moderate-fast, and I don't see that Fenwick has a current model of comparable in power and action (and handle length -- short, as I prefer) to this particular one. So if this is an easy or cheap repair that would add significant life to this particular rod, even if it voids the warranty, I'd consider it. Does anybody have any experience with the newer Elite Tech and older smallmouth lines, and can speak to whether this model has a counterpart in the new line? What would you do -- repair or replace?

Chris Zaldain and David Walker use left-handed reels despite being right-handed. And Denny Brauer is a lefty, but uses right-handed reels. That's good enough for me.

Susquehanna Fishing Tackle has a few in stock, but you just missed a 15% off sale (which I assume is why most colors are only backorderable at the moment): http://sfttackle.com/river2sea-whopper-plopper-191.html

I have so many plastics to use up, but I can't seem to put the black buzzbait down (just a hair under 20", although not sitting on the board quite right...):

Not that good, I just pay attention!

Flat River Smallie?

Well, I'm never going to complain about anything being too difficult ever again. Simply amazing. Thanks for resurrecting this thread.

SFT has bandits in stock and they're running 15% off through the weekend: http://sfttackle.com/catalogsearch/advanced/result/?name=bandit

Sale is online, too, so not just for Northeasterners...and they have Whopper Plopper 110s in stock.

I endorse this rant.

I recommend this, too. First spend time learning a handful of lure presentations, and focus on learning about bass behavior and location, get used to feeling the bottom, working cover, distinguishing fish strikes from weed/branch/rock hang-ups...plastics can do this all very well.

That's a river and stream smallie-killer. No reason it shouldn't work just as well anywhere else for both green and brown fish.