MIbassyaker

Carolina: Meh. No big loss. You'd probably get more out of a mojo/finesse carolina/split-shot rig anyway.

I have not one but two DSG stores within 1/2 hour of me. Looks like I may be visiting them both tomorrow.

For braid, I double the palomar knot for good measure -- make a second overhand knot before putting the lure/hook through the loop end. Just make sure to wet the line well before cinching.

Absolutely. Very similar specs to the main combo I use for many of those things, especially weightless plastics, shakey heads, and mojo/split-shot rigs.

Yes, sure. The real question, though, is: which details? Some presentation details are simply going to be more important than others. And if line invisibility was a detail that more than doubled your catch with any regularity, there would be no dispute on this topic -- it would simply be part of common experience. Nobody would even be selling, or buying, colored lines of any kind. In any case, in the absence of clear evidence that line visibility matters, I have a hard time believing a fish who will strike virtually every artificial lure design ever conceived could reasonably be expected to care about it.

Every combo should be black and silver. That would make this much easier. I like to pretend I'm mainly interested in being practical, but it bothers me waaaayy more than it should when rod and reel colors clash.

You guys know there is more to live bait fishing than putting a worm on a hook below a bobber and making it sit there for 3 hours, right? Fishing a ned rig or other grub on a jighead is not much different than fishing a small shiner or other minnow on a jighead, a very common northern rig for smallmouth and walleye. Think your strike-detection is pretty good? OK, come fish some crawlers with me on on a live-bait split-shot rig with light spinning tackle. If a bait company created an artificial shiner or nightcrawler that squirmed around on its own like real live bait, and smelled and tasted like the real thing, I'm sure you'd never buy one and use it, right? Right?

Awesome -- those are gorgeous. I have had my eye on a Dredge Pack for my next Siebert order, and I see the Dock Rocker head has now been added to the options for that pack.

I dig it. Nice video, nice fish.

I caught my first bass - a 12" smallie - around the age of 13 on a nightcrawler. I had never seen one before, and Dad and I didn't even know there were bass in the river we fished (turns out there were some quite a ways upriver; they've expanded their range since then, I hear, nowadays there are a lot more in the section we used to fish). We used live crawlers, minnows, and sometimes frogs mostly to catch catfish, but sometimes drum, goldeye, and if we were really lucky, the occasional walleye or pike. I got into lures around then because I wanted to start targeting particular species, like that cool-lookin' bass. Since then I've used live bait occasionally for panfish or walleye when I'm out with family, but not for anything else in a long time.

"Hell hath no fury like an angler forced to wait a few more days for his TW order" Ordered mine on Friday. Regular ground; not 2-day. Scheduled Delivery updated to: Tuesday 9/15. Sounds like most of you are still getting yours before I'm getting mine.

Keep doing what you're doing, Bill! I enjoy hearing your perspective.

1) Lots of things worth trying, but a wacky rigged stick worm (like a senko), and a surface popper like a Rebel Pop-R may be a good start. These should be very easy to pick up for a panfisher. Get used to letting lures like this fall and/or sit for a bit before moving them. Bass often hit things like worms as they fall. And they'll often watch floating lures for a few moments before deciding to strike. 2) Find cover. Don't be afraid of making short casts to weeds, logs, under docks etc. And don't ignore very shallow water if there is good cover or shade there. 3) you can get by with the same gear and baits for both species -- a medium or medium light spinning rod/reel combo with 6lb -10lb mono line is fine to start. However you'll tend to find smallmouth and largemouth in different locations as they tend to prefer different habitats. Your waters may be different, but I catch smallmouth in rocky rivers and streams, and I catch largemouth in weedy lakes and slow-moving river backwaters.

actually, that's exactly why I prefer the Tiny torpedo over the larger size: the blades seem to spin more reliably, and the bass don't seem to care that it's a bit shorter.

I feel like Michigan belongs in north central rather than northeast, but no matter. My summer has been quite a bit slower than the last few years. Some of that is because I've spent a lot of time learning some new waters and trying out some baits and techniques (new to me, that is). But still, on my "home turf", both sizes and numbers have been down. My biggest bass of the year was my first of the year, back in May, a little over 4; Since then, I can count the number of bass I have caught over 3lbs on one hand. I had quite a few over 3 last year and several over 4 (I may have even broken a pb, but I had an scale that wasn't accurate enough to be confident). I'm an academic so over the next month I'm about to get too busy for anything. My season's basically over.

Ha! I've been slowly doing the same thing this summer based on this thread, and i've accumulated the same ones, minus the wisconsin book! The in-fisherman LMB and SMB books went for a penny each on amazon, plus shipping.

I didn't fish the section near carnegie, but I canoed it a few times in the summer. For three years, I rented a house south of 95, closer to Trenton that was just a block from the canal. From the house, I used to hike northeast along the path and bank-fish here and there as I went. I only did this a few times though -- too many other demands on my time when I lived there to do much fishing.

Take a deep breath. The world is full of moving parts and sometimes things get stuck, briefly. It happens.

Clearly, this calls for a "Fish-Off" between your dad and your wife...

So I picked this up used on Amazon for a couple bucks: and here's what I find in the front cover when it arrives:

That does sound more like a big cat or Esox (Pike/musky genus), especially the hunkering down instead of acrobatics. I've had pike do a roll-over move and flash a big white belly at me as they snap the line. It's like the pike version of a middle finger.

Funny you should mention that -- I have got two more 3/8s coming from tackle warehouse, in white and black, just for fall. Most buzzbaits just come with a skirt but you can take it off. I've only gotten into buzzbaits this summer. Been going with chartreuse or chart/white in murky/stained water, and black in clear water. Although I'm guessing you could probably use all white skirt or all black skirt anywhere, any time, and do OK.

Excellent.

Sale-watching 101: Know your holidays!

Keepers have remained elusive over the last month. So has spare time for fishing. Here's what bit, so here's what I caught, minus the really little guys: 2lb 5oz on a mojo-rigged baby brush hog: 2lb 0oz on a 3.8 keitech fat swing impact + hornet underspin 2lb 0oz, on a biospawn 6.5 plasmatail, weightless t-rigged. Biggest thing I caught was a decent pike a few days ago, about 5-6lb (sadly, no pic: only two hands + teeth + unsecured rod + spinnerbait still hanging in about 20lb of salad + kayak starting to drift = too awkward to dig out my phone).