MIbassyaker

Now that I see the picture series, it seems pretty clear that whatever detailed information the pros gave about the lures they were using, those statements were not given with the intent of captioning these particular pictures.

Right after the fantasy page was updated for the classic, I filled out a team based on an immediate first-impression of the buckets, before the ownership percentage had even updated: A. Ott B. Christie C. MDJ D. Roy E. Edwin Weeks later, I have hemmed and hawed, dug into some numbers, wrung my hands repeatedly over the stratospheric ownership percentage of most of these guys, seriously considered 3 or 4 others for each bucket.... ...and have decided to stick to my original choices. No changes.

I could not possibly care less about this. Here's what I get from that picture of Walker: He was using jigs. He had a shad-looking one with a paddletail, and he had a bluegill/craw looking one with a chunk.

I was just looking at those heads....yeah, that'll do nicely.

The regular Avid wont help..... The Avid X, however, is a split grip: My pick for Ultimate Senko Slinger: the 6'8" M-XF

On a wide-gap slider head.

I have a 6'8" M-XF st. croix spinning in the avid x line....I have a hard time even imagining what a better rod for senkos would be like. The mojo should be pretty similar.

Count me in on the @Paul Roberts fan club. His channel fills a niche at YouTube that is otherwise basically empty.

Ah, good recon.

I'm confused. The reels are not loose, it is just that the nut doesn't tighten down as far as it should on the spinning reels than the casting reels, correct? Of course, a spinning reel is not a casting reel and not meant to be put on a casting rod and vice versa. Or do the spinning reels fit differently from each other?

Booyah actually makes a nice colorado-bladed spinnerbait, both single and double, light colors available.

Nope -- completely open . But I cut a little piece of cardboard and set it down the middle to divide left from right, which keeps them sorted.

I haven't had problems with ziploc, but an alternative option is to get laminated lure bags from Do It Molds, which are made specifically to hold soft plastics: https://store.do-itmolds.com/Bait-Lure-Bags_c_256.html I use (and re-use) these in 6x4 and 7x4 sizes all the time to combine multiple partial bags, or to standardize the sizes of packs I have to rummage through. 6x4s will fit in two lines in a Plano 3731, and 7x4s will fit a large size KVD speed bag in two lines.

Also in the spinning camp, here -- the ease of getting a vertical fall is unmatched, especially at a distance, which I want in clear water. I use a M-XF 6'8" Avid X, which is just perfect for weightless plastics.

Kept in their bags, sorted by type, and filed in Plano 3731 boxes:

Sometimes there's a sale for the Classic, with discounts on specific items. That should happen in a week. In April, if they do the usual tax stimulus sale, it should be 10% off sitewide. Then Memorial day is usually 15% off, with additional discount for veterans and service members, I believe.

There are crayfish in virtually every permanent body of water; I'd be very surprised if there aren't any in your lake! But try 3-4 inch tubes, grubs, stickworms, and paddle-tail swimbaits.

Indeed, the pencil very similar in size and profile the Super Spook Jr, a but a bit heavier, and with better hooks. Well-balanced, easy to walk, and the prism finishes are gorgeous -- I like the Prism Ayu, which is a great clear-water color. I don't remember catching any pike on it, but I'm sure it will hold up. Check out the 3DB prop, as well.

I'd keep the MXF and put it on double duty with smaller topwaters and jerkbaits. Looking up the ML, it's only rated up to 3/8oz anyway, so the MXF would seem to be more suited for jigging with those weights, I would think. You want shorter rod generally for vertical stuff, no?

An important thing to add: The In-Fisherman classification pertains to stretches of rivers, rather than entire rivers, so a single long river will tend to progress through the "ages" as you go downstream. FYI, A synopsis of the river and lake classifications, as pertain to smallmouth, can be found in the IF Smallmouth Handbook, of which used copies can usually be found dirt-cheap on Amazon. It's an excellent bang-for-the buck buy: https://www.amazon.com/Smallmouth-Bass-Fisherman-Handbook-Strategies/dp/0960525432/

I honestly don't know how to tell if or when braid needs to be replaced. I think I'm going on 5 years on a couple of my combos.

Happy First Day of Meterological Spring!

Edit: Wrong thread....Here's what I want to say for this thread: I keep thinking I'm going to try Fluorocarbon again sometime, but I can't get over the price difference between it and a good mono like Big Game. The advantages of Fluro seem just don't seem to offset that difference, especially considering the added need to ensure my knots are always perfect.

I recently re-watched these episodes of Zona live in Michigan, one with KVD from 2017 and one with Davy Hite from last year, where he's fishing on my side of the state, mostly for spring largemouth. In both videos, Zona spends a lot of the time working a tube with an open hook through developing cabbage beds, letting the hook catch and ripping free. he works it fast, scooting the tube forward in short-distance bursts like a crawdad, with slack-line pops of the rod tip. This is something I don't ever think to do (at least I don't do it this way), but am going to try this spring:

It would be helpful to hear more specifically what people think Buck Perry got right and got wrong. My understanding is that he was basically right about --and was the first person to systematically describe-- locations where catchable bass could be found, as defined by structural features. This accounts for an apparently long history of anglers becoming much more successful upon studying Perry's principles. Where he seems to have been wrong, or at least not consistently borne out by evidence from modern tracking methods, is in the theory that bass make daily movements from a deep home to shallow feeding grounds, using structural features as "signposts". Instead, the tracking studies show bass tend to resist large depth changes most of the time, tend to move parallel to breaklines rather than regularly crossing them from deep to shallow and back, suspend more often than anglers realize, and that bass caught at very different depths are likely different populations of fish.