MIbassyaker

Yeah, I don't "need" anything either. Just decided I should replenish some senkos and replace an old spinning reel. And then I saw some Berkley plastics were on closeout. And I remembered there is now a Whopper Plopper 75. And I recalled wanting to try some Pepper spinnerbaits.... ...and it was all downhill from there.

That rang a bell, so I checked my bookshelf.....sure enough, those figs and accompanying article are republished in Tim Tucker's book, More! Secrets of America's Best Bass Pros, 1992 (ISBN 0937866261). Used copies can be had for just a few bucks from Amazon.

Awesome. Just added one to my labor day TW order. Big fan of the 110 and 90, so the 75 seems like a can't-miss.

Anybody ever catch one like this? https://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2018/08/extremely_rare_orange_bass_cau.html "Xanthism", according to the biologist quoted in this story.

Megastrike has a 20% off code for labor day: LaborDay2018

Seems to me if you have difficulty getting used to split grips, you should just fish full grips and not worry about it. Life is too short for that sort of hair-splitting.

I've used susquehanna, outdoor pro shop, manventureoutpost, FFO, outlet b&T. I also have a good local independent tackle shop in town that stays pretty well-stocked, and sells a few things by small regional tackle makers. I'll order from cablelas or BPS if they have a good sale on something I want, but I prefer other places.

I have one of each, and they're both great. But at $20, watch out for pike.

Three fishing today -- MDJ, Palaniuk, Alton Sr. ...with Jon Vandam and Chris Groh juuuuust missing the cut at 51st and 52nd.

Palaniuk MDJ Alton Sr. JVD Groh

For an all-purpose spinning rod, I would go M instead of MH. I don't know anything about Duckett, but I like the Fenwick, and a medium hmg is on the powerful side anyway. I think the Lews BB2 is the one for big baits, and the BB1 is for more typical sizes no? Lews makes too many different reels to keep track of.

There isn't really any way to prevent line from twisting on a spinning reel. The vast majority of line twist happens simply because of the design of the reel and is unavoidable: one twist is put into the line every time the bail goes around as you retrieve. You can see this if you reel a leader knot through the guides and watch it closely -- the knot will turn as the bail turns. Unless the bait itself is rotating in the same direction and same rate as the bail, the line will accumulate more twist the more retrieves you make on a spinning reel. But some things can make line twist less problematic. Just by paying close attention to the spool, you can catch loops in the line before they get reeled up, and closing the bail with your hand and making sure the line is taught before you begin retrieving and throughout the retrieve is important to prevent twist from causing loops. Reeling while drag is being pulled just adds to the twist, so try to avoid. Using braided line instead of mono or fluoro helps massively because braid is so limp it remains manageable even when twisted a lot. You can also untwist line by letting out a cast's length or more with a free end (not tied to any bait or weight) into the water and dragging it loosely behind the boat for a little while (I think Glenn has a video on this somewhere on the site).

Yep, that's how you do it!

Took a 6-hour float on a river stretch I haven't fished before. This particular river is small, but loaded with fish and absolutely teems with life all summer. Most of the bass are small, but solid keepers are fairly frequent, with an occasional beast. What I discovered on this stretch was a lot of skinny water in the 1-2 foot range (in some places, less, making it as much a wet hike as a float), interrupted by a deeper pool here and there. As it's late summer, I figured the fish would be concentrated in such pools if I could find them, and they were...although the productive spots seemed fewer and farther between than is other stretches I've fished on this river. I caught around 30 smallies, a couple of largemouth, and a few rock bass. All came on a tiny torpedo and 4" senkos and ochos. About 10 were in the 14-16 inch range; these two are representative: ...and then near the end, I broke off a beast that looked to be 4+ lb, and would almost certainly have been a pb smallmouth for me. It came up, got a look of my hand a foot away, and took one last hard dive... snap! Of course, the last time had I retied was 10 fish ago.

Pressure on the line should bend the rod and pull drag before it beings to stretch the line. Essentially, line stretch should only be a factor when there aren't any other sources of "give", such as when the rod requires more force to bend (higher power), or when the drag is tight.

My all-purpose medium baitcaster is a 6'6" St. Croix premier MF 2-piece. Very versatile - rated 1/4oz to 3/4 oz, handles both trebled and single-hooked baits well.

I don't understand how line stretch would be a factor in drop shotting, unless you're using heavy rod with the drag locked down. With the drag set properly on a classic drop shot set up, with an ML spinning rod, how would you even notice any line stretch? You may find you prefer the sensitivitiy or braid or flouro, but mono will do just fine with a drop shot.

Chunky Senko fish Tuesday morning. Thought this would go over 4lb for sure when it first came up......not quite, it turned out...3.75:

Other than fishing with particularly-active live bait, I can't think of any good reason for a double barbed hook.

I like the Zoom Ol' Monster, or the Berkley 10" Power Worm.

Understand: Bass are limited to the environment of the water in which they live. Ask yourself: what are the bass' choices? If you see a field or patch of pads, what other choices do the bass have? are the pads scattered and thin in shallow water, while there is a more developed deep weedline? In that case, I'll hit the weedline instead. If shallow pads are thick, that makes them more viable. As a rule of thumb, I prefer to locate pads over the deepest water I can find in the body of water I am at, and hit the thickest patches I can find. Sometimes that's 2 feet. Sometimes its 4 or more. In my area, pads are especially good if (1) the bottom is uneven, and/or (2) the pads are immediately adjacent to some other, deeper, form of weed, like a cabbage (pondweed) or coontail, or milfoil.

It took me awhile to realize this, but I think you're exactly right -- a smallmouth (in current, at least) doesn't care about that tail, it cares about the flash.

It's easy to just name topwater, which was my first thought.... but the more I think about the question, the more I realize my "favorite" type of fishing is not a type of bait, or presentation at all....my favorite type of fishing is catching.

Mepps fan here. I bring a few Aglias and Black Furys along whenever I'm river fishing for smallmouth, although I don't tie them on as much as I should.

I fish about 3-5 hours at a time, 30-50 days/year. Compared to most around here, that's not very much. I also don't fish many waters known for large fish, as those tend to more popular (both for anglers and recreational boaters)...but I prioritize solitude when I go out to fish. On top of that, there is a variety of different kinds of waters near me -- natural lakes, impoundments, small streams, larger rivers, swampy river bayous and backwaters, gravel pits....they vary widely in numbers of bass, predominant species (LM vs.SM), average size, fertility, forage species, competitor predator species...so where I choose to fish, and how often, has a large effect on how many I catch. Also, some years I have a lot of days to spare for fishing, others I don't. So in the end, overall numbers of fish don't tell me much: if I caught more this year than last, is it because I'm improving as an angler? Or becauseI fished more? Or did I just fish more productive waters? So I keep track of several metrics to gauge how I'm doing in each body of water I fish: --number of bass caught per hour of fishing in each body of water --average bass length in each body of water --number of keeper sized bass (14" and up) caught per hour in each body of water. --weight of my largest bass in in each body of water Generally, if I'm improving (rather than backsliding) on 2 or more of these metrics, on average across all the waters I fish compared to last year, I feel like I'm achieving something.