BigSkyBasser

My experiences with co-polymer have been inconsistent. I have tried and tested both Gamma and P-Line brand copolymer and Gamma impressed me more but I really didn't like either that much. Personally I prefer to just invest in flouro on both casters and spinning outfits. Or braid and mono depending on the outfit.

Today marks a great moment in history! I finally convinced my girlfriend of two years and avid angler to let me teach her on casting reels. The very first thing she did his hold the rod out in front of her and click the bail.....without her thumb on the spool. She also picked out her very first backlash. Overall was a fun day before work and the gratification I felt from getting through her head the joys and benefits of having versatile equipment was great. Anyone else had to battle with their significant other over learning casting equipment? The picture below is less related and just a picture of her with a nice rainbow.

Yeah I've seen them do this before, not sure if it's them identifying the bait as a threat or what. Seem it a lot right before they reject your bait. Sounds like a gorgeous day though!

Palomar has always been one I can tie. The clinch is one I feel shakey with on heavier lines. Also still working on the uni.

This fishing season has been the highlight of my use with baitcasting reels so far and has consequently introduced me to much heavier lines. The pros of this are obvious, less common drawbacks and struggles are what I'm trying to smooth out with some important tournaments coming up soon. The biggest issue right now is with tying sturdy knots on heavy flouro and mono (upwards of 12 lbs.) Braid doesn't seem to have these same issues. Wondering if you folks use different knots to accommodate different line sizes and types?

I do like the XPS and SK as well. They seem to be more durable than a lot of other SB cranks I've thrown. I love the performance of live target hard baits, but they break easier than anything I've ever seen.

Squarebills are designed to deflect off of cover. Spend a day fishing between a Storm Arashi and a rapala shallow runner. Youll notice the difference. And you'll also catch a couple fish

Side arms will come. I actually learned them first. The overhand cast is by far the hardest. Really trying to whip it out there at first is usually an automatic backlash, and a good 10+ minutes picking it out Haha. Ive noticed that I can actually pitch and flip more accurately on a bait caster and seem to also get better hook sets when fishing Texas rigs and frogs.

That's what I was hoping being that I have several lightning rods and they've out preformed other much more expensive equipment. Sorry for the repost through, was just too excited when I discovered this. Will most likely be getting the spinning rod first. I like the way they've started splitting the cork grip, does so much to the sensitivity.

16 years ago when I was introduced to baitcasters, no one had ever explained the difference to me and I saw now clear advantages. Once I really started researching bass fishing heavily it became apparent that different techniques are often aided by accommodating gear. Finally nutted up and bought my first, a Shimano Curado.First mistake was having it spooled with braid, which iI've repetitively heard is the hardest line to cast with at first. Then made the switch to mono. Finally got the hang of pitching a heavy jig into a bucket in the backyard. Third mistake was not buying my girlfriend one because she did not make the conversion with me, so now when we're fishing and I'm backlashing the crap out of my Revo s. She is laughing her butt off and flipping her pflueger president I bought her for her birthday. Still working on it.

Berkeley has been advertising pretty heavily lately, and there latest marketing push (if you had not already seen) was for the new E-Motion rod series. These things honestly look like something I would buy. Currently they're only available on Berkley's website but are sure to hit Cabelas, BPS, Gander Mountain, etc. At any time. Had anyone had a chance to demo or fish one yet?

Depends on the time of year. Pre Spawn is usually a universal favorite for smallie fisherman. Water temps are fluctuating and most of the larger fish if found shallower will be aggressively feeding and can be caught on most presentations. We live and die with a drop shot rod in the hand. However the just last week caught all of our nicer fish on wacky rigged stick baits and swimbaits.

I have a friend who uses a metal tracker with livewells he built himself. For local tournaments he loves it. But fishing with the bigs he goes as a Co angler. Unless you're Casey Ashley and can win a tournament on brush piles catching your limit everyday.

Go get em! And post pics

Are you on one of the northern chains or the great lakes? I've heard you can stick footballs up there that push 8-9 pounds.

If you're in area that supports both species, it really is weird to catch more largemouth than smallies. Smallmouth are much more aggressive and therefor usually take less finessing to get a bite going. The biggest difference is you can find largemouth in the same spot day after day. If you try to target smallmouth this way you will be regularly disappointed. Smallmouth will also become active before largemouth due to their increased tolerance of colder water, this also will lead to them spawning sooner. I'm willing to bet that in that same area you will begin to catch less of them as they move toward deeper, colder water, and isolated cover and structures later in the year.

Bet that was an amazing fight! Sometimes those bigger smallies have gripper pads that can cut the crap out of your thumb when you lip em'.

Just started throwing skinnybear baits like their shad swimbait. If you throw it drop shot rigged weedless on an off set vmc, it requires a hard hook set but the bites seem better.

Gorgeous fish! One reason why I love catching those big smallies, the color is unreal.

Yeah it was a weekend I usually only find in my sleep. Found this huge bend at the bottom of a d**n spillway that had deep slanting rocks. The smallies were ambushing anything floating into the eddies from the main current. My girlfriend had never hooked into a bronze back that was larger than a pound up until that trip.

Rivers are tough, if you can't visibly see any then potentially experiment with fishing different parts of the river, but most likely they are there somewhere and are just harder to catch. One thing that has always worked for me is switching between two techniques. I'm a finesse fisherman so 9/10 you find me fishing a drop shot. I use this to cover water quickly and find fish. Once you've found a school or piece of structure, switch to a jig. Most pros will swear up and down that a jig will usually catch larger fish on average. Just like above, keep at it and eventually you'll find a pattern that seems to draw bigger bites.

From my experience, smallmouth are even less likely to be isolated than largemouth are. Also a little easier to get the school wound up. The problem lies in the consistency of locating these fish. You can stumble on a school of 20 one day and even if the conditions are verbatim next day, they will have moved. Maybe just to the next point or rock pile, or across the bay.

Went up to the lake for the second time this year. This time around we were lucky enough to slam em'! Started off pitching double tailed grubs hooked weedless, got a reaction bite by swimming them. Eventually my girlfriend cracked the pattern of the weekend though. Started throwing senkos and roboworms wacky rigged and the smallies ate it up.

As we approach the month of May, I also find myself approaching my first Montana Federation tournament of the year which is held annually on Noxon Reservoir, MT. This body of water is a gorgeous flooded tail of the mighty Clark Fork river, which on a good day contains some of the best Smallie fishing in Western Montana. This lake can be a tourny angler's dream......or his worst nightmare, especially during early season conditions with record low water levels to boot. Right around now is when I usually start doing my homework to prepare myself for this event which is already a difficult task being that it's a reservoir. The water levels already fluctuate daily, keeping most anglers from easily predicting patterns and finding bass, but things are looking much more challenging this year. The water temperature is not warming up as quickly as last year, but the clarity is improving daily. Provided we have phenomenal weather up until late May and the temperature does rise normally, we're still looking at some of the most challenging pre spawn cold water fishing I've ever seen. The largemouths with be lethargic at best, but I'm looking for tips on what to look for the would help me key in on what the smallies will be doing and where they are, as well as how I should approach. Obviously looking for generic speculation without taking into consideration all of the other potential circumstances like moon phases and weather fronts. It's a deep lake with a large main channel that feed several smaller shallow bays. Structure usually consists of pine stumps and laydowns, sandbars, hydrilla mats, and rocky points and isolated rock piles. I have no idea where to start with this and would love some advice from fellow northern anglers. Any input/feedback would be awesome. Thanks