Turkey sandwich

On spinning/casting gear my line to line connections are all uni to uni with braid as the main line. I typically re-tie once a weekend before heading out if I'm fishing all weekend. My braid has never given out. If I have problems, it's my line to lure connection first, and my leader snapping at the connection knot second. It is very rare that that leader connection fails on me even with microguides beating up the knot. @Darren. is spot on. Also, lines will support more static weight than their rating. You could pick up a 7lb weight with 4lb test. Pound test rating is more of shock test than a dead weight rating.

Welcome to the forum. Don't be afraid to use the search feature for general questions like this one. Almost any fast or extra fast medium or medium light spinning rod in the 6'6-7' range will work for finesse plastics. Everyone here is going to have preferences for brand (Loomis, St. Croix, Powell, Diawa, etc), but budget plays a big role, too. An NRX or Legend Extreme is great, but not if you're on a $150 budget.

Welcome to the forum!

are you hiking/canoe camping? Staying in a cabin? If you need to pack light, a M-F, MLF, and a 4 wt fly rod can go a very long way if you're looking to catch dinner.

Well f'n played.

Really? Did not know walleye/perch don't nest at all.

Great fish! Glad you made it back safely!

What did you pick up the musky on?

1)odds are good your first decent pike or musky will scare you pretty good, lol. They also like big topwaters and are a fun bonus explosion on a spook. 2) Don't get me wrong, sunfish and crappie are good, but perch, walleye and whitefish are absolutely delicious. As for the bass, though, a lot of the basics still apply, though there are some definite difference between fishing for largemouth and fishing for smallmouth primarily. Smallmouth are an absolute blast, and a lot of the same/similar techniques apply. If you can T-rig/jig, drop shot, tube, and fish a crankbait, your basics are well covered. Things like dock and visible point patterns can fish similarly, but finding smallmouth is a bit trickier sometimes, so getting your hands on maps comes in very handy.

If you need something smaller and more finesse, the Bitsy Craw trailers are great little crayfish baits. Not the bigger profile or action you'll get from the Rage baits or Pit Boss, but they are great for imitating small crayfish bass gorge on pre-spawn.

So, my intention isn't intended to sound dismissive, but hang with me... I work in sales, and by most accounts do ok. I've also worked in sales management. My company is one of the best to sell for in the country, and I'm regularly around quite a few folks that have done extremely, extremely well for themselves. I've also seen a lot of folks come in with a lot of energy and get thrown to the wayside because initial enthusiasm and energy does not necessarily yield long term success. Success is hard, and really what it comes down to in any lucrative position is putting in the work. Everyone wants to make a ton of money, but most folks have no real desire to put in the work to do it. Do you have a degree? What is it in? What's your work experience?

I'm hoping I can get down to the Chesapeake to fish a striped bass tournament with my brother next month. Nice catch!

Great trip! We spooked two muskies on the north branch last month. Man, are they fun. Great trip!

What is this Gliss you speak of?

You can make it super complicated, or very simple. I like simple. With 4 basic color patterns, you can cover almost any imitation or water color/lighting: black/blue, green, brown, and white. They should be your base. Now, you can add orange, chartreuse, purple, etc into the mix, but really those 4 colors are your base. You can accent them with different colors or actioned trailers, but you can cover virtually all conditions with those 4 basic colors.

Sorry for your loss - I know that pain. I remember my mom having to put down our Akita, Kamiko, and it still sucks to think about. Hang in there.

Welcome to the site! Do you have maps of the lake? Is the water temperatures as high as 69 degrees?

Choosing casting or spinning comes entirely down to preference and the weight of the jig heads you're throwing. Outside of that, a medium powered rod with a fast or extra fast tip tends to be ideal. If you're throwing heavier weight, working heavier cover, etc, a MH in some brands might be better. If you're fishing 1/16-1/8 oz heads around sparse cover, you can do pretty well with something as light as a ML XF dropshot rod. As for length, I like 6'10-7'1. I tend to fish lighter tubes (primarily in rivers) and the small things that I like are an exposed blank handle and high visibility braided line (when fishing slow line watching will help pick up the fish even the most sensitive rod won't allow you to feel).

Also, learn to read bottom composition from your sonar. Finding ideal structure involves finding other key features like preferential bottom composition, changes in bottom composition, weeds, changes in weeds, rocks, etc.. In clear water, sometimes your eyes can locate changes in weeds and pockets, other times you'll have to follow your sonar to mark these spots. Learning to fish bottom contact baits like Carlina rigs, Texas rigs, and jigs can also really help you to feel what's under the water, and they're some of my first choices when fish are relating to the bottom be it 4' or 20' of water. Also, welcome to the forum! There's a ton of good information on here and the fellas who posted above me could write a book on structure fishing.

So, in rivers, fish are constantly swimming and battling current. Deep water and other areas protected from fast current offer them a break, especially when their metabolism/activity level slows down during times like winter. The closer that ability to rest is to areas like spawning grounds, fast current areas rich with food, cover vegetation, etc the more attractive it is to river Smallmouth. There are some good basic books on river fishing for Smallmouth that kind of outline how to read a river and apply basic seasonal patterns you can search this forum for. I also strongly suggest you check out Jeff Little's videos on YouTube, his video blog at tightlinejunjiejournal.pivotshare.com and his seasonal pattern DVDs. He's pretty much the man with conventional tackle. Also, Bob Closer is a fly fishing legend, but he's also a river Smallmouth encyclopedia and his book on river Smallmouth fishing is excellent. As for a jig rod, unless you're fishing deep or in super fast current, you likely won't need jigs over 3/8 oz, and most will be 1/16-1/4oz. You can fish these well with any fast or x-fast rod, even medium power spinning gear.

That's one hell of a day on the water! Cheers!

It's not just the nest. Nest sight fishing is kind of an art unto itself. Find the closest dropoff and fish it for active pre spawn fish. You'll likely find the much larger females versus the smaller males that you're seeing making nests.

Learning to fish a jig in the river will make a huge difference in the numbers and quality of fish you're boating. As for that jig, probably. What's most important is 1) weight (right now, you want something likely under 1/4oz depending upon depth and current), 2) shape of the head (there are a million posts on here for jig head shape, and where they apply, 3) color, 4) rattles/no rattles, 5) hook (without a MH fast, or at least Med XF Rod, you're going to want to stick to lighter wire hooks). Bends, pools, island, shoreline, etc it kind of doesn't make a difference. What matters is the deep water with current breaks located near shallow (likely) mud/gravel bottoms in 2-5" of water protected from the current.

I kinda assumed. This forum lacks a "sarcastic button".

They're both great rods. Handle them if you can. They both have excellent guides that will last a very, very long time regardless of your line choices. To me, unless a rod is genuinely terrible (which pretty much doesn't happen with St Croix, Dobyns, Daiwa, Loomis, etc), it's hard to go wrong at the $200 and up price point.