Turkey sandwich

I'm currently working on building patience with slow techniques like drop shooting or fishing wacky Senkos. I'm so used to finding active fish with Crankbaits or spinnerbaits and then picking areas apart with jigs/T-rigs, that I don't think about finessing the less active fish. I need the confidence that when I see a piece of water, the voice in my head says "ok, you should drop shot/senko here".

Taking good care of fish is definitely important. There's actually a big difference between the lower Susquehanna and the north branch. The north branch hasn't had the YOY mortality issues that have shown up down stream and it's still a great fishery for numbers that still produces quality sized fish (though not the consistent 5-6lb footballs you guys see on the regular). Also, the north branch still rocks for getting kids interested/introduced to fishing. You can pick clippers and stone cats and have new anglers catching 20+ fish in an afternoon during the summer/early fall. You'd be hard pressed to find a better way to get someone hooked on fishing than that.

This thread got interesting, lol. And Hybrid is very inexpensive compared to anything other than mono. As for performance, it's # test rating is considerably lighter than it's diameter and true tensile strength. ( or basically it's 8lb test line is thicker than standard 8lb test with the strength of 12lb test) Also, it's ridiculously durable. It has great knot strength and is ridiculously abrasion resistant. It tends to be a bit stiff (line conditioner may remedy this some), but it makes for a great leader around the nasty stuff (rocks, shells, trees, etc).

Welcome!

Welcome! Where in South Jersey are you?

Welcome!

Grubs with 1/32 to 1/4 oz jigs just catch smallies. Once you find them, there's no simpler way to catch them.

Nice!

Where in NEPA are you? I grew up in Swoyersville and still make it in to fish the Susquehanna whenever I can. Thats's a ton of information, and the search option on the forum is your best bet. But since you're from NEPA, I'll give you my .02 and hopefully some of it is a starting point. Also, I just got back into fishing again over the past few years, and things have really changed for the better. So about braid.... I fished almost almost all light mono up until the last few years. Since, I've learned that 30 and 40lb braid, and a variety of different flouro lines have their specific places - from ripping fish out of cover to super finesse fishing. Now I use braid for my main lines and use flouro or mono leaders. Braid is just ridiculously sensitive, it lasts much, much longer, and it has virtually no memory compared to flouro/mono. That said, with techniques like topwater, Crankbaits, and most other presentations involving treble hooks, a slower action Rod is a good call to compensate for the lack of stretch. Braid makes setting the hook a lot more powerful, so mind your hook sets on moving baits with treble hooks or light wire hooked lures - you can rip the lure away from the fish, straighten hooks, or even break key rings. As for reels, Shimano is still probably the best make, but they aren't the cheapest make. Lews - and if you like Abu's Revo line, are also solid reels for a bit less. For $150 and up, you can get some really great baitcasting reels. The current trend with casting is higher gear ratios. For spinning gear, $70-$100 is a safe starting point (especially if you're planning on getting multiple combos without taking out a home equity loan). St. Croix, Loomis, etc still make great rods. I like St Croix. There are a ton of other brands that all offer great rods from $150 on up, and it's all preference, really. On here, you'll hear about St. Croix, Loomis, ***, Powell, Shimano, Abu, Duckett, Daiwa, and the list goes on... (I've been pleasantly surprised by the Abu Garcia Veritas rods for $100 rods, and now St Croix will be upgrading the blanks in their Mojo Bass rods, for probably$150ish and will be great options if you're looking to pick up multiple rods and rig them without spending $10k) Really, Rod quality has improved a ton and it's almost hard to spend $150 or more on a rod and not get a great Rod with a warranty. One change to pay attention to is micro guides versus regular guides. Microguides claim to add distance to casts, and take strain off the blank (you may have 11 or 12 tiny guides on the blank). That said, the smaller guides also probably beat up leader to main line knots a bit more. Again, it's all preference. Do you like cork or foam grips, or would you want to try something totally different like St. Croix's neoprene sleeve grip? Do you like traditional handles or exposed blank? Do you like palming your Baitcaster? These are probably some of the biggest determinates as to which rods you'll gravitate towards. As for the Legends, I'm probably buying two the next time I have an extra $600 to drop on rods. 832 is a great braid (I have it on 3 of my reels). PP super slick in 20lb has had me clearing backlashes more than fishing on a Lews Speed Spool BB, but it's been great for me on spinning gear. Some folks here love it. I like it for high vis finesse fishing and watching my line on rivers. There are a million soft plastics companies now that cater to everything specifically from giant swim baits, to 10 in worms, to drop shot baits. Berkley now has at least 4 lines of soft plastics (if you want to include whatever Gulp is made of in the conversation). There is a (or maybe 100...) soft plastic for virtually everything, in 300 colors that are mostly just 10 different variations of the traditionals. And you wouldn't believe how complicated something simple like jig heads have gotten. KVD Crankbaits are solid, as are fat free shads, XDs, Rapala DT and shad rap series, and a million different companies that specialize in everything from square bill to $25 crankbaits that are blessed with the tears of the Virgin Mary while being hand carved by Buddhist monks. My suggestion, buy from one or two of the established crankbait companies(Strike King, Rapala, etc) and then build a collection from there. Buying Crankbaits gets ridiculously addictive. Different guys prefer different knots. I like Uni to Uni to connect leaders. Some prefer the Albright knot. Picking one and getting good at tieing it is probably the most important part. Sometimes a dot of superglue will keep line-to-line knots from slipping/getting beat up by your guides. As for tieing flouro to lures, most of the time I'll use an improved cinch. Some folks don't like the Palomar with flouro, though I've never had problems with it, I just don't always like making a giant loop with leader line to get a large lure with a bunch of trebles to fit through. St. Croix has a bargain bin section on their website, but tackle warehouse also has a sales section where they have some pretty ridiculous discounts that change pretty frequently. You can find rods and reels discounted over 30% at times. Still, a million rods and the tackle for them doesn't mean a whole lot if you don't have a boat. Now instead of dropping a ton of money on bass boats, you can put together a well rigged kayak for around $2k including sonar. Kayaks are awesome for spending time with your daughter and they allow you to fish almost anywhere, including shallow stretches of the Susquehanna that would eat bass boats. Up your way, you'll see them all over the river, Slocum, Lily Lake, etc. When I got back into fishing a few years ago, reading this forum helped me catch up on things a lot, even before I registered. Hopefully, this pays it forward a bit and you can take something useful from it. Welcome to he forum!

Tuning is usually pretty easy if it's pulling to the side or rolling (not uncommon with some off the shelf models, or after you run the bait into something hard). With a pair of needle nosed pliers, slightly adjust the line tie opposite the side it's pulling to. Make small changes until it runs straight. It's better to make several small adjustments rather than overcompensating and trying to fix it. All the advice on here is good.

I never thought much about the craw behavior once it's hooked. Over the years, I've had a lot of success with craw imitations (Crankbaits, soft plastic craws, tubes, etc) in locations where just casts prior with a live crawfish I'd gotten nothing. I guess, this also says something about the ridiculous resiliency of a hooked clipper or stone cat.

Definitely an interesting thought, but it's strange to think that even if that were the case, they'd be more willing to deal with the spines on a stone cat than the slow digestion of the crayfish.

thanks for posting. I may have to grab one or two...

where are you seeing it on sale?

I had a conversation with another angler on the river yesterday and simply couldn't make sense of this shared observation: Susquehanna River smallmouth almost always have cray fish in their stomachs, whether you cut them open or simply feel around. This isn't a surprise because the river is packed with them. However, using them as live bait in the river is extremely slow fishing, and they're outperformed by stone cats and helgramites (clippers) beyond comparison. Has anyone else noticed this? Thoughts? Explanation?

When will the SCIII Mojo Bass become available? Is St Croix going to discontinue the Rage line, or will they promote two different options at the same price point?

A few things to consider... Are you fishing a river or lake? A lake may require you get down 20+ feet. In a river, you can find active smallmouth feeding within 1-5 feet of water so long as there are current breaks and eddies for them to use to rest/as ambush points (sometimes these are things like subsurface rocks/trees/vegetation you'll never see from the surface. You can fish a lot of lures with little/no weight and cover essentially everything from top to bottom. What's the water clarity like? Clear water, means lifelike colors and splash. Thump or rattles may be handy to entice more active fish, but focusing on flash and "matching the hatch" color-wise and with presentation is helpful. My favorites - Willow bladed spinnerbaits, Poppers/walking baits, Crankbaits and jerk baits matching natural forage. (Seriously, smash a crankbait off of rocks or use the bill to rip up sand/silt/mud from the bottom and you'll get reaction strikes as soon as you find active fish) Stains water means often you'll be best off attracting active fish with thump and rattles (sound will attract active fish from longer range as the water gets more stained). Here I like Colorado blades, rattling Crankbaits, rattling lipless crankbaits, and sometimes swimming a tube with glass rattles inside. I like bright colors like chartreuse, fire tiger, etc or black/dark purples to provide a visible silhouette once the water gets more and more stained. What depths are you targeting? While poppers and walking baits can often bring fish up from deep, smallmouth will often feed down. Think about forage like baitfish, but more so crawfish, helgramites, and stone cats (all primary forage for smallmouths). They all live/cling/hide in and around the bottom. I like to approach depth starting high in the water column and then work down until I can find a pattern. You can do this with topwaters, jerk baits, Crankbaits, spinnerbaits, grubs, and then tube jig and craw immitations on/around the bottom. Sorry if the post is long, but this is basically how I approach locating active fish/covering water for smallmouths. Versus largemouths: spend more time on rock versus weeds, and key more towards feeding down than up. I hope this helps!

The grubs and topwater poppers are probably the easiest to fish, and most productive options for fishing smallmouth in a river. I grew up on the Susquehanna, and more 25+ fish days than I could count just throwing those two baits. A tube jig is also probably a close 3rd or 4th. As for soft plastic colors - there are a million, but keep it simple. When the water is clear, throw light/natural colors (pumpkinseed, watermelon, white/pearl, anything that matches the color of natural forage). If the water is more stained, throw darker colors (black, blues, purples, junebug, etc) or really bright colors (chartreuse, bubblegum, methiolate, etc). As for jig heads, when throwing grubs, always go the lightest you can get away with. 1/16th-1/8th ounce will cover most scenarios. I've gone to 1/32 oz on the light side when fish were really finicky, to 1/4 oz when I need to either get the bait down or fish it more quickly. As for poppers, the.old school Pop-R is still a great lure. I also really like Rapala's Skitter Pop. Think about matching forage. Colors that mimic shad/herring/alewives, bluegill, and perch will always catch bass. Good luck, and have fun!

I own a 7'1 Rage worm and jig rod and really like it. The grip is different, but feels a lot better than most foam handles (personal taste). I actually like the real seat/grip more than the Avid X. It's assembled in Mexico and I'm 90% certain the blanks are made here in the states. If I had an extra $120 at the moment, I'd grab two more in a heartbeat. That's an incredible deal.

As for the talk about length.... What are you going to be using it for? Will you be casting from a boat/wading/shore? If you're on shore/wading, will you be fishing tight, brushy areas? Lots of trees overhanging? Small streams? General rule - if you have the room/will be in a boat, the longer rods have all the benefits mentioned above. If you're in tight quarters, a 6'6" or 7' rod can leave you feeling like you're trying to cast in a phone booth. Shorter rods make a lot of sense when you're fishing cramped quarters and need to place accurate casts.

Welcome! Not sure what the recommendation was, but typically, I'll match diameters and not lb test ratings. Though, I'm really confused by your question.

Thanks!The quantity wasn't there, but I can't complain about quality. After finding the active bass, I should have picked the areas apart better.

If it has a split ring, you don't need a loop. I prefer Palomar, but if the lure is too big to wrap with the overhand loop, I'll use an improved clinch.

Fat free Fry in chartreuse/sexy shad have been solid. It's been money, both, crashing it into cover/shallow bottoms and getting hits on the deflection and swimming it through/over suspended bass in deep water. That color has been awesome in alewife lakes.

Find a weedy lake, and take nothing but soft plastics with you. It sounds ridiculous, but it's a great way to force you to use them and refine your technique. I had the opposite problem. For me, C-rigs, T-rigs, and jigs were always my confidence baits. Last year I began forcing myself to throw crankbaits. My last two days on the water, all of my fish came via crankbaits or suspending Jerkbaits.