Drew03cmc

I believe it is, in some way, to maintain the water quality. If there's nastiness, bluegill will eat that, but then you need a predator to control them.

Walking baits are my favorite way to catch creek smallies. I like those 3.2 to 3.75" long, around 1/3-3/8oz. Any of them in a halfway natural hue will work. Also, the Whopper Plopper 90 works well for creek bass. When they slow down and won't smash the topwaters, I tie on a 3/16oz Tackle HD Stealth jighead and a 3" Tackle HD HiDef Craw. Again, this is for creeks. In rivers, which are considerably larger, my bait choices also tend to be larger.

Couple hours normally, depending on the day.

I have some Megabass Dog X Jr sitting around, also the Griffon Zero. They're pretty danged tiny.

Honestly, I have a 6'3" M XF St. Croix, a 6'6" ML F Lew's and a 6'6" M Deep South. Of these 3 spinning setups, the two I use most are the 6'3" and the ML. The ML is setup with a Sahara 1000 and 10/2 S8S. It tosses Ned rigs, flick shakes, weightless Trick Worms and 4" Easy Shiners very, very well. The 6'3" M is my favorite smallmouth rod I've ever used for wading. I use it with 15/4 S8S and it throws everything I use on a smallie creek from an 1/8oz standup head and craw to a 1/2oz walking bait. Again, it's really your call. I like my Eyecon enough that I'm considering grabbing the MLXF model too.

6'6" MH Ethos HD, 6.5:1 reel and 12# Yozuri Hybrid. This setup works for me and if anything, I'd upgrade the rod, but so far, it's almost perfect.

I've been doing ok in the city and community lakes in south KC lately in the high, muddy waters. I've been using a code blue wobbler almost exclusively. I switched trailers from a Pit Boss to a Menace. The difference in thump is noticeable and I'm really liking them.

I see some very nice goals.

The small lake I fish most, it comes up and goes down very, very quickly. It'll come up 8 feet overnight and be low and clear in 5 days.

So it seems I did some stuff right, but didn't toss big jigs and big plastics.

We have been experiencing a cycle of high, muddy water, falling lakes and then more flooding. What do you normally toss? I got one hit today in an hour on a bladed jig, but tried a single Colorado spinnerbait, Plopper 130, Sammy 115 and lipless crank. I was throwing anything I could to move a lot of water and make a lot of noise. Also, it was very windy and I fished the windblown bank and a relatively calm backwater.

Which Ray's spool is that?

Thank you! The 150 is great, so far, for medium light applications, nothing truly out there. With the deeper spool, I toss 10lb CX Premium and run baits like the Pop X, G Splash 65, Dog X QW or SS, 1/8oz Crazy Flappers, etc. This reel is pretty dang cool.

I'm eyeing some of the more obscure topwater baits they still have.

Fail? No. I've had them open up a little bit. For split rings, I've begun using the Spro Power Split Rings in size 2 and 3. Trebles on topwaters are bait dependent. On the smaller Megabass baits, give me the Outbarbs, including the belly hook on Pop X. Everything else I'll take #4, 6 or 8 ST-36.

I normally run 200 or 300 size Lew's reels, but on my ML rod, it's an older Sahara 1000, currently with 15/4 PP, but soon to get 10/2 PP S8S.

Hey, on my Smart 150, the mag dial isn't labeled Min or Max so I'm curious, is forward Min or Max?

I'll be honest. In winter, I normally work 6 days a week most weeks. We are scheduled 4 10s, so 6 10s offers lots of mess around dough, but then again, Ichiban Tackle loves me in winter.

Well, if you need company, let me know.

La Cygne?

Jim, you're correct. I've been fishing a small creek in mid-Missouri that has 1 hole that have produced big largemouth, 2 to 3lbs. Consequently, I also caught my best smallie (actually landed, lost an 18+ downstream) from this creek in one of those holes. They're deeper than everywhere else within a mile downstream with just a little current, boulders and shelf rock on one side, gravel bar on the shallow side. The head of this hole has shallow weedbeds on the opposite bank, about 2 feet deep. This part has also produced. I prefer topwaters in this hole, followed by the Tackle HD HiDef Craw.

It was primarily on older models, but they refused to really address it and therefore, I won't wade with one. I'll use most every other brand without issue.

They're great, until they bind up from being dunked in a river. I won't wade fish with one.

I'd love winter if it stayed above 40...

What are your goals for the winter and how do you plan to set about attaining them? I have three. 1. Learn to walk a bait with a casting rod consistently. 2. Acquire more of the baits I like and prefer to use...ie:Zip'n Ziggy, Fakie Dog, etc. 3. Read 6 new books about river and creek fishing for bass of all species, but primarily smallies.