Junk Fisherman

Used to wade rivers and I have a kayak that I only use in small lakes. All of my smallie fishing is from a boat. 90% of my smallie fishing is on Lake Michigan either around Chicago or on the bays up north- Green Bay, Bays de Noc, and Grand Traverse Bay. There's a couple inland lakes in northern Michigan that I smallmouth fish and a local river leading out to Lake Michigan that I smallie fish late and early in the season.

For 1 day- yes. One of my favorite lakes is 3.5 hours away but I always fish it for 2 days when I go there.

I think larger hooks negatively impacts the action, gets hung more often, and do harm than good overall. I have no problem with a #2 hook. And I make my own jigs so I've tried different sizes. The 1/0 jigs I've already made are used for Damiki rigs and hair jigs.

I use a Ned a lot and I don't have major issues with hang-ups unless I am fishing wood. Use a 1/16th oz head with a #2 hook if it is calm. I'll go to a 1/10th if it's windy or if I am fishing deeper water. Ned K said to go with a #4 hook but that is a little too small for me. I'll use that exposed hook in weedy areas and I can shake off a lot of weeds during the cast. And all of my biggest fish this year came on Neds including a 6.2, a 5.7 in a T, and lots of 3s and 4s. Yeah, I catch a bunch of little fish too but I like the action.

I know most of the places I fish fairly well so my preparation comes down to having all my rigs and the boat ready. I try to do this during the week so when Friday night comes I don't have a lot of work to do and can just focus on tying up some loose ends. I also spend time during the week thinking about what areas and how I want to fish, what kind of changes I might make while on the water, and what new water and new presentations I want to spend some time with. I'll make sure to have enough Ned rigs and swimbaits rigged up (superglued to the head) and I'll a fresh dropshot leader tied so it will speed up the process of tying a whole new leader if needed. During the week and on my drive to the lake I will come up with a gameplan that will be adjusted based on the results of the day. If I am fishing new water, I will spend a lot of time on the Navionics Web app and Google Earth looking at the lake. Then, I will mark waypoints on my unit that I want to fish. I rarely just wing it. I am thinking about how and where I'll be fishing as soon as I decide to go.

I choose lures based on what type of cover and structure I am fishing taking into consideration seasonal and weather patterns. Cover is weeds, wood, rock, ect.. while structure is the contour of the bottom such as a point, dropoff, flat, ect. There are lures to throw on rocky dropoffs that would constantly hang up if thrown on the edge of lily pads or on a weedy dropoff. Sometimes there are overlaps but most times you are matching the lure to the cover. I have enough history to base my selection of similar lures, especially brand, by going with what I like the most. This comes with experience and results. I do tend to keep things simple and don't have a huge selection of slightly different types of lures. If the difference between me catching fish is green pumpkin blue or green pumpkin copper, then there will be days I don't catch any fish. I never pick lures at random.

Back when I got into wading and stream smallmouth fishing, this was considered the Holy Grail for reading rivers. I was able to get it from the library and copied the entire book. https://www.amazon.com/Stream-Smallmouth-Fishing-Tim-Holschlag/dp/0811723844 This book will teach you how to read rivers and to identify highly productive spots.

My first tournament locally on Lake Michigan saw me lose a fish I still think about. Had an absolute monster hit my Ned rig. It came up and couldn't jump since it was so big. It just kinda wallowed on the surface before he dove deep. My line was frayed and he broke it. I got a good look and know it was over 6 lbs. I had just been in Northern Michigan a couple weeks earlier catching a bunch of 4s and a few 5s. This fish dwarfed them. I still caught a limit of 4lbers and won the tournament but that would have been my PB locally. Another fish I thought of was a huge 10+ lb walleye that hit my dropshot and came unbuttoned. I was fishing pretty close to the smallie spot I mentioned above- about 200 yards away. It was Labor Day Sunday, hot, sunny, and boats were everywhere. I stopped at this point as I was going in to make a few last casts. I never felt the fish hit. I just felt weight and I thought maybe I had a plastic grocery bag that was filled with water. I never set the hook and as the fish came to the surface I was stunned. But that fish opened his mouth, the worm fell out, and he just sank back down in the water. I had just netted a 7.5 lb walleye in a tourney a week earlier and this guy was much, much bigger. It was easily 10 lb but I would not be surprised if it was 11 or 12 pounds. And walleye in Lake Michigan around Chicago are very rare especially in the summer. If I landed this fish it would have been a pretty big deal around my neck of the woods. I posted a picture of a 16"er I caught a few years ago and a lot of people were asking me about it.

From how you described it, I see nothing wrong with what you did. Maybe give him a little more space but if you were fishing his used water then he has no reason to be upset. I will say I was fishing a point yesterday and a guy came up to me and before moving behind me, cast too close IMO to what I was fishing. I don't feel like he left the water I was fishing alone enough. But I didn't say anything and said hello. I've learned it's just easier to not get too bothered in those situations.

Is your truck lifted? I don't even adjust mine upward. I just slide the cross beam down on the post and my kayak rests perfectly on the extender.

Only fluoro to braid on my spinning gear. I fish very clear water and my catch rate would significantly decrease without using a fluoro leader. The best leader line I have found is 6 lb Gamma Edge. I'll use a Big Game leader if I am using topwater and the reel has braid. 15 lb fluoro leader if I am pitching or using the reel for reaction baits. If the water has color, I'll go straight braid for reaction baits like a chatterbait or spinnerbaits.

I've been catching a lot of fish but not much size. Had a great day about 3 weeks ago on Lake Michigan and would have had a top 5 in the high teens with one almost 5 lbs. But the last 3 times out I haven't been able to top 18". I'm catching 25 or so fish each outing but a lot of small ones.

I'd go with a Tatula Elite 7'1" ML.

Spots: 90% tried and true. 10% something new.- My home lakes are places I've fished a lot but I always check out a new spot every time I go out. Some of those new spots turn into the 90% group. Techniques: 90% tried and true. 10% something new- I always spend some time on a new presentation every time I go out. Or maybe it is a new knot or hook but I always want to spend some time with something new every time I go out.

I don't know. The only reason I know the kings are showing up is because I was talking to the IN DNR creel interviewer yesterday at Pastrick and that's what he said.

You're using the right baits. Depending on how the rocks are, you might want to consider a dropshot and your favorite bait (can't go wrong with a Berkley Flatworm). The dropshot will work well if the bottom is relatively clean but you will lose a lot of DS rigs and spend a lot of time retying when fishing from shore if you have a lot of rock especially that busted up concrete that is so prevalent around our harbors and breakwalls. Kings are coming in and I've always heard the smallies are tough to catch in the harbors when the Kings arrive. Good luck.

I used to only go on days when I thought the fishing would be good. Nowadays, I go whenever I can fit it into my schedule. Even if the fishing is not good, I enjoy being in nature and learning something new. I always make a plan of scouting a new area and working on a new presentation. And I've been trying to improve using my Livescope. So even if the fishing isn't great, I can still have a very good day. Plus, I need to get out of the house and recharge the batteries after working all week. There is no better way than spending a day on the water.

I would post that question on Windy City Fishing or the different Facebook Chicagoland groups. This is a great site with people all across the country but your question is pretty specific to our area. I don't fish the Dupage so I can't help you. Good luck.

Fishing a Ned rig and landing quality fish using light spinning gear by myself.

I'll give it another shot. Thanks for the tip.

And this works for you? I tried that knot a couple times and it had little knot strength for me. I suck at knots but felt I was tying it correctly.

Like Toxic, I've never had a problem with line twist but I have never liked the knot I tie for a dropshot. I don't like the Palomar and the double improved clinch knot that Aaron Martens always recommended never worked that well for me. I did buy these Decoy DS hooks last winter and I haven't gotten around to using them. Going to give them a shot this weekend.

The spinning rods I use most are 7'4" or 7'6". The only time I want a shorter rod is if I am skipping docks. I have a 5'9" that I use for that. The longer rods are better for casting distance and controlling fish. They fit in my boat fine so I don't see any negative to them. I had a 7'9" spinning rod that I used for small swimbaits and I loved the extra length. Give the longer rod a shot. I bet you'll be happy with it.

If it wasn't for my first wife, I don't know if or when I would have rediscovered fishing. I fished as a kid with my dad but he was a big deer hunter and he stopped fishing when I lost interest in my teen years. I spent way too much time socializing and partying throughout college and into my early 20s. My former inlaws had a summer home in SW Michigan and I remember looking at the lily pads and weedlines the first time I went on a boat ride as the new boyfriend. I remember thinking "This is like where I used to fish in fish Wisconsin with my dad. I wonder how the fishing is." A couple weeks later I returned using their 12' jonboat with a pre-rigged plastic worm (the purple one with a couple white dots) and caught a bunch of fish. I've been addicted ever since.

There's a fantastic cooling lake in Illinois, Newton Lake, that is literally 4 miles off our 5 hour journey between my parents home around Chicago and my father's second home in southern Illinois. We always drove past and said how we should fish there because we always heard such great things about the lake. But there was no camping, no nearby lodging, and it has a 25-HP restriction. So we always opted to go elsewhere and that was a HUGE mistake. 20 years ago or so, we finally went there and absolutely smoked them. The next couple years we enjoyed great success. But then everyone became aware of the lake, Zona and other pros had shows there, and it blew up on the internet. It's still a very good lake but not like it was. And I can only imagine how it was in the 90s when always drove past and hit more convenient, easy to fish lakes. Grand Traverse Bay in Northern Michigan is the same way. 10-12 years ago it was unbelievable with little pressure. As a very novice smallmouth fisherman, I caught 2 5 lbers the first day I went there. But then it blew up and fishing pressure in June has become crazy. Oh well, you just have to find the next sleeper lake.