Junk Fisherman

Unless someone has wealthy parents or that rich grandpa, no one at 22 should have much more than a starter boat. While I know it can be tough, try not to compare what you have versus what some of your peers have. They either have a good family situation or are in way too much bad debt at an early age. I'd recommend three things: 1) Join a bass club and fish as a nonboater. You will learn a tremendous amount and will be more prepared when you do get your first bass boat. Plus, it is a very reasonably-priced way to get on the water in some nice boats. 2) Get a kayak or small aluminum boat. This will get you on the water and give you the freedom to fish on your terms. There probably are some kayak or small boat tournaments in your area. 3) Save for that first bass boat. You're not saving for a new Basscat but rather a 15-20 year old starter boat that you will learn in. If you can pay cash or close to it on that first boat in a couple years it makes everything easier going forward. Good luck. You're getting some good advice in this thread.

I use both but more often spinning. Spinning: Tubes, Ned, hair jigs, spy baits, finesse swimbaits, blade baits Baitcasting: jerkbaits, spinnerbaits/chatterbaits, topwater, A-rigs * I started throwing a dropshot on a finesse baitcaster last year and really like it. It is great for pitching up against all the breakwalls I fish. I also started using the finesse baitcaster for 4" swimbaits on a ballhead jig and I really liked that as well. So while I used to be probably 80/20 spinning to casting for smallies, with using a baitcaster for DS and swimbaits that ratio will be closer to 50/50 moving forward.

Slow I fish way too slow and don't change lures enough. It is a problem I need to solve. I'm hoping that adding Livescope this year will help me move faster when I do not see fish and change lures more often when fish do not respond to what I am using.

I have often thought that the $100 - $200 range is the sweet spot for getting the most value for your rods and reels. But with the SLX and lower-end Tatula reels, that range is going closer to $100 for reels IMO. Probably a little less for spinning reels. Most of my rods retail in the $250 to $350 range and I own a couple that cost $475 to $550. As I go up in the price, my rods do go up in sensitivity. My $550 Steez is easily the best rod I have ever used but it definitely isn't 100% better than the $250ish Dobyns Champion that I have used for the same application. Is it "worth it" to pay for the high-end equipment? That's a personal opinion. Like others have mentioned, fishing is my only real hobby so I don't mind spending top dollar for my favorite rods. The only rods I will pay $500+ for are my bottom-contact rods. Reels I usually keep around $200 or so. I care much more about getting a top of the line rod than reel. I am picking up another Steez rod this winter but the reel will be a Curado.

Blade bait, hair jig, Ned, and a suspending, subtle jerkbait are what I have rigged for Friday.

Assuming I want to stay married, and I do, the best I can manage is buying a second house in Northern Michigan in a few years and live there from April till November when I retire. My wife has no interest in leaving the area so I will will always reside around Chicago with a second home by some of the best smallmouth fishing in the world. I plan to take a long 2-week vacation down south every winter around the end of January to Texas or Florida. At least that is my plan for now.

My wife gets it too. My wedding gift from her was a Daiwa Zillion. She usually tells me to buy things when I often wait for a sale or say I don't really need it. My wife has her shoes and sweaters and I don't ask her about those.

Interesting. I thought most would say the 150. I'll give the 70 MGL a workout with a jerk and see what I think. As a Daiwa guy, I have been surprised with how much I like the 70 MGL. I have too many issues with the T-Wing and an FG Knot getting hung up so I went with the Curado for the round line guide and it has been flawless this year.

Gonna get a new left-handed baitcaster primarily for jerkbaits. 110s, Staycees 90s, Reranges, ect... I love the 70 MGL but I have only used it for dropshots and finesse swimbaits. Would you bump up to the 150 for 1/2 oz jerkbaits? I am most concerned with casting distance and casting into the wind. Any opinions are appreciated.

This is spot-on. Having just 1 friend that you can share spots and information with is priceless. I'm pretty secretive and I don't post anything on social media and it would be great to share my results with someone who understood what I was doing. I've been telling my wife this for years and it is the main reason I stay in my club with the hope of finding 1 good fishing buddy. Surprisingly, I have a new colleague that is an excellent tournament fisherman and it has been a lot of fun trading information and talking about local fishing spots. I could see us fishing together in the future which is something I usually don't do unless I get paired with someone in a tournament.

I love Mark Zona but that guy calls a lot of 4 lb smallies, 5 lbers.

I have started to keep files of all the local tournaments and avoid fishing certain waters when large tournaments are going on. I am hoping this is cyclical and the pandemic fishing boom lessens moving forward. Overall, this topic is very conflicting for me. On one hand, I like seeing people enjoy such a great hobby, especially young people, and we all know it is a healthy passion. On the other hand, more fishermen and more tournaments directly affects how enjoyable my weekends are at the lake. Over the last couple years, I've had multiple big HS and college tournaments scheduled at the same dates I wanted to fish on my favorite bodies of water. I've said for a while how the whole "grow the sport" mantra does not help the weekend warrior. I understand we all have to share the resources and I just try to adjust to fishing pressure by where I choose to go and to mentally prepare myself to fishing in a crowd when I find myself on a busy lake. But more fishermen and more tournaments are definitely not a positive development for my fishing.

So how did it go? I am thinking about getting a left-handed reel for my jerkbait rod. It still feels awkward snapping my rod downward with my left arm while it feels normal with my right arm. I am not going to swap over all baitcaster reels and I reel my spinning rods with my left hand. Just something I've been thinking about.

Every rod I've broken has been my own fault. Both Loomis and Dobyns have been great with their replacement programs. The Loomis replacement cost me $108 but I received a $450+ rod (GLX) after using heavily using my old rod for 20 years before breaking it. Dobyns wasn't as a beneficial replacement but they were more than fair and took the sting out of replacing broken rods. On a side note, my Motorguide Xi5 pedal has not been turning my motor to the left. It was a replacement I bought this past January. (3 pedals now in 6 years) Took that pedal to a service center yesterday and it was still under warranty. They handed me a new $175 pedal. Made my day.

This describes me as well. Over the last couple years I have become primarily a finesse fisherman and while I catch a lot of fish doing it, I don't catch the big largemouth others do (my smallmouth on finesse is great however). But I started working with someone this year who is an excellent power fisherman and I have seen by fishing the same water on the same days as he does how many quality fish he gets with jerkbaits, A-rigs, and chatterbaits. He'll consistently have a top 5 of 15-18 lbs where I am in the 10-12 lb range. I'm never going to abandon my finesse and it'll always be a strength but my eyes have been opened this year as to the quality of fish I miss out on by not power fishing when the fish are active.

I used to work part-time at a tackle shop and bought so much tackle. Granted, I always got great deals and often loaded up on plastics at a $1 per bag. I still have a closet in my basement of lures I rarely ever use and a couple Plano boxes in my garage with lures that don't make it to the boat. One of my favorite things to do is to use old baits I've had for 20+ years and catch fish on them. When I started using Stupid Tubes I had so many tubes from my old tackle shop days. If I never bought another pitching plastic bait again, I would be okay. As my years of experience add up, I know exactly where and how I am going to fish which helps eliminate a lot of tackle I don't use. When I was an inexperienced fishermen I felt I needed a lot of different baits and thus bought a lot more. Nowadays, I stick to buying what I use and I only get a few new baits per year. With that being said, I did fish a lot of jerkbaits this fall and lost several to musky and pike. Probably spent close to $100 on Black Friday sales on jerkbaits alone with none of them being 110s. Overall, I just need some minor tackle additions this offseason to be ready for next year.

This is one of my main presentations. I have used a 7'9 medium lite action Dobyns rod (Champion 792) with great success. Love the extra length for longer casts and fighting fish. 2500 or 3000 size Daiwa spinning reels are what I use. In order to eliminate wind knots and leader knots, I went to straight 7 lb Gamma Touch and that is great line for that application. Keep in mind, I am primarily fishing open water in the Great Lakes so I have plenty of room to fight fish. I have caught multiple stray trout, salmon, and carp without issue. Just play the fish and use your drag. Seeing you are in Georgia, if you are around a lot of cover, I could see going to a medium action rod. But definitely go with a 7+' rod. Good luck.

The only rod/reel I need to add to the arsenal this offseason is a small swimbait rod. I am still not sure how I broke my 792 Dobyns Champ that I used exclusively for 4" swimbaits on a ballhead jig. I am going to upgrade that rod to a 742 Dobyns Champ Extreme baitcasting rod. I started using the light action baitcasting rod after I broke the 792 this fall and I really liked it. The rest of my arsenal is pretty much set. Spinning 761 Daiwa Steez Ned (unbelievable rod) 741 Dobyns Champ Extreme: finesse swimbaits 742 Dobyns Champ Extreme Spinning: Dropshot and multi-purpose 763 Dobyns Champ: cracking a tube, stupid tubes, small jerks 702 Dobyns Champ: Multipurpose: spybaits, tubes, ect Casting 742 Dobyns Champ Extreme: dropshot (3/8 and 1/2 oz) w/a Curado MGL70 (love this combo) 742 Dobyns Champ Extreme: finesse swimbaits 703 Dobyns Champ: multipurpose- plastics, senkos 735 Dobyns Champ: football jigs, frogs, punching 704 Dobyns Champ Crankbait: jerkbaits, lighter topwater, shallow cranks 843 GLX: Pitching plastics, Sleepers 844 GLX: jigs, C-rig 7' Croix Tournament Bass Spinnerbait Sweeper: Chatterbaits, swimjigs, spinnerbaits, buzzbaits 7'10 BPS Crankin Stick Heavy: Deep diving crankbaits, A-rigs Kicking around the idea of getting the new Steez 761 for hairjigs and Neds but it is sold out everywhere the last time I looked. Might have to replace a baitcaster in which the anti-reverse is going out.

Hey A-Jay- love this thread. Since we fish the same type of water could you share your most productive smallmouth jerkbait colors for sunny vs cloudy conditions? 10'+ visibility. I was just taking inventory today and I have lots of clear water, sunny shad imitators and I know I need a couple loud-colored smallmouth colors especially for cloudy days. Any help is appreciated.

Did you fish those blade baits all year?

I'm sure a lot of guys in Michigan have these stories but a few years back KVD, Johnny Morris, and Martin Truex were fishing right next to me in Northern Michigan. The pictures they took that day have ended up in multiple BPS catalogs. I didn't recognize Truex since he didn't have his racing attire on. The next day KVD was filming a show there.

Thanks everyone for the responses. I’ve got a Michael’s close which is why I asked. Was trying to avoid the $9 shipping that every place charges since I was only going to make a small order to start.

It's a near-instant fix for delayed mortality. I am much more concerned with delayed mortality and the harm that tournaments do to fisheries than the logistics of catch-weigh-release and angler dishonesty.

Agreed. With more tournaments nowadays, delayed mortality will start to take a bigger toll on the fisheries. Weigh and an immediate release would nearly eliminate this problem. But let's face it- many bass guys want the weigh-in process and the glory shot at the end of the day. While I initially was in favor of this tournament exemption, if 1 over 16" is the rule for conservation purposes then it should be kept for tournaments. Tournaments can still be held by weighing fish in the boat and then an immediate release.

LOL- that picture was my biggest. I caught 6 or so from 14" up to 19". My top 5 would of been 13-15 lbs which I will definitely take at this time of the year. I was fishing deep dropoffs and points where I suspect the fish spend their winter. I was throwing the bladebait in 25'-30' of water adjacent to the points and dropoffs. If I went too shallow I would get grass everytime. I used the jerkbait and Ned in the grassy areas of the dropoffs. Got bit off by a musky and a pike as well. Those fish have really come alive over the last couple weeks.