Junk Fisherman

A 25% Dobyns sale caused me to get a Champion Extreme HP 742C. I have this rod in the spinning model and it is a fantastic finesse rod. Going to use it primarily for dropshotting, light swimbaits, Neko, shakey head, and others.

These are my colors: I have Costas in the green and yellow and they are fantastic. Overpriced but excellent. Green mirror for bright skies and crazy clear water Amber for everyday use Yellow (Sunrise Silver)- cloudy days and low light

Great post. Fishing is not relaxing and I come home from a trip exhausted. A lot of people think you are just going out and watching a bobber while you sip a beet. Waking up at 4 AM or earlier, running a trolling motor all day, and nonstop casting over 8-10 hours makes for a pretty exhausting day. Now do it 2 days in a row, spend 3-4 hours driving back home, and then wake up and go to work the next day. I am definitely tired at work on Monday. But I keep doing it.....

Whopper Plopper (never thrown one; don't own any) Megabass Vision 110 (don't own any)

That's funny. Actually, the reason I am here on this thread is because I just found out I received the 2nd stimulus of 1K. (I don't know why we got it and it was sent to an account I barely use anymore.) Anyways, the 1K might be enough to get me to buy Livescope. LOL- I am not going to tell my wife about it.

I picked up one of the older models last fall and it is amazing. I can see myself getting one of these new models. Might need to sell a couple rods first.

You ever do the drunk Tackle Warehouse order?

Yeap- that is my set-up too. There are a couple other baits I throw and I will bump up to 1/10th oz occasionally but the 1/16th, #2, and a TRD is what I throw the most. I will say that I played around with some 1/16th jigs with EWG #1 hooks from Owner thinking it would make the presentation weedless yet still give the same results. I found that my hookup rate went down. The hook just didn't come out of the plactic well enough and I am definitely not doing a big hookset with 6-8 lb line. Maybe it works better for you.

That’s what I thought but you threw me off when you said twice as much?

Great review. Just curious- what is the boat you’d consider that is twice as much?

The main places I look for reviews on line are on threads on different forums, Facebook posts on the various fishing pages I belong to, Tackle Tour, and Tackle Warehouse. There is no magic formula I use rather than reading many reviews and making a general consensus. This season I am trying Smackdown, Tatsu, and Fins braid primarily on recommendations from this forum and a review on Tackle Tour. I am also more apt to try different lines from manufacturers that I have confidence in. But that doesn't always work either. 8 lb P-Line fluorocarbon was a staple for me for years but the 8 lb Tactical I tried and was a poor performer for me. But the OP is right in that you'll always find some negative reviews on line. For example, several people in this thread do not like Fluoroclear but I absolutely love it for a few specific applications. At the end of the day, you have to just get the lines and see if it works for you.

The Ned has been a big factor in changing my way of fishing as well. Also, I transitioned to more of a smallmouth fisherman over the last 10 years so light line, finesse fishing has been the norm for me for a while. But I went from being a pitching plastics and jig fisherman to more of a finesse and deep structure fisherman.

I can;t really talk about spawning fish but I've been a release boat for some Ts and it has not been good especially the up north smallmouth tournaments in the summer. I think all of the fish had CTE from banging around in a small livewell on the choppy days on Lake Michigan. My club now has a set of Rapala scales and we have many paper tournaments with bringing in 1 big bass only. I realize there are many variables at play but overall I am in favor of paper tournaments as much as possible.

Very interesting. Thanks for sharing.

What's interesting is seeing the river guys' top 6 vs the lake guys' choices especially the up north lake guys.

I agree with you. You are fishing behind the console and he is choosing to not fish that water. In that situation, he should fish all of it as he goes if he is so concerned about getting the first crack at the fish. lol- on another site I once posted about my coangler continually casting ahead of the mid point of the boat during a tournament and how it started to annoy me. The general consensus from them was that the coangler should be able to fish anything as long as they are not crossing your line. I definitely do not agree with that. One time in my club a boater was upset that I cast ahead of the boat as he sat down to retie.

I see the guys around me on plane with a 25 HP with a 17' tin boat. Not sure how it gets out of the hole but they always zipping around pretty good.

I had a friend step on a rod while netting a fish for me. That taught me to net mine own fish which I do when I am fishing solo which is 90% of my fishing. I actually broke a coangler's rod this year. He was snagged and he gave me the rod. He was hung on old fishing line and as I pulled up, the snagged line sank back down and snapped off the tip. Sucked for both of us.

You don't have to worry about not being able to get off the lake. My 9.9 pushes my 19' deep V 5 mi/hr so a 20 HP on a much lighter boat will be fine. It takes a while to get to spot to spot but it is better than only using a the trolling motor. One thing to keep in mind, that boat with a 20 HP will be very hard to sell unless there is a local market for that specific lake. Here in IL we have a couple excellent lakes with a 25 HP limit and you see lots of guys with 17' boats with 25 HP but they could only sell those boats in that area. I'd definitely try to find a used boat.

So you're basically stating people cannot learn from an online course? No, you will not eliminate all people from acting stupid and irresponsible by taking a course but increasing safety awareness will decrease the odds of accidents. And what would happen if people didn't take a driver's education course?

I'm taking a Coast Guard Auxiliary boater safety course at the end of this month. 2 Saturdays at 4 hours per day for $30. And it's on Zoom so I don't have to leave my house. My insurance has already said that my rates will go down $23 a year for completing the course. So in the long run, I'll end up saving. I took the class a while ago but lost the paperwork. This will act as a refresher.

That's awesome. I said I would mount my first 5 lber but then I couldn't. Said I would mount a 6 lber and I couldn't do that either. Some great pictures is enough for me.

A 7-14 smallie? Erie? Tell us about that.

Soft- ISG Tube, Berkley Max scent flatworm, 4" Keitech swimbait (tough leaving a TRD off) Hard- Staysee 90, Duo Realis spybait 90, double willow bladed spinnerbait Why am I picking these? A swimbait and tube are staple baits that I have tied on all year long. The flatworm is a dropshot bait that I quickly gained confidence in last fall. I fish a dropshot probably 50% of the time after the spawn is over. Those 3 baits account for probably 90% of all the smallmouth I catch. I would much rather have a TRD than any of the hard baits but I'll play by the rules. While I am not a big jerkbait guy, I know how lethal a jerkbait can be in the spring. I had my best day ever on a Staysee last spring so I need to keep that going. I have caught good fish on a spybait but need to throw them more. And if I am up north in the summer, the spinnerbait can be awesome on those breezy days. I hardly don't fish them around Chicago but up north they are always tied on. Nice topic.

Stupid tubes are definitely on a short leash with me. I have lost too many fish on these and they tear up after 1 or 2 hooksets and I am often unhappy with the way they look. I have no doubt that they are effective and tubes are my best bait for smallmouth of all time but the Stupid Tube has not been a good bait for me . I don't use them a lot but I have caught nice fish on them. I was pitching them weightless in a clear, shallow, weedy water with pretty good success. I fish them how I fish a Senko. Fishing them on the fall on weed edges like lily pads is very effective.