Junk Fisherman

Everyday use/driving is copper. I have green mirror for fishing in bright sunlight in very clear water. I just picked up a pair of the sunrise silver for lowlight conditions. I haven't wore them on the water yet but they are very crisp on the cloudy days I have used them on.

I use a medium light or medium action 7' to 7.6' spinning rod. Nothing heavier than 1/2 oz and mostly 3/8.

Never any problems with slipping with 10-15 lb braid?

How do you finish your FG knot? I see all sorts of different techniques. Some do nearly 10 alternating half hitches and Rizzuto finishes and others do 2 or 3 half hitches. What I find is doing all the half hitches adds more bulk and takes away from the overall thinness of the knot. How say you?

That's a beaut! Congrats.

A couple other things: The Seaguar Knot is easy and reliable but I like the Alberto better. IIRC, you have to cut your leader length before tying the knot. Also, with the Alberto you are wrapping the braid around the leader and not the leader around the braid-right? The leader often has memory making it hard to keep your wraps straight. The braid is limp and manageable.

Just keep practicing. I suck at knots and I have to practice over and over. You just have to get your fingers used to the motion. I will tie a couple then come back to it later. And I think the Alberto is one of the easiest to tie so I would stick with that one. It is proven. It will probably just take some time. Good luck.

How much of a difference have you found using the tungsten swing heads versus the lead? I loaded up a couple years ago on lead swing head jigs but I keep seeing guys like Mark Zona state the importance of using tungsten. I plan on using braid/fluoro compared to straight braid for more sensitivity. I am definitely going to compare the two this season but I am wondering who has already made this comparison. Thanks for any advice.

Yes, the 12-volt will be sufficient as long as you are getting a 55 lb thrust trolling motor which is the highest 12-volt TM Minn Kota or Motorguide makes. I had a 17.5' semi-deep V Lowe that I used for 15 years with a 55 lb thrust motor and never had an issue. I rarely had it higher than 4 of 10 while fishing. And I fished plenty of trolling motor only lakes and my motor always met my needs. With their Maximizer feature on the Minn Kota, it does not use a lot of charge. Only after a full day and heavy use would the battery be in the "yellow" at the end of the day. Most days it was still in the green at the end of the day. Now, if you are fishing a lot of rivers with strong current or trolling motor only lakes that you want to go faster across the lake on, then I would consider the 24-volt system. But if I was buying that boat, without hesitation I would get a 12-volt 55 lb Minn Kota Terrova, Ultrex or Motorguide Xi5 and then upgrade to the biggest battery in the future.

You are roughly equidistant from St Clair, Saginaw Bay, and Grand Traverse. My goals would be a 6 lb smallmouth and a 5 lb largemouth if I lived where you do. Good luck!

You know it's that time. Here are my goals and resolutions. 1. Continue to investigate new areas where I fish using my electronics. Too often I fall into the habit of fishing the same spots that have been productive over the years. I need to keep learning and investigating. 2. Take more fishing trips. I often cancel trips and fish locally if the weather report is not perfect. YOLO 3. Improve with jerkbaits, wobble head jigs, cracking tubes, and stupid tubes. I do not have a lot of confidence in my ability to fish these baits and that needs to change. 4. Make more changes throughout the day. Color, size, style of retrieve- I am good about changing locations and trying different types of structures and cover to find a pattern but too often I stick with my traditional baits and colors rather than changing things up. I have timed myself- it takes me less than 1 minute to tie on a new bait and less than that for plastics. So I want to change baits more in order to see if small changes make big differences. 5. Flip my fishing day sometimes. Rather than fishing daylight to 2-3 PM, get out in the afternoon and fish till dark. 6. Continue fishing out of my kayak. I fished out of my kayak often when my boat trailer was down for repairs last year but the rest of the year I did not kayak fish much. 7. Get my kids out fishing more often. Find easy places for them to fish. They are 10 and 6. Small bass and bluegill will entertain them and hopefully get them hooked. 8. Fish with my bass club more. I only fished 1 event with my club last year due to Covid and other factors. That needs to change. How say you?

Great read Ajay. I jump between 2 and 3. I like what Teamnine9 said about catching enough fish and some are bound to be big. That sums up my smallmouth fishing most of the year EXCEPT during the spawn when I target bigger fish prespawn rather than fish on beds. But I have gravitated to stage 3 more with largemouth by fishing deep water structure rather than the shallows. However, I will go to stage 2 after a couple hours if I am not catching fish deep. In terms of stage 4, I generally have my preferred ways to catch fish but I am not picky as to what I am using to catch fish. I do have presentations I am constantly working on but I am not stubborn as to not use the most productive bait of the day since I want to catch fish a certain way. Quite frankly, most of the water I fish is so pressured that I can't get real cute in the boat. Stage 5 will come to me as soon as my kids are a little older and hopefully enjoy fishing as much as I do.

There were 25+ mi/hr crosswinds and heavy rain at this launch as I was attempting to put my boat on the trailer solo. I had my one Talon down and was tied to the end of the dock. With the motor idling, I had to untie the bow, raise my Talon and drive straight onto my trailer. My boat was positioned to go straight onto the trailer. The waves were whipping, it was a narrow, 1-lane launch with docks on both sides. So I untied the front, ran to my seat, hit my Talon button but as I sat down and grabbed the throttle, I slipped on the wet seat and hit the throttle way too hard. Going way too fast I drove up way too far on the trailer and my port side of the bow was resting up on the wooden dock. In hindsight, I should have walked slower and probably had more time to drive my boat on the trailer before the wind would turned my boat off course. Thankfully, there was nothing jagged or sharp on the dock and I didn't damage my boat. I had a pretty good scuff mark but a little bit of Goof Off took off the scuff. So I got very lucky.

761 MML Steez AGM and a Tatula 3000 Rod has a Medium and Medium Light rating with lures going from 1/16th to 3/4th oz which covers everything that I throw with spinning combos. The rod is unbelievably lite and sensitive. It is GREAT for a 1/16th oz Ned rig which is one of my most trusted presentations. I would also use it for dropshots, tubes, and small swimbaits. Those 4 presentations make up 95% of my spinning fishing. I only got this rod in the fall and I anticipate buying another one since it is so versatile and easily the best rod I have ever used. Next choice would be my 843 GLX and Zillion. 15 lb fluorocarbon.

I am intrigued by these. How is the quality?

How do you like it? How does it cast and come off the spool? 40 or 50 lb? I plan on using it for pitching and casting jigs with a leader. Thanks for any advice.

Yeap. After dabbling around with the FG knot, I went back to the Alberto. Gotta be confident in your knots.

I'll have to check that out. I am a Daiwa guy and I was thinking the Tatula 100. After looking at the reviews, the Tatula Elite looks fantastic. And just a couple months ago after I bought a Steez AG I said I was done buying tackle for the year.

This thread has ended up me costing a couple hundred dollars. The more I think about it, a finesse baitcasting setup would be ideal for pitching dropshots. A lot of the water I fish locally is steel breakwalls and pitching with a baitcaster would be much, much more accurate than casting or pitching with a spinning combo. Plus, I am pitching a lot of finesse baits during the spawn. I'm sure I'll find other uses for it.

I understand that but are all those advantages still important? With light lines, the power advantage of a baitcaster is mitigated. You're not going to do a big hooksets. Pitching would obviously be an advantage with a mL baitcaster but what kind of distance are you getting with a 1/8th oz presentation? I can see with traditional largemouth fishing that the accuracy with a baitcaster being an advantage over a spinning rig. Personally, for my open water smallmouth fishing I am rarely needing to hit narrow pockets. I do wonder how casting light line and backlashes would be on the baitcaster. Are you using braid? What pound? I'm not trying to be argumentative. I like both baitcasters and spinning combos. I'm just wondering if it's worth it for me to get a finesse baitcaster. I am intrigued.

I've never tried Big Game on a spinning reel. I don't think I've ever put 10 lb mono on a spinning reel- maybe when I was a kid.

Cabin fever has been hitting me pretty hard. I did go out last Saturday for lake trout but didn't catch anything. I can catch a trout while late season smallmouth fishing but the last 2 times when I was trying for them, I couldn't catch anything. At least it was fun driving the boat and visiting all my smallmouth spots. Wish my favorite spots would be so void of fishermen next May. Water temps were anywhere from 38 to 44. Weather is going to be in the 40s this weekend. Thinking hard about hitting a cooling lake but it's a lot of driving and I am not too optimistic about catching much. We have an excellent cooling lake that opens on March 1 so I have a little over 2 months before I can really start catching them again.

Does Big Game give people problems on baitcasters? I don't know if there will ever be a time I don't have green spools of 10, 12, and 15 lb in my basement. It's so cheap that I don't even keep track how long I've had it on or measure how much I am putting on. If I am going on a trip, I replace it. I don't use mono except for topwater and occasionally crankbaits and Big Game has never let me down. I am not doubting there are better lines but $7 for 1200 yards of 12 lb line- is there a better deal in fishing?

Every 4, 5, and 6 lb smallmouth I have caught on spinning gear has been on either a medium light or lite action rod (mostly medium light). It is plenty of rod for open water, smallmouth fishing. Now, largemouth around weeds or docks and I go to a medium action rod.

I am going to try some new braids on my baitcasters. I am going to go with FINS Windtamer Pitch Black since it is getting great reviews. Sunline SX1 is another one on the list that I want to try. Gonna finally try Tatsu 8 lb for my straight, fluoro dropshot reel. I'll also use it for cracking tubes. Lines I am not looking to replace: 7 lb Gamma Touch for small swimbaits, 14 lb YGK G-Soul braid for Ned Rigs, and 6 lb Gamma Edge for leaders.