Attila

Definitely the cookie stash. And then I'd leave a note to say just how much I aspire to be as good a fisherman as they are and thank them for the role they played in helping me be a better angler. Then I'd hold on to the steering wheel to see if I could perform the fisherman's version of the Vulcan Mind Meld that Spock used to use to learn what I haven't learned yet. If ya can't have fun with this subject...lol

This for the win. I fish jerkbaits 12 months of the year and they are always my first choice when the water hasn't warmed up enough to consider throwing a topwater. Once the water warms then an erratic jerk can't be beat, but once the temps drop there's nothing quite like pulling a jerkbait over or around cover where you can then pause the lure and the fish will come and gobble it down. Here's an episode of Lindner's Angling Edge where they're fishing the Shadow Rap in the fall. They are mixing up their retrieve between jerking and pulling during the video and I'm sure they caught fish on both styles of retrieve. One thing I took away though is that even when they were jerking the bait during retrieval it was more of a soft jerk instead of an aggressive one. All the best in your future jerkbait fishing, hope that you can figure them out as it's a great year round presentation that can produce some big bags during great multi species fishing days.

Out of the two options, I'm definitely a power fishing aficionado. Give me topwaters, jerkbaits, crankbaits, and spinnerbaits any day. I'll even throw the same for panfish like perch and crappies unless I feel like watching the slip float disappear.

I was there on Saturday and stocked up on Shad Raps in various patterns, was a lot of Rapala left and I plan on going back next pay day to see what they have left. I've got a 3700 devoted to crankbaits, square bills, and chatterbaits all weighing 3/8oz or less that I'm going to fishing with an original Daiwa S glass crankbait/spinnerbait rod w/ a TATULA™ CT TYPE-R in an effort to get a bit more versatile in my power fishing. Thanks for the heads up about the Bagley's too; I went and picked up a few KVD 1.5's for the box above and am going to stick with those until I pass judgement on them next season. Cheers, Attila

Ya, they're good people over there; I'm getting some more Daiwa gear from them when it gets released next year during the Classic. Also going to be looking at expanding some of my jerk and crankbait selection along the way.

Again, respectfully, it's not about that. Like it or not there are going to be catches of bass that were either targeted with UL equipment or get hooked while using UL equipment. I've hooked, fought, and landed double digit musky and rainbow trout on UL gear and believe you me it's not something I intended to do, it just happened. I brought the fish in and spent the better part of 15 minutes reviving it before it kicked its tail and went back to the lake. I've never had to do that with a bass even though I've caught 5 pounders on UL gear; the fight was over in under a minute thanks to a smooth drag and a rod with a bit of backbone. I believe that was the initial question of this thread actually...again, not trying to ruffle feathers but there isn't anything wrong with targeting large or smallmouth bass with UL gear provided it's warranted in the conditions you're fishing. Agree, UL fishing is a whole lot of fun. Cheers, Attila

Thanks for the tip; I think I'll give it a try next year!

Pro J Fishing Tackle in Toronto located on Sheppard just east of Warden on the south side. They have all the top end bass gear you could ever want. https://www.facebook.com/projfishingtackle/

Yes. While away at school 10 years ago I took a job ripping apart people's basements that were destroyed due to a flood. I was working 16-17 hour days using pry bars and other assorted tools ranging from sledge hammers to sawzall's and every night I would ice my hand to reduce the swelling. One morning I woke up and the swelling was still there. I decided to hang up the fishing rods and focused on photography for about 10 years. After a while my hand started developing the shakes and my photos were starting to be impacted so I stopped. I was already using the best photography gear available, and while it opened many doors for me, the time came to put the camera gear away. I started fishing again and found that my hand can take a whole day fishing including landing some decent sized fish more than it could take photography so I started to get more fishing gear and it hasn't impacted my hand at all. Hoping to continue for a while unless my hand has other ideas... Sorry for the rambling. No; it was the tendons in the palm of my hand.

Ya, nothing beats walking the dog to entice a big bass to strike. Great job!

For the last year I've used a 7'6" Daiwa Presso matched with an Abu Garcia Cardinal STX5. Previously I was running 10lbs braid with a 4lbs fluro leader but this year I went with straight 4lbs mono and noticed much less line twist. Apart from the obvious panfish, I have made incidental catches of walleye up to 4lbs, bass up to 3lbs, and a 10lbs musky on it. The rod handled flawlessly and was very sensitive to the changes in structure that my lures were running over. I've been using light gear for a lot of years since an injury to the tendons in my hand, including running ML and light action rods for smallmouth while presenting lighter lures up to 1/4 oz in size and the Presso is the most sensitive rod I've had the pleasure of using so far. I used it for 2 applications this past weekend; one throwing a small X-Rap and the other being slip float fishing some soft plastics for some pan fish and it worked well for both of these applications. Perhaps the most important thing to consider in UL fishing is a real with a smooth drag that can handle the strain of a larger fish which you may come into contact with during your fishing exploits. A longer rod, such as a 7'6", will also place less strain on the line that you use which makes fighting bigger fish easier when matched with a reel with a good drag system. Sorry for going deeper than just the rod...I love UL fishing and can't seem to stop talking about it.

Just noticed that...hi! LOL I've never had the chance to fish your side of the border, hoping to change that next year!

I've used InvizX for the last year without any issues, and after seeing Zaldain pull some decent sized fish out of timber I think I'm going to stick with it to use on my squarebill / crankbait setup next year. Attila

I appreciate your insightful comment outlining your rod preference for the techniques you outlined above. I've never actually live lined crawlers, it sounds like an interesting strategy for spooked bass. Up here in Ontario the lakes that I have nearby are very highly pressured during our short season with tournaments that see 100 boats casting the usual big style bass baits and it makes sense, as anglers have to catch the biggest bass around to cash a cheque. What I've come to realize is that on these pressured lakes, especially the week after a tournament was held, the bass weren't willing to bite a usual sized bait so I started to experiment with smaller lures including micro jerk and crankbaits as well as little 1" grubs attached to safety pin style spinners. In case anyone is wondering, my greatest success has come on rock flats with some having a weed edge nearby. I'm not throwing these baits in anything that involves cover like docks or heavy weeds; that would hurt the bass and I'm not willing to do that. Great conversation everyone, thanks for your insights. Attila

Hey, another Canuck! Maybe! LOL You have an awesome fishery out there, hope that I can learn as much from you as you can from the knowledgeable folks here on this forum! Cheers, and welcome! Attila

Respectfully, I don't see why as there are are lot of people out there who fish UL's in small creeks or lakes for bass that are line sensitive.

I only use Power Pro Super 8 Slick as my main braid; find it casts a country mile and haven't had any issues with backlashes. On my topwater baitcaster setup I fish 30lbs with no leader and I've found that both smallies and largies in both clear or weedy water have no problem hitting either a walking or popping style bait. I've also never lost a fish (biggest around 6lbs) that decided to dive into thick weeds with 30lbs braid, so I'll continue to use it in that capacity. For my spinning setup that I use for jerk baits I run 20lbs braid w/ an 8lbs fluro leader and have had both large and smallmouth bass run under docks, rub against rocks, and get wrapped up in branches but have never lost a fish. I plan on using the same type of line setup for the next couple of spinning outfits I purchase. I fish primarily clear water with mostly rock and dock style cover and feel that the braid helps as it has a smaller diameter than anything else and yet has plenty of power to move fish when coupled with the right rod and reel combo. Unless I was fishing a jungle, like say while frog fishing or flipping, I wouldn't use more than 30lbs braid as it just doesn't serve any purpose unless you're targeting larger fish like musky or pike which can get huge as we all know. Hope this helps! Attila

Yes, I'm one of the lucky ones who has some great lakes only about an hour away from me but the pressure that they receive during any given season has really made me change my approach in how I present lures to fish. For what it's worth, long casts in clearer water are required and while it may feel like you're fishing with a rubber band I find that it's necessary especially if you're throwing treble hooked lures like crank or jerk baits or even smaller sized poppers (I'm a big Skitter Pop size 5 fan). A final thought; most of my ML action rods have been 6'6" or shorter and with my new ML rod I'm going over the 7' mark which I think will help with my casting distance. My biggest worry is using braid w/ fluro as I've found that I get more tangles with light braid than with anything else. As a result of this, I'm going to be keeping a spool of Seaguar InvizX nearby to use if the tangles get out of hand. I've found that InvizX has a lot of castability and a little more stretch than other flurocarbons which makes it act more like mono but with the clear advantage of being invisible under water. Cheers, good thread.

I've got 2 UL's and they're both fast action rods, one being 7'6" and the other being a 5'. I use the longer rod for casting UL lures and the short one for my slip float fishing, the main difference being that there is still "some" backbone with the longer rod versus the shorter rod which makes me feel like I've gotten a better hook set into the fish. When it comes to line last year I ran 10lbs braid w/ a 4lbs fluro leader on my longer rod but changed that over to straight 4lbs mono this past year and noticed fewer tangles as a result. A bit of a story here to put things into perspective... Last fall I caught about a 10lbs musky on the 7'6" rod while throwing a small jerk bait for perch. I fought the fish for about 15 minutes and am convinced the minimal amount of backbone in the rod helped me in landing the musky, along with a smooth drag on my reel. Also last year I was out crappie fishing using my slip bobber setup and had a pike about 5lbs grab the small tube jig I was throwing. I didn't land the fish and as I was using the same reel type with a great drag I'm convinced that it was the lack of backbone which caused the loss. The line held and wasn't broken. Sorry to ramble, but I wanted to try to give you a clear picture of what the difference is between the rods that I use in hopes that it will help you. Cheers, Attila

I just picked up a Tatula CT 5.5:1 which I'm going to match to a Tatula 7'2" MHR glass cranking rod specifically for both square bill and crank bait fishing. For the money I think the combo will do well but I won't know until I try it out next spring for both walleye and maybe some pike. I've found that all the rods and reels in the Tatula series have great performance for the money which is why I'm investing the money in them. I don't fish tournaments and am more of a weekend warrior but I want gear that will last me a long while and will perform if I ever do sign up as an amateur. Cheers, hope that you find a great combo that meets your criteria!

I have always used straight mono for any type of light crank or jerk bait fishing, usually in the 6lbs test range. I found that Stren was always a good brand to use. This year I started using braid w/ a fluro leader for my larger sized jerk baits and it worked really well. As per my post above, I'll be picking up a ML Tatula for use when it comes to smaller jerk and crank baits and think I might try some lighter 15lbs braid and a 6lbs fluro leader and see how that works next year when our bass season opens, and maybe even for walleye in the spring. Cheers, and hope that this information helps. Attila

For what it's worth I used a Tatula 7' MF spinning rod for my regular jerk bait fishing and it worked liked a dream until I tried throwing smaller size jerk baits like a size 8 Rapala on it; just too much rod in my opinion. I'm going to be picking up the 7'1" MLXF Tatula which is built for lures from 1/16 - 3/8oz as I`m certain it will be more than capable in handling the smaller jerk baits. Much like you I use braid main line and fluro leader on my jerk bait spinning outfit, and it works like a charm.

Nice fish there amigo!

Tricked out a Shadow Rap with different hooks...it worked. To give everyone an idea of what I did, attached is a photo with the new hooks swapped in after a largish musky destroyed the regular stock trebles that you can see in my previous posting. I have substituted the treble hook at the head of the lure with a slightly larger (Size 4 instead of 6) red hook for 2 reasons; first to give the predator the impression that the fish they are chasing is bleeding or injured; the second reason is that most gamefish attack at the head of their prey, so a larger hook will be able to give a more successful hook up ratio than a smaller one. The middle treble hook remains a stock treble hook, a size 6 1X Strong Round Bend Treble in black nickle. The last or rear treble is a size 6 2X Strong Barbarian Treble also in black nickle. I find that it's a good hook to use on this lure because there are times when the fish will strike short, leaving only the rear treble in contact with the hooked fish. All the hooks are made by VMC, and they held up very well in the conditions that I was fishing. I'll be doing some more late night walleye fishing on some deep weed edges and hope to catch some larger fish at that time.

We've had a slot limit on walleye here the last few years as the population has taken a serious hit due to over fishing and an increase in panfish numbers including crappie. While this isn't the largest walleye around, to me it's an important find as it shows the slot limit is working and that some natural spawning success is happening. Attila