Bass-Addict

Lol you always respond suggesting lures, I will make the transition eventually but now is not the time to learn a whole new system.

Well I’ve never fished the bottom was my main point, wouldn’t that be different than fishing the top 1-2 ft of the column?

Don’t crush my dreams!

The spot I fish has a tight bottleneck rapid that flows into slower moving current and I always catch fish in the 3-5 foot slack water on the other side of the current seam just below it. A little bit further down from that (about 15-20 ft downstream) it really drops off into a hole that is around 10-12 deep feet. Do you think there are almost definitely some monster smallmouth in it? I’ve cast into the area dozens of times and got nothing, is it possible they are just holding bottom all the time? What is the best way to fish them in there w live minnows? I’m thinking I’ll need some kind of weighted rig but I don’t want to get snagged. I just caught some really big creek chubs I’m excited to use there, hoping to awaken a beast! Here is the spot, the hole I fish is at about 3 seconds and the deeper spot comes into frame at about 4/5 seconds in https://kapwi.ng/c/mh5A2BoZ

Will chubs swim down to the bottom or do I need a splitshot? About 50 feet downstream from my spot it drops off into a 10-12 foot hole, I’m thinking there’s gotta be a monster in there.

Yeah for sure lol. Seems like a lot of work, but would be nice to have a little bait station.

You think it would be difficult for someone who’s never done something like that?

Ahh good point, so I’m best off sticking with one built in. There are several videos on YouTube of drilling drain plugs into coolers, you sure it’s that hard?

I found one that is smaller, 16 quart Coleman would fit right on my counter next to sink. You think I could drill a drain plug hole into it?

So you think I should be ok even with it being a little tight by changing water frequently (I do every day) aerating and treating water with that Better Bait water conditioner?

Yeah, I just realized how hard it will be to get that cooler up to the sink or toilet to drain, is there any other option or do you think the 7.5 quart is adequate for a couple dozen?

Brilliant, not sure why I didn’t think of this. Thank you. Do you think having much more room than the 7.5 quarts I have now is necessary?

So I now have 4 different aerators of diff sizes, as well as a 7.5 qt bait cooler as well as “Better Bait” bait conditioner (stuff that turns the water blue). All of this has worked well but I am curious if I put them in a big bucket with more room for them to swim around if it would keep them livelier? I have some really big creek chubs I just caught that I am really excited to use when the river water levels go back down in a couple days and they’re doing great very active I’ve been aerating and changing water daily I just want them to stay this way. The only issue is changing the water in the big bucket, the Engel cooler I have has a net insert that makes this very easy, I’m not sure how I would do it in a big bucket.

I’m looking for chubs in very shallow rocky creeks that only contain minnows, not the rivers I fish for smallmouth in.

I have a few different spots I place minnow traps but only one of them seems to produce large creek chubs, which seem to be the biggest minnows I can find in creeks and the best smallmouth bait. I have now depleted it lol and I’m on the hunt for a new good spot. That one was a little hole in a shallow rocky creek/stream (not a river.) Are those the best spots for big chubs or should any creek have them? I found another very similar hole about 200 feet downstream from that one but I just checked it and only bass minnows ?

Same diff lol

Based on condition of that fish I’d say it was most definitely a pike, that’s crazy

Optimal foraging theory is really interesting, I’ve read about that too. Prob the single biggest influence in bass feeding and all animals. Yeah makes sens, spines collapse smooth slide right down the hatch Yeah you can watch videos of smallies feeding on crawdads on YouTube, pretty cool. They often spit them out and swallow them a few times, probably because they either get pinched or they get turned around in their mouths, or they’re just wearing them out. Poor crawdads lol.

I can’t imagine they do, the way we catch the same fish over and over

Yeah craws from the rear

I hate retying every 5 minutes lol, my reel runs out of spool quickly too

So do I, I always made fun of my dad for using them but I can’t find a better way to get the fish down toward the bottom.

That’s what I figured, otherwise they’d get shredded. Can you imagine that being your last view as a bluegill, giant gaping bucketmouth barreling at you? ?

That very well may have solved my problem, in fact I think it did 100%. The fish is spitting it out as soon as it feels the resistance of my bobber (which is about the size of a gobstopper) I need one the size of a marble.

Do they get bit by the spines and do you think it hurts?