TOXIC

First vehicle I bought brand new off the showroom floor in 1993 in Medway Massachusetts. Drove it for most of its life, taught my daughter how to drive a stick with it and she took it when she got her license at 16. She has never relinquished it. She drove it to college for 2 years. Currently 375,000 miles 4.0 High output original motor. It was pristine until she got it and now it's starting to show it's age. She just doesn't have her dad's obsession about cleaning and maintaining. I do all of the oil changes and minor wrench work. I have 4 tops for it...hard top, bikini top, full soft top and safari top. I also have a cable system mounted in my garage to remove/store the hardtop. I need to source some new OEM hard doors for it since I got rear ended and although it just crunched the bumperettes, it shocked the door frames and they have rusted. I used to take flyfishing clients on old logging roads to get to some prime spots. I pulled a pop-up camper with it and I pulled my pvc boat/trailer with it. Now it hauls hay and feed for my daughters horses. Hands down the best vehicle I have ever owned. Old School with leafs and rancho shocks and an extra steering stabilizer to give it highway manners. Burns -0- oil and I would drive it anywhere (if my back was up to it). I've been thinking about selling it and getting her a newer one from a custom shop right down the road from me (DTO Customs) but I can't convince her to let it go.

Had a good friend that owned a small tackle store in Michigan. KD Outdoors. He survived by his knowledge of the local lakes and what was working when. He was an avid fisherman. He sold live bait as well as servicing Bows and being an authorized Trolling Motor repair center. His niche was that he carried the baits that worked no matter who manufactured them. Ever go into BPS/Cabela's or any other box store and try to find Megabass Jerkbaits for example? You won't. He also carried a lot of locally owned bait manufacturers product. It was a very tough business to be in. Sadly he passed from an unexpected illness and the shop was closed.

Here's what I do....When I'm going on someone else's boat I just make a call as to where we will be fishing and what usually works and I have a travel bag with a selection of both hard and soft baits for the conditions I will be fishing in. I know that if I am going to the Potomac for example, I won't be throwing a dropshot if the grass is up so I don't pack that gear rod/reel/baits/weights. If the grass is gone like right now, I'll leave the frogs at home. Of course if I take my boat I have it all.

There's a very good reason for that. EVERY company I ever approached for sponsorship was a product that I used and liked. Yamamoto is a prime example. I bought their baits at retail for many years. I used them, I liked them, and I honestly believe they are the best plastic manufacturer on the market. Is there a downside? Sure there is and there are a lot of complaints as well. Too expensive, too fragile.....etc. I have dealt with those complaints for years. I can help with rigging tips to make them last longer, I can't control the price. Yamamoto actually wants me to use other baits and give them honest reviews. This site doesn't like sponsor promotion so I keep it to a minimum but you can bet that if I go out and catch fish on a Senko, I'm going to say it was on a Senko. Just like SPRO cranks. I use them, I like them. I have 2 other cranks in my boat. 1 Staycee and 2 Mann's Baby Minus ones. The rest of my cranks are SPRO and I catch a lot of fish on them. I have expressed my like for CastAway rods because I used them exclusively for years. They were good sticks and still are. Just to end what some may see as an endless plug....I have never been a discount prostaffer and I have never had a requirement in any of my contracts to make social media posts or write reviews. Normally, I'll only talk about my sponsors when the subject is brought up on the baits themselves.

Gary Klein gave the answer to this question to me many years ago and I never forgot it. "Once I find the fish, there are no less than 5 different lures I can catch them on". Bottom line....Throw what you have confidence in.

A lot of times river bass are more prone to hard runs and jumps due to the environment they live in.....current. The sheer determination to turn and dive, then turn and jump with smallmouth is why they are my favorite fish to catch.

For the most part sponsored anglers are paid to give those reviews. But the flipside to that is why get sponsored with a product you don't use and like? Some manufacturers flood the market with a lot of low dollar sponsorships just to create market share is why. You get $10 off retail and get to be called prostaff as long as you create so many social media posts, write reviews on retailers, etc. It pays to know a manufacturers sponsorship program.

Color choice is very personal. I have a friend who fishes the Chick a lot and he does VERY well. He only uses 1 color and he told me the other day that he has gone through 200 bags this season. Another buddy using that same color caught a 9.27 a couple of weeks ago. I have my personal favorites depending on the bodies of water I am fishing but I never go without a good stock of 297. It's Yamamoto's best seller and there's a reason. It will work anywhere and in any color of water. Some other colors may work better but 297 will always get you bit.

My go to's would be a Yamamoto DShad (or any fluke style bait) or a Senko with a 1/4 oz bullet screw in nose weight. All rigged Texas style weedless.

Michigan got me and a buddy 15 years ago as an invite from a new internet friend and we have been going back every year since. Can't wait for May. Cottage is already booked. Smallmouth are fisherman's crack!!

In a small lake like Brittle with a limited food source and the propensitiy to grow to the size of the Snakehead I caught on the Potomac, just how long before even though Bass are not their "preferred" food source, do you think it will take them to start feeding on the native species? The Potomac has an endless supply of baitfish as a food source. I know Brittle has a stocked Walleye population (I have caught them) and I would hate to see that decimated.

For many years, I was a Senko purist and considered it sacrilege to put any kind of weight on it. That's both good and bad. The good was that it taught me how to fish a Senko weightless in all kinds of conditions and helped me get "in-tune" with what the bait was doing. The bad was that there are definitely times when a weighted Senko is helpful. The way I got my patience weightless is visualizing the bait underwater and what it is doing and since I fish it so much being able to know what it does in all kinds of conditions/current/wind/line size/hook size, etc. I got my first weighted schooling when I lived in Florida. When I first moved there I didn't catch a fish on a Senko for the first month (and I fished pretty regularly since I had a dock and lift my boat sat on). Then while hosting my friend from the Elite series as he practiced for a tournament, I hooked up with a lifelong tournament river fisherman who happened to be a Senko freak. He showed me the error in my thinking. And it worked wonders. I brought that mindset back to Virginia and the Potomac and have really increased my production as well as giving me another option. I still don't like wacky rigging and do not do it. I've never witnessed anyone out fishing me on a Senko wacky rigging when I was Texas Rigging.

You won't have a problem. It will take a lot to run that battery down.

Had a Musky hit the red bead on a C-Rig and wrap it around his snoot. Brought him in without a hook being in him anywhere. Caught a 1lb bass on a 5" Senko without hooking him. He bit the Senko behind the hook and wouldn't let go. Actually, I've had this happen more than once.

It used to be that we didn't run all that much off the crankers, bilge/livewell and a couple of smaller graphs. At least not enough to run them down in a day. Now with 2, 3 or 4 HD sidescan 16" graphs/poles/talons/Sirrus Radio/hyd jackplate and a bunch more accessories, I know some who run 5 batteries. Don't sweat it if the battery is just a cranking. Put up the battery and its capacity and we will have a better idea.

Just to clarify on that picture....I wasn't throwing a 3 inch senko, that is what was left of a 5 inch senko!! That was the only fish to come on my favorite color 297 Green Pumpkin/Black Fleck. The rest were on a batch that cannot be reproduced. They were "mistakes" sent to pro staffers because they didn't make the QC cut.

We run from Hopyard up to the bridge. We have run South to Port Royal but that's a looooong run. We spend our time up north. There are a lot of good bass but with it being a river with a lot of current, you have to fish it differently. Plus there's the possibility of some big smallmouth.

Mostly it was understanding current and how it affects the bait. I used the current to my advantage and getting the bait to go where it needed to. Also slowing down and letting the bait get to the bottom. Knowing where to throw so that the bait was in the strike zone when it came through the cover. Working up current breaks and down current breaks....just to name a few......

Flat calm but moving at about 4 knots!! Tide + river flow had the water really moving!! Fishing current with a weightless Senko is more of a challenge than most can deal with, especially if fish are tight to cover. We are going to be in the 80's all this week and drop down into the 40's for lows this weekend I hear. Neither is normal. Crappie fishing is next as soon as the water cools off.

We've been going to St Clair for 15 years. We've got it figured out to where we can find them no matter what the weather. On Erie, bad weather puts you in your truck (other than Presque Isle and the bay)!! We stay in a cottage on Harsens Island and we can get out of the weather on the bays over there. There's no disputing Erie's fishing but it's tough to plan a week and then get foiled by the weather.

Although a Fluke style bait, a Yamamoto DShad is my go to. Has a lot of properties different from most fluke style baits.

Brings back memories of our 2017 trip to Lake St Clair. Seems like every year there are the old faithfuls that always produce but some years it's either one specific bait or one technique that just outshines the others. I'll admit upfront, I am not overly fond of jerkbaits with smallies. Too many hooks and too much thrashin means the odds go up for me to get skewered. BUT.....in 2017, the last week of May on our annual trip to Lake St Clair the smallies were just going CRAZY over a deep diving Staycee Jerkbait in one color. I became a believer. Of course last trip in May of this year, they wouldn't even sniff it.

As has been said, "cranking" batteries are designed to deliver a high discharge for starting the big motor. Deep Cycle are meant to be discharged slowly and last longer, they usually have a higher RC (Reserve Capacity). A dual purpose is meant to do both but will have a higher RC than just a cranking battery but less than a straight deep cycle. I use the AGM for my cranking battery because it is a dual purpose and has a high RC and the MCA's (Marine Cranking Amps) to start my 250 Yamaha but the beast weighs 75lbs.

Three of us headed to the Rappahonock Saturday. 2 in 1 boat, 1 single in another boat. River was up, muddy and flowing heavy. Tide was rippin, little to no debris. We worked the mouths of creeks and had very little luck. Switched over to laydowns and isolated cover close to drops and it was on!! For me anyway. Best 5 would have gone 20lbs which is very respectable for this river. All fish caught upriver from the Hopyard Landing. We did go downriver and the water got even dirtier. We were all throwing the same color Senko on spinning and I whacked them while my buddies struggled. Biggest problem was that the color Senko I was using is now discontinued and were part of a 100 count bulk pack that we pro staff get when the QC folks a the plant determine something is not right with the color. Just my luck. I will say this....my being able to work the bait a little differently than the other guys accounted for my success. I guess 20 years of throwing a Senko pays off and the notion that the Senko is an "idiot" bait doesn't hold water. But to my one buddies credit, he went to the Chickahominy River on Sunday and whacked a 6lber on the same bait but Saturday belonged to me.

I'll just put a teaser pic in this post and the rest over in the Fishing Reports for my area but I wanted to touch on something here. Saturday I was the co-angler on my buddies boat and another one of my buddies was trying out his new to him boat so we all headed to the Rappahanock river here in Virginia. We all were throwing the same bait on pretty much the same setups. 5" Senkos in the same color (because I provided them) and spinning gear. So, as we worked an area, my buddy in the front of the boat got first crack at the prime spots, I got second crack since I was in the back of the boat and my other buddy got the third crack because he was trailing us. Normally, I try to pay attention to where my boater casts and work other spots but in this river, the pattern was solid, they were on laydowns next to deeper water or isolated laydowns which meant there wasn't a lot of targets to throw at. To put it mildly, I smoked them. I had 20lbs in my best 5 on a river not known for big fish and with 2 other really good sticks fishing with me. I mean not just I did better, they struggled to get bites and I was yacking fish all day. I actually could see the frustration (friendly) mount. My point? Everyone thinks the Senko is an "idiot" bait.......I'm here to tell you it's not.